General Secretariat for Macedonia and Thrace
Encyclopedia
The General Secretariat for Macedonia and Thrace , previously the Ministry for Macedonia and Thrace is a government agency
of the Hellenic Republic that is responsible for the Greek regions
of Macedonia
and Thrace. It is located in Greece
's second-largest city and capital of Macedonia
, Thessaloniki
.
during the Balkan Wars
and the subsequent Treaty of Bucharest in 1913. The General Administration kept its name until the mid 1950s
, when it was renamed the Ministry for Northern Greece in 1955. The third name change occurred in 1988, when the Ministry was renamed the Ministry for Macedonia and Thrace. In 2009, the current appellation of the General Secretariat for Macedonia and Thrace came into effect, when the General Secretariat ceased to function as a separate ministry.
Two days after the Greek army
entered Thessaloniki
(on 26 October 1912), King Constantine I
demanded that he be given control of the newly-acquired region of Macedonia
, but Prime Minister
Eleutherios Venizelos had already decided that the fate of the region would lie with his Minister of Justice, Konstantinos Raktivan, who arrived at the city on 30 October. His position within the General Administration for Macedonia was so powerful that his power matched that of the Prime Minister
and caused disarray to the other ministers in Athens
. Raktivan was later succeeded by other prominent politicians of Greece, such as Stefanos Dragoumis, Emmanouil Repoulis and Themistoklis Sofoulis.
Despite the rather limited freedom of action today, the General Administration for Macedonia managed to produce an astonishing amount of work between its founding in 1912 and the creation of the Ministry for Northern Greece in 1955. Following the Great Thessaloniki Fire of 1917
, the General Administration appointed Ernest Hebrard
as the master architect for the redesign of the city. The Administration was also responsible for the complete incorporation of Macedonia to the Greek state despite the difficult circumstances that existed during the interwar period
. Other successes of the General Administration at the time include the establishment of numerous government agencies, including the creation of Courts of Appeal, Courts of First Instance and District Courts, the creation of an independent archaeological department, a forestry department and public services, and also provided shelter to the thousands of refugees from the population exchange between Greece and Turkey
in the 1920s.
, there have been 20 Ministers for Macedonia and Thrace from two parties, New Democracy
and PASOK. The first minister to take the post following the fall of the Greek Military Junta in 1974 was Nikolaos Martis
. In late 2009, Stavros Kalafatis served as the last minister.
The current heads of the General Secretariat are Giorgos Chatzikonstantinou as General Secretary
and Sokratis Xynidis as Deputy Minister.
of the Hellenic Republic responsible for "the carrying out and continuation of government
policies in Macedonia
and Thrace". Additionally, the General Secretariat gathers information regarding the communities that fall under its jurisdiction and later proposes and discusses legislation and policies with the other ministerial bodies of Greece
. As of 2009, it is not a free-standing ministry
and reports to the Ministry for the Interior of the Hellenic Republic.
architect
Vitaliano Poselli. The architect chose eclecticism
as the main style for the building, which combines elements of various architectural styles such as neoclassicism
. It sits on top of the ruins of the imperial palace of the Byzantine Emperor in Thessaloniki, and ruins of the actual palace have been found near the secretariat. When it was completed in the late 1890s
, it only had three floors and functioned as the konak of the Ottoman
prefect of Thessaloniki. It also housed various offices of departments of the Ottoman Empire. The fourth floor, in neoclassical
style, was added in 1955.
In 1907, the building housed the Ottoman School of Law, and in 1911 the Sultan Mehmed V Reshad
stayed here. Following the Balkan Wars
, it was inside this building that the documents of the surrender of Thessaloniki were signed in 1912, making Thessaloniki part of the Kingdom of Greece
. From 1912 to 1929 the building housed the general administration for the newly acquired territory of Macedonia. During the fire of 1917, the building sustained no damage, despite widespread devastation in the area, which destroyed much of central Thessaloniki.
It is a listed building of the Hellenic Republic as "The Residency of Thessaloniki" .
Government agency
A government or state agency is a permanent or semi-permanent organization in the machinery of government that is responsible for the oversight and administration of specific functions, such as an intelligence agency. There is a notable variety of agency types...
of the Hellenic Republic that is responsible for the Greek regions
Regions of Greece
The traditional geographic divisions of Greece were also the official administrative subdivisions of Greece until the 1987 administrative reform )...
of Macedonia
Macedonia (Greece)
Macedonia is a geographical and historical region of Greece in Southern Europe. Macedonia is the largest and second most populous Greek region...
and Thrace. It is located in Greece
Greece
Greece , officially the Hellenic Republic , and historically Hellas or the Republic of Greece in English, is a country in southeastern Europe....
's second-largest city and capital of Macedonia
Macedonia (Greece)
Macedonia is a geographical and historical region of Greece in Southern Europe. Macedonia is the largest and second most populous Greek region...
, Thessaloniki
Thessaloniki
Thessaloniki , historically also known as Thessalonica, Salonika or Salonica, is the second-largest city in Greece and the capital of the region of Central Macedonia as well as the capital of the Decentralized Administration of Macedonia and Thrace...
.
History
The General Secretariat was founded in 1912 as the General Administration for Macedonia following the gain of MacedoniaMacedonia (Greece)
Macedonia is a geographical and historical region of Greece in Southern Europe. Macedonia is the largest and second most populous Greek region...
during the Balkan Wars
Balkan Wars
The Balkan Wars were two conflicts that took place in the Balkans in south-eastern Europe in 1912 and 1913.By the early 20th century, Montenegro, Bulgaria, Greece and Serbia, the countries of the Balkan League, had achieved their independence from the Ottoman Empire, but large parts of their ethnic...
and the subsequent Treaty of Bucharest in 1913. The General Administration kept its name until the mid 1950s
1950s
The 1950s or The Fifties was the decade that began on January 1, 1950 and ended on December 31, 1959. The decade was the sixth decade of the 20th century...
, when it was renamed the Ministry for Northern Greece in 1955. The third name change occurred in 1988, when the Ministry was renamed the Ministry for Macedonia and Thrace. In 2009, the current appellation of the General Secretariat for Macedonia and Thrace came into effect, when the General Secretariat ceased to function as a separate ministry.
Two days after the Greek army
Hellenic Army
The Hellenic Army , formed in 1828, is the land force of Greece.The motto of the Hellenic Army is , "Freedom Stems from Valor", from Thucydides's History of the Peloponnesian War...
entered Thessaloniki
Thessaloniki
Thessaloniki , historically also known as Thessalonica, Salonika or Salonica, is the second-largest city in Greece and the capital of the region of Central Macedonia as well as the capital of the Decentralized Administration of Macedonia and Thrace...
(on 26 October 1912), King Constantine I
Constantine I of Greece
Constantine I was King of Greece from 1913 to 1917 and from 1920 to 1922. He was commander-in-chief of the Hellenic Army during the unsuccessful Greco-Turkish War of 1897 and led the Greek forces during the successful Balkan Wars of 1912–1913, in which Greece won Thessaloniki and doubled in...
demanded that he be given control of the newly-acquired region of Macedonia
Macedonia (Greece)
Macedonia is a geographical and historical region of Greece in Southern Europe. Macedonia is the largest and second most populous Greek region...
, but Prime Minister
Prime Minister of Greece
The Prime Minister of Greece , officially the Prime Minister of the Hellenic Republic , is the head of government of the Hellenic Republic and the leader of the Greek cabinet. The current interim Prime Minister is Lucas Papademos, a former Vice President of the European Central Bank, following...
Eleutherios Venizelos had already decided that the fate of the region would lie with his Minister of Justice, Konstantinos Raktivan, who arrived at the city on 30 October. His position within the General Administration for Macedonia was so powerful that his power matched that of the Prime Minister
Prime Minister of Greece
The Prime Minister of Greece , officially the Prime Minister of the Hellenic Republic , is the head of government of the Hellenic Republic and the leader of the Greek cabinet. The current interim Prime Minister is Lucas Papademos, a former Vice President of the European Central Bank, following...
and caused disarray to the other ministers in Athens
Athens
Athens , is the capital and largest city of Greece. Athens dominates the Attica region and is one of the world's oldest cities, as its recorded history spans around 3,400 years. Classical Athens was a powerful city-state...
. Raktivan was later succeeded by other prominent politicians of Greece, such as Stefanos Dragoumis, Emmanouil Repoulis and Themistoklis Sofoulis.
Despite the rather limited freedom of action today, the General Administration for Macedonia managed to produce an astonishing amount of work between its founding in 1912 and the creation of the Ministry for Northern Greece in 1955. Following the Great Thessaloniki Fire of 1917
Great Thessaloniki Fire of 1917
250px|thumb|The fire as seen from the quay in 1917.250px|thumb|The fire as seen from the [[Thermaic Gulf]].The Great Thessaloniki Fire of 1917 was an accidental fire that got out of control and destroyed two thirds of the city of Thessaloniki, second-largest city in Greece, leaving more than...
, the General Administration appointed Ernest Hebrard
Ernest Hebrard
Ernest Hébrard was a French architect, archaeologist and urban planner who completed major projects in Greece, Morocco, and French Indochina. He is mostly renowned for his urban plan for the redevelopment of the center of Thessaloniki in Greece after its Great Fire of 1917.The majority of...
as the master architect for the redesign of the city. The Administration was also responsible for the complete incorporation of Macedonia to the Greek state despite the difficult circumstances that existed during the interwar period
Interwar period
Interwar period can refer to any period between two wars. The Interbellum is understood to be the period between the end of the Great War or First World War and the beginning of the Second World War in Europe....
. Other successes of the General Administration at the time include the establishment of numerous government agencies, including the creation of Courts of Appeal, Courts of First Instance and District Courts, the creation of an independent archaeological department, a forestry department and public services, and also provided shelter to the thousands of refugees from the population exchange between Greece and Turkey
Population exchange between Greece and Turkey
The 1923 population exchange between Greece and Turkey was based upon religious identity, and involved the Greek Orthodox citizens of Turkey and the Muslim citizens of Greece...
in the 1920s.
Structure
According to Presidential Decree no. 167 (2 September 2005) the General Secretariat for Macedonia and Thrace is made up of the following departments:- The General Secretariat for Macedonia and Thrace
- The Office of Solicitor of the State
- The Office of Financial Control
- The Office of the Borderland
- The Office of the Assessor of the Audit Office
- The Office of the Deputy Minister
- The Office of Defence and Political Planning in Case of Emergency
- The Office of Public Relations, of the Press and of Etiquette
- The Office of the Secretary-General
- The Secretariat
- The Office of Foreign Affairs, Defence, Policing and Justice
- The Secretariat
-
-
-
-
- Department of Cooperation with the countries of south-eastern Europe
- Department of European Affairs
- Department of the DiasporaDiasporaA diaspora is "the movement, migration, or scattering of people away from an established or ancestral homeland" or "people dispersed by whatever cause to more than one location", or "people settled far from their ancestral homelands".The word has come to refer to historical mass-dispersions of...
- Department of Defence and the AegeanAegean SeaThe Aegean Sea[p] is an elongated embayment of the Mediterranean Sea located between the southern Balkan and Anatolian peninsulas, i.e., between the mainlands of Greece and Turkey. In the north, it is connected to the Marmara Sea and Black Sea by the Dardanelles and Bosporus...
- Department of Policing and Justice
- The Office of Education, Culture and Citizen Protection
- The Office of the Economy and Tourism
- The Office of Infrastructure and the Environment
- The Office of Administrative Development and e-Governance
- The Office of the Media
- The Office of Quality and Efficiency
- The Office of Facilitation of People with Disabilities
-
- The Department of Inspection and Coordination of Services
-
-
Political Leadership
Since the MetapolitefsiMetapolitefsi
The Metapolitefsi was a period in Greek history after the fall of the Greek military junta of 1967–1974 that includes the transitional period from the fall of the dictatorship to the Greek legislative elections of 1974 and the democratic period immediately after these elections.The long...
, there have been 20 Ministers for Macedonia and Thrace from two parties, New Democracy
New Democracy (Greece)
New Democracy is the main centre-right political party and one of the two major parties in Greece. It was founded in 1974 by Konstantinos Karamanlis and formed the first cabinet of the Third Hellenic Republic...
and PASOK. The first minister to take the post following the fall of the Greek Military Junta in 1974 was Nikolaos Martis
Nikolaos Martis
Nicolas K. Martis is a former Greek politician. He was born in the village of Moustheni in Kavala Prefecture.He studied Law at the University of Thessaloniki and has been a practising lawyer in Kavala and since 1961 in Athens....
. In late 2009, Stavros Kalafatis served as the last minister.
The current heads of the General Secretariat are Giorgos Chatzikonstantinou as General Secretary
General Secretary
The office of general secretary is staffed by the chief officer of:*The General Secretariat for Macedonia and Thrace, a government agency for the Greek regions of Macedonia and Thrace...
and Sokratis Xynidis as Deputy Minister.
Role
The General Secretariat for Macedonia and Thrace is a government agencyGovernment agency
A government or state agency is a permanent or semi-permanent organization in the machinery of government that is responsible for the oversight and administration of specific functions, such as an intelligence agency. There is a notable variety of agency types...
of the Hellenic Republic responsible for "the carrying out and continuation of government
Politics of Greece
The Politics of Greece takes place in a large parliamentary representative democratic republic, whereby the Prime Minister of Greece is the head of government, and of a multi-party system. Legislative power is vested in both the government and the Hellenic Parliament...
policies in Macedonia
Macedonia (Greece)
Macedonia is a geographical and historical region of Greece in Southern Europe. Macedonia is the largest and second most populous Greek region...
and Thrace". Additionally, the General Secretariat gathers information regarding the communities that fall under its jurisdiction and later proposes and discusses legislation and policies with the other ministerial bodies of Greece
Greece
Greece , officially the Hellenic Republic , and historically Hellas or the Republic of Greece in English, is a country in southeastern Europe....
. As of 2009, it is not a free-standing ministry
Ministry (government department)
A ministry is a specialised organisation responsible for a sector of government public administration, sometimes led by a minister or a senior public servant, that can have responsibility for one or more departments, agencies, bureaus, commissions or other smaller executive, advisory, managerial or...
and reports to the Ministry for the Interior of the Hellenic Republic.
The Residency
The building of the General Secretariat, commonly referred to as "The Residency" , was built in 1891 by ItalianItaly
Italy , officially the Italian Republic languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Italy's official name is as follows:;;;;;;;;), is a unitary parliamentary republic in South-Central Europe. To the north it borders France, Switzerland, Austria and...
architect
Architect
An architect is a person trained in the planning, design and oversight of the construction of buildings. To practice architecture means to offer or render services in connection with the design and construction of a building, or group of buildings and the space within the site surrounding the...
Vitaliano Poselli. The architect chose eclecticism
Eclecticism
Eclecticism is a conceptual approach that does not hold rigidly to a single paradigm or set of assumptions, but instead draws upon multiple theories, styles, or ideas to gain complementary insights into a subject, or applies different theories in particular cases.It can sometimes seem inelegant or...
as the main style for the building, which combines elements of various architectural styles such as neoclassicism
Neoclassicism
Neoclassicism is the name given to Western movements in the decorative and visual arts, literature, theatre, music, and architecture that draw inspiration from the "classical" art and culture of Ancient Greece or Ancient Rome...
. It sits on top of the ruins of the imperial palace of the Byzantine Emperor in Thessaloniki, and ruins of the actual palace have been found near the secretariat. When it was completed in the late 1890s
1890s
The 1890s were sometimes referred to as the "Mauve Decade" - because William Henry Perkin's aniline dye allowed the widespread use of that colour in fashion - and also as the "Gay Nineties", under the then-current usage of the word "gay" which referred simply to merriment and frivolity, with no...
, it only had three floors and functioned as the konak of the Ottoman
Ottoman Empire
The Ottoman EmpireIt was usually referred to as the "Ottoman Empire", the "Turkish Empire", the "Ottoman Caliphate" or more commonly "Turkey" by its contemporaries...
prefect of Thessaloniki. It also housed various offices of departments of the Ottoman Empire. The fourth floor, in neoclassical
Neoclassical architecture
Neoclassical architecture was an architectural style produced by the neoclassical movement that began in the mid-18th century, manifested both in its details as a reaction against the Rococo style of naturalistic ornament, and in its architectural formulas as an outgrowth of some classicizing...
style, was added in 1955.
In 1907, the building housed the Ottoman School of Law, and in 1911 the Sultan Mehmed V Reshad
Mehmed V
Mehmed V Reshad was the 35th Ottoman Sultan. He was the son of Sultan Abdülmecid I. He was succeeded by his half-brother Mehmed VI.-Birth:...
stayed here. Following the Balkan Wars
Balkan Wars
The Balkan Wars were two conflicts that took place in the Balkans in south-eastern Europe in 1912 and 1913.By the early 20th century, Montenegro, Bulgaria, Greece and Serbia, the countries of the Balkan League, had achieved their independence from the Ottoman Empire, but large parts of their ethnic...
, it was inside this building that the documents of the surrender of Thessaloniki were signed in 1912, making Thessaloniki part of the Kingdom of Greece
Kingdom of Greece
The Kingdom of Greece was a state established in 1832 in the Convention of London by the Great Powers...
. From 1912 to 1929 the building housed the general administration for the newly acquired territory of Macedonia. During the fire of 1917, the building sustained no damage, despite widespread devastation in the area, which destroyed much of central Thessaloniki.
It is a listed building of the Hellenic Republic as "The Residency of Thessaloniki" .