The Ministry of Macedonia and Thrace () is a former ministry of

Greece Greece, officially the Hellenic Republic, is a country in Southeast Europe. Located on the southern tip of the Balkan peninsula, it shares land borders with Albania to the northwest, North Macedonia and Bulgaria to the north, and Turkey to th ...

. Responsible for the

regions In geography, regions, otherwise referred to as areas, zones, lands or territories, are portions of the Earth's surface that are broadly divided by physical characteristics (physical geography), human impact characteristics (human geography), and ...

Macedonia Macedonia (, , , ), most commonly refers to: * North Macedonia, a country in southeastern Europe, known until 2019 as the Republic of Macedonia * Macedonia (ancient kingdom), a kingdom in Greek antiquity * Macedonia (Greece), a former administr ...

and

Thrace Thrace (, ; ; ; ) is a geographical and historical region in Southeast Europe roughly corresponding to the province of Thrace in the Roman Empire. Bounded by the Balkan Mountains to the north, the Aegean Sea to the south, and the Black Se ...

, since 2015 it has been demoted to the level of a sub-ministry within the

Ministry of the Interior An interior ministry or ministry of the interior (also called ministry of home affairs or ministry of internal affairs) is a government department that is responsible for domestic policy, public security and law enforcement. In some states, the ...

. The incumbent Deputy Minister for Macedonia and Thrace is of

New Democracy New Democracy, or the New Democratic Revolution, is a type of democracy in Marxism, based on Mao Zedong's Bloc of Four Social Classes theory in post-revolutionary China which argued originally that democracy in China would take a path that w ...

. The ministry had been known as the Ministry of Northern Greece until it was renamed on 19 August 1988. It was demoted to a general secretariat in 2009, but was re-established as a ministry in 2012, and again demoted to a sub-ministry within the Ministry of the Interior on 27 January 2015. It is housed in Government House in

Thessaloniki Thessaloniki (; ), also known as Thessalonica (), Saloniki, Salonika, or Salonica (), is the second-largest city in Greece (with slightly over one million inhabitants in its Thessaloniki metropolitan area, metropolitan area) and the capital cit ...

History

The ministry was founded in 1912 as the Governorate-General of Macedonia () following the acquisition of

during the

Balkan Wars The Balkan Wars were two conflicts that took place in the Balkans, Balkan states in 1912 and 1913. In the First Balkan War, the four Balkan states of Kingdom of Greece (Glücksburg), Greece, Kingdom of Serbia, Serbia, Kingdom of Montenegro, M ...

. It was promoted to cabinet level in the late 1920s and renamed the Governorate-General of Northern Greece () in 1945, after being merged with the Governorate-General of Thrace (). It was renamed the Ministry of Northern Greece () in 1955. The third name change occurred in 1988, when it was renamed the Ministry of Macedonia and Thrace. In 2009, the ministry was downgraded to a General Secretariat within the

, until it was re-established as a separate ministry in 2012. With the legislative election of

SYRIZA The Coalition of the Radical Left – Progressive Alliance (), best known by the syllabic abbreviation SYRIZA ( ; ; a pun on the Greek adverb , meaning "from the roots" or "radically"), is a Centre-left politics, centre-left to Left-wing politi ...

in January 2015, the ministry was once more subordinated to the Ministry of the Interior and Administrative Reconstruction, headed by a deputy minister. Shortly after the

Hellenic Army The Hellenic Army (, sometimes abbreviated as ΕΣ), formed in 1828, is the army, land force of Greece. The term Names of the Greeks, '' Hellenic'' is the endogenous synonym for ''Greek''. The Hellenic Army is the largest of the three branches ...

entered

on 26 October 1912, King

Constantine I Constantine I (27 February 27222 May 337), also known as Constantine the Great, was a Roman emperor from AD 306 to 337 and the first Roman emperor to convert to Christianity. He played a Constantine the Great and Christianity, pivotal ro ...

demanded that he be given control of the newly acquired region of

, but

Prime Minister A prime minister or chief of cabinet is the head of the cabinet and the leader of the ministers in the executive branch of government, often in a parliamentary or semi-presidential system. A prime minister is not the head of state, but r ...

Eleftherios Venizelos Eleftherios Kyriakou Venizelos (, ; – 18 March 1936) was a Cretan State, Cretan Greeks, Greek statesman and prominent leader of the Greek national liberation movement. As the leader of the Liberal Party (Greece), Liberal Party, Venizelos ser ...

had already decided that the fate of the region would lie with his minister of justice, Konstantinos Raktivan, who arrived in the city on 30 October. His position within the Governorate-General of Macedonia was so powerful that his power matched that of the

prime minister A prime minister or chief of cabinet is the head of the cabinet and the leader of the ministers in the executive branch of government, often in a parliamentary or semi-presidential system. A prime minister is not the head of state, but r ...

and caused dismay among the other ministers in

Athens Athens ( ) is the Capital city, capital and List of cities and towns in Greece, largest city of Greece. A significant coastal urban area in the Mediterranean, Athens is also the capital of the Attica (region), Attica region and is the southe ...

. Raktivan was later succeeded by other prominent politicians of Greece, such as Stefanos Dragoumis, Emmanouil Repoulis and Themistoklis Sofoulis. Despite its limited freedom of action in later years, the Governorate-General of Macedonia managed to produce an astonishing amount of work between its founding in 1912 and the creation of the Ministry of Northern Greece in 1955. Following the Great Thessaloniki Fire of 1917, the Governorate-General appointed Ernest Hébrard as the master architect for the redesign of the city. The Governorate-General was also responsible for the complete incorporation of Macedonia into the Greek state despite the difficult circumstances of the

interwar period In the history of the 20th century, the interwar period, also known as the interbellum (), lasted from 11 November 1918 to 1 September 1939 (20 years, 9 months, 21 days) – from the end of World War I (WWI) to the beginning of World War II ( ...

. Other successes of the Governorate-General 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 the provision of shelter to hundreds of thousands of refugees after the

population exchange between Greece and Turkey The 1923 population exchange between Greece and Turkey stemmed from the "Convention Concerning the Exchange of Greek and Turkish Populations" signed at Lausanne, Switzerland, on 30 January 1923, by the governments of Greece and Turkey. It involv ...

in the 1920s.

The Ministry

Structure

According to Presidential Decree no. 167 (2 September 2005), the Ministry of Macedonia and Thrace was made up of the following departments: * The Ministry of 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 ::::* Department of Cooperation with the countries of south-eastern Europe ::::* Department of European Affairs ::::* Department of the

Diaspora A diaspora ( ) is a population that is scattered across regions which are separate from its geographic place of birth, place of origin. The word is used in reference to people who identify with a specific geographic location, but currently resi ...

::::* Department of Defence and the Aegean ::::* 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 ''

Metapolitefsi The Metapolitefsi (, , " regime change") was a period in modern Greek history from the fall of the Ioannides military junta of 1973–74 to the transition period shortly after the 1974 legislative elections. The metapolitefsi was ignited by ...

'', there have been twenty Ministers for Macedonia and Thrace from two parties,

and

PASOK The Panhellenic Socialist Movement (, ), known mostly by its acronym PASOK (; , ), is a social democracy, social-democratic List of political parties in Greece, political party in Greece. Until 2012 it was Two-party system, one of the two major ...

. The first to assume the post following the fall of the

military junta A military junta () is a system of government led by a committee of military leaders. The term ''Junta (governing body), junta'' means "meeting" or "committee" and originated in the Junta (Peninsular War), national and local junta organized by t ...

in 1974 was Nikolaos Martis. Stavros Kalafatis served as the last minister before the ministry's abolition upon the

election An election is a formal group decision-making process whereby a population chooses an individual or multiple individuals to hold Public administration, public office. Elections have been the usual mechanism by which modern representative d ...

of George Papandreou in 2009. The ministry was re-established on 21 June 2012 after the

Antonis Samaras Antonis Samaras (, ; born 23 May 1951) is a Greek politician who served as Prime Minister of Greece from 2012 to 2015. A member of the New Democracy (Greece), New Democracy party, he was its president from 2009 until 2015. Samaras started his na ...

, but was again absorbed by the Ministry of the Interior on 27 January 2015 after the

Alexis Tsipras Alexis Tsipras (, ; born 28 July 1974) is a Greek politician who served as Prime Minister of Greece from 2015 to 2019. A left-wing figure, Tsipras was leader of the List of political parties in Greece, Greek political party Syriza from 200 ...

Role

The Ministry of Macedonia and Thrace is responsible for "the development of the border regions of Greece, giving Northern Greece the opportunity to acquire a voice and role in the political and economic processes". In particular, the ministry gathers information regarding the communities that fall under its jurisdiction and proceeds to propose and discuss legislation and policies with other government bodies.

List of ministers

Northern Greece (1974–1988)

Macedonia and Thrace (1988–2009)

Macedonia and Thrace (2012–2015)

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Ministry of Macedonia and Thrace Macedonia & Thrace Macedonia & Thrace Macedonia (Greece) Western Thrace Government agencies established in 1912 1912 establishments in Greece