[oblio]

Don't take this the wrong way, but from the outside, this seems condescending.

And secondly it's important to remember your roots, but in my opinion the focus was wrong (or maybe the conversation included this aspect, you just didn't present it): we were around back when Berlin was a swamp and we're still around now, prosperous and developed.

In my eyes that's the real achievement! (look at Iraq, Iran, Egypt, even Greece or India to some degree)

[MichaelMoser123]

I don't see any condescension (it doesn't diminish the present greatness of the great capitals at all), it is a factual observation (also you might need a sense of humour to see the irony on the part of what used to be a persecuted minority, after all - and I used to be in east Berlin before the frigging wall came down)

[oblio]

Could be. What I do know is that I have Greek friends who express the same feeling and they weren't a persecuted minority. There's a certain hubris about nationalities with a rich past.

It's not necessarily bad, but it's still hubris :)

[jjgreen]

"The people of Crete unfortunately make more history than they can consume locally"

Saki, The Jesting of Arlingthon Stringham

[lardo]

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ottoman_Greece

[oblio]

Dude, I’m Romanian, I know about the Ottomans.

Greeks were still the majority in Greece and they were a well regarded minority in the empire. They were persecuted after WW1 (see the population exchanges and the Smyrna massacre).

But Greeks don’t view themselves as a persecuted minority, historically. It’s all about the mindset and self-perception.