[aletzo]

I'm sorry, but can you please elaborate a bit more on Greeks and Turks?

I happen to be Greek and have worked with 2 Turkish colleagues without any issues. On top of that, during my many travels across Europe, Turks (along with other Balkan nationalities) are by far the most welcoming people I meet once they learn that I come from Greece and I befriended a few of them.

Do you have any different experiences to share?

[jimmydddd]

Ottomans (Turks) occupied Greece for 400 years, ending in 1821. Turkey constantly trying to take over Greek islands, etc. Turkey dropping off immigrants on rafts just outside Greek shores. But it doesn't seem to translate to the US much, especially in second generation.

[auggierose]

Greeks dropping off immigrants in front of Turkish shores, killing some of them, also seems to happen: https://www.theguardian.com/global-development/2022/feb/17/i...

[jimmydddd]

It is a sad situation. I think this article says the Turks dropped the immigrants at the Greek shore, and the Greeks tried to send them back. The Greeks either have to accept/absorb all of the immigrants strategically sent from the Turks, or face consquences when they try to send them back and tragedy strikes. It's a strong strategy by the Turks. Of course the immigrants are sadly just pawns in this situation.

[tomp]

That's quite far ago?

If that's your criteria, who can interview Germans without bias?

[JohnWhigham]

Some cultures hold on to bitter historical sentiments more than others.

[jimmydddd]

It is far ago, but being occupied for 400 years and not being able to openly practice your religion leaves a lasting memory.

[namecheapTA]

I work in sales and saw a Greek salesperson kick a deal out that cost him thousands because he didnt want to spend another few hours with someone that was Turkish. And this is in California. The easy money didn't matter to him. If someone is willing to lose thousands of dollars to feel good, imagine what little things theyre willing to do that dont really have a cost to them.

[tradertef]

Turk here.. no problem working with and being friends with Greek folks. I actually prefer to work with them over Turkish people since we do not need to worry about cultural baggage from Turkey (politics, religion, etc.), and we can focus on finding the best Baklava in town.

[stavros]

I'm Greek as well, and now that you mention it, Turks were indeed the people I tended to have very good relationships at work with. They are especially welcoming, at least the ones I've worked with.

[InfiniteRand]

Countries with long intertangled histories often have a lot of cultural similarities as well as deep national grudges. If you remove the people from the national grudges, they tend to get along.

[stavros]

Yeah, we've been living with the Turks for centuries so we're pretty similar. Much, much more similar than, say, to the English.

Though, yes, all the food is Greek and don't let anyone tell you otherwise.

[doingtheiroming]

The borek spanakopita wars are eternal. And don’t get the Bulgarians started on Banitza.

[wiseowise]

NSFW: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BzL_MXgc24E

[User23]

I’m under the impression some people are still upset over Cyprus.

Edit: corrected cypress misspelling. Thanks repliers!

[stickfigure]

I mean sure, TJ Rodgers was a controversial guy but he hasn't been involved since the Infineon acquisition.

[coldtea]

"Upset over" is kind of an understatement for invasion and occupation (condemned by the UN even).

[fnord123]

Cyprus and it always depends how far back you want to go to determine the 'cause' of grievances.

[wozniacki]

As with many other one-off cases in this & other threads, one instance does not a rule make.

Just because your experience was fairly positive, that does not negate the general trend of such occurrences in hiring decisions among such pairs ( Greek-Turk, Indian-Pakistani, Japanese-Korean, Japanese-Chinese, Russian-Polish, Serb-Bosniak, Serb-Croat French-Algerian and countless other pairs in the Middle East & other parts of the world )

Theres surely some information that can be gleaned from anecdotes & oral histories. But we need data & objective studies to back them up if we are to make any progress on these issues.

[gryn]

but by using this pairing logic you would have to rule out any British person from interviewing basically more than half of the planet. french people from interviewing almost anyone from an African country and many more, Americans-UK, etc ...

if you do the exhaustive listing probably no one can interview/manage anyone.

and this is before taking into account more finer grained ethnic/religious/cultural/social clashing differences.

[wozniacki]

Are you saying that

  a) since such a cumbersome effort to weed out highly
  probable biases, that go unnoticed or unchecked, would
  likely be too prohibitively expensive for employers to
  undertake and hence any such lofty expectations should be
  done away with or 
  b) are you denying the possibility that such biases can
  exist in huge numbers in hiring & career growth decisions?

The former might be somewhat of a valid concern - corporate governance may not have evolved enough to make room for such things yet. Although, given the pace with which other reforms have been addressed in areas of women & BIPOC representation in the workplace, this sort of thing may not be too far out in implementation.

But the latter surely is wrong. It's just that no one wants to be the first to open that can of worms. Thats all.

[goto11]

There still seem to be some deep-seated resentments from some Greeks towards Turks due to the Greek genocide and exodus a hundred years ago. Turks on the other hand have never heard about that (it's illegal to teach in Turkey), so they are pretty chill. There is some bitterness due to the more recent (and still unresolved) conflict regarding Cyprus.

[jimmydddd]

Similar in some (minor) ways to the North and South in the US civil war. Folks in the North (winning side) learn about it in school for a few weeks and it's like studying ancient history. But in parts of the South, it feels like it just happened yesterday.