- Greece–United Kingdom relations
British-Greek relations are
foreign relations betweenGreece and theUnited Kingdom . The two countries share membership of theEuropean Union andNATO , but the issue of theElgin Marbles removed from theParthenon by the Earl of Elgin in 1806 and still housed in theBritish Museum has not been resolved.Historical links
Britain supported Greece in the
Greek War of Independence from theOttoman Empire in the 1820s with the Treaty of Constantinople being ratified at theLondon Conference of 1832 .In 1850, the British
Foreign Secretary Lord Palmerston sent aRoyal Navy squadron toGreece over thePacifico incident .When the Greek King Otto was deposed in 1862, Queen Victoria's son
Alfred, Duke of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha was chosen to succeed him. However the British government would not allow this. The current British monarchElizabeth II of the United Kingdom 's husband Prince Philip is the grandson of Otto's eventual successorGeorge I of Greece .Great Britain wrested control of the
Ionian Islands fromNapoleonic France in 1815. As the "United States of the Ionian Islands ", they remained under British control, even after Greek Independence (partly because Greece's first, German king caused concern in London). However, in 1864, Britain responded to calls for enosis by trasnsferring the Islands to Greece.In 2000, Stephen Saunders, the British military attaché in
Athens , was murdered by motorcycle gunmen who were members ofRevolutionary Organization 17 November . The investigation that followed led to an unprecedented level of co-operation between Greek and UK Police services, who achieved, following a lengthy investigation the arrest of members of N17 who were then brought to trial.See also
*
List of Ambassadors from the United Kingdom to Greece
*Greeks in Great Britain References
External links
*
Wikimedia Foundation. 2010.