The Democratic People's Hellenic Republic is a nation at the southernmost edge of Europe, led by the charismatic and pragmatic President Ioannis Passalidis, an ardent supporter of Southeastern European integration. Greece earned its independence in 1830, following a hard-fought war against the Ottoman Empire, and became a modern European state. Its mettle was proven in the Balkan Wars, where its interests were secured, and the threat of the Ottomans was thought to be driven from Europe. This notion proved to be false as Greece was quickly invaded and put to the heel by a combined Central Powers force, occupied for the remainder of the war, and then annexed into the Greater Habsburg Empire. This did not last long, as Vienna's ambitions proved to be its undoing, and Greece was once more freed during the Austro-Hungarian Civil War. A compromise was reached with the German Empire by naming a Hohenzollern as King of Greece.
Independence and peace allowed Greece to rebuild and stabilise once more. However, in 1926 a revolution largely supported by NKVD infiltrators was successful in ousting the king, thus giving birth to the Democratic People's Hellenic Republic. This new state joined its communist neighbours in the Third Balkan War, which resulted in the creation of The Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, and with it, the South European Pact (SEUROP). Greek forces fought with the Eurasian Axis throughout the entirety of World War II, particularly in the Battle of the Mediterranean, the West Asian Theatre and the Balkan Theatre.
Greece has been at peace for the last 15 years. In that time, owing largely to its advanced shipbuilding sector and related industries such as fishing, deep sea drilling and shipping, it has grown into a significant, although decidedly minor, industrial nation. One of the most impressive results of its convoluted history in the mid-20th century is its newfound brotherhood with The Socialist Republic of Turkey, a nation which every Greek man and woman hated to the bone just two generations prior. Nowadays, it is known that Greeks and Turks are, though the oldest of rivals, also friends borne from the trials of war.