Anguished and helpless, Greek diaspora looks to homeland

For millions of Greeks worldwide, fond memories of white-washed villages under azure skies have been overshadowed by images of street protests and panicked bank queues -- and fears about the country's European future.

Anguish about relatives in Greece, feelings of helplessness and sometimes guilt are shared by many in a diaspora that spans the world's continents and has swelled over years of economic turmoil.

From Melbourne to Chicago, expatriate Greeks have watched from afar as their homeland has been impoverished amid years of recession and now faces the threat of crashing out of the euro.

"Before, I felt privileged to have come to Germany, I didn't have to live with the crisis every day", said Yannis Sarakatsanis, an IT expert who moved to Munich three years ago.

"Now I think about it as soon as I wake up in the morning."

Like other Greeks abroad, he watched with horror TV images of his countrymen lining up for hours at cash machines and petrol stations, and of families panic-shopping in supermarkets.

Berlin-based Thanos Pasoglou, a mobile phone pressed to his ear, this week spoke with his mother in Thessaloniki, Greece's second city, about the 2,000 euros ($2,218) she had managed to withdraw at the last minute.

"Whether the banks close or not, it makes no difference anymore," said the teacher of modern Greek. "My mother has retrieved all the savings she has."

Sarakatsanis told AFP that many Greek migrants worry especially about their elderly relatives back home.

"They lived through the civil war, the dictatorship of the colonels, and now they no longer receive their meagre pensions."

- 'Humanitarian crisis' -

Greece has fewer than 11 million inhabitants but a diaspora of 6.5 million people.

Even if life has led them far away, many Greeks keep a visceral attachment to their ancestral village, city or island.

"All my family is in Greece. We keep in touch daily," said Maria Melidis, 65, whose family owns Artoplis, a popular bakery in Chicago's bustling "Greektown".

"It's very hard because you're suffering with them."

She blamed a clash of cultures between northern and southern Europe and bemoaned the erosion of a rich culture which values family and a life beyond work.

"Sometimes we felt, going back, that we work constantly and there is no time after work," she said about life in the United States, their home since 1976.

In Greece, she said, "you always felt it's a blessed way of living."

The turmoil has felt even more immediate to many young Greeks driven away recently by crushing youth unemployment.

More than 120,000 young Greeks have moved to Germany, their suitcases often packed with high-level job qualifications, according to the Greek embassy in Berlin.

Many youngsters speak of anger and helplessness, complaining they can't vote in Greek elections or a planned referendum.

"The worst part is that you can't do anything from abroad," said Serge Karboulonis, communications student living in Paris who strongly opposes Greek left-wing Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras.

"One has the feeling of being at war" since Tsipras announced the plebiscite, he said.

Others support Tsipras, such as Roza Sakel, 26, a marketing executive living in London, who joined an anti-austerity rally this week and was considering flying home to vote.

"Everyone is being affected economically but also psychologically because it is a huge burden to have for so many years," she said.

"Austerity has been implemented for five years and it is just making things worse. It is even creating a humanitarian crisis.?

- Polarised communities -

Half a world away, in Australia, the Greek community is also polarised.

"Greek Australians here are just as divided as they are over there," the president of the Greek Orthodox Community of New South Wales, Harry Danalis, told AFP in Sydney.

"Those that are not die-hard political affiliates of either party -- the ones that are looking at it objectively -- are pretty fed-up with the sort of representation they've had from their (Greek) governments over the last 30 or 40 years... and from Europe."

Bill Papastergiadis, a community leader in Melbourne, dubbed the third largest Greek city in the world, said Greek Australians often sent financial support back to family members in Greece.

He said that for many years Greek Australians had moved back to Europe -- but this trend had reversed since the 2008 financial crisis, with more than 10,000 moving back to Australia.

"If the crisis becomes worse, the migration of those between the ages of 20 and 50 -- people who need to put food on the table -- will continue to increase."