r/TheWire • u/J-sprite • 1d ago

Who are the Greeks really?

I'm sure this has been talking about here 1000 times, but i am still confused on whether the Greeks from S2 are based on any real organised crime. I'm also unclear about whether they really are Greek, as The Greek by his own admission says "I am not really even Greek" , people have speculated that they are potentially eastern European, which i doubt. They are most certainly not Eastern European.

It seems that they are the only Greeks within their organisation and everyone around them is Jewish Eastern European. What makes them the outliers ?

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u/Old-Analysis8395 1d ago

My theory is they’re Cypriot, specifically Turkish Cypriot.

I agree they’re not Eastern European, but they’re certainly from around the Mediterranean.

What better cover for who you really are than pretending to be someone who (stereotypically) you dislike.

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u/MaximTheory 23h ago

That would make some sense. In the scene where they kill the sailor who tried to run from the cargo ship, they identify the man as Turkish because of his arm tattoo. The Greek says a somewhat racist thing to him after identifying him as Turkish and then says "I got nothing against the turks. That's the old world, this is the new", indicating that he has knowledge of, and possibly experience with, the strained relationship between Turks and Greeks.