'Internal frontiers' as a hindrance to development

This paper analyses the socio-economic implications of the imposition of 'z one under surveillance' status upon an area along the northern borders of G reece, throughout most of the twentieth century. This zone was enclosed to the north by a border separating Greece from other countries and to the sou th by a frontier separating the Greeks in the zone from the rest of their c ountry. This state of affairs has created many problems within the surveill ance zone (such as a feeling among the Population that their area is under threat, less developed than and only partially assimilated to the rest of G reece). The paper focuses on the function of the surveillance zone as an 'i nternal frontier: and not on its earlier function as a defence mechanism, a nd on one particular part of the Zone, in the prefecture of Xanthi, which i s inhabited by Pomaks.