Re: November AIM article
To: [email protected]
Date: Tue, 02 Dec 1997 12:24:31 -0800
From: MINELRES moderator <[email protected]>
Subject: Re: November AIM article
From: MINELRES moderator <[email protected]>
Original sender: Panayote Dimitras <[email protected]>
November AIM article
Persecuted ethnonational minorities in the "cradle of democracy"
"In responding to [international NGO] charges, the [Greek] Government
says
that it recognizes, under the Copenhagen CSCE document, the right of
individuals to identify themselves as members of ethnic minorities. It
states that such self-identification nevertheless does not require
government recognition of such a minority or entitle its members to any
privileges under CSCE or other instruments. As noted, however, the
Government continues to deny the rights of free speech and association
to
some who have tried peacefully to assert what they consider to be their
minority rights."
The above excerpt from the section on Greece in the US Department of
State`s "Country Reports on Human Rights Practices for 1995" (p.885) is
a
very succinct description of the situation of minorities in Greece and
the
latter's government's "double talk". When criticized internationally,
Greece swears by its tolerance and strict respect of (usually the
wording
rather than the spirit of) the international human and minority rights
documents. Daily practice internally though frequently reflects the
discrepancy between the supposed international commitments and the
actual
will or at least practice of the Greek authorities.
The American diplomats who wrote this passage were referring to the
problems of the Macedonian minority in Greece. There are indeed, not
many,
Greek citizens who exercise their right to identify themselves as
Macedonians, individually and as groups. As noted though their related
rights of free speech and association are in practice denied. First of
all,
by the prevailing climate in the area of Greek Western Macedonia where
these people live and are mainly active, but also in the national media
as
well. They are regularly treated as "autonomists", "agents of Skopje",
"traitors" etc. More important though, the courts too seem to have the
same
attitude: since 1990, the legal registration of a cultural association
they
had created was refused on the basis of alleged statements made by two
of
the founders ... in the OSCE Copenhagen meeting; the case won
admissibility
to the European Court and will be heard on 24 march 1998, on the basis
of
an advice of its Commission for Greece's condemnation for violation of
freedom of association. In the last seven years too many activists found
themselves prosecuted in penal courts for having defended their rights.
The most recent such trial, scheduled for 14 October 1997 but eventually
postponed for 15 September 1998, sheds ample light to the extent of the
persecution of that ethnonational minority. The minoritys political
party
"Rainbow" has been indicted for having used in its office sign ... its
mother tongue. Indeed, "Rainbow" opened an office on 6/9/1995 in Florina
(Western Macedonia), with a sign mentioning "Rainbow - Florina
Committee"
in both Greek and Macedonian. On 13/9/1995, the office was attacked and
eventually sacked by a mob, led by the mayor of Florina. Before the
sacking, police acting on the prosecutors order removed the sign, while
the prosecutor announced the indictment of the "Rainbow" leaders for ...
having incited discord among citizens through the use of the Macedonian
language in their sign. No political party, nor any media condemned the
sacking of the party offices. On the contrary it was praised by extreme
right nationalistic papers like "Stohos" and "Chrysi Avghi," whose
members
reportedly took part in the sacking. And the use of the bilingual sign
was
condemned by all mainstream political parties and other social groups:
the
local PASOK -socialist governing party- organization even initiated a
court
procedure, later withdrawn as it appeared that many signatures on it had
been put without the knowledge of those concerned.
It is noteworthy that the witnesses of the prosecution included the
local
leaders of all five main Greek parties at the time (PASOK, ND, Political
Spring, KKE, and Coalition); as well as leaders of professional
associations (lawyers, merchants, priests, taxi drivers). Most of them,
in
their pre-trial depositions characterized the defendants as "paid agents
of
Skopjan propaganda", "anti-Greeks", etc. At the same time, the charges
brought by "Rainbow" against a dozen people who allegedly played an
active
role in the sacking of their offices have for two years remained "idle".
The indictment of "Rainbow" stipulated that the Macedonian words
"Lerinski
Comitet", written in Cyrillic on the sign, "in combination with the fact
that they were written in a foreign language, in the specific Slavic
linguistic idiom, provoked and incited discord among the area's
citizens.
The latter justifiably, besides other things, identify these words with
an
old terrorist organization of Slavic-speaking alien nationals which was
active in the area and which, with genocide crimes, pillages and
depredations against the indigenous Greek population, attempted the
annihilation of the Greek element and the annexation of the greater area
of
the age-long Greek Macedonia to a neighboring country, which at the time
was Greece's enemy." For that reason, the defendants were prosecuted
according to Article 192 of the penal code: "One who publicly and by any
means causes or incites citizens to commit acts of violence upon each
other
or to disturb the peace through disharmony among them shall be punished
by
imprisonment for not ore than two years unless a greater punishment is
imposed by another provision."
The Greek state, therefore, not only violated the freedom of speech of
these Macedonians, but in essence banned their language for, we will
argue,
being collectively guilty of alleged or real terrorist acts perpetrated
in
the beginning of the century by people who were speaking that language.
Why
not ban the use of German, too, in the process, as divisive: wasn't it
used
by the occupying forces in World War II which committed worse and more
recent atrocities against Greeks?
In anticipation of the trial, an unprecedented mobilization of 11 Greek
and
7 international NGOs occurred condemning the trial. This fact went
though
largely unreported by the Greek media, which, nevertheless devote large
articles when the same NGOs criticize human rights abuses in neighboring
Balkan countries, especially Turkey. On the contrary, the coverage of
the
trial by the major newspapers in Greece, just as their attitude in the
events of September 1995 which led to the sacking of the "Rainbow"
offices,
was rich in inflammatory negative stereotypes and hate speech. One
called
the defendants "Skopjanophiles" and added that "they tried to exploit
the
trial to further their propaganda, were provocative in the court
building
... frequently engaged in broils and scuffles with other citizens"
(Eleftherotypia, 15/10), allegations totally inconsistent with the
observations of the international monitors.
Another praised the harassment in the courthouse of a journalist of
Macedonian TV by a lawyer without the intervention of the police or
security guards, and called the journalist, whose comportment was
impeccable, "impudent." It also called the defendants "autonomists -
Skopjanophiles" -although "Rainbow" has never demanded autonomy- and
added
equally falsely that they were charged with "insult; instigating
principals
in a threat; instigating principals in damaging property, threat;
damaging
property, for having put up in their offices signs in Bulgarian, on
14-9-95" (Eleftheros Typos, 15/10).
A third newspaper (Adesmeftos Typos), in two consecutive columns, called
"Rainbow" a "Trojan association of afflicted relatives and friends"
which
"two years ago brutally provoked public feeling ... by putting up the
Slavic sign 'Lerinski Komitet.' ... The attempt to incite and as a
result
the indictment of citizens was obvious. Hence the charges against them
and
the trial tomorrow of these provocators" (13/10). As for the Greek and
international observers and/or witnesses in the trial, they were called
among other things "a dazzling hodgepodge of ... international or naive
advocates, observers who create and maintain such issues, refined
diplomats
and rabid agents" (14/10).
This extraordinary by democratic standards trial also led to an
unprecedented show of solidarity of minority Turks for minority
Macedonians
in Greece. One deputy and one NGO from among them publicly condemned the
"Rainbow" prosecution, which they felt, rightly so, reflected the same
mentality that has been leading to the repression of the Turkish
minority
in Greece. As the Turkish Minority Movement for Human and Minority
Rights
stated, certainly with very strong words, "the Florina trial achieves
also
a positive function: it reveals the true situation prevailing in the
field
of minority rights in Greece, but also in the field of freedom of
expression when it does not proceed in parallel with the dominant
national-totalitarianism. Also, it exposes the hypocritical stance taken
by
the modernist government which, abroad and in relation to the
neighboring
countries, devotes itself to championing human and minority rights,
whereas
inside the country, to anachronistic authoritarianism. Moreover, it
exposes
the guilty silence and eloquent complicity on the part of the political
parties."
This "double talk" of the supposedly modernizing Greek government has
been
characteristically evidenced in an issue dear to Greece's Turks.
Throughout
the year, the -three- "modernist" Foreign Minister and Deputy Ministers
have repeatedly assured everyone, especially abroad, that the notorious,
unconstitutional, and contrary to every human rights document Article 19
of
the Citizenship Code will be abolished, as it is "a violation of human
rights." But the competent and first in rank Minister of the Interior
has
only recently assured the "concerned" local nationalist forces in Thrace
(where the Turks live) that there are indeed no such plans; and in the
meantime, 1997 comes to a close, with his ministry diligently applying
that
Article and revoking the Greek citizenship of "non-ethnic Greeks" -from
the
Turkish minority- "who have settled abroad with no intention to return."
Until evidence to the contrary is provided therefore, those who pride
themselves for being "the descendants of the cradle of democracy," are
in
fact dishonoring the democratic principles they would like others,
especially abroad, to believe that they cherish. The carefully worded
quote
from the State Department report above is just a reflection of that
reality. Maybe it is high time for those "dumb-Franks" (koutofrangoi),
whom
Greeks are also proud of having been deceiving with their double talk,
to
react seriously and consistently so as to finally make their Greek
partners
honor their international commitments in the area of human rights.
Otherwise, they give the impression of, in fact, tacit accessories to
their
systematic violation.
---------------------------------------------------------------------
Panayote Elias Dimitras
AIM - Greece
(Alternative Information Media)
P.O. Box 51393
GR-145 10 Kifisia
Greece
tel: +30-1-620.01.20
fax: +30-1-807.57.67
e-mail: [email protected]
web site: http://www.greekhelsinki.gr/
=========================================================================
MINELRES - a forum for discussion on minorities in Central&Eastern
Europe
Submissions: [email protected]
Subscription/inquiries: [email protected]
List archive: http://www.riga.lv/minelres/archive.htm
=========================================================================