[ALBSA-Info] Greeces Stand on National Minorities* (by Eqerem Mete**)

[Eqerem Mete]

Greece’s Stand on National Minorities*
by Eqerem Mete**

* The article was published in the Albanian newspaper “Albania” in December 
2000

         In early 2001, the EU is expected to send a committee to discuss a 
cooperation agreement with Albania. Greece’s Foreign Ministry General 
Secretary on a recent visit to Tirana told the Albanian Prime Minister that 
“Tirana had to review its legislation on minorities if it wanted to get 
closer to the European Union,” whereas the Albanian prime minister 
expressed his conviction that “Albania will compile and apply an advanced 
legislation, one of the most progressive in Southeastern Europe.''

         The EU initiative to teach the Albanian authorities how to behave 
themselves towards the so-called 35 to 40 thousand-strong Greek minority, 
the ultimatum of the envoy of the Greek Prime Minister and the statement of 
the Albanian Prime Minister seem to imply that there are serious defects in 
the Albanian legislation on national minorities. To clear up this issue, to 
see where they stand and for the sake of arguments, the relevant Albanian 
authorities are in duty bound to study the legislation and practice of 
other countries including Greece, as well as those of other countries who 
pose as the most advanced in this regard.

         Are there more advanced legislation and more absurd practice in 
other countries than what is observed in our country as concerns national 
minorities? In stead of pupils going where the school is, in Albania 
[Greek] schools follow the children of the Greek diaspora wherever they 
are, despite their numbers, even though these numbers are in flagrant 
violation of the law.

For their part, the Greek authorities have not deigned so far to give 
official permission to open even a single elementary school for the 
children of hundreds of thousands of Albanian immigrants. It never occurs 
to Greece to take such an official step that would have even the remotest 
semblance of recognition to the rights of a national element, who is not 
and does not call itself Greek. In the Greek opinion, such a step would be 
a dangerous precedent that would undermine the theories about the so-called 
homogeneity of the Greek state and whet the appetite of the national 
minorities for education in their own mother tongues. This step would also 
lead to increased pressure at home and abroad on Greece. It would also 
nullify the endeavors of the Greek authorities over many decades to 
assimilate the Albanians, those who are native to the land and those who 
have immigrated during the centuries to Greece. The attempts to change the 
nationality of the recent Albanian immigrants through schooling in Greek 
and with the help of the Greek Orthodox churches by changing their 
religion, and the dictate of the Greek authorities by exploiting their 
presence in Greece to the Albanian state would be ever less ineffectual.

Such a domestic policy of the Greek state has a powerful impact on its 
foreign policy towards its neighbors despite its European patchwork and 
ornaments. In stead of reciprocity towards Albania at least for the sake of 
the position of the present-day Albanian government, Greece has increased 
the intensity and range of its pressure.

Greece has not given up its territorial claims on Albania. To avoid such an 
accusation and to keep up the pressure, the Greek government lets the 
so-called ultra nationalistic circles raise territorial claims, whereas for 
the moment in its official capacity, it covers them up with the slogan 
about respect for human rights and democratic rules.

At high level official meetings between the two sides, the Greek side makes 
ultimatum-like demands, which signify the imposition of a master-apprentice 
relationship. At the Greek parliament debates are held on “growing Albanian 
nationalism, increasing disruptive role of Albanian armed groups in Kosova, 
Macedonia and southern Serbia” though the struggle of the Albanians against 
aggressive Serbian nationalism has been supported by the entire democratic 
world, with the exception of the Greeks. One thing is more than clear in 
this context. The closer the Kosova issue edges to a settlement, the 
greater their irritation and emphasis on the absurd parallel they draw to 
this issue.

Greek Eurodeputies, of the New Democracy and PASSOK, demand that the 
macro-financial aid to Albania be stopped and that the latter denied the 
right to start negotiations on signing an association and stability 
agreement with the European Union. Greek Foreign Minister George Papandreou 
has also mounted the stage. He has written to European Commissioner for 
External Relations Chris Patten making an issue of “the lack of respect for 
the rights of ‘the Greek minority.’”

Though the two countries have signed a Treaty of Friendship and 
Cooperation, the Law of the State of War with Albania is still in force. 
Greece has abrogated such a law with Italy despite the stark truth that it 
was fascist Italy and not Albania, which committed aggression against it in 
1940. The property of the Albanians in Greece have been frozen on the 
pretext of such an absurd law, while as to the property of the Albanian 
population, massacred and compelled at gunpoint to flee Chameria, most 
absurd arguments are put forward not to return it to its legal owners.

In view of such Greek policies and activity against Albania, one might as 
well say that Greece is still living in the past. To live in the present, 
it should abide by the old Chinese wise saying: “To know others is 
knowledge, to know yourself is enlightenment.” It is precisely the latter 
that our neighbors have missed.

It is against this backdrop of Greek political activity against Albania 
that the present Albanian government approaches relations with its southern 
neighbor in the context of “the strategic partnership between the two 
parties, two governments and two countries” hoping that the road to Europe 
will pass through Athens the same as in the past when the road to Moscow 
passed through Belgrade.

With the exception of those who have their hands and feet bound, nobody in 
their right mind can fail to see through what the Greek side is aiming at.

To return to the topic of the beginning about national minorities, I would 
say that people would be really curious to learn what Greek authorities 
have to say about this issue. The following material based on Greek and 
European Community sources, published in an abbreviated form in the 
Albanian-American newspaper Illyria (New York, the USA), can shed some 
light on the experience of the Hellenic state in this direction.

                                                 x
                                 x               x

The July 23, 1999 appeal to the Speaker of the Greek Parliament and the 
Party leaders on the eve of the 25th anniversary of the restoration of 
democracy in Greece reminded me of a document entitled Report on the 
Albanians of Greece a group of researchers of the European Community 
compiled in 1987.

         The appeal, signed by all three Turkish minority deputies, seven 
Turkish and three Macedonian minority organizations, as well as three human 
rights non-governmental organizations, including Greek Helsinki Monitor and 
Minority Rights Group  Greece, emphasizes that the Republic of Greece has 
an important weakness: it does not recognize the existence of national 
minorities on its territory.

The undersigned call upon the Greek state to recognize the existence of 
Macedonian and Turkish minorities, to ratify the Framework Convention for 
the Protection of National Minorities of the Council of Europe without any 
conditions for its implementation and to implement the principles of the 
Convention, as well as of the related OSCE documents, so that all forms of 
discrimination or persecution against members of these minorities cease and 
their rights be respected.

It is true that the Greek authorities, who have always been playing the 
ostrich, and the Greek public, which has been duly indoctrinated for 
decades on end, refuse in no uncertain terms the existence of national 
minorities on Greek territory. The principle that the Greeks have always 
stuck to runs as follows:  “Those who live in Greece are Greeks. All those 
who are not Greeks should quit”. That is the prevailing frame of mind in 
Greece, a member of the United Nations, the European Union, NATO, OSCE, and 
other international organizations. It does not cross their Greek mind that 
if the neighboring countries had applied the same principle, there would 
have been no Greeks outside the borders of the Greek state.

         Let us cite in brief the responses of some Greek authorities to 
the appeal according to Greek sources:

The Speaker of the Parliament, Apostolos Kaklamanis: “In Greece there is no 
Turkish or Macedonian minority. There is a Muslim religious minority. 
Whatever constructs, especially at this moment, serve other purposes and 
will be handled in the appropriate way.” The minister for the Press 
Dimitris Reppas: “Unhistorical and unrealistic constructs will fall by the 
wayside.” The Greek foreign minister Papanadreou: “Greece, in a difficult 
region, is carrying out an exemplary policy in the area of minorities…” 
Whereas the former Minister of Macedonia and Thrace Stelios Papathemelis 
declared: “I should tell them in their language “Ai sihtir” (Screw off!). 
The KKE leader added another version to the motivation of the appeal. He 
said: “We believe that the issuing of such a statement is less related to 
the anniversary of the restoration of democracy than with whichever 
dialogue is being carried out between Greece and Turkey… it gives the 
United States of America the opportunity to impose their conditions on this 
dialogue. The perpetrators of this action can be found not only in Greece.” 
While the newspaper Eleftherotypia ran an article by Professor Nicholas 
Stavrou, a Greek-American, on the US being behind the travails of the 
Balkans. Mr. Stavrou writes that “Ankara and its patrons in Washington with 
the support of the human rights industry in the US and its affiliates in 
Greece are behind the appeal…” This statement, which shifts the blame onto 
the United States, bears resemblance to what the Speaker of the Greek 
parliament Apostolos Kaklamanis has said about the NATO air strikes against 
Serbia. “The US-led attacks revert ‘Europe back to Cold War Times,’ he has 
declared. ‘We must stop being prey to a power [read USA] that does not want 
to see Europe stand on its own.’”

What draws one’s attention in particular is the striking similarity of the 
responses of the Greek authorities and of representatives of the political 
parties to the appeal and the statements contained in the Report on the 
Albanians of Greece. The conclusion that can be drawn from the content of 
the appeal is that the policies of the Greek authorities on the issue at 
present are the same as they were in 1987, when the above-mentioned report, 
a summary of which follows, was compiled.

REPORT ON THE ALBANIANS OF GREECE
by the Commission of the European Community

A group of researchers of the European Community visited Greece from the 
4th to the 10th of October 1987 to study the existence of the Albanian 
element and the preservation of its ethnicity and language.
         The trip was organized by the “European Bureau” to study the 
lesser-used languages, observed by the Commission of the European Community.

Composition of the Group:

Antonio Belushi         Italy
Ricardo Alvares         Spain
E. Angel                            France
Kolom Anget                         Spain
Havier Boski                        Spain
Onom Falkona                           Holland
Volfgang Jeniges                    Belgium
Robert Marti                        France
Stefan Moal                         France
Kol O’Cinseala          Ireland
Joseph San Sokasao                  Spain

Object of the trip:
        Research in 300 Albanian communities in Greece.

Aim:
1.      To help European representatives on their visit to get in touch 
with the Albanian people in Greece, who are currently speaking Albanian, 
which is not taught in Greek schools.
2.      To assess the reaction of various parties and other institutions to 
the issue of protection of linguistic minorities existing in Greece, which 
are not recognized at present even below a minimum criterion as is the case 
with the Albanians, etc.

Views of the main parties:

The “New Democracy” Party:
We talked with Michael Papakonstantinu, Efstakios Paguhos, Nikola Martis, 
Joanis Vulfefis and Kaeti Papannastasion. Here are some of their answers:
  “There is no problem of Albanian language in Greece. If we put linguistic 
problems on the table, we would create very great problems for the Greek 
state. If the Albanian language is spoken, it is spoken only in families. 
No opinion can be fully expressed on this issue. There has never been room 
for the Albanians in our problems. Your mission is very delicate. Do not 
complicate things. Watch out! Minority issues will lead to war in Europe. 
We can in no way help at these moments. Likewise, we do not want to give 
the impression of Albanian presence in Greece. This problem does not exist 
for us.”

The “PASOK” Party:
Questions were addressed to Dr. Jorgos Sklavunas and Manolis Azimakis. 
Their answers:
“We do not deem it necessary for the Albanian and other minorities to learn 
their mother tongues because the language they speak is not a language. 
There are no Albanian territories in Greece. There are only Greek 
territories where Albanian may also be spoken. He who does not speak our 
language does not belong to our race and our country.”

The Ministry of Culture:
Having listened to the questions, Doc. Athina Sipirianti said:
“To solve a problem, you have always to set up a commission. We do not have 
the possibility of dealing with the problem you are raising. Your 
experience will be necessary for what we shall do in the future. Your visit 
is a great stimulus to us.”

The Pedagogical Department:
Dr. Trinnidafilotis’ answer was very cold:
“There is no teaching of Albanian. What you are saying is a political 
rather than a cultural problem. I have nothing else to add.”

The Commission of the Independent Magazine Anti:
Answers:
“Borders between states are not fair. This interest in minorities in Greece 
can hide interests of domination by other states. Linguistic minorities, 
namely, the Albanian minority, have no right whatsoever. In Greece, there 
are only Greeks.”

The above statements and the appeal to the Speaker of the Greek Parliament 
and the party leaders are clear evidence of the presence of Albanians, 
Turks and Macedonian Slavs in Greece, who still speak their mother tongues. 
According to research done by scholars, there are about 700 Albanian 
villages in Greece, whose Albanian ethnicity the Greeks deny. It is a 
well-known fact that national minority members in Greece have all been 
subject to intense, organized assimilation, which the Greeks, while 
ignoring their distinct ethnicity, justify by pointing to their Orthodox 
religion, as though religion were the criterion to determine one’s 
nationality. However, there are also Greeks who contradict the absurd 
claims of the Greek authorities. In a study on the subject, Professor of 
International Law and current Vice-President of the European Court of Human 
Rights, Christos Rozakis, acknowledges the ethnic character of minorities 
in Greece.

In view of Greek domestic policies on national minorities, it is 
regrettable to observe that an EU member like Greece has so far failed to 
be a role model for the other Balkan countries, that its example in this 
area adds to the Balkans’ already tarnished image as a result of Serbia’s 
policies, that though a NATO member, despite the government’s ‘efforts’ to 
keep a so-called balance, Greece opposed NATO’s air war against Serbia 
under the threadbare pretext of its religious and traditional historical 
ties with the Serbs and tacitly supported Milosevic’s policy of genocide 
and ethnic cleansing in Kosova. In this campaign of solidarity with 
Milosevic when the NATO bombing began, even Archbishop Christodoulos of 
Athens hastened to join Patriarch Alexii of Moscow, head of the Russian 
Orthodox Church, to call for support for Serbia.

It is also a pity that nothing has so far changed in Greece’s nationalistic 
and theocratic policies since the 1944-1945 period when the Greeks were the 
first in southeastern Europe after World War II to perpetrate genocide. 
They massacred and ethnically cleansed Albanians from Chamouria, an 
Albanian-inhabited region in the northwest of today’s Greek state.

It stands to reason that their religious brethren, the Serbs, would 
naturally draw on the Greek experience of the ethnic cleansing of Albanians 
and extensively use it against the Kosova Albanians in the year 1999.

The way the Greeks respond to the national minority issue signifies the 
existence of a strong, unhealthy nationalistic trend, raised to state 
policy level, which runs counter to the general tendency in the other 
countries of the European Union. The official 1951 census in Greece 
indicated that ethnic minorities in the country constituted 2.6 to 3.8 per 
cent of the total population. Just as in the case of other non-Greeks, the 
number of Albanians, too had radically been reduced in the census. 
According to other sources, there were at least as many as 350,000 
Albanians at that time. Slavic speakers in Greece today number up to 
300,000 though the majority of them had to flee during and after World War 
and the Civil War. Facts are stubborn. Nevertheless, these figures that 
have been drastically reduced, have always been suppressed whenever they 
have been brought up. Worth mentioning are also the following facts, 
symptomatic of Greek intolerance in the area of national minorities: A few 
years ago, death threats against Anastasia Karakasidou, a Guggenheim 
Fellowship scholar at Harvard University, first came from the Greek 
community in the United States and then in Greece because she had described 
the presence of a Slavic speaking Macedonian community in Greece in her 
book “Fields of Wheat, Hills of Shrubs…” Almost at the same time, Christos 
Sideropulos, leader of “the Human Rights movement in Macedonia” faced trial 
on charges of “spreading false information that might cause disturbance in 
the international relations of Greece.” His guilt had been a statement to 
the effect that the ethnic Macedonians faced curbs on their language and 
culture by a state, which denies their existence.

Though there is no denying the fact that Greece is a full-fledged member of 
the European Union, its behavior, past and present, which has little to do 
with Western values, is helping an increasing number of people realize that 
the country is a far cry from the rest of the EU members as far as 
mentality, culture, as well as religious and national tolerance are 
concerned. Greece is also distinct from the other EU member countries as 
far as its domestic legislation is concerned. For instance, citizenship, 
ethnicity and religion are deliberately confused in Greece. The Greek 
Constitution outlaws proselytism. There are also provisions, especially 
Article 20 of the Greek Citizenship Law in Greece, under which sanctions, 
prison terms and denial of Greek citizenship are imposed on religious 
minority members, accused of involvement in so-called activities against 
Hellenism. Irrespective of the fact that Greece has repealed Article 19 of 
the Greek Citizenship Law under international pressure, which entitled the 
government to deprive those regarded as allogenes [Greece’s natives of 
non-Greek origin] of Greek citizenship, it has not made the Article 
retroactive in order to restore citizenship to those who have unjustly lost 
it.

Financial Times quotes Takis Michas, social affairs specialist at the 
Athens daily Eleftherotypia, as saying: “Greece is an inward-looking 
society. Orthodox values reinforce that mentality. Orthodoxy sees the West 
as a threat, a place where conspiracies are hatched against it,” a mind 
frame of both Greeks and Serbs, which draws its source from the ancient 
split between western and eastern Christendom. Whereas British historian 
Norman Davies writes in his book “Europe A History”: “From the time of the 
Crusades, the Orthodox looked on the west as the source of subjugation 
worse than the infidel.” This mindset is made manifest in the United 
States, too. According to recent news reports, Archbishop Spyridon, the 
head of the Greek Orthodox Church in the United States, who has spent most 
of his life in Europe, has been accused of trying to keep the church 
inaccessible to members who feel more American than Greek. Spyridon, who is 
the first American-born leader of the Greek Orthodox church in this 
country, says he works to protect the church’s Byzantine traditions, 
proving to be one of those Greeks who are still living in the Byzantine 
empire. As Jeane Carthner of the newspaper Liberacion points out: “A few 
years ago, the Greeks were enemies of the Albanians, Macedonians and 
Bulgarians. They are constant enemies of the Turks, while now they have 
become enemies of the Americans, the British, the French, the Germans and 
the rest of the world.” “The West is full of enemies,” the president of 
Greece, Costis Stephanopolous, has been quoted as saying. Scholars consider 
such statements “a reminder of emotions that are deeply felt in the eastern 
Balkans. The common link is the Orthodox religious tradition. It is a tie 
that cements the alliance with Serbia …” Such a mentality that has been 
conducive to national and religious bigotry has prompted analysts to draw 
the logical conclusion that Greek presence in the EU and NATO, etc. is an 
anomaly and a paradox. Greece continues to be an awkward partner or indeed 
a black sheep in the European Union even today. Time and again, it creates 
false problems for Europe with its whimsical behavior towards its 
neighbors. This conclusion is not a thing of the past, of the early 1990s, 
as another Greek, Loukas Tsoukalis, of the European Institute of the London 
School of Economics, says.

  Such being the case, it is wrong, at least in the foreseeable future, to 
regard Greece as the bridge that will link the neighboring countries to 
Europe. This EU member country, which regards every criticism of its 
handling of domestic affairs, the minority and religious issues in 
particular, as a West-inspired, hostile step to destabilize the country, 
cannot play such a role unless it improves its image, which is still low by 
European standards, and gives up sowing the seeds of religious and national 
intolerance.
Far from trying to find the culprit abroad, Greece should mend its ways at 
home.
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* The article was published in the Albanian newspaper “Albania” in December 
2000
** The article writer was political director for the Balkans and the Middle 
East in the Foreign Affairs Ministry of Albania from 1992 to 1996