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ATTENTION!

We distribute this news story in for which the responsibility lies with
Eurolang.

We must however point out major inaccuracies so as to help readers be
accurately informed. Namely, the story of the sign in Macedonian in Florina
concerned the political party "Rainbow" and not the cultural association
"Home of Macedonian Civilization." Moreover, there was never a case in the
European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) in which "the Greek State was
sentenced to pay the restitution of the bureau and its employees" of
Rainbow. There was one case, in 1998, in which the ECHR condemned Greece
for not having allowed the registration of the "Home of Macedonian
Civilization;" while the charges brought by "Rainbow" against the Greek
state for the above incident are reportedly now before the Court.

We also find unnecessary the exaggerations on the one hand on the
"megalomania etc." allegedly promoted by Greek education; education is
certainly very ethnocentric and nationalistic but not to the revisionist
extent implied below. While, on the other hand they allege "new openness
towards minorities" in Greece, contradicted in the next paragraph by
references to the very real "isolation of minorities from the community, as
if they had some kind of illness."

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Eurolang

Greek Member State Committee: ‘Greece is a democratic country - except in
the issue of linguistic diversity and minorities’
Brussels 13/2/02 , by Margret Oberhofer

http://www.eurolang.net/news.asp?id=668

‘My arrest turned out to be the key to finally open a Member State
Committee for the European Bureau for Lesser-Used Languages also in
Greece’, says language activist Sotiris Bletzas. He took the initiative to
open such a Member State Committee already several years ago, but because
of disagreements between the different minorities in Greece it wasn’t
successful. Bletzas was arrested in 1995 at a pan-Hellenic reunion of the
Aroumanians for distributing EBLUL’s brochures ‘Unity in diversity’, which
contents a map with different European minorities. For the Greek
authorities this was an offence against the Greek nation. ‘The events that
followed this, led to a climate of friendship between the Greek minorities
and to the conviction that we have to work together and do something’,
Bletzas explains in an interview with Eurolang.

Apart from minority representatives, also the police was present at the
foundation of the Greek Member State Committee (MSC) on the 26th of January
in Thessaloniki. ‘The police protected us from a possible assault from a
fascist reunion that happened on the same day in another part of the town,’
Bletzas explains.

For Athanasios Parisis, the President of the newly established MSC,
belonging to the Slavomacedonian minority, the presence of the police at
the inauguration was a good sign: ‘Five years ago the Greek Government
wouldn’t have taken such measures.’ He refers to the time when authorities
didn’t protected or help the minorities. He gives as example the occasion
when the ‘Home of Macedonian Civilisation’ was established in Florina.

‘We put up a bilingual sign with the name on the house. But that is
impossible in Greece! On the same day extremists – some of them came with
busses from other towns - started riots in town. They broke everything in
our bureau. The people working in the office had to go court for spreading
ideas against the Greek nation.’ But by bringing the case to the European
Court, the Greek State was sentenced to pay the restitution of the bureau
and its employees.

The recently changed behaviour of the Greek Government is according to
Parisis due to international influence: ‘The Greek Government nowadays
feels trapped. They want to find some solutions to the problems in Greece,
because the country is always criticized on a European and international
level. There have been many trials, not only the one with Bletzas, and
these have caused a bad reputation for the Greek authorities.’ But behind
the new openness towards minorities is a clear strategy, Parisis explains:
‘They want us to help them promote these ideas to the Greek society and to
stimulate the discussions about the new ideas on all levels of society.’

Decades of education promoting a certain image of Greece is the reason why
these ideas are so new for the Greek society, says Parisis. ‘An ordinary
Greek is the victim of education promoting the idea of ‘megalomania’: The
great Greek State will one day again be like 2,500 years ago. A formation
of the nation happened in other European states in the 17th, 18th or 19th
century. Greece went through this process later and in shorter time.’

Its important for Parisis to stress that Greece has a high level of
democracy: 'You can express everything and write everything in the
newspaper - except in issues concerning nationality, diversity and
languages, where there is no democracy. This is something that doesn’t
exist in the Greek society. There are people who want to support such
movement, but they have no power’, Parisis says. ‘Some people, like us,
express their thoughts but we have big problems with the authorities from
the community and in our jobs. We are isolated – but in the rest of Europe
we feel free to communicate. This is not the case in our country. We are
isolated from the community, as if we had some kind of illness and
everybody avoids us. They fear each other and wouldn’t work with people
dealing with things against the state.’

Even though the situation seems to be quite difficult, Bletzas is
optimistic: ‘I think things have also matured in Greece. We have made some
steps forward – slowly maybe, but we made them. Because they have
acknowledged that we don’t want a separation; we are only linguistic
minorities. We do feel Greek, but with some particular features. I do feel
Greek, I don’t have anything against the Greek state, I work there, I live
there and I like it there. But I would like to be able to speak my
language.‘ (EL)