Macedonian and Turkish minorities unrecognised and ignored in Greece

On Thursday 17April 2008 an international panel discussion was held in the European Parliament on the Ignored Minorities of Greece: Western Thrace Turks and Macedonians. The conference was very well attended and received much publicity in the press in the days leading up to the event.

The conference was chaired by Hans Heinrich Hansen, the President of the Federal Union of European Nationalities (FUEN). After opening speeches from Nelly Maes, the President of the European Free Alliance - European Political Party, Halit Habipoglou, President of the Federation of Western Thrace Turks in Europe (ABTTF) and Petros Kazias, a member of the Central Council of EFA-Rainbow the following presentations were made:

Kinga Gál, MEP, the Vice Chairwoman of the Subcommittee on Human Rights spoke about the protection of minorities in Europe.

Asst. Prof. Dr. Halim Cavusoglu made a speech on the Western Thrace Turkish Minority and the Victims of Article 19 of the Greek Citizenship Code.

Petros Kazias of the European Free Alliance – Rainbow made a presentation on the ethnic Macedonian minority of Greece.

A statement from Lazslo Tökes MEP was read out in which he offered to mediate between representatives of the two minority groups and the Greek government.

Next, Panayote Dimitras of the Greek Helsinki Monitor spoke on the tolerance of intolerance of minorities in Greece.

The final presentation was made by Boriss Cilevičs who spoke on Council of Europe standards and minorities in Greece.

The presentations were followed by a interesting discussion in which a range of views were expressed. EFA-Rainbow regrets that some present wanted to manipulate the event for their own political purposes.

The EFA-Rainbow was pleased that the event was attended by a number of MEPs and also by a representative of the Permanent Representation of Greece to the European Union. In this connection, EFA-Rainbow again call upon the Greek governemnt to begin a dialogue between representatives of the Macedonian and Turkish minorities to discuss all unresolved issues.

The closing remarks of the conference were made by Mikel Irujo Amezaga MEP of the Greens/EFA Group. The EFA-Rainbow would like to thank Mr Amezaga and his staff for all their hard work in organising the conference.

The Press Office
EFA – Rainbow

The attached poster came from Joves d'Esquerra Nacionalista (JEN) and was used to celebrate and advertise the holding of the EFAy General Assembly in Palma de Mallorca in April 2008.

The slogan ‘Hello EFAy, Goodbye Spain’ was adapted from the slogan of the original poster ‘Hello Europe, Goodbye Spain’, which was used for the 2004 European elections by the Coalition GALEUSCA, of which Jen took part. The original idea however came from another group again.

The poster was designed by professional designers, some of whom are also members of JEN.

Thanks to Lucy Collyer of JEN for providing us with it – I am sure it will inspire some of our other members!

The Youth of Breton's Democratic Union is proud to present you with their new logo. Something you have already seen? Normal. It's a mix between the BDU's logo and the EFA Youth's (EFAy), of which we are a member. Ermines have been put in place of the Stars of the logo to emphasize breton culture as a component of cultural diversity in Europa.

Un arouez nevez evit tud yaouank an UDB

Laouen eo re yaouank an UDB da ginnig deoc'h o arouez nevez...gwelet c'hoazh en tu bennaket, a soñj deoc'h ? Normal eo : ur meskaj deus arouez an UDB hag arouez re yaouank an ALE (EFA youth), kar ezel eo an UDB d'al luskad-mañ. An erminiged 'neunt kemeret plas stered an ALE evit diskwel eo sevenadur hor bro ul lodenn a-bouez deus Europa, pinvik-mor a-drugarez d'ar sevenadurioù liesseurt a gaver enni.

Un nouveau logo pour les Jeunes de l'UDB

Les Jeunes de l'Union démocratique bretonne sont heureux de vous présenter leur nouveau logo. Une impression de déjà vu ? Normal, il est une fusion du logo de l'UDB avec celui des jeunes de l'Alliance libre européenne (EFA youth) dont sont membres les jeunes de l'UDB.

Les étoiles du logo de l'EFAy remplacées par des hermines pour mettre en exergue l’identité bretonne comme composante de la diversité culturelle en Europe.

Gwendal Rioual

Responsable des Jeunes de l’UDB

Gael Briand

Membre du Bureau de l’ALE jeunes

At the 8th General Assembly of the EFAy on 12th April 2008 in Palma de Mallorca, the following resolutions were passed:

• Resolution on Palestine and Israel

• Resolution on the situation in Tibet

• Resolution on Kosova

• Resolution on Carinthian Slovenians

• Resolution on European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages

• Resolution on GMO Free Areas

• Resolution on new Focus for EFAy

The first four resolutions passed were joint resolutions with the EFA.

The EFAy will now begin the process of following up these resolutions and would like to urge its members and supporters to do the same. Resolution follow ups will be posted under each link as they occur.

Could all those organisations who do act on the motions, please inform the EFAy Coordinator (coordinator@efay.eu) and EFAy President (rhisiart.talebot@efay.eu).

As the week following the EFAy General Assembly draws to a close, it is interesting to read on the internet some of the news items that have been generated by youth party members and activists who took part in the event.

Below is a list of those groups and individuals who wrote something about the GA first:

Joves d'Esquerra Nacionalista (JEN)

FNP-youth

Bayernpartei Jungbayernbund

Suedtiroler Freiheit

Jordi Perales blog

Jo mateixa blog

Miscellaneous

Els Joves d'Esquerra Nacionalista (JEN-PSM), com a membres de ple dret de les Joventuts de l'Aliança Lliure Europea, en són els amfitrions

Les Joventuts de l'Aliança Lliure Europea (EFAY, en les sigles en anglès) celebren aquest dissabte a Palma la seva Assemblea General. Els Joves d'Esquerra Nacionalista (JEN-PSM), com a membres de ple dret d'aquesta organització juvenil europea des de la seva constitució, són els amfitrions de la trobada. Està prevista l'assistència de mig centenar de joves pertanyents a una vintena de partits polítics nacionalistes i progressistes d'arreu d'Europa (Escòcia, Gal•les, Flandes, Baviera, Occitània, Galícia, Euskal Herria, Països Catalans, etc).

Aquest dijous, les Executives d'EFAY i dels JEN-PSM, amb Rhisiart Tal-e-bot i Antoni Noguera com a respectius president i secretari general, han fet una reunió de treball conjunta, a la seu del PSM-EN.

http://www.psm-entesa.org/noticia.php?Codnot=3144&Cod_categoria=2

The European Free Alliance Youth (EFAy) held its General Assembly (GA) last Saturday (12th April) in Palma de Mallorca, on the Catalan island of Mallorca.

Several resolutions were passed on the subjects of Kosova, GMO crops, Israel and Palestine, lesser used European languages, the situation in Tibet and a new focus for the organisation, in what was the EFAy’s 8th GA. The event was hosted by EFA party members Partit Socialista de Mallorca (PSM) and their EFAy member youth branch Joves d'Esquerra Nacionalista (JEN).

In addition to the GA, a series of activities were organised throughout the day and well into the night for delegates from EFAy member organisations from Aaland, Brittany, Cornwall, Flanders, Moravia and Wales to name but a few.

At the event it was also formally announced that EFAy Coordinator Eva Bidania would be leaving the EFAy next month to take up a position of Policy Advisor to the EFA.

EFAy President, Rhisiart Tal-e-bot, said after the GA:

“It was a great pleasure to be back in Mallorca among our very enthusiastic and active members of JEN. The event was a resounding success and we are indebted to JEN for not only making us feel very welcome, but for also providing a lot of fun too!

Our GA’s are important times for the EFAy, because they allow our members to make contact on a professional and personal basis, in addition to developing the activities of the EFAy itself. I am sure our members who attended the Palma de Mallorca GA will remember the day as one where old acquaintances were firmly renewed and many new friends met.”

Further details of the resolutions passed will be made available in the next few days.

Les JERC - Barcelona simulen la mort d’un jove a mans dels militars per protestar per la presència de l’exèrcit espanyol a la Saló de l’Ensenyament

Els joves republicans han desplegat també una pancarta i han repartit un miler d’octavetes entre el jovent que visitava la fira.

Una desena d’activistes de les JERC - Barcelona han realitzat aquest matí una acció en el marc de la fira “Estudia - Saló de l’ensenyament” com a protesta per la presència d’un espai dedicat a l’exèrcit Espanyol. L’acció ha consistit en simular la mort d’un jove davant del mateix estant acompanyat d’un cartell on es llegia: “Jo he estat víctima dels exèrcits”.

Al mateix temps diversos activistes han desplegat una pancarta davant de l’estand sota el lema “ESTUDIAR NO ÉS MATAR”, on també s’hi podia llegir “Fora Assassins del Saló de l’Ensenyament”.

Paral•lelament s’han repartit un miler d’octavetes explicatives entre els joves assistents, on es posava de manifest el rebuig frontal de les JERC - Barcelona per aquesta presència, i es reclamava a la Fira de Barcelona, organitzadora de l‘esdeveniment; i a la Conselleria d’Educació, col•laboradora, que no permetin la presència d’efectius militars en el sí de la Fira. El pamflet exigia també la retirada de l’exèrcit espanyol i francès dels Països Catalans per tal de poder construir una societat lliure, democràtica, pacífica i desmilitaritzada.

Gerard Gómez del Moral, Portaveu de les JERC - Barcelona, ha mostrat el seu malestar davant “la presència de l’exèrcit a un Saló d’estudiants, ja que els valors que les forces armades promouen són totalment oposats als que s’han d’impartir per formar i educar als joves del nostre país”. Gómez del Moral ha recordat que “les JERC seguirem sempre promovent els valors de la tolerància, la solidaritat i de la pau” alhora que ha manifestat la intenció dels joves independentistes de “protestar cada vegada que l’exèrcit espanyol decideixi trepitjar la ciutat de Barcelona”.

L’acció al Saló de l’ensenyament és el quart any consecutiu que es realitza, i s’emmarca en la campanya antimilitarista de les JERC – Barcelona, que protesten cada cop que l’exèrcit espanyol i francès apareixen a la ciutat, bé sigui en autobusos de reclutament o en espectacles com els de “La Festa del Cel” durant les Festes de la Mercè.

Per a més informació >> Gerard Gómez del Moral, Portaveu de les JERC – BCN

On Thursday 17 April 2008, the European Free Alliance – European Political Party in cooperation with the Federation of Western Thrace Turks in Europe (ABTTF), European Free Alliance – Rainbow (Macedonian minority of Greece) and the Federal Union of the European Nationalities (FUEN) will be organising an international panel discussion in the European Parliament in Brussels on the “Ignored Minorities in Greece: Western Thrace Turks and Macedonians.” The event will be held in Meeting Room A5G2 from 15.00 until 18.00.

Guest speakers at this event will include Hans Heinrich Hansen (Panel Chair) (President, Federal Union of European Nationalities), Halit Habipoğlu (President, Federation of Western Thrace Turks in Europe, Nelly Maes (President, European Free Alliance - European Political Party), Asst. Prof. Dr. Halim Cavusoglu (Department of Sociology, Hacettepe University ), Pavlos Filipov Voskopoulos (Member of the Central Council of EFA-Rainbow, political party of the Macedonian Minority in Greece), Hélène Flautre MEP* (Chair, Subcommittee on Human Rights, European Parliament), Dr. Csaba Sándor Tabajdi MEP* (Chair, Intergroup for Traditional National Minorities, Constitutional Regions and Regional Languages), Boriss Cilevičs (Member of the PACE, Chair, Sub-Committee on Rights of Minorities) Panayote Dimitras (Spokesperson, Greek Helsinki Monitor) and Mikel Irujo Amezaga MEP (Greens/EFA Group).

Background information on the Turkish and Macedonian minorities of Greece

The Greek state systematically discriminates against the Turkish minority and denies the ethnic identity of the minority, which whether acquired by birth or through acculturation, is Turkish. Greece prefers to use the term “Muslim minority”, a concept based on the Lausanne Peace Treaty and on the rejection of a “Turkish” identity. Greece’s refusal to accept the minority’s Turkish identity has ranged from banning civic organisations bearing the adjective “Turkish” in their titles – as in the case of “Turkish Union of Xanthi”- to prosecuting individuals who publicly identified the minority as “Turkish”.

The Macedonian minority of Greece is concentrated in the northern part of the country. Although the Macedonian language is spoken by a large number of persons, it is in danger of becoming extinct as it does not enjoy official state recognition and therefore is not taught in the education system. Furthermore, Macedonian speakers and indeed persons expressing a Macedonian ethnic identity have been persecuted by Greek authorities. Greek courts on multiple occasions since 1989 have refused to register the cultural association “Home of Macedonian Culture”.
______________________
* speaker to be confirmed
* Invitation: http://www.florina.org/html/2008/march27_e.pdf

POLITICAL PARTY OF THE MACEDONIAN MINORITY IN GREECE

www.florina.org

The EFAy have joined in the call to the European Parliament to urge the Slovakian Government to repeal the Benes decrees, and other legal acts adopted by the Slovak National Council and other Czecho (Slovak) official authorities during the 1945 – 8 period, which still discriminate against the Hungarian and German minorities in the Slovak Republic.

The laws, passed in the wake of the WWII period, legalised the persecution of the Hungarian and German citizens of the former Czechoslovak Republic, by proportioning collective guilt on them for the atrocities that took place in this period of history. The EFAy support the petition to the European Parliament calling on the Slovak authorities to declare the laws null and void and to compensate the victims and their families for the suffering that they subsequently endured as a result of these laws.

The EFAy calls on its members and supporters to sign the petition and to raise concerns with the Slovak authorities.

Part of the text reads as follows:

“The Undersigned request, on the grounds of our commitment to fairness and the protection of human rights, that the members of the Hungarian and German minorities in Slovakia (as former part of the Czechoslovak Republic) receive, because of their persecution between 1945-1948, moral satisfaction and financial compensation, or other appropriate remedy for the human victims, physical sufferings and for the results of the financial damages caused to the social organizations (including public organizations and churches) of the minority (or those playing an important part in its life), its private entrepreneurs and private persons! By signing the present document we also support the concept of the Hungarian-Slovak reconciliation and all the movements and civil organizations (e.g. the petition of the “Never Again Polgári Társulás” civil organization and the associated Southern Slovakian civil organizations), which raise their voice against maintaining that infringement of rights and the legitimization of it.

We demand that the Parliament request Slovakia, in a resolution, to declare its still applicable incriminated legal acts – including the act which exclude the right for compensation related to unlawful actions before 25 February1948 – null and void by the means of deregulation. Furthermore, we request that the Hungarian and German minorities of Slovakia shall be presented formal apologies for the injuries suffered as a result of aforementioned legal acts and legal practices, and because of the crimes caused by Slovakia (as former part of the Czechoslovak Republic), and the Czechoslovak state; they shall receive adequate compensation for the confiscation of property and the mental sufferings. Slovakia shall convict those citizens who committed crimes against properties and humanity.

We request that in case of lack of an appropriate answer, or if Slovakia maintains this massive infringement of human rights, the Parliament should launch an infringement procedure at the Council of the European Union because of the breach of Article 6 (1) of the Maastricht Treaty (as laid down in Article 7 of the Maastricht Treaty), and as final step suspend the rights of Slovakia as a European Member State.”

Website and petition link:
http://www.vilagmagyarsag.com/benes