Racism in Greece

[Krivan]

I feel we need to do an expose on the long-held tradition of xenophobia and racism in Greece.

My blogging began because of a racist attack that had happened here in Greece six years earlier. It shocked the country then, not just because it was so horrific but also because the country had to wake up and see that racism exists here, contrary to popular opinion.

It is a commonly held belief that Greeks are not racist. It is also common to hear people say, “We don’t mind Black people, it’s the Albanians, Turks or Gypsies, we have a problem with. In more recent times, the Chinese have joined the list of baddies because of the small shops selling cheap clothing that have sprung up all over the big cities. This is a country where it is still acceptable to put your house up to rent and to specify that foreigners need not apply. This is a place where the media will accuse any crime on Albanians before any facts are known. There is no shortage of stories here about racism and xenophobia. There is more material than I could possibly cover myself.

I understand that It is often difficult for people to face up to racism. It is not an enjoyable experience to be accused of racism. And here I was accusing a whole country of the racism they didn’t want to see or acknowledge. There has been a collective temper tantrum and an avalanche of denial. How dare a foreigner call us racist? And worse still, a black one!

The problem is that you cannot tackle racism unless there is an admission of its existence and a willingness to accept responsibility and to change it. It is pointless to say that the racism in England or France is worse than here. That is not helpful to the Roma or Albanian (or other foreign) people who are beaten up on a regular basis by the police. That doesn’t help the asylum seekers who are locked up and treated worse than animals. That doesn’t assist the hundreds of African children who cannot get birth certificates issued when they are born here leading to problems getting health care, education or a passport.

There are many Greek bloggers who are tackling the same issues that I am. There are hundreds of people here who are working for change. Unfortunately, the mainstream media seems to have its head buried firmly in the sand. And the politicians are mainly just being politicians. They do absolutely nothing at best. The nationalist party is gaining ground, with its leader being seen regularly on TV, spouting his racist garbage. There are reasons that this is happening. The hysteria about the rising numbers of immigrants here (now at around 10% of the population) that is fueled by the media. There are the usual accusations that the nationals are losing their jobs because of foreigners. The rising crime figures are blamed on us regardless of information that this is not true. And on and on and on…

The main problem I see is that we are now seeing second and third generation of “foreigners” who are not immigrants. They are Greek and they are growing up and they are demanding equality and opportunity. Unless Greece as a country can grow up and acknowledge that there is a problem of racism, I can see only trouble ahead. You only have to look at what has happened in other countries to see the result of ignoring, ghettoizing and generally abusing those who are “other” Lessons can be learned from the experiences of other countries if only there was a willingness to do so. I do not see that happening here. It seems to me that we are on a well-trodden path to more serious problems in the very near future. People can only be poked for so long and then they bite back.

We will hear more angry protests about the treatment of foreigners and Greeks of different backgrounds. We will see people taking to the streets (a common pastime here for any grievance) demanding their rights as citizens of this country. We will see support for the struggle here from people outside the country. More international condemnation of the abuses that occur here. Whether the powers that be will sit up and take notice and then have the guts to actually do something about it, remains to be seen.

I feel compelled to keep scratching away at this issue regardless of what I am being accused of (from trying to undermine the country, to being a terrorist, to the classic “you’re the racist”). I have seen small shifts even on my humble blog and have many Greek blog friends who support this effort. The outpouring of support when the nationalists targeted me was incredible. Perhaps the change can come from us, the little people who care about big things and are letting the world know what is happening.

http://www.feministe.us/blog/archive...sm-and-greece/

[Krivan]

August 20, 2011 – Washington, D.C. – The United Macedonian Diaspora (UMD) expressed its outrage at Sunday’s sermon by Metropolitan Anthimos of Thessaloniki (Solun).* He called upon Greek youth and others to join him in 40-50 buses, travel to the town of Meliti (Ovcharani),* and destroy a planned Macedonian language radio station.

The Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew in Istanbul oversees the Holy Metropolises of the “New Lands,” including Thessaloniki (Solun). In a letter, UMD called upon the Holy and Sacred Synod of the Ecumenical Patriarchate to publically condemn Anthimos’s incitements to violence, and to initiate proceedings for his immediate excommunication.

“Anthimos is a shameful embarrassment to all of Orthodoxy and should be stripped of his title by the Ecumenical Patriarch and the Holy and Sacred Synod,” said UMD President Metodija A. Koloski. “This rhetoric is barbaric and injurious to Greece, the Ecumenical Patriarchate and the Greek Orthodox Church. Instead of promoting Christian values of peace, tolerance and togetherness, Anthimos uses his position of trust to incite the Greek nation to ethnic hatred and violence. As a Christian leader, Anthimos's speech is completely unacceptable, and he deserves to be excommunicated.”

On Sunday, August 14, 2011, Metropolitan Anthimos stated the following, which was captured on video:

"We have some of those who were left here since the Civil War period, as we call it, that difficult period, who did not leave to the other side and stayed here with us... [They] are now revolting, and are instigated from abroad by the Skopian [sic] propaganda … That is why we address to the Ministry of Interior and deputy ministers relevant to the media to tell us: is it true, such a radio station will become in Meliti . . . yes or no? If it is yes, then I, and the youth, and anyone else who wants to . . . [with] at least 40 or 50 buses must go there, and together with our brothers in Florina and Meliti, we will destroy everything into broken glass and nails . . . It is not possible to do the job differently."

Despite nominal leadership from the Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew in Istanbul, the Greek Orthodox Church is enshrined in the Greek constitution as the "prevailing" religion, and the state pays the clergy's salaries and pensions. "The Greek State's use of the clergy to terrorize Macedonians in northern Greece has a long and bloody history, going back to the likes of Bishop Germanos Karavangelis, who ordered beheadings in the streets of Kostur,*" said UMD Voice Magazine Editor Mark Branov. "It is long past due for the Greek Orthodox Church to fully adhere to Christian principles of love and tolerance, and for the Greek state to use its laws for something other than persecuting national minorities."

Today, UMD also urged the Macedonian minority in Meliti (Ovcharani), the Mayor of that town, Panagiotis Anastasiadis (Pande Ashlakov),** and the organizers of said radio station to bring a case against Metropolitan Anthimos, and ask the Public Prosecutor to lay appropriate charges under Greek law. UMD believes Metropolitan Anthimos’s public appeal for violence is a clear violation of Greek law, and the Public Prosecutor must intervene.

http://the-macedonian-tendency.blogspot.com/2011/08/wheres-outrage-greek-racist-priest.html

[Krivan]

Racism and Discrimination against Immigrants and Minorities in Greece

One of the most widely known aspects of the Greek migration management system in the years 2001-2004, which is rather indicative of its inefficiency, is that due to long delays and administrative dysfunctions, residence and work permits were delivered to immigrants after their expiration date.

Furthermore, a strict bureaucratic system for admission to enter the country for work purposes has lead to hundreds of thousand of undeclared immigrant workers. Therefore, in 1997, 2001, 2002, 2005, 2006 successive legalization programs took place in an effort to regularize irregular immigrants. These legalization campaigns provide employers’ amnesty, while immigrant workers are called to pay social security contributions and expensive fees in order to regularize their work and residence status for 1 year.

The migration policy that prolongs the perennial insecurity of the suspended immigrant status, preserves the subaltern and vulnerable position of the immigrants in the labour market. It seems that there is an absence of a specific integration policy on immigration and that there are a rather fragmentary measures and contradictory policies instead. The National Action Plan for Employment still does not include immigrants as a target group. Surveys and researches on integration of immigrants and minorities’ in the labor market show that they receive lower wages and pay higher social security contributions. There are however increasing claims of higher wages backed by the unions of national and local workers. There are also increasing legislative limitations and restrictions in their entrepreneurship, concerning access to certain professions.

Regarding the reception policies, the living conditions in the refugee reception and detention centres, especially in the Aegean Sea islands and the police departments throughout the country still remain unacceptable in many cases and degrading for human dignity, as depicted by a long list of international and national organizations.

The rapidly increasing participation of 2nd generation immigrant children in education is accompanied by an ever larger dropout rate, which remains higher for immigrant children in relation to the total students’ population in primary and secondary education, though it is not to attribute to school performance. Isolated incidents of exclusion and discrimination against them are recorded, especially in relation to national festivities and parades, mainly due to the strongly ethnocentric aspects of Greek education.

The state intercultural education consists of providing language support by specialized teachers and is implemented only in 26 intercultural schools which are operating throughout the country. It serves the needs of the children of over a million of immigrants. Measures for immigrant children in school do not challenge the structural and systemic role of the education system in the Greek society, which is still based on exclusion rather than inclusion and on ethnocentrism rather than multiculturalism.

Irregular immigrants are excluded from the provision of public health, unless and as long they are at immediate risk of life loss, while their appearance in the public hospitals should be signalled to the police. In reality, the medical staff of public hospitals does provide medical services irrespective of the residence status of the patient.

Regular immigrants are holders of similar rights to those of Greek citizens, for a narrow field of social protection, namely provisions for natural disaster victims, and are not eligible for regular disability and subsistence welfare programs, which are connected to Greek citizenship and/or ethnic origin.

There are no provisions in place for granting voting rights in local municipal elections to subjects who are not Greek or EU nationals (third country). Nevertheless, there are isolated exceptions – in some municipalities in rural Greece, the non-voting consultative bodies representative of immigrant residents were created.

The Greek citizenship code does not provide a distinct path to citizenship to third country nationals, neither if they were born, nor if they lived their entire life in the country. Instead, the common procedure is an application after 12 years of legal residence in Greece, supported by expensive fees (1500€), with no deadline or even an obligation of the state to provide an answer. Such requests are frequently not responded to before a decade after the application date.

The Long Term Residence status EC Directive is yet to be fully transposed into the Greek legal order, while the application for such a status is possible only after paying a hefty 900€ fee, and passing an exam following a year-long course of Greek language, history and culture. However, there is a ‘numerus clausus’ for taking part in these courses, to an extent that in the best of cases, no more than 5-10.000 immigrants will be able to apply for LTR status until 2011. This is an extremely low percentage of long term residing immigrants in the country (estimated roughly between half and one million, and on the basis of the 2001 census records on the duration of residence).

There are no diversity management policies in place, neither in public nor in private sector, while no percentage of job posts is reserved to ethnic cultural minorities whatsoever. Believers of religions other than Christian Orthodox are not allowed to abstain from work to exercise their religion. No other religions’ festivities are recognised for employment and leave purposes.

According to available data, there has been a net improvement of the situation concerning the education of Roma and Muslim minority children since the 1990s. However, there are contradictory reports about Roma children enrolment and dropout rates.

A persisting trend is that enrollment of Roma children in ordinary community schools continues to cause tensions, intolerance and violent reactions, in some cases obliging the Roma children to attend special Roma school units, despite the firm commitment of the administration to avoid segregation of minorities in education.

Over the last couple of years (2004-2005) there has been an increase of evictions of Roma dwellings in the areas where major cultural and sport events had taken place or are going to take place in the near future (2004 Olympic Games of Athens, Patras Cultural Capital of Europe 2006, Votanikos area, site of a new Football Stadium). These are inevitably accompanied by tensions, local society intolerance and violent attacks against Roma.

Despite the efforts of the state, the Roma living, health and sanitary conditions in improvised settlements still remain a major social and humanitarian emergency.

In early 2005 the anti-discrimination directives have been transposed into the Greek legal order and a set of equality bodies with complementary mandates has been provided, some of which do not fully conform to the Paris Principles. After 2 years of implementation of the anti-discrimination legislation there are extremely few discrimination cases within the field of the anti-discrimination law, almost all of them handled by the Greek Ombudsman, which seems to be the only fully operative Equality Body in Greece. No official case of racist violence and crime is recorded on the basis of the relevant anti-racist penal legislation (law 927/1979), although violence against immigrants and minorities, in many cases by police officers, is a reality.

Negative stereotypes against minority groups and legitimisation of racial violence have proven difficult to extinguish. A football game between Greece and Albania readily sets off racist tensions that lead to clashes between Greeks and Albanians and even murders of immigrants among the largest immigrant group in Greece. What raises concerns is that the episodes cannot be attributed to a few nationalist and fascist groups, but that they are legitimised through a mainstream anti-Albanian attitude, tolerated or shared by a large proportion of the Greek society.

The problem of police and portual corps violence against immigrants-refugees and minorities is exacerbated by the fact that the internal police audit control and investigations procedures often lead to the offenders’ impunity. Only in a very small and insignificant number of cases has the investigation led to disciplinary measures, while in the absolute majority the complaint cases close as unfounded.

The Olympic policing-racial profiling of Muslims and their surveillance because of anti-terrorist measures has lead to a major incident of mass abduction and interrogation under undefined circumstances by Greek and foreign secret services in summer 2004. This issue has lead to a heated debate in the Parliament and has been under the focus of international media in 2005.

The religion-oriented racism is not usually the case in the Greek society and intolerance towards Muslims or islamophobia incidents have not been detected or reported. The public policies are not terror-fear driven and no particular security measures have been taken towards Muslim religious minority group in Greece.

Notwithstanding the great numbers of immigrants of Muslim religion and the practical absence of racist tensions against them, no official mosque still exists outside of the Western Thrace Region, while a notable number of unofficial mosques operate in Athens informally but without intolerance problems.

The ‘Greek majority priority’ principle, a perception deeply rooted in Greek society, provides the base for discrimination against minority groups and foreigners and constitutes an obstacle for development of the society on the basis of equality and non-discrimination. The hard-to-die negative stereotypes against minority groups legitimize racist violence. These are accompanied by the resolute and contradictory emerging attitudes versus the foreigners (co-existence of positive/negative views).

A major challenge for the future is a decisive role of the representatives of the political spectrum in shielding the public sphere from extreme right-wing xenophobic and racist discourse and practices legitimized in the name of a nationalist patriotism and the preservation of the ‘Greekness’. While public condemnations against such views are frequent and generalized as rhetoric, the main arguments and repertoires of racist discourse permeate a great part of the political class and parties, while media offer ground to xenophobic and racist discourse, encouraging similar opinions and practices.

A number of noteworthy good practices and civil society’s voluntary activities depict a rather robust and dynamic landscape of anti-discrimination action, some having significant impact on the public sphere. Civil society organisations and agencies are conducting a strongly anti-racist and pro-integration activity and a considerable part of substantial good practices concern promotion of multicultural society through high impact cultural activities. A significant number of local initiatives by civil society organizations are focused at intercultural contact and exchanges as well as at provision of specialized support to vulnerable groups, especially immigrant and refugees-asylum seekers, women and minors in major cities such as Athens, Thessaloniki, and Rethymno. After a decade of immigration, Greek cinematography is producing more films with a strong reference to the migration phenomena and the way it shapes Greek modern society, while special cinema tributes are dedicated to migration.

Under the light of public discussion regarding the management of migration it is obvious that some things have changed indeed in terms of dealing with immigrants as subjects entitled to basic rights, while the declarative perspective is their integration into, rather than their exclusion from, the Greek society.

The debate about concession of political rights to immigrants has been initiated, and all parliamentary parties propose full political rights especially to long-term residents and at the local or national elections, except for the right majority party in government.

As the newly elected president of the Hellenic Republic has put it at his first presidential address to the nation for the occasion of national independence anniversary of 25/3/2005, integration of immigrants is one of the main future challenges for Greek democracy: ‘(…) the protection of human rights and personal freedoms without discrimination and smooth integration of immigrants, are serious challenges for modern Greece’.

http://www.i-red.eu/?i=institute.en.publications.38

[Krivan]

Greece: Wave of Racist Attacks on Immigrants in Athens

In the past days, right-wing extremists in Athens, Greece have launched pogrom-like attacks on immigrants in the downtown Athens area. It began on May 10, 2011, one day after a 44-year old escorting his pregnant wife to the hospital was mugged and stabbed to death. There is no evidence as to the identity of the killers, but racist gangs have gone on something like vengeance spree on immigrants -or even foreign-looking Greeks- who they hold generally responsible for rising crime and unemployment in Greece.

A protest against the killing of the expectant father on May 10, in the same location where the mugging happened, drew a crowd of hundreds that eventually led to the attacks.

Dozens of people have been injured in the past days, and there has also been one death, which is still being investigated for motive. There has been a marked increase in incidents of violence against immigrants and asylum-seekers in Greece in recent years, but this degree of openly racist violence in the streets is unprecedented.

Twitter has erupted with reactions from citizens.

Media reports

Media professional @doleross provided live news coverage of the attacks on immigrants following the protest around 18:00 on May 10.

@doleross: Σε “κυνηγητό” κατά μεταναστώνστην 3η Σεπτεμβρίου έχουν επιδοθεί οι συγκεντρωμένοι για την δολοφονία του 44χρονου.Εμφανίστηκαν τα ΜΑΤ #rbnews

@doleross: Demonstrators against killing of 44-year old are on immigrant “manhunt” on September III Street. Riot police appeared.

@doleross: MEGA τώρα: Ακροδεξιοί στην 3η Σεπετεμβρ. δέρνουν και κυνηγούν μέχρι μέσα στα σπίτια τους αλλοδαπούς. Η αστυνομία δεν επεμβαίνει. #rbnews

@doleross: MEGA TV now: Right wing extremists on September III Street, beating and chasing immigrants, even into their homes. Police not intervening.

@doleross: Πληροφορίες αναφέρουν ότι ομάδες “τιμωρών” έχουν βγει κ σε άλλες περιοχές της Αθήνας κ άλλων δήμων, “αναζητώντας” αλλοδαπούς.#rbnews

@doleross: Reports that “vigilante” squads are scouring areas of Athens and other municipalities, “seeking” immigrants.

Greek expats summarized the distressing news. Film producer Yanni Koutsomytis tweeted in English:

@YanniKouts: Racial violence erupts in downtown Athens following killing of a 44-yr Greek man. Ultra-right groups indiscriminately attack immigrants now

Greek new media theorist Nikos Smyrnaios observed in French:

@smykos: Grèce, une société au bord de l'implosion: un homme assassiné sauvagement à Athènes => des extrémistes racistes pourchassent des immigrés.

@smykos: Greece, a society about to implode: a man savagely assassinated in Athens => racist extremists chase immigrants.



Eyewitness reports of attacks on immigrants between 19:00 and 21:00 were sparse, but dramatic:

@nsyll: Κυνηγούν ποιον είναι λίγο μελαψός http://twitpic.com/4vypvc

@nsyll: They're chasing everyone a bit dark http://twitpic.com/4vypvc

@potmos: Σπάνε 1-2 καταστήματα “ξένων” τώρα Αχαρνών

@potmos:They're smashing 1-2 shops of “foreigners” now, in Acharnon Street

@bezesteni: Καμμια 50ρια φασίστες και περίεργοι μεσήλικες Ηπείρου και Γ´ Σεπτεμβρίου. Αρκετοί νεαροί με μαυροκόκκινα στην Αχαρνών και τα γύρω στενά.

@bezesteni: About 50 fascists and middle-aged onlookers, Ipirou and September III Street. Several youths wearing red and black in Acharnon Street and adjacent alleys

@zairacat: damage control: μαθαίνω ότι υπάρχουν πολλοί μετανάστες χτυπημένοι στα εφημερεύοντα νοσοκομεία.

@zairacat: damage control: have been told many beaten immigrants admitted to hospitals on call.

The wave of racist attacks in Athens continued the following days, with one killing of an immigrant man possibly linked to racial motives [el], arson attacks [el] and a second anti-migrant pogrom following a protest [el].

Reactions on Twitter

Sharply divided, the Greek twittersphere reacted to the news of he lethal mugging and the racist violence that followed with a mixture of outrage, apprehension and resignation.

The media were also blamed by many for inflaming racial hatred.

@doleross: Λάδι στην φωτιά ρίχνουν ανεύθυνα δημοσιεύματα από “ενηνερωτικά” πορταλς με τίτλους όπως: «Φόβοι για νέα “Δεκεμβριανά”» #rbnews

@doleross: Irresponsible articles by “news” portals fanning the flames, with titles like “Fears of new ‘December riots'”

@radicalalchemist: ΣΚΑΙ: “Απο τις κάμερες φαίνεται οτι είναι μαροκινής ή αλγερινής καταγωγής” Κάμερες που κάνουν και ταυτοποίηση στοιχείων φαντάζομαι έ?

@radicalalchemist: SKAI (TV channel): “CCTV footage shows assailants are Moroccans or Algerians” Cameras identifying people now?

@Cyberela: Θα το ρίξουν στο μεταναστευτικό κύμα των λαών της Νότιας Αφρικής και της Μέσης Ανατολής.

@Cyberela: They'll now blame it on the migration wave from Middle East and North Africa

A distressing allegation was made by Constantinos Alexacos:

@constantnos: Εδώ και μήνες υπάρχουν blogs φερόμενων αστυνομικών και ακροδεξιών που λένε ότι θα κάνουνε πολιτοφυλακή. Ουδείς ίδρωσε…

@constantnos: Alleged police and right-wing blogs have been warning for months about setting up militias. No one cared…

Some Twitter users pointed out core issues engendering violence in the city center. The demographics of entire housing blocks have changed, as right-wing groups have mounted more anti-immigrant campaigns.

@Anastasialadiab: Πόσο ανόητοι όσοι πιστεύουν ότι για την εξαθλίωση του κέντρουτης Αθήνας φταίνε οι μετανάστες κ όχι αυτοί που έδιωξαν τους Μόνιμους Κατοικους

@Anastasialadiab: How foolish are those who believe that immigrants are to blame for the degradation of Athens downtown, and not those who drove away the permanent residents.

And urged authorities to react to the growing humanitarian crisis facing Athens:

@mao_tse_tung: η τραγικότητα του σημερινού εγκλήματος μπορεί να γίνει εξαιρετική αφορμή για ν αρχίσει η προσπάθεια να αλλάξει η κατάσταση. Δήμαρχε ξύπνα!

@mao_tse_tung: today's tragic crime can provide excellent motivation in an attempt to change things. Wake up, Mayor!
While others mused on the self-perpetuating nature of violence:

@nsyll: όταν απαντάς στην βία με βία σίγουρα έχεις χάσεις κάθε δικαίωμα να ζητάς ανθρωπιά

@nsyll: when you answer violence with violence, you've surely lost all rights of recourse to humanity

As interest on Twitter abruptly moved on to other things for the night, like the popular Eurovision song contest, Helena Chari offered a damning deadpan:

@helena_chari: ελλαδα: ουτε euro, ουτε vision, μονο eurovision

@helena_chari: Greece: no euro, no vision, just Eurovision

http://globalvoicesonline.org/2011/05/13/greece-wave-of-racist-attacks-on-immigrants-in-athens/

[Krivan]

Albania, Macedonia Protest Greek Racist Chants

Macedonia and Albania protested against the racist chants heard during the Greek military parade in Athens marking Greece's independence day, while the Greek ambassadors to Skopje and Tirana have apologised for the incident. Protests were also seen in the Kosovo town of Gjilan.

Albanians protested in front of the Greek embassy in Tirana and a small protest was held in front of the national theatre in Gjilan, Kosovo. Meanwhile, Macedonia’s Foreign Ministry summoned the Greek ambassador to Skopje, Alexandra Papadopoulou, for talks on Monday.

After meeting with Macedonian Deputy Foreign Minister Zoran Petrov, the Greek ambassador told reporters that the nationalistic and racist chants heard at the parade did not represent the Greek people.

“This is an isolated incident and should not be blown out of proportion. It should be condemned and it is being condemned. This doesn't represent the people of Greece, its position and mentality,” Papadopoulou told reporters after the meeting.

Yesterday Macedonian government spokesperson Martin Martinovski told media: “The Macedonian Government does not wish to comment on the latest provocations from Greece but we condemn all forms of hate speech, which do not contribute to the building of good neighbourly relations.”

Reacting to the footage, Albanian Foreign Minister Ilir Meta called on the Greek government to take serious steps in punishing those responsible for the “scandalous” incident.

“I believe that the Greek authorities should take severe measures against those responsible for this scandalous incident, which challenges the friendship and the constructive climate of the relationship between the two countries,” said Meta in a statement.

The protests in Albania came after video footage taken on Thursday in Athens at the military parade appeared on the internet, showing soldiers of the Greek army shouting racist slogans against Greece’s neighbours: Albanians and Macedonians.

“They are Skopians, they are Albanians, we will make new clothes out of their skins,” and “You do not become a Greek, you are born one,” and “We’re going to spill your blood, Albanian pig” were some of the chants that could be heard from the footage.

Several protests were held on Saturday in Albania following the publication of the video. A group of organisations, led by the civic movement Mjaft, rallied in front of the Greek embassy in Tirana, calling Greece the “shame of the EU”.

“In light of the severity of this incident, we cannot and should not be happy with just the selective firing of one of the soldiers involved or the occasional ambassador’s comment,” Mjaft said in a statement.

Greek media reported that the officers who were shouting the racist slogans were part of the Greek coast guard special forces unit. The head of the unit has been suspended and the army has launched an investigation to determine exactly who was involved in the incident.

“No idiot has the right to blacken his service and the celebration of a historic national day with racist slogans of hatred and xenophobia,” Greek Civil Protection Minister Michalis Chrysochoidis was cited by Khatimerini daily as saying.

Greece has a large Albanian community living and working within its borders. Although bilateral political relations are good, the issue of Greece's reluctance to recognise the expulsion of the Albanian Cham minority from Greece at the end of World War Two is still open.

As for Greece's relations with Macedonia, the two countries are locked in a nearly two decade long “name” spat. Athens insists that Skopje’s official name, Republic of Macedonia, indicates territorial claims against its own northern province, which is also called Macedonia. Athens also claims that an exodus of ethnic Macedonians from its territory during the Greek Civil War never happened.

Athens has blocked Skopje from entering NATO and EU pending a solution to the "name" row.

http://www.balkaninsight.com/en/article/albania-macedonia-protest-greek-racist-chants

[Krivan]

Greece at european court of human rights

European Court of Human Rights adopted a resolution recalling the conviction of Greek authorities on the ground that they didn’t take any measure against Florine people who attacked Rainbow Party in 1995 which introduces itself as “the Macedonian minority” in Greece and on the ground that they took no notice of the events. The court said that they must be convicted since they did not take the necessary measures even though two days before the attacks a demonstration took place in the city. According to the resolution, the security forces violated right to assemble and form associations. The members of Rainbow Party, Pavlos Voskopoulos and Petros Vassilliadhis had applied to the court. Furthermore the Court has required the Greek state to pay the plaintiffs 60 thousands Euro in compensation for moral harm and material damages.

There is a community in North of Greece which introduces itself as having Macedonian origin and argues that they have different ethnic origin and they form a different minority.

However the Greek state has denied the Macedonia and Macedonians. It tried to assimilate them and erase them on its land. It produced policies which aim to destroy Macedonian nationalism, patriotism and all signs of its cultural values. After 1980s it can be heard in Greece expression “Macedonia is Greek” and “Macedonia has been Greek for 4000 years”. However, in the point of history and races they never go beyond baseless allegations. During the period when the Greek rebellion movements sprouted and blossomed, leading circles did not mention Macedonia in any way or at least in precisely, and they did not demonstrate any manner to seize the area. In ‘the 4th Greek National Assembly’ which conveyed in 1826, the representatives of Olympus from Macedonia were not accepted. These representatives were accepted as “Christian nations’ representatives” in ‘the 5th Greek National Assembly’ which conveyed in 1832. Geographer Athanasios Psalidas doesn’t show Macedonia in ‘the nation border’. According to him, the era was well-known by King Philip and Alexander the great; however “it is an era where the population is overwhelmingly Bulgarian and Turks with few Greeks and the Ulahs."

One of the first governors of Greece took Olympus Mount and Metsove line for east and west as base point while he discussed the fist Greek state’s borders with European diplomats. The line has separated Greece from its northern neighbors. Even though Tasalia bears Greek characteristics, Macedonia has been conquered by Slavians and other races. It is known that the decree issued by George, king of Greece, said that “the Macedonian lands which are invaded by Greek military, and there is no expression like “set free” or “regained” lands.

Between 1912-13 and 1988, Macedonia of Aegean is officially called North Greece and “the North Greece Ministry was founded for the area, all these shows that Greece itself hasn’t mentioned this area as “Macedonia” for 75 years. Indeed Macedonia of Aegean was called “Northern Greece” until 1988 and after then it began to be called “Macedonia” Macedonia-Thrace” with a code of law. These lands have been called Macedonia for at least 1500 years by the Slavic and Macedonian residents as well as by the Albanian and the Ulahs peoples. On the other hand, not only the Hellenism of Macedonia but the Greece’s historical continuity which is taken back to 4000 years ago is imagination of Greek education policy and its historical perceptions.

These policies are being carried out by forced deportations, so called voluntary population exchanges, colorizations, social and economical discriminations, deprivations of citizenships, education systems and by taking under control all political and intellectual activities.

On the other hand, Greece which has been looking after “Macedonian Alexander the great” did not recognize the new Macedonian republic’s name which was founded after disintegration of Yugoslavia, its constitution and flag with Vergina sun with sixteen rays on red ground. As a result of imposing embargo, Greece achieved amendment some clauses of the constitution as well as change of the flag. The Greek state has not recognized the name of Macedonia yet.

All these pressures paved a way for all Aegean Macedonians inside and outside of Greece to set up associations to save their national entity and to keep it alive. On the other hand, it is not overlooked the rights violations by Greece, which has the sign under a lot of important international charters regarding human rights, against its minorities. It has clearly spread out these practices in many reports. In the human right reports issued by USA in every year, Greece criticized for the policies against Macedonian and Turkish minorities. Likewise it can be found similar criticism in the reports belonging to Amnesty International, Helsinki Watch and other international associations
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The Council of Europe, Commission against racism and intolerance(ECRI) in its 3rd report adopted in 5 December 2003 regarding Greece call up on it to combat racism against religious and ethnic minorities more. ECRI said that the Muslim minority which is of Albanian, Macedonian and Turks living in Greece had been exposed to ill treatment and racist practices. Also ESRI said that it declared to Greece what it had to do in on advising report in 2002 however Greek authorities turned off most of it. ECRI highlighted that a Macedonian association appealed European Human Rights Court on the ground that there is no graveyard for residents outside of Western Tracie in Greece to be buried according their customs and violation of their rights. ERCI said the court found this claim rightful but Greece had not given their rights back since 10 June 1998.

It is possible to see in all human rights associations’ annual reports the praxis of Greece administration which disregards human rights regarding Macedonians. it is the time for Greece, which is European Union member, to give up seeing all minorities as a danger and treat them at least in accordance with rights of citizenship.

http://www.diplomaticobserver.com/EN/belge/2-816/greece-at-european-court-of-human-rights.html

[The LION will ROAR]

Metropolitan Anthimos Tells Greeks: Don’t Watch Turkish TV Series

http://greece.greekreporter.com/2012/08/21/metropolitan-anthimos-tells-greeks-dont-watch-turkish-shows/

The Metropolitan of Thessaloniki Anthimos has criticized Turkish TV series he said have “invaded” Greek lives and said the owners of Greek stations should not show them. During the Sunday church service, he advised against watching them, even though they are cheaper than producing original series in Greece.

“They (the series) insult and challenge our national consciousness … turn off your TVs. I, myself, turn off the TV every time I stumble upon such series,” Anthimos told the churchgoers. Giving a speech on forgiveness, the Metropolitan wondered if TV directors could ever be forgiven for broadcasting Turkish series.

“We are not against art. If our neighbors change their stance and stop what they’ve been doing with the Ecumenical Patriarchate, we will redefine our stance,” Anthimos explained. Nikolaos Michaloliakos, leader of the far-right Golden Dawn party had also advised his voters to abstain from Turkish TV series as a sign of national pride