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The Educative and Cultural Movement of Edessa
Non-profit Cultural Organization of Macedonians in Greece
Zafiraki 16, 582 00 Edessa,
Central Macedonia, Greece
May 19, 2011
The Right Honorable, Stephen Harper, P.C., M.P.
Office of the Prime Minister
80 Wellington Street
Ottawa, ON K1A 0A2
Dear Prime Minister,
We, the Macedonian citizens of the Hellenic Republic, would like to sincerely congratulate you on your victory in the parliamentary elections, which took place on May 2, 2011. The Macedonian Canadian community in Canada is very proud to have such an experienced and effective leader. Our Canadian Macedonian cousins in Canada are blessed to live in your country, where multiculturalism is part of the fabric of Canadian values. Regrettably, that is not the case in the Hellenic Republic, where multiculturalism does not exist, and xenophobia much more common.
It has been brought to our attention that Your Excellency will be paying a two-day visit to Athens on May 28-29. We, the Macedonians in the province of Macedonia, in the Northern part of the Hellenic Republic, still do not have our basic Human Rights in the 21st century. We have been denied any rights to self-identification as Macedonians, and the world is finally starting to take notice. We plead for the government of Canada to take notice as well.
For instance, please see the United Nations report of the independent expert on minority issues, Gay McDougall, Mission to Greece 8-16 September 2008: http://www.unhcr.org/cgi-bin/texis/v...ocid=49b7b1052
In it, Ms. McDougall confirms:
“...Greece recognizes only one minority, the Muslim religious minority in Western Thrace,
which is protected by the terms of the Treaty of Lausanne of 1923. Greece does not recognize
the minority status of other communities...
...(but) minorities are constituent groups of Greek society, not a foreign element. The independent expert urges the Government of Greece to withdraw from the dispute over whether there is a Macedonian or a Turkish minority in Greece and focus on protecting the rights to self-identification, freedom of expression and freedom of association of those communities. Their rights to minority protections must be honoured, in accordance with the Declaration on Minorities, and the core international human rights treaties...
...Greece should comply fully with the judgements of the European Court of Human Rights, specifically those decisions that associations should be allowed to use the words “Macedonian” and “Turkish” in their names and to express their ethnic identities freely...”
Another continuing problem involves citizens of the Republic of Macedonia and other states; the very difficult situation of the Macedonian “Detsa Begaltsi” Children Refugees of the Greek Civil War in 1946-1948. It is estimated that 28,000 – 32,000 children were evacuated during the Greek Civil War, and subsequently had their Greek citizenship illegally revoked by the dictatorship regime at that time, because of the non-Greek ethnic identity of their families. Even today, in 2011, these now elderly people are still being “punished” by the Greek state authorities, and some of them are citizens of Canada and other western democracies.
For 60 years, it was forbidden for them to enter Greece and visit their birth places and relatives. Recently, the EU visa regulations have changed, but the Greek government is still delaying all the bureaucratic procedures in issuing the documents needed for these people to get their greek citizenship back, as per the new greek law on citizenship, changed last year in March.
For example, applications for birth certificates are made, but are ignored by state authorities. Two months ago, I sent latest such application, and it is still in some office in the Ministry of Interior in Athens. This is a document that normally takes a maximum of one day to get for any Greek citizen.
After my request for information by phone, I was told that the application was sent to the State Security Service office, as this is the regular practice followed for any citizen from the Republic of Macedonia who applies for documents in Greece.
Despite membership in the EU and NATO, the racist policies against Macedonians are alive and well in Greece. The Deca Begalci are elderly people who suffered the misery of war, expatriation, separation from their parents and family, and most of them spend long and difficult years in orphanage houses in the countries of Eastern Europe.
I thank you for your time to read my letter and any help you may offer to this cause it will be highly appreciated by all Macedonians and all the righteous people in every country.
It is my strong belief that we have to close the circle of past state injustice by some kind of remedy, where it is possible, for the victims, so that we may hope for a future of peace, friendship and prosperity among Balkan States and especially between Greece and Macedonia.
Sincerely Yours,
Ms. Eugenia Natsoulidou
The Educative and Cultural Movement of Edessa
CC. the Canadian Ambassador in Athens.
Non-profit Cultural Organization of Macedonians in Greece
Zafiraki 16, 582 00 Edessa,
Central Macedonia, Greece
May 19, 2011
The Right Honorable, Stephen Harper, P.C., M.P.
Office of the Prime Minister
80 Wellington Street
Ottawa, ON K1A 0A2
Dear Prime Minister,
We, the Macedonian citizens of the Hellenic Republic, would like to sincerely congratulate you on your victory in the parliamentary elections, which took place on May 2, 2011. The Macedonian Canadian community in Canada is very proud to have such an experienced and effective leader. Our Canadian Macedonian cousins in Canada are blessed to live in your country, where multiculturalism is part of the fabric of Canadian values. Regrettably, that is not the case in the Hellenic Republic, where multiculturalism does not exist, and xenophobia much more common.
It has been brought to our attention that Your Excellency will be paying a two-day visit to Athens on May 28-29. We, the Macedonians in the province of Macedonia, in the Northern part of the Hellenic Republic, still do not have our basic Human Rights in the 21st century. We have been denied any rights to self-identification as Macedonians, and the world is finally starting to take notice. We plead for the government of Canada to take notice as well.
For instance, please see the United Nations report of the independent expert on minority issues, Gay McDougall, Mission to Greece 8-16 September 2008: http://www.unhcr.org/cgi-bin/texis/v...ocid=49b7b1052
In it, Ms. McDougall confirms:
“...Greece recognizes only one minority, the Muslim religious minority in Western Thrace,
which is protected by the terms of the Treaty of Lausanne of 1923. Greece does not recognize
the minority status of other communities...
...(but) minorities are constituent groups of Greek society, not a foreign element. The independent expert urges the Government of Greece to withdraw from the dispute over whether there is a Macedonian or a Turkish minority in Greece and focus on protecting the rights to self-identification, freedom of expression and freedom of association of those communities. Their rights to minority protections must be honoured, in accordance with the Declaration on Minorities, and the core international human rights treaties...
...Greece should comply fully with the judgements of the European Court of Human Rights, specifically those decisions that associations should be allowed to use the words “Macedonian” and “Turkish” in their names and to express their ethnic identities freely...”
Another continuing problem involves citizens of the Republic of Macedonia and other states; the very difficult situation of the Macedonian “Detsa Begaltsi” Children Refugees of the Greek Civil War in 1946-1948. It is estimated that 28,000 – 32,000 children were evacuated during the Greek Civil War, and subsequently had their Greek citizenship illegally revoked by the dictatorship regime at that time, because of the non-Greek ethnic identity of their families. Even today, in 2011, these now elderly people are still being “punished” by the Greek state authorities, and some of them are citizens of Canada and other western democracies.
For 60 years, it was forbidden for them to enter Greece and visit their birth places and relatives. Recently, the EU visa regulations have changed, but the Greek government is still delaying all the bureaucratic procedures in issuing the documents needed for these people to get their greek citizenship back, as per the new greek law on citizenship, changed last year in March.
For example, applications for birth certificates are made, but are ignored by state authorities. Two months ago, I sent latest such application, and it is still in some office in the Ministry of Interior in Athens. This is a document that normally takes a maximum of one day to get for any Greek citizen.
After my request for information by phone, I was told that the application was sent to the State Security Service office, as this is the regular practice followed for any citizen from the Republic of Macedonia who applies for documents in Greece.
Despite membership in the EU and NATO, the racist policies against Macedonians are alive and well in Greece. The Deca Begalci are elderly people who suffered the misery of war, expatriation, separation from their parents and family, and most of them spend long and difficult years in orphanage houses in the countries of Eastern Europe.
I thank you for your time to read my letter and any help you may offer to this cause it will be highly appreciated by all Macedonians and all the righteous people in every country.
It is my strong belief that we have to close the circle of past state injustice by some kind of remedy, where it is possible, for the victims, so that we may hope for a future of peace, friendship and prosperity among Balkan States and especially between Greece and Macedonia.
Sincerely Yours,
Ms. Eugenia Natsoulidou
The Educative and Cultural Movement of Edessa
CC. the Canadian Ambassador in Athens.
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