POLITICAL PARTY OF THE MACEDONIAN MINORITY IN GREECE
Member of the European Free Alliance - European Political Party (EFA-EPP)
Member of the Federal Union of European Nationalities (FUEN)

Stefanou Dragoumi 11 Τ.Κ. 53100 Τ.Θ. 51 Greece; Tel/fax 0030 23850 46548
website: www.florina.org; e-mail: rainbow@florina.org

Press Release

Florina/Lerin - April 18, 2008

The logic of even-odd it is ours

The report distributed by several MEPs, representatives of the Greek Political Party Nea Demokratia, had the objective to condemn the panel discussion about the non-existing national minorities in Greece that took place on April 17 in the European Parliament. In our opinion, the authors of this report emphasize certain points that ought to be commented.

1. According to the report, “measurements for the protection of the human rights of the minorities granted by International and European Law as well as by various International Conventions” are being enforced in Greece. Explaining further what they mean by this, the MEPs from Nea Demokratia, refer to the 1923 Treaty of Lausanne and what this treaty provides for the Muslim minority in Thrace. In relation to the rights of the national minorities in Greece in 2008, country member of the EU, the reference to the Treaty of Lausanne can be seen as inappropriate, because it relates to the history of the European Law and the International Conventions rather than the present reality.
If Greece wants to Europeanize and cease being the factor of instability in the region it should ratify, without any explanatory statements, the Council of Europe's Framework Convention for the Protection of National Minorities, signed by the country in 1997. It should also sign the Council of Europe's European Charter for Minority Languages;

2. In the report we read: “Taking into consideration the national composition of the Muslim minority in Thrace (Turks, Pomacs and Roma), the Greek State guarantees” etc. By attempting to deny the Turkish national consciousness of the Muslim minority, the Greek MEPs created (lets assume that it happened out of negligence) two more national communities: Pomacs and Roma.

3. The report talks about the “Greek language spoken in the south of FYROM”. Lately the Greek media has started presenting more often information about the existence of a Greek minority in the Republic of Macedonia. Therefore, we challenge publicly all those people who advocate such theories to name at least one settlement or at least one neighborhood outside the Greek borders, where the inhabitants speak Greek. In order to get over with the myths and intrigues of the Greek nationalism, we will require additionally that they show us at least one village in the north of Kostur, where the Greek was the mother tongue of the inhabitants in the period 1912-1913, when Greece annexed the territories of Ottoman Macedonia.

4. In order to diminish the political power of Rainbow, which “declares to represent the Macedonian minority in Greece”, the MEPs from Nea Demokratia announce that the last time this party participated in the elections it won only 1.139 votes. The truth is that Rainbow, as part of the Macedonian minority that lives in Greece, due to the measurements of electronic and printed isolation and ideological terrorism, won 6.176 votes in the last European Parliament elections.

At the end we would like to say that the Greek citizens, in particular those who represent the country in Western Europe, should be more careful with the words they use. The logic of “even-odd they are ours” may return as a boomerang. If the Greek arguments about the 1500 Greeks of Constantinople are distorted because of their extremely small number (only a fraction compared to the voters of Rainbow) and the Treaty of Lausanne, they will be characterized as “bilingual Christians of the Patriarchate in Istanbul.”

The Press Office
EFA-Rainbbow

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