Press release

Florina / Lerin 19.10.07

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Stories of nationalistic madness in the "bazaar" in Florina

On Wednesday 17 October 2007, a mother and son, both dual-citizens (Greek and Australian) with origins from the Macedonian village Itea/Vrbeni of Florina/Lerin Prefecture were shopping in the local bazaar of the town of Florina/Lerin in the company of two relatives.

The whole time, the mother and son were speaking in Macedonian, the only language in addition to English which they spoke. They also spoke in Macedonian, their mother tongue, with their relatives.

However they encountered some "bad luck" as they caught the attention of a plain clothed public security officer. He followed them for more than half an hour before finally approaching them and asked for their identification documents. The reason he gave for the spontaneous check was that mother and son did not speak Greek.so they were foreigners.and thus seemed "suspicious"!!!

He said to them that he had to take them to the Police station to check their records as they did not possess any passport or any document to prove their identity. He was also quite insistent, continuously asking why they did not speak Greek.

However with their relatives, the intervention.the case was closed there. The relatives told the security officer that is not compulsory for them to speak Greek!!!

They also told him that they did not carry their passports because they were afraid of loosing them. When they asked the security officer why the checking was done exclusively to them, he responded by saying that they were looking for something.

The security officer did not show his ID.

After a while, a second man arrived.and after the insistently asking from the relative's part about who they were, he showed his ID.

Mother and son did not want to give any follow up on this incident fearing that there may be "another" problem as they were leaving to return to Australia in a few days time.

The "problem" that could occur, could be the negation of entry in Greece the next time they will visit. Besides the Macedonian political refugee of the Civil War, many ethnic Macedonians economic emigrants (mostly in Australia and Canada) are also put on a "List of Unwanted" (persona non grata) by the Greek Authorities. Parallel to this action their Greek nationality is withdrawn because in the places where they live (Australia, Canada, etc.), they express their Macedonian ethnic identity.

After this episode, we wonder if our Prefecture is under a "special status" because according to the information we have, In a Prefecture of 50.000 inhabitants, there are 562 uniformed and un-uniformed policemen, possibly to impose "order" and to ensure conformity with the "national ideals".

This happening today, in the 21st century, in Greece.

The Press Office.

Document of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs
Related to the article - The obvious linguistic particularity (Eletherotypia, 18/11/06)