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ΕFA-Rainbow supports the right of the Catalan people to decide on their future and joins the EFA campaign "Catalonia decides"

Catalonia decides


MAKEDONSKI.ORG

makedonski.org


INTERNET RADIO

Radio Macedonian Culture


A selection of Macedonian blogs in Greece


Abecedar
Aegean Macedonian Culture
Antimakedonismos
Mladini-Makedonci


Anti-macedonian policy during the elections for the European Parliament against Rainbow by the Greek state and the Greek mass media


A scandal by the Parliamentary committee

Greek TV stations sabotage EFA-Raibow

Ultra-nationalists want "borders with Serbia"!

"Hellenic Post" sabbotages EFA-Rainbow Campaign

Typical example of censorship of Rainbow

Attack of the Greek Neo-nazi party




A Greek - Macedonian dictionary by Vasko Karatza printed with the support of EFA - Rainbow
 Greek   Macedonian


D. Lithoxoou

lithoksou.net/home.html
"Extracts of Letters"




Τι έλεγε κάποτε το ΚΚΕ για τους Μακεδόνες


Denying Ethnic Identity:
The Macedonians of Greece, by Human Rights Watch


Linguistics and politics II:
Macedonian Language


Greece's stance towards
its Macedonian minority
and the neighbouring
Republic of Macedonia.


Lawed Arguments
and Omitted Truths


R. Nikovski: Memorandum to the European Parliament
Facts behind the Greek politics towards Macedonia

English  Macedonian


"Proposed disciplinary measures to stamp out the Macedonian minority in Greece by the National Security Service"


Center Maurits Coppieters
European Free Alliance
Federal Union of European Nationalities
Greek Helsinki Monitor
Greek Anti–Nationalistic Movement
Macedonian Human Rights Movement International
Macedonian Human Rights of Australia
OMO Ilinden - PIRIN
MakNews.com
The European Union Agency for Fundamental Rights


Macedonian Forum for politics and history
 

Source: Greek Helsinki Monitor
Minority Language Activist, Bletsas
Found Not Guilty in Historic Court Decision

by Johan Haggman

"I'm of course very happy and relieved" Aroumanian language activist Sotiris Bletsas told Eurolang after the verdict. Domenico Morelli, representing the European Bureau for Lesser Used Languages in the Bletsas case, says that this is a great victory for minority languages in Greece. "A Greek court has recognised for the first time that these minority languages are spoken in Greece" Morelli tells Eurolang.

Last winter the Greek minority language activist Sotiris Bletsas was wrongly charged for spreading "false information on minority languages in Greece". Bletsas had been handing out brochures published by the European Bureau for Lesser Used Languages in Brussels.

He was also accused of causing disorder in the small greek town Nausa by claiming that the minority languages Aroumanian, Pomak, Slav-Macedonian, Albanian and Turkish (all recognised by the European Bureau for Lesser Used Languages) were spoken in Greece.

He received a 15 months suspended jail sentence by a court in Athens on the 2nd of February this year. Today justice was done as the Court of Appeal in Athens found Sotiris Bletsas not guilty on all charges.

Bletsas tells Eurolang that "I was especially pleased to here the District Attorney say that I had to be acquitted because these languages are spoken in Greece and they do not cause any harm or problem".

Bojan Brezigar, the president of the European Bureau for Lesser Used Languages (EBLUL), states that "We are extremely delighted to here that Mr Bletsas has been acquitted".

Brezigar extended his gratitude and expressed his acknowledgement of the excellent work done by Bletsas' lawyers, by the chairman of the Greek Helsinki Monitor Panayote Dimitras and by the president of the Italian Member State Committee Domenico Morelli.

Morelli expressed his satisfaction with the large media coverage the case had received and the huge support and backing they got from several Greek politicians and MPs.

In his defense of Sotiris Bletsas, Morelli referred to the Kililea report by the European Parliament and the Euromosaic study.

"A problem is that some Greeks do not distinguish between cultural and national issues" Morelli adds.

Both Brezigar and Morelli stress that there is now real hope for an EBLUL representation in Greece as well.

It is needless to say that Bletsas' mother tongue is Aroumanian or Vlach, a language spoken by approximately 40 000 persons in his region in northern Greece. He promises to keep on fighting for the rights of Aroumanians and other linguistic minorities in Greece in the future.

"It would be a real shame if I wouldn't, I owe it to my language and my community".

Bletsas has devoted most of his life to the promotion and the protection of the lesser used languages in Greece. He tells a story how he was brought up in Aroumanian and how he suffered as a child for not speaking Greek fluently.

"I failed the first year in elementary school and had to do it all over again because I couldn't express myself in Greek" Bletsas says.

Bletsas concludes saying that this was a victory for the Aroumanian community. "We're strong, we've built many of the important buildings in this country, including the court house where I was sentenced in February" he adds jokingly.

 

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Click here
to read the Abecedar!

Promotion of the
Macedonian Language
Primer at the OSCE HDIM

English Greek Macedonian

Greek irredentism and expansionism officially sanctioned by the Greek Parliament
English Greek Macedonian

Letter to Carla del Ponte,
Chief Prosecutor for the UN International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia

English Greek Macedonian

The Yugoslavian Crisis
English Greek Macedonian

Document of the Ministry
of Foreign Affairs

Related to the article - The obvious linguistic particularity - Eletherotypia, 18/11/2006

English   Greek

The ten Greek myths
on the “Macedonian issue”

By IOS team – Eletherotypia, 23/10/2005

Who says there are no
minority languages in Greece?

The "secret" census
in north Greece, in 1920

Map showing the Cultures and Languages in the E.U.

Council of Europe
Framework convention for the Protection of national minorities


English

Greek

Macedonian

Συνέντευξη: Ευάγγελος Κωφός, Έλληνας ιστορικός
Δημοκρατία της Μακεδονίας - Σκόπια είναι όνομα που εκφράζει την ταυτότητά σας

Greek   Macedonian

Ο Παύλος Φιλίποβ Βοσκόπουλος απαντά στον Ευάγγελο Κωφό.
«Το Μακεδονικό ζήτημα είναι η αχίλλειος πτέρνα του ελληνικού μύθου».

Greek   Macedonian
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