Greek Ministry Refuses to Meet Macedonian Minority
at Linguistic
Diversity Meeting
November 9, 2005
Source: www.Eurolang.net
Florina - Lerin, by Georgios N.
Papadakis
The Macedonian minority organization Vinozhito/Rainbow and
its representatives have been officially excluded by the
Greek Ministry of Education from a meeting on linguistic diversity
issues in Greece.
Special Secretary on Intercultural Education at the Ministry, Mrs Ismini
Kriari-Catranis, was supposed to meet tomorrow morning with Mr. Romedi
Arquint the President of the NGO the Federal Union of European Nationalities
(FUEN) and a FUEN delegation, at the request of the NGO. Rainbow is
the only full member of FUEN in Greece and the presence of its representative
at the meeting was expected.
Unfortunately, when FUEN informed the Ministry about the members of
its delegation, Mrs. Kriari- Catranis officially replied that the Greek
Ministry of Education had agreed on a meeting with Mr. Arquint, but
only under the precondition of Rainbow's absence.
"At no point did the Ministry accept the participation of Rainbow
representatives to the said meeting..." , states Mrs Kriari-Catranis
in the letter.
Furthermore, the Special Secretary writes that "...we consider
Rainbow to be neither a relevant participant or a valid interlocutor
to a discussion regarding linguistic diversity in Greece..."
Since the letter was sent to FUEN just two days before the visit to
Athens, Mr. Arquint will now meet with the Special Secretary of the
Ministry, but without FUEN's local representation.
Vinozhito/Rainbow is a fully legal and officially recognized organization
in Greece and member of the European Free Alliance Party (EFA). It has
stressed on many occasions the need for recognition of the Macedonian
language in the country, its substantive introduction into the education
system, the establishment of an university chair dedicated to the Macedonian
language, and the recognition of cultural organizations, such as the "Home
of Macedonian Culture/Dom na Makedonskata Kultura".
According to Rainbow, this attitude is yet another example of the ongoing
efforts of the Greek State not to legitimize any form of direct dialogue
with members of the Macedonian minority.
Greece officially recognizes only one minority language in its territory,
Turkish, and so far does not recognise any others.
The Greek Member State Committee of EBLUL represents speakers from
the six minority languages spoken in the country: Turkish, Macedonian,
Vlach/Aromanian, Arvanite, Pomak and Romani. However, its appeals for
dialogue and cooperation with the Greek authorities on the issue of
linguistic diversity have so far been left unanswered. (Eurolang (c)
2005)
Related links
www.ypepth.gr (Greek Ministry of
Education)
www.fuen.org (FUEN)
www.florina.org (Vinozhito/Rainbow)
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