Nov. '98 OSCE Conference - Report by the Rainbow Party
Nov. '98 OSCE Conference - Report by the Rainbow Party
Nov. '98 OSCE Conference - Report on Greece
Mr. Moderator, Ladies and Gentleman,
I am not happy today because I will accuse my country, but I believe as citizen of Greece and as European citizen that this will be helpful for the further democratization of my country.
The existence of national minorities is not recognized in the Republic of Greece. The Turkish minority is recognized only as religious minority, while the Macedonning activities in connection with the manifestation and protection of the national cultural identity.
The State allows, sometimes even encourages the mass media, the Church authorities and the para-state institutions to be against the members of the national minorities (the Turkish and the Macedonian) in order to terrorize and politically discredit them.
In addition to the aforementioned measures, ethnic cleansing of the Macedonian minority is done in perfidies manner, by taking away the citizenship , the abolition of all aforementioned measures by which discrimination is done, and the stopping of all court prosecutions. We demand the introduction of measures whereby the consequences of the executed policy against the national minorities be removed, in accordance with the international norms and the European Framework Convection for the Rights of National Minorities.
We are usually talking about the policy of the States against minorities but we are not talking very often about the policy of the national minorities.
Our organization believes that the policy of the national minorities in the Balkan countries should be such that it should dispose of the fear by the population in the countries they live in, from wishing or thinking of the gradual change of the existing borders, disguised under the pretext of demanding national minority rights.
National minorities in the countries where they live, should not be subjected to manipulation and interstate antagonism and to become a reason for meddling b" hspace=5>Macedonian TV Crew Denied Visas
The Rainbow Party Has Been Acquitted
Written Presentation of the speech of Mr. Voskopoulos Pavlos member of the Organy one state into the affairs of another. They should cooperate and deepen the ties with constituent nation and with all nationalities that live in the state. In this way they will become a powerful factor of peace, cooperation and friendship in the Balkans and Europe.
National minorities in Balkan states should make use of the positive examples from the European experience for gradual union of all European countries with respect for the minority rights and overcoming the national prejudices and antagonisian national minority is not recognized as an existing entity. Although national minorities are not recognized, their members are persecuted on national minority basis.
A policy of brutal assimilation of the Macedonian ethnic minority is under way by legislative measures and court prosecutions. The public use of the Macedonian language and alphabet is proxibited, as well as their use in the educational system.
Court prosecutions are undertaken against the members of the two national minorities, concerin a way provided for by the article 20 of the Law on Citizenship of the Republic of Greece.
Selective immigration is done in the regions of Western Thrace and Macedonia were the Turkish and Macedonian minority lives in order to create a new wave of hate and towards the national minorities and the majority. At the same time the repatriation of the Macedonian political refugees left Greece during the civil war in 1949 is prohibited.
We demand the indispensable recognition of the two national minoritiesms.
A request from our organization is that experts from international and European institutions, as OSCE, make a scholarly research on the rights of national minorities in the Balkan countries and prepare a comparative study on the situation of the national minorities.
We appeal to the Greek gorvement for starting a dialog with the members of the Macedonian national minority of Greece according to the European Framework Convection for the Rights of the National Minorities which is unfortunately not y Helsinki Monitor
Introduction
Greece formally recognizes only one "religious" minority, the "Muslims" of Thrace whose fundamental rights are formally guaranteed by the 1923 Treaty of Lausanne. (Ethno)national minorities of Turks and Macedonians are denied recognition. Minorities that are not officially recognized have often suffered restrictions to their freedom of expression and association. The Greek constitution gives the Eastern Orthodox church the status of an officiet ratified by Greece.
Thank you all for your attention.
RAINBOW PARTY (VINOZHITO)
Stefanou Dragoumi 11
P.O. Box 51
531 00 Florina, Greece
TEL and FAX : 386-46548-45044
misirkov@compulink.gr
www.florina.org
Macedonian Minority
In Florina (northern al religion, relegating other religions to a disadvantaged status.
Constitutional amendments introduced with a first parliamentary vote in 1998 did not affect this privileged status of the Eastern Orthodox Church. In recent years, the Greek government has signed a number of international documents providing guarantees to minorities. The ICCPR was ratified in early 1997 while in late 1997 the Framework Convention for the Protection of National Minorities was signed: it has yet to be sent to Parliament forGreece), where most ethnic Macedonians live, four ethnic Macedonians were put on trial in September 1998 for "inciting citizens to commit acts of violence." In September 1995, a mob led by the mayor had attacked and ransacked the offices of the ethnic Macedonian "Rainbow" party after the four men hung a sign in Greek and in Macedonian stating "Rainbow - Florina Committee." Those who attacked the offices have yet to be indicted though charges were filed by Rainbow in 1995. However, the party was prosecuted for using the Macedonian language on the sign in a clear violation of the right to free expression but was finally acquitted: in that trial, the political and social leadership of Florina were witnesses for the prosecution which had based its case inter alia on articles of the ultra-nationalist weekly "Stohos." Another "Rainbow" leader is awaiting trial on 19 November 1998, with similar charges for having brought from Macedonia calendars bearing toponyms of Greek towns in Macedonian and praising the inter-war pro-Macedonian policy of the Communist party, but not advocating violence.
Many ethnic Macedonians who fled Greece as a result of the 1946-49 civil war were not allowed to enter Greece, even for brief visits or to attend the fiftieth anniversary reunion of their exodus in July 1998. This, despite written commitment to the contrary by Alternate Foreign Minister George Papandreou in a letter to the International Helsinki Federation. Some were denied entrance because their passports mentioned their birth places in Greece with their old Macedonian name only; others simply because they were in a "red list" of undesirables. One of the former cases concerned a German citizen, Anastas Parpouski, and is a clear violation of the freedom of movement of EU citizens in EU countries guaranteed by EU treaties.
In July 1998, Greece was convicted by the European Court of Human Rights for the violation of the freedom of association (Article 11 of the European Convention), because the Greek courts did not allow in 1990 the establishment of the "Home of Macedonian Civilization" (as translated in English by the European Court). The most important argument of that verdict was its position towards the Greek courts’ and state’s view that the Home of Macedonian Civilization was not allowed to be established as its founding members did not aim simply at a cultural activity but at supporting the view that there is a Macedonian minority. The "non-existence" of that minority was argued by the Greek courts using evidence full of "scholarly" quotes even from texts dating from the Nazi occupation period: "a guide to Salonica written by German historians and archaeologists during the last world war states that…" The European Court, in countering Greece’s arguments, mentioned the binding character for Greece of the OSCE documents which the country has signed but have usually been considered merely declaratory and without legal value. The Court considered the aims of the Home "clear and legitimate" and added:
"Even supposing that the founders of an association like the one in the instant case assert a minority consciousness, the Document of the Copenhagen Meeting of the Conference on the Human Dimension of the CSCE (Section IV) of 29 June 1990 and the Charter of Paris for a New Europe of 21 November 1990 – which Greece has signed – allow them to form associations to protect their cultural and spiritual heritage."
Two weeks prior, the same crew was given visas in a matter of hours to cover Macedonian Deputy Prime Minister Buzlevski's visit to Greece. According to GHM, one can conclude that, this time, Greek authorities were simply trying to limit coverage of the embarrassing trial, which ended with the acquittal of the Rainbow leaders and the implicit recognition of the right to henceforth freely use the Macedonian language, both orally and in writing.
Recommended Action
Send appeals to Alternate Foreign Minister George Papandreou: protesting the refusal of the visas stressing that one of the fundamental principles of open societies is the uninhibited flow of information.
Appeals to
Mr. George Papandreou
Alternate Foreign Minister
Athens, Greece
Fax: +30 1 3394195
Please copy appeals to the source if possible.
For further information, contact GHM at P.O. Box 51393, GR-14510, Kifisia, Greece, tel: +30 1 620 01 20, fax: +30 1 807 57 67, e-mail: office@greekhelsinki.gr, panayote@greekhelsinki.gr, Internet: http://www.greekhelsinki.gr.
Four members of "Rainbow", a legal political party, were charged under Article 192 of the Greek Penal Code with "inciting violence" or "disturbing the peace" for hanging a sign in the party's office displaying the words "Lerinski Komitet," (Lerin Committee) in their native Macedonian language as well as in Greek.
After three years in legal limbo, and after a nine hour trial, the members of the Macedonian minority party in Greece, the Rainbow party, were acquitted of all charges.
Below is a synopsis of the events of the trial which took place on Tuesday, September 15, 1998, three years after charges were originally laid by the Public Prosecutor.
The court commenced at 9:00 AM and by 10:00 AM all cases numbering from one to twenty had been dealt with.
At 10:00 AM the court proceeded to deal with the Rainbow trial which was numbered case twenty-one. The defendants were members of the Rainbow party. This is the party of the ethnic Macedonian minority in Greece. Four members of Rainbow, Pavlos Voskopoulos, Kostas Tasopoulos, Petros Vasiliadis and Vasilis Romas were charged under Article 192 of the Greek Penal Code for allegedly inciting hatred among the citizenry.
Briefly, in September, 1995, the Rainbow party officially opened an office in the town of Florina, in northern Greece. To commemorate the opening a sign was hung above the office indicating this was the Florina Committee of the Rainbow party. The sign was written in both Greek and Macedonian. Because the sign was also written in Macedonian charges were brought against Rainbow by the Public Prosecutor of the Florina district, claiming that this incited hatred amongst the citizenry.
The Rainbow trial began with statements presented by prosecution witnesses a number of whom did not appear before the court.
At 12:30 PM the Public Prosecutor, Mr. Stamatis, requested a written declaration by the defendants stating that the hanging of the bilingual sign (Greek/Macedonian) above the office of the Rainbow party was not done for the purposes of inciting hatred amongst the citizens.
Rainbow obliged the Prosecutor and submitted a written declaration stating that "the placement of the sign in two languages, Greek and Macedonian, was done to inform the citizenry of Florina of the opening of the Rainbow office. As ethnic Macedonian citizens of Greece the defendants understood that they had the right to communicate in their mother tongue, both orally and in writing."
Mr. Voskopoulos, one of the defendants, was questioned by the judge, Madame Tsafitsa, and asked whether he was Greek. Mr. Voskopoulos replied that he was a Macedonian who was a citizen of Greece. Upon further questioning as to his consciousness Mr. Voskopoulos replied the same and added that he had a Macedonian consciousness and not Greek.
At about 2:30 PM the witnesses for the prosecution concluded their presentations, which mainly involved supporting the claims against Rainbow which they had previously given in writing.
It was difficult for many of the prosecution witnesses to reply under cross examination when asked "how could it be an incitement to violence among the citizenry to view the written form of a language that is spoken by 80% of the local community?" "How is it that when this language was written on a sign it allegedly incited hatred, yet when it was spoken it did not incite hatred?" The prosecution witnesses acknowledged that those who wish to speak this language today do so freely.
From 2:30 PM until 6:10 PM the witnesses for the defence were cross examined.
Witnesses for the defence included Panayote Elias Dimitras, Spokesperson for Greek Helsinki Monitor, Vasilios Sakallariou of the Forum for Equal Treatment of Citizens, Georgios Nakratzas of the Association of Greek Educators of Holland, Elias Zafiropoulos of the party OAKKE, Ibram Onsunoglu of the Turkish Association for Minority and Human Rights, Kostas Veremis of the Web for Political and Social Rights, and Georgios Pugios, President of the village association of kato Kleines (Dolno Kleshtina).
At 6:10 PM the statements of the defendants, Vasilis Romas, Kostas Tasopoulos, Petros Vasiliadis and Pavlos Voskopoulos were heard. After this the Public Prosecutor suggested to the court that the charges be dropped as their was no objective evidence presented before the court to support the allegation that the hanging of the bilingual sign above the office of the Rainbow party was cause for inciting hatred among the citizens.
At 6:25 PM final presentations were made by the counsels for the defense, Efi Telli and Ioanna Kurtovik, who spoke with eloquence and dignity in the defense of Rainbow.
After this there was a brief recess. The judge returned at 7:00 PM and announced the verdict of the court. All the defendants were acquitted of the charges brought against them. The trial was heavily attended during the entire nine hours and people began to applaud upon hearing the decision.
In the estimation of the Rainbow party both the judge and the Public Prosecutor involved in this trial performed their duties correctly and appropriately. This brings an end to this aspect of the case.
However, those individuals (including the mayor of Florina) who violently attacked the Rainbow party offices in 1995, have still not been charged despite formal requests by Rainbow. This issue remains outstanding and Greek authorities have yet to offer any explanation regarding their reluctance to press charges.
It should also be noted here, that in the last few days two parliamentarians from the European Parliament presented questions to the Greek government in relation to the upcoming Rainbow trial. These parliamentarians were Mr. Zan Van de Melenbrouke of Belgium, member of the party VU Vlaamse Unie, and Madame Hedy d'Ancona, member of the Holland Socialist Party. Madame d'Ancona was formerly Holland's Minister of Culture and currently holds the position of President of the Commission on Freedom of Expression for the European Union.
In July, 1998, Madame d'Ancona posed questions regarding the upcoming trial of the Rainbow members. Her questions were specifically directed to the Minister of Public Order, Mr. Romaios, and to the Minister of Internal Affairs, Mr. Papadopoulos. The replies of these Ministers did not satisfy Madame d'Ancona's concerns and on September 2, 1998, she posed relevant questions before the European Parliament, of which Greece is a member.
Amnesty International welcomes the acquittal of four members of ethnic Macedonian minority Party
News Service: 183/98
Amnesty International welcomes the acquittal of four members of the ethnic Macedonian minority "Rainbow" Party at their trial in Florina, Greece, on 15 September 1998.
The four men, Vasilis Romas, Costas Tasopoulos, Petros Vasiliadis and Pavlos Voskopoulos, were charged with "causing and inciting mutual hatred among the citizens" under Article 192 of the Greek Penal Code, an offence punishable with up to two years' imprisonment.
These charges had been brought against them after they displayed a sign bearing the words "Florina Committee" in both Greek and Macedonian outside the Florina office of the Rainbow Party in September 1995. There was nothing in the indictment which suggested that they advocated violence or incited hatred.
Amnesty International is now calling on the Greek authorities to drop the charges against Traianos Pasois, another member of the "Rainbow" Party, whose trial is scheduled for 19 November 1998.
Traianos Pasois was charged after crossing the border between Greece and the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, at the border post of Niki, Florina on 17 February 1996. According to an indictment later issued against him, he was carrying "two wall calendars which he intended to circulate" and which "featured photographs of pure Greek towns and areas, under or next to which were captions written in a foreign idiom".
The indictment further states that the captions "praised clearly controversial and provocative actions and decisions by political parties, groups and organizations which took part in the civil war. [These] actions and decisions disputed the Greek character of [the province of] Macedonia, aiming at its dismemberment, secession and annexation by a neighbouring state then enemy of Greece". There is no evidence in the indictment to suggest that the calendars contained any advocacy of violence.
Amnesty International believes that the charge brought against Traianos Pasois is motivated by his campaign for the recognition of a Macedonian minority in Greece and the right to use, without restriction, the Macedonian language.
The organization considers that by bringing Traianos Pasois to trial simply for expressing his opinion, the Greek authorities are violating Article 19 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR) and Article 10 of the European Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms (ECHR), both of which Greece has ratified and is therefore bound to observe.
OSLOBODITELNI PRESUDI ZA LIDERITE NA `VINOZZITO'
Ccetvoricata lideri na partijata na makedonskoto nacionalno malcinstvo vo Grcija `Vinozzito' na sudskiot proces odrzzan vccera vo Lerin, Grcija se oslobodeni od obvineneto za deloto od ssesti septemvri 1995 godina, javuva Makedonskata Televizija. Liderite na `Vinozito', Kostas Tasopulos, Petris Vasilidis, Vasilis Romas i Pavlos Voskopulos, odgovaraa pred grcckiot Sud bidejki pred kancelaraijata na nivnata partija vo Lerin stavile dvojaziccna tabla na koja na grcki i makedonski jazik pisuvalo - `Vinozzito Lerinski komitet'. Iako od strana na obvinitelstvoto vo Lerin tablata istiot den bila simnata od pred kancelarijata, protiv liderite na `Vinozzito' e pokrenato obvinenie deka se ogressile sprema grcckiot zakon vrz osnova na cclenot 192, odnosno deka predizvikale voznemirenost, nesloga i omraza megju gragjanite. Sudskiot proces vekje ednass besse zakazzan za 14 oktomvri minatata godina, no togass najverojatno poradi ostrite reakcii od povekje megjunarodni organizacii za zasstita na covekovi prava besse odlozzen. Pritoa od povekje strani do grcckata vlada bea upateni obvinenija deka prodolzuva so politikata na diskriminacija ssto se sprovduvasse izminatite godini protiv Makedoncite, kao i deka vrssi gruba povreda i kressenje na osnovnite prava za slobodno izrazuvanje, za pocituvanje na jazikot, kako i na nacionalniot i kulturniot identitet na eden narod. Vo presret na vccerassniot sudski proces na koj po skoro desetccasovnata rasprava liderite na `Vinozzito' dobija osloboditelni presudi inaku so soopstenie se oglasi organizacijata Vinozito' barajkji grcckata drzzava namesto da ja sankcionira upotrebata na makedonskiot jazik, da prevzeme merki za negova zasstita i neguvanje. Od strana na `Vinozzito' pritoa e pobarno da donese zakon za slobodna upotreba na makedonskot jazik, odrzzuvanje na nastava na makedonski jazik vo delovite na Grcija kade zziveaat etnicckite Makedonci i sozdavanje na centar na makedonski jazik vo ramkite na fakultetskoto obrazovanie. Po povod vccerassnoto sudenje megju drugite se oglasi i organizacijata `Amnesti internacional' povikuvajki gi grckite vlasti da gi povleccat obvinenijata protiv liderite na `Vinozzito' bidejki ne postojat nikakvi indikacii deka tie se zalagale za nasilstvo ili potiknuvale omraza. `Amnesti Inetrancional' pritoa oceni deka kriviccnoto gonenje protiv obinetite pretstavuva krssenje na cclenot 10 od Evropskata konvencija za zasstita na ccovekovite prava koja i Grcija ja ratifikuvala. Po povod sudenjeto isto taka se oglasi i Zdruzzenieto na Makedncite od egejskiot del so sedisste vo Bitola, apelirajkji do svetskata demokratska javnost da ja prinudi Grcija da prestane so montiranite sudski procesi, kako i bezuslovno da gi priznae ccovekovite prava na etnicckite Makedonci koi zziveat vo Grcija.
Back to top
Human rights main page
Next news pageBack to main page
Macedonia for the Macedonians
Created and maintained by Bill Nicholov
© Copyright 1997-1999