From: buis@buengc.bu.edu (Lou Buis)
Newsgroups: soc.culture.yugoslavia,soc.culture.bulgaria,soc.culture.greek,soc.culture.europe
Subject: SKOPIE "GYPSIES"
Date: 15 Oct 92 05:57:43 GMT
Followup-To: soc.culture.yugoslavia
Organization: Boston University, Boston, MA, USA
Originator: buis@buengc.bu.edu


		GREEK NATIONALISTS AND SKOPIE "GYPSIES"

	(Reprinted from "Makedonia", issue #24, June 19, 1992)

	This article by ELEFTHERIA PANAGOPOULOU was published in January, 1989,
	in issue #72 of the Greek magazine  "SCHOLIASTIS". 

	The author shares thoughts and impressions of the area of Florina,
	previously known as Lerin. "Do Slav Macedonians really have no reason
	to complain about Greek policy toward them?" the author asks.. 



The Florina [Lerin] region is one of the places in Northern Greece where people
speak the Macedonian language. There are Slavophones in the  regions of
Kastoria [Kostur], Edessa [Voden], Veroia [Ber], Drama and Serres [Ser]. It is
almost impossible to know the number of Slavophones, because data about them
have been used for various purposes. They number between 50,000 and 300,000.

Supporters of the Greek thesis recognize the exsistence of the Slavophone
population, but immediately add to this that these people have a "Greek
consciousness." History has proved that the idea of the consciousness is
flexible, especially concerning ethnic groups, and depends on their attitude
towards the authorities and the state. There is no doubt that Slav Macedonians
in Greece consider Greece their homeland and connect their destiny with the
Greek state. At the same time they feel different, because their language,
their traditions, their songs are different. 

Considering that the language was absolutely forbidden in the past, especially
during the dictatorships of Metaxas (1936 -1940) and the Colonels (1967-1974),
it is admirable that the Macedonian language has been kept alive and used by
the people in their private lives. The language has not been used much in
social life. 

Theoretically, Slav Macedonians are free to use their own language, but in
practice things are more difficult. On one hand, the terror of the past has
caused an inborn fear, and parents are therefore afraid to teach their children
to speak the Macedonian language. They wish to protect them from the resultant
troubles. On the other hand, Greek authorities don't use castor oil [on those
speaking Macedonian] any longer. They have more refined methods to stop people
from using their language. For example, teachers explain to children that they
should speak their "Gypsy" language only at home. 

Because Macedonian language is often the "grandmother's language," in many
places children are forced to go the preschool [to learn Greek]. Government
employees, who speak Macedonian in public risk serious trouble. 

The same tactics are used against folk songs and dances. The police closely
observe weddings and social events, and when the band strikes up a Macedonian
tune, they are told that "We don't need that kind of song." 

The most important problem, of course, is that the language is not taught in
the schools, making it a spoken dialect. Slav Macedonians still don't have the
courage to put this question up for public discussion. They only dream about
it. 

Denial of the Macedonian identity goes beyond the language. 'Liquidation of
differences' began with the changing of street names to those of Greek
nationalists who had struggled against the Bulgarian komitas, with monuments to
Pavlos Melas and replacement of Slav family and village names with Greek names,
with the disappearance of villages, and colonization by Greeks from other
regions. 

These measures were used in the past, but today tactics haven't changed much.
For example, priests have refused to baptize infants with Slav names. Until
1985, the University of Skopie provided a way out for village youths who wished
to study. Because Skopie is not far and the language is similar, it was a
financially feasible opportunity for young people to receive a college
education, though Slav Macedonian students had to exert special efforts to
learn the Macedonian language. Since 1985, the Greek government has not
recognized diplomas from the University of Skopie, claiming as there excuse
that "the Macedonian language has not been universally  recognized." 

There is also a huge property problem. It is well known that after the Greek
civil war (1946-1949), the Greek state confiscated all properties of political
emigrants according to the PASOK government's Law #1540/85. These measures are
fine as far as they go, but they cause difficulties for Slav Macedonians. While
article 2 states that the right to hold "real property is  granted to political
emigrants, living in Greece, given in reparation, or granted Greek
citizenship," article 1 denies the application of the law to political
emigrants "who are not Greek by origin " (elinnes to genos). I am not a lawyer,
but in my opinion the law raises many legal questions. It is clear that there
is a contradiction here, which is a violation of human rights. 

Citizenship is a juridical notion and determines the relation of the juridical
person and the state, while the notion of the word "origin" is not juridical,
it is connected to "nationality" and is a flexible term. Usually the components
of a nation are common history, language, traditions, way of life and
consciousness. In this case we have an intentional distortion of  the words
"nation" and "state," which means that for the Greek lawmaker there can be only
one nation existing in the Greek state - the Greek nation. 

I don't know exactly how the law has been enforced, but I know that Greek
authorities have very often deprived Slav Macedonians (for example, inhabitants
of Skopie and people who have Slav names) of Greek citizenship. 

The problem is even worse for the descendants of political emigrants,
living in Greece, who have no inheritance rights. According to law #1540/85,
real property confiscated by the state and given to a third party, or taken
over by a party unrelated to the original owner who has the right to buy the
property, cannot be returned to the original owner (Section 2.2).  This law is
more strictly enforced in Slavophone villages than in other areas. The Greek
state's tactic is to give the real property of political emigrants to
settlers, who with the passage of time make the property their own.

Consequently we see today a strange phenomenon. People are forced to pay rent
to the state for their own properties, and are even driven away of their own
homes, in accord with this law. There is also a problem touching on the 
practice of one's profession. 

Slavomacedonians have a difficult time obtaining employment with the state
[Greece's largest employer]. And even if they get a state job, they will be
transferred to the farthest reaches of Greece [outside Macedonia] for the
smallest infractions, e.g., speaking or singing in Macedonian. 

I'd like to cite two examples: 

At the Ptolemaida city power plant, which is just about the only escape from
village life in the area, there are about 1,000 employees, and only 200-300 of
them are local people. 

The second case is that of a state employee who recently was transferred to
Southern Greece, while his wife had to stay in Lerin. The official
justification of the transfer was "work-related reasons." But after the
Regional Committee of PASOK protested, the secretary of the Ministry of Social
Order uncovered the real reasons:  the above-mentioned state employee had
watched Macedonian folk dances and listened to Macedonian songs at various
celebrations, so he was supposed to be "extremely dangerous to national
security." In speaking with his coworkers, he had never condemned the "Skopie
Gypsies," and he had even accepted the existence of the Macedonian nation,
which was proved by the circumstantial evidence that he was teaching his young
daughter to speak the Macedonian language. 

What are the reactions of the Slavomacedonians? 

Some of the older ones have adopted the Greek point of view, that they are not
a separate group and that use of the Macedonian language could be dangerous for
national security. But there is another group of mainly younger people, which
is against this viewpoint. In some villages the targets of reaction have been
the monuments to Pavlos Melas,  placed provocatively in the central square. In
one village, the monument was pulled down and thrown into the river. At
another, it was turned into a urinal. 

Another form of resistance is speaking the Macedonian language, singing
Macedonian songs and giving children Macedonian names, despite official
prohibitions. 

A local band was formed in the region, which has in its repertoire songs
glorifying the struggle of the Slavomacedonians against the Turks. The band is
very popular and is often invited to play at  weddings or celebrations. But
local authorities give the musicians plenty of trouble. Finally, we must
mention the students who two or three years ago went to Athens, where they
staged a hunger strike as a protest against the official refusal to recognize
their university degrees from Skopie. Even these limited forms of protest led
to: 

A violent reaction by local authorities led by Lerin's Metropolitan Kantiotis
of the New Democracy Party and EPEN, an extreme right-wing reactionary party,
which has its own shock troops. This campaign was especially actively supported
by extreme right-wing newspaper Stohos, which constantly writes against the
"Skopie Gypsies," among whom it includes the PASOK party. 

Touching on the political position of the supporters of the "Macedonian
awakening," (if we can so call this limited movement, which is nothing but a
refusal of total assimilation) the people we met were members or former members
of PASOK or the Greek Communist Party. After an initial period of "great
hopes," the positions these parties took on national and regional problems
caused many to leave them in disenchantment. This is true of normal members as
well as local leaders. In other words, these people feel completely abandoned,
and as long as the Greek state follows its ostrich-like policy, their reaction
can only grow stronger. And no "long arm of Skopie" is necessary for this to
happen. 

From:
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THE MACEDONIAN TRIBUNE, 124 West Wayne, Fort Wayne, Indiana 46802, U.S.A. 
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