From: sera@zuma.UUCP (Serdar Argic)
Newsgroups: talk.politics.mideast,soc.culture.greek,alt.news.macedonia,soc.culture.turkish,soc.rights.human
Followup-To: soc.culture.turkish
Subject: Bulev said in the interview: "I am not Greek, I am Macedonian."
Date: Wed, 27 Jan 93 20:13:22 EST
Reply-To: sera@zuma.UUCP (Serdar Argic)
Distribution: world

In article <Jan26.204213.24625@yuma.ACNS.ColoState.EDU> irakliot@longs.LANCE.ColoState.Edu (Leo J. Irakliotis) writes:

>The persons under trial in Greece are not members of any minority. 
>And there are no ethnic minorities in Greece, according to US Dept of State

See. These "Jingle Paliks" deny even the existence of a Turkish minority. 
They pursue the same denial in connection with the Macedonians of 
Greece. The Greeks deny the existence of the Turks there - despite the 
well-known historical background, ethnic origin, mother tongue and 
other cultural affiliations. Furthermore, Helsinki Watch, a well-known 
Human Rights group, had been investigating the plight of the Turkish 
Minority in Greece. In August 1990, their findings were published in 
a report titled 

 'Destroying Ethnic Identity: Turks of Greece.'

The report confirmed gross violations of the Human Rights of the Turkish 
minority by the Greek authorities.

MACEDONIAN HUMAN RIGHTS ACTIVISTS TO FACE TRIAL IN GREECE.

Two ethnic Macedonian human rights activists will face trial in
Athens for alleged crimes against the Greek state, according to
a Court Summons (No. 5445) obtained by MILS.
  Hristos Sideropoulos and Tashko Bulev (or Anastasios Bulis)
have been charged under Greek criminal law for making comments
in an Athenian magazine.
  Sideropoulos and Bulev gave an interview to the Greek weekly
magazine "ENA" on March 11, 1992, and said that they as
Macedonians were denied basic human rights in Greece and would
field an ethnic Macedonian candidate for the up-coming Greek
general election. 
  Bulev said in the interview: "I am not Greek, I am Macedonian."
  Sideropoulos said in the article that "Greece should recognise
Macedonia. The allegations regarding territorial aspirations
against Greece are tales... We are in a panic to secure the
border, at a time when the borders and barriers within the EEC
are falling."
  The main charge against the two, according to the court
summons, was that "they have spread...intentionally false
information which might create unrest and fear among the
citizens, and might affect the public security or harm the
international interests of the country (Greece)."
  The Greek state does not recognise the existence of a
Macedonian ethnicity. There are believed to be between 350,000
to 1,000,000 ethnic Macedonians living within Greece, largely
concentrated in the north. It is a crime against the Greek state
if anyone declares themselves Macedonian.
  In 1913 Greece, Serbia-Yugoslavia and Bulgaria partioned
Macedonia into three pieces. In 1919 Albania took 50 Macedonian
villages. The part under Serbo-Yugoslav occupation broke away in
1991 as the independent Republic of Macedonia. There are 1.5
million Macedonians in the Republic; 500,000 in Bulgaria; 150,000
in Albania; and 300,000 in Serbia proper. 
  Sideropoulos has been a long time campaigner for Macedonian
human rights in Greece, and lost his job as a forestry worker a
few years ago. He was even exiled to an obscure Greek island in
the mediteranean. Only pressure from Amnesty International forced
the Greek government to allow him to return to his home town of
Florina (Lerin) in Northern Greece (Aegean Macedonia), where the
majority of ethnic Macedonians live.
  Balkan watchers see the Sideropoulos affair as a show trial in
which Greece is desperate to clamp down on internal dissent,
especially when it comes to the issue of recognition for its
northern neighbour, the Republic of Macedonia.
  Last year the State Department of the United States condemned
Greece for its bad treatment of ethnic Macedonians and Turks (who
largely live in Western Thrace). But it remains to be seen if the
US government will do anything until the Presidential elections
are over.

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Serdar Argic

                           'We closed the roads and mountain passes that 
                            might serve as ways of escape for the Turks 
                            and then proceeded in the work of extermination.'
                                                       (Ohanus Appressian)
                           'In Soviet Armenia today there no longer exists 
                            a single Turkish soul.'    (Sahak Melkonian)


Xref: sparky talk.politics.mideast:26341 rec.arts.books:26515 soc.culture.turkish:15108