Cyprus-Forum.com

[bg_turk]

Greece is an Unworthy EU Member
An article published in a Danish newspaper
MORGAENAVISEN JYLLANDS-POSTEN, 26.02.1999

By Gunnar Nissen

If this chronicle gives rise to conflicts or trouble, it is not the fault of the Macedonians, nor me. When the politicians in EU countries don't speak out, it is due to ignorance or indifference.

Denmark is a member of the EU. It remains a mystery that Greece is too. The member countries must recognize human rights and minorities rights. Those are the demands put in front of the central European states and they must abide by them. That has been hard on Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania who are brought to recognize national minorities, especially that large Russian one. Slovenia is on that point influenced by the Yugoslavian constitution of 1974, an exemplary country with full recognition of small Croatian and Italian minorities. But Greece - Oh Dear! From official Greek side it is bombastically announced: Only Greeks live in Greece. Nonsense! In southeast Europe, not a single state exist of one nationality alone. In Greece, you find a large Turkish minority (who do not wish to be presented as Greeks that has converted to Islam) in Thrace, a small Albanian minority in Epiros and finally a Macedonian minority in Aegean Macedonia, who numbers somewhere between 75.000 and 500.000. An exact estimate doesn't exist, since Greece persistently deny their existence.

If one put some pressure on high ranking civil servants and self-proclaimed experts, one may achieve an admission that "a small Slavic speaking minority exist in Greek Macedonia", but they "do not wish to be a national minority; they can freely use their language".

A pack of lies! For many years I have had a friendly relation with numerous Macedonians in Aegean Macedonia - a people that officially doesn't exist. I do speak Greek, but I speak fluently Macedonian. Almost every time I take the train south, over Munich to Balkan, I run into Macedonians from Greece (2. generation of workers). The same happens when I traverse the Greek border. Some people speak only Greek, but a lot, really a lot, speak additionally Macedonian ("our mother tongue") which is forbidden as language in school. Last year a couple of shop owners were taken to court-their "crime" was that they had written some words in Macedonian in their shop windows.

When I sit on cafe's in villages in Aegean Macedonia, the conversation always ends at "the Macedonian identity". "What do you in the rest of Europe know about us?" I must admit that it's very little. "We would like to have some Macedonian schools" the man continues at the cafe. "I speak my Macedonian mother tongue, but my son is struggling, although he watches Macedonian TV, Televizija Skopje". He, and the others speak in a low voice, while glancing towards the neighboring table where a man is picking up his phone. Moments later, two angry police officers enter and the gathering around my table splits up. The border control between the Macedonian Republic and Greece are, known to be among the toughest in Europe. Certainly the slowest. Not on the Macedonian side, where the border police take a peek at the Danish passport, after which it's over. But on the other side of the border, the border police confiscate all passports and later we have to spend a long time, be it snow storm or bumming hot, cueing to get the passport back. With particular thoroughness, the custom control ransack the luggage of travelers from the Republic of Macedonia. Foreigners can not be sure to get a travel permission, even when born in Aegean Macedonia in Greece. It has happened that a Canadian bus full of Macedonians with Macedonian names, but born in Aegean Macedonia, were not allowed to enter the country.

When in 1991 it was clear to the Macedonians in the Yugoslav sub-republic Macedonia, that their value norms could not possibly harmonize with the roaring nationalism of Serbia, they split with the Yugoslav republic after a popular referendum - Slovenia, Croatia and Bosnia-Herzegovina had already done that. The Serbs protested and the Serbian terrorist leader and specialist in ethnic cleansing Vojislav Seselj announced that all he needed was two divisions and then "the Macedonian problem would be solved". Loudest, however, were the protests from Greece, apparently because of the name. The Greek regime could perhaps accept that the new state could call it self Skopje (after it's capital) and the Greeks postulated wildly and crazily that the Macedonian state with it's 2.1 Mio, inhabitants and an army smaller than our national guard might attack it's large neighbour Greece.

The Greeks gave as a reason for not recognizing the Republic of Macedonia, that " we have a Macedonia here in Greece and thus there cannot be a Macedonia just on the opposite site of the border". The logic in this is absurd and I'm ashamed that so many ignorant journalists quoted the Greek reason without comments. Apparently they were unaware that Macedonia is split between three different countries. After a meeting in Brussels, where the EU-recognition of the state of Macedonia was postponed, although Macedonia fulfilled all requirements for recognition, the then Danish foreign minister, Uffe Elleman-Jensen, in a final salute as EU chairman, commented to the Greeks that they had to get themselves together and get the problem solved, concerning the name Macedonia and called it despicable of the Greeks to treat the Macedonians in this way. The former Danish foreign Minister Elleman-Jensen stated in 1993 “not Macedonia is a problem for Europe, but our member Greece”.

The Greek spokespersons reacted violently, amongst them the former Greek vice prime-minister Athanasios Kannellopoulos, who angrily pronounced "with his comments, Mr. Jensen is a very bad example of the other foreign ministers. Mr. Jensen said that he'd be ashamed to be Greek because we're against that the new Skopje republic's use of the name Macedonia. To that my answer is: We'd be ashamed if Mr. Jensen was Greek!"

In "Morgenavisen Jyllands-Posten" the MP Ame Melchior published a letter to the editor that exhibited his lack of knowledge about the populations in the Balkan peninsula under the title "Show concern for our Greek allied". He was answered by "Jyllands-Posten"s correspondent Per Nyholm "Show concern for the Macedonians".

Finally the Greeks accepted the name of Macedonia, but only in the form of The Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, FYROM.

Now to the decisive point that journalists ought to have oriented "themselves about: In ancient times and in the Osmanian era, Macedonia was an area without internal borders, where the people after the 6 century had the south Slavic language Macedonian as mother tongue. It was in Macedonia the Cyrillic alphabet came to life, named after the monk Kyril. The bible was translated by the Macedonians to old-church-Slavic, that had the same influence on ecumenical language in eastern Europe as Latin had amongst the Catholics in western and central Europe. The Cyrillic alphabet spread not only to Bulgaria and Serbia, but also to Russia and other eastern Slavic countries. "Genuine" Hellenes described the ancient population of Macedonia as barbarians and Phillip II and Alexander the Great greekness are rather dubious. Albanian historians name them Illyrians, the oldest nation on Balkan and the Albanians are arguably their ancestors. Of higher importance was the Slav's immigration to the Balkan area in the 6 century. The Slavic tribe that settled in Macedonia took name after the province and preserved their language to modem times (with some grammatical exceptions...)

After the Balkan wars of 1912 and 1913, Macedonia was split in three. Aegean Macedonia came under Greece, Vardar Macedonia under Serbia and Pirin Macedonia under Bulgaria. Vardar Macedonia was in 1945 after a heroic partisan war, one of the six republics in the new federal Yugoslavia and as promised by Tito, the republic got full national and cultural independence - with due acknowledgment of it's compact Albanian and small Turkish minorities. As Yugoslavia split in 1991, the country had 23 million inhabitants. Had all of Yugoslavia had the birth rate of the Albanians in western Macedonia and Kosovo, they would have been at 50 Millions! Kosovo and western Macedonia would have had to let the Albanians migrate to the rest of Serbia and Macedonia with resulting unemployment rates around 50%. The Albanians in the Republic of Macedonia are not oppressed. They have all rights - except the one to rise the Albanian flag and get an Albanian university - which wouldn't make a lot of sense as soon as they again can study at the large university in Prestina in Kosovo, Tito's pride. By the way, the ambassador of the Republic of Macedonia in Denmark is Albanian, the much respected Muhammed Halili.

Could one imagine the situation: the government of the North German federated state Schleswig Holstein declare: Schleswig is German and in Germany, Germans are living. Thus with no further notice, the Danish schools, including the "Duborgskolen" high school and "Jaruplund" high school, the Flensburg newspaper, Danish libraries and other foreign institutions will close. The Danish language is declared "not-wanted"? How about the opposite situation - if everything German was forbidden in southern Denmark? Unthinkable of course!

When a person misbehaves, it is in the first line the closest people's duty to intervene. National oppression is taking place in many countries outside the EU. But Greece is an EU member and is thus a "part of the family". But do we intervene, we, the closest people? No, we shut up. Of ignorance or misunderstood solidarity with the Greek leaders, who as the Serbs, consider themselves "superbalkanian". Other people know more about the oppression than I, but I know a great many and every year more ignored and oppressed Slavic Macedonians in the Greek part of Macedonia. Can we justify our silence? I'm sure that Greece' unwillingness to accept the Republic of Macedonia is due to their black conscience over the oppression of Macedonians in Greece. Greece is (yet another) unworthy member of the EU.

[ELLAS H TEFRA!]

Do you want to talk about the Greeks in Constantinople?? The Kurds?? The Armenians?? Those Cypriots who chose to remain isolated IN THEIR OWN HOMES in the occupied areas??

[ELLAS H TEFRA!]

http://hrw.org/doc/?t=europe&c=turkey

[ELLAS H TEFRA!]

The Government generally respected the human rights of its citizens; although there were significant improvements in a number of areas, serious problems remained. Security forces reportedly killed 18 persons during the year; torture, beatings, and other abuses by security forces remained widespread. Conditions in most prisons remained poor. Security forces continued to use arbitrary arrest and detention, although the number of such incidents declined. Lengthy trials remained a problem. Convictions of security officials accused of torture remained rare, and courts generally issued light sentences when they did convict. In politically sensitive cases, the judiciary continued to reflect a legal structure that favors State interests over individual rights. The State and Government continued to limit freedom of speech and press; harassment of journalists and others for controversial speech remained a serious problem. At times, the Government restricted freedom of assembly and association. Police beat, abused, detained, and harassed some demonstrators. The Government maintained some restrictions on religious minorities and on some forms of religious expression. At times, the Government restricted freedom of movement. The Government restricted the activities of some political parties and leaders, and sought to close the pro-Kurdish Democratic People's Party (DEHAP). The Government continued to harass, indict, and imprison human rights monitors, journalists, and lawyers for the views they expressed in public. Violence against women remained a serious problem, and discrimination against women persisted. Trafficking in persons, particularly women, remained a problem. Child labor was a widespread problem.

http://www.state.gov/g/drl/rls/hrrpt/2004/41713.htm

[ELLAS H TEFRA!]

The human rights picture in Turkey is bleak. Torture and ill-treatment have long been routine. The 1990s have seen the emergence of "disappearances" and extrajudicial executions. Turkey's citizens do not enjoy true freedom of expression. The security forces are the most powerful group in the country and they have treated human rights with contempt.

Political violence has been a serious problem for almost three decades. Recent Turkish history has seen three military coups and, since the 1980s, armed conflict between the security forces and opposition groups based in the mountains of the southeast and the cities of west Turkey. Armed opposition groups have also abused human rights. The largest armed opposition group is the Kurdish Workers' Party (PKK).

Successive governments have either denied that human rights violations occur, or justified them as the inevitable consequence of defending national security. The result is that no one in Turkey enjoys true personal security. Despite repeated promises of reform, Turkish citizens can still be arbitrarily detained. In custody, they will be unprotected against torture, still a standard method of interrogation. Since 1980 more than 400 people have reportedly been tortured to death in custody. "Disappearances" and political killings have claimed thousands of victims since 1991.

Even people fighting alongside the security forces are put at risk by the state's lawless methods. In January 1996 the government announced that the PKK had massacred 11 men near the remote village of Guclukonak. Seven of the victims were members of the local village guard force. Independent investigations suggested that the massacre was the work of the security forces. The international community has turned a blind eye to Turkey's human rights record. They have echoed the Turkish Government's claim that the threat to national security must be defeated at any cost to human rights. They have accepted official window-dressing as progress towards human rights protection. They have put the interests of trade and political allegiance before the security of Turkish citizens.

http://www.amnesty.org/ailib/intcam/turkey/

[Alexis]

Here, in my opinion, we have pressure being applied to an EU member by other EU members to (quite rightly) normalise relations with a non-EU state.
And this is simply over what a country outside of the EU should be named.
For me this should give a clear indication to Turkey (a non-EU member) of the sort of pressure she might be put under to remove her troops from Cyprus (an EU-member) and normalise relations with her over something which in my opinion is a far more serious issue, for her to join the EU.

[ELLAS H TEFRA!]

Mass detentions were carried out across the country of suspected PKK members, as well as representatives of the legal pro-Kurdish party HADEP. One HADEP member reported that "he was beaten in detention, his testicles were squeezed with a rope, he was given electric shocks, suspended by the arms, forced to lie on ice, hosed with cold water at high pressure and subjected to sexual assaults."

Repression is directed against all opponents of the Turkish government. On September 26, 10 prisoners from left-wing organisations, including two members of the Central Committee of the Turkish Communist Party, were killed in Ankara Central Closed Prison and dozens wounded by security forces. Human rights defenders in Istanbul protesting the 10 deaths were badly beaten, threatened and verbally abused by police and detained.

http://www.wsws.org/articles/2000/apr2000/amn-a15.shtml

[ELLAS H TEFRA!]

"It is particularly worrying that the human rights reforms implemented by the Turkish Government in advance of its EU accession application appear to have had little impact in the North-East region of Turkey as evidenced by the conclusions of both reports."

http://www.foe.co.uk/resource/press_rel ... 32005.html

[ELLAS H TEFRA!]

International human rights organizations, as well as the U.S. State Department, have for many years reported that the Turkish military and police are committing egregious violations of human rights against Turkey's citizens, sometime using U.S. weapons to do so. Among the documented violations are the widespread use of torture, police abuse, assassinations, and "disappearances." Terrible conditions, torture and beatings in Turkish prisons were brought to light by a large hunger strike staged in the fall of 2000. In addition, Turkey continues to repress political and civil rights, especially related to expression of views by Islamic or Kurdish groups. Journalists are frequently threatened or jailed for voicing their opinions on these issues, and dozens of human rights workers have also been threatened, jailed, and even killed for their work. Leading human rights activist Akin Birdal was seriously wounded in a 1998 assassination attempt, only to be sentenced to jail in 1999 for stating support for a peaceful end to the conflict with the Kurds (see below). Turkish officials regularly ransack or close the offices of the main Kurdish political party and throw their leaders in jail. Even Kurdish members of the Turkish Parliament have been imprisoned in recent years for "crimes of opinion"; others have fled into exile in Europe. In the fall of 1998, Turkish courts extended the sentence of Leyla Zana, a Kurdish ex-Deputy, for allegedly "inciting racial hatred."

Many of the human rights violations - especially involving the indiscriminate use of force - stem from the Turkish government’s 16-year long war against Kurdish rebels (PKK) in the southeastern part of the country. Over 30,000 people have been killed in the war, and rampant human rights violations have been committed by both government and PKK forces. The Turkish military has destroyed over 3,000 villages, turning between 500,000 and 2 million people into internally displaced persons. The Turkish regime has spent over $120 billion on its military campaign against the rebel Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK), siphoning scarce resources away from investment in infrastructure and contributing to the overall fragility of the economy. In 1995, a Congressionally mandated State Department report, along with independent reports from Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch, all documented the use of U.S.-supplied weapons in the commission of human rights abuses, including indiscriminate attacks on civilian populations. In 1997, a second State Department report repeated these claims, though restricted access to the region prevented verification of the extent of the violence.

http://www.fas.org/asmp/profiles/turkey.htm

[sk]

i dont bother anymoe when i see this kind of articles(this one is old 2)!
it doesnt worh it. maybe the danish writer should have a look in his own country who treats minorities so fairly ,how many problems they have and then start talking about other countries