UMDiaspora sent a letter to the British Broadcasting Company in reference to their article “Amnesty blasts Greece over abuse.”
BBC Complaints,
PO Box 1922,
Glasgow G2 3WT
Dear Sir/Madam,
We are writing in regard to your article “Amnesty blasts Greece over abuse ”, dated 5 October 2005. Your article was a good summary and overview of Amnesty International’s recent report on Greece’s human rights abuses, however, with one drawback.
Amnesty International made various criticisms of the Greek Government in relation to its treatment of its minorities, and in particular, its ethnic Macedonian minority. The ethnic Macedonians living in Greece are one of the country’s key minority groups and have suffered from state discrimination since Greece’s occupation of Aegean Macedonia in 1913, following the Balkan Wars.
Amongst other abuses, the Greek Government does not allow ethnic Macedonians to identify as such, does not allow them to speak their native Macedonian language and does not allow them to worship in Macedonian Orthodox Church services. The Greek Government has attempted to de-nationalise the Macedonians over the past 90 years and forcefully assimilate them.
We believe that your article would have been even more comprehensive had you mentioned Greece’s abuses of not only the Roma minority, but also those against the Macedonian and Turkish minorities.
It is important that the wider public understands what is happening in Greece, a member of NATO and the EU, and that the Greek Government has a long way to go before becoming truly European and democratic.
Sincerely,
United Macedonian Diaspora