UMD is appalled by the ongoing religious discrimination faced by indigenous ethnic Macedonians in Aegean Macedonia / northern Greece, and demands a reversal of this inhumane policy. Last year, the Greek Tax Revenue Office in Voden (Edessa) fined Archimandrite Nikodim Tsarknias, an ethnic Macedonian priest, on the false pretext that he had failed to declare revenue on his annual tax…
(Left poster above used for January 21st protest in Solun (Thessaloniki); right poster used for this Sunday’s protest in Athens; Golden Dawn Party Logo below) Posters depicting Macedonians as rabid dogs and rapists are being propagated by state-sponsored ultranationalists in Greece, in advance of another hate march planned in Athens on February 4, 2018. These extremist groups include members of…
The United Macedonian Diaspora (UMD) announced the publication of its new report: Greece: Religious Freedom Abuses – The Case of the Macedonian Orthodox Christian Minority. The report outlines the culture of abuse inherent to the Greek legal system concerning the lack of religious freedom, and it outlines the grievances of recent immigrants, the historic Turkish minority in Thrace, and the…
After several high-level meetings and events in Washington, D.C., United Macedonian Diaspora’s Human Rights Delegation continued to Canada, to spread the word about the Greek government’s systemic oppression of the Macedonian community in Greece. On October 25th and 26th, UMD Greece Representative, Eugenia Natsoulidou, and Archimandrite Nikodim Tsarknias were joined by UMD Director of Communications Mark Branov for official meetings…
On October 23, 2012, the United Macedonian Diaspora (UMD) hosted a panel discussion in Washington, D.C. to address the rise of extremism in Greece and what impact it has had on native, ethnic, migrant and religious minorities in Greece. The panel featured Archimandrite Nikodim Tsarknias, the representative of Greece’s Macedonian Orthodox religious community, Sali Bollati, Secretary-General of the Albanian American…
On October 23, 2012, Archimandrite Nikodim Tsarknias, the religious leader of the Macedonian Orthodox Church in Greece, met with Dr. Suzan Johnson Cook, the U.S. Ambassador-at-Large for International Religious Freedom at the U.S. Department of State. Archimandrite Tsarknias brought to Ambassador Johnson Cook’s attention the challenges of the Macedonian Orthodox faith community in Greece and the Greek government’s long-standing policy…
On the eve of International Religious Freedom Day, the United Macedonian Diaspora (UMD) calls on the international community to strongly condemn the Greek government’s ongoing denial of basic religious freedoms to all Greek citizens. On October 27th, the world observes that: “…everyone has the right to freedom of thought, conscience and religion…freedom to change his religion or belief, and…