The United Nations theme for World Refugee Day 2020, “Every Action Counts”, reinforces the need for compassion and inclusivity. As we commemorate the 76th anniversary since the plight and mass exodus from Aegean Macedonia (today’s northern Greece) of thousands of Macedonian children called the “Deca Begalci” (child refugees). “I’m sorry to say that this is another chapter of…
The Greek Orthodox Community of South Australia Dance Academy, along with the Greek musical group Mikri Kompania is currently advertising their dancing concert as “A journey through Macedonia and Thrace.” The United Macedonian Diaspora (UMD) would like to remind the Greek community, and the international community abroad that promoting Greek culture, music, etc. as “Macedonian”, whilst making no distinctions nor…
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…
The United Macedonian Diaspora (UMD) applauds Mr. Aleksandar Nikoloski, head of the Macedonian delegation to the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE), for bringing up the systematic discrimination against the Macedonian minority, among others, in Greece during yesterday’s PACE session. Following the 2012 annual activity report of the CoE Commissioner for Human Rights Mr. Nils Muižnieks, Mr. Nikoloski…
The United Macedonian Diaspora (UMD) welcomes the Council of Europe (CoE)’s April 16th Report chastising the Greek government for its weak response to the surge in hate crimes. CoE Commissioner Nils Muižnieks catalogues serious human rights violations perpetrated against immigrant and minority populations of Greece and attributes them in significant part to supporters of and, parliamentarians affiliated with, the neo-Nazi…
As the United Macedonian Diaspora’s (UMD) human rights advocacy work expanded in 2012 on behalf of human rights for the native Macedonian community in Aegean Macedonia (modern day Northern Greece), the UMD Greece Representative Eugenia Natsoulidou recently became the target of death threats, and has been publically slandered by a major Greek newspaper – Proto Thema. In response, legal action…
On December 11, 2012, the EU Council put the nationalist agendas of Bulgaria and Greece before EU enlargement, damaged regional stability in the Western Balkans, and undermined the credibility of the EU enlargement process. The United Macedonian Diaspora (UMD) believes that the EU should be the bridge that unites Europe; instead it has become the divider that deepens inter-regional differences,…
UMD Greece Representative and Co-Founder of the Educative and Cultural Movement of Edessa (Voden) (ECME), Eugenia Natsoulidou participated at the Network to Promote Linguistic Diversity’s General Assembly (NPLD GA), in Corsica, France, on October 4, 2012 to promote the status of the Macedonian language in Greece. ECME was elected during the General Assembly as an Associate Member, the first…