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GREEK HELSINKI MONITOR
(GHM)
MINORITY RIGHTS GROUP - GREECE
P.O. Box 60820, GR-15304 Glyka Nera, Greece
Tel. +30-1-347.22.59; Fax +30-1-601.87.60
e-mail: office@greekhelsinki.gr Web Page:
http://www.greekhelsinki.gr
VINDICTIVENESS OR STUPIDITY ?
Ethnos
Sunday's Email 27/8/2000
From: Nikos Dimou
To: Guardians of the State
Copy: Ethnos Readers
Subject: Vindictiveness or stupidity?
Five decades have passed since the fratricidal Civil War. Time,
wisdom and forgiveness have cured the traumas and healed the wounds,
enabling us to look one another in the eye regardless of which side
our fathers or grandfathers were on. However, this is not the case
for a small minority of people, now frail and beleaguered who cannot
even today pay their respects at the graves of their ancestors.
For many years, I have marveled at the insistence of the Greek
Authorities to prohibit entry to the citizens of FYROM who were
former fighters in the Greek Democratic Army. Whatever these people
may have done once, it's been fifty years! What's the Hellenic State
afraid of? Ten old guys will seize Macedonia?
Two months ago, Mr. Vaskos Karatzas was denied entry to this country
as an undesirable person, at the Evzone border. I quote directly
from the letter of accusation written by Y. Nakratzas, an author and
doctor, to Prime Minister Simitis:
"Mr. Karatzas is 77 years old and a native of Dentrohori,
Kastoria. He rightly wishes to make a pilgrimage his place of origin
while he is still alive. He was in possession of a proper passport
from his country and a visa, number GR 1891077, issued by the Greek
Consulate of Skopia on 29.5.2000 and signed by Mrs. Athena
Tononidou. Mr. Karatzas is a civil engineer, writer and well-known
translator of works of literature into the Greek language (such as
"The Red Pony"), and the author of a series of poems that
were published in Greece.
Although our country has given amnesty to all former Democratic Army
fighters, co-conspirators, German collaborators and those who served
in the German security battalions ("Tagmatasfalites"), it
still, after 50 years, denies a certain category of former partisans
the opportunity of visiting their birthplace."
This Mr. Karatzas must be an awfully dangerous guy. Something like a
Skopian James Bond, who's capable on his own of overpowering the
entire Hellenic Armed Forces. Otherwise, it's beyond me why the
Greek State would even recall its own visa!
A little compassion wouldn't hurt. Nor would a little common sense.
These incidents are heard about abroad, and malign our country's
image.
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