* Comparing Turks in Greece and Greeks in Turkey. * Statements made by the Greek Minister of Foreign Affairs regarding the (non)Macedonian minority in Greece. * ‘Albanophobia’ and an extensive dialogue on racism in Greece provoked by a lot of incidents. * The Greek minority in Albania and parallels drawn with the situation in Kosovo. * Diverse evaluations regarding the visit of the Greek Prime Minister in Sofia, reference to the progress in Greek-Bulgarian relations. * Macedonia - the name issue and the Macedonian minority. * Serbia and Kosovo. Interest is commensurate to the amount of violence. * Lack of interest in Romania, maybe due to the geographical distance. * Turkey, a familiar profile.

Internal Minorities

After the recent scenarios referring to a possible Greek-Turkish clash in the near future with the Turkish minority in Thrace at the spearhead, a new type of dialogue is unfolding. It discusses the status of the two respective minorities in Greece and Turkey, as provided for in the Treaty of Lausanne. The comparative approach of the Greek press states that Greece is much better off in its respect for human rights than is Turkey. There is no specific reference to the particular demands of the Turkish minority in Greece. The right to self-determination, which the Greek state stubbornly denies and the right to elect their own muftis, instead of having them appointed by the state are not commented upon at all. The fact that the minority is allowed to build mosques, only after the approval of the Greek Orthodox Church and the educational and property issues related to the minority are considered non-existent by the media. The majority of the press and politicians claim that Greece fully respects the rights and freedoms of the minority, unlike "barbarian" Turkey which has almost exterminated the Greek minority in Constantinople. Notably, on some occasions it is indirectly implied that Greece should be equally tough towards the minority bequeathed to it by Turkey, although such a thing is not in harmony with the cultural superiority of the country. Admonitions for further important improvements which should have been made or should be made in the future seem inconceivable. As far as the Greek side is concerned, there is nothing in abeyance vis-a-vis the minority. This whole reasoning shows that, at least on several occasions, the respective minorities are seen as levers for pressure on Greece and Turkey, respectively. "Haven’t they ever heard that the 60,000 Muslims in Western Thrace have more than doubled in number since the Treaty of Lausanne? If the Greek Orthodox people committed acts of violence against them, then the situation would have been similar to that of Constantinople, Smyrna, Tenedos and so forth. There, out of the 300,000 [Greeks], only 2,500 remain at present. Haven’t they ever heard anything about the "September 1955 events" against Hellenism in Ionia? Have these stone-deaf people not heard that, just a few weeks ago, sacrilege was committed against Greek cemeteries in Constantinople? According to simple reasoning, it is not the Turks but the Greeks who should be indignant. Therefore, they will have to invent some other pretext in order to justify Turkish aggressiveness" (E.T. 21/4). "The Greeks from Constantinople are not left in peace even when they are dead. There are no limits in the barbarity of the Turks…" (…) "And when days like the one we had yesterday come, it becomes evident that there is nothing that can change the Turks. And this is particularly true of their barbarity…" (Eth. 3/4).

If the Turkish minority is recognized only as a religious minority, the Macedonian minority is recognized only as a made-up phantom used by the "nameless" neighboring state in order to exert pressure on Greece. The views held by the Greek Minister of Foreign Affairs, Th. Pangalos, in an interview given to El. (13/4), are indicative: "In Greece, there is no Macedonian minority. Of course, I do not want to teach anybody any lessons, but I think that those who invent a minority are sick people, sick in their minds. And I am talking in this way, because they live in a country where basic political, social, material and other problems have already been solved." This same interview provoked a rather critical attack of the conservative opposition press on the Minister of Foreign Affairs, because of his alleged conciliatory attitude towards the whole issue. "The positions developed by the Minister of Foreign Affairs in relation to the assertions raised by Skopje regarding ‘a Macedonian minority’ in Northern Greece are unprecedented. It is true that Mr. Pangalos denied that there are any ‘Macedonians’ but he pointed out that ‘there are people who speak a Slavic dialect, but this does not determine the existence of a national minority.’ At the same time, however, the person who heads Greek diplomacy let the window wide open to the self-determination of these people as … ‘Macedonian’ by saying: ‘There are people, however, who wish to develop such an identity (meaning ‘Macedonian’) and they are free to do so" (E.T. 13/4).

This month follows the trend of widespread ‘Albanophobia’ in the Greek press. "Albanian killers cut the throats of old pensioners and taxi-drivers for 50,000 drachmas" (E.T. 1 / 4). "At least one policeman gets killed by Albanians every day. Even the kids of the Albanians rob us and threaten us" (N. 2/4). "So, at present, the Simitis people in power play hosts to 800,000 cheap labor foreigners (Albanians, Romanians, Russians, Bulgarians, Poles, Africans and Asians; fortunately, there are no Turks). Some of these foreigners rob us and kill us with anti-Hellenic hatred. However, the Simitis people in power are also confronted with an equal number of unemployed Greeks who will beg for work tomorrow or the day after tomorrow ‘even without Social Security stamps’" (E.T. 10/4).

As expected, this climate affects public opinion to a great extent. Greeks are rather disturbed and not tolerant at all towards the (illegal)immigrants who live and work in Greece. As a rule, the Albanian immigrants are considered collectively as criminals but also as a future breeding-ground for problems to Greece since they endanger the national homogeneity of the country. "Let us guard our borders well because we will soon have new Chams coming into our already deserted border villages. This problem is already familiar as regards the ‘Turks’ of Thrace. Stop your bragging about racism and xenophobia before it is too late" [letter by P. Kontou (K. 9/4)]. "‘Will you shoot?’ we ask him embarrassed. ‘I will leave them without their balls,’ he replies, his face all red. ‘I’ll knock off whoever enters my home. To hell with the law. We were already poor. They brought here more people in rags. They should all leave… Were the Italians stupid, then, when they sank them into the sea and then gave us stories about an accidental collision?’" (El. 5/4).

However, there are also many dissenting voices which try to interpret the data on criminality in Greece as objectively as possible. "The two hooded youngsters who, last Saturday around noon, committed two robberies, while talking to each other in Greek with a foreign accent and using Albanian names, were nothing more than two persons from Mytilene. They took advantage of the climate of ‘Albanophobia’ which helped them invent this disguise in order to fool the police" (El. 1/4). "There may be dissatisfaction with the Albanians in some Greek villages. In others, however, people want to play football with them! The message of friendly coexistence between Greeks and Albanians comes from a village in Kavala. Its name is ‘Palio’ [‘Old’], but it seems to have a new world view. The Greek locals and the Albanians who work there have agreed on playing a friendly football match. The stake was for the losers to clean the provincial road." (E.T. 7/4). "It happened exactly as I suspected it would: at Yiannitsokhori, the rage against Albanians began when the immigrants got organized and started negotiating wages and conditions of work. It was then that some of the villagers called them ‘a gang,’ summoned them and took them to the police station. This was a way to send the Albanians away because they stood up for themselves. Let us relax. My compatriots are not racists, they are just self-righteous." (V. 12/4).

Particularly indicative are the following quotes from articles dealing with the short imprisonment sentence given to a Greek rural constable for killing an Albanian when the latter was found in the watermelon field of the former, stealing a watermelon. "But also on the scales of Justice the life of the Albanian did not carry much weight. The Court ‘exhausted all the margins for leniency’ and unanimously ‘acquitted’ the defendant. (‘Acquitted’ means: it reduced the First Instance Court’s five-year sentence to two years and gave him a three-year suspended sentence). That’s it, then, descendants of Socrates. Shoot them fatally. Our tomatoes, watermelons, old shoes forgotten in the furrows of the fields… They are all precious, they are valuables. It is not possible for every sharp-set Albanian to scheme against them. That is why, you should shoot them fatally. In their backs, as they are running away scared. Just like the rural constable shot the 20-year old [man]. And then, in the early evenings, in the cafes and in the living-rooms around the country, someone will talk and the others will interrupt him impatiently. They will talk about the fame of the ancestors, about their heritage, about the same blood and language which stirs us (on this issue, due to their higher education, the judges will be the first to speak). Come on, then. These creatures were born only to steal, kill and die like dogs. The wretched creatures who infect our fatherland have no place amongst us" (El. 9/4). "If an American tourist lays hands on my small piece of land where I have planted my watermelons, does this mean that I can take the rifle and turn her into a strainer? Will I be sentenced only to two short years? Will I pay and will I go around free like the rural constable who killed the Albanian in Larissa? This is too dim…" (El. 9/4). "‘If this rural constable’, said Mr. Kaplani (President of the Forum of Political and Albanian Organizations in Greece) ‘was acquitted as a fundamentalist ecologist who had shot the Albanian in revenge because the latter cut (i.e. killed) the water-melon. In this case the judgment would have offended us much less. But, unfortunately, the Albanian was not shot even in the name of defending the right of a watermelon to live’" (El. 13/4).

Keeping in mind all this, it is not difficult to explain the absence of tolerance observed in the young kids. Kyriakatiko Vima (V. 12/4) published an opinion poll carried out in various schools. "The rejection of children on the basis of their origin is very strong as regards Gypsy children (63%) and Albanian children (56%)".

Albania and the Albanians

An article in E.T. (10/4) reports that the Greek Minister of Defense, A. Tsochatzopoulos, stands behind the idea of granting autonomy to the Greek minority in Albania. He draws a parallel between this minority and the Albanian minority in Kosovo. "It is indicative that terms like ‘ethnic minorities’ are used in order to avoid any references to religious minorities like the one in Thrace" (E.T. 10/4). A day later, and in relation to this, E.T. (11/4) reports that "The Ministry of Defense has refuted the article." The paper goes on accusing the leadership of the Ministry for falling back and for being incapable of defending the Greek national interests. There was also an explicit retort: "In their disastrous course they find assistance from the Minister of Defense, A. Tsochatzopoulos. The latter, in an interview he gave to the minority newspapers, was too quick to relate the problem of the Kosovars with that of the Epirotes from the North [of Albania]. This was obviously done in order to confirm the consistency of our policy, which had been expounded at the United Nations by A. Samaras as Minister of Foreign Affairs and later confirmed by the then Prime Minister K. Mitsotakis. What is more, this was also done in order to consolidate the conviction held by any third parties that Greece is in favor of changing the borders in the Balkans" (El. 18 & 19/4).

As it is reasonable to expect, after the recent aggravation of ‘Albanophobia’ in the Greek mass media, the image of the Albanians is not the best there can be. "I had the honor of fighting on the mountains of Albania during 1940-41, so I got to know the Albanians. This is why, as a Greek, I am concerned about Greece and particularly about the future of our race and of our children whom we should protect against every external danger" [letter by A. Langadas, (K. 23/4)].

Bulgaria and the Bulgarians

The acute economic problems of Bulgaria, especially the difficult transition from a planned to an open and liberal economy, come to the center of interest of the Greek press once more. "It is a country where everybody lives under conditions of severe poverty. However, there are 1,500 individuals who lead a life equivalent to that of Hollywood tycoons. Secluded villas guarded by hosts of armed men. The owners of these houses have bank accounts abroad and suitcases full of dollars and Deutsche Marks in the country. They are ‘a new ruling class.’ Certain people call them entrepreneurs, others say it more clearly - ‘people of the Mafia’" (N. 15/4). "Bulgaria’s image is the worst since a decade ago. After the failure of the ‘liberals’ of the Zhelev type, who only knew how to pocket the election assistance sent by Greece, as well as the failure of the Socialists, who have not gotten rid of the Zhivkov syndrome yet, the economy of the country has literally collapsed" (E.T. 18 & 19/4). "In the past, the Palace of Culture in Sofia used to host conferences, lectures, party meetings and cultural events. Now, in the same Palace of Culture, fashion shows are held… Bulgaria has reconciled itself with the decision that it will proceed towards its regeneration by following all the rules of the market" (Eth. 9/4).

The evaluations on the development of the Greek-Bulgarian relations vary in accordance with the political line of the newspapers. The traditionally conservative E.T. blames the Greek government, because, in the struggle for the marginalization of Turkey in the Balkans, it does not take sufficient advantage of the trump card it holds, the trump card of shared religion with Bulgaria. "‘A fundamental feature of the Greek-Bulgarian friendship is that it is neither directed nor can it be interpreted to be directed against any third parties. A basic position and fundamental principle in Sofia, as well as in Athens, is our opposition to creating any axes and intra-Balkan coalitions!’ This unprecedented ‘clarification,’ made by the Greek Prime Minister, constitutes an essential deviation from the established Balkan policy of all Greek governments after the fall of the Iron Curtain. All previous governments aimed at a closer understanding of the Orthodox Balkan countries and at the formation of an anti-Turkish front." (E.T. 15/4). G. Delastik, a journalist in Kathimerini, estimates the relations between the two countries as good only on the surface. He goes on that, while trying to preserve various political balances, Bulgaria sacrifices a further rapprochement with Greece. "The policy of the Kostov government vis-a-vis the Greek companies, which has essentially led to a re-examination of almost all Greek-Bulgarian agreements, is not due to a reaction against the agreements made by its Socialist predecessors or to the fact that the conservatives are connected with other circles of interests. It is not wise to ignore the political background of the pro-Turkish orientation of the Bulgarian right-wing which, since the period of its first climbing to power, has frequently depended on the votes of the party of the numerous Turkish minority. All the more so now that the extreme nationalist VMRO is a participant in the present government coalition" (K. 17/4). "Sofia-Athens: further and further away" (K. 18 & 19/4). Somewhere in between come the comments of Vima: "The good intentions of Greece and Bulgaria and the high expectations held by the Bulgarians have been confirmed by the official two-day visit made by Prime Minister Simitis to Sofia and by his discussions with his Bulgarian counterpart, Mr. Kostov." (…) "The Greek side has found that there was some ‘caution’ on the part of the Bulgarian interlocutors which cannot be ascribed only to the fact that the two Prime Ministers belong to ideologically different parties. National prejudices, even if very faint, party calculations and some erroneous assessments with regard to the potential of the Turkish economy play a part and influence the attitude of the Bulgarian government vis-a-vis Greece to a certain extent." (V. 18 & 19/4).

Macedonia and the Macedonians

The articles about the neighboring ‘nameless’ state are scant this month. Although not very high on the political agenda, the issue of the name and its correlation with the scenarios regarding the irredentism of the neighbors, comes back to the scene on any occasion. As always, the main issue is the recognition of the Macedonian minority in Greece which will follow the international recognition of the country with a name which is ‘problematic’ to Greece. "So, more than a year ago - what emotions, what chanting to the ‘brotherhood of the peoples’, what incantations against nationalism and against the hysteria separating Greece from FYROM… Those things happened then, at the concert given by the willing and unselfish M. Theodorakis, supported by Maximous and executed by Paraskevopoulos. Since then - silence. Because the ‘Macedonians’ do not play games. Their unshakable nationalism, provocative as never before, praises the ancestors (!) - the Macedonians. It is concerned about the fate of the ‘Macedonian minority’. It writes Lerin, instead of Florina on passports. Undisturbed, it sows winds. Our own progressive people second them by subsidizing a blatant kind of nationalism" (El. 15/4).

Romania and the Romanians

Neither the political crisis in Romania, nor the governmental changes attract the attention of the majority of the Greek media. Romania seems to be particularly remote, and the latest political crisis is seen as one of the many links in the chain of instability which gets the country tied up with a rather bleak looking destiny.

Serbia and the Serbs

In comparison to previous months, references to Serbia seem significantly limited. Most articles are related to the Kosovo crisis, the delaying tactics followed by Milosevic (e.g. the referendum regarding international mediation on the issue) and the incidents of violence between the Albanians and the Serbian authorities. In commenting on the results of the referendum, El. (25/4) reports that "They have enthusiastically voted for isolation." The superficial neutrality of the Greek press continues this month. The Albanians are recognized more as a linguistic (Albanian-speaking people) and less as an ethnic minority. At the same time the traditional absence of critical comments on the political attitude of the Serbs in the area equals to an indirect support for their positions. "The Albanian-speaking people are getting tougher" (Eth. 24/4).

Turkey and the Turks

Turkey’s profile remains invariable: it is an undemocratic country; prey to a military coup d’etat; a democratic republic only in appearance, because it is devoid of fundamental freedoms; it is barbarous and uncivilized, without chances of joining Europe in the near future. "The present day Kemalist Turkey cannot endure the consequences of democratization. Respect for human rights and observance of the rules of parliamentary democracy are not compatible with the structure of the modern Turkish state. If Turkey became democratic, it would disintegrate" (N. 17/4). "Freedom of the press in Turkey still remains strictly limited, despite the positive steps which have been made in this field by the Yhilmaz government. The repressive laws which render punishable in court all pro-Kurd and pro-Communist political comment still remain in force and prevent any independent news dispatches from or in relation to the South-Eastern regions of the country" (Eth. 9/4).

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