by Christina Rougheri, Greek Helsinki Monitor and Minority Rights Group - Gr.

The Greek press continued to back the official (intolerant) policy towards minorities denying the existence of both a Turkish and a Macedonian minority, with one notable exception on the occasion of a public debate on minorities. The usual images of chaos and poverty dominated Albania's coverage, while there were Albanophobe references following some violent incidents involving Albanians in Greece. The Turkish minority in Bulgaria again attracted the interest of the media, whose aim was limited to mere scare-mongering. The neihgboring country's attitude towards Macedonia and the alleged related motives were also covered. The usual mention of poverty in Bulgaria and Romania continued this month. However, the Greek press emphasized the friendly relations between Greece and Romania, stressing on the benefit which Greece may seek from it (with regard to property rights of Greeks who fled Romania in the past). Theodorakis' music concert in Skopje in April continued to provoke predominantly negative comments and criticism especially in the conservative press. Still, there were also encouraging comments on the bilateral relations and the prospects of cooperation, which is a recent phenomenon in the erstwhile unanimously hostile towards "Skopje" Greek press. The Serbian leadership got bad publicity in articles critical of its attitude in the war-dominated past. At the same time, there was a comparison of the present and future through literature. The pattern of negative references to Turkey continued with emphasis on human rights and the country's regime. The concert of a Greek and a Turk in Cyprus triggered many such stories. Nevertheless, there were also some positive comments on citizens' initiatives to further peace and cooperation between the two countries.

Internal Minorities

With respect to the minority in Thrace there was a very detailed coverage in the Greek newspapers of the visit by the Greek President in the border area; particularly, concerning his statements which echo the so-called progressive political opinion in Greece. "Each person has the right to call oneself as they wish. I call myself a Greek. Another person may call himself/herself a Turk. No one, however, has the right to give others a name. We cannot say that the whole minority in Thrace is Turkish. There are Pomaks, Gypsies, as well as citizens of Turkish origin." (Eth. 15/5) One can thus conclude that the official position of the Greek state is that there is no Turkish minority in Greece, consequently, there is no question of the recognition of such a minority. The right of free self-determination is recognized only on the level of the individual. However, minority members in Thrace, sometimes even parliamentarians, have been criticized because they have declared publicly that they consider themselves Turks.

The mistakes made by Greek policy makers, concerning the minority in Thrace in the past, are stated by the Prefect of the area, Mr. Saltouras, in E.T.(4/5), (a pre-eminently conservative and nationalist newspaper): "Athens had a wrong policy, which aimed at creating ghettos, isolation, preventing urbanization or participation of the minority in the Greek society. Economic, social, cultural, professional and whatever other reasons led to this policy, whose purpose I do not really understand. Possibly it was a consequence of the bad relations between the two countries as well as of the choice of ‘specialists’, who functioned in a way which, unfortunately, favored the Turkish interests. Turkey wanted to have it her way. And when would be the best moment for her to have her way? When her co-religionists found themselves in ghettoes, in isolation, in abandonment, like a segregated people. "Those ‘specialists’ ‘helped’ immensely in the accomplishment of what was exactly Ankara’s objective. They helped in the development of a common Turkish consciousness among all minority populations, something which is historically unjustifiable. Fortunately, although rather belatedly, this policy has changed. In that respect, the local government has helped a lot. We have chosen equality of social and political rights as the only policy."

The two articles summarized here show clear evidence of the way in which the minority is treated by the Greek press and by all political leaders. A comment in E.T. (6/5) mentions the economic and organizational problems confronting the National Foundation for the Reception and the Resettlement of Repatriated Greeks. The argument concerns the "very serious crime committed by the government, because the program of the resettlement of Pontics was combined with the development program of Thrace. So, these ‘modernists’, instead of financing developmental programs in the sensitive area of Thrace, so that it attracts the Pontics, who are very special patriots, preferred to merely hire people for state jobs!…" We are to understand here that some other people in Thrace, obviously the minority, are not special patriots. Apart from that the program of resettlement proves exactly that the issue is dealt with (and was dealt with in the past) superficially: on the basis of numbers and not at the level of recognition of equal rights for everybody. Also, a congress of the Turkish minority members who live in Germany which was held in Bonn and where the term "Turkish" was openly used by the participants, was characterized by a Greek newspaper as "provocation" (E.T. 9/5), cultivating further a climate of hostility towards the minority among the Greek readers.

There was very little coverage in the Greek newspapers of certain nationalistic acts of sabotage which relate mostly to explosions and bombings of Turkish monuments dating from the period of the Ottoman Empire: the bombings of an old hamam (Turkish baths) in Tirnavos; of a mosque in Larisa, (it occurred in anticipation of a forthcoming fraternization of this city with a Turkish one and a visit of a Turkish delegation to participate at the related manifestations); and of a mosque of Ierapetra; as well as the desecration of the Jewish cemetery of Trikala. These events went almost unnoticed by the Greek press. The articles were quite superficial and presented merely the events citing police sources, without any commentaries or condemnation of such acts. In fact, most of the time these acts were not discussed as the consequence of intolerance and nationalism among some Greeks. Exceptions, an article in El.(10/5) with the title "monuments of a lesser God" and one in Ad.T.(22/5) (a pre-eminently conservative and nationalist newspaper), defending the restoration of "the important monument of Alcazar" in the North of Greece.

The (non)coverage of a public debate organized by the Macedonians was indicative of the treatment of that minority by the press. We read in El. (17/5) "New provocation by Skopjanophiles! Florina on the alert because of the manifestation organized by Rainbow [the political party of the Macedonian minority in Greece]"(E.T.30/4) The readers of the newspapers of the right must have been confused, because after having been bombarded for a week with reports calling them to be on the alert because of the event organized by Rainbow, they did not learn anything about what actually happened. Now they all seek at least one word about the content, the participants, and the format of the meeting. Still, their efforts are in vain. The same people who have warned about an imminent national threat, preferred to remain silent. They did not consider it their obligation to inform their readers, at least on whether the much discussed event took place at all. Oh, well, the meeting did take place with the discrete presence of the police authorities…and the participation of about 200 inhabitants from the region.

Indeed, several articles which appeared before the event in conservative newspapers had a very precise objective - that of cultivating negative feelings about it in their readers by calling it a "conference-provocation" (E.T. 9/5) or "a strange provocation" (Ad.T. 9/5), without, of course, going into any discussion as to the content of the event itself. Only El (17/5) consecrated an extensive and objective article after the roundtable took place. Therein, the minority was called Macedonian, and the readers were informed that the Greek border authorities did not allow Alexander Popovski to enter Greece and to participate in the event as a representative of the political refugees [from the Greek Civil War] who cannot return to Greece according to the Law of Repatriation because they are "not of Greek origin". Moreover, the seldom mentioned problems of that minority were reported: that there is a necessity for dialogue; that the attempts at homogenization lead to antidemocratic measures; that the Balkan states still refuse to recognize the rights to their minorities; that the political refugees living in the Republic of Macedonia who try to claim their properties in Greece face many problems; that any group must be recognized with respect to its particular identity; that the Greek state has carried out a kind of ‘national cleansing’ procedure; that the minorities in the Balkans are discussed in relation to national security; that there is a pronounced Greek chauvinism which leads to the pressures that Rainbow faces when it speaks out on the rights of the Macedonian minority in Greece; and the respective problems of the Turkish minority. At several occasions it was clearly stated that the minority does not in any way claim either autonomy or changing of the borders, both of those being arguments raised by the Greek state, the mass media and the public opinion as a justification for the non-recognition of the minority.

On the issue of the Aegean Macedonian political refugees, a letter to the editor (El.5/5) stated the following: "who denies that Skopjans are a distinct Slavic nation and that a small and negligible percentage of the population of Macedonia before the Civil War was made up of this Slavic group? However, they joined fascist Bulgaria and the fascist Communist Party of Greece to throw out the genuine Macedonians" [which implies, of course, the Greek Macedonians].

Concerning the Roma people who live in Greece, we had a letter of the Pan-Hellenic Association of Parents and Legal Guardians about the combat against drugs and crime in El.(6/5) in light of reports from the previous month speaking of relations between the Roma and the drug dealers. Thus exceptionally negative images reproducing the well-known stereotypes appeared once more in the Greek press. We saw again stereotypes such as: Gypsy - thief - criminal - man without principles. We should add here that, besides E.T.(18/5), there was no other reference to the beatification of a Roma person by the Pope of Rome. "The Gypsy Pele became a saint providing great jubilation to the millions of Roman Catholic Gypsies in the world, who applauded the placement of an aureole on the head of one of their own. And if this is not a political move, how else should it be characterized?"

The month also saw several articles about the illegal immigrants living and working in Greece, especially in anticipation of the forthcoming Presidential decree on their legalization. Characteristic of the racist treatment of the illegal immigrants (particularly the Albanians) by the police, but also by some Greek citizens, are the following excerpts: "For one year Albanian Vladimir Cabaxi, accused for the murder of a fellow country-man, has been claiming that he is a minor and only yesterday it was proved that he was telling the truth." (Ap. 16/5) "If foreign criminals had similar treatment the situation would be better from the point of view of criminality" [statement of the defense attorney of a "drug addict and animal lover who stabbed a foreigner because he was bothering a little dog."(Ap. 16/5).]

Albania and Albanians

"Undisturbed armed gangs are active in the Southern region of Albania, since law and order have not yet been reestablished three months after the popular insurrection"(Ap. 5/5). The well-known portrait of Albania, as presented by the Greek press recently, depicts an Albania "of a lesser God" (El. (2/5), where the situation is characterized as being "beyond control" (Ap. 3/5), especially in the "wild West of the Albanian South" (El. 13/5).

The reports on the poverty and the country’s economic problems appear on an almost daily basis. There are also articles on "the base of operations of the Albanian cartel" (E.T. 10/5); on the black economy; on "smuggling, the only source of income in the South" (El. 10/5); and, of course, on "the fright caused by the uncontrollable gang violence in Albania" (Ap. 20/5). A picture of a dangerous and a politically and economically unstable country dominates. All this was usually related to events which directly affect the Greek reality, such as: "A Greek businessman dead in Albania" (Ap. 15/5). The Greek press develops an intense climate of scare-mongering, strengthening the already existing negative stereotypes. It is indicative that the above picture of chaos is also transposed to Greece and is blamed either on the Albanians - immigrants or Mafiosi - or on the inability of the Greek authorities to deal with them appropriately. E.T. (9/5) refers to "the Albanian state of Thesprotia", always coming back to this subject , while at the same time titles such as the following accompany a large number of different articles. "A new attack made by the Albanian Mafia. They fired with automatic rifles at tourist installations in Corfu" (E.T. 6/5). "A new wave of refugees is coming from Albania" (E.T. 6/5). Particularly negative comments were presented in the Greek press after the events which related to attacks made by Albanians, such as against harbor workers and officials and against tourist resorts in Corfu. "But let us take into account the fact that the Albanians are not doing something new. This has been their official [sic] work since bygone times. They have always lived that way - by plundering and killing. Illyrians were not either farmers or stock-breeders. They were professional plunderers (…) I don’t know where things will go with these katsapliades [thieves] who have now become even more insolent, they jump into speedboats in Corfu, Preveza and Igoumenitsa, and shoot in cold blood. That is why I cannot understand why we have sent an army inside Albania and not in Epirus, so that we shoot at these killers" (A.T. 7/5) "All of the Ionian Sea, Epirus, as well as the districts of Western Macedonia have become by now the ‘paradise’ for the Albanian Mafiosi who steal, plunder and abduct unimpeded by our incapable and naked state (…) There is an immediate necessity to take radical measures. Not only to deter the criminal activity of the Mafia, but also to show that there is speedy and exemplary reaction on the spot. Suppression. Bloody, if necessary. Only this language can be understood by the Albanian goat thieves and murderers. They are blustered clans. (…) There are always the ridiculous ‘intellectuals’ who speak about ‘racism’ on the part of those who believe that the Albanians, the disgrace of Europe, must be punished on the spot for each provocation, illegality or rascality. We’ve said it before. We feed them enough, we give them work, we help them here and in their fatherland. So that we do not let them terrorize us."

According to the estimation of many journalists, so long as the climate remains intense and disarming of the South appears impossible, fair elections will remain a very difficult task to accomplish. Many articles argued that "elections are threatened"(El.27/5) and that Albania "moves towards a double fraud" (K. 16/5), since it is considered certain that there will be an attempt to alter the results by the North in the South and vice versa. Some journalists cultivate a climate of scare-mongering, involving the religious dimension of the issue as well. "Albanians may be notorious for their (…) lack of patriotism from the period of the Turkish occupation and during the Italian occupation; nevertheless, the Muslim element exists strongly, especially in the North. If the acts of violence between Christian and Muslim ‘gangs’ climax, very quickly we will have a new Lebanon or a new Bosnia near our borders!" (A.T. 9/5) The most pessimistic and scare-mongering forecasts place the issue in a wider context with references to the state of Kosovo, as well as to a possible internal upheaval in Macedonia. "The two small Balkan countries and the historical Serbian province give the impression of a real devil’s triangle" (El. 18/5)

Bulgaria and Bulgarians

The very important economic problems of this country and its Turkish minority are dealt with in an article in Ad.T. (9/5), which takes scare-mongering to the extreme by observing that : "In Sofia and all over Bulgaria, the situation is tragically terrible for the people; inflation runs at vertiginous speed while the leva was devalued by 500% since last year. Another threat that lies in wait for Bulgaria is that of the … ‘Muslim’ minority of Bulgaria which here is also manipulated by Ankara". Nevertheless, only a few days before that article N. (2/5) wrote the following: "The Turkish minority in Bulgaria has quieted down. They have no claims." The article refers to the living conditions in the Turkish villages of Bulgaria, compared to those of the other inhabitants and also comments on the relations between the minority with the Bulgarian citizens and the state. "It is not long ago that official statistics presented that one out of every two Bulgarians considered the Turks from the Rhodopes to be ‘fanatics of Islam’. Today this impression has been diluted. The elections showed that the few fanatics have been marginalized and have no more power".

An article in E.T.(15/5) also cultivates this intense climate of scare-mongering in reference to the relations between Bulgaria and "Skopje" mentioning that: "The situation takes dangerous dimensions as a sudden involvement of Sofia has been noticed. The new Bulgarian government seems prepared to adopt the statelet of Skopje (as well as its irredentist claims), recognizing a ‘Macedonian’ nation! Speaking to the BBC, the Bulgarian Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs, B. Dobrev, forewarned that his government is prepared to recognize the existence of a ‘Macedonian’ language and a ‘Macedonian’ nation if the Skopjans admit their Bulgarian roots!"

Macedonia and Macedonians

Many different articles appeared in the Greek press this month concerning Macedonia. In an interview to Ap. (19/5) PASOK deputy S. Papathemelis, notorious with his position on the Macedonian question, said that "the Greeks ought to grind their teeth to the Skopjans", arguing that, "We need a national will to mobilize forces and to start reminding Skopje that we are present, that Greece exists. And how is that to be done? By slightly hindering their dealings in the harbor of Salonica, their movement on Greek territory. Make them understand that you don’t want, you cannot stand being laughed at. Give them an actual warning that ‘look, we are not the - pardon my language - malakes [jerks] of the situation." The issue refers to the name of the neighboring country. The same deputy strikes again with the following statement: "Private International Law protects even Benetton’s underwear. But Public International Law leaves Greeks unprotected against the name ‘Macedonia’ and the usurpers and falsifiers of History unpunished" (N. 27/5)

Ap.(13/5) has a similarly-sounding article about the official visit of Greek journalists to Macedonia. "The Greek journalists in our opinion wrongly accepted an invitation from the ‘Republic of Macedonia’(!) to visit Skopje, instead of rubbing the invitation on the face of the senders or demanding that the state which invited them changes its name, at least to FYROM. Instead, they also realized that Skopjans don’t even discuss the issue of their state’s name." On the same subject, Ad.T.(11/5) mentions "a disgraceful acceptance on the part of the Greek journalists". The name issue is the subject of a letter which 166 pupils sent to the President of the Greek Republic, the Prime Minister and all opposition party leaders, and which was published in the Letters to the Editor Section of N.(17/5): "We are the Macedonians. The Skopjans are Slavs and they ought to be proud of their Slavic history and inheritance."

Opinions and commentaries concerning the concert given by M. Theodorakis in Skopje in April 1997 continue to appear in the May 1997 newspapers questioning even whether the event should have taken place. "A propagandistic scene was put on, with Athens trying to put forward the line of diplomatic surrender and Skopje arguing in favor of friendship among the peoples, regardless of the policies applied. When the well staged exercises to impress ended, Mr. Gligorov repeated very officially his intransigent anti-Hellenic positions …We reached such a point of national decay that we feel ‘relieved’ or even vindicated because we entertained the elite of a state which finds itself at the edge of ethnic disintegration and economic collapse and which uses the claims against Greece as the smallest common denominator among the political forces and the various ethnic groups…" E.T.(17/5).

Nevertheless, besides the above mentioned articles which prove the fact that for many Greeks the name issue continues to exist, producing negative stereotypes on the neighboring country and reproducing the ones which already exist, there is also a number of people who dare speak openly about a composite name. In a letter to El.(8/5), a reader argues in favor of the acceptance on the part of Greece of the name NOVA MAKEDONJA for the neighboring country. Also on the occasion of the inauguration of the supermarket "Veropoulos" in Skopje, the Greek businessman presented a different picture of the Macedonians than the stereotypical one, though continuing to use the term "Skopjans". "The Skopjans are nice and polite. And they love us, as much as this may sound strange to the ears of some Greeks…They look up to Greece and the Greeks for help. They are afraid of the Bulgarians. They don’t have good relations at all with the Albanians, while the Turks have been excluded from the economic life. But you shouldn’t tell them anything about the name. In their discussions with the Greeks they avoid to pronounce the word ‘Macedonia’ in order not to offend them. They discuss politely and show that they have friendly feelings for our country…" (Eth. 15/5). It should be reminded here that Veropoulos was the one who had launched the embargo against Dutch products a few years ago because of the perceived pro-Macedonian attitude of the Dutch on the name issue … .

On the occasion of the co-operation between Karditsa and Ohrid, with the establishment of a Greek local democracy embassy in the Macedonian city, under the auspices of the Council of Europe, N.(5/5) noted: "the interesting thing about the event is that the Skopjan side has overcome all reactions which came from members of the nationalist parties, and this is of great significance." Generally, we may say that the comments made by the Greek press about this initiative were particularly warm, speaking about "an alliance between Karditsa and Ohrid". (El.6/5)

Finally, we will refer to the articles in the Greek press on the victory of the Greek volleyball team over the Macedonian one. "They spiked Skopje and the provocation" we read in Eth.(2/5), while in Ap., on the same day: "An answer by Samaras to fanatic Skopjans: I’m a Macedonian!" "I saw ‘Macedonians’ waving flags with the star of Vergina and singing rhythmically the name of their country during the match against the Greek national team. Well done for them. Only that that inimitable Paraskevopoulos, the old Leftist on the Simitis list, must explain to them anew how close together Mikis’ concert brought the people of the two countries….". (El. 3/5).

Romania and Romanians

El.(11/5) with the title "Poverty and Horror" refers to the immense economic problems which confront Romania. The above picture is presented very descriptively by choosing and projecting information that is dramatic and even gruesome, thus awakening the readers’ interest. A characteristic example is the following title of an article concerning an event that was covered by almost all newspapers: "They did not have money for a funeral and put 47 dead infants into formalin".(El.8/5)

The official conversation of the Romanian President of the Republic with his Greek counterpart, in the context of his visit in Athens, had little coverage in most of the Greek mass media. Nevertheless, there was talk about "the particularly warm climate", while Mr. Constantinescou’s declarations that "friends in need are friends indeed", as well as his call upon the "close friendly relations that bind the two countries together" got a wide coverage (Eth.25/5).

Lastly, in light of the above mentioned visit and "because today’s Romania sees in Greece a warm supporter for its admission to the European Union and NATO", an article in E.T.(21/5) was consecrated on "Greeks, originating from Romania, who were violently expelled after the establishment of communism and who now ask for the restitution of their houses and their property which was at the time confiscated and seized".

Serbia and Serbs

This month the Greek press had rather few articles on Serbia. Most of them concerned Serbian President S. Milosevic and his plans for "a third term, in spite of the Constitution" (El. 25/5) and also the reference to an article from the French magazine Nouvel Observateur (El.19/5) on the occultation of incriminating evidence "which connects the President of Serbia with the commitment of war crimes". The occultation is blamed on the Conservative Party of England which, according to the Nouvel Observateur, is said to have been economically assisted by the Milosevic regime.

Finally, an article in K. (25/5) dedicated to modern Serb writers indirectly comments on Serbia’s contemporary intellectuals compared to older periods, especially with respect to their attitude towards the war. "The banner of the ascending new generation of writers is the breach with the abuse of intellectual power that they attribute to the older generation. Some of them criticize the famous Academy of Arts and Sciences that it is full of ‘mythomaniac scholars who pretend to be historians’. They demand that intellectuals who had for several years monopolized the political scene be brushed aside now. Others rebel when they see that some recognized writers ‘clean up their CVs’ and side belatedly with the movement for democratization (…) Strangely enough Greece, in spite of its ties to Serbia, seems to have been waiting for the destruction of old Yugoslavia in order to begin to study systematically its rich literature. A literature which is half-Central European half-Balkan…"

Turkey and Turks

In May the picture which dominated the Greek press about Turkey was that of a country which does not respect of human rights and democratic principles. The presentation of news referring to these abuses was accompanied by negative comments by the journalists, something which is a common habit that most Greek newspapers follow. Accordingly, facts concerning the freedom of the press and persecution of journalists in the neighboring country were also covered: "78, out of the 180 imprisoned journalists all over the world are found in the Turkish jails!" (Eth. 3/5). "In Turkey alone, between 1992 and 1996, 800 intellectuals, doctors, businessmen and people working in the mass media have been murdered. It was always done with a gun in the back because those people happened to be Kurds and they had stated their origin". [statements by Jamal Ioskoun, Second Secretary of the People’s Republican Party of Turkey, (El.3/5)] "The target of the press is Erbakan: he is considered an enemy of journalism" (Ap. 5/5).

The operations of the Turkish army against the Kurds were covered at length in the Greek press and the titles chosen for the articles were most of the time clamorous. "50,000 barbarians with human masks" (Ad.T. 16/5). "Turks slaughter Kurds" (Ap.19/5). In a similar style were the following comments: "How many heads did they cut off in 1997? There’s a good question. How many young Kurds did they kill in cold blood? How many Kurd women did they rape?" (Ad.T. 12/5)

Most articles besides criticizing Turkey’s practices also condemn the stand taken by the international community "which limits itself to feeble reactions", while at the same time "Ankara has been bombarding the Kurdish positions on the mountains of the Iraq-Iran border with F4 warplanes and helicopters for six consecutive days" (Eth.20/5). E.T.(21/5) links the views of Greece’s Minister of Foreign Affairs, Th. Pangalos on the European position of Turkey with the operation against the Kurds, making the following comment: "The opinions and the diplomatic activity of Mr. Pangalos are an offense to Greek history. He has reached the point of connecting the European presence of Greece with that of Turkey and of presenting the neighboring country as another democracy which deserves to become part of the European Union under certain conditions. At a moment when "Pangalism" develops - this strange theory of complete ridiculing of diplomacy - Turkey has broken into the territory of Iraq as far as 60 miles deep, intensifying the genocide of the Kurds…" Many of the analyses relate the operation against the Kurds also to the internal political problems confronting that country. "It is publicly known that by threatening with the ‘boogyman’ of Kurdish terrorism the generals undermine the Turkish political world and direct Ankara’s foreign policy themselves. Could it be that stratocracy in fact is the one which causes the Islamic flux"(El.25/5).

The country’s antidemocratic and corrupt image is focalized most often on specific persons in politics, especially on Minister of Foreign affairs T. Ciller. N.(7/5) for example writes of: "A slap to Ciller: A German court implies her when it relates Turkish politicians to the Mafia of narcotics." "They bribed in order to save themselves" "The coalition government survived with only a six-vote margin" (E.T. 21/5).

Besides the state and its mechanisms of repression, the negative image presented by the Greek press concerns also the Turks in general, by insisting on and confirming the typical stereotypes about the neighboring country. "Turkish slave-traders have filled the Aegean Sea with corpses of illegal immigrants. In an article T. Pappas (El.18/5) writes of the stereotype of the barbaric Turk and the way in which it is integrated in the Greeks’ daily vocabulary with stock phrases. "Even more vividly the word ‘Turk’ is also used for someone with barbarian methods in his everyday life. Similar prejudices over the term ‘Greek’ may be found in Turkey, where the term means cunning and sly. The relations between the two countries are heavily loaded with suspicion which has its origins in the successive wars they have embarked on against each other in the course of centuries".

In anticipation of the Greek-Turkish dialogue, one of the major stereotypical images of Turkey is that of a continually threatening country which wants to absorb the Aegean and the Greek islands and to gain the territory lost from the time of the Ottoman Empire. "S. Papathemelis remembered yesterday a Turkish proverb in order to indicate to the government how to respond to Ankara’s provocation. ‘Was the goat saved from the wolf? The goat owes it to its horns’, says the proverb and ‘the wolf’, in this case, is no other but the ‘Turkish gray wolves’, who want to eat the Greek goat, which can save itself only with the help of its horns …"(Ap.13/5) "Greece is not the first country which faces a threat from a revisionist and internally unstable state, whose blunt expansionism is fueled by internal political and social attitudes that often border to fascism, chauvinism and unbridled extreme nationalism. It oppresses millions of people coming from minorities and it maintains mechanisms of repression, torture and genocide. According to any criterion of American political thought, the Turkish regime would constitute a peripheral empire of Lucifer" (N.14/5).

The country’s internal political problems cover a great part of the news related to Turkey. Turkey is presented in a permanent state of "identity crisis" (Ad.T.11/5), a country which wanders wavering between the principles of a secular urban and of a theocratic model of organization. "Enchained in its political culture and its torn personality Turkey is not threatened by collapse because that would be to no one’s interest - neither to the great nor to the medium powers. However, it becomes an extremely unstable opportunity for the West"(El.25/5). Notably, in light of Demirel’s interview for a Greek private television station and the Oymen statements during a conference in Athens, comments as the above mentioned are a daily phenomenon. There is talk about "a delirium of a megalomaniac neighbor"(El.28/5). Characteristic in this case are the statements by the Greek Assistant Minister of Defense: "Turkey is a country which is very far from being called a ‘state of law’ …a state which does not remind us of the Ottoman Empire but still dreams of it. A state which does not even deserve to be classified as underdeveloped" (El. 28/5). The comment made by the journalist who reports the Assistant Minister’s statements is equally indicative: "I think that the term ‘empire in decay’ would be the most appropriate and Oymen hastened the other day to confirm it".

The Greek press presented the joint concert of Greek singer S. Rouvas and his Turkish colleague M. Kut in Cyprus with some negative, even aggressive comments. There is talk about a "a tasteless cultural happening" (E.T. 7/5) "a pretentious happy-go-lucky concert" (Ad.T. 1/5) and the responsibility is attributed to "foreign centers for the effort they undertake to equate victims and oppressors" (Ad.T. 10/5), as much as to the two artists. "On the one hand we have the double symbolism of Turkish ferocity and expansionism, on the other, the happy-go-lucky position of the artist and the indifference of the official authorities"(E.T.19/5) We present here several related comments. "The musical solution [sic] is not always a panacea…There used to be music in German concentration camps when they were executing women and children" (Ad.T. 17/5). "The only answer should be contempt and it is sufficient for this annoying, dull, ridiculous, but also provocative action, amidst the ignorance of apolitical constructs of the ‘star-system’" (Ad.T. 17/5). "An entire people is tormented with the…profound nonsense of an unfortunate, innocent and ignorant of history young man, who decided to unite the two peoples of Greece and of Turkey…But, for God’s sake, don’t let the Rouvases make ‘politics.’ The occupation of half of Cyprus by the barbarian Attila is too serious a matter for any ‘wagtail’!" (Ap. 20/5). "About 2,000 automatic revolvers were distributed by Denktash to the Turkish Cypriot citizens whom he baptized ‘policemen’ of his pseudo-state, in anticipation of the joint concert to be given by S.Rouvas and M.Kut on Monday"(Ad.T. 17/5).

Nevertheless, we find also opposing points of view, expressed by some isolated journalistic voices. The only newspaper which seemed to show open support to the concert was El. "However, I admit that I don’t understand all this noise about the concert that he will be giving in Cyprus, in the neutral zone, together with his Turkish colleague. I don’t understand why it is nationally inadmissible, disloyal and dangerous, and I don’t know what else, for Greek and Turkish Cypriots to meet and sing together whatever they want … How do we talk about and how do we demand the union of Cyprus in one independent state when we refuse what is fundamental - the coexistence in a manifestation? Are we then to believe that a concert undermines the national front? Or that the condition for its realization should have been the condemnation of Turkish barbarism?" (El. 17/5) "There was no lack of exaggerations and also of distortions of events in the noisy story that the concert Rouva-Kut in Cyprus turned out to be. The most common one was that the concert took place in the football ground called ‘Partition’. Such a provocation, isn’t it? However, the ground in Turkish is called ‘taxim’. And ‘taxim’ means distribution, separation … It has been named so since the period of the Ottoman Empire, because it was from there that water was distributed - separated in the neighborhoods of the city" (El. 21/5) "…the concert should have taken place, but, I repeat, in a different place. And, of course, not on the 19^th of May [It is the day the Pontic Greeks commemorate the "genocide" of their ancestors by the Turks]. It would be good that such events take place and young people come in contact with each other, to sing, to develop friendships and to fall in love" (N.21/5).

The different initiatives for strengthening the Greek-Turkish friendship and cooperation are covered in exceptionally positive comments in Eleftherotypia, which usually provides such information. The visit of 25 children from Cesme to Chios, in the context of an exchange program, is presented by El(9/5); also the decision for cooperation between the local government authorities of the two countries ("People in Thrace want borders of friendship" (El.15/5) and the meeting of young people from Chios and Izmir (Smyrni) on the borderland island ("Step by step, the children of the Aegean come closer") (El.15/5).