I think the speakers who spoke here as well as the authors of the reports in question all need a good dictionary.

Incidentally, participants may have felt the need to take some lessons in Greek geography to be able to follow all the stories they have heard. Or they may have felt they were being offered lessons in Greek geography courtesy of the two Greek NGOs who have undertaken to enlighten them, over the last ten days, about every incident of misconduct, or perceived misconduct, by the Greek authorities or the Greek public in the remotest corners of the Greek territory. Most probably, though, they feel they have heard more than they ever wanted to hear in terms of names of Greek municipalities and geographical places. A lot of those names I myself ignore.

The reason why I said the authors of the statements I am commenting on need a good dictionary is the tendentious way in which they use some words. In fact, it seems that the method they have adopted to impress the audience is to choose strong, indeed shocking, words – words with horrendous connotations, some of which have become tragically topical recently or are of recent coinage-- and apply them to a situation they want to denounce in Greece. Words that have nothing to do with the reality they wish to criticize.

The vocabulary we have heard today includes: race, apartheid, ethnic cleansing, black list. Other words the users of this vocabulary should look up once they put their hands on a dictionary would include: distortion, exaggeration, disinformation, falsification, trivialization. Let me take up the words they have used:

Race (and the consequent allegation of institutionalized racism in Greece): The representatives of the above NGOs have claimed that a Greek law explicitly differentiates between Greeks by race and others. The law they quote concerns the repatriation of those who left Greece as political refugees during the civil war in 1946-1949. It provides that those of Greek ethnic origin can return and re-acquire their Greek citizenship automatically, and those of non-Greek ethnic origin can apply for it and their application will be considered on a case-by-case basis. The term used in the text is genos, and it translates as ethnic origin. The word for race in Greek is phyle. I should say no more.

Apartheid: I am quite mystified with this word. Although the speakers made abundant use of it, they gave no specific instances of its alleged application in the reality they criticized. Obviously, they used it simply to impress the audience, without any justification, completely out of context.

Ethnic cleansing: Both a written statement by an organization calling itself “Rainbow” and speakers in this room have resorted to this emotionally charged term to describe the effects of article 20 of the Greek Citizenship Code. That article provides that a Greek citizen who is abroad and works against the national interests of Greece may lose his/her citizenship. Without discussing here the merits of this provision, I will only say that about one person per year or per two years loses his/her citizenship as a result of its application. Now, they want participants to understand this as ethnic cleansing. And they want to be taken seriously!

Black list: The groups mentioned above express great indignation at a case of refusal of entry into Greece to a US passport holder, which they say happened in August and concerned a person described as “a well-known activist for the rights of Macedonian minorities in the region”. On this, I would say the following: When we entered this country, we all went through passport control. Whenever we cross borders we go through passport control. What is the purpose of such controls? The receiving country decides, and has the prerogative to decide – and no Government represented here would want to give up that prerogative — whether to accept a visitor or not. Determining that a given alien is unwanted in a country because of his/her activities against the interests of that country is common practice. There is nothing unique or conspiratorial about it. That was obviously the case with the US-passport-holding activist who was recently denied entry into Greece. That the refusal was stamped on his passport is also not uncommon. Even those who denounce it have called it nothing more that “improper”.

I want to say there is no influx of former refugees of non-Greek origin wishing to return to Greece. There are a few cases of activists who want to enter Greece to prove a point, to challenge the Greek Government, or to turn themselves to heroes to the handful of their co-activists who pursue the same policies. Most, but not –I stress: not — all of them pursue a policy of secession of a sizeable part of Greek territory.

Of course we are not alarmed by a handful of activists. But, all the same, we cannot welcome them with open arms and accept their provocations with gratitude.

No Government represented here would act differently from the Greek Government.