MHRMI and AMHRC Call on US State Department to Correct its Misrepresentation of Macedonian Minority in Greece

Toronto, Canada, February 28, 2009 - Macedonian Human Rights Movement International (MHRMI) and the Australian Macedonian Human Rights Committee (AMHRC) call on the US State Department to immediately correct its misrepresentation of the Macedonian minority in Greece in its “Country Reports on Human Rights Practices”, issued on February 25, 2009.

In an obvious attempt to appease Greek sensitivities to the Macedonian issue, the US State Department places the term Macedonian in quotation marks, refers to Macedonians as “Slavic speakers” and refers to the Macedonian language as a “Slavic dialect”.

Rather than focusing on human rights abuses committed by Greece, this report perpetuates stereotypes against Macedonians.

Despite repeated requests by various human rights organizations, including MHRMI, Greek Helsinki Monitor, and EFA-Rainbow, the US State Department reports are still inadequate and mirror the official Greek position that the Macedonian minority is illegitimate. Greek Helsinki Monitor noted this long-standing problem in 2002:

“[The US State Department’s] attitude towards Macedonians in Greece, as reflected in the annual reports, cannot therefore be considered an oversight, or a result of lack of information; on the contrary it is a sustained and deliberate policy of complacency towards Greek authorities on the most sensitive human rights issue in Greece."

Furthermore, the US State Department appears to be an apologist for Greece's policy of using the Treaty of Lausanne as an excuse for not recognizing any of its ethnic minorities.

Countless examples of human rights abuses against Macedonians were not reported, including the Greek army entering an ethnic Macedonian village and arresting several inhabitants, persecution of Father Nikodim Tsarknias and the Macedonian Orthodox Church, threats by Greek neo-Nazis against Macedonians, and Macedonian political refugees and human rights activists, including American citizens, being denied entry into Greece.

MHRMI and AMHRC call on the US State Department to immediately rectify its errors and to condemn Greece's persecution of its Macedonian minority.

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Macedonian Human Rights Movement International (MHRMI) has been active on human and national rights issues for Macedonians and other oppressed peoples since 1986. For more information, please visit http://www.mhrmi.org, or contact MHRMI at 416-850-7125, or info@mhrmi.org.

Founded in 1984, the Australian Macedonian Human Rights Committee (AMHRC) has been working towards achieving human rights for Macedonians and other oppressed minorities. For more information, please visit http://www.macedonianhr.org.au, or contact AMHRC at +61 3 9460 2910 or mail@macedonianhr.org.au.

Well written and sums up the country reports to a tee "Furthermore, the US State Department appears to be an apologist for Greece's policy of using the Treaty of Lausanne as an excuse for not recognizing any of its ethnic minorities"

We have yet to hear a peep from United Macedonians, UMD or the MPO about this matter, why?

I see AMHRC has a new look, nice job!

http://www.macedonianhr.org.au/new/upevents.html

This is a very helpful and timely press release.

It's pretty obvious the US Dept. of State is deliberately misrepresenting the ethnic Macedonians of Greece. They've been told to get their act together repeatedly for years by all sorts of human rights orgs, but as you can see, they prefer to present bigoted reports.

We've spent enough time asking the State Dept. to shape up. Perhaps Helisnki Watch and others can begin to catalogue the State Dept. reports and cite the bias in them.

Rogi, will UMD be sending out a press release soon?

If I'm not mistaken you're also AMHRC? If so, just copy and paste.

Well done.

The fact is that as long as the Denialism continues we are going to see this kind of sliding over the Macedonians, and more Macedonians in the diaspora should be watching out for this.

We should never forget that the New Greeks have constructed a colonial narrative for the conquest of the Macedonians that has little or no basis in fact, it relies on furthering their political goals, on abstract notions, on false historical assumptions, on a very violent and bloody overthrow of the Macedonians - everything they can do to hold onto the land, and prevent its rightful inheritors getting it back, ever.