insan wrote:DT. wrote:insan wrote:MHRMI Condemns Attack on Minority Activist in Greece During Live Broadcast
March 2, 2009
Toronto, Canada - MHRMI joins the South East Europe Media Organization (SEEMO) appeal denouncing the attack on Turkish minority rights activist, Abdulhalim Dede, during a live television broadcast on February 19, 2009.
Greece vigorously denies the existence of any ethnic minorities on its territory and attempts to suppress any voices that advocate human rights. Simply raising the issue of minority rights, and specifically the Macedonian minority, in Greece causes Greek citizens and politicians alike to react in outrage.
Greece's state-sponsored racism includes Greek politicians publicly calling for the death of Macedonian minority party EFA-Rainbow members, the Greek army entering an ethnic Macedonian village and arresting several inhabitants, and possible treason charges against Greek Helsinki Monitor spokesperson Panayote Dimitras for advocating minority rights.
MHRMI calls on the international community, and specifically the European Union, to finally hold Greece accountable for its persecution of its ethnic minorities and force Greece to abide by all European Court of Human Rights judgements against it.
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Had TCs accepted to be a minority in Cyprus; what happens in Greece would have happened in Cyprus , too.
and force Greece to abide by all European Court of Human Rights judgements against it
Do you know which European Court of Human rights judgements Greece has not abided by?
1. To allow the free choice of national identity in accordance with international principles.
2. To officially recognize the existence of a Macedonian minority in Greece and cease its perennial policy of non-recognition of the many ethnic minorities in Greece.
3. To improve the availability of human rights to Macedonians in Greece, in particular the right to use the Macedonian language; the right to have the Macedonian language taught at all levels of the school system; the right to freedom of religion including the establishment of Macedonian churches; and the right to have Macedonian language radio, television, newspapers, and other cultural media.
4. To allow Macedonians to use their proper Macedonian names and to cease the mandatory use of Greek versions.
5. To allow Macedonian representatives at all levels of public life, including elected office.
6. To end the persecution of Macedonian human rights campaigners in Greece, including the internationally known cases of Hristos Sideropoulos, Tasos Bulis, and Archimandrite Nikodemos Tsarknias. We request the Australian government to monitor the appeal of Hristos Sideropoulos and Tasos Bulis, the April 1994 trial of Archimandrite Nikodemos Tsarknias, other current cases, and new cases as they arise.
7. To cease State discrimination whereby Macedonians and Macedonian activists have been dismissed from employment.
8. To implement United Nations Resolution 193C (III) of November 27, 1948 which calls for the free repatriation of all child refugees from the Greek Civil War of 1946-49.
9. To repeal the Greek laws 106841 and 1540 which discriminate against Macedonians who fled from Greece during the Greek Civil War and are still unable to repatriate to Greece or to reclaim their property.
10. To return Greek citizenship and its attendant rights to all Macedonians whose Greek citizenship has been revoked.
11. To allow the 550 child refugees resident in Australia to return to Greece, to reclaim their Greek citizenship if desired, and to reclaim their ancestral property.
12. To legislate for the nationalistic elements in the Greek media to cease their persecution of the Macedonian minority and to require these media to give Macedonians a right of reply.
13. For Greece to comply with all international human rights agreements to which it is a signatory, particularly the International Convention on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights.
14. For Greece to ratify the International Covenant on Civil and Political, the Optional Protocol on Civil and Political Rights, and the International Convention on the Suppression and Punishment of the Crime of Apartheid.
