In Greece, the old dispute about the slawo is broken-Macedonian minority. Experts consider the situation for complex. Meanwhile, suppressed history makes the emotions run high.
It is unusually full in the courtroom of the Northern Greek province of the city of Serres. On the benches of the human swarm; everywhere by armed police. In the indictment, nothing of rape or murder. It comes down to one word: dopia. Dopia is Greek and means, locally or topically. At the same time it is in Northern Greece, a synonym for the Slavic-Macedonian language, which is maintained by a part of the population as a Slavic-Macedonian minority.
For many in Greece this is a taboo. This was recently illustrated again when the BBC published an article with the title Greece’s invisible minority – The Macedonian Slavs. Politicians were outraged. In social media the users of your anger were. Dimitris Karamitsos-Tziras, the Greek Ambassador in London, wrote a letter to the BBC and accused the media institution, historical facts wrong.
Systematically suppressed?
The court in Serres negotiated in the event of a local cultural Association, which mention Slavic-Macedonian dances and also in the Macedonian language, to sing. In Greece, the unpleasant and not worked Chapter in the recent history, stirred for Nikos Sakellarios reported. Since the 1950s, will be exercised by the state to put pressure on the Slawo-Macedonian people in Greece – also in his native village: “On a summer day in 1959, armed soldiers came. They herded together the people in the square and all had to swear they would not speak their language.”
May sing of the slawo-Macedonian cultural Association in the Northern Greek Seeres also Macedonian?
Meanwhile, hardly anyone will dare to stand in his slawo-Macedonian roots. How many people are, is unclear. “If it comes up, then we have approximately 6,000 voters. But there are more people that maintain in Northern Greece, the culture,” explains Evaggelia apse of the party, Ouranio Toxo, which campaigns for the rights of the slawo-Macedonian minority. The Problem was that many people were afraid to commit themselves publicly to their roots. It was not just about the cultural diversity of the Region to appreciate, says Sakellarios: “We are Greek citizens. We pay taxes and we respect the state. We just want to live our culture and our songs to sing.”
Overburdening of the court
How hard it is to do so, shows the day of the trial in Serres. It comes to a dispute between a linguist from testifying as a witness for the side of the defense, and the lawyers for the prosecution. She explains that the term “dopia” is also a synonym for the slawo-Macedonian language. You do not accuses the scientist to be familiar with the area enough. The presiding judge interrupts the trial. “Shame on you!” to call one of the lawyers for the witness; “idiot!”, shoots another. The police surrounded the members of the slawo-Macedonian minority, which follow the process. It comes to word battles.
“If you hear in Northern Greek villages, the word “dopia”, then everyone knows that it goes to the slawo-Macedonian language,” explains Kostas Demelis, counsel for the defense. However, the court makes it easy on him to prove it. To be admitted to the five witnesses for the prosecution, but only two of the defense. “What’s the local language in Serres?” asks the judge over and over again. And the witnesses confirm: Greek. Aware of not talk around the Bush, namely, that the One excludes the Other. The question that hovers in the room especially: the slawo-Macedonian culture part of Greece? “My grandfather, my great-grandfather and my great-great-grandfather didn’t come here from anywhere, but have always lived here,” confirmed Nikos Sakellarios. However, this would be hushed up in Greece, both in education, as well as from the media. “There is no critical engagement with recent history.”
Rights situation of minorities
The Greek state has collected data on the existence of a Slav-Macedonian minority clues, explains Konstantinos Tsitselikis, Professor of human rights in Thessaloniki: “in 1951, there was a census, in which the question was asked: What is your native language? From the data, and recent scientific findings that document the existence of a “Slavic language” in the North of Greece, can be observed in a linguistic continuity,” Tsitselikis.
The name dispute was settled: Alexis Tsipras with Zoran Zaev at the 2. April in Skopje
And: even Though the state minority do not need to recognise characteristics such as language and ethnic identity, this does not necessarily impact on the existence of the minority: “There was a judgment in a dispute between Greece and Bulgaria. It went to the question: Who are the minorities? The International court of The Hague came in 1930 to the conclusion: A minority is a question of law but a question of facts,” explains Tsitselikis, opposite the Deutsche Welle.
Taboo topics in an election year
Meanwhile, you wait in Serres on the decision of the court. “That will probably be in a couple of months,” says defender Kostas Demelis. Great expectations he does not have. “The way the process was conducted, indicates that the decision has already been taken.” In the current election year hard guns would go up, when it comes to taboo topics.
The debate around the slawo-Macedonian minority is one of many aspects, with which Greece the Prespa agreement (the end of the name dispute). The situation is complex. The process in Serres is only a first step, the lifting of a taboo subject to the surface of a public debate. Also, the anthropologist Fabio Mattioli of the University of Melbourne wishes to have an open dialogue. He has conducted research in the Region and knows: “There were and there are people in Greece who identify themselves as Macedonian.”
Many of his colleagues in Greece do not want to comment on the topic. Of fear of reprisals. In view of the rigid attitude of the Greek politics and society Mattioli has understanding for their Silence. But more acceptance in terms of the ethnic diversity of the Region would bring one thing above all: freedom: “If one creates an environment in which people have the freedom to Express themselves and to be who you want to be, will benefit in the end, each one of them.”