Language Research

One of the worst examples of Greek discrimination against the Macedonian minority occurred in September of 1995, in Lerin. The Rainbow Party (the Macedonian Party in Greece) hung up a sign for their office in the Macedonian as well as in Greek language. The office was subsequently burnt down by a mob of Greeks. The Party was then charged for "inciting citizens to commit acts of violence upon each other".

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Updated (January 2001)

A case of a language activist describes the situation of national minorities in Greece. Sotiris Bletsas, a member of the Aromanian (Vlach) community was sentenced to 15 months in prison for distributing information about minority languages.

First time he was arrested in July 1995 after distributing publications of the European Bureau for Lesser Used Languages at the meeting of the Vlach community. The publications mentioned the existence of the Vlach language in Greece.

Vlach, closely related to Romanian, is spoken through central Greece. However, the language enjoys little or no public status and there are no reliable estimates on the number of speakers.

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Updated (February 2002)

The European Bureau for Lesser-Used Languages (EBLUL) made the final step towards a new Member State Committee (MSC) in Greece. Sixteen representatives of linguistic and cultural associations elected the six future members of EBLUL's MSC in Greece and its Chairman, Athanasios Parisis from the Slav-Macedonian group as well as his Deputy, Sotiris Bletzas from the Vlach community. After adopting the Bureau's statute and being accepted by EBLUL's Council, the new established MSC will represent four minorities in Greece: the Slav-Macedonians, the Vlachs, the Turks and the Pomaks. "Hopefully representatives of the Arvanite language - which were not present at the meeting only due to technical reasons - will join the Greek Member State Committee soon", said Bojan Brezigar, President of EBLUL.

"The information exchanged in our meeting showed that within the European Union, Greece is undoubtedly a state where linguistic diversity has not been considered a wealth so far. It will be the task of the new Committee, with technical and political support of the whole of EBLUL, to promote common EU understanding about this topic also in Greece. Furthermore, the MSC will contribute to assure a relevant level of dignity for minority languages in Greece, and real possibilities to survive and to develop," added Brezigar. So far, the European Bureau for Lesser-Used Languages is made up of thirteen committees, which represent the interests of the various communities. The Member State Committees comprise cultural organizations, official institutions and other bodies active in the field of regional or minority languages and cultures.

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