Our organizations support the recommendations below on greater freedom of movement in the Balkans, and welcome their endorsement by the Southeast Europe Media Organization (SEEMO) Print Media Committee and its commitment to help implement them.
However, they believe that the conference during which these recommendations were elaborated is unfortunately a negative example. Dealing with "Borders and Minorities in Balkans", the speakers' list included leaders of the minority parties -and government coalition partners- in Albania (Greek party), Bulgaria (Turkish), Kosovo/FRY (Serb) and Macedonia (Albanian), but no minority representative from Greece -seat of the conference- not even either one of the two government party deputies from the Turkish minority. We also noticed the absence of any representative from the region's largest and most persecuted minority, the Roma. Moreover, NGOs working on minority rights from Bulgaria, Macedonia and Turkey were represented, but their Greek counterparts were not; instead, authors of notorious anti-minority publications -one belonging also to a nationalist organization in Greece- were among the speakers. In fact, our organizations were informed about the conference after it was held, from media coverage.
This case is not isolated, but typical of all meetings on minorities organized in Greece by state institutions, mainstream media and NGOs close to the state, including -with one exception- all meetings (co-)organized by the Council of Europe. Minorities themselves and minority rights NGOs are hardly ever invited to attend -let alone speak at- such meetings. While there are hardly any other contacts, let alone discussions, between minorities and the authorities. On the contrary, as the official Greek policy is that Greece has no national minorities, those who advocate the opposite are to be isolated and, occasionally, attacked if not slandered. At the same time, all Greek media mention these minorities rarely, almost always only to attack them (see "Minorities and Media in Greece" at: http://www.greekhelsinki.gr/bhr/english/countries/greece/mrg-g_03_08_01.doc). Therefore, international participation to such meetings only helps perpetuate and legitimize this attitude. We hope that, in the future, the signatories of the recommendations below (which, interestingly, makes no references to minorities, although drafted in a meeting about them), in light of the above information, will contribute to help change Greece's intolerance towards minorities.
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