2004 NEWS ARCHIVES
Press Release Regarding Rainbow/Vinozhito's First Congress
30 May 2004 marked the successful conclusion of the 1st Congress of the Rainbow Party, which as of 26 March 2004 is a founding member of the European Free Alliance (EFA). Henceforth, it will participate in the Greek political arena with the name European Free Alliance-Rainbow (Evropaiki Eleftheri Symmahia-Ouranio Toxo / Evropska Slobodna Alijanca-Vinozhito).
Greek Helsinki Monitor 2003 Activity Report
The following is an excerpt from the Greek Helsinki Monitor's 2003 Activity Report. For the full text please visit their website at: http://www.greekhelsinki.gr/ Human Rights in Greece Ahead of the 2004 Olympic Games in Athens: A Human Rights Event on the Occasion of GHM's Tenth Anniversary (1993-2003) Athens, 7-9 December 2003, kindly supported by the Open Society Institute.
Resolution of the First Congress of the European Free Alliance - Rainbow Party
Today marks the conclusion of the 1st Congress of the European Free Alliance (EFA)-Rainbow Party (Evropska Slobodna Alijanca-Vinozhito), which was held in Thessaloniki / Solun. Rainbow-Vinozhito is an EFA member party in Greece. This congress marks Rainbow's evolvement from a minority party of ethnic Macedonians in Greece to a political agency with a European orientation and an expanded character.
Issue - Macedonian Minority Party, Rainbow-Vinozhito, Re-Schedules Congress After Greek Neo-Nazis Force its Cancellation
Rainbow/Vinozhito, the political party of the Macedonian minority in Greece, had to cancel its congress twice because of threats received from Greek Neo-Nazi organizations. Greece is notorious for being openly racist against its ethnic minorities. Greek citizens, media and politicians alike constantly attack minority rights advocates and support its government's ...
Greek Neo-Nazis Try to Bust Up Macedonian Minority Party Congress
Greek police clashed Sunday with a group of 150 far-right militants who tried to force their way into a political meeting of a party representing the country's ethnic Macedonian minority. The rightwingers, shouting nationalist slogans, were pushed back by officers who used tear gas to disperse the crowd in Salonika, said the northern city's police chief Costas Tzekis.
GHM Urges Sanctions Against Thessaloniki (Solun) Prefect for Intolerant Statement Against Macedonian Minority Party Rainbow
Greek Helsinki Monitor (GHM) sent a letter today to the Minister of Interior, Public Administration and Decentralization, Prokopis Pavlopoulos, requesting that he sees to it that a prompt disciplinary investigation into the Prefect of Thessaloniki, Panayote Psomiadis, is carried out and a sanction corresponding to the gravity of his intolerant action be imposed.
Greece Sentences Macedonian Priest to Three Month Prison Term
On 11-5-2004, Archimandrite Nikodimos Tsarknias was tried before the Aridea Criminal Court sitting at first instance and composed of a single judge (Monomelis Plimmelodikeio) on charges of establishing and operating a temple without the authorization of the competent authority, which pursuant to the provisions of Law no.
MILS News: ECRI Report Asks Greece to Recognize Macedonian Minority
The Macedonian Government will have to change its restrained behavior, and Greek authorities will have to accept the report of the European Commission for Racism and Intolerance (ECRI) of Council of Europe in which the existence of a Macedonian minority in Greece is acknowledged, say representatives of the Union of Association of Macedonians from the Aegean part of Macedonia.
FUEN Asks the Greek Prime Minister to Ensure the Safety of Macedonian Minority Congress
To the Prime Minister of Greece Mr. Konstandinos Karamanlis Megaro Maximou ATHENS Dear Mr. Karamanlis, The Federal Union of European Nationalities is an independent union of the organisations of national minorities in Europe, which was established in 1949 - at the time when the Council of Europe was set up in Versailles, France.
President of EFA Asks the Greek Prime Minister to Ensure the Safety of Macedonian Minority Congress
To the Prime Minister of Greece Mr. Konstandinos Karamanlis Megaro Maximou ATHENS Dear Mr. Karamanlis, In the name of the European Free Alliance in the European Parliament we would like to voice our concerns regarding the security measures to be taken in the context of the first Congress of the Rainbow-Vinozhito party to be held in Thessaloniki (Solun) on May 30.