Paprika
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Introduction and Conclusions 3 * the teaching of the Macedonian language is not permitted; * ethnic Macedonians were discriminated against in employment in the public sector in the past, and may suffer from such discrimination at present; the Greek government should examine its employment practices to determine whether such discrimination exists today; * ethnic Macedonians, and particularly Macedonian rights activists, are harassed by the government, followed and threatened by security forces, and subjected to economic and social pressures resulting from government harassment; this has led to a marked climate of fear in which many ethnic Macedonians are reluctant to assert their Macedonian identity or to express their views openly. Human Rights Watch/Helsinki has made a number of recommendations to the Greek government; they are detailed at the end of this report. 4 BACKGROUND BACKGROUND BACKGROUND Located in the center of the Balkan peninsula, the geographic region of Macedonia is divided among Bulgaria, Greece, and the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia (FYRM).4 It has been a "source of conflict in the Balkans since the 19th century."5 Currently it is the focus of an acrimonious dispute between the governments of Greece and the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia over the right to the name "Macedonia" and certain historical symbols.6 The greater geographic area of Macedonia contains Slavs, Greeks, Bulgarians, Turks, Romany (Gypsies), Vlachs and others. Whether most of its inhabitants are a distinct Macedonian ethnic group, rather than Bulgarians, Greeks or Serbs, continues to be a subject of disagreement.7 For nearly five centuries, most of the Balkan peninsula was ruled by the Ottoman Empire. After the break-up of the Ottoman Empire and at the conclusion of the Balkan Wars (1912-1913), Macedonia was divided among Bulgaria (sometimes known as Pirin Macedonia, for the Pirin Mountains), Serbia (Vardar Macedonia, for the Vardar River) and Greece8 (Aegean or Greek Macedonia9 ); a small area was given to Albania. 4 The geographic region of Macedonia is generally considered to be the area bounded by the Skopska Crna Gora and the Shar Planina mountains on the north; the Rila and Rhodope mountains on the east; the Aegean coast including Thessaloniki, Mount Olympus and the Pindus mountains on the south; and by Lake Ohrid and the Prespa lakes on the west. 5 Duncan M. Perry, "Macedonia: From Independence to Recognition," RFE/RFL Research Report, Vol. 3, No. 1, 7 January 1994, p. 119. 6 Following a dispute with Greece over the name "Macedonia," the country was admitted to the United Nations under the temporary name, "Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia (FYRM)." The dispute over the country's name has not yet been finally resolved. 7 Duncan Perry, p. 119. 8 About 50 percent of Macedonian territory now lies within the borders of Greece; 40 percent in the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia; and 10 percent in western Bulgaria. 9 The Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia refers to that area as "Aegean Macedonia;" the Greek government as "Greek Macedonia." In this report we use both terms. Greek Macedonia is a rugged, mountainous area in northern Greece of bitterly cold winters and extremely hot summers. Its population is made up Background 5 largely of two groups of Greek citizens. One group consists of ethnic Macedonians, often called locals (dopii), a Slavic people whose ancestors settled in the area around the sixth century and who speak, or whose ancestors spoke, Macedonian. The other major group is the Greeks, many of whom are referred to as "refugees" (prosfiges), descendants of Greeks who were settled in the area during the 1920s. Before World War I, Macedonians were the largest ethnic group in Aegean Macedonia,10 but between 1913 and 1926 major population shifts significantly changed the demographic make-up of the region. After the region's incorporation into the Greek state in 1913, many Greek civil servants, teachers and military personnel moved north and settled there. Moreover, during the postBalkan Wars period, thousands of Macedonians and Serbs voluntarily left Greek Macedonia for Bulgaria; the Minority Rights Group puts the number at about 15,000. After the Greek-Bulgarian convention of November 1919, between 52,000 and 72,000 additional Slavs left for Bulgaria.11 Simultaneously, hundreds of thousands of Greeks from Turkey, Bulgaria and Vardar Macedonia were resettled in northern Greece; estimates of the numbers involved range from 500,000 to 618,00012. Thus the ethnic character of Aegean Macedonia changed greatly; Macedonians became a numerical minority, and the number of people in Aegean Macedonia who had "a sense of Greek national identity," rather than Macedonian identity, increased substantially.13 During the years between World Wars I and II, Greece followed a policy of assimilating the Macedonian minority and Hellenizing the Macedonian region in 10 Of 1,073,549 inhabitants in 1912, 326,426 were Macedonians and 240,019 were Greeks. Turks, Pomaks, Albanians, Vlachs, Jews and Gypsies made up the rest. Minority Rights Group, Minorities in the Balkans, London 1989, p. 30, citing Todor Simovski, "The Balkan Wars and their Repercussions on the Ethnical Situation in Aegean Macedonia," Glasnik, Vol. XVI, No. 3, Skopje, 1972, note 53, p. 191. 11 Minority Rights Group, Minorities in The Balkans, p. 30. 12 Council for Research into South-Eastern Europe, Macedonia and its Relations with Greece, Skopje, 1993, p.71. 13 Loring M. Danforth, "Claims to Macedonian identification.
Wer hat euch den Slavisch gelernt?
