Who Says There Are No Minority Languages in Greece

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  • Mikail
    Senior Member
    • Sep 2008
    • 1338

    Who Says There Are No Minority Languages in Greece

    Who Says There Are No Minority Languages in Greece:
    October 2000

    It is widely known that Greece refuses to acknowledge the existence of national minorities and minority languages. Similarly, in the Greek census of 1961, 1971, 1981 and 1991 any mention of one's mother tongue is absent. This is not by chance but, rather, a deliberate policy of the Greek government. In the earlier census of 1940 and 1951 one can find such declarations as "Slavic" language. Whereas, in the census of 1928 one can find a language declaration of "Slav Macedonian."

    However, in the census of 1920, immediately after Greece's acquisition of the "New Territories" the government of the day offers some revealing information. In the census of 19 December, 1920, the official Greek census form had a separate area asking: "what is your mother tongue? What is the language you speak at home? If your mother tongue is not Greek do you understand Greek? This census document can be found in the book by M. Houliarakis (Geografiki, dioikitiki kai plithismiaki ekseliksi tis Ellados tom G' page 363)

    The data obtained from the census of 1920 offers great detail about the population to the point of distinguishing between deaf males and deaf females. It also includes the data on language and mother tongue.

    Unfortunately, the census information relating to the population of the "New Territories" was never made public. This information preceded the exchanges of Christian and Muslim populations between Turkey and Greece or the so-called "voluntary" population exchanges between Greece and Bulgaria.

    At that time Greece only published the results from the geographic area of "old Greece" (Sterea, Evoia, Thessalia, Arta, Ionian Islands, Cyclades, Peloponese...). Five volumes containing census data from the "New Territories," which included information on religion and language, were prohibited from being made public.

    In the archives of the Census Council or the General Archives of the Greek state we shall not find census data on the northern territories (the new territories of Macedonia and Western Thrace) for the census period of 1920.

    However, page 182 of the volume of census data for 1920 (published in 1929) for the area of Trikala (in Thessaly and Arta just south of the new territories) the following linguistic categories are reported for mother tongue:

    Greek, Spanish, Romi, Koutsovlach, Albanian, Bulgarian, Serbian and 37 individuals from Trikala who declared their mother tongue as Macedonian. [page 1] | [page 2]

    This is official census data published by the Greek government wherein, not only is the Macedonian language documented by the census authority but it is rightly distinguished from Bulgarian and Serbian.

    One can now appreciate why the 1920 census results for the "New Territories" have gone missing.

    We would like to thank Mr. Dimitrios Lithoksoou for uncovering this data, which we published in Volume 5 of our magazine, Nova Zora (New Dawn). Mr. Lithoksoou has his own Web site with several pages of interest to the Macedonians of Greece.

    Dear Robert D. Kaplan , Author, "Balkan Ghosts" From: David Edenden Below is an article regarding the results of the 1920 Greek Census in Gr...
    From the village of P’pezhani, Tashko Popov, Dimitar Popov-Skenderov and Todor Trpenov were beaten and sentenced to 12 years prison. Pavle Mevchev and Atanas Popov from Vrbeni and Boreshnica joined them in early 1927, they were soon after transferred to Kozhani and executed. As they were leaving Lerin they were heard to shout "With our death, Macedonia will not be lost. Our blood will run, but other Macedonians will rise from it"
  • The LION will ROAR
    Senior Member
    • Jan 2009
    • 3231

    #2
    Ethnic Minorities? In my Greece? It´s more likely than you´d think!


    Istor recently responded to my article on ethnicity ("On ´On Ethnicity´" of March 10 – although fortunately he didn´t name his response "On ´On ´On Ethnicity´´"). He posed the question "Who is a Macedonian?" which is a reasonable enough question. However then he offered I guess what can be described as a ´false trichotomy´ (which is a real word, MS Word just doesn´t know it yet). His ´false trichotomy´ was as follows:

    "Regarding that famous and glorious campaign that Macedonians did to spread Greek Language and Civilization to the World, peoples are divided in three parts

    a) Those who are proud of it

    b) Those who are ashamed of it

    c) Those who don´t care about it all or those who care as scientists"

    Being proud of the Ancient Macedonian campaign (including the conquering of Greece in 338BC) does not make you an Ancient Macedonian, anymore than being proud of how Bilbo Baggins snuck past the Dragon in ´The Hobbit´, would make you a Hobbit.

    A legitimate question to ask is why is someone proud of something that occurred 2,500 years ago that had nothing to do with them? If they are ashamed of it, on the other hand, what would it matter in 2009?

    After trying to demonstrate that pride can make us Ancient Macedonians and, by the same logic, Hobbits, he once again banged out the same tune on his "Propagandaphone" with "Because Language is the main objective ethnic indicator", without any reference to back it up. Ethnicity is not a simple issue with one criterion. Here is a challenge for you Istor: Find one modern ethnographer that states that ´Language is the main objective ethnic indicator´. Many things are used to determine ethnicity around the world: country of birth, nationality, language spoken at home, parent´s country of birth, skin color, racial group, and religion. Stating that ´language´ alone is the ´main ethnic indicator´ is ridiculous.

    If we are to use these wider determinants to answer the question Istor posed as "Who is a Macedonian" it could be answered a number of ways.

    It could be someone born in Macedonia (either the country Republic of Macedonia, or the geographic region – including Greece); It could be someone who has been nationalized in the ´Republic of Macedonia´; it could be someone who speaks Macedonian in the home – but was born in Australia or Canada for example; it could be someone who has Macedonian parents or ancestors. There is no restrictive rule on how someone identifies as a Macedonian.



    The UN Human Rights Council went into Greece in 2008 and found evidence of an Ethnic Macedonian ethnicity. It doesn´t matter how Greek nationalists choose to define ´minority´ or ´Macedonian´ – because the relevant definition is that used by the UN. The rest of the world recognizes us as Macedonians – if Greeks choose not to, they are only making themselves look like bigots to the rest of the world.

    Istor stated that ´Loring Danforth clearly states that Blood and DNA are not related to ethnicity´. This is incorrect as, on page 15 of his book ´The Macedonian Conflict´, he states that cultural forms such as ´blood´ and ´race´ are used in the construction of an identity. It appears that Istor is trying to put words into Loring Danforth´s mouth without reference to what Danforth actually states. Istor, you will note that throughout his book he refers to Ethnic Macedonians in Greece as ´Macedonians´ and Ethnic Greeks as ´Greeks´; the conflicts are always between ´Greeks´ and ´Macedonians´

    Whether someone identifies as Macedonian, Greek or even Hobbit, shouldn´t be an issue in a modern state – in fact the UN stated such in their report on Greek minorities. Greece has Ethnic Macedonians – they were there before Greece invaded their land in the early 20th century. While Greece has banned language, changed names, exiled Macedonians and force-Hellenized the population – there are still some there that identify as Macedonians. While we can´t change the past, we can recognize what has happened, and change things so that minorities are protected. That is what the UN and by extension, the rest of the world, is asking Greece to do.
    The Macedonians originates it, the Bulgarians imitate it and the Greeks exploit it!

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