JOINT STATEMENT

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A meeting of representatives of the Renovative Modernist Movement of the Left (N. Bistis, D. Antonakou, T. Bouki, T, Tsikas, V. Sakellariou), of the Rainbow - European Movement (P. Voskopoulos, T. Parisis, G. Tantsopoulos) and of the Turkish Minority Movement (A. Dede, I. Onsounoglou) was held at the offices of the A.E.K.A. in Athens.

During the course of the meeting decisions were taken on various forms of bilateral and trilateral cooperation. There was discussion of the problems of the ethnic minorities in Greece and an exchange of views on recent developments in the southern Balkans and the role of the minorities in these developments.
The three groups involved were able to agree on a common framework of principles and views, as described in this statement:

We have observed with profound anxiety the current developments in the Balkan region. It is our belief that behind all the evils we have experienced and continue to experience over the last ten years lie those sentiments of nationalism, those grandiose nationalist ambitions, which have been the dominant ideological features of the region since the founding of the Balkan nation states.

It is the minority populations of the region which have been employed as the main instrument in the implementation of these nationalist policies. Given our awareness of the way in which the ethnic minorities of the Balkans have been used in the past, and may very well be used in the future, as destabilizing factors, we regard the permanence of the existing borders as a necessary condition of any procedure of dialogue or resolution of any dispute among the various states and minorities.

The ethnic minorities must not allow themselves to be treated as the object of rivalry between states and the pretext for intervention in the internal affairs of the country in which they are living. On the contrary, they must do their utmost to establish amicable relations of cooperation and solidarity with the whole citizen body of the state in which they live. At the same time we believe that the political conduct of a minority must be such as to reassure the whole population of the country that they are not seeking either an immediate or an eventual change in the borders as a condition or consequence of the full recognition of their rights. It is, of course, a necessary condition of the above that any policy of oppression of ethnic minorities should be condemned, that their minority rights should be defended by the organs of the state, and that their ethnic and cultural identity should be accorded all due respect.

We do not believe that any ethnic minority, whether in the Balkans or elsewhere in Europe, can engage in a war of liberation and seek to justify it by the demand for human or minority rights. The truth is that allmost all the peoples of Europe have now achieved their national emancipation and founded their respective states some earlier and some later. In those instances where this has not occurred, the peoples in question enjoy the right to develop their own particular ethnic cultural identities.

The Balkan states, and the minorities and nationalities which inhabit them, must learn the lessons of European history as regards the attempt to achieve gradual unification of the European states, respecting the rights of ethnic minorities and renouncing nationalist prejudice and conflict.

It is on these principles that every democratic citizen of the Balkans must base his attitudes and his conduct, so that we may in future live in a peaceful Balkan region united by ties of true friendship, solidarity and cooperation.

Athens 23/4/2001