EFA-Rainbow :: News 2008

Sunday - 24 November, 2024

The Rainbow Party

» Introduction
» New Manifesto
» Old Manifesto
» Principles
» Founding Principles
» Organisation

Следете нè на:

Aκολουθήστε μας στο:

Follow us on:

ΕFA-Rainbow supports the right of the Catalan people to decide on their future and joins the EFA campaign "Catalonia decides"

Catalonia decides

MAKEDONSKI.ORG

INTERNET RADIO

A selection of Macedonian blogs in Greece

Abecedar
Aegean Macedonian Culture
Antimakedonismos
Mladini-Makedonci

Anti-macedonian policy during the elections for the European Parliament against Rainbow by the Greek state and the Greek mass media

A scandal by the Parliamentary committee

Greek TV stations sabotage EFA-Raibow

Ultra-nationalists want "borders with Serbia"!

"Hellenic Post" sabbotages EFA-Rainbow Campaign

Typical example of censorship of Rainbow

Attack of the Greek Neo-nazi party

A Greek - Macedonian dictionary by Vasko Karatza printed with the support of EFA - Rainbow
Greek Macedonian

D. Lithoxoou

lithoksou.net/home.html
"Extracts of Letters"

Τι έλεγε κάποτε το ΚΚΕ για τους Μακεδόνες

Denying Ethnic Identity:
The Macedonians of Greece, by Human Rights Watch

Linguistics and politics II:
Macedonian Language

Greece's stance towards
its Macedonian minority
and the neighbouring
Republic of Macedonia.

Lawed Arguments
and Omitted Truths

R. Nikovski: Memorandum to the European Parliament
Facts behind the Greek politics towards Macedonia
English Macedonian

"Proposed disciplinary measures to stamp out the Macedonian minority in Greece by the National Security Service"

Center Maurits Coppieters

Greek Anti–Nationalistic Movement

Macedonian Forum for politics and history

Vinozhito’s Second Congress held in the Village Sorovichevo, Lerin Region

December 5, 2008

By Dimitar Chulev
Translated and edited by Risto Stefov

Sorovichevo, Lerin Region – Around two hundred delegates, European Union guests and journalists attended VINOZHITO’s Second Congress held in the village Sorovichevo, Lerin Region. Top priority was the demand that the Greek government accept reality; the ethnic Macedonian minority exists in Greece and Greece had better start answering to the demands of this party around which this Macedonian minority gravitates. The Congress also insisted that the Greek government open schools and start teaching the Macedonian language.

The gathering at this picturesque Lerin Region village did not pass unnoticed by the Greek nationalists. A group of about twenty nervous looking ultra nationalists, belonging to the racist Golden Dawn organization, attempted to disrupt and prevent the gathering. They were giving out leaflets with slogans like “Get out Bulgarians and Skopje-phils” and “If you came to Amindeo (Sorovichevo), you have come to nowhere” trying to intimidate the delegates. The ultra nationalists were held back by the police who discreetly blockaded them to the road around the cultural building, where the gathering initially began.

The aim of the large presence of police vehicles, since the early morning hours, was to intimidate and discourage the delegates coming from Boden, Seres, Drama, Kukush, Enidzhevardar, Kostur, Kajlari Regions and from the Solun Region villages from attending the Congress.

Pavle Voskopulos, member of the collective VINOZHITO leadership, greeted each delegate individually with much emotion and called out the place in Macedonia where each came from. Delegates were applauded as they arrived.

Grigoris Vallianatos, recently sacked Media Advisor to the Greek PASOK leader Georgos Papandreu, who a short time ago openly expressed his personal opinion asserting that Greece needs to recognize the Macedonian minority, was apologetic to those present because, as he put it, he did not know the Macedonian language.

“In this country officially there are only Greeks, but unofficially, you know and I know that there are Albanians, Turks, Catalonians, Orthodox, transsexuals… but there are also Macedonians: Greek Macedonians or pure Macedonians, generally it is not a question whether we agree or not. This is reality.”

In a press conference Vallianatos said “The people think that Macedonians don’t exist, but here we are in this village as guests – people whose identity is not Greek. The problem is that people in Greece learn about Philip and Alexander and after that there is a long period of emptiness which needs to be filled up.” Regarding learning the Macedonian language in Greek schools, Vallianatos said that in the European Union it is not unusual for different ethnic groups to coexist.

Athanasios –Nase Parisis, VINOZHITO member and president of the Greek European Bureau of Lesser Used Languages (EBLUL) is optimistic that through demands we can push the Greek government to introduce learning of the Macedonian language in Greek schools. It is a reality and can be achieved. “That would be attainable as long as the EU transforms its political power and strengthens its authority to demand of some of its members, like Greece and Bulgaria, to relax their chauvinistic doctrines and negation of their minorities in their countries.”

Max Sinoni from the Corsican movement, an old friend to VINOZHITO who in 1994 invited leaders of this party to Strasburg, was first to congratulate the delegates. “Thank you for inviting me for the second time to come to Macedonia and to encourage you that you as part of the Free European Alliance have full rights to struggle for your rights,” said Sinoni. He also added that “Macedonian or Corsican – we are part of something that is missing but we are representatives of real cultures which exist today.”

Jan Dietrich, representative of the Federal Union of European Nationalities (FUEN) said that “Sometime we forget how hard it is to be a minority in Europe. But the rights of the minorities are not something that is acquired, for that you have to fight.” He called on members of VINOZHITO to continue with the struggle for which there is support in Europe, where every seventh person belongs to a minority or speaks a minority language different from the official language of the state.

“The European Federation consists of 84 organizations from 35 countries and one of its basic principles is achieving rights through dialog; there is no room for aggressive methods,” said Dietrich. According to Dietrich, Greece and its minorities will soon find themselves on the European Parliament agenda.

Neli Maes, European Free Alliance President, sent his congratulations to the Congress by letter with a message to the Greek government which said, “The road to real and democratic Europe starts from Athens, passes through Lerin and ends up in Brussels.”

Abdulhaum Dede from the Anti-Nationalistic Initiative gave his speech with his back turned to the audience. “I am not going to address a non-existent minority, as Karamanlis claims. You exist… We exist, but they don’t want to look at us. They notice us only when they want to call you ‘Skopjani’ and us ‘Musulmani’.”

During the discussion it was ascertained that it was time for the delegates to work harder on the ground and to familiarize the people with their rights and not to be still afraid to freely reveal their identity.

Stojan Georgiev greeted the delegates on behalf of the six-thousand OMO Ilinden-Pirin members and added that the Macedonians from Bulgaria, Greece and Albania are leading a struggle for the recognition of the Macedonian minorities. We see a united Macedonia in the framework of a European Union and of Balkans without borders.

Edmond Temelko, mayor of Pustets, in the name of the Macedonian Community in Albania, which in 2005 registered a political party, ascertained that “We can achieve our rights only through system integration in the country where we live.” Temelko informed the delegates that all schools in Pustets now teach the Macedonian language and Macedonians in Albania are working to implement the same in all regions where Macedonians live.

The first VINOZHITO Congress was held in Solun four years ago.

Back to previous page

EFA-Rainbow Archives

EFA 2019 MANIFESTO

Γιατί να ψηφίσω
την ΕΕΣ-Ουράνιο Τόξο

Click here
to read the Abecedar!

Promotion of the
Macedonian Language
Primer at the OSCE HDIM

Greek irredentism and expansionism officially sanctioned by the Greek Parliament

Letter to Carla del Ponte,
Chief Prosecutor for the UN International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia

The Yugoslavian Crisis

Document of the Ministry
of Foreign Affairs
Related to the article - The obvious linguistic particularity - Eletherotypia, 18/11/2006

The ten Greek myths
on the “Macedonian issue”
By IOS team – Eletherotypia, 23/10/2005

Who says there are no
minority languages in Greece?
The "secret" census
in north Greece, in 1920

Map showing the Cultures and Languages in the E.U.

Council of Europe
Framework convention for the Protection of national minorities

Συνέντευξη: Ευάγγελος Κωφός, Έλληνας ιστορικός
Δημοκρατία της Μακεδονίας - Σκόπια είναι όνομα που εκφράζει την ταυτότητά σας

Ο Παύλος Φιλίποβ Βοσκόπουλος απαντά στον Ευάγγελο Κωφό.
«Το Μακεδονικό ζήτημα είναι η αχίλλειος πτέρνα του ελληνικού μύθου».

Home • About Us • News • Reports • Media • Links • Contact

© 1997-2015 EFA-Rainbow, All Rights Reserved.