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Controversy in Greece over visit of UN minority expert

September 25, 2008
Eurolang Belgrade, Wednesday, 24 September 2008 by Georgios N. Papadakis

The recent visit to Greece of the UN's independent expert on minority issues, Gay McDougall, has caused a lot of controversy, mainly in the mainstream Greek media.

Besides her meetings with the Minister of Foreign Affairs, Dora Bakoyiannis, and other Greek officials, McDougall visited Roma communities in the vicinity of Athens and representatives of the Turkish- speaking minority in Western Thrace. She decided to meet also with members of the ethnic Macedonian community in the cities of Florina/Lerin and Edessa/Voden.

The move provoked a fierce reaction from the Greek media, which accused McDougall of being in line with the Macedonian Prime Minister, Nikola Gruevski, on the issue. Mr. Gruevski called upon his Greek counterpart Kostas Karamanlis, as well as the EU, the UN and the Council of Europe, to end the discrimination policy against the Macedonians in Greece. Greece rejected Gruevski's claims as unfounded and unacceptable, repeating that no Macedonian minority resides within its territory.

Despite the media outcry, McDougall went on to visit the Macedonians and refused to stick to the programme prepared for her by the Greek authorities. She was confronted with hostility at a press conference before her departure, and politely refused to answer most of the questions related to the essence of her visit. She did not hesitate, however, to describe the situation of the Roma in Greece as "desperate" and "disastrous".

The report of the UN expert on minorities in Greece is expected to be presented next March in Geneva. (Eurolang 2008)

See also:
www.globalrights.org
www.e-tipos.com (Greek daily newspaper)
www.vlada.mk (Government of the Republic of Macedonia)
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