Greek hate
Sir: In my article on Greek nationalism (The new bully of the Balkans', 15 August) I described the case of Hristos Sideropou- los, a Greek Slav who lost his job as a forestry worker after he had complained to the CSCE human rights conference at Copenhagen about the treatment of the Slav Macedonian minority in Greece.
Mr Sideropoulos is now being prosecuted for remarks he made in an interview with a Greek magazine in March. In that inter- view, he said that the Slays of northern Greece are a national minority. This state- ment, which nearly all geographers and his- torians outside Greece would regard as obviously true, is described in the summons as 'spreading false information' — a crimi- nal offence. He also said that if they were not recognised as a national minority, they would put up their own candidate in the next elections to the Greek parliament. This statement of an intention to make use of the democratic process is described in the summons as 'tending to create fear and unrest among Greek citizens'.
At the Vienna CSCE meeting in 1989, Greece signed a document which commits signatories to: 'protect and create condi- tions for the promotion of the ethnic, cul- tural, linguistic and religious identity of national minorities on their territory. They will respect the free exercise of rights by persons belonging to such minorities and ensure their full equality with others.' Greece continues to evade that obligation by the simple trick of saying that it has no national minorities. And when members of its national minorities identify themselves as such, it threatens them with long prison sentences..
The trial is due to begin in Athens on 30 October (No. 6 criminal court, room 12), though it will almost certainly be postponed for some weeks. May I appeal through your columns to international human rights organisations to send observers? In my arti- cle I referred also to the ethnic Turk from Thrace, Dr Sadik Ahmet, who was prose- cuted on exactly the same charges in 1989 `It's about a Thatcherite MP backing the miners.' and sentenced to 18 months' imprisonment. The Helsinki Watch report on his case includes a description of the trial by an international observer. Here is an extract from it:
Throughout the proceedings, two of the three judges and the prosecutor shouted at the defendants with open malice. Particularly, the second judge frequently jumped to his feet in order to increase the effect of the shouting. The crowd which filled the court- room cheered the prosecutor and the judges and cursed the defendants with such noise that the words of the defendants and their lawyers could not be heard.
When I met Mr Sideropoulos in July I found him dignified and quiet-spoken. He has suffered from unemployment, ostracism and public abuse. (Curiously, the Greek extremist papers which advocate physical violence against him in particular, and against the Greek Slays in general, are never prosecuted for 'tending to create fear and unrest among Greek citizens'.) His last words to me were: 'I am not calling for secession. I am not even demanding special rights. I just want us to enjoy the ordinary human rights to which we are entitled.' It must be doubted whether he will find those rights upheld in any Greek court today Noel Malcolm
56 Doughty Street, London WCI
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