MINELRES: Press Release: Successful International Panel Discussion on Minorities in Greece Held in the European Parliament
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Tue Apr 22 16:01:03 2008
Original sender: EFA � Rainbow <[email protected]>
POLITICAL PARTY OF THE MACEDONIAN MINORITY IN GREECE
Member of the European Free Alliance - European Political Party
(E.F.A-E.P.P)
Member of the Federal Union of European Nationalities (F.U.E.N.)
Stefanou Dragoumi 11 Florina/Lerin
�.�. 53100 PO Box 51
Greece
Tel/fax 0030 23850 46548
www.florina.org
e-mail [email protected]
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PRESS RELEASE
FLORINA /LERIN, 21/04/08
SUCCESSFUL INTERNATIONAL PANEL DISCUSSION ON MINORITIES IN GREECE HELD
IN THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT
Macedonian and Turkish minorities unrecognised and ignored in Greece
On Thursday 17 April 2008 an international panel discussion was held in
the European Parliament on the Ignored Minorities of Greece: Western
Thrace Turks and Macedonians. The conference was very well attended and
received much publicity in the press in the days leading up to the
event.
The conference was chaired by Hans Heinrich Hansen, the President of the
Federal Union of European Nationalities (FUEN). After opening speeches
from Nelly Maes, the President of the European Free Alliance - European
Political Party, Halit Habipoglou, President of the Federation of
Western Thrace Turks in Europe (ABTTF) and Petros Kazias, a member of
the Central Council of EFA-Rainbow the following presentations were
made:
Kinga Gal, MEP, the Vice Chairwoman of the Subcommittee on Human Rights
spoke about the protection of minorities in Europe.
Asst. Prof. Dr. Halim Cavusoglu made a speech on the Western Thrace
Turkish Minority and the Victims of Article 19 of the Greek Citizenship
Code.
Petros Kazias of the European Free Alliance � Rainbow made a
presentation on the ethnic Macedonian minority of Greece.
A statement from Lazslo Tokes MEP was read out in which he offered to
mediate between representatives of the two minority groups and the Greek
government.
Next, Panayote Dimitras of the Greek Helsinki Monitor spoke on the
tolerance of intolerance of minorities in Greece.
The final presentation was made by Boriss Cilevics who spoke on Council
of Europe standards and minorities in Greece.
The presentations were followed by a interesting discussion in which a
range of views were expressed. EFA-Rainbow regrets that some present
wanted to manipulate the event for their own political purposes.
The EFA-Rainbow was pleased that the event was attended by a number of
MEPs and also by a representative of the Permanent Representation of
Greece to the European Union. In this connection, EFA-Rainbow again call
upon the Greek governemnt to begin a dialogue between representatives of
the Macedonian and Turkish minorities to discuss all unresolved issues.
The closing remarks of the conference were made by Mikel Irujo Amezaga
MEP of the Greens/EFA Group. The EFA-Rainbow would like to thank Mr
Amezaga and his staff for all their hard work in organising the
conference.
The Press Office
EFA �
Rainbow
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