Language Research

Greece narrowly avoided a communist take-over after World War II, and survived the military junta years from 1967 to 1974 to reject the monarchy and form a new Constitution. Greece is a member of the European Union.

TURKS

Ethnic Turks have resided in Thrace since at least the 14th century, and they are Greek citizens. In 1923, under the Treaty of Lausanne, the Turkish minority of Thrace was granted a wide array of rights to ensure protection of their religion, language, culture, and equality before the law. In addition, as Greek citizens, ethnic Turks also enjoy the protection of Greek law, as well as of the European Convention of Human Rights.

However, the Turks are viewed by the state with suspicion, the strength of which largely reflects the state of Turkish-Greek relations.

A number of discriminatory measures have been enacted either to force ethnic Turks to migrate to Turkey or to disrupt community life and weaken its cultural basis. The most egregious example was Article 19 of the Citizenship Law, which, until it was abolished in 1998, allowed the state to revoke the citizenship of non-ethnic Greeks unilaterally and arbitrarily. Between 1955 and 1998, approximately 60,000 lost their citizenship under this article. As a result of Article 19 and other discriminatory measures, the ethnic Turkish minority today numbers approximately 80-120,000.

Despite continued human rights violations, there have been some major improvements since Human Rights Watch began monitoring the situation in 1990. Several of the most egregious laws, such as those that deprived ethnic Turks of basic rights of property and occupation, have been repealed. Ethnic Turks can now buy and sell houses and land, repair houses, obtain car, truck and tractor licenses, and open coffee houses and machine and electrical shops.

MACEDONIANS

Just like the Turks in the Western Thrace, the Macedonian minority living in Aegean Macedonia in Greece continues their struggle not to be assimilated into the larger Greek community. Throughout its history, the Greek Government ignored Macedonia and Macedonians altogether and attempted to write them off their territories through assimilation. Greece acquired those territories after the Balkan Wars of 1912-13. Greece took Aegean Macedonia by conquest, never by act of self-determination. For many years the Greeks avoided the use of the name "Macedonia" to describe its northern province.

The Macedonian minority has been the victim of the Greek State's determination to de-nationalize minorities and other conscious policies. The Greek State has employed all the possibilities and means under its control (army, church, press, culture, institutions, associations etc) to advance its cause of "hellenisation". At times going as far as converting the personal names and surnames into "Greek", and changing, within this framework, the names and surnames of those of Macedonian origin with the comparable Greek names.

In the 1980's when it became evident that Yugoslavia was going to disintegrate and a part of Macedonia would become independent, Greece was afraid to lose Aegean Macedonia. Therefore, the government changed the state policy and proclaimed "Macedonia is 4,000 years of Greek history". Before this propaganda, the existence of such a land, people and language was vehemently denied and the Macedonians were called Slav-Greeks.

Greece is the only Southeast European country not recognizing the presence of any national minorities in its territory. The words "Turkish" and "Macedonian" have repeatedly led to the prosecution of their users.

ALBANIANS

The Albanian minority living in Greece consists of Christian Orthodox "Arvanideses" living in the regions of Corinth, Viotia, Fokiada, Hydra, Specha, and Psara, as well as the Muslim Chamerians living in Ioannina (Yanya) and other neighboring provinces in the West of Greece.

VLACHS

There are two Vlach languages in Greece. Megleno-Romanian is spoken by a population, calling itself Vlasi in their language, concentrated in an area in the North of Greece and across the border in Macedonia and Bulgaria. Aromanian, spoken by people calling themselves Armini in their language, with many dialects spoken by Vlachs throughout Northern Greece but also in Albania and Macedonia.

After the Balkan Wars, the Vlachs, like the Macedonian Slavs and Pomaks, found themselves separated in four different states, Albania, Serbia, Greece, and Bulgaria. An effort to create an autonomous Vlach state in the Italian-held Korce area of Albania was proved unsuccesful in 1918. Nevertheless, Greece officially recognized the Vlachs as a minority through an exchange of letters between the Greek and the Romanian Prime Ministers, which were appended to the Treaty of Bucarest (1913). On the basis of that Treaty, schools with Romanian subsidies operated in Greece through the end of World War II, when communist Romania lost its interest in the Vlachs. Nevertheless, very few Vlachs sent their children to these schools. Such choices were perceived as an indication of an anti-Greek attitude by both the state (which subsequently banished many of their graduates during World War II) and the leading Vlachs who consistently maintained a Graecophile posture and sometimes resorted to physical violence against the Romanophiles.

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Updated (October 2006)

GENERAL DESCRIPTION OF POPULATION AND LINGUISTIC GROUPS IN THE REGION OF EASTERN MACEDONIA AND THRACE

Territorial Distribution of the Languages

According to the current administrative division of Greece (13 Regions), the Region of Eastern Macedonia and Thrace occupies the Northeastern part of Greece, bordering on Bulgaria in the North (Rhodopi mountain range) and Turkey in the East (river Evros).

It includes five Prefectures: Drama (Eastern Macedonia), Kavala (Eastern Macedonia), Xanthi, Rhodopi and Evros (all three in Thrace).

Most of the Greek (Greek speaking – Christian orthodox) population, spatially distributed all over the Region, are mainly descendants of refugees from Asia Minor, Kappadokia, Pontos and Anatoliki Romylia (now Southern Bulgaria), who had moved to the region during the migration period of 1920-24. Few among them are considered as natives in the sense that their ancestors have been settled in the area and have been continuously living here since the Ottoman Empire era.

Some people trace their family roots back to Crete or Peloponnesus, being offspring of civil servants who moved here in order to support the administration of the newly acquired Greek territories, after 1920. Others, like the Sarakatsans, who were practicing nomadism until recently but have permanently settled in various villages during the last five decades, originated mainly from Epirus. Vlachs, (Valachians, Aromouni, or Vlachoi) also from Epirus, migrated to this area within the 18th and 19th centuries, being merchants, silver technicians or skilful stone craftsmen. Several Vlach communities are distributed in the region, in villages around Drama, Kavala, Xanthi, Komotini, Soufli, and Alexandroupolis.

Thus, the survival of dialects and idioms (in parallel to the general use of modern Greek), and the preservation of characteristic names and accents is a phenomenon that can be legitimately explained. Refugees from Eastern Thrace, for instance, preserve many first names, which reflect their agricultural society, like Peristera (pigeon), Lafina (female deer), Zoumboulia (harebell), Triantafyllia (Rose), Lemonia (Lemon tree), and Garyfallia (Carnation plant). People from Pontos use names like Simela (from the ancient Semeli).

The Muslim Minority consists of 35 percent of Pomaks, 15 percent of Roma, and 50 percent of Ottomans of various origins.

The Pomaks (approximately 35.000) are settled mainly in the mountainous areas of the Rhodopi and Xanthi Prefectures (Villages: Myki, Thermes, Echinos, Satres, Smynthi, Kotyli, Organi, Kechros), with a few in the Prefecture of Evros. However, many of them have moved southwards in the recent years, namely to the towns of Komotini and Xanthi or to large villages like Iasmos, as well as to Athens, for professional and social reasons.

Being natives of the mountainous Rhodopi area, Pomaks have been divided between the Greek and the Bulgarian State after the definite fixation of the borders. Thus, kindred families live on both sides of the borders. Pomaks are nowadays Muslims, having been gradually islamized during the 18th Century, under the pressure of the Ottoman Empire.

The Pomak language, a Slavic dialect with no written form, is preserved due to its continuous use within the population group.

The Turkish-speaking people (Tourkophonoi) are descendants of the people who were exempt from the mandatory exchange of population, which preceded the Treaty of Lausanne. They live in plain villages scattered across the Prefectures of Rhodopi and Xanthi.

Concerning the Roma or Gypsies population, about 9000 people live in the area of Xanthi, about 8500-9000 in the area of Rhodopi, and approximately 6000 in the area of Evros.

The elder Roma are settled in permanent settlements while the younger ones migrate seasonally all over Greece, engaged in different occupations, mainly as merchants or seasonal agricultural workers. Most of them are Muslims. However, there are villages like Aratos (near Komotini) where Christian Orthodox - Greek speaking Gypsies are living. Their grandparents moved here from Eastern Thrace (now part of Turkey), following the migration wave of the Greeks at that time.

An Armenian community (Christian Orthodox followers of the old Julian calendar-also speaking Greek), comprising approximately 1500 people today, is spatially distributed in the Prefectures of Kavala, Drama, Xanthi, Rhodopi and Evros.

Armenians were settled in Northern Greece since the Byzantine times. Several Armenians came here early in the 20th century, being victims of prosecutions. After the World War II, almost the two-thirds of the Armenian community immigrated to countries such as USA, Canada, France, and former Soviet Union. People of Diaspora, Armenians keep strong links among their communities all over the world and preserve their language and tradition. This behavior, however, does not prevent their creative integration in the countries they live.

The Armenians, who stay in Greece, successfully operate as businessmen, enjoying in general a high socio-economic level. While fully integrated in Greek society, they have not lost their cultural identity and they do not think that the latter is threatened. Their cultural associations are very active and despite the fact that the last Armenian school in Didimotichon was closed in 1945 due to lack of pupils, they preserve their language and cultural continuity.

The entire Jewish Community of the area was eliminated during the Bulgarian occupation (1941-1944), since then the long-lasting presence of Jews in Thrace ended.

The linguistic mosaic of the Region has been enriched by the settlement of Greeks from the Black Sea (Pontos) areas, after the collapse of the former USSR. These people, spatially distributed in various Republics of the Black Sea region, were forced by political instability and economic repression in their countries to migrate to Greece. Thrace was one of the reception centers for these migrants. Many of them have settled permanently in Sapes and Komotini, establishing their own houses with support by the Greek State, whereas others moved towards the large cities (Athens and Thessaloniki) in search of a better future. These people usually speak Russian, Ukrainian, Georgian as well as the dialect of Pontos.

The Northeastern part of Greece has been profoundly multicultural and consequently multilingual since the beginning of the 20th Century, certainly after the final definition of the current state borders.

Recently, after 1970, the whole Greek State has become a state open to economic migrants and refugees from all over the world. As expected, they are mostly gathered in the big cities due to favorable conditions regarding employment. The Greek State, trying to facilitate their smooth integration in their new environment has taken a series of proper measures, among others - the establishment of multicultural schools.

However, the issue of multilingualism in the Region of Eastern Macedonia and Thrace differs essentially from that in the rest of Greece, mainly for two fundamental reasons:

1. it emerges from a different historical and socio-economic background, and

2. its political dimension is strongly present, since any evolution in language(s) use and educational models are directly related to the international changes through time, the political re-arrangements in Europe during the last two centuries and the bilateral relationships between border countries (Greece - Bulgaria, Greece - Turkey).

The Greek Republic, a full member of the European Union since 1981 and a rapidly developing one, constitutes the geographical field between "East" and "West", where models concerning the co-existence of Europe as a whole with its external neighbors are challenged.

Consequently, cross border collaborations in the fields of education, economic exchanges and developmental strategies, enhanced also through the development of "language bridges", become particularly important in the context of ongoing challenges within the wider European framework.

Source: N.I.Xirotiris and K. Simitopoulou, "Report on the Linguistic Situation in the Region of Eastern Macedonia and Thrace", Language Bridges Papers (2005) at www.eurac.edu

STATUS OF LANGUAGES IN GREEK REGION OF EASTERN MACEDONIA AND THRACE

The official language in Greece is Modern Greek.

Turkish is officially recognized as a regional minority language of the Muslim minority in Thrace, protected by special legislation frameworks and accordingly enjoying educational facilities. It is used in Courts and Mosques. (The Arabic language is also used in Mosques for the reading of the Koran, as well as in minority ecclesiastical schools).

Turkish speaking civil servants are employed by the Greek administration in order to facilitate the every day communication with Muslims.

Newspapers and journals (in Turkish or bilingual) are published daily or weekly. All Turkish newspapers are available, some regularly imported from Turkey. Turkish speaking radio-stations offer daily emissions with songs, political comments and advertisements. Through satellite transmission, all Turkish TV programs are received.

The Turkish language is taught in the bilingual minority schools covering 50 percent of the weekly curriculum (with the second language being Greek and the third English), as well as in many private language schools (frondistiria).

The Pomak and the Roma languages have no official status; they are spoken within the respective communities. Whereas the Pomak language keeps alive, younger Gypsies attending the bilingual Greek – Turkish classes gradually abandon the language of their parents. Most of the local Roma community seems indifferent to preserve its language, gradually adopting Turkish in their every day life. This is how they differ from the other Roma communities all over Greece, which use Roma and Greek.

Among the immigrant languages in Greece, Russian, Ukrainian and Bulgarian are mostly present in the Region of Eastern Macedonia and Thrace. The educational problems of these immigrants are confronted in two cross-cultural schools established in the area (Sapes and Iasmos).

A daily Greek newspaper (Paratiritis tis Thrakis) integrates translation of its material in Russian and Turkish languages. A Russian satellite TV Channel provides twenty-four-hour daily emissions. Russian speaking migrants from Pontos are employed by the local authorities in order to facilitate the communication between administration and migrants.

It should be mentioned that, especially nowadays, despite the linguistic homogeneity envisaged in Greek society as a whole, a lot of less spoken languages are present, mainly in the big cities. About 10 percent of the total contemporary estimated population of Greece belongs to various ethnic groups and nationalities. This recent development, caused by the reception of economic and political migrants from all over the world, is handled with great concern by the Greek Government, which tends to pay particular attention to the cross-cultural education during the recent years.

Source: N.I.Xirotiris and K. Simitopoulou, "Report on the Linguistic Situation in the Region of Eastern Macedonia and Thrace", Language Bridges Papers (2005) at www.eurac.edu

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