RESOLUTION BY AEGEAN MACEDONIAN REFUGEES (DETSA BEGALTSI)

RESOLUTION



We the Refugee Children of the Greek Civil War, who have endured inhumane treatment from Greek Governments since 1946, who were born in Aegean Macedonia and who are scattered throughout the world, have gathered together in this Fourth World Meeting at the Macedonian center of Eling in Melbourne, Australia, to bring you the latest resolution. We demand:



1. Human and national rights for all Macedonians living inside Greece.
2. That Greece, who is a member of the European Union and a signatory to guarantees of human rights for all its citizens, including the Macedonians, fulfills its obligations.
3. That the Greek Government repeal the law enacted in 1982 designed to repatriate only “Greeks by birth”. Greek citizens who were Greek by birth and had left Greece from 1946 to 1949, were allowed to return to Greece. Macedonians were excluded.
4. That the Greek Government repeal the law enacted in 1985 designed to return confiscated properties belonging to only “Greeks by birth”. War refugees who were “Greeks by birth” and had returned to Greece from 1982 to 1985 were given back their properties. Macedonians were again excluded.



With these two laws the Greek State has taken away our Greek citizenship and our lands. Because we are Macedonians, non-Greeks by birth, our homes and properties have been confiscated and awarded to settlers and colonists from Asia Minor and other places.



We demand that the Government of the Republic of Macedonia become openly and actively involved in the fight for human rights for the Macedonians living inside Greece. Thus far, past Macedonian governments have been silent on this issue and have allowed the Greek State to continue discriminating against its Greek citizens of Macedonian descent.



We the persecuted Refugee Macedonian-by-birth-Children, who have lived free everywhere in the world since our exodus from Greece, demand that we are allowed to enter Greece and visit our birth place and ancestral lands freely and without restrictions.



We also demand that all Macedonians living in Greece;



1. Be allowed to freely speak their Macedonian language at home, on the streets and in institutions where Macedonians live.
2. Be granted the freedom to communicate freely among themselves and their Macedonian language be taught in schools, spoken in churches and used in the mass media.
3. Be allowed to freely practice the Macedonian culture and traditions that have existed among Macedonians for ages.



We wish to emphasize that we want nothing more from the Greek State and the Greek Government than what is already defined as “human rights” and granted to every person on this planet by world institutions. We only want what Greece has already guaranteed its citizens and minorities in accordance with world standards.



Fourth World Meeting of the Refugee Children,

Melbourne, Australia

October 15, 2005



Janko Kalinchev

Coordinator



To: The Government of Greece,



Copies to: The Government of Australia,

The Government of the Republic of Macedonia

Relevant World Institutions.