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Articles

• Vlasidis, Vlassis
• Karakostanoglou, Veniamin

Between November 1993 and October 1994 various NGO reportsfocused on the alleged ethnic “Macedonian” minority living in Greece.Supported by a number of books and articles published during the sameperiod, NGOs argue that “Macedonian” is a primordial ethnic identityembraced by a considerable proportion of the population of Macedoniaand still corresponds to a sizeable but suppressed and violentlyassimilated ethnic minority in Greece. This paper is not intended tochallenge the apparent ideological obstacles that an ethnic nation-statelike Greece faces when it has to deal with minority issues. It seeks tocontest the generalising character of these accounts by revealing (a) themisuse of data and terms, (b) the use of deceptive data, (c) the selectiveuse —indeed the recycling— of biased bibliographical sources. Thebottom line is that international observers have failed to give anobjective view of the minority question in Greece. Basically this wasdue to a general misinterpretation of ethnicity in the Balkans and tovarious political necessities which unfortunately seem to be assessedtogether with human and minority rights.

• History and Archaeology

• Ιστορία

Μειονότητες στην Ελλάδα

This study has been benefited immensly by comments and researches of variousscholars cooperating with the Institute for Balkan Studies and the Museum of the MacedonianStruggle, in Thessaloniki.