URGENT: HELLENIC HUMAN RIGHTS ! STOP SKOPJE !

For Immediate Release: September 24th, 2008

Contact: Nikolaos Taneris, New York, Tel. 1-917-699-9935

NEW YORK--The Cyprus Action Network of America (CANA) has launched the Hellenic
Human Rights coalition to Stop Skopje. Please act on the action alert to the US
State Departement below and send on to family, friends and colleagues.

Hellenic Human Rights is a coalition of grass-roots activists in New York City,
joining together in the struggle to save Hellenic people living under the Skopje
government.Join our Rally To Stop Skopje on Monday , October 27th at the Unites
States Mission to the United Nations.
Visit our campaign blog, www.hellenichumanrights.wordpress.com

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URGENT: CALL ON THE STATE DEPARTMENT TO PROTEST THE HUMAN RIGHTS VIOLATIONS AND
CULTURAL GENOCIDE OF HELLENIC PEOPLE LIVING IN SKOPJE BY THE SKOPJE GOVERNMENT

Numerous reports in recent months indicate a rising atmosphere of anti-Hellenic
human rights violations and an atmosphere of racist oppression directed toward
the Hellenic minority living in the areas controlled by the Skopje government.
The Skopje government is guilty of human rights violations, cultural genocide
and ethnocide of Hellenic people.


Current Status

The historic Hellenic communties living in the Monastiri area , many of whom
are now dispersed thoroughout Skopje, have reportedly been denied the right to
declare themselves Hellenic nationals, the Hellenic people in Skopje have also
been denied freedom of assembly, and freedom of association by the Skopje
government. These are grave human rights violations as outlined in the UN
Universal Declaration of Human Rights, mainly the right to a nationality.

According to Article 15 of the the Universal Declaration of Human Rights,
adopted and proclaimed by General Assembly resolution 217 A of 10 December
1948.
1. Everyone has the right to a nationality.
2. No one shall be arbitrarily deprived of his nationality nor denied the right
to change his nationality.


The country which the US State Department choses to recognise as “Macedonia” and
known throughout the region as Skopje, with the capital of its government in the
Balkan city named Skopje is denying the basic human right to nationality to the
250,000 Hellenic people living within its borders.

The continuing campaign by the Skopje government to deny the Hellenic identity
and Hellenic nationality to indigenous people is an act of cultural genocide and
should be publicly investigated and condemned by the US State Department





What You Can Do

Contact the State Department's human rights division.

By Mail:
David J. Kramer
Assistant Secretary, Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights and Labor
Assistant Secretary of State for
Democracy, Human Rights and Labor
U.S. Department of State
Harry S. Truman Building, 2201 C Street, NW, Room 7802, Washington, DC 20520

By Tel: (202) 647-1780

By Fax: (202) 647-5283

By Email: kramerdj@state.gov


(Send a note to cana@cyprusactionnetwork.org to tell us what actions you took.)


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Phone Script for Assistant Secretary Office - (202) 647-1780


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(The phone will be answered by a receptionist. As always, be firm, but polite.
Hostile comments will only undermine the message you are trying to deliver. Ask
to speak to a senior advisor to the Assistant Secretary. If a senior advisor is
not available to speak with you, ask to leave a message on their voice mail.)



Hello, my name is __________________.

I am calling to ask the State Department to publicly protest the Skopje
government's denial of Hellenic nationality for Hellenic people living in
Skopje.



Please look into this matter personally and publicly protest any violations of
human rights, directly with the Skopje government and in your annual human
rights country reports, and please include all findings in the (in
quotes)“MACEDONIA” country report due to be released in Februaury 2009.

Thank you for your time. I would appreciate learning of any action your office
takes on this matter, and would appreciate an investigation and proper report. I
can be contacted at the following address: __________________


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Sample Letter to Assistant Secretary (Mail, Fax, or Email)

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The Honorable David J. Kramer
Assistant Secretary of State for
Democracy, Human Rights and Labor
Harry S. Truman Building, 2201 C Street, NW, Room 7802, Washington, DC 20520

Dear Assistant Secretary Kramer:

I am writing to ask the State Department to publicly protest the Skopje
government's human rights violations and cultural genocide of the Hellenic
people in “Macedonia”



According to the US State Dept “Promoting freedom and democracy and protecting
human rights around the world are central to U.S. foreign policy. The values
captured in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and in other global and
regional commitments are consistent with the values upon which the United States
was founded centuries ago.”
(Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights, and Labor, URL: http://www.state.gov/g/drl/
)



The Skopje government has a long legacy of anti-Hellenic cultural genocide, the
previous Communist regime forcibly transferred Hellenic nationals, and prior to
this the pro-Nazi Skopje government forcibly occupied Hellenic land, forcibly
transferred Hellenic people, and targeted Hellenic people for massacres and
torture. All governments in Skopje, by use of force together with racist
propaganda and official racist discrimination , to this day have deprived the
Hellenic people of their integrity as a distinct people, by use of forcible
assimilation or integration by the majority Slavophone cultures or ways of life
imposed on them by legislative, administrative or other measures including
terror.

Article 7 of the United Nations Draft Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous
Peoples (26 August 1994) [4] uses the phrase "cultural genocide". The complete
article reads as follows:

Indigenous peoples have the collective and individual right not to be subjected
to ethnocide and cultural genocide, including prevention of and redress for:
(a) Any action which has the aim or effect of depriving them of their integrity
as distinct peoples, or of their cultural values or ethnic identities;
(b) Any action which has the aim or effect of dispossessing them of their lands,
territories or resources;
(c) Any form of population transfer which has the aim or effect of violating or
undermining any of their rights;
(d) Any form of assimilation or integration by other cultures or ways of life
imposed on them by legislative, administrative or other measures;
(e) Any form of propaganda directed against them.

The Skopje government is guilty of all of the above itemized sub-articles in
“MACEDONIA”.


Please help save the Hellenic people from cultural genocide by 1) immediately
investigating the Skopje government practice of denying Hellenic nationality to
Hellenic people 2) publicly protesting any violations of human rights, and; 3)
prominently addressing this matter in the annual "Country Reports on Human
Rights Practices," on “MACEDONIA” due to be released in February 2009.

Thank you for your attention to my concerns.

I look forward to hearing from you or your office in this regard.


Sincerely,


____________________________________

(Signature)

____________________________________

(Name)

____________________________________

(Address)

____________________________________

(City, State, Zip)



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Background:

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For more information visit:
NorthMacedonians.com/The Greek Community in FYROM http://northmacedonians.blogspot.com/
There are two cases which illustrate the regime's virulent anti-Greek stance -
denying even the existence of Greeks in the Former Yugoslav Republic of
Makedonija (FYROM).
Case 1: Papouli Family. The Papouli family are Greek-Vlachs in FYROM (SKOPJE)
who had their surname forcibly changed to Kostov. They petitioned the Skopjan
regime to change their name back to the original Greek, Papouli, which means
little-Grandfather in Greek. The regime refused their application on the basis
that it would "change their personal identity" and "obstruct legal procedures".
Case 2: Nikos Kostantinidis: An eyewitness video account of a Hellenic person
from Monastiri describing the official Skopje government policies of forcible
assimilation and denial of the right to Hellenic national identity. URL:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KLfPoaQIeKM


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Cyprus Action Network of America (CANA)
2578 Broadway #132
New York, NY 10025
New York: Tel. 917-699-9935
Email: cana@cyprusactionnetwork.org
www.cyprusactionnetwork.org
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