NATIONAL MINORITIES IN EUROPE AND THE CASE OF GREECE: DOES THE MACEDONIAN MINORITY HAVE RIGHTS IN THE HELENIC REPUBLIC?

In the 20th century, most European nations formed their national states. Yet, given the fact that Europe is populated by many ethnicities, there is no national state that does not include an ethnic or religious minority within its territory. The development of human right guarantees at the global and European levels has contributed to the development of minority rights and their guarantees. Many legal documents in Europe guarantee the fundamental rights of minorities but the most important legal act is the Council of Europe’s Framework Convention for the Protection of National Minorities (1995). Despite being one of the most developed countries in South-eastern Europe and ratifying the CoE Framework Convention and other human rights legal documents, Greece has a hostile approach towards national minorities, especially towards the Macedonian ethnical minority. The first part of the paper analyzes the rights of national minorities in European legal documents: the CoE Framework Convention and the European Convention on Human Rights (1950), and their significance for minority rights. The analysis also covers the position of minority rights in the law of the European Union. The second part of the paper focuses on the position and rights of the Macedonian national minority in Greece. While the reviewed legal documents show the European organizations’ commitments to guaranteeing minority rights, the research in this paper proves the Greek state’s violation of minority rights and, particularly, its antagonistic approach towards Macedonian minority rights.