Human Rights Watch coverage of Greece and Turkey

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by Theodore G. Karakostas

The organization "Human Rights Watch" annually publishes a World

Report documenting human rights abuses in countries throughout

the world. Much attention is given to the status of ethnic and

religious minorities suffering repression. The latest annual World

Report is notable for the serious imbalance regarding entry's on

Greece and Turkey.

The annual entry on Turkey is notable for the absence of any

reference to the Greeks of Constantinople and Cyprus, or to the

Ecumenical Patriarchate. Some time ago, I wrote to HRW and

referred to Turkey's policies of ethnic cleansing and religious

repression against the Greek Orthodox minority since 1955. The

response I received assured me that there was no intent to slight

the Greeks of Turkey or Cyprus, but that HRW has "budget

restraints" and that HRW tries to be balanced and fair.

Interestingly enough, HRW has no "budget restraints" when

monitoring the status of minorities in Greece. This year's entry on

Greece referred to repression and discrimination against the Turkish

and Slav minorities, the Catholic Church, and the Church of

Scientology. In addition, both the Hellenic Republic and the

Orthodox Church of Greece are criticized on the grounds that the

special status enjoyed by Orthodoxy in Greece is discriminatory

against other faiths. HRW criticizes the Greek Orthodox, alongside

the Russian, Bulgarian, and Romanian Orthodox Churches for

opposing proselytism by foreign Protestant Churches.

The HRW entry's on Greece and Turkey are misleading. Its thorough

and severe criticism of Greece regarding minorities is not matched by

its entry on Turkey. HRW fails to mention that when the Treaty of

Lausanne was signed in 1923, there were 90,000 Turkish speaking

Muslims in Greece, while there are 120,000 today. Even worse is the

indifferance to the Greeks of Constantinople who numbered 100,000

when the Lausanne Treaty was signed but is today reduced to a

pitiful 2,500 as a result of government sponsored terror campaigns

consisting of pogroms and deportations.

HRW also notes that it has given an award to one Greek Muslim,

Abdulhalim Dede, for "past persecution" while failing to mention that

Greece's Muslims have representatives elected to Parliament and are

the beneficiaries of affirmative action programs when applying to

Greek Universities. HRW over the past several years has failed to

note the four bombings and attempted bombings of the Ecumenical

Patriarchate, of which his all holiness Bartholomeos I was personally

targeted. It has failed to note the 1997 arrest of Metropolitan

Iakovos, a member of the Patriarchate's holy synod for officiating at

a Bulgarian Church, and failed to note the murder of a Church

caretaker who was an ethnic Greek in early 1998.

Finally, as HRW detailed claims of religious discrimination by Greece,

it failed to refer to the Patriarchal school of Halki which remains

closed even as Islamic seminaries thrive. Even as HRW notes the

award given to a Turk from Greece, it should be noted that HRW has

ignored Cyprus. HRW's 1997 World Report which covered the year

1996 failed to mention Turkey's brutal murders of Cypriots Tasos

Isaac and Solomos Solomou. The failure of HRW to take interest in

the plight of oppressed Hellenic minorities in Turkey and Cyprus is

censorship considering that its annual World Report stands as a

matter of record.

Theodore G. Karakostas