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35
Not
even during the period of nationalistic hysteria in 1992-93 did we witness the
likes of such a trial. The defendant was architect Sotiris Bletsas, accused of
the offense of "disseminating false information" (article 191 of the
Penal Code). His offense? On 1 July 1995, at the panhellenic meeting of Vlachs
in Naoussa, he distributed - actually, he handed to Fotios Kilipiris, the
president of the Panhellenic Union of Vlachs - an English-language publication
from the European Bureau of Lesser Used Languages (EBLUL), which, among other
things, stated that in certain regions of Greece five other languages are
spoken in addition to Greek. This event provoked the rage of Evgenios Haitidis,
the Nea Democratia MP from Serres, who was present at the meeting. The result
was the arrest of Mr. Bletsas and charges filed against him. After various
judicial battings back and forth and a series of continuances, the case finally
reached the 10th Three-Member Misdemeanor Court of Athens on February 2nd.
The
case should have been deemed totally ridiculous, since the disputed text
(which, as we explain in the adjacent column, comes from a semi-official
organization of the European Union) contained no reference to politically
charged notions, such as minorities, but simply to languages - whose spoken use
has never been disputed. However, as we had the opportunity to ascertain first
hand as witnesses for the defense in this very trial, in the Greek Judicial
System even the self-evident can constitute a type of "state secret,"
which must be suppressed at all costs - and by punishment with imprisonment.
In vain, the defense submitted a host of
documentation - official Greek government statistics, Foreign Ministry
documents, university textbooks and doctoral dissertations, statements from politicians
and assorted publications - verifying not only the fact that these languages
are spoken in Greece but, moreover, that this fact has been repeatedly attested
to by all manner of individuals and institutions. In vain, the Slavologist
Alexandra Ioannidou, a witness for the defense, explained the self-evident:
that any form of linguistic communication among people qualifies under the term
of language. In vain, finally, the defense attorney Lambros Baltsiotis
extracted statements from the prosecution's
witnesses specifying the
truth of the
text at issue:
that the
36 ZBORLU
A NOSTRU – 1/2001
disputed
languages are, in fact, spoken today
(also), indeed, in certain villages
in the Serres
prefecture that elected the orchestrator of all these proceedings.
As principal witness for the prosecution,
Mr. Haitidis's own testimony, moreover, was unable to enlighten the court,
except for the level and content of his censorship reasoning. "My
grandparents didn't know a word of Greek, just Turkish," he stated, only
to proudly add, "But I never learned a word of that language and I speak
only Greek." Obviously the learning of languages is not a human skill but
a defect one should be ashamed of! As for the substance of the case, there the
ND parliamentarian couldn't help but make a mess of it. To the general hilarity
of those observing the procedure, he first assured the court that "other
languages are not spoken anywhere in Greece," then continued by clarifying
that "they might be spoken by some naive individuals, but not by organized
groups," and ended with the contention that "what are spoken are not
languages, but idioms." Obviously not wishing to humiliate themselves
before the court, the remaining witnesses for the prosecution (Mayor Yeorgios
Makris of Prosotsani and Ioannis Zaparas, a national telecommunications
employee) concentrated their own testimonies on this last point: whatever is
spoken besides Greek is simply "idiom." Besides, it was difficult for
them to put forth more serious disclaimers when, in the corridor outside the
courtroom, passersby overheard these same individuals conversing in Vlach!
And yet... it was on this very distinction
that the majority of the court decided to base its judgment in favor of the
nonexistence of other languages in Greece. "Agreed, all those things are
spoken. But are they spoken as languages or as idioms?" was the unvarying
question that the court's president Zoe Kostoyanni put to
the witnesses. There
were also less
"technical"
questions and even
openly voiced
political opinions. For instance, the president insisted that the witnesses
declare "whether our country has minority problems," while Judge
Maria Ralli-Katrivanou's question was even more eloquent: "Okay, all those
things are spoken. But ought
we to be talking about it? Especially if we take into consideration all
that has happened in recent years with the Macedonian issue that profoundly
affected us as Greeks? At least that's how I believe we ought to feel. I'd like
your opinion." Given all that, certain details about the rest of the
process, such as the president's toleration of "spontaneous"
interventions from the public that derided the defense's witnesses, can be
considered of minor significance.
The questions that the court put to the
accused were, otherwise, revelatory: "How many times have you gone to
Brussels and in what capacity?" "What business did you have going to
Naoussa?" You're a learned man; didn't it occur
ZBORLU A NOSTRU – 1/2001 37
to you that if you go
to your fellow-nationals [sic] and hand out that leaflet that
it would cause a
disturbance?" "Wasn't the fact that you were arrested a disturbance?"
The significance of the day was synopsized, finally, by the prosecutor
Nikolaous Seintis: "Today," he began his summation, "we have
been dealing with an important matter, which can be synopsized in the lines of
the poet: 'The language I was given is Greek.' The issue of language is
fundamental. We are talking about the deciding factor that shapes national
consciousness, about a racial criterion. The accused should have been more
careful when he distributed this leaflet." There was also a reference made
to EBLUL, the organization that published the leaflet: "Perhaps the
Europeans have not been properly informed, since some actual individual has
compiled this text. This individual should be located and bear the
consequences." The president of the court also expressed the same opinion
concerning the "actual individual" who compiled the European
organization's Map.
After all this, the outcome of the trial
was a foregone conclusion. What that in his plea the defendant professed his
Greek national consciousness while refusing to condemn his mother tongue? With
the exception of Judge Stamata Petsali, the 10th Misdemeanor Court of Athens
ruled that the reference to the speaking of languages other than Greek
constitutes a criminal offence. Mr. Bletsas may have had to repeat first grade
because he didn't know Greek, but he was sentenced to 15 months imprisonment
and a fine of 500,000 drachmas for a simple reference to his mother
"idiom." Precisely the way the Turkish courts have proclaimed the
Kurdish language "nonexistent."
The text that cost Mr. Bletsas the lengthy
trial is as follows: "Greek is the official State language. There are six
lesser used or regional languages: Arvanite (Arberichte), which is spoken in
numerous communities spread throughout the country; Aroumanian (Armanesti) in
the mountainous areas of Thessaly, Epirus and Pindus; Bulgarian (Balgarski)
which is spoken in Western Thrace by the Pomaks, who are a Muslim community;
Slav-Macedonian (Makedonski) in the north of Greece; and Turkish (Turkce) in
western Thrace. There is also a rather large Gypsy community."
We have not translated the text from its
original English because that is exactly how it was included in the briefs,
despite the fact that procedure calls for official translations of all
documents and, in particular, those supporting the prosecution's case.
38 ZBORLU
A NOSTRU – 1/2001
Instead of
a translation, we quote (and endorse) the proclamation by Minority Groups
Research Center (KEMO): "As a matter of principle KEMO does not intervene
in matters of current events. As an exception, however, due to the
unprecedented in judicial chronicles trial of a Greek citizen for
'disseminating false information' (where the false information was the
existence in that state of other languages in addition to Greek), we are
impelled to make the following statement. In Greece, traditionally and in
addition to Greek, the following languages are spoken (in alphabetical order):
Arvanitika, Vlach, Macedonobulgarian (which combines the southern Slavic
dialects of Macedonia and Thrace), Turkish, and (Gypsy) Romani."
The publication that cost Mr. Bletsas the
trial does not, of course, refer only to Greece. It has recorded the 43
"lesser used languages" in the European Union and apportions them to
the various countries. However, it has never occurred to the courts of any
other EU country to start judicial proceedings against someone for
"disseminating false information." Furthermore, it would be ludicrous
to initiate judicial proceedings against a publication that has been compiled
within the EU framework by an official European institution and has been
unanimously accepted by the European Parliament! The disputed publication bears
the signature of the European Bureau of Lesser Used Languages (EBLUL), a
European organization that is funded and regulated by the Commission and the
European Parliament. The first form of the Map was included in the 1991 report
compiled by European parliamentarian Mark Kililea "concerning the current
status of less widespread languages and cultural
elements within the
European Community." The Kililea report (A3-0042/94) was approved by an
overwhelming majority (318 for, 1 against, 6 abstentions) in the European
Parliament (9/2/1994). Of course, Greek Euro-parliamentarians from the entire
political spectrum voted in its favor.
In the same decision, the European Parliament "calls upon the governments of its member-states to encourage and support the commissions maintained by the European Bureau of Lesser Used Languages within the member-states, thereby clarifying the responsibilities that citizens and their organizations bear in the development of their own language." Mr. Bletsas was following this simple directive and found himself on the threshold of a prison! It's superfluous to add that after the decision by the 10th Three-Member Court, no one in Greece is about to contemplate setting up a Bureau commission as per the European Parliament's directive. S/he would be risking execution by summary procedures.
*Article
from the greek newspaper Eleftherotypia, February 10, 2001.