MINORITIES IN GREECE

In the United States, minorities are visible everywhere: We celebrate Ireland's St. Patrick in March, the Mexican holiday Cinquo de Mayo in May, and the achievements of African Americans in February. In Greece, on the other hand, minorities are more difficult for visitors to spot, but they do exist, and in large numbers. As Greeks themselves are discovering, the effort to learn about these groups and to include them in nationa

l life brings great rewards, for the achievements of minorities strengthen the larger culture in which they live.
　　According to the Greek government, only about 214,000 people－two percent of Greece's 10.7 million people－are members of non-Greek minorities. But experts such as the Greek activist Evangelos Averoff and the Minority Rights Group, an international human rights organization, agree that the official figure is too low because it is based on language, not culture. Thus, a person of Turkish heritage who has learned the Greek language is considered Greek by the government, although that person may have more in common with relatives in Turkey than with his Greek neighbors. He may speak Turkish with his family at home, worship in a mosque rather than a church, or read Turkish newspapers. In each case, he would stand out from his neighbors. In each case, he would be a minority.
　　Turks form the largest minority within Greece; many (from 100 000-120 000) live in Western Thrace, a remote region on the Turkish border. The Treaty of Lausanne established Western Thrace in 1923 after the League of Nations Population Exchange in which 1.4 million Greeks returned to Greece and 750,000 Turks returned to Turkey. The situation there often tense, for Greece and Turkey have been enemies for decades. It is not surprising, therefore, to find the Greeks of Western Thrace suspicious of the Turks, and the Turks of the Greeks. There is much misinformation on both sides, particularly surrounding Islam, the religion of many Turks.
　　In addition to the Turks, as many as 250,000 Albanians, most of them Muslims (that is, followers of Islam) and Albanian Orthodox Christians, are currently living in northern Greeceh. Many are refugees from the violence that has disrupted life in Albania and the neighboring region of Kosovo. Though more numerous than the Thracian Turks, the Albanians in Greece have less power, for they lack the support of a strong mother country and the economic resources available to those who have lived in the same place for a long time. Many Albanians crossed the border into Greece with little more than the clothes on their backs. Now they need food, shelter, and jobs in an area that does not have much to spare.
　　Other groups are equally vulnerable. Among these are the Roma, better known as Gypsies. An estimated 140,000 Roma are thought to live throughout Greece. It is difficult to count them, for they are a nomadic people－that is, they generally have no fixed address but spend most of their time on the road. The prejudice they have faced for centuries remains strong in Greece, as it does throughout Europe. While few Roma anywhere have easy access to education, health care, or other social services, in Greece the situation is probably most severe for the 45,000 Roma who adhere to Islam. Christian Roma can depend to some extent upon the help and protection of the Christian majority, but Muslim Roma, like the refugees from Albania, lack a strong defender to represent their interests to the nation and the world. Roma of both faiths remain outsiders in Greece, though their ancestors arrived there more than a thousand years ago.
　　Another minority has an even longer history in Greece. The Vlachs are descended from the Romanian people. They are a semi-nomadic people who work mainly as shepherds, moving with their flocks from pasture to pasture within a small, limited area. Thus, while a group of Roma might travel from town to town or country to country, Vlachs generally remain near the town of their birth. The distinction is an important one, for it helps to explain why the Vlachs can somewhat assimilate (or blend) into the Greek majority.
　　Religion also plays a role here; though the Vlach language is closer to Latin than to Greek, most Vlachs join their Greek neighbors in attending the churches of Greek-speaking, Eastern Orthodox priests. Thus, while their language separates them from the majority, their faith pulls them closer. If this tension occasionally makes life awkward for the Vlachs, it alsorepresents one solution to the prejudice that disrupts life in the Balkan region and around the world. The Vlachs have learned how to join the society that surrounds them without losing sight of their own unique heritage.