By Nickolaos Angelis
Coping with minority points around the globe positively sparks the curiosity of varied readers. Many are curious to study in regards to the indigenous peoples. The natives. The individuals who used to dwell of their ancestral properties earlier than they had been “found”. Starting from the Sámi (Lapps) of Scandinavia to the Aborigines of Oceania, the examples of such peoples are quite a few. Over the centuries these peoples have modified dramatically, forming right this moment’s minorities. Traditionally, too, many outstanding personalities who left their indelible mark on historical past got here from minorities. Lenin had Kalmyk roots, Stalin was Georgian (a minority within the context of USSR), Hitler was Austrian, whereas Napoleon Bonaparte was from Corsica.
Within the lovely space of Thrace, which can also be the birthplace of the favored historic determine Spartacus, one can discover Pomak villages, the place Pomaks have been dwelling there for hundreds of years. There isn’t a level in making any reference to the various theories of their origin; that will be a matter for ethnologists and folklorists to think about and analyse. In our case, the one factor value mentioning in regards to the Pomaks, with a view to creating the evaluation extra comprehensible, is that the Pomaks are an ethnic group which speaks a definite outdated Slavic language, embraces Sunni Islam and is scattered primarily within the Jap Balkans.
Talking of minorities, it’s essential to emphasize that in Greece there is just one recognised minority, and actually a spiritual one, in accordance to what’s talked about in Articles 1 and a couple of of the Conference In regards to the Alternate of Greek and Turkish Populations (1923). This minority was excluded from the change on a reciprocal foundation: the Greeks of Constantinople had been to remain. Naturally, Turkey has been trying to affect and win over the Muslim populations of Western Thrace, simply as Ankara has beforehand achieved concerning the Linovamvaks of Cyprus, with the only real objective o satisfying its strategic pursuits. Proof of this declare is that, traditionally, the Muslim populations of the Balkans, thought of by Ankara to be “Ottoman remnants“, don’t have any ethnic affiliation with the Turks, with just a few exceptions, such because the Turkic peoples of Western Thrace and of Bulgaria.
Based on statistics, the generalisation that’s typically tried by Turkey on the problem of the minority is, to say the least, hasty and deceptive. Out of 98.000 Muslims, 34.300 are Pomaks and one other 14.700 are Romani. It’s a reality, nevertheless, that the Muslim minority was handled by the Greek state as a second-class inhabitants group. So as to add to that, the Greek civil struggle additional harmed the fame of the Pomaks, as slavophone populations had been related to the “communistic peril.” This modified, on the one hand, because of the dynamic tendencies of the nation’s Europeanisation and alternatively because of the political disaster of 1989-1990, which turned the Muslim pro-Turkish deputies into vital elements when it got here to political developments in Greece. One other aspect that has actually influenced the Greek Authorities’s coverage on the time was the administration of an identical difficulty concerning the Kosovo Albanian Muslims in a collapsing Yugoslavia. Thus, in 1991 the Mitsotakis authorities introduced a coverage which affirmed the equality between Christians and Muslims and abolished the executive measures imposed by the Junta in 1967 to the detriment of the minority.
The composition of the minority inhabitants in addition to the geographical proximity to Turkey and its quasi-economic capital, Instanbul, are elements that multiply Turkey’s curiosity (and affect) in it. Each the Pomaks and the Greek state are the losers on this equation. Training, used both as a weapon of Turkification of the whole minority or a protect in opposition to it, is essential for the survival of teams such because the Pomaks.
Given the outdated protocols and legal guidelines, the Pomaks of Thrace, right this moment are experiencing one thing unthinkable and utterly harmful for the preservation of their id. The training offered within the minority faculties is in Turkish and solely secondarily in Greek. Within the case of Pomaks, their mom language, Pomakian, has no presence in any respect in minority faculties. It is usually value mentioning that bilingualism in minority faculties isn’t within the curiosity of Muslim kids both. The requirements of Greek college admissions are decrease for them. Nonetheless, a muslim pupil who doesn’t intend to return to their place of birth, is simply hindered by this technique, because the information of Turkish and insufficient Greek decrease their alternatives within the labour market.
Τhe Pomaks are a particularly attention-grabbing ethnic group when it comes to their tradition, folklore and historiography. In addition they act (unintentionally) as a possible impediment to Ankara’s expansionism, which incorporates the instrumentalisation of human rights points. People who’ve devoted their lives to highlighting the deprived place of the Pomaks throughout the acknowledged minority, resembling Sebaidin Karahotza and his brother Ritvan, have paid the worth for his or her battle to protect their id. Different profitable individuals with status and entry to media of worldwide affect which additionally come from the land of the Pomaks, resembling Rita Wilson, may also elevate public consciousness of this difficulty.
To conclude, by remembering the Pomak Macedonian-warrior Hafuz Ali Ziroglou who operated within the metropolis of Drama and the Slavic-speaking Macedonian warrior Captain Kotta (Kotte Christof) we consider that, in uncommon events, for the formation of nationwide conscience, language and faith could not all the time be the first elements.
