Thrace

The jurisprudence of the Greek Court of Cassation insists on the compatibility of Sharia Law (special law applicable on matters of personal status, family, real estate and inheritance, concerning the Muslim minority of Thrace, pursuant to Greek Law No 147 of the year 1914 & Law No 1920 of the year 1991) with Int'l Human Rights Law, a view both dubious from the viewpoint of Int'l Law and anachronistic. In the following WP/Draft, I argue about the inconsistency of HR regime and Sacred Islam Law (Sharia), submitting that the only international instrument (Treaty of Athens, Greco-Turkish pact, 1913) providing –expressis verbis– for the application of Sharia Law within the Greek juridical order has been abrogated, on grounds of (i) a conflicting lex posterior (namely the Lausanne Treaty) & (ii) disharmony between the Sharia Law and International Conventional law on fundamental human rights. The peremptory character of human rights and the non-discrimination principle overrides all possible obligations arising from bilateral or multilateral Treaties acting as base of commitment for the Hellenic Republic concerning the application of Sharia Law and the acceptance of the mufti jurisdiction.

"The present work focuses on the underlying seminal causes of the Annihilation of Jewish Greeks in Bulgarian occupied Northern Greece, in particular the regions of Eastern Macedonia (the cities of Kavala, Serres and Drama) and Thrace (the cities of Alexandroupolis, Komotini and Xanthi), along with the Annihilation of their brethren of the cities of Didimoteixo, Nea Orestiada and Soufli of the Evros Prefecture of Thrace occupied by the Germans 70 years ago.  A definition of the Holocaust is given that broadens the term beyond its peak point that of the actual assassination of Jews by the Germans and some of their allies.  The definition includes all past historical events and practices that fermented the path to destruction of the European and North African Jewry during the World War II as well as the now and current state practices.  Starting milestones are the Preliminary Peace Treaty at San Stefano and the Peace Treaty at Berlin both of the year 1878.  The root causes of the complicity of the Bulgarian governments of the time in the deportation of the Jewish inhabitants of the “New” Bulgarian territories are analyzed and, given the documentary and archival evidence presented, conclusions are reached.  Also, the nation states that were created in the wake of the First World War and the ensuing Peace Treaties are shown to be fraught with all those ingredients that fertilize the national psyche to accept as legitimate racist and exclusive policies along with anti-Semitic and prejudicial ones.  The distinction of Racial Anti–Semitism versus the millennia old Religious one is emphasized.  Memory is an inseparable part of the Holocaust and, as such, it is both a means of remembrance and link with the past as well as instructive and educative for all generations and as a shield against Holocaust denial, revisionism and/or whitewashing of the past.

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"In the beginning of the 20th century, the dissolution of great empires in Europe resulted in formation of new nation states. Millions of people were forced to move from one place to another while others remained on their own historic lands. As the Ottoman Millet system collapsed together with the dissolution of the Ottoman Empire, ethnic and religious differentiation among communities throughout the former Ottoman lands started to be promoted by new nation states of the post-World War. In this respect, those belonging to the core nation were given an advantaged position compared to the ‘minorities’ living in the same nation state who used to enjoy being members of the Müslim Millet under the Ottoman Empire. Therefore, the Muslims across the Balkan Peninsula, regardless of their ethnic origins, became one of the main groups who suffered from the dissolution of the Ottoman Empire.


The case of the Muslim Turkish minority of Western Thrace in Greece seems to be one of the significant case studies that would help to understand how reflections of the transition process from Ottoman to the Republic of Turkey affected the gradual transformation of a conservative Islamic community into a minority members of whom identify themselves with ethnic Turkish identity and Islam promoted by the Turkish Presidency of Religious Affairs, Diyanet.


In this framework, this paper seeks to shed light on the first decade of transition after 1923 analyzing issues of religious, educational, administrative autonomy of the Minority enshrined in the 1923 Treaty of Lausanne. In particular, it aims to show how this process was interpreted by Konstantinos Stilianopoulos, the Inspector of Minorities - the highest Greek authority responsible for minorities in the Interwar Greece. By analyzing the two comprehensive official reports prepared by Stilianopoulos after paying two visits to the region in late 1920s in order to observe continuities and changes in lives of the Turkish Minority in Western Thrace, this study provides an official Greek viewpoint for the establishment of the minority regime in the north-eastern periphery of Greece after 1923.

Key words: Greeee, Western Thrace, Muslim Turkish Minority, Stilianopoulos Reports, Tradinionalists vs. Modernists."

"Diese Ausgabe von "Bonum est" ist Otec Stilijan gewidmet, einem Mönch im Kloster Bačkovo, das im Rhodopengebirge in Bulgarien gelegen ist. Letztes Jahr, am 18. März, verstarb Otec Stilijan im Alter von 83 Jahren. 51 Jahre lange hat er fast täglich den Gottesdienst im Kloster gesungen. Mit seinem Tod hat diese Tradition einen ihrer wichtigsten Vertreter verloren, denn als Tipikar war er für die sängerische Gestaltung der Gottesdienste verantwortlich.

Playlist:
1. Große Ektenie, Glas 8 (Plagios tetartos)
2. Antiphon 1 "Mit Fürbitten der Gottesmutter", Glas 2 (Devteros)
3. Antiphon 2 "Rette uns, Sohn Gottes", Glas 2 (Devteros)
4. Antiphon 3 "In deinem Reich", Glas 2 (Devteros)
5. Kleiner Einzug "Laßt uns beten und vor Christus", Glas 2 (Devteros)
6. Tagestropare, Glas 1 (Protos)
7. Trisvjatoe (Trisagion) "Heiliger Gott", folk tune Glas 1 (Protos)
8. Epistel (Petrus II 1:10-19)
9. Evangelium (Matth. 17:1-9)
10. Ektenie
11. Chourmouzios Chartophylakos. Cherubim Hymnus, Glas 4 (Tetartos)
12. Ektenie mit Gebet, Glas 5 (Plagios Protos)
13. Otca i syna "Dem Vater, Sohn", Glas 5 (Plagios Protos)
14. Glaubenssymbol
15. Anaphora "Ich werde dich lieben", Glas 5 (Plagios Protos)
16. Heirmos "Nijne ne uslijshanaja", Glas 8 (Plagios Tetartos)
17. Ekphonesis, Glas 5 (Plagios Protos)
18. Otče naš "Vater unser", Glas 5 (Plagios Protos)
19 Inklination, Glas 5 (Plagios Protos)
20. Petros Peloponnesios. Koinonikon "Im glorreichen Licht" (Ps. 88:16b–17a), Glas 8 (Plagios Tetartos)
21. Kommunion & Entlassungshymnen "Wir haben das wahre Licht gesehen", Glas 2 (Devteros)"

Reciprocity, a principle that should never be used by a state on its own citizens, has nonetheless been applied by the Greek government to legitimize policies limiting or violating the rights of Turkish-Muslims in Greece, and by the Turkish government to do the same for the Greek-Orthodox in Turkey. Fortunately, the approach of both governments toward reciprocity has recently shown signs of change. Minorities are now considered in a more positive light. Yet, the governments of the two countries appear unwilling to fully abandon reciprocity and take steps to address the demands of minorities. Their rhetoric is insincere and a way to hide this mutual unwillingness

"The text is in Greek, Power Point slides may be also followed by English speakers.
Talk delivered at the Society of Macedonian Studies, Thessaloniki.
It covers Bulgarian Occupied East Macedonia and Thrace, German Occupied Thessaloniki and Central-Northern Serbia and Banat (Yugoslavia) and Bulgarian Occupied south easternmost Yugoslavia (Serbia, Vardar Banovina) "

The deportation of Jewish Greeks from Bulgarian occupied Eastern Macedonia and Thrace and their subsequent annihilation at the Treblinka Death & Concentration Camp in occupied Poland is an undisputed given fact. I present a documented interpretative synthesis answering the “how” component of the query as to the path that led to Treblinka. Chronological Historic milestones, all contributed to a greater or lesser degree to the final obliteration of those people. In this context their prospect looks as if it was fateful, inevitable and/or predestinate and sealed, much like “kismet”, destiny. Those Jewish Greeks were simultaneously scapegoats, victims, their lives; the price others paid for their “costs”, and, maybe, finally “collateral” damage! In perspective mankind should strive to draw lessons and conclusions emanating from their loss in context. Basic tenets of civil and civic societies and countries should be reexamined and reaffirmed with the scope of avoiding a recurrence of past hideous events. Bulgaria has already welcomed me warmly many times, both as a Greek and as a Jew.

It is proposed that the name of the three Bronze Age characters called Sarpēdon(t)- in Greek tradition is a direct rendering of an Anatolian compound noun, approximately *sar-pēdan-, ‘(one having) top position’. Anatolian cognates of both sar-, ‘up, on’, and *pēdan-, ‘place’, are attested with appropriate figurative meanings. At face value this etymology provides a suitably aristocratic name, but two of the Sarpedons are known mainly as leaders of expeditions connected with Lycia, and being an expedition leader does not conflict with the very limited details reported of the third Sarpedon. The coincidence of name and rôle suggests that the Anatolian original might have really been a military rank or job description. The explicit connection with ‘Lycia’ in two instances, i.e., with some part of the Luwian-speaking Lukka Lands, makes some variety of Luwian a strong candidate as the source language. Attestation of the name in Iron Age Lycian is slight and inconclusive, but its native form appears to have persisted there into Roman times.