Volume IV, Issue II (April 2006) - Columbus School of Law

and social advancement. 261 However, the primer was issued in typical Macedonian form, whichclearly shows that the Greek authorities were precisely distinguishing the linguistic and nationalpeculiarities of the Macedonian minority. 262 This is especially relevant in light of the attempts tochallenge the existence of the minority by asserting that it has always been perceived as ofBulgarian descent, rather than “Slavo-Macedonian”. 263Human Rights Watch 264 notes that a Decree No. 332 of 1926 ordered the Slavic names oftowns, villages, mountains and rivers changed to Greek names , Law No. 87 of 1936 orderedMacedonians to change their names to Greek names, while on July 15, 1927, there was adecree ordering the erasure of all old Slavic inscriptions from churches; and upon which churchservices in the Slavic language were forbidden, and Slavs (Macedonians) were forbidden to usethe Slavic (Macedonian) language. The Macedonian language was banned even in personalcommunication between parents and children, among villagers, at weddings and work parties, andin burial rituals. 265 Some authors argue that this were practices which were normally followed inby nation-states. 266 However, as the toponomy remains unchanged up to present, it can bechallenged with the argument that under Article 27, the state can require the use of names it haschosen in official activities or areas, the individual use of toponomy in a minority language fornon-state functions should be free of state intervention. 267In 1959, The Government passed a law on forced giving of statements of loyalty, and inaccordance with this law the population in villages near Lerin (Florina), Kostur (Kastoria) andKailari was asked to publicly confirm that it did not speak Macedonian. 268 There are positionsaccording to which the oaths were taken by villagers after church service "under yet unknowncircumstances, probably at the initiative of local officials" in no more than three villages and thatthey were discontinued once they became known to authorities in Athens. 269 These acts werefollowed by an internal regulation which in 1967 banned the use of the Macedonian language anda Constitutional act depriving the Macedonians of their citizenship. 270 Besides these formal legalrules, in 1982 there was a confidential document by the Greek Ministry of public order, sector fornational security which insisted not to employ "Slav speakers" in public services in the Florina(Lerin) region. 271 The document contained information that the "Skopje idiom" was widely usedin the region of Florina and Edessa ( Voden), even by administrative employees, and that it wasestablished practice to perform songs, music and traditional dances "from Skopje." 272 Efforts aremade to diminish the effect of this document, by asserting that it was just a bundle ofrecommendations by a national security official, and that there was no evidence if it has ever beentranslated into governmental policy. 2734.2.1 Citizenship, repatriation and restoration of propertyCitizen is “a person who, by either birth or naturalization, is a member of political community,owing allegiance to the community and being entitled to enjoy all its civil rights and protections;261 Vlassidis and Karakostanoglou, supra at 66262 See Balevski, supra at 68263 On the contestations of the separateness of the minority’s identity see generally Dean M. Poulakidas,Macedonia : far more than a name to Greece, 18 Hastings Int’l & Comp. L. Rev. 397264Human Rights Watch/Helsinki, supra at 64265 John Shea, MACEDONIA AND GREECE: THE STRUGGLE TO DEFINE A NEW BALKANNATION, 1997 London: McFarland & Co266 Vlassis and Karakostanoglou, supra at 69267 See Varennes supra at 20268 See Ortakovski, supra at 39269 Vlassis and Karakostanoglu, supra at 69270 Id,271 Balevski, supra at 68272 Id273 Vlassis and Karakostanoglu, supra at 6950