Linguistic Rights in Greece: Crossing Through Territorial and Non-Territorial Arrangements

Abstract

AbstractSince 1913, when Greece significantly increased her territory, minority protection has come under the spotlight of international consideration and guarantees. During the past 110 years, language rights, among other minority rights, were either reluctantly granted or ignored. Although minority languages have been treated asymmetrically and incoherently, a particular pattern seems to have emerged: minority languages spoken by Christians (Vlach, Slavic languages, Arvanitika) are subject to assimilation dynamics, whereas minority languages spoken by non-Christians (Muslims, Jews) are governed by protection norms, with or without territorial criteria. This trend was shaped by international political influences and legal regulations through a very narrow perspective, which actually screened out any attempt at establishing non-territorial arrangements. Today, only one minority language enjoys special rights (mostly in the field of education), namely Turkish spoken by the Muslims of Thrace. Despite this, migratory flows after 1990, primarily from Albania, the former USSR and the Middle East, once again brought up the question of multiculturalism, language contact and language management. However, subsequent Greek governments have been reluctant to introduce special language rights for immigrants and refugees. Since Greece refrains from adhering to the main European legal instruments that safeguard language rights, such as the European Charter for Regional of Minority Languages or the Framework Convention for the Protection of National Minorities, the single protective mechanism granting linguistic rights remains the Treaty of Lausanne, which is limited to a specific minority language within a specific region. The legal protection of linguistic otherness in Greece was and still is fragmented and ambivalent, ranging from non-territorial autonomy invisibility to strict institutional territoriality.