The neo-Nazi attacks on minorities, the rising extremism, the connections between the state, the secret police and the church in defending the Greek national myth and the absurd refusal to let the minorities call themselves as they like were some of the most serious accusations concerning the attitude of Greece toward the non-Greek communities living in the country voiced at the public debate in Washington attended by representatives of the Macedonian, Turkish and Albanian ethnic communities in Greece. The present representatives of US organizations for protection of human rights and analytical centers listened in disbelief to the personal testimonies of persecuted Archimandrite Nikodim Tsarknias or the reports of the arrests of muftis in the Turkish-populated towns and villages of Greece, reports Cvetin Cilimanov, MIA’s Washington-based correspondent.

“How is it possible for such a country to be an EU member state?” a representative of the Woodrow Wilson International Center wondered out loud.

Archimandrite Tsarknias recounted that many times he was taken into custody by the Greek police and driven by another service as far as possible from the Macedonian towns in Greece under the pressure of Greek politicians, the police and the clergy.