This article was originally written on 15 April 2005 and published on blog.luxzenburg.org. It is republished here as a historical document and reflects the author’s ideas at the time of writing.
The BBC reports that the treatment of minorities and foreigners attempting to enter Greece has been sharply condemned by human rights organisation Amnesty International.
According to Amnesty researcher Olga Demetriou:
“People at the margins of society — asylum seekers, migrants, Roma and members of other minorities — are most likely to be victims of discrimination in all its forms. Usually their attackers are representatives of the state.”
And yet we say that Turkey cannot become a member of the European Union because its treatment of minorities does not meet the standards of a Western democracy. While the country that calls itself the cradle of democracy is apparently setting the example.
Let me be clear: I have nothing against Greeks or Greece. But who ever admitted that nation to the Union, and on what grounds? A member since 1981, having absorbed a considerable share of EU funds since then — and after 24 years the country does not meet the standards we impose on former communist Eastern European countries and on Turkey. That makes the entire human rights rhetoric one great farce.