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Greece is a largely ethnically homogenous country. This is mainly due to the Population Exchanges between Greece and neighbouring Turkey ( Treaty Of Lausanne ) and Bulgaria ( Treaty Of Neuilly ), which removed most Muslims (with the exception of the Muslims of Thrace ) and those Christian Slavs who did not identify as Greeks, from Greek territory; the treaty also provided for the resettlement of ethnic Greeks from those countries, later to be followed by refugees (see Pontian Greek Genocide , Greco-Turkish War (1919-1922) and Istanbul Pogrom ). The 2001 census reported a population of 10,964,020 people. Of these, 2% are from Ethnic Minority groups. The main officially recognized "minority" (μειονότητα) is the Muslim Minority (Μουσουλμανική μειονότητα) in Thrace , which amounts to approximately 1.3% of the total population and consists of mainly Turks , Pomaks and Roma . Other recognized minority groups - referred to as "nationalities" (εθνότητες) - are the Armenians numbering approximately 35,000, and the Jews ( Sephardim and Romaniotes ) numbering approximately 5,500. RELIGIOUS MINORITIES See also: Roman Catholicism In Greece The Greek constitution defines the Eastern Orthodox Church as the "prevailing religion" in Greece, and over 95% of the population claim membership in it. Any other religion not explicitly defined by law (e.g. unlike Islam, which is explicitly recognized) may acquire the status of a "known religion", a status which allows the religion's adherents to worship freely, and to have constitutional recognition. After a court ruling, the criteria for acquiring the status of a "known religion", were defined as being, a "religion or a dogma whose doctrine is open and not secret, is taught publicly and its rites of worship are also open to the public, irrespective of whether its adherents have religious authorities; such a religion or dogma needs not to be recognized or approved by an act of the State or Church". This covers most religious minorities such as Roman Catholics , Evangelical s, Seventh-day Adventists , Methodists , and Christian Jehovah's Witnesses . All known religions to be considered by the Greek state legal entities under private law must establish an association, or foundation, or charitable fund-raising committee pursuant to the Civil Code. The Roman Catholic Church refuses to be considered a legal person under private or public law and has requested recognition by its own Canon Law . In July 1999, following a parliamentary amendment, the legal entity status of all institutions of the Roman Catholic Church established before 1946 was reconfirmed. There is no formal mechanism that exists to gain recognition as a "known religion". There are also around two thousand Greeks who adhere to the Ancient Greek Religion . Ancient Greek gods' new believers . Retrieved February 10, 2007, from BBC News YSEE in the media (See Video 2) Their religion, as of May 2006, has been legalised in Greece.Greek gods prepare for comeback. Retrieved Friday May 5, 2006, from Guardian [http://www.guardian.co.uk/international/story/0,,1767802,00.html] LINGUISTIC AND CULTURAL MINORITIES Slavic-speaking In the and Muslims . Christian Orthodox Slavophones See also: Bulgarians , Macedonian Slavs , Serbs The Christian portion of Greece's Slavic-speaking minority are commonly referred to as ''Slavophones'' (from the Greek Σλαβόφωνοι ''Slavophōnoi'' - lit. Slavic-speakers) or ''Dopii'', which means "locals" in Greek. The vast majority of them espouse a Greek national identity and are bilingual in Greek. They live mostly in the Periphery Of Western Macedonia and are believers of the Greek Orthodox Church , which in conjunction with the ''millet'' system of the Ottoman Empire which occupied the region until 1913 , may explain their self-identification as Greeks. The fact that the majority of these people self-identify as Greeks makes their numbers uncertain. Until and including the 1951 census the question of mother tongue was asked throughout Greece, so this gives a rough idea as to the size of this group, and later estimates are usually based on this figure. The national identity of this community has frequently been loaded with political implications. The Politis-Kalfov Protocol signed on September 29 , 1925 purported to recognize the Slav-speakers of Macedonia as Bulgarians , but this protocol was never ratified. A short lived agreement was signed August 1926, which recognized them as a Serbian minority.Iakovos D. Michailidis '' Minority Rights and Educational Problems in Greek Interwar Macedonia: The Case of the Primer "Abecedar" '' In the 1951 census, 41,017 people claimed to speak the Slavic Language . As stated earlier linguistic classification of the dialects spoken by these people oscillates from Bulgarian to Macedonian Slavic depending on ''abstand'' from the standard languages. This group has received some attention in recent years due to claims from the Former Yugoslav Republic Of Macedonia that these people form an ''ethnic Macedonian'' minority in Greece. A political party promoting this line and claiming rights of what they describe as the "Macedonian minority in Greece" - the Rainbow (Виножито) - was founded around 1994-95; it received 2,955 votes in the region of Macedonia in the latest elections (2004). A pro-Bulgarian political party, known as Bulgarian Human Rights In Macedonia (Български Човешки Права в Македония) was established in June 2000, promoting the concept and rights of what they describe as the "Bulgarian minority in Greece". This party has not yet participated in elections. The official position of the Greek government is that there is no "ethnic Macedonian" or Bulgarian minority in Greece. Muslim Slavophones See also: Pomaks The Muslim Slavic-speaking minority is known as . This Turkification has a number of reasons, including the fact that Turks and Pomaks were part of the same ''millet'' during the years when their homeland was part of the Ottoman Empire . It is believed though that the main reason for the Pomaks' Turkification is that they would no longer be a minority within a minority (the Muslim Minority ), or have no one to defend their rights (the Turkish Government actively promotes the welfare of the Turkish minority). Under Greek law, the Muslim minority (including the Pomaks) has a right to education in its own language. In practice however, only , September 2002) in order to distance them from the Bulgarians . It has been reported though, that Pomak dialects may be used by teachers to explain some things orally to kindergarten and primary school pupils . Additionally, the minority languages can be used by local authorities and in courts, and under Greek law, interpreters will be provided. Nevertheless, most Pomaks will speak Turkish on such occasions . Most Pomaks are fluent in their Pomak dialects (spoken amongst themselves), Turkish (their language of education, and the main language of the Muslim minority), Greek (the official language of the Greek state), and may know some Arabic (the language of the Koran) . The latest official estimate on the number of Pomaks in Greece was given by the Coordinating Office of Minority Schools (Συντονιστικό Γραφείο Μειονοτικών Σχολείων) in 1994 , and was 35,000. Albanian-speaking See also: Albanians In Greece , Arvanites , Cham Albanians After the opening of the Albanian borders in 1991, a huge influx of Albanian economic migrants crossed illegally into Greece in order to find work. They are currently estimated at about 500,000, but an accurate calculation is very difficult because of the large percentage of illegal immigrants. Most of them retain their Albanian citizenship, therefore they do not constitute an ethnic minority. The situation is becoming more complex with their children, the second generation of immigrants, who were born in Greece after 1991. Also, most of them have been granted work permits. They are not to be confused with the Arvanites , a group speaking a dialect of Albanian but with a very strong sense of Greek identity {Link without Title} including significant contributions to the Greek Independence and Greek culture in general. The Chams , were an ethnic Albanian minority who lived in the area of Chameria , part of the Greek Epirus periphery. They were ousted to Albania by the Greek authorities after World War II and their properties were either confiscated or destroyed, because they allegedly collaborated with the Nazis . Very strong sentiments against them by the Greeks, had made impossible any co-habitation. Recently, this issue has brought some controversy because some elderly representatives of the Chams and their descendants are claiming their properties back from the Greek state. Aromanian-speaking See Also: Aromanians in Greece In Greece, as well as in all other Balkan countries excluding Romania, the . Also, some studies assert that Aromanians are a different ethnic group from Greeks. Max D. Peyfuss - "Die Aromunische Frage. Ihre Entwicklung von der Ursprüngen bis zum Frieden von Bukarest (1913) und die Haltung Österreich-Ungarns. Wiener Archiv für Geschichte des Slawentums und Osteuropas, Wien 1974 Gustav Weigand - "Die Aromunen. Ethnographisch-philologisch-historische Untersuchungen über das Volk der sogennanten Makedo-Romanen oder Zinzaren". Vol 1. "Land und Leute", 2. "Volksliteratur der Aromunen", Leipzig 1894 (vol.2), 1895 (vol.1) German researcher Thede Kahl claims to have also documented some cases of assimilation of the Aromanian population in regions which are now largely Greek-speaking.Thede Kahl - "Gustav Weigand in Griechenland: Von den Shwierigkeiten einer Rezeption", in Südost/Forschungen 61, München 2003, p. 101-113." Most Aromanians themselves however hold different views; the Panhellenic Federation of Cultural Associations of Vlachs (Πανελλήνια Ομοσπονδία Πολιτιστικών Συλλόγων Βλάχων) has publicly stated that they do not want Aromanian recognized as a minority language nor do they want it inserted into the education system, and the same organization also protested [http://www.tamos.gr/popsb_reply_en.htm when Thede Kahl discussed in a paper if they could be designated a "minority".Thede Kahl - "Minorities in Greece. Historical Issues and New Perspectives". "Jahrbücher für Geschichte un Kultur Südeuropas" Vol. 5, 2004, p. 205-219" ETHNIC MINORITIES Armenians See also: Armenians There are approximately 35,000 Armenians in Greece www.armenians.gr out of which approximately 20,000 can speak the Armenian Language The community's main political representative is the Armenian National Committee of Greece; its headquarters are in Athens with branches all over Greece. The community also manages its own educational institutions. Approximately 95% of Armenians in Greece are [http://www.armenianprelacy.gr/ Armenian Orthodox , with the rest being Armenian Catholics or Evangelicals. Roma See also: Roma People The history of Roma in Greece goes back many centuries. Due to their Nomadic nature, they are not concentrated in a specific geographical area, but are dispersed all over the country. Roma largely maintain their own customs and traditions. Although a large number of Roma has adopted a sedentary and urban way of living, there are still settlements in some areas. The nomads at the settlements often differentiate themselves from the rest of the population. They number 200,000 according to the Greek government.Hellenic Republic: National Commission for Human Rights: '' The state of Roma in Greece '' Turkish See also Muslim Minority Of Greece There is a : Religious freedom in Greece . The numbers of the ethnic Turks in Greek Thrace are estimated by INTEREG (1994) at 90,000 (quoted by Eurominority ). Apart from Thrace, a small minority of Turks exists in the Dodecanese islands of Rhodes and Kos . They were not included in the 1923 Population Exchange as the Dodecanese were annexed from Italy in 1947 after World War II . After annexation of islands, their Muslim inhabitants, Greek and Turkish speakers, were granted Greek citizenship. Today, about 4,000 Muslims live in the Dodecanese islands of Rhodes and Kos and use Turkish in every day life. In Rhodes and Kos, the teaching of the Turkish language was ''de facto'' abolished in the early 1970s. Mercator Education , The Turkish language in Education in Greece, 2003 Jews of Greece See Also: History of the Jews in Greece Romaniotes Population of ThessalonikiMolho, Rena. The Jersualem of the Balkans: Salonica 1856-1919 ''The Jewish Museum of Thessaloniki''. URL accessed July 10 2006 . The interaction between Greece and the Jew s dates back to ancient times. Alexander The Great reached ancient Judea and was welcomed by the Jews. Following his death, war erupted between the Greek successors of Alexander and the Jewish Maccabees that embittered relations between Greeks and Jews for centuries. Until The Holocaust during World War II Greece had always had a significant, localized and active Jewish community with a long and rich cultural heritage. Jews practiced Judaism and over the centuries, developed a variety of Greek-Judaic dialects, such as the Yevanic Language . 86% of the Greek Jews, especially those in the areas occupied by Nazi Germany and Bulgaria , were murdered despite efforts by the Greek Orthodox Church hierarchy, the EAM resistance movement and individual Greeks (both Christian and Communist) to shelter Jews. REFERENCES
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