MINORITIES IN GREECE

　　希腊的少数民族

　　In the United States, minorities are visible everywhere: We celebrate Ireland's St. Patrick in March, the Mexican holiday Cinquo de Mayo in May, and the achievements of African Americans in February. In Greece, on the other hand, minorities are more difficult for visitors to spot, but they do exist, and in large numbers. As Greeks themselves are discovering, the effort to learn about these groups and to include them in national life brings great rewards, for the achievements of minorities strengthen the larger culture in which they live.

　　According to the Greek government, only about 214,000 people－two percent of Greece's 10.7 million people－are members of non-Greek minorities. But experts such as the Greek activist Evangelos Averoff and the Minority Rights Group, an international human rights organization, agree that the official figure is too low because it is based on language, not culture. Thus, a person of Turkish heritage who has learned the Greek language is considered Greek by the government, although that person may have more in common with relatives in Turkey than with his Greek neighbors. He may speak Turkish with his family at home, worship in a mosque rather than a church, or read Turkish newspapers. In each case, he would stand out from his neighbors. In each case, he would be a minority.

　　Turks form the largest minority within Greece; many (from 100 000-120 000) live in Western Thrace, a remote region on the Turkish border. The Treaty of Lausanne established Western Thrace in 1923 after the League of Nations Population Exchange in which 1.4 million Greeks returned to Greece and 750,000 Turks returned to Turkey. The situation there often tense, for Greece and Turkey have been enemies for decades. It is not surprising, therefore, to find the Greeks of Western Thrace suspicious of the Turks, and the Turks of the Greeks. There is much misinformation on both sides, particularly surrounding Islam, the religion of many Turks.

　　In addition to the Turks, as many as 250,000 Albanians, most of them Muslims (that is, followers of Islam) and Albanian Orthodox Christians, are currently living in northern Greeceh. Many are refugees from the violence that has disrupted life in Albania and the neighboring region of Kosovo. Though more numerous than the Thracian Turks, the Albanians in Greece have less power, for they lack the support of a strong mother country and the economic resources available to those who have lived in the same place for a long time. Many Albanians crossed the border into Greece with little more than the clothes on their backs. Now they need food, shelter, and jobs in an area that does not have much to spare.

　　Other groups are equally vulnerable. Among these are the Roma, better known as Gypsies. An estimated 140,000 Roma are thought to live throughout Greece. It is difficult to count them, for they are a nomadic people－that is, they generally have no fixed address but spend most of their time on the road. The prejudice they have faced for centuries remains strong in Greece, as it does throughout Europe. While few Roma anywhere have easy access to education, health care, or other social services, in Greece the situation is probably most severe for the 45,000 Roma who adhere to Islam. Christian Roma can depend to some extent upon the help and protection of the Christian majority, but Muslim Roma, like the refugees from Albania, lack a strong defender to represent their interests to the nation and the world. Roma of both faiths remain outsiders in Greece, though their ancestors arrived there more than a thousand years ago.

　　Another minority has an even longer history in Greece. The Vlachs are descended from the Romanian people. They are a semi-nomadic people who work mainly as shepherds, moving with their flocks from pasture to pasture within a small, limited area. Thus, while a group of Roma might travel from town to town or country to country, Vlachs generally remain near the town of their birth. The distinction is an important one, for it helps to explain why the Vlachs can somewhat assimilate (or blend) into the Greek majority.

　　Religion also plays a role here; though the Vlach language is closer to Latin than to Greek, most Vlachs join their Greek neighbors in attending the churches of Greek-speaking, Eastern Orthodox priests. Thus, while their language separates them from the majority, their faith pulls them closer. If this tension occasionally makes life awkward for the Vlachs, it alsorepresents one solution to the prejudice that disrupts life in the Balkan region and around the world. The Vlachs have learned how to join the society that surrounds them without losing sight of their own unique heritage.

　　在美国随处可见少数民族。在美国，三月有爱尔兰的圣帕特里克节，五月有墨西哥的五月五日节，二月有非裔美国人的胜利节。而在希腊很难发现少数民族，但他们确实存在，而且为数不少。现在希腊人自己也去发现，努力了解这些少数民族并接纳他们会给自己国家带来很大回报，因为少数民族取得的成就加强和丰富了他们所在国家的文化。

　　据希腊政府统计，非希腊裔的少数民族人口大约为21.8万人，占希腊1 090万人口的2%。但一些专家们，如希腊活动家Evangelos Averoff 和国际人权组织的少数民族权利小组认为官方数字太低，因为它的统计基于语言而不是文化。因此，一个学会希腊语的土耳其后裔，政府会认为他是希腊人，尽管此人与土耳其亲属的相同之处多于与希腊邻居的。他可能在家与家人说土耳其语，在清真寺而不是在教堂做礼拜，读土耳其报。在各方面他都与其希腊邻居不一样，他就应该是少数民族。

　　在希腊的少数民族中土耳其人为数最多，他们中多数人（约10~12万人）住在土耳其边界一个叫西色雷斯的边远地区。在国际联盟的人口交换项目之后，1923年洛桑条约签订，140万希腊人返回母国，75万土耳其人返回土耳其。西色雷斯的局势紧张，因为希腊和土耳其几十年来一直是敌人。因此，毫不奇怪，西色雷斯的希腊人对土耳其人起疑心，而土耳其人猜疑希腊人。双方存在很多误解，特别是围绕土耳其人信仰的伊斯兰教。

　　除了土耳其人， 还有约25万的阿尔巴尼亚人，他们多是穆斯林（即伊斯兰教信徒）和阿尔巴尼亚东正教徒，他们目前生活在希腊北部。这些人大多是从阿尔巴尼亚和科索沃战乱中逃离的难民。他们人口比西色雷斯土耳其人多，但没什么权利地位，因为他们背后没有一个强大祖国的支持，也没有经济来源保证他们在一个地方长期生活。许多阿尔巴尼亚人越过边境线来到希腊，他们除了背包里的衣服，什么也没有。他们需要食物、住所和工作，而这些也是当地所匮乏的。

　　另一些少数民族也有同样的命运。他们有罗马人，也就是吉卜赛人。估计在希腊有14万吉卜赛人，难以准确统计这一数字，因为他们是游牧民，没有固定的居住场所，大部分的时间奔走在路上。和整个欧洲一样，在希腊，吉卜赛人依旧遭到几百年来所面临的偏见。各地的吉卜赛人很难得到教育、医疗服务或其他社会福利，而在希腊对于那些坚信伊斯兰教的45 000名罗姆人（吉卜赛人的自称）来说情况就更糟。多数人信奉基督教，所以基督教的吉卜赛人多多少少可以依赖他们的帮助和保护，但是穆斯林吉卜赛人就像阿尔巴尼亚难民一样，缺乏强有力的保护者来代表他们的利益。两种信仰的吉卜赛人都是局外人，融不进希腊社会，尽管他们的祖先一千多年前就来到希腊生活。

　　希腊还有另一个历史更悠久的少数民族——瓦拉几人，他们是罗马尼亚人的后代。他们属于半游牧民，主要工作是放羊，带着羊群在有限的区域内从一个牧场到另一个牧场。吉卜赛人的游牧是从一个城镇到另一个城镇，或一个国家到另一个国家，而瓦拉几人通常是在他出生地的附近游牧。这个差别很重要，它说明了瓦拉几人多少可以被希腊多数民族所同化。

　　这方面，宗教起了重要作用。虽然瓦拉几语更接近拉丁语，但是瓦拉几人和希腊邻居一起到讲希腊语的东正教教堂听牧师布道。因此，尽管他们的语言不同于希腊的多数民族，信仰却拉近了彼此的距离。对于瓦拉几人而言，上述对立却又和谐的关系虽然偶尔也给他们的生活带来不便，但却不失为消除偏见的良方。偏见使得巴尔干地区和世界其他地区的生活被扰乱。瓦拉几人已经学会了如何融入周围的社会而又不失自己独特的传统。