Nationalisme d’État, répression des minorités linguistiques et revendications identitaires

Abstract

The Macedonian language, widespread, during the 30’ in Northern Greece as the main language of an important slavophone minority, is systematically repressed by the Greek state under the Metaxas dictatorship (1936-1941) as it is forbidden to teach it and even to speak it in intrafamily context. The different modes of interdiction are inscribed into a state nationalism that promotes the ideal of a monolingual and mono-religion Greece. During the Nazi Occupation and the following Civil War, the pro-communist Resistance and, after her, the Democratic Army, promoted the teaching of Macedonian and sustained the identity claims of the slavophones populations. Teaching Macedonian became, in this context, a major political issue, as an attempt to change the pre-war relations of domination and to set up means to recognize equal rights to linguistic and cultural minorities. The Royalist victory in 1949 put an end to this emancipation movement and marked the return to stigmatization of Macedonian speakers as “ennemies of the Greek Nation”.

Keywords

• Nationalism
• Macedonian minority
• Minority Rights
• Macedonian language