Today I am sharing a press release by the Supreme Council of Ethnikoi Hellenes as is. Original here, English and French here.
"Once again, the “Greek” State has shown that it has yet to get rid of its byzantine and medieval whims and, being unable to respect with dignity its own laws (in this case Act no. 4301/2014), it has rejected by the intermediation of its court of First Instance the motion signed by hundreds of Ethnikoi Hellenes to obtain recognition as a statutory corporation of religious character for their ancestral, indigenous and historically continuous to our day despite cruel persecutions by christianity Hellenic Ethnic Religion.
The “justification” given for the rejection directly insults the intelligence and knowledge of history of the average educated person: The purely religious terms “Ethnic Religion” and “Ethnikoi Hellenes” create “confusion” (so they claim) in the minds of the public! Which public? The public which this same State has left in the dark about our religion by openly dispensing “education” resembling christian catechism through the school system? About the religion which all Greeks used to follow for many centuries before the onset of christianity and which many Greeks follow to this day? A religion which, needless to say, isn’t “idolatrous”, “pagan” or “dodekatheistic”.
The name of the religion transmitted down to us is “Hellenic Ethnic”, as it was consecrated to be designated in Trieste, in 1730. Until then, it was simply called “Hellenismos”. Therefore, the self-designation “Hellenic Ethnic” appears BEFORE the modern term “nation” established in the context of the French Revolution, whose meaning is political and which also translates into “ethnos” in Greek, and of course it also appears before the Greek State itself. The pretense of the supposed “confusion” is comical: Indeed, it is akin to an atheist named Christos demanding that christianity cease to be called christianity on account of the name being taken for himself, or as if the soccer club “Ethnikos Peiraios” should be called something else, so as to not cause confusion in the mind of the public as to whether the Greek State supports it, endorses it, or controls it. However, the unexpected attempt to give a modern, political meaning to the term “ethnic”, different from the one it normally has in the context of the theory of religions is extremely dangerous.
We understand of course that this specific interpretation was obviously chosen out of necessity, so as to serve as a basis for the finding of the supposed “confusion”. However, this does not make the interpretation any less dangerous, since the relatively “simple” problem of denying us our first and basic right to be recognized as existing in our own country, has been transported in a totally different context, irrelevant to a legal case which is and remains – this we must repeat – a matter that purely concerns religions. It has been transported in a new context which this same Greek State is likely to find particularly displeasing, if it does not take good care to pull the case back to where its subject matter properly belongs.
Since we are sound and responsible people and above all patriotic, we would never ourselves give rise to such an anomaly. The “Hellenic Ethnic Religion” therefore simply takes the case to the court of Appeal in the matter of its recognition under Act No. 4301/2014, all of whose preconditions it duly fulfills, and peacefully awaits from the “Greek” State to respect its own laws at least this time around. This is especially so, given that in the past years, on account of said State’s refusal to grant legal personality status to our religion, the latter has been illogically and unjustly compelled by a separate ministry of the State to pay several thousand Euros as “business tax”, despite multiple written protests from our side. Yes, you read it correctly, business tax!
We appeal to all fellow Greeks, all Ethnikoi Hellenes, to rally around the official representative of the Hellenic Ethnic Religion in a state of heightened alert. Ignoring the cost in time and money, we shall honour the call of our Gods and our souls and our ancestors, in this unjust, tiresome and soul-destroying process. We do not retreat. We will succeed in our rightful pursuit!"
