International Journal of Scientific & Engineering Research, Volume 4, Issue 12, December-2013 822 ISSN 2229-5518 IJSER © 2013 http://www.ijser.org The Rights of Minorities in Greece Ebrar IBRAIMI, PhD Abstract - In contemporary times, the European Union gives the advance to its integration process by the including the political structure alongside of its economical structure and it become most important supranational organization with the principle that it adopted as the human rights, rule of law, freedom of speech, freedom of expression, etc. This paper aims to explain the process of “Europeanization” by using the minority issue and cultural rights concept and analyze how the states integrate themselves to the “Europeanization” process by a comparison of Greece. Index terms: Minority Protection, Greece, Turks, Macedonian, Minority rights ——————————  —————————— 1. The Council of Europe and Minority Protection 1 The Framework Convention for the Protection of the Council of Europe can be regarded as a belated result of the changes after 1989 in Europe. As Gal asserts, the Framework Convention is a milestone in converting the political declarations and intents into legal terms, thus becoming the first legally binding international instrument generally devoted to minority protection which shall be elaborated infra. However, for concerning to understand the urgent need to overcome divisions and conflicts in Europe, the Council of Europe indeed has a longer history dating back to its early days of establishment after World War II. Though seen in the context of human rights at the time, the Council’s mission was perceived primarily as “ (…) to achieve a greater unity between its member states,(…) on the basis of a specific political project: the commitment of the 1 Ebrar IBRAIMI PhD, ebrari2002@yahoo.com member states and their peoples to the principles of a pluralist democracy, human rights and rule of law.” The main objective of the Council of Europe is seen in the “European Convention on Human Rights” of 1950,wherein the rights of minorities were also secured essentially by employing the term “everyone” and not expressions such as “people, public, citizen” and the like, particularly observed in Article 9, 10, 11 Additional Protocol, Article 2. Against this background, the European Commission for Democracy through law know as the “Venice Commission”, a unit consisting of eminent jurist and constitutional experts set up in 1989 under the aegis of the Council of Europe took the initiative to examine the proposal for a draft European Convention for the Protection of Minorities. Nevertheless, after lengthy discussions and deliberations, the Council, in October 1993, in Vienna, agreed to call for a new framework convention in order to assure the protection of minorities, which would also be open for signature by non-member states. IJSER