Help stop discrimination of Greek expatriates from former USSR

Help stop discrimination of Greek expatriates from former USSR countries upon their Greek citizenship applications!​

Help simplify Greek naturalization procedure for them!​

Your Excellency the president of the Hellenic Republic, Katerina Sakellaropoulou
Your Excellency Prime Minister, Kyriakos Mitsotakis
Honourable Minister of Foreign Affairs, Nikos Dendias
Honourable Minister of the Interior, Mavroudis Voridis
Mr. Minister for Migration and Asylum, Panagiotis A. Mitarachi

We need your help!

The Greeks expatriates and their children from the former USSR countries cannot obtain Greek citizenship for years unlike foreigners from Albania, Egypt and other counties, instead, they face countless obstacles built up by the government of Greece on procedural level.

The Greek expatriates must go through a bureaucratic hell to obtain the passport of their historical Fatherland - Greece:

1. to collect piles of documents proving their nationality despite having nationality specified in their BIRTH certificate, or in their parents’ documents;
2. to learn the Greek language whilst being outside of Greece without a possibility to daily practice the language. Not to mention what a torture it is for ELDERLY Greeks to learn language in the age of 60+, which makes the dream of immigration to their historical fatherland absolutely impossible;
3. to learn a huge list of historical and cultural facts (e.g., to know the date when a certain minister of Greek government was appointed, display excellent knowledge of Greek geography, or to be familiar with pop performers of the modern Greek culture) even though NOT EVERY Greek citizen knows all those facts;
4. to wait months to get appointment with local Greek consulate, which has to be strictly the consulate of the country of birth and, if an applicant happens to be living abroad in the application period, he/she is NO LONGER ENTITLED to apply at all!
5. to pass an interview in the GREEK language, demonstrating the so called “Greek mentality” (the definition of which is vague and absurd considering the fact that the applicants were born and raised outside of Greece, and even more so – in an ATHEISTIC state like USSR), sometimes considered personally by consul upon his/her subjective point of view;
6. to wait years, sometimes OVER 10 (!!!) years to be rejected for the reason of “not displaying truly Greek mentality”, or poor Greek language skill and to have to submit their application again!
7. or to be deported from Greece having their granted citizenship CANCELLED because another official has suddenly found a typing mistake in the soviet time documents dated sometimes early 20th Century!
8. or to be refused the Greek citizenship while the applicant’s relatives, even parents or siblings are granted citizenship after having submitted the SAME documents at the SAME date!
9. to go through this bureaucratic hell because the Greek government and particular officials in places ignore the historical facts of the Greek Operation (mass PROSECUTION of Greeks in Soviet Union) and in general treats the Greek applicants from the former USSR as random other nationals just because their ancestors had immigrated or were born in the Soviet Union. To be doomed to experience these humiliating procedures instead of being treated with sympathy, instead of being granted a simplified naturalization procedure!

We call for Justice!
We call for the Law change!
Help stop the discrimination!
Help simplify the naturalization procedure for ALL Greek expatriates regardless of their country of birth!

• We call to grant Greek citizenship based solely on documents proving Greek nationality!
• We call to grant citizenship without Greek language knowledge requirements!
• We call to let apply for citizenship from any country, including Greece, and not just the country of birth!

Embrace Greek expatriates just like other countries do for their expatriates (e.g., Israel, Poland, Germany etc). We can help develop the economy, science, and culture of Greece, we want our children to be raised Greek in Greece, we want to help our parent to live their older years in their historical Fatherland, we want to become real Greek citizens!

Help simplify the naturalization procedure for ALL Greek expatriates regardless of country of birth!

Detailed petition addressed to the Government of Greece with references to State Law can be found in Greek here and in Russian here.

The Petition has been personally handed to Kyriakos Mitsotakis - Prime Minister of Greece - in Janurary 2023. However no legal changes have taken place yet in the described situation.

Contacts for MASS MEDIA (official representatives of the petition authors):​

ELENA TATEVOSYAN
Chairman of the public organization ARGO of repatriates from the former USSR
Email: argo_alexandroupoli@yahoo.gr
Facebook Messenger: Tatevosyan Elena

MZIA ILIANA KANTAIDOU
General Secretary of Panhellenic Federation of repatriated expatriates from Fr. Soviet Union
Email: mzia.info@gmail.com
Mob.: +30 69 3655 5548

REGINA IBRAGIMOVA
Attorney-at-law (Athens Bar), LLB, LLM, Ph. D. Candidate in Public Law
Email: greek_regina@yahoo.gr
Mobile:. +30 69 5151 4312