When looking at the fate of the enslaved Bulgarians in Aegean Macedonia and at what they have suffered during the last 9O years, two curtains that tightly screen their past have to be opened.

The first curtain has been lowered by our own totalitarian regime (ie Bulgaria) which in the name of misguided foreign policy and trade economics declared that our relations with their enslaver "Greece" were perfect and that "there were no problems between the two nations and countries".

When one speaks their mother tongue at home or in a public place and for that utterance they are subject to imprisonment - this is no problem. When children are told every day that they are ethnic Greeks and are made to swear before a priest that they will never again say a word in their mother tongue - "the language of our enemies, the Bulgarians" - this is still no problem. When the Phanariot priests preach God's Word in an unintelligible language - again this is no problem. When one madly brave village priest reads a sermon in his mother Bulgarian tongue and for that he is goaled - this is also no problem! When your compatriots are denationalized, assimilated and then eliminated - this is, of course, no problem!

The second curtain has been lowered by the Greek State. It is an equivalent of the Berlin wall, but unlike the latter, it still remains in place. This "wall" also posseses some amazing features. From Greece to Bulgaria it allows any Greek to pass undisturbed whenever they wish. They may go to Nessebar or Pomorie and pay respect to their grandparents as often as they desire. This "wall" is certainly no barrier to the teachers from the Greek Ministry of Education who come to organise Greek language courses for Greek emigrants. It is no barrier to Greek entertainment groups which regularly perform in Bulgaria. It is definitely no barrier for the hundreds of Greeks who travel to Sofia for tourism and business. From Bulgaria to Greece however, the "wall" has very different characteristics. If you travel by luxurious tourist bus on a journey to visit the Acropolis there will be no problems.

But if you, as a descendant of Bulgarians driven from Macedonia, attempt to visit Voden, Lerin, Kostour or want to see and know how your relatives left there fare, the wall is impenetrable. If the hounds from the Greek consulates become aware that you were born in that region or that you have relatives there, the "wall" becomes more like the Majino line. Nobody will ever grant you a visa. Seeking permission to open a shop, company or any other business is futile. While the Greek Church in the centre of Sofia resounds with chants of the Greek liturgy, no-one is granted permission to conduct a single liturgy in the Bulgarian language at the Bulgarian Church in Lerin.

Our aim is to see these curtains pulled aside so that the light may enter and our unhappy compatriots may indeed feel that they are at the threshold of the 21st century. We want to see Greece fulfil, honestly and publicly the obligations it accepted with the international contracts and conventions it signed, and require it upholds the human rights of its citizens - our compatriots. We ask for nothing more than the Greek state asks for its people in Albania or elsewhere. Our people should have the right to speak in their mother tongue, the right to have their own school and to worship in the Bulgarian orthodox church.

We do not seek any territory, but merely human rights for our own brothers in Macedonia. We want democracy in Greece to be valid for all its citizens, including our countrymen who live there. The sooner this happens and the "wall" that separates us falls, the closer we come to a lasting peace built on mutual trust and respect.