Dimitris Christopoulos, professor at the Department of Political Science and History of Panteion University in Athens will present a lecture entitled “What’s happening in Thrace: Rights and minorities’, at the Ithacan Philanthropic Society, on Sunday 22 September, as a part of the Greek History and Culture Seminars, offered by the Greek Community of Melbourne.

The Muslim minority of Western Thrace is the only officially recognized minority in Greece in virtue of the Lausanne Convention. Which are the crucial issues related to her historical presence for a century within the Greek State? How does the (in)famous “reciprocity principle” functions? What are the ruptures and the continuities of the Greek policy and to what extend the position of the minority depends on broader developments of the Greek-Turkish relations? Were there “mistakes” committed in the past or what today seems as a faulty behavior was the result of conscious strategic choices?

The lecture will particularly focus on issues related to religious freedom, minority education and the right to self-definition of the individuals belonging to the group.

Dimitris Christopoulos (Athens, 1969) is a Greek academic, writer and activist. Ηe serves as Professor at the Department of Political Science and History of Panteion University in Athens where he teaches ever since 2000. He has been elected President of the International Federation for Human Rights in 2016. FIDH Vice President in 2013 after having chaired the board of the Hellenic League for Human Rights, the biggest and oldest Greek human rights association, (www.hlhr.gr) for eight years (2003-2011). Christopoulos has studied law in Greece, political science in France, legal theory in Belgium and holds a French Phd in Public Law. He has taught as visiting professor and has provided lectures in different universities in Europe and the US.. His academic publications and books reflect par excellence his interventions as a public intellectual in the field of human rights, migration, minorities and citizenship. Christopoulos is frequently interviewed by international or Greek media, writes regularly in the Greek and to a lesser extend to the international press. Further biographical data and his publications in http://www.dimitrischristopoulos.gr/en/biography/

When: Sunday 22 September 2019, 4.00pm
Where: Ithacan Philanthropic Society, Level 2, 329 Elizabeth St, Melbourne