Bulgarian minority of Greece
Since establishment of Greek Sate in 1830 no ethnic census has been held and a policy of denying any ethnic minority has been prevailed. Greece currently denies existence of Bulgarian minority as well as any other Balkan one (Macedonian, Albanian, Cham, Serbian, Rumanian, Aromanian, Roma, and Turk). Armenians, Jews, Aromanians and Gipsies are officially referred as “nationalities” or “communities”.
On September 29, 1925 a bilateral Bulgarian-Greek agreement was signed in Geneva (Politis-Kalfov protocol) after League of Nations's demand, recognizing Greek slavophones as Bulgarians and guaranting their protection. The cause of agreement was the massacre of 17 Bulgarian peasants by Greek captain Doxakis at Terlis (or Tarlis) (present-day Vathitopos), a mountainous village of Drama prefecture near Greek-Bulgarian border. The incident known as Terlis massacre triggered intarnational outcry against Greece and intervention of League of Nations.
Next month a Bulgarian primer textbook in Latin known as Abecedar published by Greek ministry for education, was introduced to Greek schools of Aegean Macedonia. On February 2, 1925 Greek parliament under heavy pressure from Serbia that reacted revoking the 1913 Greek-Serbian coallition Treaty, rejected ratification. Agreement lasted 9 months until June 10, 1925 when League of Nations anulled it.
On August 1926 during dictatorship of general Theodoros Pangalos, Serbia proposed an agreement recognizing Slavophones of Greece as Serbian minority. This proposal was never materialized as diplomatic agreement.
On December 9, 1927 Greece and Bulgaria signed in Geneva another bilateral accord known as Mollov-Kafantaris agreement by which the 1919 Neuilly Treaty concerning the non obligatory population exchange between Greece and Bulgaria was settled. A non specified number of Bulgars remained in Greece.
During the 1941-1944 German occupation of Greece, a significant number of Greek citizens selfdetermined as Bulgars (about 15.000) asked Bulgarian citizenship after their registration in Bulgarian Club of Thessaloniki. In the mean time a pro Bulgarian paramilitary organization known as Ohrana was formed in Voden (Edessa) , Lerin (Florina) and Kostur (Kastoria) regions of northern Greece aiming to counterattack Greek nationalistic organizations as PAO. Ohrana members were organized in three military battalions by Bulgarian reserve lieutenant and academic level economist Andon Kaltsev who came in Macedonia from Germany. After WW II most of Ohrana's members fled to Yugoslavian Macedonia, those who remained suffered cruel prosecutions includind death penalty and property confiscation, considered as traitors (dosilogoi). Andon Kaltsev was executed in Thessaloniki on 1948, condemned by a Greek military court.
On June 25, 1998 during his official visit in Thessaloniki, Bulgarian president Petar Stoyanov put the issue of Bulgarian minority in Greece.