The legal status of minorities in Greece, Bulgaria, Romania and Macedonia

Minorities and minority rights have always been at the agenda of nation states and international policy makers. Especially after 1990, minority rights, with their expanding geographical application and qualitative development, have become such a significant topic that, states are not able to ignore their application anymore. Because of this continuosly increasing application of minority rights and due to the importance of the topic for both international policy makers and theorists, this thesis aims to analyze the minority rights in various multiethnic Balkan countries such as Greece, Bulgaria, Romania and Macedonia.Almost all states describe and define their minorities in terms of the international agreements that they signed and ratified. Moreover, states can also define their minorities in terms of different social, political, geographical and historical needs and conditions. In order to create a clear picture about minorities in the Balkans, this thesis firstly tries to give general historical and geographical information about aforementioned Balkan states. After the general information about the states, this study focuses on policies of Balkan states towards their minorities and specific problems of minorities that live in this region.Key words:1. Minority rights2. Minority problem3. The Balkans4. Protection of minorities5. Ethnic conflicts