Dear Sirs,
MS Encarta editors,
In the 28th of January 2008 , Mr Bill Gates chairman of Microsoft Corporation visited Greece in order to inaugurate the Microsoft Innovation Center in Athens.http://www.hri.org/news/greek/apeen/2008/08-01-28_4.apeen.html#01The Greek Minister of Economy and Finance, Mr.Alogoskoufis, seems that he has already signed an agreement between the Greek state and Microsoft Corp. for the acquisition of 70.000 (seventy thousands) licenses of Microsoft products. Buying Microsoft products instead of cheaper or free open source programs was a choice of the Greek Government which proves that Greeks really trust Microsoft as a reliable supplier and consider your company a friendly organization that does NOT attack Greek interests. Unfortunately Microsoft, through, its product, ENCARTA Encyclopedia seems to have veiled hostility against Greece which is unexplainable. Microsoft through Encarta product decided to set in serious danger the Greek Foreign Policy claiming the existence of various ETHNIC minorities that they DON’T occur to any official census made by the Greek Government or the European Union.http://encarta.msn.com/encyclopedia_761572872_3/Greece.htmlAccording to ALL Greek Governments and ALL the international treaties signed by Greece and all neighboring countries there are NO Ethnic minorities but just ONE. The Muslim minority in Thrace.http://www.greekembassy.org/embassy/content/en/Article.aspx?office=1&folder=19&article=18800These claims sound as funny as claiming the existence of a huge Swiss minority in Northern Italy, Southern France and Southern Germany. It sounds as a joke of a bad taste. Microsoft ENCARTA seems to ignore ALL official censuses, ALL Greek Official statements and ALL international Treaties. Encarta promotes a hostile and arrogant propaganda against Greece’s interests which can destabilize the peace in Balkans. Claiming the existence of such minorities is like calling all Greek Politicians untrustworthy, the Hellenic Republic an unreliable regime and obviously this is NOT the spirit of collaboration meant to exist between the Greek State and Microsoft Corporation. So we urge you to proceed to an immediate CORRECTION of the data about ethnic groups in GREECE in ENCARTA Encyclopedia according to reliable and official statistics. We could never accept that Microsoft will be part of a well-known to us, political power game played in Balkans in order to put pressure to neighboring countries.We expect an immediate action by your side to stop this international defamation of Greece through ENCARTA’s website.We Greek taxpayers CANNOT accept any kind of deal between Microsoft and Greece as false data are being propagated by ENCARTA which gets involved in serious issues of our foreign policies. We are collecting signatures against any (future) collaboration between Microsoft and the Greek state which will be canceled as soon you get those data corrected. Please let us know whenever this occurs. This letter was sent also to the Greek Prime Minister, the Greek Minister of Foreign Affairs and the Greek Minister of Finance.
With regards,
United Taxpayers of Greece
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