Since 2008, however, Greece has failed to comply with the decisions of this international institution of justice, leaving the associations to remain without legal form. Greece has also failed to pass the legal amendments required for European case-law to be integrated without obstruction into the decisions issued by the Greek courts73. According to many commentators, this legislative failure is directly related not only to the issue of minority associations, but to the oicial attitude towards minority rights in general. It is also related – consciously or not – to the attitude of other States that have ideological ties with the minorities in question. What that means is a contra legem implementation of the principle of – an oten preventive or asymmetrical – reciprocity.74 “The position of the Supreme Court [one might also add: of the whole State apparatus] is based on the choice of an ‘ill-conceived reciprocity’, according to which the Greek State has the right to abuse in an unconstitutional way some of its citizens whenever this is viewed as reprisal against a foreign country”75. 8/ (NON-)CITIZENSHIP FOR SECOND-GENERATION IMMIGRANTS: THE JUDICIARY AND THE NATION Before addressing an issue that was widely discussed recently, concerning the refusal of the Council of State to accept that second-generation immigrants have a right to Greek citizenship, it may be interesting to consider on a purely symbolic and ideological level the usual judicial practice of oicially depriving convicted foreign nationals of the rights of a Greek citizen. This practice constitutes a fundamental legal paradox, since judges, in their inspiration, deprive foreigners of rights that the foreigners do not in the irst place possess. Foreign nationals (that is, non-Greek citizens or citizens of an EU-member State) cannot obtain citizen rights ipso jure, as these rights are either a continuation or an integral part of nationality or of EU-member State citizenship, or are granted under very special conditions to third-country nationals living legally in Greece for a very long time.76 Therefore, the automatic imposition of this punishment on persons who have never obtained Greek nationality, or who do not even have a legal residence in Greece ��� the suspension of never-obtained rights – is a blatant legal paradox. It is all the more bizarre when this is issued against a foreigner as part of the same verdict that convicts this person (among other things) for illegal entry into the country! 73. 74. 75. 76. On the development of these cases and the relevant documents, see http://www.coe. int/t/dghl/monitoring/execution/Reports/pendingCases_en.asp?CaseTitleOrNumber=bekir &StateCode=&SectionCode=. On the implementation of reciprocity in issues regarding the minority of Thrace, see Tsitselikis 2007: 163-189. Dimoulis 2008: 149. This was the procedure instituted by the so-called “Ragousis Law” regarding the granting of citizen’s rights during local elections to third-country nationals who are proven long-time inhabitants; however, these provisions were also deemed unconstitutional by the Plenary Session of the Council of State. MAPPING ULTRA-RIGHT EXTREMISM, XENOPHOBIA AND RACISM WITHIN THE GREEK STATE APPARATUS | 61