By EUDO CITIZENSHIP expert Dimitris Christopoulos 

In 2013, a group of retired military officers and a Greek citizen demanded the nullification of a Decision by the Minister of Defense (April 15th 2011)  allowing all Greek citizens to take the examination for the Hellenic Military Academy, irrespective of their mode of acquisition of citizenship and belonging to the Greek “genos”. 

The retired army officers and the citizen claimed that the right to participate to this exam should be reserved to citizens of “Greek descent” due to the specific nature of military requirements and that the absence of reference the “Greek genos” (descent) violated the Greek Constitution. Citizens of Greek descent include citizens by birth as well as naturalised “homogenis” (i.e. ethnic Greeks who acquired citizenship on the basis of shared ethnicity). Other Greek citizens, in practice all foreigners who acquired Greek nationality via ordinary naturalisation, should be excluded. 

With its 3317/2014 Decision, published in October 2014, the State Council plenary rejected the petition. The Court, interpreting article 4, par. 1 of the Greek Constitution enshrining the principle of equality of Greek citizens, (“ All Greeks are equal before the law.”) ruled that any legislative provision requiring as qualification the Greek descent, in addition to Greek nationality, violates the principle of equality. The Decision states that “Article 4 of the Constitution guarantees equal access for all Greeks to public functions” and does not allow discrimination on grounds of Greek descent. 

Two members of the State Council, Justices Alexandris and Aravantinos, issued a dissident opinion according to which “the Hellenic Armed Forces constitute the fundamental institution safeguarding national independence and territorial integrity of the country. As such, ensuring cohesion and high moral standards is imperative, particularly in times of crisis (…)  Given the geopolitical position of the country,  historical circumstances and the sensitive nature of Armed forces, the Hellenic Military Academy should be reserved Greek citizens of Greek descent.”

In 2012 the State Council found that both the automatic access to Greek citizenship for children of immigrants and the extension of the right to participate in municipal elections to non-citizens violated the constitutionally enshrined principle of the ‘Greek people’. Hence, the recent decision of the State Council marks a considerable step towards the de-ethnicization of Greek nationality law.