If you have applied for Greek citizenship, please stay on the line and the Greek authorities will get back to you sometime in the near future. The delays in the process are well known. These apply to a broad range of persons, diaspora Greeks, Greek-born immigrants, as well as those who were adopted children and taken out of Greece in the 1950s. It also applies, apparently, to Mitchel Krier, the American husband and coach of Katerina Stefanidi, Greece’s pole vault champion who has won 11 gold, 5 silver, and 3 bronze medals in major international competitions ranging from the Olympic Games to the European Indoor Championships. We learned of this predicament when Stefanidi responded to prime minister Mitsotakis’ message of congratulations for her most recent achievement. Tweeting in Greek on June 15th she wrote: “Mr. prime minister Mitsotakis, may I first thank you for your good wishes, I would request that you approve an application made in 2020 for conferring honorary citizenship to my husband and coach so we can continue uninterrupted our preparations for the Olympic Games. I think with so many medals he deserves it.”

Honorary citizenship is something that Greece confers to foreigners who have offered special services to Greece. A number of eminent American and British academics have been honored in that way. Athletes are another such category, which makes Mitchel Krier’s four year wait surprising. The basketball player Giannis Antetokounmpo, born and raised in Athens to Nigerian parents was due to travel to the United States in 2013 to take part in the NBA draft. But he did not have a passport because his citizenship application was languishing somewhere in the corridors of the Greek bureaucracy. With the prospect of him traveling instead with a Nigerian passport, the Greek government of the day lurched into action and awarded Giannis citizenship and a passport. A more recent fast tracking of a foreign athlete’s citizenship recently which has raised eyebrows also involved a basketball player. Texas-born Thomas Walkup, who plays for Olympiacos Piraeus, was awarded honorary citizenship because “of the services he could offer the Greek national team.” But there is suspicion that his team pushed for him to become Greek in order to free up one of the six positions for foreigners Greek teams are allowed on their 12-man roster. In any case, Walkup, who had stated a few months earlier “I am an American,” got special treatment. He did not quiet continued questions over being fined for “inappropriate behavior defaming the sport” during the Greek basketball finals after he jeered at the opposing team’s coach. Not the behavior one wants for players who will represent Greece.

Given the way athletes are treated, it came as no surprise that Stefanidi’s tweet worked. Following Interior minister Thodoros Livanios’ “immediate intervention” (a favorite media phrase describing government actions) Mitchell Krier’s long wait for Greek citizenship is finally over.

Now that all requests from the sporting world have been addressed maybe the Greek authorities could turn to a petition that asks the government to award Greek citizenship to those who were adopted in the 1950s legally or illegally. Despite being born to Greek parents in Greece and being able to prove it, these persons are not considered Greek citizens by the very government that was complicit in the adoption process that was riddled with shameful irregularities. While a few individual applications are granted, Mary Cardaras, the driving force behind the petition, told me in a message no one in the government has been assigned to deal specifically with the adoptees. Many adoptees have waited years and spent a great deal of money on lawyers. They are asking to be processed in a group and their cases fast tracked, something that should not present problems because they can all prove they had Greek parents and were born in Greece.

I sympathize with their case while I think the entire process of awarding Greek citizenship to diaspora Greeks and Greek-born immigrants should be upgraded and speeded up. In the meantime, the adoptees need somebody with access to the prime minister to help them out. One such body is AHEPA, whose frequent official visits to Greece receive red carpet treatment by the government. AHEPA was involved in the adoptions in the 1950s, but it ceased doing so in 1956 when it realized things were not right. Nonetheless, two leading AHEPA members, a former Supreme Presidents no less, continued on their own until serious illegalities in the process were uncovered in Greece. AHEPA is not an organization that likes to delve in the past, judging by the way it has put behind it its centennial celebrations, including a book about it. But AHEPA bears responsibility for way some the adoptions were handled, and intervening on behalf of the adoptees applying for citizenship would be the right thing to do.