Formation 1997 Membership 2,000 | Location Athens, Greece Key people Vlassis Rassias | |
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Type Non-profit, Hellenic Ethnic Religion | ||
The Supreme Council of Ethnic Hellenes (Greek: Ύπατο Συμβούλιο των Ελλήνων Εθνικών, Ýpato Symvoúlio to̱n Ellí̱no̱n Ethnikó̱n), commonly referred to by its acronym YSEE, is a non-profit organisation established in Greece in 1997. Its primary goal is the protection and restoration of the Hellenic Ethnic Religion in contemporary Greek society. Since its founding, YSEE has distributed over 300 letters of protest and press releases aimed at increasing religious freedom for followers of the Hellenic Ethnic Religion. It has also hosted over 800 rituals and educational events.
The group itself estimates that some 2,000 Greeks practice the Hellenic Ethnic Religion and another 100,000 have "some sort of interest",. The followers of the Hellenic Ethnic Religion face varying degrees of discrimination in Greece, which has an overwhelmingly Orthodox Christian population. One of YSEE's main goals is to obtain legal recognition for the Hellenic Ethnic Religion.
YSEE is a founding member of the European Congress of Ethnic Religions (ECER) and hosted its seventh Congress in June 2004. YSEE has also been member of the European Union's action program to combat discrimination.
Outside of Greece
In 2007 members of YSEE in the United States founded the Hellenic Council YSEE of America which is now a recognized non-for profit organization based in Astoria, a New York City neighborhood with a large Greek-American community.