Greece claims that no Macedonian nation exists, and that there is not a Macedonian minority in Greece. Those people are "Greeks speaking a Slavic dialect", and the only minority in Greece is a "Muslim minority" in Western Thrace. However, ethnic Macedonians who left Greece during the Greek Civil War and its aftermath were deprived of their right to return to Greece on the basis of Article 19 of the Greek Nationality Code which discriminates between Greek citizens of Greek and non-Greek origin.

Article 19 was later applied to the Turkish minority in Western Thrace.

The real estates of Greek nationals of Macedonian origin are expropriated when they go abroad, and the inheritance of Macedonians cannot be sent to their relatives in the Republic of Macedonia.

Michalis Papaconstantinou, the New Democracy Party deputy and the former Greek Foreign Minister, has raised the issue of what he called "the passive attitude" of the former PASOK government on the Macedonian issue and put a question in the Parliament. In this question, Papaconstantinou said that "A declaration signed as the Manifesto of the Macedonians has been posted to the inhabitants of northern cities and towns and to some addresses in Thessaloniki in the beginning of October 1984. That declaration claims that the human rights of the Macedonians are violated. That is the propaganda of the Macedonian organization."

In February 1990 former PASOK deputy and the former Minister of Public Order Georgios Petros initiated the formation of a party which was to be dominantly constituted of the Macedonian electorate in northern Greece. Petros reportedly tried to gather together all the deputies elected from the northern Greek provinces in this party. He toured the villages near Florina and Edessa, and even made speeches in the Macedonian language. This shows that however it is officially denied, there is a Macedonian minority in Greece.

On 15 February 1991 the former Greek prime minister Constantine Mitsotakis stated that "there is no Macedonian minority in Greece". The Greek authorities do not accept Macedonian passports.

The Deputy Consul of Yugoslavia in Thessaloniki was declared "persona non grata" in March 1991 for the sole reason that he was sent from the "Republic of Skopje".

Greece claims it has exclusive rights on anything related to the name Macedonia, and that the region was geographically, historically and ethnically Greek. The Greek government, in its efforts to block the recognition of the Republic of Macedonia, launched an international campaign in which Pan-Macedonian organizations worldwide which disseminate official Greek views also participated.

There are also Macedonian organizations which raise the issue of the Macedonian minority in Greece.

According to the Greek thesis on the Macedonian issue:

The Macedonians are descended from the ancient Greek tribes. Following the occupation of Macedonia by the Roman Empire in 168 BC, there were waves of immigration to the region from the east and the west, including also the Jewish migration. However, the Greek language preserved its dominance, and the sporadic invasions of tribes had not left their trace in Macedonia.

After the Byzantine Empire took the region under its control, some cities, notably Thessaloniki, developed rapidly. In the 7th century various Slavic tribes came to Macedonia, which were followed by Finno-Tartar tribes called Proto-Bulgars. These latter two then formed the Bulgars. It is debatable to what extent the Macedonians in Macedonia are Bulgarized.
With regard to the Macedonian language:

The presence of Macedonian as a separate language was not known until the end of World War II. The inhabitants of Macedonia spoke a Bulgarian dialect. This dialect, having limited words and no grammar of its own, had also been influenced from Albanian and Greek in the border areas with these two countries.

Following the establishment of the Macedonian Republic after World War II, firstly the spoken, then the written language were attempted to be developed, taking the dialect used in eastern Macedonia as standard. However, the language has been influenced from Serbian, Russian and other Slav languages. This invented language called "literary Macedonian" has become one of the three official languages of Yugoslavia.

With a decision taken in 1985, the Greek government made its previous recognition of the Macedonian language null and void. In this context, it does not recognize the diplomas of the Skopje University, the curriculum language of which is Macedonian.

According to Greece, there are "overt and covert" supporters of the Macedonian Question, which they claim was put forward against Greece and its interests. Papathemelis, the "Macedonia and Thrace" Minister of the Greek Cabinet during the PASOK government in the late 1980s, now "Public Order" Minister in the new PASOK Cabinet, sent a note to the Holy See and condemned the Pope who had issued a message, among others, in the Macedonian language.

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