PETITION REGARDING THE EXCLUSION OF THE GREEK LANGUAGE FROM AMAZON KDP

PETITION REGARDING THE EXCLUSION OF THE GREEK LANGUAGE FROM AMAZON KDP

To Amazon.com, Inc.
Amazon Kindle Direct Publishing (KDP)
Amazon Customer Relations

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We, the undersigned scholars, academics, authors, educators, researchers, publishers, and members of the international intellectual community, respectfully express our profound concern regarding the exclusion of the Greek language from Amazon Kindle Direct Publishing (KDP).

Amazon KDP currently permits publication in numerous regional and minority languages with substantially smaller speaker populations than Greek, including Cornish, Manx, Northern Frisian, Romansh, Scottish Gaelic, Corsican, Luxembourgish, Welsh, Basque, and others. At the same time, Greek—a language spoken today by approximately 13 to 15 million people worldwide—remains excluded from KDP publishing services. The issue, therefore, cannot reasonably be explained solely by commercial or demographic criteria.

The Greek language occupies a unique position in the cultural and intellectual history of humanity. With more than 3,400 years of continuous written tradition, it is among the oldest continuously written living languages in the world. Greek is the language of Homer, Plato, Aristotle, Sophocles, Aeschylus, Hippocrates, Archimedes, and the New Testament, as well as foundational works that shaped philosophy, democracy, medicine, mathematics, political thought, theology, literature, and the sciences.

Greek is not merely a historical language. It is a living language and a living intellectual tradition. It has functioned for millennia as a matrix of meanings and values centered on the human being. Through Greek, humanity first articulated some of its most enduring concepts of freedom, democracy, justice, civic responsibility, ethical life, and human dignity.

Words such as democracy, philanthropy, politics, ethics, dialogue, philosophy, history, and theory are not simply lexical inheritances. They represent entire civilizational achievements. Greek gave linguistic form to the first anthropocentric civilization in freedom, where the human being, the citizen, and the political community became central objects of reflection and creation.

The Greek language also expresses with exceptional precision the foundations of democratic life. Terms such as demokratia, isegoria, isonomia, and isopoliteia embody principles of civic participation, equality before the law, equal public speech, and political belonging. These are not marginal concepts; they are among the foundations of modern democratic societies.

Greek literature and thought also gave humanity a language of ethical resistance to autocratic rule. In Aeschylus’ Prometheus Bound, the “philanthropic way” is opposed to tyranny, presenting love for humanity as a moral and political stance. This legacy remains deeply relevant in the digital age, where access to language is also access to memory, education, participation, and cultural dignity.

The Greek language is therefore not only a means of communication or merely a commercial instrument. It is a treasury of wisdom, virtue, and beauty—a language that has shaped the moral, political, scientific, and imaginative vocabulary of humanity. It embodies memory, knowledge, education, identity, and humanity’s accumulated intellectual experience. The importance of the Greek language has also been internationally recognized by UNESCO, which officially proclaimed February 9th as World Greek Language Day in recognition of Greek’s enduring contribution to world civilization and humanity’s cultural heritage.

The exclusion of Greek-language publishing from one of the world’s most influential digital publishing platforms creates barriers for Greek authors, educators, students, researchers, publishers, and readers worldwide. It also weakens the broader principle of linguistic and cultural diversity in the global digital environment.

For many years, Greek authors and publishers have relied upon Amazon’s ecosystem to distribute literature, scholarship, educational material, and historical works internationally. Greek consumers have likewise supported Amazon products and services throughout successive generations of technological innovation. 

We therefore respectfully call upon Amazon to:

1. Restore and maintain Greek-language publishing within Kindle Direct Publishing services.

2. Ensure reliable support for Greek-language books, metadata, indexing, search functions, and Kindle compatibility.

3. Publicly reaffirm Amazon’s commitment to multilingualism and cultural diversity in digital publishing.

4. Engage constructively with Greek-language authors, publishers, educators, and academic institutions regarding the future of Greek-language publishing.

5. Recognize that languages of major historical, educational, and cultural significance should not be excluded from global digital publishing infrastructure.

The exclusion of Greek—one of the foundational languages of world intellectual history—would represent not merely a technical omission, but a cultural loss extending far beyond the Greek-speaking world itself.

We therefore urge Amazon—whose name originates from Greek mythology and language—to reconsider its current policy and demonstrate leadership in protecting linguistic and cultural diversity in the digital age.

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Respectfully

The following organizations and individuals have endorsed this petition in support of the full inclusion of the Greek language in Amazon KDP. Their endorsement reflects a shared commitment to preserving and promoting one of the world’s oldest living languages and ensuring equal access for Greek authors, publishers, educators, and readers.