By Risto Stefov
rstefov@hotmail.com
December 7th, 2008
The Republic of Macedonia and the Macedonian people are not in any way nor have they ever been obligated to Greece or to the European Union (EU). In fact the opposite is true! Greece must be very grateful to the European Great Powers for allowing it to keep Macedonian lands, or as some people put it, “to administer Macedonian lands in good faith”. Greece must also be grateful to the Macedonian people who never once have risen against Greece since it occupied their lands and put up with its intolerance and abuse.
Greece was given the Macedonian lands and people to “administer in good faith” in 1913 when it was awarded a chunk of Macedonia. This meant that Greece was and still is responsible for caring for these lands and the needs of the people it inherited. This, for any truly democratic country, would have been a privilege but not for Greece.
The Treaty of Sevres of August 10th, 1920 required Greece to protect the interests of the inhabitants it inherited, which included the Macedonians, who differ from the majority of the population in ethnicity and language. Greece was required to provide non-Greeks, or should I say people who felt they were not Greeks, with equal political and civil rights and allow them to use their native tongue in the media, courts, churches and schools. But in spite of the treaty what did Greece do? NOTHING POSITIVE!
After frequent criticism from the League of Nations, the United Nations’ predecessor, in Geneva that Greece was not protecting minority rights as Sevres required, Greece promised maternal-language instruction in primary schools in areas with compact groupings of Macedonians. To fulfill that promise the Greek government in 1925printed the Abecedar, a primer in the Macedonian language. But no sooner had the primer been printed than it was destroyed and that promise too turned out to be empty.
Well the fact is Greece has done nothing “for” and too numerous to mention “against” the Macedonian people; in other words Greece has done everything in its power to eradicate the Macedonians and is still doing it to this day!
When Greece along with its partners Serbia and Bulgaria invaded, occupied and partitioned Macedonia during the Balkan Wars of 1912, 1913 it caused such damage that the Carnegie Endowment Inquiry Commission had to be called in to examine the carnage. And what did the Carnegie Endowment Inquiry Commission find in Macedonia? If described in modern terms, it found “genocide”, (a deliberate extermination of people) of the worst kind perpetrated against human beings; mostly unarmed civilians of all ages!
Unfortunately the breakout of the First World War took attention away from the plight of the Macedonian people and after it was over it seems people, especially the European Great Powers, had better things to do than worry about what the Greek army did to the Macedonians. One of those better things to do in 1919 was to “reward” Greece by permanently awarding it the Macedonian lands it occupied and annexed in 1912, 1913. Worse than that, the European Great Powers did absolutely nothing to make sure Greece did not abuse the Macedonian people it was so easily given. In other words the European Great Powers, mainly France and Britain, rewarded Greece for the misdeeds it perpetrated in Macedonia. So what kind of message was Greece given?
Naturally Greece followed the same course and continued to mistreat the Macedonian people after 1919 as it did before by forcibly Hellenizing them, evicting them from their homes, exiling them from their lands, confiscating their lands and awarding them to strangers, and settling on their lands colonists that didn’t belong there. Worse than that, Macedonians were stripped of their identity and right to be called Macedonians and prohibited by law from speaking their Macedonian language. In other words, instead of creating a good climate to foster Macedonianism in the Macedonians as they were expected by Serves, the Greeks tried their best to eradicate it.
During the terrible 1930’s and 1940’s the Greeks went even further by imprisoning and killing more Macedonians and by driving even more out of their ancestral lands. Included among the many driven out were the 28,000 refugee children ages two to fourteen about which most Western European countries remain silent to this day.
Then in the 1980’s to add salt to an open wound, Greece allowed some refugees to return, but not all of them. Greece did this by introducing a law that discriminated against Macedonians not because they were born Macedonians but because they refused to be Hellenized. This was indeed a “Greek trick” to fool the world into thinking that one had to be “born Greek” to be able to return to Greece. But in reality what does that really mean? Who is born Greek? The Arvanites? The Vlachs? The Hellenized Macedonians? One did not have to be “born Greek” or born of “Greeks” to return to Greece because if that were the case NO ONE would have been allowed to return. The trick was to only allow those people who subscribed to the “Greek doctrine” and stop those who didn’t. This is how this law was put into practice. In other words ethnic Macedonians who subscribed to the “Greek doctrine” were allowed to return. Only those who refused it by insisting that they were ethnic Macedonians were rejected.
By “Greek doctrine” I mean any person who speaks Greek or is willing to learn to speak Greek, is of the Christian Orthodox faith, and agrees to sign a piece of paper agreeing with the Greek government line of what a Greek should be, can be a Greek.
The “Greek doctrine” requires all Macedonians (I am not sure if this applies to others) to forsake their own Macedonian identity and never to speak their Macedonian language.
In fact there are Russians who were born in Russia and have been Russian for many generations today claim to be Greeks because they can produce a piece of paper signed by a witness verifying that a relative, say an aunt for example, is a Greek. How are they Greeks? Who cares as long as they accept the “Greek doctrine”.
If you ever visit the cottages where foreigners have taken refuge in the Greek islands, don’t forget to ask the residents, particularly the Germans, how they became Greeks. It’s not a joke, even Germans have to subscribe to the “Greek doctrine” if they plan to take permanent residence in Greece.
Anyone can be a Greek as long as they agree with the “Greek doctrine” even if they are not born in Greece, except of course for the Macedonians who are actually born in Greece but don’t subscribe to the “Greek doctrine”.
So the problem here is that Greece does not want people living on its soil who do not subscribe to the “Greek doctrine” and there are many, many Macedonians who want to return to Greece, to their ancestral homes in Greek occupied Macedonia but want to remain Macedonian and do not want to subscribe to the Greek doctrine. So, what to do?
One option is to demand that Greece reverse this practice, allow people to self declare and accept them for who they are. Failing this Macedonians must demand autonomy from Greece and eventually reunification with other parts of Macedonia.
Unfortunately there are many Macedonians who believe that Macedonia will never be given back to the Macedonians and will never be reunited. That may be so but let us separate our personal desires from what is currently possible or impossible.
What matters now, today, before any demands can be made on Greece is to get the truth out, set the record straight, examine the facts as we the Macedonians see them. Then we will let the future take its own course.
I have been criticized for calling the Greek annexed part of Macedonia “Greek occupied Macedonia” because as some put it, it is a “sensitive” issue for the Greeks.
But if the Greeks feel sensitive about what they have done, how then should the Macedonians be expected to feel when it was done to them? Better yet, if the Greeks feel “sensitive” about what they have done, why not do something positive for the Macedonians; like recognize them as a unique ethnic entity for starters?
If you understand the situation and the conditions under which Macedonians live in Greece you will agree with me that the word “occupied” does appropriately apply. This is a country which goes out of its way to sell the idea to the world that Macedonians don’t exist! I am not saying “occupied” to demean Greece, Greece is doing that on its own without my help; I am simply stating facts!
It is irrelevant whether it is possible or impossible to reunite Macedonia today because we are nowhere near there. Reuniting Macedonia is not a task for us today it is a task for future generations if and only if we set the right conditions today. First and foremost we need to get to the bottom of what exactly happened to Macedonia and the Macedonian people from 1878 to today. Our responsibility today is to lay a strong foundation on which future generations of Macedonians can build. The best we can do today is plant the seeds for future Macedonians. Conversely if we continue to think of the impossible then I can assure you that the future will not bear fruits for the Macedonians.
It is very important for every Macedonian to realize that our destiny since 1878 has been shaped as much by external events as it was shaped by internal ones. External events were controlled by outside forces mainly by the power brokers like the European Great Powers.
Another thing we must also realize is that those same power brokers, the European Great Powers, have in many ways been responsible for shaping not only our own but also our neighbours’ future. Remember Greece was created, molded, rewarded and punished by the power brokers for the course it took in its travels over time. Remember Greece has also been amply rewarded with Macedonian lands for doing the bidding of its benefactors. So it is not just Greece that we should be looking at for what exactly happened to Macedonia and the Macedonians since 1878 we should be also looking at its puppet masters, the European power brokers, who were pulling the strings behind the scenes!
Knowing this then does anyone wonder why the European Union has a difficult time accepting Macedonia for what it is? Has anyone looked deep down to see why European countries like France for example, stand behind racist Greece in the name dispute?
If Macedonia and the Macedonian people change anything about their country’s name, identity, language, culture, etc., then the same Europeans who were behind the wrongs done to Macedonia can sigh with relief and say: “these people are not the same people who we sold out over the years and therefore we owe them nothing!”, not even an apology!
Worse than that, if the Macedonian people do agree to change anything this time it will be their own doing!
It is very important for every Macedonian to realize that we are not only facing Greece as the perpetrator who has wronged us in the past, we are also facing the powers who only yesterday sold us out for their own benefits and some of those powers are today the power brokers inside the European Union.
Therefore if Macedonia wants to get out of the mess it is in it must realize that certain elements in the European Union (and not just Greece) do not want a Macedonian in their club. Macedonia’s efforts can best be served by concentrating on making allies outside of Europe, especially with the powers with which it has no bad history. Abandoning the name dispute would be a first and correct step in that direction.
Macedonia, please don’t try to so hard to be a guest at a party where you are not wanted!
Macedonia should stop looking to the European Union until all EU members are ready to embrace you for who you are. Macedonians should stop looking to Europe until Europeans start treating you as equals by removing all conditions they have placed on you that are above and beyond those of regular members. When the EU is ready to treat Macedonia with respect as it treats any of its regular members then it will be time for Macedonia to look into the EU. Until then Macedonia must stop trying to please Greece and those members of the EU that don’t want it. That effort can best be spent looking elsewhere.
As for Greece’s future, Greece has a couple of options; one, it can change its current position and embrace its multiethnic character and cherish its minorities or two, it can continue to live its glorious myth while fighting against its minorities and pretending they don’t exist.
Greece must realize for itself that one day sooner or later it will come to a crossroad with its minorities when it will have to decide which way to turn. Greece can not go on forever claiming that “Macedonians don’t exist”. If it does then Macedonians will have no choice but to break away and abandon Greece.
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