AEGEAN MACEDONIA

NEW WEBSITE SUPPORTING MACEDONIAN AND TURKISH MINORITIES IN GREECE.

2009-04-21T06:50:00.000-07:00

http://turkeymacedonia.wordpress.com/

MEMOIR of a Visit to Australia by Macedonian Human Rights Activists from Egej and Pirin

2009-04-21T06:45:00.000-07:00

The Australian Macedonian Human Rights Committee
with the delegation:
George Vlahov, Jason Kambovski, Stoyko Stoykov,
Chris Popov, Natse Parisis, Dimitri Ioannou, Vasko Nastevski,
Tase Filipov, Michael Kochev, Lyubitsa Durlovska,
Sasha Nachkovski, John Tsigliev (Charles Gallileos missing)
From March 24-31, 2009 in Melbourne, Australia, the Australian Macedonian Human Rights Committee (AMHRC) was privileged to have hosted a visit by Macedonian Human Rights activists from Greece and Bulgaria. Included in this visit were Mr. Natse Parisis and Mr. Dimitri Ioannou, as representatives of the AMHRC’s partner organisation in Greece, Vinozhito, and Mr. Stoyko Stoykov, representing the AMHRC’s partner organisation in Bulgaria, OMO “Ilinden” PIRIN. These activists, and their respective organisations, are at the forefront of advocating for and protecting

Macedonian minority rights in Greece and Bulgaria. We are also delighted to note that this visit was carried out in co-ordination with Macedonian Human Rights Movement International (MHRMI) based in Toronto, Canada - the fourth partner in what has been a bastion of truly internationally united Macedonian co-operation for over two decades now.

It gives the AMHRC, MHRMI, Vinozhito and OMO “Ilinden” PIRIN, great satisfaction to report that this visit was a resounding success. All of the aims and objectives of the visit were met, and our visiting Macedonian Human Rights activists, were able to return to their respective positions in Greece and Bulgaria with the knowledge that awareness of, and support for the human rights of Macedonian minorities in Greece and Bulgaria, increased significantly as a result of the visit.

A gathering in Doncaster
Primarily, the purpose of this visit was to give the Macedonian community in Australia an opportunity to gain a better understanding of the work undertaken by Vinozhito and OMO “Ilinden” PIRIN on behalf of ethnic Macedonian minorities in Greece and Bulgaria. Given the concern of the Macedonian community in Australia for Macedonian minorities in Europe, this visit was an opportunity to inform Macedonians in Australia of the ongoing breaches of fundamental human rights experienced by ethnic Macedonians in these countries. It was also an opportunity for Vinozhito and OMO “Ilinden” PIRIN to seek further long-term support for their activities from the Australian Macedonian community.

With these aims in mind the AMHRC designed a program for the visit that would maximise the opportunity for the visiting activists to engage with Macedonian community leaders and concerned Macedonians in Australia. Some of the highlights were as follows:

On Wednesday March 25 our guests were given a rest in order to recover from their long journey to Melbourne. However on Thursday morning they were hard at work. The day began with a 9.00am visit by our guests accompanied by a delegation from the AMHRC, to the Doncaster (a suburb located in Melbourne’s east) Macedonian Pensioners Association. There must have been an attendance of over 400 elderly Macedonians and they gave our visitors a rousing reception.

Dimitri Ioannou dancing in Doncaster
Natse Parisis appears to be a firm believer in what some social philosophers have termed the “Perspectivist” viewpoint on social forms. He demonstrated this by explaining that moves towards European integration will lead to greater contact amongst Macedonians throughout the Balkans. He very pertinently pointed out, that OMO “Ilinden” PIRIN and Vinozhito are already members of the same European political party – the European Free Alliance (EFA). The response from the crowd, was rapturous, they obviously connected with Natse’s “perspectivism”; and why shouldn’t they have? We, at any rate, can not think of a single reason. The gathering ended with generous promises from the elders, of support for the AMHRC’s Macedonian Minorities Support Fund. A very productive beginning.

From Doncaster, the AMHRC delegation together with its special guests raced

downtown to the studios of 3ZZZ (a major multicultural radio station) for an interview with Itso Naidovski, the host of a popular Macedonian radio hour. Understandably, the interview filled the entire program and Natse, Stoyko and Dimitri excelled in answering questions that required details beyond standard generalisations. A key point was reached when all agreed, that the Greek argument in connection with the name dispute, that is the so-called “confusion” argument, remains nonsensical when it is noted that the constitutional name of the Republic of Macedonia already obviously possesses a pre-fix, as does Greece’s “Province of Macedonia” – thus there should be no difficulty in distinguishing the two entities, especially as one is a state and the other, a province.

Natse Parisis, Stoyko Stoykov and
Dimitri Ioannou with the delegation
of Detsa Begaltsi

After departing from the studios of 3ZZZ, the already famously mobile “Delegation”, made their way to the premises of the Macedonian Orthodox Community of Melbourne and Victoria, located in Melbourne’s outer northern suburb of Epping. Here, a late lunch was provided and an emotional meeting took place between a “Delegation” and the Association of Macedonian Child Refugees (Detsa Begaltsi). Tears of joy flowed, as Dimitri in particular, spoke about the renaissance of Macedonian culture currently taking place in Greece. Also here, the AMHRC representatives took the opportunity to

explain about the preparations taking place for a class action against the Greek state – that is in relation to the discriminatory laws maintained by Greece against ethnic Macedonian refugees from the Greek Civil War (1946-1949). Crucial to this discussion was the point that we would need to participate in the action involving not just a demand for property compensation, but also a restoration of citizenship. Mr. Yanko Kalinchev, president of the refugee association, responded by pledging support for the AMHRC’s initiatives in this regard.

Getting ready for the AMHRC human rights conference
This very successful day was ended by a dinner with the visitors and the AMHRC. The restaurant was especially chosen for Stoyko, who had a long burning desire to try kangaroo. It was not that easy to locate a restaurant for the purpose – contrary to popular belief, there are not many restaurants in Australia that serve up the national symbol. We are not sure if there is another nation-state that encourages consumption of its national symbol; nor were we sure in the end, about whether Stoyko’s desire, considering his facial expression, might not have been better left unfulfilled...perhaps it was the particular chef’s fault?

On Friday the 27th of March the AMHRC held an all day Human Rights conference in downtown Melbourne. Aside from the AMHRC and the visiting activists, the conference was attended by representatives of numerous Macedonian community groups throughout Australia. These people need to be noted, as they all made useful contributions to the day’s proceedings: Victor Bivell (Pollitecon Publications – an Australian based publisher of books to do with matters Macedonian); Gligor Apoleski (a long time, Sydney based, Macedonian activist); Igor Alexandrov (Macedonian Orthodox community of Sydney, New South Wales); Steve Kostoff and Tom Pisarcoff (Macedonian Orthodox Community of Adelaide and South Australia); Yote Kyandovski and Jim Bivoltsis (Macedonian Orthodox Commmunity of Perth and Western Australia); Sam Ristovski (Macedonian Orthodox Community of Melbourne and Victoria); Vlado Trpchevski (Macedonian Orthodox Community in Sydenham); Yanko Kalinchev and Lazo Kristov (Macedonian Child Refugees); Itso Naidovski (3ZZZ); Margarita Vasileva (SBS Macedonian Radio Program); Lou Stankovski (editor of the Australian Macedonian Weekly and Igor Pavlovski (editor of Today, Macedonian weekly newspaper). Also, we would like to send our thanks to Chris Angelkov (Macedonian Orthodox Community of Perth and Western Australia), who, although not present, was very helpful.

Stoyko Stoykov giving a Power Point presentation
at the AMHRC human rights conference
The agenda for the conference was designed to advance an understanding of the status of Macedonians in Greece and Bulgaria, and to discuss strategies to protect and promote the Human Rights of Macedonians throughout the world. The day began with Dimitri and Stoyko each giving highly detailed hour long power point

presentations, that created much food for thought and discussion. Impressive was the news of the considerable expansion of Vinozhito branches in eastern Aegean Macedonia and OMO “Ilinden” PIRIN’s legal plans to continue to challenge Bulgaria’s unlawful de-registration of their party.

After a lunch that was served in the conference room, members of the AMHRC (Jason Kambovski, Sasha Nachkovski, Vasko Nastevski, Dr. Chris Popov, John Tsiglev and George Vlahov) informed attendees of their current and ongoing activities. These, among others, include lobbying of the Australian government and involvement in legal action on behalf of Macedonian refugees from the Greek Civil War (Detsa Begaltsi).

Busy at the AMHRC conference
It is worth noting that the AMHRC has accepted the task of organising Australian-Macedonian participation in the class action being prepared against Greece. The talks were quite rapid and internet messages even came in at this point from the AMHRC’s International Co-ordinator in Skopje, David Vitkov and also from MHRMI president, Bill Nicholov; the world really seemed to shrink for a transient moment and it set off some staccato typing from the AMHRC’s Media Liason Officer, Lyubitsa Durlovska...a pause was needed.

After a tea break, a constructive open forum discussion ensued. A key point was reached when it was accurately pointed out by Igor Alexandrov, that although Vinozhito and OMO “Ilinden” PIRIN are technically political parties; support provided for their activities cannot be considered an act of partisan party politics, for the fundamental basis of their activity involves a struggle for basic human rights, rights that in the West, are regarded as essential and are protected by international law. This was no surprise, as Igor represents a body that has been generously supporting OMO “Ilinden” PIRIN’s newspaper, Narodna Volya. It was after this that the community organisations from Melbourne, Sydenham, Sydney and Perth made out substantial contributions to the AMHRC’s Macedonian Minorities Support Fund. Promises of similar contributions were also made

Igor Alexandrov and Igor Pavlovski
at the AMHRC conference
by the representatives from Adelaide. Lastly, it must be noted that Igor Pavlovski and Lou Stankovski, made considerable contributions to the Minorities’ Fund and all of this kept the AMHRC’s financial managers, Tase Filipov and Michael Kochev, quite, but happily, busy.

The AMHRC would like here to once more take this opportunity to thank the visiting interstate delegates, who travelled from as far as Sydney, Adelaide and Perth to attend. The positive contributions made by all attendees ensured that the conference was a great success, with many important issues discussed and strategies formulated for the effective advocacy of Macedonian human rights in Australia and abroad.

Yote Kyandovski and Natse
Parisis at the AMHRC conference
The following evening, Saturday 28th. March, the AMHRC held its annual dinner function at Neret Receptions in Melbourne. This event was important for two reasons. Primarily, it gave the visiting activists an opportunity to engage with the wider Macedonian community. Secondly, the function celebrated the 25th Anniversary of the formation of the AMHRC. More than 400 Macedonians (the event was a sell-out) were in attendance to hear the visiting activists talk about the human rights struggles of the Macedonian minorities in Greece and Bulgaria. The activists were very well received by the appreciative audience. Indeed, the visitors were ‘swamped’ like rock stars – at one point Natse had to be ‘rescued’, as he found it impossible to make his way back to his chair...

Dimitri Ioannou and Natse Parisis
on stage at the AMHRC dinner
The function demonstrated that, 25 years after the formation of the AMHRC, the wider Macedonian community is still very supportive of it and the important work it undertakes on behalf of Macedonian minorities. The AMHRC demonstrated its appreciation for this support in speeches delivered by Vasko Nastevski and George Vlahov. They also emphasised the internationally co-operative nature of the AMHRC’s work, as it is carried out, hand in hand with MHRMI.

Apart from a special Macedonian dance, ordered by some members for the AMHRC and the visitors, the highlight of the evening was the auctioning of the EFA flag – skilfully conducted by Jason Kambovski. There were gasps as Lazo Genis ensured his ownership of the prized symbol, with a bid of $2,500.

On the following Sunday the AMHRC held a public meeting at the Preston (an inner-northern Melbourne suburb) Makedonia Social Club. Again, this was a well attended meeting and was a further opportunity for the activists to engage in a more intimate manner, with the wider Macedonian community.

A significant point that was made by Stoyko, Dimitri and Natse at various times on the day, was that as citizens of, and taxpayers in Bulgaria and Greece, there is no question of seeking rights from the Republic of Macedonia – this responsibility belongs rather to Bulgaria and Greece. An important matter that needed clarification, as some members of the community still find it difficult to separate the ethno-cultural, from the politico-legal, citizenship realm.

George Vlahov on stage
at the AMHRC dinner
The meeting wound up with an appeal for new members to join the AMHRC’s Minorities fund and we apologise if this success story is starting to bore our readers, but the fact is, this appeal met with a more than decent response - Gotse Stefanovski’s and Dr. Suzanna Kotevski’s sizeable contributions, need special mention here.

Monday 30th. March, was a day allocated for media interviews – not all of which took place. Greek radio programs declined to accept the opportunity, as did “Neos Kosmos” (New World – the major Greek-Australian newspaper, with a very large circulation). However, sitting with Natse and Dimitri, early on Monday morning at an inner-city Melbourne cafe, we noticed a gentleman a few tables away, reading the Neos Kosmos. ‘Hawkeye’ Parisis quickly spotted that Vino’s visit had made the front page! A copy was quickly purchased and to the surprise of all, it was found that the account was factual...it even quoted accurately from the recent U.N. Report that recommended that Greece give up on trying to argue that there is no such thing as an ethnic Macedonian minority in Greece.

Jason Kambovski, Dimitri Ioannou, Lazo Genis
(successfully out bid all opposition and obtained
the EFA flag), Natse Parisis, Stoyko Stoykov
Later, Stoyko was interviewed by the Bulgarian program on SBS radio (the major state sponsored, Australia wide multicultural radio station). Upon being told by the interviewer that Bulgaria was a model democracy, Stoyko responded by concisely re-counting facts to do with the unlawful de-registration of OMO “Ilinden” PIRIN and these, beyond leaving the interviewer in obvious shock, drove her to change tack and begin asking Stoyko about Melbourne’s landscape...

In the afternoon, unfortunately some mainstream journalists pleaded unforseen emergencies and as our visitors were due to leave the next day, time could not be found for re-scheduling. None-the-less, the day ended on a positive note, with an interview between our visitors and Margarita Vasileva and Violetta Yovanovska, hosts of the Macedonian program on SBS radio. As usual, these women came prepared and the final result was a nuanced affair that brought the best out of our guests.

Tuesday 31st. March, D-day; departure. We won’t partake of sentimentality, at the airport, there were some hugs and it was thanks and goodbye.

The AMHRC would like to take this opportunity to thank all those involved in making these events such a success. The large numbers of people attending these events and the general community involvement is representative of the ongoing concern Macedonians in Australia have for the human rights of ethnic Macedonians in Greece and Bulgaria. It is also indicative of the continuing support the AMHRC has from the Macedonian community for its human rights advocacy work, and recognition that the support (financial and technical) the AMHRC gives to Macedonian minority representatives such as Vinozhito and OMO “Ilinden” PIRIN, is essential to ensuring the effectiveness of these organisations.

To be clear, the AMHRC, along with its counterpart organisation in Canada, MHRMI (Macedonian Human Rights Movement International), provide regular and substantial aid to Vinozhito and OMO “Ilinden” PIRIN. As was acknowledged by the visiting activists, without this support, it is likely that neither group would be able to undertake its important work on behalf of the Macedonian minorities in Greece and Bulgaria. It is important that the Macedonian communities in both Australia and Canada recognise this fact by providing ongoing support to both the AMHRC and MHRMI.

Vasko Nastevski on stage at the
AMHRC dinner

* * *
Founded in 1984, the Australian Macedonian Human Rights Committee (AMHRC) has been working towards achieving human rights for Macedonians and other oppressed minorities. For more information, please visit www.macedonianhr.org.au , or contact AMHRC at +61 3 9460 2910, or mail@macedonianhr.org.au .

Macedonian Human Rights Movement International (MHRMI) has been active on human and national rights issues for Macedonians and other oppressed peoples since 1986. For more information, please visit www.mhrmi.org , or contact MHRMI at 416-850-7125, or info@mhrmi.org .

Founded in 1995, EFA-Rainbow is the political party of the Macedonian minority in Greece and is a member of the European Free Alliance and the Federal Union of European Nationalities. For more information, please visit www.florina.org , or contact EFA-Rainbow at 0030 23850 46548, or rainbow@florina.org .

Founded in 1999, OMO “Ilinden” PIRIN is the political party of the Macedonian minority in Bulgaria and is a member of the European Free Alliance. For more information, please visit www.omoilindenpirin.org.

Educative and Cultural Movement of Voden

2009-03-31T04:19:00.000-07:00

It is with great honor that I announce the formation of a new Non Governmental Organization (NGO), the “Educative and Cultural Movement of Edessa”. The association was officially registered in Voden, Aegean Macedonia, on February 11, 2009 and is a non-profit association. The statute consists of five individuals who are dedicated to promoting the needs of Education and Cultural activities in Aegean Macedonia.

The objectives and activities are two fold, the first objective is teach the Macedonian Language and History. The association is pleased to announce that starting this summer (for two months) classes will be available in Voden and the surrounding Villages. For the first time local Macedonians will have an opportunity to read and write in their Macedonian mother tongue. Further plans are in the works to expand the classes to the Lerin and Kostur regions.

The second objective is to promote Cultural and Traditional activities throughout Aegean Macedonia and develop relations with the people in the Republic of Macedonia and the Macedonian minorities that live in many Balkan States and the Diaspora. The association will use every opportunity to promote our rich and vibrant Macedonian Culture through music, songs and dance.

Lastly, and I wish to make this clear, this new NGO has no political affiliation or motive with any other political organization in Aegean Macedonia or any political organization in the Diaspora.

Best wishes,

Jim Daikos

MHRMI Condemns Attack on Minority Activist in Greece During Live Broadcast

2009-03-04T07:52:00.001-08:00

SEEMO Toronto, Canada - MHRMI joins the South East Europe Media Organization (SEEMO) appeal denouncing the attack on Turkish minority rights activist, Abdulhalim Dede, during a live television broadcast on February 19, 2009.

Greece vigorously denies the existence of any ethnic minorities on its territory and attempts to suppress any voices that advocate human rights. Simply raising the issue of minority rights, and specifically the Macedonian minority, in Greece causes Greek citizens and politicians alike to react in outrage.

Greece's state-sponsored racism includes Greek politicians publicly calling for the death of Macedonian minority party EFA-Rainbow members, the Greek army entering an ethnic Macedonian village and arresting several inhabitants, and possible treason charges against Greek Helsinki Monitor spokesperson Panayote Dimitras for advocating minority rights.

MHRMI calls on the international community, and specifically the European Union, to finally hold Greece accountable for its persecution of its ethnic minorities and force Greece to abide by all European Court of Human Rights judgements against it.

###

Macedonian Human Rights Movement International (MHRMI) has been active on human and national rights issues for Macedonians and other oppressed peoples since 1986. For more information, please visit www.mhrmi.org, or contact MHRMI at 416-850-7125, or info@mhrmi.org.

UMD Strongly Condemns Sofia Mayor Borisov’s Plans to “Buy” Macedonia

2009-02-09T23:56:00.000-08:00

WASHINGTON, D.C. - February 6, 2009 - The United Macedonian Diaspora (UMD) categorically condemns Sofia mayor Boyko Borisov’s recent statements in Chicago advocating an effective “buyout” of Macedonia by Bulgarians to ensure “friendly relations” between the two states. “Such a statement by a leading politician of an EU and NATO member is deeply troubling and reveals a fundamental ignorance of the principles on which both organizations were founded,” stated UMD President, Metodija A. Koloski. Plans to effect a “buyout” of Macedonia by Bulgarians violate one of the EU’s most important principles, “promoting respect for the principles of independence, sovereignty, territorial integrity and the inviolability of borders.” They are tantamount to economic extortion, not unlike the 1995 embargo that Greece imposed on Macedonia to create a “friendly atmosphere” among Macedonians.

UMD regards Mr. Borisov’s reasoning that Bulgaria, through economic and political isolation, will foster “friendly relations” with Macedonians as laughable on its face, if not dangerously mischievous. Although the UMD deplores Mr. Borisov’s remarks, the United Macedonian Diaspora promotes and encourages friendly, positive and mutually productive relations between the Republic of Bulgaria and the Republic of Macedonia.

UMD believes that Mr. Borisov’s stated goal of friendly ties would best be achieved not through economic extortion and enforced “bulgarianization” of Macedonia’s economy, but rather through the prompt registration of OMO-Ilinden PIRIN (Political Party of the Macedonian Minority in Bulgaria) as a legitimate political party representing ethnic Macedonians in Bulgaria. “Rather than resort to economic extortion, the Republic of Bulgaria would be well advised to recognize the sizable Macedonian minority in Bulgaria. And rather than ignore the very founding principles of NATO and the EU, the Republic of Bulgaria might even wish to issue a formal apology for the deportation of nearly 9,000 Macedonian Jews to Hitler’s death camps,” added Koloski.

As a final gesture of genuine friendship toward Macedonian citizens, the United Macedonian Diaspora would urge the Republic of Bulgaria to consider ending its support of subversive elements within Macedonian civil society that seek to deny the existence of a unique, separate and distinct Macedonian ethnicity, language and nation.

Bakoyannis the whore may visit Macedonia

2009-02-06T21:48:00.000-08:00

Greek Foreign Minister Dora Bakoyannis did not rule out the possibility of paying a visit to Macedonia during 2009 as part of her tour to all 19 of OSCE missions.

OSCE is chaired by Greece this year.

Bakoyannis urged the Macedonian Government to carry out free and fair elections, and to use Greece as an example, (where they have been shooting up cities for the past three months, causing in excess of 3 billion euros worth of damage).

The Greek FM noted that Macedonia's elections would be monitored by a delegation of the OSCE Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights (ODIHR) and by the OSCE parliamentary assembly.

She appealed again to the Macedonia's government to "abandon the nationalist rhetoric of yesterday", as this is usually reserved for Greece.

Mentally challenged individual manipulated by Greeks

2009-02-03T20:39:00.000-08:00

Thanks to the very active Greek lobby in reference to Macedonia even Brussels learned the false story for the so-called arrest of Macedonian blogger who is spreading pro-Greek propaganda on the internet and with flayers in Skopje, Macedonian Nova Macedonia newspaper informs.
The edition informs the arrested blogger is mentally ill and taken to the local psychiatric hospital not in Skopje’s prison as Geek media informs.
Nova Macedonia published statement of blogger’s mother who says her son was treated actively in the psychiatric hospital, because he is sick.

Грција со лажна приказна ја обвини Македонија за иредентизам
(Greece acccuses Macedonia of irredentism with false stories)

Автор: Ивана Костовска

Благодарение на хиперактивното грчко лоби кога станува збор за Македонија, дури до Брисел стигна лажната приказна за наводното апсење на македонскиот блогер што шири прогрчка пропаганда на Интернет и лепи пропагандни летоци по Скопје. Откако грчки пратеник од ПАСОК ја обвини Македонија за екстремен национализам зашто наводно македонската полиција уапсила блогер што имал прогрчки ставови, деновиве и грчката Панмакедонска организација од САД со писмо до Брисел побара „Македонија да го ослободи членот на Словенската филхеленска мрежа и да престане со опасното иредентистичко однесување кон своите соседи“.

„Нова Македонија“ откри дека нема вистина во приказната што Грција ја донесе и во Европската Унија во обид да ја обвини Македонија за иредентизам кон соседните држави.

Уапсениот блогер всушност е душевно болно лице што било однесено на лекување во психијатриската болница „Бардовци“, а не во скопски затвор, како што пишуваа грчките медиуми.

Неговата мајка вчера беше вџашена од информациите што ги пласира Грција дека нејзиниот син наводно е уапсен од полицијата поради прогрчка пропаганда.

- Со асистенција на полицијата мојот син минатата недела беше однесен на присилно лекување во психијатриска болница зашто е болен. Првпат слушам дека некој во Грција реагирал дека е уапсен од полицијата поради прогрчки ставови. Можеби пишувал нешто на Интернет со цел да го спречи лекувањето - објаснува таа.

И од „Бардовци“ потврдуваат дека минатата седмица на лекување било донесено лице со таков идентитет. Соседите на блогерот објаснуваат дека полицијата пред две години интервенирала поради неговото проблематично однесување предизвикано од болеста.

Информацијата за наводното апсење прв на Интернет ја објави самиот блогер, кој напишал дека полицијата наводно го претресува неговиот стан и се подготвува да му стави лисици. На популарниот интернет-форум „Фејсбук“ се собира поддршка за негово ослободување. МВР во петокот демантираше дека полицијата уапсила блогер што шири пропаганда во корист на нашиот јужен сосед.

Грчката Панмакедонска асоцијација од САД деновиве ги информираше европратениците во Брисел дека „полицијата влегла во станот и најверојатно го уапсила членот на Словенската филхеленска мрежа поради неговата посветеност на подобрување на словенско-грчкото пријателство и силните критики на псевдомакедонизмот“. Во потрага по блогерот се впуштија и грчките пратеници, убедени дека македонската полиција го уапсила поради прогрчките ставови. Дури и пратеникот на опозицискиот ПАСОК Маркос Боларис обвинувајќи ја Македонија за екстремен национализам преку пратеничко прашање побара од Дора Бакојани, шефицата на грчката дипломатија, да дознае зошто е уапсен блогерот.

Овој пред две години на нотар заверил изјава дека е убеден во вистинитоста на тврдењето дека „државата што е создадена од Македонците и припаѓа на грчката политичка историја, а тие самите кон грчкиот народ и кон етничкото подрачје (Хелада) Грција. Од 2 век п.н.е. до 6 век н.е., кога почнуваат словенските населувања на Балканот, Македонците остануваат Грци што зборуваат грчки јазик“. Ваквите ставови тој ги објавува и на сајтот на Словенската филхеленска мрежа, а неодамна низ Скопје осамнаа прогрчки пропагандни летоци на кои беше потпишана оваа организација.

Идентитет

Васко Малиновски, Васил Глигоров, Васко Глигоријевиќ, Васко Глигоров, Васил Глигориевиќ... се имињата под кои блогерот веќе неколку месеци води активна антимакедонска кампања на Интернет. Поради тоа минатата недела беше тешко да се одреди неговиот вистински идентитет и место на живеење. Овој човек на Интернет се претставува како истражувач на историјата и на етнолошкиот идентитет на македонското население. Блогерот објави на Интернет дека македонската полиција го претресува неговиот стан и дека се подготвува да го уапси. Неговата мајка изјави дека полицијата асистирала при неговото носење на лечење во психијатриската болница во Скопје „Бардовци“. На популарниот интернет-форум „Фејсбук“ неговите грчки пријатели веќе собираат потписи за поддршка под мотото „Слобода на Глигориевиќ во ФИРОМ“. Пратеник на ПАСОК побара од Бакојани да дознае зошто е уапсен Глигоров или Глигориевиќ и рече дека „екстремниот национализам во Скопје не толерира еден активен граѓанин што настапува со аргументи против националистичкиот делириум на господинот Груевски“.

http://www.novamakedonija.com.mk/DesktopDefault.aspx?tabindex=0&tabid=2&fCat=1&EditionID=306&top=1&ArticleID=17062

His mother was shocked by the claims placated by Greece that her son was arrested by the police due to his pro-Greek position.

"With the assistance of the police, my son was taken to the psychiatric hospital for treatment because he is ill. For the first time I am hearing news that someone in Greece claimed that he is arrested due to his pro-Greek position. Maybe he wrote something on the internet to stop his treatment"- said his mother.

From the Bardovci psychiatric hospital we have confirmation that this individual was received for treatment. The neighbours of this blogger explain that the police intervened two years ago due to his problematic behavior caused by the illness.

I am Macedonian- period!

2009-02-02T22:39:00.000-08:00

Risto Stefov

How is it possible in the 21st century for someone else to decide who I am, or who I am not? Does the "universal human right to self determination" as declared by the United Nations not apply to me? Am I excluded from this declaration?

How does one become what or who he or she is? Is it the government that decides? The priest, the church, the United Nations…? Who has the power to decide ethnically and nationally who I am, what language I can speak, what songs I can sing, what dances I can dance,…. And if anyone has that right who has given it to him or her?

My mother was Macedonian, my grandmothers were Macedonian, and my great grandmothers were Macedonian as were their parents; they told me so themselves! So what am I now CHINESE? Not that I want to be one but even if I wanted to I cannot be anything but Macedonian because all my ancestors were Macedonian!

In the beginning of the 20th century my ancestors struggled to free themselves and Macedonia from the grip of the Ottoman occupiers as did the other nations in the Balkans. After five centuries of occupation it was time for freedom; time for the Ottomans to leave. The spirit of freedom was felt everywhere and blood was spilled to achieve it. Unfortunately freedom to the Macedonians did not come easily in spite of their effort. Not to Macedonia and not to my ancestors! One tyrant was replaced by three and instead of gaining its freedom Macedonia was again occupied and divided. Worse than before, in addition to losing their homeland, Macedonians now lost their identity and forcibly were made into Serbs, Bulgarians and Greeks.

The struggle for the Macedonian name, identity and language became and 100 years later is still a burden to all Macedonians and a shame for Greece, Bulgaria, the EU and the United Nations who still insist on their non-existence.

My ancestors fought hard for their identity, nation and country Macedonia but obviously not hard enough because they did not understand the power of politics and were naïve enough to trust their "neighbors" to have their best interest in their hearts when hundreds of thousands of them joined in the fight against the Ottomans to first free "their neighbors" and then their own homeland Macedonia. Macedonians believed in a United Macedonia and a Macedonia for Macedonians. The neighbors however had different ideas. The Greeks, Serbs and Bulgarians fought against one another for a larger "land grab" of Macedonia, each claiming that Macedonia and Macedonians belong to them, only to settle for its division in 1913.

Historian JS Gandeto writes:

"Nineteenth century Greeks did not regard the Macedonians as people of the same ethnicity (Politis 1993:36; Dimaras 1958; Karagatsis, 1952). (1) Greeks in the late eighteen and early nineteenth century viewed the Macedonians as conquerors of Greece. Only after the "Megali Idea" took root in Greece did the Greeks embark on providing and securing 'evidence' for their new political vision…"

The Great Powers of the time particularly England, France and Russia decided to condone Macedonia´s division in accordance with their interests instead of relying on justice, democratic principles, or human rights. It was easy for them to offer the new Balkan states something that did not belong to them, instead of standing up for justice, decency, human rights and democracy. This is the "shame" of Europe. Europeans made a great mistake in the 20th century and Europeans must fix it now.

Serbia, to its credit, begrudgingly but none the less gave back "its" 1913 portion of the spoils to the Macedonians to whom it belongs. Bulgarians and Greeks are still holding on to more than 2/3 of Macedonia. All three committed "ethnocide "and, yes, GENOCIDE since they acquired Macedonian territories in 1913 but Greece and Bulgaria continue to do so to this day! Yes, even today Macedonians in Greece and Bulgaria are forbidden to use their language, sing their songs and freely express their ethnic identity even though both countries are members of the European Union! Both Greece and Bulgaria accuse Macedonians of stealing Greek and/or Bulgarian history, as both will do all they can in their power to exterminate the Macedonian name, language and history. Both claim that: "there is no such thing as a Macedonian nation, language, customs or history".

What about me, my ancestors, my mother, grandmothers, great grandmothers and millions of other Macedonians worldwide? What are we? Are we a mass of unidentified humans? A new species that just appeared on this planet out of nowhere!? What about all the songs that glorify Macedonia, Alexander, his father Philip II, Tsar Samoil, Gotse Delchev, Jane Sandanski, …. In fact there are thousands of folk songs mentioning Macedonia and the struggle for freedom from the Roman Empire, the Ottoman occupation, Macedonia´s division of 1913, the Second World War, etc, which are neither of Greek or of Bulgarian creation. Macedonia is not even mentioned, let alone glorified by Greece and Bulgaria. If Macedonia was Greek or Bulgarian why did both consent to splitting it into three pieces in 1913? Why split what is yours!! Only Macedonians were against splitting Macedonia and only the Macedonians want it put back together. I don´t hear any Greeks or Bulgarians wanting something back that they lost in 1913. They never lost anything because one cannot lose something if one never had it.

Both Greece and Bulgaria since 1913 have changed the names of people and places to wipe out everything Macedonian. Greeks even went so far as to change the names of the dead by inscribing Greek names on the gravestones of the deceased and long gone Macedonians. This is the SHAME of Europe!

If this historical injustice is not righted and if Macedonians are not given rights as other nations enjoy, there will never be true peace in the Balkans or in Europe!

Modern Greece and the Macedonian Heritage – Part 5 - Why did the Europeans need a Greece?

2009-02-01T21:56:00.000-08:00

By Risto Stefov

rstefov@hotmanil.com

February 1st, 2009

In the first four parts of this series we established that the people living in the southern region of today’s Greece in the early 19th century were predominantly Albanian, Vlach and Slav immigrants who had settled there over the centuries to replace the population void created by the disappearance of the so-called “Ancient Greeks”. Given the fact that this new population was predominantly not Greek, 18th century authorities decided to label it Greek anyway in an effort to connect it with a culture that once existed on those lands a long time ago. In this part we will explain why there was such a need to create a Greece and how it benefited Europe.

It is not my intention here to delve into the various details or the rational involved in creating a Greece so I will present the reader with only a general overview to show why 18th and 19th century Europeans needed a Greece and how they proceeded in creating one.

The reader must keep in mind that when 18th and 19th century authorities were contemplating the creation of Modern Greece and writing its history there were several overriding criteria that needed to be addressed. These were:

1. The belief that God created the world and that the world was no more than 5,000 years old.

2. The human race had descended from Noah’s Ark which was believed to have landed in the Caucasus after the great flood.

3. History began at the point when the world was created by God. No history was acceptable before that.

4. The history of a nation had to be based more or less on a “national myth” designed to support the “nation”, its people and particularly its rulers.

5. The writing of a nation’s history was usually sponsored by those in authority who during the 18th century were predominantly monarchs.

So, as one can see, the history of a nation or of the world for that matter had to be written to fit the above criteria as well as to suit the desires and approvals of its sponsors.

In order to understand why Europeans chose “Ancient Greece” after which to model their own culture, we need to examine Europe’s late 18th and early 19th century political, cultural and economic situation.

The first and foremost reason for Europeans choosing “Ancient Greece” as their model to build on is because Ancient Greece was part of Europe. It was important for Europeans to show that the most “enlightened” civilization in the world originated in Europe.

Europeans at the time were involved in all sorts of ventures including the occupation and colonization of various regions of Africa, Asia, Australia and America. They were also involved in enslaving people from Africa and Asia in order to obtain free labour for building their cities and transportation routes, operating their farms, serving as domestics, etc. All these “doings” had to be justified as “moral” and appropriate not only to the world but also to the European masses which supported the political systems and those in power.

One way to justify them was to show examples of other civilizations doing exactly that; that it was okay to take other peoples’ lands and enslave them for the benefit of this new European civilization. In order to convince the world, particularly their own people, the Europeans needed a practicing example which they found in the “Ancient Greeks”.

Europeans also needed precedence to show that they were not the first to condone imperialism and slavery and at the same time maintain the image that they were civilized. It was one thing to say that a “Greek” civilization existed 2,500 years ago in a savage world full of Barbarians however it would have been more convincing if such a civilization existed today, in this world.

As mentioned in a previous article, certain Europeans, later referred to as Philhellenes, convinced that such a civilization could be re-created, decided to instigate an uprising against the Ottoman Empire. Believing that if the Greeks of today could be freed from the Ottoman yoke they would be politically and culturally capable of quickly progressing to the level of the so-called “Civilized Ancient Greeks” of some 2,500 years ago.

Be it by chance or by design, once the Western European Public found out about the merits of this so-called “Ancient Greek Civilization” it began to look up to it and accept it not only as a source of enlightenment but as a guiding light for Europe’s future.

As it happened, the first step in re-creating this old civilization was to popularize it abroad among intellectuals and academics, especially in Britain and France.

With the publication of the Childe Harold’s Pilgrimage and Lord Byron’s work, the British and French audience was quick to catch on and became very open to the idea of “bringing back the Ancient Greeks”.

Once popularized, a movement started forming giving the “idea of re-creating Ancient Greece” life and impetus and later moral, financial and military support. The movement caught on much easier and faster in Western European countries than it did inside the Ottoman Occupied Greek Regions but with persistence from the Great Powers and British gold, Hellenism was reborn.

Once the European public was in support of such a venture, it was time to convince the people living on the lands where once the so-called “Ancient Greeks” lived. Unfortunately, convincing the “locals” became a harder task than convincing the European public but in the long run persistence paid off and today we have pure Greeks, descendants of the Ancient Greeks.

The primary reasons why Europe wanted a Greece can be summarized as follows;

1. Europeans needed to justify the use of slavery as a moral deed for the greater good of a superior and moral Modern European civilization. Because of its intellectual capacity, the so-called “Ancient Greek Civilization” was considered both superior and moral which not only condoned slavery but practiced it. As I have shown in previous parts of this series of articles, more than half of Ancient Athens was populated by slaves who served the ruling elite.

2. Europeans needed precedence to justify their acts of colonization and imperial land grabs and found it in the so-called Ancient Greeks, particularly in the imperial ventures of Ancient Athens.

3. Besides 1 and 2 above, Europeans needed a “model” on which to build their own civilization and to show that European “knowledge” and “culture” were genuinely European and not imported from any of the “other” lands from which slaves were imported. They found this “model” in Ancient Greece and took from it what they deemed appropriate and discarded the rest.

In other words, late 18th and early 19th century Europeans found in Ancient Greece a civilized people with a superior culture and intellect which at the same time practiced slavery, fought for booty and colonized other peoples’ lands; a behaviour worthy of emulation.

What is most interesting, little known and needs emphasis is the fact that the so-called “Greek Uprising of 1821” was not at all a “Greek Uprising” but an uprising instigated by non-Greek Europeans outside of Greece. Also, another little known fact is that this uprising was mostly financed by Great Britain and fought with the help of Western European volunteers.

The aim of this venture was not just to free the people from the Ottoman yoke but to turn them into something they were not. And thus the curse of Hellenism was born.

Hellenism may have been viewed as “something wonderful” by outsiders who yearned to see the “Ancient Greek Civilization” re-born but it was a nightmare for the people directly involved who were asked to give up their true identities for something alien, foreign and long dead; to which they never belonged. Ninety-two years later, the Macedonians of Greek occupied Macedonia were asked to do the same; become Hellenes, something foreign and alien. One-hundred and seventy years later we are re-living the curse of Hellenism as the Republic of Macedonia is attempting to assert its identity.

In the book “Entangled Identities Nations and Europe” edited by Atsuko Ichijo and Willfried Spohn on page 109 we read “It should be strongly emphasized, however, that this new image of classical Greece was constructed in Europe and was imported to the new born Greek state (Tsoukalas 2002). Modern ideas touched the general Greek population only marginally, if at all.”

After the Greek state was created for the first time in 1829 it was incapable of governing itself and was placed under foreign rule and a foreign administration. On page 110 of the book “Entangled Identities Nations and Europe” we read “Greece was governed by an imported young monarch, Prince Frederic Otto of Wittlesbach, the seventeen year old son of King Ludwig of Bavaria.”

“The three men regency council which in fact was to rule [Greece] was also Bavarian and protestant. What came to be called ‘the protecting powers’ exercised such an influence on the newly-born state that the first political parties were named appropriately ‘the English party’, ‘the French party’ and ‘the Russian party’. Supporters of these parties represented nascent class structures in Greek society but above all these parties represented corresponding foreign influences and interests.”

As we continue to read the book “Entangled Identities Nations and Europe” on page 111 we find “The political parties which existed, as we mentioned earlier, reflected the interests and the antagonisms of foreign powers.”

“In reality, however, this utopian, irredentist idea [which the Greeks developed on their own] served as a smoke screen for corruption and severe socio-economic problems faced by the government and as an excuse for the even greater blatant intervention of the Great Powers in Greek affairs. (Clogg 1979: 76-79)”

In the book “The Greek Phoenix” by Joseph Braddock on page 137 we read “Colonel Napier was seeing a lot of his celebrated guest, and paid him every attention, realizing that Byron, as a representative of the London Greek committee, might have considerable influence both in Greece and London in helping him obtain military command. So it was arranged that Napier should be given leave to go to London, furnished with a letter of introduction from Byron to the London Greek committee. He arrived in January 1824, carrying a letter written on the 10th of December 1823 in which Byron advised that a loan of 500,000 pounds should be raised to provide an army for Greece to be commanded by Napier. ‘Of his military character it was superfluous to speak; of his personal, I can say from my own knowledge’ Byron wrote ‘that it is excellent as his military -in short a better or a braver man is not easy to be found. He is our man to lead a regular force or to organize a national one for the Greeks. Ask the army; ask anybody! He is, besides, the personal friend of Mavrocordato, Colonel Stanhope and myself; and in such concord with all three that we should pull together, an indispensable as well as rare point, especially in Greece at present.’

Alas, the London committee was too preoccupied to welcome Napier’s services. At the moment they were busy devising acrimoniously the menu for their next public dinner, and were more interested in making plans for the cultural regeneration of Greece than in hearing about Napier’s military virtues.”

In the “Encyclopedia of Ancient Greece” edited by Nigel Wilson, which so many Modern Greeks encouraged me to read so that I can “educate” myself on page 345 we read “Hellenization denotes the spread of Hellenic culture in non-Greek ‘barbarian’ society and the process under which ‘barbarians’ accept, adopt, and incorporate Hellenic culture.”

“The first modern appearance of the concept of Hellenism and Hellenization occurs in Geschchite des Hellenismus, G. Droysen’s great three volume work published between 1833 and 1843”

Hellenism, whatever purpose it was intended to serve should have died a long time ago along with Fascism, Nazism and slavery but unfortunately it has not. Instead, nurtured by the Powers that created it, it has flourished and swallowed and destroyed nations of people including part of my own; the Macedonians in Greek occupied Macedonia who to this day are struggling to get free.

What is this phenomenon called “Hellenism”? Whatever it is, it has different interpretations to different people but as Macedonians that have been touched by it, while refusing to yield to it, for us it has been a nightmare. Greece, after invading, occupying and annexing 51% of the Macedonian territories in 1912, 1913, in the name of Hellenism tortured, murdered and expelled all Macedonians who refused to become “Hellenes”. It then changed all peoples’ and place names to “Hellenize” them and make them Greek. If that was not enough, Greece then abolished the Macedonian language rendering it illegal to be spoken both in public and private, all this in the name of “Hellenism”. In other words, Hellenism for the Macedonians has been a relentless enemy whose aim has been to destroy what is real and replace it with something artificial which has no roots or a real past.

For those who are still not convinced that the Modern Greek identity is an artificial creation, please continue to read this series of articles.

Author’s note:

Dear Macedonians, one way to defend ourselves from the Greek onslaught and gain back our identity and dignity is to fight back to the level to which the Greeks have reduced us; that is to attack their identity as they have attacked ours. We need prove nothing to them except to expose them as the artificial identity they truly are and to uncover their design to wipe us out in order to usurp our Macedonian heritage.

To be Continued.

Many thanks to TrueMacedonian from www.maknews.com for his contribution to this article.

Συμβαίνουν γύρω μας

2009-01-30T19:55:00.000-08:00

Του Γιώργου Ν. Παπαδάκη

Καθώς οι γραμμές αυτές γράφονται γιορτινές μέρες, είχα αρχικά σκοπό να αναφερθώ σε κάτι πιο ήπιο, πιο ευχάριστο, πιο «εορταστικό» αν θέλετε…

Μετά από την Δεκεμβριανή μαυρίλα στην Ελλάδα, νομίζω ότι είχαμε όλοι ανάγκη να πιστέψουμε ότι δεν είναι όλα τόσο σκοτεινά γύρω μας.

Δυστυχώς, και να θέλει κάποιος να «αγιάσει», που λέει ο λόγος, δεν τον αφήνουν τα γεγονότα. Είμαι σίγουρος ότι στα ελληνικά ΜΜΕ πέρασε στα πολύ ψιλά γράμματα (αν εμφανίστηκε και πουθενά) η είδηση ότι το 6ο κανάλι της κρατικής τουρκικής τηλεόρασης TRT θα εκπέμπει από την 1η Ιανουαρίου πρόγραμμα ΑΠΟΚΛΕΙΣΤΙΚΆ στην κουρδική γλώσσα.

Σε ποια γλώσσα είπατε; Στην κουρδική; Η κρατική τουρκική τηλεόραση; Μα οι Τούρκοι δεν ήταν αυτοί που μέχρι πριν λίγο καιρό έλεγαν επίσημα σε όλα τα διεθνή fora ότι δεν υπάρχουν Κούρδοι αλλά μόνο «ορεσίβιοι Τούρκοι»;

Η απάντηση σε όλα αυτά τα ερωτήματα είναι καταφατική. Όμως οι καιροί αλλάζουν, και μάλιστα τόσο γρήγορα που ενίοτε νιώθουμε ότι δεν προλαβαίνουμε καν να παρακολουθήσουμε τις εξελίξεις. Μέσα σε ελάχιστο χρόνο, η κουρδική γλώσσα της ανυπαρξίας, της ολικής απαγόρευσης και της καταστολής μπήκε στα σπίτια των Τούρκων- Κούρδων και μη- αρχικά μέσω της μουσικής και στη συνέχεια μέσω της δορυφορικής τηλεόρασης. Το Roj TV είναι ένα δορυφορικό κανάλι ελεύθερης λήψης με έδρα τη Δανία που εκπέμπει όχι σε μια αλλά σε 4(!) διαλέκτους της «ανύπαρκτης» κουρδικής, καθώς και στα τουρκικά, τα περσικά, τα αγγλικά και τα αραβικά.

Η τρομακτική του απήχηση στους Κούρδους της Τουρκίας και όχι μόνο, «ανάγκασε» ουσιαστικά την TRT να αντιδράσει. Δειλά –δειλά, πριν 3,5 χρόνια εμφανίστηκαν τα πρώτα προγράμματα στα κουρδικά από την κρατική τηλεόραση για να φτάσουμε σήμερα να υπάρχει ένα ολόκληρο κανάλι αποκλειστικά γι’ αυτά.

Θα μου πείτε- και πιθανόν θα έχετε και δίκιο- ότι αν δεν υπήρχε το Roj TV και η γενικότερη χαλάρωση των απαγορεύσεων αναφορικά με τα κουρδικά από το 2002 και μετά, ίσως να μη βλέπαμε ποτέ αυτό το θέαμα.

Συμφωνώ. Είναι σαφές ότι ένας από τους λόγους που το τουρκικό κράτος αντιδρά φτιάχνοντας ένα κανάλι αποκλειστικά για Κούρδους, είναι και η προπαγάνδα. Ήδη, η συντριπτική πλειοψηφία των προγραμμάτων του καναλιού 6, αναφέρονται στον Ατατούρκ και στον αρχαίο τουρκικό πολιτισμό. Είναι εύλογο αυτό να συνεχιστεί και να εμπλουτιστεί και με νέα στοιχεία, ως «αντίβαρο» στο Roj TV που θεωρείται ότι –ως ένα σημείο- εκφράζει τις αρχές του ΡΚΚ.

Όμως, αυτό δεν είναι το κυρίαρχο θέμα εδώ. Η προσοχή μας θα πρέπει να εστιαστεί στο ότι μια «ανύπαρκτη» γλώσσα σε μια χώρα που παραμένει προβληματική στον τομέα των ανθρώπινων και μειονοτικών δικαιωμάτων, «νομιμοποιείται» με τον πλέον επίσημο τρόπο. Μέσω της κρατικής τηλεόρασης.

Για ελάτε τώρα να αντιπαραβάλουμε την Τουρκία με τη δική μας, «προηγμένη», «ευρωπαϊκή» και κυρίως «δημοκρατική» χώρα. Η οποία, όμως, παραμένει σταθερά ουραγός παρόμοιων εξελίξεων όχι μόνο σε ευρωπαϊκό αλλά και σε περιφερειακό, βαλκανικό επίπεδο. Και το χειρότερο είναι ότι δεν διαφαίνεται καμία διάθεση για αλλαγή στάσης, για προσαρμογή στις νέες συνθήκες. Εμείς έχουμε τη σχεδόν 100ετή συνθήκη της Λοζάννης ως ευαγγέλιο, τι να μας πουν τώρα όλοι αυτοί οι περιττοί νεωτερισμοί…

«Ανύπαρκτες» γλώσσες έχουμε δυστυχώς ή ευτυχώς και στην Ελλάδα. Είναι, νομίζω, σενάριο επιστημονικής φαντασίας ακόμα και το να σκεφτεί κανείς ότι στο ορατό μέλλον θα δούμε στην ΕΡΤ ένα έστω 15λεπτο πρόγραμμα π.χ. στα μακεδονικά.

Αλλά μήπως βλέπουμε πληθώρα προγραμμάτων και στις «υπαρκτές» γλώσσες, όπως τα τουρκικά; Τι αλήθεια γνωρίζει ο μέσος Έλληνας για τις μεγάλες γιορτές και τις θρησκευτικές παραδόσεις των μουσουλμάνων συμπατριωτών του; Ποια είναι η εξοικείωσή του με τις άλλες θρησκείες που υπάρχουν στη χώρα και-υποτίθεται ότι- είναι ισότιμες με την επίσημη; Και τι κάνει η κρατική ελληνική τηλεόραση για να μας φέρει έστω λίγο πιο κοντά στη διαφορετικότητα που ζει δίπλα μας;

Την απάντηση για όλα τα παραπάνω είναι και πάλι πολύ εύκολη και την γνωρίζουμε όλοι. ΤΙΠΟΤΑ.

Επί 52 εβδομάδες, κάθε Κυριακή, «βομβαρδιζόμαστε» τόσο από το 1ο όσο και από το 3ο κανάλι της κρατικής τηλεόρασης με την Ορθόδοξη Θεία Λειτουργία και τα τηλε- κηρύγματα ορισμένων έξαλλων γραφικών που ακολουθούν. Ούτε μια Κυριακή ή άλλη μέρα αφιερωμένη στους Καθολικούς, τους Εβραίους, τους Μουσουλμάνους, το Κουρμπάν Μπαιράμ, το Χάνουκα και τόσα άλλα…

Γιατί άραγε; Αυτοί οι άνθρωποι δεν πληρώνουν όπως όλοι οι Έλληνες κάθε μήνα την ΕΡΤ; Δεν πληρώνουν κανονικά τους φόρους τους;

Ασφαλώς και το κάνουν. Όπως το κάνουν και οι Μακεδονόφωνοι της Έδεσσας, οι Τουρκόφωνοι της Ξάνθης, οι Βλαχόφωνοι των Τρικάλων, οι Αρβανιτόφωνοι της Θήβας, οι Ρομά του Ασπρόπυργου. Και όμως εξακολουθούν να είναι «αόρατοι» και «ανύπαρκτοι» σε μια χώρα που θέλει να λέγεται σύγχρονη ευρωπαϊκή δημοκρατία και η οποία σε όλες τις εκκλήσεις για διάλογο από όλους αυτούς τους ανθρώπους απαντά με δυσφήμιση και δικαστήρια. Ίσως γιατί πλέον μας τελείωσαν τα Μακρονήσια και τα Γιούρα.

Ε, ας μην είμαστε και αχάριστοι, ας μην τα θέλουμε όλα δικά μας. Κι αυτό (η κατάργηση δηλαδή των τόπων εξορίας) είναι μια πρόοδος, διάβολε…

Όλο και κάτι θα αλλάξει προς το καλύτερο τα επόμενα 100 χρόνια. Επειδή όμως εσείς κι εγώ δεν θα είμαστε εδώ για να το δούμε, τουλάχιστον ξέρετε πλέον τι θα απαντάτε στον επόμενο που θα σας πει για την «καθυστερημένη» και «βάρβαρη» Τουρκία. Για την «θρασύτατη» και «προκλητική» Μακεδονία με μια κρατική τηλεόραση που δεν έχει χρήματα για να πληρώσει μισθούς αλλά συνεχίζει να μεταδίδει πρόγραμμα σε 7 γλώσσες, την «υπανάπτυκτη» και «βρώμικη» Αλβανία με τα 4 μειονοτικά τηλεοπτικά προγράμματα και τους άλλους Βαλκάνιους γείτονες που μας κάνουν να κοκκινίζουμε ντροπιασμένοι.

Αν βέβαια θυμόμαστε πια τι είναι ντροπή…

Καλή Χρονιά.

Greece finds cheap real estate for a monument

2009-01-29T20:47:00.000-08:00

Greece will build a monument honoring the Macedonian warrior-king Alexander the Great at an ancient battlefield in southern Iraq.

Foreign Minister Dora Bakoyannis said the agreement was reached at the talks in Athens with Iraqi FM Hoshyar Zebari.

Zebari said the battlefield monument would underline the interaction of civilizations in the region.

Paying an honor to the great conquest "must symbolize the mutual influence between the two peoples," the Greek and the Iraqi ones, Bakoyannis said.

The monument will be built at the locality bearing the ancient name of Gaugamela, situated near the city of Mosul. At the time - 331 B.C. - Iraq was part of the Persian Empire, which stretched throughout most of the Middle East. 25-year-old Alexander won a crushing victory over a Persian army and declared himself Emperor of Asia. //01.27.09 //MINA

Modern Greece and the Macedonian Heritage – Part 4 - Why Greece and not Arvanitovlachia?

2009-01-27T17:17:00.000-08:00

Risto Stefov
January 25, 2009
"This unique nation-state [Greece] would represent the ultimate achievement of the Hellenic ideal and, as such, would lead all Europe to the highest levels of culture yet known." (Michael Herzfeld)

In parts 2 and 3 of this series we established that prior to and during the creation of the Greek state in the early 1800´s the majority of the population living on Greek lands was predominantly immigrant, mostly of Albanian, Vlach and Slav origins, which had settled in Greece to fill the void created by the disappearance of the so-called ancient Greeks. This leads us to the question "Why was this region not called ´Arvanitovlachia´ which would have correctly represented the land´s demography? Why Greece, a Latin name, and not Arvanitovlachia an appropriate name to represent the two distinct ethnic identities which lived on those lands at that time?"

Although a difficult question to answer, in view of the Modern Greeks who have for the last 200 years tried to bury all evidence of their true past, the best response would be to say that ´the people living in Greece at the time of their independence were not given a choice to self identify´. When Greece was first created in the early 1800´s the population was neither asked nor involved in any kind of self-identification. Unlike the Macedonian people who in 1991 participated in a free referendum which enabled them to self identify and gain independence, the people of Greece were not given that choice! In essence the decision to call the newly created state "Greece" solely rested with foreigners and academics who, instead of calling the new state by its true representative demographic, opted for calling it "Greece" so that they could connect it with a world and culture that had died more than 2,000 years before.

In this article we are going to discover the reasons why Greece was named Greece and not Arvanitovlachia or some other name that would have appropriately connected the land with the current people.

We so readily use the word "Ancient Greece" and "Ancient Greeks" to refer to a place and a people in the classical period (about 600 BC to 300 BC) without realizing that the terms "Greece" and "Greeks" are of Latin origin which probably came into use sometime after the 1st century BC and were popularized during the 19th century.

The reason I mention this is because today Greece, without any justification, objects to the Macedonian peoples´ use of the name Macedonia to refer to their country on the grounds that the name "Macedonia", for historic reasons, belongs to the Greeks. To which Greeks does the name "Macedonia" belong? Is it to the so-called Ancient Greeks whose very name is not only of non-Greek origin but given to those people by the Latins after they disappeared from the face of this earth? Or does the name "Macedonia" belong to the Arvanitovlachs, the immigrants who over the centuries came to live on those lands? Or does the name "Macedonia" belong to the modern imposters who go by the name of "Greeks"?

Why Greece and not Arvanitovlachia? To find the answers to this questions we will first look at segments of William St. Clair´s book, "That Greece Might Still Be Free" which appeared in my series of articles called "William St. Clair on 19th century Greece and the Modern Greeks", at;

http://www.americanchronicle.com/articles/view/82531 and http://www.americanchronicle.com/articles/view/82785)

According to St. Clair "To be Greek was to be a drunkard, a lecher, and, especially, a cheat."

But later by the seventeenth century, as more information was uncovered about a people who once lived on those lands, a new picture began to emerge. In time Europeans, without ever having been to Greece, came to believe that the Ancient and Modern Greeks were one and the same. As more information came out, especially after Lord Byron visited Greece in 1809 and 1810, and, on his return, published the first two cantos of Childe Harold´s Pilgrimage, the legend of a place called "Ancient Greece" and a people called "Ancient Greeks" began to grow and spread like wildfire. Besides experiencing Greece for himself, Byron had also read and drew on the many travel books in the works of dozens of earlier writers in prose and in verse which helped him compose some of his best work described as best-sellers. At least twelve editions of his poem were printed between 1812 and 1821 and it was translated into several European languages.

Byron´s work prompted more travelers to visit "Greece" but very few were equipped to make more than superficial observations. That, however, did not stop them from making generalizations and expanding the myth surrounding these so-called "Greeks". As the idea of a "Greece" and "Greeks" grew it was romanticized by more and more writers. Many without ever having visited "Greece" shamelessly drew on the work of others and raised this mythical "Greece" into legendary status.

By 1770 the legend became so real that the few writers who questioned it were dismissed as cranks.

Again according to St. Clair, "With the advent of Byron, literary philhellenism became a widespread European movement. Hosts of imitators copied his rhetorical verses, and travelers who visited Greece after the appearance of Childe Harold in 1812 were even more enthusiastic than their predecessors.

By the time of the Greek Revolution in 1821 the educated public in Europe had been deeply immersed in three attractive ideas;

1. that Ancient Greece had been a paradise inhabited by supermen;

2. that the Modern Greeks were the true descendants of the Ancient Greeks; and

3. that a war against the Turks could somehow ´regenerate´ the Modern Greeks and restore the former glories."

So even before the so-called "Modern Greeks" had a chance to discover who they truly were and to decide what to call themselves and their little country, the outside world had made that decision for them. They were going to be called "Greeks", the embodiment of the "Ancient Greeks" and their little country was going to be called "Greece".

Not everyone however believed in these ideas but in Western Europe where philhellenism flourished the deed was done. But as St. Clair tells us, "The responsibility for turning philhellenism into a political programme belongs to the Greeks themselves.

The impetus came from the Greeks overseas."

By late eighteenth century colonies of people who came from the region that later became known as "Greece" and settled in Europe had become largely integrated into Western European culture. It was these people who naturally embraced the literary tradition of philhellenism and later built on it.

As Michael Herzfeld in his book "Ours Once More: Folklore, Ideology, and the making of Modern Greece" on pages 4 and 5 tells us: "By the nineteenth century, Classical scholars had come to pride themselves on a remarkable degree of academic perfectionism, but their views were clearly as much a matter of intellectual fashion as ever. A frankly critical American observer of nineteenth-century European scholarship decried not only the English scholars' ´limp Grecism,´ as evidenced in the excessively ´scented, wholesale sweetness of the modern aesthetic school in England,´ but also the Germans' use of Greek' ´as a stalking-horse for Teutonic psychology´ and their grave concern with minutiae. Scholars of the two nations resembled each other, he thought, ´in but a single trait–the conviction that they understand Greece´ (Chapman 1915: 12-13). Nor was this acid commentator entirely free of any such conviction about himself, to judge from the tone of these remarks. And so, presumably, it will go on. New truths will yield to still newer truths about the same basic idea, the vision of Classical Greece–the source, in a commonly held view, of the very practice of historical writing itself.

Such changes in perception are of interest here for two reasons. First, they show that through all the divergent interpretations there runs a common theme: the idea of Hellas as the cultural exemplar of Europe. And, second, these same contrasts mark the progressive enhancement of that exemplar's authority, not its dissolution (as we might expect) in the bickering of the ages. Whatever Greece is or was, the idea of Greece–like any symbol–could carry a wide range of possible meanings, and so it survived triumphantly. Similarly, the concept of European culture, so stable at the level of mere generality, has undergone many transformations through the centuries. ´Europe,´ like ´Hellas,´ was a generalized ideal, a symbol of cultural superiority which could and did survive innumerable changes in the moral and political order. It was to this European ideal, moreover, that Hellas was considered ancestral. Such is the malleable material of which ideologies are made."

What the Europeans saw in Greece they saw in themselves and as David Holden puts it "philhellenism is a love affair with a dream which envisions ´Greece´ and the ´Greeks´ not as an actual place or real people but as a symbol of some imagined perfection." Whatever Greece is or was, the idea of Greece–like any symbol–could carry a wide range of possible meanings, ´Europe,´ like ´Hellas,´ was a generalized ideal, a symbol of cultural superiority. Europe needed a genuine noble European past, a source for its enlightenment and it found it in a mythical Greece, a Greece of its own creation.

On page 5 of his book Michael Herzfeld goes on to say: "It is as an ideological phenomenon that we shall treat the twin concepts of Hellas and Europe here. They provided the motivating rationale for one of the most explosive political adventures of the nineteenth century, an adventure which claimed thousands of lives and brought many more under the control of a nation-state that had never before existed as a sovereign entity. This adventure was the Greek struggle for independence of 1821 to 1833. Its eventual success was by no means certain in the early stages. The Great Powers were reluctant to commit themselves to the Greek cause until, forced by public opinion at home, by the Greeks' own successes, and by the fear of each other's intentions, they began to take a more active part in bringing the Greek State into existence. That the Greeks did eventually prevail, despite the enormous Turkish armies with which they had to contend as well as their destructive internal squabbles, is some measure of the evocative power of the name of Hellas among their European supporters. To be a European was, in ideological terms, to be a Hellene.

Yet the Hellas which European intellectuals wished to reconstitute on Greek soil was very different from the Greek culture which they actually encountered there, despite all the western-educated Greek intellectuals' efforts to bridge the gap."

If I interpret Herzfeld correctly, not only did Europeans invent and mold the concept of a "Greece" and "Hellenism" but by their instigation of the so-called "Greek Struggle for Independence", with assistance from the Great Powers, they created a country where one never existed before! Yes you read it right! The Europeans instigated the so-called "Greek Struggle for Independence" in order to bring back the mythical "Ancient Greeks"! Further, they helped create a country based on a myth and shaped the character of its population on a culture that had died more than 2,000 years ago. And all this at the expense of the real, living and vibrant cultures that lived and coexisted on those lands for centuries. This reminds me of what the Greeks did in Macedonia nine decades later when they invaded, occupied, annexed Macedonia, destroyed its living and vibrant culture and turned the Macedonian people into mythical Greeks!

Why Greece and not Arvanitovlachia? Because the Europeans, aliens to the so-called Greek lands, took it upon themselves to reshape the new country and its people into something artificial to suit their own desires. Which begs the question "Why did the Europeans need a Greece and how did the birth of Greece shape Europe?" a subject for my next article.

Why give "Greece" a Latin name? The obvious answer is because the "concept" of a Greece was invented by the Modern Latins even before the "country" Greece came into existence. Since the Latins invented Greece it was appropriate that they give it a Latin name?

For those who are still not convinced that the Modern Greek identity is an artificial creation, please continue to read this series of articles.

Author´s note:

Dear Macedonians, one way to defend ourselves from the Greek onslaught and gain back our identity and dignity is to fight back to the level to which the Greeks have reduced us; that is to attack their identity as they have attacked ours. We need prove nothing to them except to expose them as the artificial identity they truly are and to uncover their design to wipe us out in order to usurp our Macedonian heritage.

To be Continued.

Many thanks to TrueMacedonian from www.maknews.com for his contribution to this article.

You can contact the author at rstefov@hotmail.com

Modern Greece and the Macedonian Heritage - Part 3 - Where did modern Greeks come from?‏

2009-01-26T16:11:00.000-08:00

By Risto Stefov

rstefov@hotmail.com

January 18, 2009

In part 2 of this series we established that prior to and during the creation of the Greek state in the early 1800’s the majority of the population living on Greek lands was predominantly of Albanian, Vlach and Slav origin, which leads to the question “Where from and when did these Albanians, Vlachs and Slavs come to Greece and what happened to the indigenous population living on those lands?”

Modern Greeks claim that they are the descendents of the so-called Ancient Greeks. Is this fact or fiction?

We will begin the investigation with the “Popular Science Monthly” edited by J. McKeen Cattell, published in 1915. The Popular Science Monthly on page 41 reads: “Once Greece led the world in intellectual pursuits, in art, in poetry, in philosophy. A large and vital part of European culture is rooted directly in the language and thought of Athens. The most beautiful edifice in the world was the Peace Palace of the Parthenon, erected by Pericles, to celebrate the end of Greece’s suicidal wars. This endured 2,187 years to be wrecked at last (1687) in Turkish hands by the Christian bombs of the Venetian Republic.

But the glory of Greece had passed away long before the fall of the Parthenon. Its cause was the one cause of all such downfalls – the extinction of strong men by war. At the best, the civilization of Greece was built on slavery, one freeman to ten slaves. And when the freemen were destroyed, the slaves an original Mediterranean stock, overspread the territory of Hellas along with the Bulgarians, Albanians and Vlachs, barbarians crowding down from the north.”

So, what is the writer of the Popular Science Monthly from 1915 trying to tell us here? For one he or she is telling us that at the best of times; that would mean during the classics, Greece was predominantly populated by slaves and when the City States fell to the Romans the so-called ancient Greeks were numbering one freeman to ten slaves. So even before the turn of the new millennium the classical Greeks had vanished and were replaced by the slaves they once employed. Furthermore, the author is telling us that the glory of the so-called Ancient Greeks had passed away, died long before the Venetians occupied Greece in 1687. So where is the cultural and ancestral connection between the ancients and the moderns? Does it really exist?

Again looking at page 42 of the “Popular Science Monthly” we read: “It is maintained that the Modern Greeks are in the main the descendants of the population that inhabited Greece in the earlier of Byzantine rule. Owing to the operations of various causes, historical, social and economic, that population was composed of many heterogeneous elements and represented in very limited degree the race which repulsed the Persians and built the Parthenon. The internecine conflicts in the Greek community, wars with foreign powers, and the deadly struggles of factions in the various cities had to a large extent obliterated the old race of free citizens by the beginning of the Roman period. The extermination of the Plateans by the Spartans and of the Melians by the Athenians during the Peloponnesian wars, the proscription of the Athenian citizens after the war, the massacre of the Corcyrean oligarchs by the democratic party, the slaughter of the Thebans by Alexander and of the Corinthians by Mummius are among the more familiar instances of the catastrophe which overtook the civil element in the Greek cities. The void can only have been filled from the ranks of the metics and resident aliens and of the descendants of the far more numerous slave population. In the classic period four-fifths of the population of Attica were slaves; of the remainder half were metics. In AD 100 only three thousand arm-bearing men were in Greece. (James Bourchier)”

James Bourchier here reaffirms the fact that the so-called Ancient Greeks disappeared a long time ago and the void was filled by the numerous slaves they employed which at the time consisted of 80% of the total population.

Looking further down on page 42 of the “Popular Science Monthly” we read: “The constant little struggles of the Greeks among themselves made no great showing as to numbers compared to other wars, but they wiped out the most valuable people, the best blood the most promising heredity on earth. This cost the world more than the killing of millions of barbarians. In two centuries there were born under the shadow of the Parthenon more men of genius than the Roman Empire had in its whole existence. Yet this empire included all the civilized world, even Greece herself. (La Pouge)”

La Pouge here confirms what many others believed; the so-called Ancient Greeks were wiped out a long time ago.

At the bottom of page 42 of the “Popular Science Monthly” we read: “The downfall of Greece, like that of Rome, has been ascribed by Schultz to the crossing of the Greeks by the barbaric races which flocked into Hellas from every side. These resident aliens, or metics, steadily increased in numbers as the free Greeks disappeared. Selected slaves or helots were then made free in order to furnish fighting men, and again as these fell their places were taken by immigrants.”

Here again Schultz validates the fact that the so-called Ancient Greeks disappeared a long time ago and were replaced by aliens, slaves and immigrants. But who were these immigrants and where did they come from?

To get some answers to these questions we will examine the book “Customs and Lore of Modern Greece” by Rennell Rodd published in 1892. Rennell Rodd on page 17 writes: “Those who adopted the creed of their conquerors, in order to escape from these indignities, as did a large portion of the inhabitants of Euboea, and subsequently of Crete lost their national character, and, becoming Mussulman, practically ceased to be Greek; indeed, from the time of the Ottoman conquest the question of nationality is largely merged in the opposition of creeds. Sultan Mohammed II appears to have foreseen a safeguard against future insurrection in draining the resources of the country, and literally exhausting its population; and he re-peopled the vanquished Constantinople by transferring to the city the wealthiest inhabitants of the lands he subsequently reduced. Slavery awaited the Venetian subjects of Modon and Nauplia when they fell into his hands in 1463, and a similar fate befell a number of the natives of Euboea in 1470. The Ionian were called upon to yield their quota to the re-population of Constantinople, and a number of slaves were drawn from Rhodes in 1480. In the last year of the 15th century and the opening of the 16th, when the Morea was again the battle-field of Turk and Venetian, the occupants of the plains of Argos and of portions of Attica were practically exterminated, and Albanian colonists began to re-occupy the ruined lands. In the following century the Ottoman admiral, Barbarrosa, carried off the female inhabitants of Aegina into slavery, and massacred the males, leaving the island entirely depopulated until it was re-colonized by Albanians. He reduced the majority of the Aegean islands to subjection, expelled the Italian nobles and said to have carried off 30,000 Greeks into slavery.”

So what is Rennell Rodd telling us about the Modern Greeks and their true origins? Well, for one, he confirms what others are saying, that is, the original Greeks that inhabited the Greek islands and the mainland of Greece proper vanished a long time ago. Some converted to Islam and the rest were taken into slavery. He is also telling us that the vacant lands left behind were settled and colonized by Albanians.

It is interesting to note here that most of the Greek nobility was taken to Constantinople and no doubt Islamized to maintain loyalty. If that were the case and we have no reason to doubt it, then the question that begs to be asked is “Who is more Greek, the descendants of the Modern Turks of Constantinople or the Modern Greeks of Greece proper?” It makes one wonder!

According to Rennell Rodd however, one thing is certain and that is that there is very little that connects the Modern Greeks with the Ancient so-called Greeks and plenty of evidence that connects the Modern Greeks with the Albanians!

Let us see what else Rennell Rodd has to say. On pages 18 and 19 of his book “Customs and Lore of Modern Greece” published in 1892, Rennell Rodd goes on to say: “Meanwhile, the deserted lands were gradually occupied by Christian Albanians moving south before the wave of Turkish advance. Their earlier immigrants are lost in the silence of time, but the first recorded mention of their appearance in Peloponnesus occurs in the middle of the 14th century, when Manuel Kantacuzen brought Albanian mercenaries to Mistra, and later established colonies in the peninsula. Again, at the close of the 14th century in the reign of [Byzantine Emperor] John Paleologus, some 10,000 of them crossed the Isthmus, and in later days of the despots of the Morea they are found serving as mercenaries in their armies. The immigration continued through the 15th century, after the final reduction of Albania by the Turks. They occupied the greater part of Boetia, Attica and Megaris, portion of the Corinthian territory, of Argolis and Achaia, as well as small districts of in Phocis, Elis, and Archadia...”

Here again we find evidence of Albanians occupying deserted Greek lands as early as the 14th century. Even the Byzantine Emperors had a hand in re-colonizing Greece with Albanians. Then later during the Ottoman invasion of Albania we have even more Albanians invading and occupying Greek territories.

In view of what we have read so far, we can see a clear pattern developing which indicates without a doubt that as the so-called Ancient Greeks disappeared from Greek lands, they were replaced by predominantly Albanian immigrants who no doubt are the ancestors of today’s modern Greeks.

I use the reference “so-called Ancient Greeks” because as we earlier learned from “Popular Science Monthly” edited by J. McKeen Cattell, published in 1915, the Greek population that survived the Roman invasions and occupation were predominantly the Slaves of the Ancient Greeks. So when we make reference to the so-called Ancient Greeks in the 14th century AD, we are talking about the descendents of the Slaves who served the Ancient Greeks. So you see the so-called Greek lineage was already watered down even before the Slav, Vlach and Albanian migrations into Greek lands.

Speaking of Vlachs and Slavs, let us see what T. J. Winnifrith has to say? On page 119 in his book “The Vlachs The History of a Balkan People”, T. J. Winnifrith writes: “In the area where Vlachs as opposed to Romanians now live there is no shortage of reference to Vlachs after the breakdown of Byzantine authority. Choniates describing the Bulgarian revolt mentions a Vlach Chrysos setting up an independent principality in near Strumitsa and calls Thessaly ‘Great Vlachia’. [Byzantine Emperor] Andronicus I in an edict 1184 refers confusingly to Bulgars, Cumans and Vlachs in the Meglen with the Vlachs receiving preferential treatment. In 1221 the Bishop of Naupaktos, John Apokaukos, refers to the injuries suffered by Simeon Sgouropolos and his daughter at the hands of Avriolines Constantinos, a colonist of the Romans, whom people today call the Vlachs. This piece of evidence would seem to indicate a Vlach presence in Aetolia, especially as Constantinos with his Latin sounding first name (a corruption of Aurelian) had plenty of his race to support him. This evidence is sighted in an article by P. Nasturel which is a useful summary of Medieval Vlach history from the Romanian point of view. It is interesting that we have a definite indication that the Vlachs were seen as the descendants of the Romans, although it is just possible that Vlachs on the sea coast of Greece might be Dalmatian-speakers. Nasturel rather weakens his case by mentioning the people who call themselves Romans, cited by Constantine Porphyrogenitus, who are certainly Dalmatians and by drawing attention to the reference in about 1165 by the priest of Dioclea to Morlachs, black Latins, who used to call themselves Romans. This may be a reference to Dalmatians, although the etymology of Morlachs, from Mavrovlachoi shows a greater contact with Greece than most Dalmatians would have had, and we must not forget the fondness of Modern Vlachs for black clothes.”

On pages 120 and 121 in his book “The Vlachs The History of a Balkan People”, T. J. Winnifrith also writes: “As in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries when there was much Albanian activity at a time the Ottoman Empire was losing its authority, so in the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries the breakdown of Byzantine authority lead to movements by both Vlachs and Albanians into Greece. These movements parallel earlier waves of invasions by Slavs on the breakdown of East Roman authority in the seventh century and by Dorians or north-western Greeks in the twelfth century B.C. after the collapse of the Mycenaean civilization. The details of all four movements of populations are obscure. There was bound to be much intermingling between races. Some Byzantine verses at the end of the fourteenth century describe Momicila a Bulgaralbanotovlachos, and slightly later we hear of one Boncoes a Serbalbanitovulgarovlachos. Modern polyglot Vlachs had polyglot ancestors.

Throughout the fourteenth century Vlachs are hard to distinguish from Albanians. The first mention of the Albanian language is not until 1285. According to John Kantakouzenos some people who lived in no town but inaccessible places in the mountains of Thessaly submitted in 1334 to the [Byzantine] Emperor Andronicus III. They were Albanians with no King, called after their tribal chiefs, Malakasaii, Bouii and Masaritae. But these were probably Vlachs; there were in Pouqueville’s time Vlachs in the Pindus who called themselves Bovi, and there is still a village called Malakasi. Elsewhere we hear of the Albanian leader Peter Leosas, leading Malakasii of his own race, and this would seem to suggest two kinds of Malakasii. The name may derive from the coastal plain of Malekastir, a word of Latin origin, in central Albania. The theory that the Bouii came from the nearby highland pasture of the Bevaei is more conjectural. Together with the Albanians the Vlachs penetrated to central and Southern Greece. We hear of Vlachs in Attica, Kephallenia and Crete, although in these instances and in the place names with Vlach elements which can be found as far south as the Peloponnesus there maybe confusions between Vlachs or shepherds and Albanians.”

Even though there is much too much detail for my purpose, I decided to include T. J. Winnifrith’s above two quotes for those who maybe interested in further pursuing this study. T. J. Winnifrith does however answer the question “Where from and when did these Albanians, Vlachs and Slavs come to Greece?” to a comfortable degree to reach another conclusion and that is not only are the Modern Greeks not the descendents of the Ancient Greeks but their origins can be traced in the Albanian and Vlach immigrants who were not even from Greece proper. So how does that make them the descendants of the Ancient Greeks? It does not!

After reading T. J. Winnifrith’s quotes above I am beginning to understand why Greeks throughout the Ottoman period right up to the time when Greece was created, correctly referred to themselves as “Romaoi” (Romans). Being partially the descendents of the Vlachs who in turn are the descendents of the Romans, naturally made them feel like Romans, thus their name “Romaoi”. This understood, then why did the Modern Greeks opt for being called “Greeks” and “Hellenes” and tied themselves to the Ancient Greek Heritage when they are not Greeks at all? A subject for my next article!

For those who are still not convinced that the Modern Greek identity is an artificial creation, please continue to read this series of articles.

Author’s note:

Dear Macedonians, one way to defend ourselves from the Greek onslaught and gain back our identity and dignity is to fight back to the level to which the Greeks have reduced us; that is to attack their identity as they have attacked ours. We need prove nothing to them except to expose them as the artificial identity they truly are and to uncover their design to wipe us out in order to usurp our Macedonian heritage.

To be Continued.

Many thanks to TrueMacedonian from www.maknews.com for his contribution to this article.

Greek journalist has been dismissed because used the neighboring state Republic of Macedonia just "Macedonia", in the greek Sunday newspaper REALNEWS

2009-01-25T19:25:00.000-08:00

ΠΟΛΙΤΙΚΟ ΚΟΜΜΑ ΤΗΣ ΜΑΚΕΔΟΝΙΚΗΣ ΜΕΙΟΝΟΤΗΤΑΣ ΣΤΗΝ ΕΛΛΑΔΑ
Μέλος της Ευρωπαϊκής Ελεύθερης Συμμαχίας - Ευρωπαϊκό Πολιτικό Κόμμα (EFA-EPP)
Μέλος της Ομοσπονδιακής Ένωσης των Ευρωπαϊκών Εθνοτήτων (FUEN)

Στ. Δραγούμη 11 Φλώρινα/Lerin Τ.Κ. 53100; Τ.Θ. 51 Τηλ./fax 0030 23850 46548
www.florina.org; e-mail: rainbow@florina.org

Δελτίο Τύπου

Καμία έκπληξη, δυστυχώς, δεν προκάλεσε στην Ε.Ε.Σ- Ουράνιο Τόξο αλλά και σε ολόκληρη την κοινή γνώμη η αποπομπή συνεργάτη της εφημερίδας «Real News», επειδή υπέπεσε στο ολέθριο, ποινικά κολάσιμο και εγκληματικό σφάλμα να αποκαλέσει το βόρειο γείτονά μας «Μακεδονία», σε άρθρο που δημοσιεύτηκε στις 11 Ιανουαρίου

Φλώρινα/Lerin - 19 Ιανουαρίου 2009

Real News The scandal map

Καμία έκπληξη, δυστυχώς, δεν προκάλεσε στην Ε.Ε.Σ- Ουράνιο Τόξο αλλά και σε ολόκληρη την κοινή γνώμη η αποπομπή συνεργάτη της εφημερίδας «Real News», επειδή υπέπεσε στο ολέθριο, ποινικά κολάσιμο και εγκληματικό σφάλμα να αποκαλέσει το βόρειο γείτονά μας «Μακεδονία», σε άρθρο που δημοσιεύτηκε στις 11 Ιανουαρίου.

Καμία έκπληξη δε μας προκάλεσε το γεγονός ότι το «μοιραίο» περιστατικό ανακάλυψαν πρώτα, αφού είχαν ήδη περάσει 2 ημέρες, τα γνωστά εθνικιστικά σκουπιδό-blogs.

Καμία έκπληξη δε μας προκάλεσε η «ακαριαία» αντίδραση του μεγαλοδημοσιογράφου, μικροεκδότη, πολυεκατομμυριούχου παρουσιαστή, και «έντιμου» πατριώτη Νίκου Χατζηνικολάου, ο οποίος όχι μόνο απέλυσε τον (πιθανότατα χαμηλόμισθο και ανασφάλιστο) συνεργάτη της εφημερίδας του αλλά ζήτησε και ταπεινά συγνώμη.

Καμία έκπληξη δε μας προκάλεσε η σιωπή των ελληνικών Μέσων Μαζικής Διστρέβλωσης για το γεγονός.

Καμία έκπληξη δε μας προκάλεσε το αδιάφορο σφύριγμα της Ένωσης Συντακτών Ημερησίων Εφημερίδων Αθηνών, η οποία σε αντίστοιχες περιπτώσεις εργοδοτικής ασυδοσίας και απολύσεων, ξεσηκώνει το σύμπαν και διοργανώνει μέχρι και απεργιακές κινητοποίησεις. Είναι, άλλωστε, η ίδια Ένωση που έχει ως μέλη της έμμισθους υπαλληλους της ΕΥΠ και του ΥΠΕΞ και επαγγελματίες παραχαράκτες της αλήθειας.

Καμία έκπληξη δε μας προκάλεσε η σιγή ιχθύος όλων των Ελλήνων πολιτικών και ιδιαίτερα εκείνων που έχουν χρισθεί αυτόκλητοι προστάτες της «γενιάς των 700 ευρώ». Πιθανότατα διότι ο ατυχής που απολύθηκε αμοιβόταν με πολύ λιγότερα χρήματα.

Αλήθεια, θα τελειώσει ποτε αυτή η εθνικιστική νεοελληνική παράνοια που στην καλύτερη περίπτωση λοιδώρεί και συκοφαντεί ενώ στη χειρότερη εξοντώνει αμείλικτα κάθε τι το διαφορετικό σ’ αυτή τη χώρα;

Το Γραφείο Τύπου της Ε.Ε.Σ. – Ουράνιο Τόξο

RAINBOW participating in event organized by Human Rights Council, in United Nation. Forum on Minority Issues

2009-01-25T19:23:00.000-08:00

January 15, 2009
Press Release

Pursuant to Human Rights Council resolution 6/15 of 28 September 2007, a forum on minority issues has been established. The forum will provide a platform for promoting dialogue and cooperation on issues pertaining to national or ethnic, religious and linguistic minorities, which shall provide thematic contributions and expertise to the work of the independent expert on minority issues. The Forum shall identify and analyze best practices, challenges, opportunities and initiatives for the further implementation of the Declaration on the Rights of Persons Belonging to National or Ethnic, Religious and Linguistic Minorities.

Karamanlis: Macedonia's road to EU, NATO sealed

2009-01-18T08:46:00.000-08:00

Friday, 16.01.2009 | Macedonia

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In a strong-worded message to Macedonia, Greek Prime Minister Costas Karamanlis made it clear that the country's road to EU and NATO is sealed if no deal on the name row is reached.

Kathimerini daily says Karamanlis toned up his rhetoric in a speech before Greek parliament.

In a reply to rightist Laos party leader Yorgos Karadjaferis, Karajan's stressed that Skopje's Euro-Atlantic ambitions won't come true if the authorities care about political gain of upcoming elections instead of caring about the country's future.

Greek prime minister reiterated Athens' position that only a name with a geographic qualifier could pave the way to an ultimate deal

The Forced Homogenization of Populations in Greek Macedonia

2009-01-16T01:33:00.000-08:00

Ordinarily I could care less what people call themselves, it's a personal issue how one wishes to present and even when I know people are lying about their ethnic heritage I let it slide. But, when today's self-proclaimed "Greeks" take it upon themselves to dictate to others how they may call themselves then it's time to speak up.

The Greek government routinely denies the existence of ethnic Macedonians, as it denies the existence of all ethnic and national minorities within its jurisdiction. Greece, you see, is a pure country with no minorities, a miracle in the modern World and unique in Europe - or so we are told.

In truth today's Modern Greek identity, the Greek identity of such luminaries as Kostas Karamanlis and Dora Bakoyannis, is the result of enforced homogenization. It is a political identity and historically artificial.

Prior to 1913 the majority of people living in geographic Macedonia shared common customs, traditions, songs, dances, language, history and religion. These people had lived in Macedonia for some 1500 years and their relationship is probably much older than that. Any decent person, any civilised human being would have no problem referring to such people as 'ethnic Macedonians'.

Now, let's consider the so-called "ethnic Greek" identity of today's Modern Greeks.

According to Webster's dictionary, belonging to an ethnic group means belonging to a division of mankind as distinguished by customs, characteristics, language and sharing a common history, etc.

I recently read an interesting article at in an official Turkish website:

http://www.mfa.gov.tr/denial-of-ethnic-identity.en.mfa

What do Turks have to say about today's Greeks? After all both Macedonia and Greece were ruled by Turkey for centuries; Greece for four centuries and Macedonia for five.

The site states:

" The [Modern] Greek Nation is based on the principle of belonging to the Greek race and the Greek Orthodox Church. On this subject, it is enough to glance at the speeches of Greek statesmen about the homogeneity of the Greek nation with the exception of the Muslim minority.

If today's Greek Nation is really homogeneous, one cannot help but wonder about the destiny of the Albanians, the Muslim Albanians, Vlach, Macedonians, Bulgarians, Jews as well as Turks. In this respect it becomes necessary to answer the question of how homogeneity has been achieved in Greek Macedonia while ethnic variety still survives in the Republic of Macedonia ."

What are the Turks talking about? Who are these Albanians, Vlach, Macedonians, Turks, etc. existing in Greece?

As mentioned above, Athens denies the existence of any national or ethnic minorities on its territory. Greece claims to be an ethnically homogeneous nation whose roots extend back to the ancient Greeks of thousands of years ago.

Such a claim is utter nonsense, of course, but this is the official mythology of the Modern Greek state. This is what today's Greeks are taught in school and this is the kind of historical fiction promoted by Greek society.

The Ottoman Turks were masters of Greece for four centuries, long before a Greek state was created and prior to the Romanoi altering their identity and referring to themselves "Greeks". There was indeed a great variety of ethnic populations in what is today Greece, but apparently they have all vanished.

The Turkish site puts it succinctly:

"In this respect, it becomes necessary to answer the question of how homogeneity has been achieved in Greek Macedonia while ethnic variety still survives in the Republic of Macedonia ?"

How indeed!

When the Greek kingdom was created in 1829, the following ethnic groups dominated the territory: Arvanites (Christian Albanians), Vlahi (Vlachs), Tourki (Turks), Voulgari (Bulgarians and Macedonians), Slavi (Macedonians), Slavo-Makedones (Macedonians), Endopii (indigenous Macedonians), Gifti (Roma), Evreii (Jews) and others. Some citations carelessly refer to those who spoke Greek as "Greeks" but such people more often than not belonged to one of the distinct non-Greek ethnic groups.

It is impossible to gauge to what extent ancient Greeks (including the huge slave populations) survived in the lower Balkans and preserved a 'Greek' identity for 2500 years. It is extremely unlikely that more than a miniscule fraction of today's "Greek" population has any connection whatsoever to the ancient Greeks. The vast bulk of today's "Greeks" have been recently made "Greek" as part of the political homogenization process.

European powers created the Greek kingdom in an effort to block Russian access to warm waters. At that time, in 1829, the Arvanites still spoke the Albanian language and had their own unique customs and traditions. This was the majority population in the region of Attica (Athens) so much so that there was discussion as to whether Greek or Albanian should become the official language of the new kingdom. The Vlach still spoke their mother Vlach language similar to Latin and they had their own unique customs and traditions. Turks spoke the Turkish language and had their own customs and traditions, etc.

Notwithstanding the many names Modern Greeks use to refer to Macedonians, e.g., Slavs, Slavofoni, diglossos, Voulgaros, Slavo-Makedones, Dopii and more recently the ignorant Skopianoi, Macedonians spoke the Macedonian language, which existed and still exists throughout all of geographic Macedonia. Macedonians too have their own unique customs and traditions, which are different from the other groups.

If the truth be told today's Greece is inhabited by diverse Ottoman Christian populations of various ethnic backgrounds. These people did not have a "Greek" ethnic identity, that identity was imposed on them later. It was only after the creation of the Greek kingdom that authorities fabricated a new "Greek" identity, the purpose being to homogenize the population.

Authorities systematically destroyed people's original ethnic identity. They made the declaration of any non-Greek identity socially repulsive and illegal. People became too ashamed to refer to themselves as Arvanites and Vlach. Even today you see Arvanites like former Greek foreign minister, Pangalos, denying his Albanian heritage and proclaiming himself a pure Hellene. That's quite pathetic but Modern Greeks are taught that any non-Greek identity is vulgar and inferior to the newly fabricated Greek identity. Modern Greeks have buried their true ethnic heritage, and where they still remember it, they have become self-loathing. This is what it means to be a modern-day "Hellene".

Greek authorities also taught the citizenry that it was "patriotic" to monitor one's neighbours and hand over to authorities the names of people who refused to identify as Greek and who continued to speak their non-Greek mother tongues. This process of spying on your neighbours and betraying them to authorities went on for generations and still goes on today, even in the Diaspora.

Politicians in Athens fabricated a state mythology, a fake history if you will, for these newly minted Greeks to share, the purpose being to bind the different ethnic groups together and unify the state.

Greece adopted Koine, which today is paraded as the Modern Greek language. But, just as the Modern Greek flag was stolen from the British East India Company, Koine, which many Greeks boast connects them to the ancients, was stolen from the Byzantine Church. Greece was fabricating its new history, identity and language in a hodgepodge manner via theft. In fact most of today's "Greek culture" is stolen from the various assimilated populations and misrepresented as "Greek".

People who learnt Koine are no more Greek nor related to the ancient Greeks than people who learnt hieroglyphs are Egyptian and related to the ancient Egyptians. Adopting a new language doesn't give one rights to the heritage of the ancient populations who spoke it.

It made sense to impose the church Koine as religion was the only thing the various ethnic groups of Greece had in common. But, religion is not ethnicity.

Greece changed the place names and people's personal names, renaming everyone and everything to make them appear Greek. This tells us that neither the places nor the people were Greek and they had to be made Greek by force. This is Greece's famous policy of ethnic and cultural genocide.

As a Macedonian from Aegean Macedonia my new (artificial) "Greek" history begins in 1926 after the Greek government changed my grandfather's name and the name of my village from Macedonian to Greek. There was no Stefou or Trigono before 1926 and everyone spoke Macedonian, not Greek.

If I am to believe that after 1926 I am Greek then I must ask: What was I before 1926? What was I before they changed our village name and our family name from Macedonian to Greek? What was the original ethnic heritage of my family?

And just what is it that makes today's citizens of Greece "ethnically Greek"? Just what is it that makes Greekocised Macedonians, Vlach, Arvanites, Roma, Turks, etc., share the same "ethnicity" in Greece?

According to Webster's dictionary a Greek is a native or modern inhabitant of Greece. So, anyone who lives in Greece is Greek by virtue of geography. One must assume that if such people move to a different location they would take on a new identity. That hardly sounds like an ethnic group.

The name Greek is derived from the word Graioi, originally the Latin name of a Boeotian tribe that settled in Southern Italy in the 8th century BC, but clearly the Boeotians did not give rise to today's Modern "Greeks". Use of the term "Greek" cannot, in itself, define an ethnicity. There must be more to it.

So, what makes today's Greeks "ethnic Greeks"?

It can't be culture, tradition or customs as the original cultures, traditions and customs of today's Greek population (Albanians, Vlachs, Macedonians, Turks, Roma, etc.) were distinct and non-Greek.

It can't be language since Koine was formally imposed on diverse groups only after the Greek kingdom was formed in 1829. Koine was not the mother tongue of people living in what became Greece, this was a church language just as Latin was the church language to the West.

So, it isn't language, culture, tradition or custom. It's not history either, as more than half of today's Greek population is not indigenous to the region and was only transplanted into the area from Asia Minor and the Black Sea over the last century. These are unrelated, historically disjoint populations.

You can see why the Greek government was under pressure to manufacture a language and identity for all these different groups. The only thing they shared, the only thing they had in common, was their religion.

Today's Modern Greek state is based on religion, not ethnicity or history. Historically, it is unrelated to ancient Greece. When the Bavarian royal house established the new Greek kingdom it was meant as a haven for the persecuted Christians of the Ottoman regions. The first Greek constitution beckoned to all Christians to immigrate and settle there - it did not beckon to "Greeks" to come and settle there.

Other than a common religion there is little if any of the characteristics of an "ethnic group" prior to the formation of the Greek kingdom in 1829.

That's why forced homogenization was necessary in the first place. That's why everything and everyone had to be renamed. That's why a new Greek language had to be imposed and people's mother tongues and ethnic identities had be suppressed and destroyed. That's why ethnic variety still exists in the Republic of Macedonia but has vanished from the new Greek state.

How is it, then, that people who only recently and just barely qualify to call themselves "ethnic Greeks" are allowed to usurp the ancient Greek heritage and the ancient Macedonian heritage? From what authority does this group attempt to tell ethnic Macedonians who they are and how they may call themselves?

Obviously today's Greeks are ethnic frauds, their identity is nothing more than the product of a government program. We indigenous Macedonians of Greece know this first hand as we have been resisting the ruthless ethnocide of Greece for a century now.

What is the Macedonian government doing negotiating our Macedonian identity and Macedonian ethnic heritage with such racists and frauds?

You can contact the author at rstefov@hotmail.com

Macedonia Protests Over Greek Minister Comments

2009-01-15T07:17:00.000-08:00

Skopje has officially protested at the European Commission in Brussels over comments by the Greek Culture Minister that Macedonia will soon dissolve and be carved up between a 'Greater Albania' and a 'Greater Bulgaria'.

Macedonia’s mission in Brussels condemned the statements by Antonis Samaras as “counterproductive” for bilateral relations, and expressed concern that no one in Athens had denounced them yet, local A1 TV said.

Skopje and Athens have been locked in a dispute over Macedonia’s name for 18 years. In April last year Greece blocked Macedonia’s NATO invitation arguing that use of the name implies territorial claims over its own northern province that is also called Macedonia.

On Saturday the newly-appointed minister said in an interview for Greek national television ERT that the end of the dispute would come naturally as Macedonia -- which Greeks refer to as simply 'Skopje' - dissolves and is swallowed up by its neighbors.

“Time is on our side”, Samaras said. “I believe that Skopje will not survive as a single country and that Greece has nothing to fear from the creation of ‘Great Albania’ and ‘Great Bulgaria’.”

Samaras has long been a hardliner on the "Macedonian Question" and other Greek national issues, and was publicly behind the idea of an "Orthodox axis" in the Balkans during the Yugoslav wars of the 1990s.

Skopje warned that such statements could additionally get in the way of the next round of UN-sponsored talks, scheduled for February 11.

This is the fourth time Macedonia has launched an official protest against Greece in recent months. It has protested over Athens banning its national air carrier MAT from flying over Greece, over alleged police cruelty against ethnic Macedonians living in Greece and over the arrest of Macedonian journalists who tried to report on the event.

It has attracted criticism in turn over its decision to rename its main highway “Alexander of Macedon”, for the ancient conqueror whose origin is part of a dispute that has come to encompass history, geography and genetics.

(Reporting by Sinisa-Jakov Marusic)

The Contest For Macedonian Identity 1870-1912

2009-01-15T06:53:00.000-08:00

Book Review by Risto Stefov

August 27, 2008

rstefov@hotmail.com

The book “The Contest For Macedonian Identity 1870-1912”, written by Nick Anastasovski and published by Pollitecon Publications is a scholarly publication which describes in detail ongoing attempts first by the Ottoman Empire then by Macedonia’s neighbours Greece, Serbia and Bulgaria to dominate Macedonia and control the Macedonian people. After colonizing Macedonia, the Muslim Ottoman Empire economically influenced many Macedonians to convert to Islam. Then when the Ottoman Empire fell apart Greece, Serbia and Bulgaria fought by any means possible to turn Macedonians into Greeks, Serbs and Bulgarians including the use of State-sponsored teachers, priests, and terrorism through armed interventions.

Nick Anastasovski in his book “The Contest For Macedonian Identity 1870-1912” carefully examines in detail the fierce competition between the various factions and shows how they fought at the political, religious, educational and day-to-day level. He analyzes numerous Ottoman, Greek, Bulgarian, Serbian, Macedonian and other sources and introduces new and original research which he conducted in the Bitola region, western Macedonia and other parts of ethnic and Ottoman Macedonia.

Besides offering historical and personal accounts of people and events that shaped Macedonia in the last two hundred years or so, Nick also provides maps, statistical and demographic charts from various sources, does his own comparative analysis and reaches his own conclusions.

The book is full of historical facts not only about Macedonia’s history but also about the Macedonian peoples’ culture, centuries old traditions and customs. Nick dedicates an entire chapter to Bitola in which, among other things, he describes the various customs and traditions observed in the region including those of marriage, the role of women in society and the home, religious celebrations, holidays, rain rituals and more. The customs and traditions may vary a little but equally apply to every corner of Macedonia. The tradition I liked best, which Nick describes in his book on page 263, is the Dudule. I have always been fascinated by the rain ritual performed during droughts especially by the lyrics in the various chants. The rain dance is not exclusive to Macedonia, it is a world phenomenon most popularized by the indigenous people of North America.

I also found a map on page 118, which I have been looking for. It is a map of the three Ottoman Macedonian Vilayetes of 1900. Did you know that Kosovo was part of the Skopje Vilayet and most of Albania was under the Vilayet of Bitola?

The book is subdivided into six chapters. Chapter one examines the colonization of Macedonia and the role religion played in the political and economic classification of people. Chapter two examines the inconsistencies and contradictions of ethnographic data on Macedonia. Chapter three outlines demographic data of the Bitola Region. This chapter also describes how political insecurity initiated by the rivalry of the Balkan States created general economic instability and gave rise to the emigration of temporary workers known as pechelbari. Chapter four provides an overview of the establishment and role of foreign religious organizations in Macedonia. Here the reader will not only learn about the role of the Patriarchate and Exarchate Churches but also about the role Western Churches played in Macedonia. Chapter five analyzes the impact of schools in both the Bitola rural environment as well as the urban center to determine what effects foreign education had on the Macedonian identity. Chapter six seeks to evaluate the impact of islamicisation upon identity, social structure and village rituals in the Dolna Reka, Debar Region.

By far the strongest of Nick’s abilities here is his understanding and presentation of the roles of each of the competitors vying for Macedonia and how each manipulated situations to gain an advantage over the others and particularly over the Macedonian people.

In his abstract he writes, “As a contested space Macedonia in the late nineteenth century suffered political, religious and paramilitary incursions made upon the population by the neighbouring nascent states and the disappearing Ottoman Empire. Territorial claims were rationalized by ethnographic maps and statistical population data. Interested commentators viewed Macedonia in accordance with government policy and presented their studies as academic and scientific, even though these studies were clearly political in nature. The European Powers maintained their own pretence and acted as patrons of the small Balkan States. Although churches, schools and paramilitary bands were the primary instruments of the Greek, Bulgarian and Serb states, expansion into Macedonia was ultimately achieved by a full military mobilization when the armies of Greece, Bulgaria and Serbia marched into Macedonia in October 1912 and drove out the Ottoman Turks. The territorial division of Macedonia and claims upon the Macedonians have continued to be a matter of contention between the Balkan States into contemporary times.”

In regards to population data compiled by non-Balkan Europeans supporting views of the respective Balkan States, on page 148 he writes: “Of primary importance to the European powers was Macedonia’s strategic geographical location. Since ancient times Macedonia had been a strategic stepping stone between east and west for invading armies and empires. In the late nineteenth-century Macedonia found herself the central focus of conflicting European power struggles. Russian and Austrian hopes for access to Solun had to be achieved via Serbian or Bulgarian territories, and Russia offered Macedonia to Serbia and Bulgaria from time to time in the course of negotiations. The English and French encouraged the idea of a greater Greece in order to forestall Russian and Austrian attempts to gain access to the Mediterranean. The imperialist designs of the European Powers took precedence over ethnographic questions and views based on Macedonia being a ‘territory of dispute’ were more in line with existing political agendas. There was no shortage of individuals willing to link their ethnographic findings to political positions. As we have seen, subsequent population statistics are generally unreliable and ‘either compiled to project specific national claims, or, as with certain foreign census takers, based on insufficient or intentionally distorted facts and sources’.”

On page 92 he writes “Expressions of Macedonian national identity were disregarded, or otherwise poorly grasped by many nineteenth-century commentators. Visitors to Macedonia would tour the country in tow of a representative of one or another of the interested rivals and the traveler ‘assimilated the ideas of his guide rather than divined the nationalism of the people’. Other commentators attested that Macedonians possessed no national consciousness and simply identified as Christians.”

On page 92-93 Nick provides an example of religion being used to substitute for ethnic or national identity. He writes “A parallel account was given in 1888 by the Greek Professor Valavanes concerning his native Cappodocian village. Valavanes concluded that: Hellenism exists almost intact in the Christian community, the Asia Minor Greek ‘does not even know the name of the tribe to which he belongs’. Asked what he is ‘he will answer you promptly Christian’. ‘Very well, others are Christian too, the Armenians, the French, the Russians. ...’ ‘I don’t know’, he will tell you, ‘yes, they too (may) believe in Christ, but I am a Christian’. ‘Aren’t you perhaps a Hellene?’ ‘No, I’m not anything (of the sort). I told you I am a Christian, and again I tell you I am a Christian!’ he will answer you impatiently. According to Valavanes, this demonstrates the close relationship of the notions of Christianity and ethnicity for these people, and they ‘love Russia as a bulwark of the faith against the enemy of Christ’.”

I have always believed that Macedonians had never had the need to define themselves as anything other than Macedonians. Here is what Nick has to say: “A popular term of identification indicating separateness from, others, and acknowledges an individual or group as being Macedonian, is the term ‘nash’ or ‘nashi’, literally meaning ‘ours’ -or ‘one of ours’.

These terms of identification persist even at the beginning of the twenty-first century. Similarly Macedonian Muslims, when referring to other Macedonian Muslims, used the term ‘nash Turchin’ (‘one of us’ / ‘ours – Turk’) instead of simply ‘Turchin’, as was the case when referring to a Muslim Turkish speaker. Depending upon which particular Balkan church maintained religious jurisdiction over a village, the inhabitants might have used the terms ‘Exarchists’ (Eksarhisti) or ‘Patriarchists’ (Patriarhisti) when referring to ‘others’, or when intending to use derogatory labels one could refer to ‘others’ as ‘Bugari’ (Bulgarians) or ‘Grci’ (Greeks). These labels were understood as being representative of a religious association and not as a form of ethnic or national identification.”

Nick in his book also tackles another controversial but less known subject, the role of the Muslim Albanians in Macedonia. On page 454 he says: “From the end of the eighteenth century, Albanian Muslim colonists, more hostile and violent than the Ottoman Turks, commenced moving into Macedonia and over the coming centuries, to the end of Ottoman rule, were notorious persecutors of the Christian population. Although a limited number of historians have acknowledged that Albanian persecution of Christians resulted in Christians emigrating from western Macedonia, the Albanian role in the Islamicisation of the Macedonian Christian population has been largely unnoticed by historians.”

Another less noticeable subject that Nick has tackled in his book is how religion was used to manipulate census numbers. Here is what he has to say on page 454: “Islamicisation can be viewed as a strategy aimed at securing Ottoman rule. At the end of the nineteenth century; when the Empire was in a process of decay, and the Ottomans were attempting to prolong their rule in the land, they claimed that the Muslim element constituted the majority element in Macedonia. The numerical importance of Islamicised Macedonians saw them incorporated into the overall Turkish/Muslim population figures.

Contemporary and modern, accounts of the political rivalry of late nineteenth-century Ottoman Macedonia fail to examine the position of the Macedonian Muslim population. Ottoman Macedonia is too often viewed only from a Christian perspective -in relation to the struggle of the Balkan States for the adherence of the Macedonian Christian population. In contrast, the present work has considered Macedonians of the Muslim religion in terms of perceptions of their own identity. Furthermore, Macedonian Muslim perceptions of Macedonian Christians are of vital importance to the overall aims of this thesis. Evidence obtained indicates that Macedonian Christians were viewed as the same people, but of a different religion, and not as ‘Bulgarians’, ‘Greeks’ or ‘Serbs’. Macedonian Muslims of the sample Reka district had no concept or understanding of the terms ‘Patriarchists’ and ‘Exarchists’ as labels for Macedonian Christians.”

Nick Anastasovski has made use of over sixty primary and more that one hundred and thirty secondary sources as well as numerous other documents to put this book together.

With 520 pages and a large format, “The Contest For Macedonian Identity 1870-1912” is a well researched and easy to read book that everyone should own. It is an excellent defensive weapon to use in the protection of the Macedonian identity.

“The Contest For Macedonian Identity 1870-1912” is the ninth Macedonian book published by Pollitecon Publications. It is available in Australia for $35 plus $10 postage.

In North America the book can be purchased from the Canadian Macedonian Historical Society’s web page www.macedonianhistory.ca for $ 45 Canadian. See http://www.macedonianhistory.ca/html/books.html

The Contest For Macedonian Identity 1870-1912

By Nick Anastasovski

Published by

POLLITECON PUBLICATIONS

PO Box 3102 Abbotsford NSW 2046

Australia Ph: (02) 9715 7608

Fx: (02) 9713 1004

Em: info@pollitecon.com

Web: www.pollitecon.com

Editor & Publisher: Victor Bivell

Front Cover: A Macedonian family from the Reka region of western Macedonia circa early 20th century.

ISBN 978-0-9804763-0-9

@ Copyright 2008

About the author:

Nick Anastasovski was born in 1965 in Bitola, Macedonia. He arrived with his family in Australia in early 1966 and grew up in the western suburbs of Melbourne. He graduated from La Trobe University with a Bachelor of Arts degree with majors in Sociology and Philosophy. He was awarded the degree of Doctor of Philosophy at Victoria University in 2006 for The Contest for Macedonian Identity 1870-1912 (under the title of Contestations over Macedonian Identity 1870-1912). In recognition of Nick's academic performance, he was awarded Outstanding Final Year Research Student in the School of Social Sciences at Victoria University in 2006.

VINOZHITO’s Second Congress held in the Village Sorovichevo, Lerin Region

2009-01-13T21:35:00.000-08:00

By Dimitar Chulev

Translated and edited by Risto Stefov

Sorovichevo, Lerin Region – Around two hundred delegates, European Union guests and journalists attended VINOZHITO’s Second Congress held in the village Sorovichevo, Lerin Region. Top priority was the demand that the Greek government accept reality; the ethnic Macedonian minority exists in Greece and Greece had better start answering to the demands of this party around which this Macedonian minority gravitates. The Congress also insisted that the Greek government open schools and start teaching the Macedonian language.

The gathering at this picturesque Lerin Region village did not pass unnoticed by the Greek nationalists. A group of about twenty nervous looking ultra nationalists, belonging to the racist Golden Dawn organization, attempted to disrupt and prevent the gathering. They were giving out leaflets with slogans like “Get out Bulgarians and Skopje-phils” and “If you came to Amindeo (Sorovichevo), you have come to nowhere” trying to intimidate the delegates. The ultra nationalists were held back by the police who discreetly blockaded them to the road around the cultural building, where the gathering initially began.

The aim of the large presence of police vehicles, since the early morning hours, was to intimidate and discourage the delegates coming from Boden, Seres, Drama, Kukush, Enidzhevardar, Kostur, Kajlari Regions and from the Solun Region villages from attending the Congress.

Pavle Voskopulos, member of the collective VINOZHITO leadership, greeted each delegate individually with much emotion and called out the place in Macedonia where each came from. Delegates were applauded as they arrived.

Grigoris Vallianatos, recently sacked Media Advisor to the Greek PASOK leader Georgos Papandreu, who a short time ago openly expressed his personal opinion asserting that Greece needs to recognize the Macedonian minority, was apologetic to those present because, as he put it, he did not know the Macedonian language.

“In this country officially there are only Greeks, but unofficially, you know and I know that there are Albanians, Turks, Catalonians, Orthodox, transsexuals… but there are also Macedonians: Greek Macedonians or pure Macedonians, generally it is not a question whether we agree or not. This is reality.”

In a press conference Vallianatos said “The people think that Macedonians don’t exist, but here we are in this village as guests – people whose identity is not Greek. The problem is that people in Greece learn about Philip and Alexander and after that there is a long period of emptiness which needs to be filled up.” Regarding learning the Macedonian language in Greek schools, Vallianatos said that in the European Union it is not unusual for different ethnic groups to coexist.

Athanasios –Nase Parisis, VINOZHITO member and president of the Greek European Bureau of Lesser Used Languages (EBLUL) is optimistic that through demands we can push the Greek government to introduce learning of the Macedonian language in Greek schools. It is a reality and can be achieved. “That would be attainable as long as the EU transforms its political power and strengthens its authority to demand of some of its members, like Greece and Bulgaria, to relax their chauvinistic doctrines and negation of their minorities in their countries.”

Max Sinoni from the Corsican movement, an old friend to VINOZHITO who in 1994 invited leaders of this party to Strasburg, was first to congratulate the delegates. “Thank you for inviting me for the second time to come to Macedonia and to encourage you that you as part of the Free European Alliance have full rights to struggle for your rights,” said Sinoni. He also added that “Macedonian or Corsican – we are part of something that is missing but we are representatives of real cultures which exist today.”

Jan Dietrich, representative of the Federal Union of European Nationalities (FUEN) said that “Sometime we forget how hard it is to be a minority in Europe. But the rights of the minorities are not something that is acquired, for that you have to fight.” He called on members of VINOZHITO to continue with the struggle for which there is support in Europe, where every seventh person belongs to a minority or speaks a minority language different from the official language of the state.

“The European Federation consists of 84 organizations from 35 countries and one of its basic principles is achieving rights through dialog; there is no room for aggressive methods,” said Dietrich. According to Dietrich, Greece and its minorities will soon find themselves on the European Parliament agenda.

Neli Maes, European Free Alliance President, sent his congratulations to the Congress by letter with a message to the Greek government which said, “The road to real and democratic Europe starts from Athens, passes through Lerin and ends up in Brussels.”

Abdulhaum Dede from the Anti-Nationalistic Initiative gave his speech with his back turned to the audience. “I am not going to address a non-existent minority, as Karamanlis claims. You exist… We exist, but they don’t want to look at us. They notice us only when they want to call you ‘Skopjani’ and us ‘Musulmani’.”

During the discussion it was ascertained that it was time for the delegates to work harder on the ground and to familiarize the people with their rights and not to be still afraid to freely reveal their identity.

Stojan Georgiev greeted the delegates on behalf of the six-thousand OMO Ilinden-Pirin members and added that the Macedonians from Bulgaria, Greece and Albania are leading a struggle for the recognition of the Macedonian minorities. We see a united Macedonia in the framework of a European Union and of Balkans without borders.

Edmond Temelko, mayor of Pustets, in the name of the Macedonian Community in Albania, which in 2005 registered a political party, ascertained that “We can achieve our rights only through system integration in the country where we live.” Temelko informed the delegates that all schools in Pustets now teach the Macedonian language and Macedonians in Albania are working to implement the same in all regions where Macedonians live.

The first VINOZHITO Congress was held in Solun four years ago.

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MHRMI Thanks Canadian Macedonian Community for Continued Support

Toronto, Canada, December 3, 2008 - Macedonian Human Rights Movement International (MHRMI) would like to thank the Canadian Macedonian community for its dedication to the Macedonian cause and tremendous support for Macedonian human rights.

MHRMI held an information forum on October 26, 2008 at St. Clement of Ohrid Macedonian Orthodox Cathedral in Toronto. Along with special guests Archimandrite Nikodim Tsarknias (in person), and Pavle Filipov Voskopoulos (via telephone), MHRMI gave the community an update on recent human rights developments and its activities surrounding the pursuit of human rights for Macedonians worldwide and specifically in Greece, Bulgaria, Albania and the Republic of Macedonia.

For over two decades, MHRMI has brought the plight of Macedonians to the attention of the world through: meetings with governments, key international policy-makers and non-governmental organizations; targeted attendance at international human rights conferences; and reporting and publishing on the human rights abuses suffered by Macedonians.

Our vision sees a future where Macedonians are officially recognized and can enjoy the most basic of human rights such as freedom of speech, freedom of worship, and respect for their right to self-identification as Macedonians.

The Macedonian communities of the world have become organized, energized and determined to pursue their struggle for long denied, universal human rights. Macedonian Human Rights Movement International needs your support so that we may continue to assist Macedonians in their struggle for human rights.

Please consider giving a monthly, annual or one-time donation by visiting www.mhrmi.org/donation.asp. For more information, please contact us at 416-850-7125 or info@mhrmi.org.

LONG LIVE MAKEDONIA

2009-01-13T01:46:00.001-08:00

Whoever did these is a champion, top stuff!

Macedonian’s options don’t need to include Greece or the EU

2009-01-13T01:00:00.001-08:00

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.

Modern Greece and the Macedonian Heritage – Part 2 – Who are the Modern Greeks?

2009-01-11T22:51:00.000-08:00

By Risto Stefov

rstefov@hotmail.com

January 11, 2009

According to official Greece, Macedonia, particularly the Republic of Macedonia, is occupied by Slavs who came to Macedonia during the 6th century AD. Neither justified nor proven, this claim is used by Greece to negate the Macedonian identity and deny the Macedonian people their human rights. By this Greece is in
violation of international norms and standards particularly in regards to the freedom of Macedonians to self identify.

If the Macedonians are “Slavs” as Greeks claim then what are the Greeks, particularly in view that they both existed side by side as neighbours without borders for over 2,000 years?

How will the Modern Greek identity stack up to the Modern Macedonian identity if placed side by side?

Before answering the above questions however let’s examine “Who are the Modern Greeks?”

Edward Blaquiere Esq. author of the book “The Greek Revolution; Its Origin and Progress” on page 21 says: “Among the numerous islands of the Aegean, arise several barren rocks, some of which are however gifted by nature with small and commodious heavens. Of this number are Hydra Spezzia and Ipsara, the two first close to the Eastern shore of the Peloponnesus, and the later not far from Scio, on the Asiatic coast. Tyranny and Want had driven some families, whose origin like that of nearly all the peasants, who inhabited proper Greece, was Albanian, to take refuge on the desolate crags, where they built villages, and sought a precarious existence by fishing.”

What is Edward Blaquiere trying to tell us in regards to the origins of the Modern Greeks, “whose origin like that of nearly all the peasants, who inhabited proper Greece, was Albanian”. By the words of Edward Blaquiere nearly all the peasants inhabiting “proper” Greece were Albanian!

William St. Clair author of the book “That Greece Might Still Be Free” on page 9 says: “The Roman Catholic Greeks, who lived in the islands which had been under Venetian or Genoese rule, regarded themselves as a separate community. The Albanians of Hydra and Spetsae, many of whom could not even speak Greek, regarded themselves as Greek because their allegiance was to the Orthodox Church.”

William St. Clair says “The Albanians of Hydra and Spetsae regarded themselves as Greek” which implies that the Modern Greeks living in Hydra and Spetsae have Albanian origins.

Constantinos Papparigopolous in “History of the Hellenic Nation” on page 73 says: “The concept of the ‘Hellenic’ state as elaborated in Western Europe presupposed that this was to be the heir of the Ancient Greek (Hellenic) world. Since it occupied the same territory and this territory has been liberated after the uprising of the Christian populations claiming to be their descendants, it should -it was assumed- share the same culture and the same language as its ancient ancestors. Indeed, the newly born ‘Hellenic’ state originally based its legitimacy on this heritage. However, it had to undertake a difficult struggle to convince European public opinion of the validity of its claims. Moreover, the German historian Jacob Philip Fallmerayer argued that the ancient Greeks had been annihilated during the Slavic invasions of the Greek lands and the creation of new settlements in the seventh century AD. By this account the so called Neo-Hellenes were nothing more than a mixture of Slavic and Albanian populations.”

Here again we have references that the Modern Greek or Neo-Hellenic population living in the region where the Peloponnesus is today was once a mixture of Slavs and Albanians.

Ironically and despite the 20th century adjustments of borders, Modern Greeks today do not hesitate to call their northern neighbours “Slavs” but adamantly reject Jacob Philip Fallmerayer’s arguments which imply that they too are the descendants of Slavs.

In the book “The Vlachs: The History of a Balkan People”, on pages 124 and 125, T. J. Winifrith says: “There are two other difficulties involved in the Turkish period. In tracing the movements of merchandise and men in the Balkan peninsula it is extremely difficult to differentiate the various races involved. Western travelers knew little, Turkish authorities cared less. Even the polyglot Vlachs themselves neither knew nor cared a great deal and until the rise of national consciousness at the end of the eighteenth century were probably happy with the label of Greek which was good enough for outside observers.”

In the book “The Vlachs: The History of a Balkan People”, on page 139, T. J. Winifrith says: “One of Greece’s first and best Prime Ministers was John Kolettis, a Vlach who dressed like a Turk and had been court physician to Ali Pasha.”

Speaking about 19th century migrations in the Balkans, in the book “The Vlachs: The History of a Balkan People”, on pages 119 and 120, T. J. Winifrith says: “Elsewhere there is a further source of confusion with massive immigration of Albanians into Greece.”

In telling the story of the Vlachs, T. J. Winifrith gives us important clues as to the true identity of Modern Greeks. In the days when Modern Greece was molded into a nation Vlachs, a Latin speaking people, and Albanians were the primary sources of raw materials for the “making” of the Modern Greeks.

In the “Popular Science Monthly” edited by J. McKeen Cattell, published in 1915 on pages 41 and 42 we read: “Most of the old Greek race has been swept away, and the country is now inhabited by persons of Slavonic descent. Indeed there is a strong ground for the statement that there was more of the heroic blood of Hellas in the Turkish army of Edhem Pasha than in the soldiers of King George.”

In the “Popular Science Monthly” edited by J. McKeen Cattell, published in 1915 on page 42 we also read: “The Modern Greek has been called a ‘Byzantine Slav.’ King George himself and Constantine his son are only aliens placed on the Grecian throne to suit the convenience of outer powers, being in fact descendants of tribes which to the ancient Greeks were merely Barbarians.”

Here we are told by Popular Science Monthly that not only have the ancient so-called Greeks disappeared and been replaced by persons of Slavonic descent but that even the rulers of Modern Greece are aliens.

In the “Encyclopedia Britannica” published in 1910 on page 465 in the History of Greece section we read: “In 1715 the Ottomans with a large disciplined army set themselves to recover the Morea [later renamed the Peloponnesus], the Venetians were left without support from the Greeks. The peninsula was rapidly recaptured and by the Peace of Passarowitz (1718) again became a Turkish dependency. The gaps left about this time in the Greek population were largely made up by an immigration from Albania.”

I have been told by several Greeks to “read the encyclopedia” and educate myself on the true history of Greece. So following their advice I looked up the 1910 version of Encyclopedia Britannica and lo and behold it corroborates the story that the early 19th century Modern Greek population is Albanian. It also tells us that old Greece, more commonly known as Morea, a Slav word for “ocean”, was occupied by the Venetians.

In “Greece of the Hellenes” by Lucy M. J. Garnett on page 32 we read: “The Athenian women are neither beautiful nor well made; they have neither the physiognomy of French women, nor the full beauty of the Roman dames, nor the pale white delicacy of the Turkish women –one sees nothing in the town but ugly creatures with broad noses, flat feet and ill-formed waists. It is because Athens, twenty five years ago, was only an Albanian village. The Albanians formed and still form, almost the whole of the population of Attica; and within three leagues of the capital, villages are to be found where Greek is hardly understood. Athens has been rapidly peopled with men of all kinds and nations; that explains the ugliness of the Athenian type.”

Here Lucy M. J. Garnett comes out with it and spares us no details. Athens, at Modern Greece’s humble beginning, the seat of Modern and Ancient Greek-Dom, the pinnacle of Greek pride and glory in the 19th century was nothing more than an “Albanian village”.

Albanians, Vlachs, Slavs? Where are the so-called Greeks, descendants of the ancient Greeks, inheritors of the ancient Greek and Macedonian heritage?

We don’t need to look too far or scratch too deep from the surface to find irregularities with the Greek identity. Even with the scant evidence presented from only half a dozen sources we can see that the Modern Greek identity is not what it seems. So, how dare they [Modern Greeks] challenge our Macedonian identity when their [Modern Greek] identity is artificial at best?

Dear Macedonians, pay no attention to Modern Greek allegations because Modern Greeks are NOT really who they say they are. Modern Greeks are NOT the descendents of the so-called Ancient Greeks as they portray themselves to be. The so-called Ancient Greeks may have been who the world was told they were, which is yet to be proven, but they disappeared a long time ago. I can tell you with much certainty that the Modern Greeks are NOT their descendants. The Modern Greeks are nothing more than imposters and usurpers of the Ancient City State heritage. The only thing they have in common with the ancients is that they happened to live on the same lands.

Dear Macedonians do not “negotiate” our sacred biblical name, our symbols and our Macedonian historical heritage with these usurpers and charlatans.

We would not have to resort to this had Greece done the right thing and recognized the Macedonian people as Macedonians and provided them their human rights as prescribed by International Law. But No, we have to do this the hard way by dredging up the ugly Greek past! It’s never too late however for Greece to do the right thing!

For those who are still not convinced that the Modern Greek identity is an artificial creation, please continue to read this series of articles.

Author’s note:

Dear Macedonians, one way to defend ourselves from the Greek onslaught and gain back our identity and dignity is to fight back to the level to which the Greeks have reduced us; that is to attack their identity as they have attacked ours. We need prove nothing to them except to expose them as the artificial identity they truly are and to uncover their design to wipe us out in order to usurp our Macedonian heritage.

To be Continued.

Many thanks to TrueMacedonian from www.maknews.com for his contribution to this article.

Macedonians in Greece - Part 12 – Terror in Greek occupied Macedonia

2009-01-10T21:56:00.000-08:00

Macedonians in Greece

1939 – 1949

Part 12 – Terror in Greek occupied Macedonia

By Risto Stefov

rstefov@hotmail.com

January 2009

During the German and Italian occupation the Macedonian people in Greek occupied Macedonia, in spite of being occupied, enjoyed some freedoms including the ability to speak Macedonian, their mother tongue, which had been denied to them by the Greeks since Greece occupied Macedonia in 1912. By their participation and sacrifices in the resistance movement resulting in the eviction of the occupiers the Macedonian people felt they had earned their freedom and place in Greek society and were entitled to equal rights. Unfortunately as events unfolded Macedonians not only lost everything they had gained but now were about to lose even more. From the first day the Greek National Guard arrived in Macedonia it began an unprecedented terror campaign.

The moment the National Guard entered the city of Voden it began firing live rounds at civilians killing 4 people. Just hearing the Macedonian language being spoken on the streets set the National Guard off on a shooting spree towards unarmed civilians. Such actions were unprecedented and more extreme than those of the Metaxas regime.

Here is what Petsi, the secretary of the Voden Region Peoples’ Liberation Front (PLF), had to say;

“People from the Security Services detained Kosta Chorlinov and jailed him for speaking Macedonian. Petar Sarakinliev was also detained the same day and accused of openly speaking Macedonian in public. Sarakinliev was held in jail for 24 hours and released. He was beaten close to death. The millers Trajo Sapundzhiev and Tanas Akrepov were detained in their gardens at L’got by the National Guard and accused of speaking Macedonian. In a rain of bullets, Atanas Akrepov managed to escape while Trajo Sapundzhiev was taken away and put in jail where he was subjected to brutal torture. He was released six days later a cripple.” (Andonovski, Hristo. Vistinata za Egejska Makedonija. Skopje: Misla, 1971, pages 157, 158)

On July 25, 1945 the National Guard flag bearer pulled out his pistol and fired at children he heard praying out loud in the Macedonian language at the Kjuprija neighbourhood in Voden.

Janis Perchemlis, Gerimdzhes and Fotiadis, well known collaborators and Fascists who spied for the Germans during the occupation, were seen pacing up and down the streets calling out loud “lists of those going to jail are already made”. In other words they were openly threatening the population with harm without naming names, clearly a terror tactic to frighten everyone.

On July 10th, 1945 the Greek Gendarme located in the village Lukovtsi detained 4 girls from the same village. No reason was give. The girls were taken away to jail and placed under guard in the city of Sobotsko where they were subjected to torture. A few days later, 14 boys all under the age of fifteen were also detained in Lukovtsi and beaten to death. This was a tragedy not just for their parents but for the entire community.

On August 15th, 1945 the Fascist Socrates Tumanidis and his band of cut throats invaded the village Lukovtsi, detained 10 people and took them to the village Dragomentsi where they subjected them to beastly torture. Tortured the worst was Nikola Markov who in addition to being badly beaten had to endure hot eggs placed under his armpits and salt poured on his wounds.

On August 19th, 1945 the Greek Gendarme detained and jailed 25 people from the village Sarakinovo. A Greek Captain from the nearby army base, together with several soldiers, raped a young Macedonian woman in the village Tresino in front of her father-in-law. In a beastly manner, Jovan Dokov from the village Pozhartsko was ferociously beaten and while still conscious was buried alive. In the village Strupino 13 houses were burned down. One of those houses belonged to Tasho Bojchev, a Macedonian resistance fighter. Bojchev’s wife was killed and her body was thrown in the fire to burn. The same day Germanos Papadopoulos and his band of nationalists detained and killed 2 Macedonian boys.

In the summer of 1945 a band of well known occupier collaborators from Drama Region appeared in Lerin Region. Lead by the murderous Andon Chaush the band of nationalists took control of entire villages and sealed the doors of the Macedonian homes with wax so no one could get in or out. Macedonians were placed under house arrest overnight for at least 12 hours without an explanation. No one dared break the seal for fear of what might happen to them.

Members of the National Guard roamed the streets during the nights and broke into the houses of those jailed and abused and raped their wives and daughters. In the village Setina, National Guardsmen raped the young wives of two brothers. Another young woman was then taken to the barracks and repeatedly raped overnight. The next morning she was taken and surrendered to her relatives, half dead. One particular woman from the village of Petoratsi was targeted, because of her activities in the United Panhellenic Organization of Youth, and raped.

On July 6th, 1945 members of National Guard from the 165 battalion raped 4 women in the village Gornichovo because their husbands were serving in the Yugoslav army. Rapes and robberies were also committed in the villages Gorno Kleshtina, Elovo, Sorovich and Rudnik.

On July 10th, 1945 Balkanski, in a report to the leadership of the PLF, stated that the National Guard had stolen 250 sheep from the village Eksisu, 2 herds of sheep, 6 oxen and 6 pigs from the village Zelenich and one herd of sheep from the village Mokreni.

As the national election date in March 1946 approached terror and pressure on the Macedonian people increased dramatically. On March 5th, 1946 members of the National Guard jailed 10 people from the village Nered. They were all taken to court and without a shred of evidence, presented as members of the Greek National Liberation Front (GNLF) and of the National Liberation Army of Greece (NLAG). Similar events took place in the villages Neokazi, Popozhani, Boreshnitsa, and Sekulevo.

On March 13th, 1946 10 people from the village Petoratsi were sued in the Lerin court and were given 10 to 15 year prison sentences for accusations of being GNLF and NLAG members. Among those sued were Bitko Mijalev, Lazo Damjanov, Naso Zhinzov and Vasil Popov. Another 18 people from the village Setine were also sued by the same court and handed 8 to 10 year prison sentences. These people were accused of various crimes by the teacher Miltiadis Dulukas who was a witness at their trials.

Betrayed by Irini Mechkari a number of people were picked up by the Ofchareni Gendarmes at 9 pm on March 6th, 1946 and sent to jail. Among those jailed included were Dimo Kratev and Vane Alamchev from Krushoradi.

In a separate incident on March 15th, 1946, the same Gendarme from Ofchareni, lead by collaborator and spy Janis Apostolidis, stormed into the village Krushoradi and abducted resistance fighters Petar Donevski, Pando Vesev, Spase Dzhodzhov and Gjorgij Majnov. The next day they were taken to Lerin and put in prison.

More Macedonians were rounded up and taken before the courts in Lerin, even decent resistance fighters like Jordan Vitkov who was sentenced to life imprisonment with hard labour, Katerina Ts. Shabalova sentenced to 3 years imprisonment and Alekso Gashtarov, Sveto Charkev and Gjorgij Chakalov from the village Setina sentenced from 8 to 12 years imprisonment which prompted one to speak up and say “We are Macedonians and that is why it is not difficult that we must lie in prison. This is our tax for our freedom. The Macedonians are used to spending time in prison, but for us one day the sun will shine”.

(Andonovski, Hristo. Vistinata za Egejska Makedonija. Skopje: Misla, 1971, page 161)

While rounding up resistance fighters the Gendarme was also looking to recruit new informants. This was done by intimidation or by bribes. Fearful for their lives some could not take the pressure and succumbed to the will of their torturers while others were willing to sell their services for a price. Among those who succumbed were Gjorgij Bukovski, Metodi Mechkarov, and Spase Rumelov all from the village Krushoradi. They became the new agitators for the nationalists and took on the role of spreading rumors and pitting neighbour against neighbour. They were also put in charge of dividing the relief aid donated by the United Nations Relief Agency. Unfortunately none of the relief aid was given to the needy. Almost all of it was stolen by those in charge and sold in the black market.

Terror was not restricted to Voden, Meglen and Lerin Regions alone; it was widespread throughout all of Macedonia but more prevalent in the Western Region. There was massive terror and persecution against the Macedonian people in Kostur Region since Varkiza, prompting the Regional Council of the GNLF to list some of them in the bulletin “News of the Day” on June 6th, 1945.

On May 17th, 1945 a National Guard band from the village Inon (Tsakoni) attacked the village Polipotamos and severely beat most of the villagers. After beating him to near death, Zhivko Poptrajanov was taken to Kostur for interrogation.

On May 19th, 1945 a band of around 200 armed nationalist bandits from the villages Shijaki, Chetirok and Gorno Paprechko attempted to enter the village Polipotamos in order to plunder it. The villagers however did not succumb to fear and fought back with sticks and stones as they met the gangsters before reaching their village. The village came out victorious with only a single casualty. Lazo Antonopoulos was wounded.

On May 23rd, 1945 the same village was blockaded by the National Guard. This time guardsmen detained and beat many residents accusing them of being communists. Fifteen people were beaten to near death and the entire village was plundered and three flocks of sheep were stolen.

On May 31st, 1945 Andreas Papadopoulos with a group of 15 residents from the village Zagorichani, armed with rifles and wearing military uniforms blockaded the Macedonian part of the village and summoned all the Macedonians. Some were tied to a post and severely beaten with whips as they were forced to run like horses around the post and humiliated. Mitse Popjovanov, the village mailman, was beaten so badly that his life hung by a thread.

In May 1945 armed bands of nationalistic elements of Asia Minor settlers, who were settled in Macedonia by the Greek state in the 1920’s, attacked the village Brest and stole a flock of 1,200 sheep. They stole all the flocks of sheep from the village Dolno Papretsko and about 300 sheep from the village Setoma. When the people from the robbed villages went to the Regional Governor in Kostur to complain, he kicked them out of his office and told them “to go to hell”.

In spite of GNLF numerous attempts to publicize the terror in an attempt to curb it, the ultra-nationalists continued to commit crimes unabated.

On July 1st, 1945 Andreas Papadopoulos’s band of nationalists attacked the village Breshtani, summoned all residents and began to indiscriminately beat them. Many, including three women, fell unconscious from the beatings. Lazar Panduli’s wife was purposely undressed in public and while bare naked was raped by 4 of the bandits. Afterwards they carried her off and locked her in a room until they found a donkey and then as she rode the donkey she was paraded through the village and further humiliated. When she was returned to lockup, the man responsible for guarding her felt sorry for her and let her escape.

On July 2nd, 1945 Andrea Papadopoulo’s nationalist band entered the village Tsakoni and committed all kinds of atrocities. Andon Sjula was badly beaten in an attempt to convert him to a turncoat so he could spy for them but they were unable to break him. He later died from the ordeal. Also badly beaten were Vasilis Suklidis, Naum Nartea, Andreas Stavridis and Petar Chocho.

Other thefts reported at the time included 5 heads of large livestock stolen from the village Tikveni by the nationalist Pavle Sjagari.

Other atrocities committed by the nationalists and the National Guard included the rape and execution of Dafina Valtova from the village Izglebi and the rape of 20 women from the village Gratsi.

Unrestricted nationalist bands went on committing crimes in Kukush and Drama Regions, spreading rabid terror wherever they set foot. Terrible tortures were committed in the village Postol, Enidzhe-Vardar Region, resulting in the death of 70 year old Poliakov. In Kukush Region a band of nationalists, lead by ex-German collaborator Kisabadzhak, indiscriminately rounded up and beat people, wounding 8. Andreas Georgiadis and Hristos Georgiadis were both wounded with a pistol blow to the head.

It is unfortunate that these brutal acts were committed against innocent civilians and will remain a black spot in the history of Greece but what is most unfortunate is the behaviour of the Bulgaris and Sofulis governments during 1945-1946 which praised these atrocities as acts of heroism committed in the defense of Greece.

Gumendzhisko Region is another place in the dark history of Greece where a long list of imprisonments, tortures, maltreatments and killings were committed against the Macedonian people. The following report entitled “Blockades, imprisonments and internments after Varkiza,” was prepared by Hristo Balkanov leader of the PLF for Gumendzhisko Region. (Andonovski, Hristo. Vistinata za Egejska Makedonija. Skopje: Misla, 1971, pages 163 - 165)

Imprisoned

On February 12th, 1945 18 citizens from the city Gumendzhe were jailed in Solun. Included among those jailed were Gjorgij Kostraki, Vangel Kostraki, Jovan Popnikov, Kostadin Korov, Trajko Kalinov, Hristo Michjorov, Hristo Hadzhigjoriov, Vangel Hr. Nichev, Dimitar Shaldev, Hristo Chjakov and others.

On March 18th, 1946 citizens Risto Kostarski, and Stamat Ljapa were sent to jail in Solun because they were accused of being under the influence of “Ohrana”, a Bulgarian sponsored organization that operated in Kostur Region.

On March 8th, 1946 imprisoned were Petros Hadzhikarmenis, Janis Hadzhikarmenis, Kostas Hadzhikarmenis, Janakis Kostas, Dimitar Uzunov, Hristo Uzunov, Stamat Stamenov, Todor Vaskov and Gligor Tumbov from the villge Petgas. Among the 35 men and women interned from the village Kriva included were Vangel Janakev, Atanas Jankov, Jovan Ropkov, Tano Janakev, Jovan Mladev, Petar Hadzhikarmenis, Tano Tsegli, Hristo Sjagli, Gjorgij Janakov, Paskalina Mitrova, Anastas Karadzha, Elisabeta Gatsi, Katerina Stoju, Marika Pulka and others.

From January to August 1946 more than 100 citizens from Gumendzhe alone were imprisoned including members of the Menchev family. From the village Barovitsa imprisoned were Jovan Chutra, Hristo Sjuli, Hristo Ajta, Gjorgij Kjosev, Jovan Gata, Katina Kuta, the entire Vangel Shoshov family, Paskalina Garti and Gjorgij Todorov Shoshov. From the village Karpi imprisoned were Gjorgij Tekni, Hristo Pejkov, Hristo Kirkov, Hristo Kjoska, Gjorgij Kjoska, Gjorgij Dzharov, Gjorgij Popnokolov, Atanas Betov, Maria Beta, Aneta Benova, Gjorgij Erov, Aneta Tumba, Dimitar Popjanov and Jovan Popjanov. From the village Mandelevo 16 people were imprisoned, from Isiklar 50, from Boemitsa 15 and from Gorgopik 50.

Raped

Four women were raped.

Killed

After receiving information from informant Hristo Petsi, British soldiers, in June 1945 went in pursuit of Petar Stamenitov from the village Pendalofos and had him killed in the chestnut grove above the village Kriva.

On August 25th, 1945 army and Gendarme Greek nationalists killed Kosta Dzhina from the village Laka, Atanas Koroveshov from the village Smrdesh and Atanas Lubchev from the village Kastaneri. These individuals were executed in Krombi, Edindzhe-Vardar Region.

On November 17th, 1945, upon their surrender by the collaborator Dimitar Dojara from the village Kastaneri, the National Guard executed Gjorgij Shashev from Kastaneri, Hristo G. Tartev, Trifun Ajta, Dimitar Parlapanov, Hristo Gatsov, Gjorgij Gulev, Petar Karamutev and Aleksandar Vasilev from Kriva, Gumendzhisko Region. The executions took place in the Sehovo area near the village Barovitsa.

On August 14th, 1946 in the village Izvor executed were Hristo Sima and Vasilios Kustalidis.

On August 15th, 1946 in Gumendzhe the nationalists and gendarmes killed Gjorgij Hadzhipopov, Dimitar Karadzha from Gumendzhe, Kosta Popjanov from Karpi, Lazo Projchev from Gomendzhe, Gjorgij Tampov from Kastaneri, Petad Dautis, Jovan Shahsov, Trifun Minov, and Tano Mitachov from Karpi.

On September 16th, 1946 civilian nationalists aided by the Gendarme beat to death with sticks Janis Asaridis from Gerakona, Nikos Karamanlis and Janis Sideris from Aksiupolis.

Plundered and Burned

On September 20th, 1946 a detachment of gendarmes and bandits entered the village Barovitsa and burned the houses of brothers Trifun and Gjorgij Kuplev and took 2 mules, 300 goats, cheese, butter and everything of value they could find. They did the same to Hristo P. Kurlev’s house and to the houses and properties of Petar Ajta, Kosta Projchev, Tano Gatsev, Kosta Gatsev, Gjorgij Taratev, Jovan Kovachev, Hristo Cholakov and Gjorgij Poppetrov.

According to a report compiled by Petar Asprov, the Regional leader of the PLF for Prespa Region, on December 23rd, 1945 atrocities were also committed against the Macedonian people in Prespa Region.

On October 5th, 1945 a group of National Guardsmen blockaded the village Shtrkovo and imprisoned 7 Macedonians, who after been beaten were sent to Lerin. Among the 7 beaten included were Joshe Grozdanov, Bozhin Kostov, Pando Kostov and Stavre Katielov.

On October 10th, 1945 the village Rudari was blockaded and 15 people were taken and sent to the Lerin jail. Joshe Tsaklarovski and Mihail Mihailovski were beaten to a state of unconsciousness.

Prespa Region remained under a state of terror from the moment Gizas and Sarandopoulos were appointed Police Chiefs in the villages Gjerman and Popli respectively, to the spring of 1947 when they were driven out by the Democratic Army of Greece (DAG).

This perpetrated terror horrified the people and weighed very heavily on those who had just liberated Greece from the German, Italian and Bulgarian occupiers only to hand it to a more ferocious enemy determined to destroy them. The peace loving Macedonians who wanted nothing more than to live as equals with the Greeks now once again became a target of ultra-nationalism. But in spite of the reality on the ground Greek authorities, who at the time were in control, made every effort to downplay the situation. Printing presses and radio stations were busy misinforming the public by putting the blame north of Greece’s border. It was they that were causing the problem and putting Greece’s national integrity into jeopardy. The world however was wise to Greece and the best Greek reactionary propaganda could not stop the objective observers from expressing their own displeasure and repulsiveness regarding the atrocities committed by the pro-government nationalists and the organs of the government itself.

A British officer, who at the time was stationed in Greece, on November 22nd, 1947 made the following remarks for the newspaper “New Statesmen and Nation”. In short he described the situation in Greece like this: “One week after the signing of the Varkiza agreement I witnessed the most horrific and antisocial behaviour committed by the newly formed National Guard made up from personnel from the former collaborators of the occupiers. Everyone who placed their faith in the word of the agreement (which the English had guaranteed) and did not leave in good time, were put in prison and mistreated. In an underground enclosure in the larger part of a kitchen in a small flat I saw 16 men, women and children. Two of the men were lying on the floor unconscious swimming in a pool of their own blood. Every prisoner had the right to go to the toilet only once in three hours and only for three minutes. An old man, because he was selling GNLF newspapers, was tied and beaten for an entire hour. None of the prisoners were informed as to why they were imprisoned. None of the prisoners were taken to court, sued and found guilty but were kept in prison for nine months. This was not an isolated situation during the time when not a single group of communists existed and not even a single leftist activity was taking place.” (Andonovski, Hristo. Vistinata za Egejska Makedonija. Skopje: Misla, 1971, pages 166 - 167)

The newspaper “Daily Mirror” published an article written by a British soldier who personally had witnessed atrocities committed by the Greek Rightist forces. The article was illustrated with photographs showing people being tortured and beaten. There were photographs of mass slaughters and decapitations. There was even a photograph of a 16 year old decapitated girl. People’s decapitated heads were shown to be carried as trophies hung on the saddles of horses or propped up on spikes.

The people who had suffered and died at the hands of these blood thirsty Greeks were Macedonians who had done nothing wrong except to have being born Macedonian.

Connie (Koni Ziljakus (sp?)) wrote that the official Greek government and the military which was organized by General Charles Ujkam, (sp?) a well known enemy of the communist ideology, well known from the time he was chief of the British military interventionist forces in the Soviet Union, were no better than the police and the gendarmes. “Four fifths of the forces in the official administration, in the courts and in the police are in the hands of these extremists. Surlas’s bands ruled the province and had established their own administration. They are well armed and do what they feel like.” (Andonovski, Hristo. Vistinata za Egejska Makedonija. Skopje: Misla, 1971, page 167)

On December 12th, 1947, quoting British Colonel Shepard, the newspaper “New Democracy” wrote: “The backbone of the Royal Gendarme, making up Greece’s Security battalions today, consists mainly of German collaborators”.

Richard Mayer from the American Overseas Information Agency reported from Athens that “a large part of the former gendarme which a while ago served the Germans is now using the lists left by the Germans to oppress doubtful personalities…” (Andonovski, Hristo. Vistinata za Egejska Makedonija. Skopje: Misla, 1971, page 167)

During 1946 a Commission made up of British Labour Representatives (Solej, Tifanis and Dode (sp?)), visited Greece and examined the political situation in some detail. Upon their return to their own country, on July 17th, 1946 they announced that Greece is 90% Fascist, after which Laski, the former British President of the Labour party of Great Britain prophetically said: “The return of King George to Greece will convert this state into a second Spain…” (Andonovski, Hristo. Vistinata za Egejska Makedonija. Skopje: Misla, 1971, page 168).

Sources:

Andonovski, Hristo. Vistinata za Egejska Makedonija. Skopje: Misla, 1971.

Koliopoulos, John S. Plundered Loyalties; Axis Occupation and Civil Strife in Greek West Macedonia, 1941-1949. London: C. Hurst & Co., 1999.

Mazower, Mark. After the War was Over: Reconstructing the Family, Nation, and State in Greece, 1943-1960. Princeton University Press, 2000.

Pejov, Naum. Makedontsite i Gragjanskata vojna vo Grtsija. Skopje: Institut za Natsionalna Istorija, 1968.

To be continued.

Macedonian’s options don’t need to include Greece or the EU

2009-01-08T03:22:00.001-08:00

Macedonian Refugees from Greece - A Clear Picture is needed

2009-01-05T23:43:00.001-08:00

By Tony Glamchevski

Translated and edited by Risto Stefov

October 22nd, 2008

http://www.dw-world.de/dw/article/0,2144,3731635,00.html

The Greek government must stop its discrimination against the ethnic Macedonians in Greece – says Senator Lambert in an interview with Deutsche Welle.

Gert Lambert is a distinguished Belgian Senator, well known for his stand on the protection of freedom of expression. He is with the party “Vlaamse Progressieven”, a member of the reforms commission of the Belgian state and a member of the Parliamentary European Advisory Assembly. Lambert along with colleagues from 13 European countries have drafted a resolution and submitted it to the Parliamentary European Advisory Assembly for review. The resolution proposes that the Greek government immediately halt its discrimination against ethnic Macedonians, particularly against the political refugees from the Greek Civil War.

Q. Mr. Lambert, you along with 19 other European parliamentarians, have put forward a resolution to the Parliamentary European Advisory Assembly for review where you are asking the Greek government to immediately stop the discrimination against ethnic Macedonians – political refugees from the Greek Civil War. Are you asking for a change in Greek law to allow ethnic Macedonian refugees to reclaim their properties and citizenship? What are the reasons which lead you to this initiative?

Lambert. I believe that there is a need to have a clear picture regarding this question. I understand and recognize that there is an ongoing dispute between Greece and Macedonia for which an agreement needs to be reached. The Macedonian government, on one side, needs to clearly emphasize that it has no intention of widening its territory. The Greek government on the other side needs to accept that it has exiled people from Greece into Macedonia and, after many decades since the end of the Greek Civil War, it is time to find a solution so that these people can live in peace again.

Q. About a year and a half ago you asked the Parliamentary European Advisory Assembly for a speedy review of this question. Did you receive an answer?

Lambert. No, as of yet I have not received any answer.

Q. Do you expect some day to receive an answer?

Lambert. I don’t know. I believe I will, but as of now I have not received one.

Q. The Ministerial Commission is responsible to its parliamentarians and must answer their questions…

Lambert. Yes…yes, yes, that is correct. But no deadline is given for their responses. I am not sure, I will need to check. In any case more than a year and a half has passed and I have not received an answer to my question.

Q. Why do you think is it taking so long to receive an answer to your question?

Lambert. I am not the one to ask. I don’t know and can’t know because it is others who are not answering, and since I put my question in, three Ministerial Commission presidencies have passed. I truly don’t know. The only thing I can think of is that they are afraid to answer.

Q. With the exception of the European Commission on war against racism and intolerance (ECRI) and your initiatives for the return of expropriated Greek citizenships and properties of ethnic Macedonians in Greece, what other European institutions are involved in this question and why?

Lambert. No other European institutions. They are not involved because of diplomatic reasons and maybe they are afraid from time to time…

Q. The Parliamentary Assembly, or to be more precise its bureau, is still not clear where it stands, what are the chances your proposals will be looked at?

Lambert: It all depends on the bureau of the Parliamentary Assembly. Frankly I am a bit concerned that our proposal may be blocked. From similar experiences I know that this kind of resolution, which understandably directly targets the position of a member country, makes people feel uneasy. But to be clear, my aim here is not to criticize people but only the country involved. I have great respect for Greece and the Greeks. My aim with this recommendation is to lead people to answers that will bring them closer together. That is my idea, but it has not yet been achieved. The proposal we drafted was very clear, the political refugees we are speaking about today are people in their seventy’s and after being exiled for many decades have no means of returning to Greece and regaining their citizenship and properties.

Q. Since this proposal is oriented towards Greece, what do you expect from Greece?

Lambert. We have been very clear as to what we want from this proposal; the least we expect from Greece is for it to think about it. I don’t know if the time is right but Greece needs to react bravely and find the means by which to resolve this problem. But what we have accomplished in the least is opened a debate that will hopefully lead to finding a permanent solution.

Q. Will this improve the situation of the Macedonian minority inside Greece?

Lambert. I hope that the situation of the Macedonians inside Greece improves and they achieve their rights to be educated in their mother language and feel free about their identity. I am of the opinion that the existence of variety in Europe is very important but I am not much of an expert on the Macedonian situation in Greece. Unfortunately its situation as a minority is very difficult and the problems which exist between Greece and the Republic of Macedonia are further stressing it. A solution is needed to assure Greece to no longer be afraid of any territorial pretensions from its neighbour.

Q. Macedonia has written in its constitution that it has no territorial pretensions towards Greece or any of its other neighbours.

Lambert. Yes, but you know fear always existed in Greece. That is why there is a need to find a peaceful resolution to lift those fears. Relations have always been tense in that region that is why it is wise to start looking for solutions even for a single problem. I hope this doesn’t lead to new conflicts like some people are saying.

Q. As a Belgian Senator and member of PS of SA, are you satisfied with the action which is leading Europe this day in the European continent?

Lambert. No! I think that generally speaking we are not worried enough about the region.

Q. Mr. Lambert you mentioned the problem with the name as an additional burden in achieving the rights of the Macedonian minority in Greece. What do you think of the name question?

Lambert. I understand the Greek position in relation to the name of the Republic of Macedonia, but there is no need to confront ourselves; we need to find a solution. The name Republic of Macedonia does not need to be the unique solution, something else can be found. In politics new ideas and innovation are needed, not creating problems. We know the problems and the reasons by which Greece is opposing the name Macedonia. “North Macedonia” can be one solution, we all know that one part of Macedonia is found in Bulgaria, the other in Greece and Albania, the prefix to the name can solve the problem. One of two sides needs to take the first step. That is the responsibility which the politicians carry. But I am not the one who needs to decide here. I am convinced that both sides, Macedonian and Greek, have people who can do what is needed to find a solution.

Q. Is the name issue well understood by European politicians and the public?

Lambert. The name issue is well understood by politicians but not so by the public. We were faced with that issue at the NATO reception of Macedonia and again at the widening of the EU. The name issue is being put to the test and politicians are well aware of it. But that does not mean that everyone will politically understand and I can’t say that we worry enough about it.

Q. Let us return to your initiative. Is it going to bring a resolution?

Lambert. We will see about that the moment when we know what kind of continuation we will be given. It may be blockaded at the bureau of the Parliamentary European Advisory Assembly, that’s one possibility, we will see. At the moment I truly don’t know, I hope we will have some good result, but I can’t say for sure.

Потребна е јасна слика за македонските бегалци од Грција

http://www.dw-world.de/dw/article/0,2144,3731635,00.html

Грчката влада треба да ја запре дискриминацијата врз етничките Македонци - ова е барање во предлог-резолуцијата, што сенаторот Герт Ламберт ја поднесе до СЕ. Во интервју за ДВ тој ги објаснува причините за резолуцијата.

Герт Ламберт, белгиски сенатор од редовите на партијата „Vlaamse Progressieven“ и член на Парламентарното Собрание на Советот на Европа, заедно со повеќе негови колеги од 13 европски земји поднесе предлог-резолуција до Парламентарното Собрание на Советот на Европа. Во оваа прeдлог резолуција се бара од грчката влада, веднаш да ја запре дискриминацијата на која се изложени етничките Македонци - политички бегалци од граѓанската војна во Грција. Ламберт е истакнат белгиски сенатор, кој е вклучен во комисијата за реформа на белгиската држава и е познат по неговите ставови за одбрана на слободата на изразување.

Г-дине Ламберт, заедно со други 19 европски парламентарци поднесовте предлог - резолуција до Парламентарното Собрание на Советот на Европа. Вo нea барате од грчката влада, веднаш да ја запре дискриминацијата на која се изложени етничките Македонци - политички бегалци од граѓанската војна во Грција. Вие барате измена на грчките закони со што, на бегалците – етнички Македонци ќе им се дозволи да си го вратат одземеното грчко државјанство и имотот во Грција. Која е причината што Ве наведе да ја покренете оваа иницијатива?

Ламберт: Од едноставна причина, мислам дека е потребно да се има јасна слика по ова прашање. Добро знам и разбирам дека меѓу Грција и Македонија постои расправија, за која сметам дека е потребно да се најде решение. Македонската влада, од своја страна ќе треба многу јасно да објасни, дека во никој случај нема намера да ја прошири територијата на земјата. Од друга страна, грчката влада е потребно да прифати дека има протерани луѓе од Грција во Македонија, и дека по повеќе децении по завршувањето на граѓанската војна во Грција, дојдено е времето да се најде решение и повторно да се живее заедно во мир.

Пред околу една и пол година, поставивте прашање до Комитетот на Министрите на Советот на Европа со скоро иста содржина како предлог-резолуцијата, дали добивте одговор?

Ламберт: Не, се досега немам добиено одговор.

Дали се надевате дека еден ден ќе добиете одговор?

Ламберт: Не знам. Се надевам дека ќе добијам, но барем засега немам одговор од Комитетот на министрите.

Комитетот на министрите е задолжен да одговори на парламенарните прашања...

Ламберт: Да... да, да, тоа е точно. Но за одговорите не е утврден прецизен рок. Не сум сигурен, ќе треба да проверам. Во секој случај повеќе од година и пол по моето прашање немам видено одговор.

Зошто според Вас се одолговлекува одговорот на прашањето?

Ламберт: Не сум јас тој, кој што треба да биде запрашан. Не знам и не можам да знам зошто другите не ми одговараат, иако откако го поставив прашањето се променија три претседателства со Комитетот на министрите. Навистина не знам. Но мислам дека по малку имаат страв да одговорат. Тоа е единственото нешто што можам да си го замислам.

Со исклучок на Европската комисија за борба против расизмот и нетрпеливоста (ЕКРИ) и Вашите инцијативи за одземеното грчко државјанство и имотот во Грција на Македонците, другите европски институции не се осмелуваат да се зафатат со ова прашање, зошто?

Ламберт: Тоа е поради дипломатски причини и можеби од време на време се плашат...

Парламентарното Собрание, поточно неговото биро се уште не се изјасниле, какви се шансите предлог - резолуцијата да биде ставена на расправа на пленарна сесија.

Ламберт: Сега се’ зависи од бирото на Парламентарното Собрание на СЕ. Искрено речено, јас по малку стравувам дека нашата предлог-резолуција ќе биди блокирана. Од искуство знам дека при ваквите и слични резолуции, кои се сфатени дека се насочени директно против позициите на една земја членка, таа земја се чувствува нападната. Да бидам јасен, мојата намера не беше да нападнам некого, ја напаѓам само земјата. Имам голема почит кон Грција и Грците. Мојата идеја со оваа препорака е дека луѓето мораат да почнат да бараат решение за да можат повторно да живеат заедно. Тоа е мојата идеја, бидејќи тоа навистина недостига. Во предлог-резолуцијата е објаснето дека тие - политичките бегалци, денес се луѓе на седумдесет годишна возраст и немаат можност да си ги вратат назад одземените државјанства и имоти во Грција.

Што очекувате од Грција со оваа предлог - резолуција, бидејќи рековте дека таа не е насочена против неа?

Ламберт: Тоа е јасно и се надевам дека таа најмалку што може да направи, е да размисли. Не знам дали времето е добро за Грција да реагира мудро и да донесе мерки со кои ќе го разреши овој проблем, но во најмала мера дебатата ќе биде отворена за да се најдат трајни решенија.

Дали тоа ќе приоднесе и за подобрување на ситуацијата на македонското малцинство во Грција?

Ламберт: За ситуацијата на Македонците во Грција се надевам дека ќе може да имаат право да се изразат на нивниот јазик, да се чувствуваат слободно во нивниот идентитет. На мислење сум дека разноликоста што постои во Европа е многу важна. Јас не сум многу специјализиран за положбата на Македонците во Грција. Нивната положба како малцинство е многу тешка, и оптоварени се со проблемите кои постојат меѓу Грција и Република Македонија. Потребно е да се најде решение за Грција да не стравува повеќе од територијални претензии од страна на својот сосед.

Но Македонија во својот Устав има зацртано дека нема територијални претензии ниту кон Грција, ниту кон другите соседи.

Ламберт: Да, ама знаете дека во Грција навистина постои тоа стравување. Затоа мора да се направат напори за да се најде решение со што ќе се смираат и ќе ги отстранат тие стравувања. Во регионот од секогаш односите биле затегнати. Затоа би било мудро да се започне со решавање на еден од проблемите, се надевам дека нема да дојде до нови војни како што најавуваат некои.

Како белгиски сенатор и член на ПС на СЕ, дали сте задоволен со акцијата која ја води Европа во овој дел на европскиот континент?

Ламберт: Не! Мислам дека општо земено не се грижиме доволно за регионот.

Г-дине Ламберт го споменавте проблемот со името на Република Македонија како дополнителна тешкотија за постигнување на правата на македонското малцинство во Грција, што мислите за прашањето со името?

Ламберт: Јас ја разбирам позицијата на Грција во однос на името на Република Македонија, но не треба да се конфронтираме туку треба да најдеме решение. Името Република Македонија не е единственото решение, може да се најде нешто друго. Во политиката се потребни иноваторски идеи и да се обидуваме да изнаоѓаме решенија, а не да создаваме проблеми. Ние ги знаеме проблемите и причините поради кои Грција се спротивставува на името Македонија. „Северна Македонија“ може да биде едно решение, сите добро знаеме дека еден дел од Македонија се наоѓа во Бугарија, другиот во Грција и Албанија, префискот во името може да го реши проблемот. Една од двете страни треба да го направи првиот чекор кон другата. Тоа е одговорноста што ја носат политичарите. Но не сум јас тој кој треба да одлучи на нивно место. Убеден сум дека од двете страни, како од македонската така и од грчката има доволно луѓе, кои можат да го направат потребното за да се најде решение.

Дали проблемот со името е доволно познат кај европските политичари и јавноста?

Ламберт: Проблемот со името не е многу познат во јавноста, но за политичарите тој е познат. Ние веќе се соочивме со тој проблем при приемот на Македонија во НАТО или пак за проширувањето на ЕУ. Проблемот со името се поставува често и сметам дека политичарите се добро запознати со него. Но тоа не значи дека секој може политички да го разбере и не можеме да кажеме дека се грижиме доволно за него.

Да се вратиме на вашата иницијатива за запирање на дискриминацијата на која се изложени етничките Македонци - бегалци од граѓанската војна во Грција, дали таа ќе донесе наскоро резултати?

Ламберт: Тоа ќе се види во моментот кога ќе знаеме какво продолжение ќе и се даде на Предлог-резолуцијата. Таа може да биде блокирана на бирото на Парламентарното Собрание на Советот на Европа, знаете тоа е една од можностите, но ќе видиме. Во моментов навистина не знам, се надевам дека ќе имаме еден добар резултат, но тоа не можам да го кажам со сигурност.

Тони Гламчевски

Modern Greece and the Macedonian Heritage – Part 1 - Introduction

2009-01-04T23:41:00.000-08:00

By Risto Stefov

rstefov@hotmail.com

January 4, 2009

There are some who say the 1903 Macedonian Ilinden Uprising was one of the greatest Rebellions Europe has witnessed since the French Revolution (Giorgio Nurigiani, “Macedonia Yesterday and Today”) yet there are others today who adamantly claim that Macedonians don’t exist.

If we are to take these people seriously we not only need to examine their claims but we need to understand their motives for making such claims.

Modern Greeks, who in 1912, 1913 acquired Macedonian territories by conquest and imperial means, claim not only that Macedonians don’t exist but that Macedonia is Greek for historic reasons.

For modern Greeks to make such claims they will need to provide evidence to (1) prove that Macedonia does not belong to the people that were living on it before Greece annexed it in 1913 and (2) prove that the modern Greeks are indeed the rightful heirs of Macedonian lands.

The purpose of this series of articles is to examine the legitimacy of the Modern Greek claim that “Macedonia is Greek”. To do that we will need to examine (1) who are the modern Greeks and (2) why is their claim, as they put it, “the only valid claim?”

When Greeks say that “Macedonia is Greek” do they mean all of geographic and historic Macedonia or just the part that was annexed by Greece in 1913?

If they mean only the part of Macedonia that was annexed by Greece then we need to examine how Greece acquired it. There is plenty of historic evidence to highlight how Greece acquired Macedonian territories between Macedonia’s invasion in 1912 and the conclusion of the 1913 Treaty of Bucharest. Evidence shows that the Macedonian lands acquired by Greece were acquired by war and arbitrary means which has nothing to do with historic claims.

If however all of geographic and historic Macedonia is claimed to be Greek then Modern Greeks will have to show additional proof as to (1) why they did not register their claims during the signing of the 1913 Treaty of Bucharest and (2) why they willingly allowed Serbia and Bulgaria to take 49% of Macedonian territories.

The reality is that there were no definite plans on how to divide Macedonia since Macedonia never belonged to any of its neighbours. There were no national dividing lines to speak of other than the Patriarchist or Exarchist affiliated villages which existed all over Macedonia. So after the first Balkan War ended in 1912 arbitrary borders were set up more or less where the invading foreign armies stopped their advance.

Serbia was looking to gain access to the Adriatic Sea but Austria-Hungary and Italy prevented that by proposing the creation of Albania.

This loss of territory on the Serbian side lead to renewed conflict in the region sparking the second Balkan War involving Greece, Serbia, Bulgaria and Romania.

As a result of this, the original borders proposed after the first Balkan War were shifted and Macedonia was once again arbitrarily partitioned.

According to military historian Dr. Vanche Stojchev, author of the book “Military History of Macedonia”, while the Treaty of Bucharest was being drafted in 1913 the occupying armies were still fighting in Macedonia. Every time one side took a hill or a ridge from the others its military commander telegraphed his counterpart in Bucharest who in turn asked the commission to modify the maps to include the new gains.

Professor Dr. Vanche Stojchev uncovered various inconsistencies and anomalies in the 1913 Treaty of Bucharest which would be of interest and importance to the Macedonian people. For example not many people know that the 1913 Treaty of Bucharest was not ratified by Austro-Hungary. Austro-Hungary was the first Great Power in the Balkans. After the signing of the treaty both Russia and Austro-Hungary called for further revisions which were basically ignored. Russia only accepted the treaty because it was pressured by the other Great Powers, which in reality means the treaty may not even be valid.

“The reason why Macedonian institutions are not yet affirming the idea that Macedonian roots extend from the ancient times to today is because everything that was taught in Macedonia up to now had to be politically correct. We were taught a politicized history which catered less to reality and more to political aspects on how history should be viewed,” says Professor Dr. Vanche Stojchev.

However, before Modern Greeks can answer questions like “Why is Macedonia Greek?” they will need to answer the ultimate question and that is “What makes their claim legitimate?” On what basis can Modern Greeks say that Macedonia belongs to them instead of to the people who were already living there before Greece annexed it?

Here Modern Greeks will need to prove their inheritance rights above and beyond those of the indigenous people already living in Macedonia. But in order to have such legitimate rights, that is above the rights of the indigenous people, Modern Greeks will have to show that they possess a continuous Greek lineage that extends beyond that of the indigenous people living in Macedonia.

To prove that this “continuous” Greek lineage exists, we will need to examine historic evidence prior to and leading up to the creation of the Modern Greek state. In other words we need to know more about the Modern Greeks and their existence before the Greek state was created in 1829.

Modern Greeks have already registered their claims about Macedonia and the Macedonians. Their claims can basically be summarized as follows;

1. According to official Greece; Macedonians do not exist.

2. According to official Greece; Macedonia, particularly the Republic of Macedonia, is occupied by Slavs who came to Macedonia during the 6th century AD.

3. According to official Greece; the Modern Macedonian ethnicity is a modern creation, created by Tito.

4. Although they have not specified which part(s) of Macedonia, according to official Greece; Macedonia is Greek and has always been Greek.

If we analyze these claims then, based on Greek logic alone, we can conclude that the people living in Macedonia are Slavs who came to Macedonia during the 6th century AD. So in effect the Modern Macedonians, or “Slavs” as the Greeks like to call them, according to Greek claims, have been living on Macedonian lands for say 1,500 years?

Now based on the above, Modern Greeks will have to show that they have legitimate claims to Macedonian lands that extend more than 1,500 years. That means that Modern Greeks will have to prove that their ancestors owned Macedonian lands prior to the 6th century AD. Naturally if they want to be taken seriously, modern Greeks will need to prove that they are the rightful heirs of those lands. I will be more than willing to accept continuity of the nation’s culture, traditions and language. In other words, did the Greeks of the 19th century prior to the creation of the Modern Greek state share a similar culture, similar traditions and a similar language with the Greeks of 1,500 years ago?

Let us begin by looking at the culture, tradition and language of the Modern Greeks of the 19th century.

Sir Charles Eliot in his book “Turkey in Europe” on page 267 says: “It would be amazing if the people who are now called Greeks are of the physical types as what are styled Ancient Greeks, which generally means the inhabitants of Athens and Sparta. The Greeks have spread around the Aegean and Black Seas, and come into contact with the inhabitants of the littoral. The Macedonian Empire must have had a large non-Hellenic substratum. Constantinople and all Continental Greece were for centuries ruled by Romans, and during many subsequent centuries invaded and colonized by Slavs. The Crusades and Latin conquests brought a large influx of western Europeans, commonly called Franks; and in later times, extensive Albanian settlements were made in Greek districts. Clearly the Modern Greek must be of very mixed blood.”

Again Sir Charles Eliot in his book “Turkey in Europe” on page 299 says: “It must be confessed that, though the Greeks showed more energy than any other Christian race, those who now remain in Turkey (except the islanders) are not remarkable for physical vigour or military capacity. This, is no doubt, partly due to the fact that the people who revolted against Mahmud were largely Hellenized Vlachs and Albanians, who, under the modern system would, not be regarded as Greeks. Nowadays the robust agricultural population is rarely Hellenic in its sympathies, for, as already mentioned, there are comparatively few parts where it is really Greek.”

So, what is Sir Charles Eliot trying to tell us about the Modern Greek towards the creation of the Modern Greek state?

For starters he is telling us that the so-called “Greek” of the 19th century had very few to none of the traits of the ancient Greeks from 1,500 years ago. He is also telling us that the 19th century so-called Greeks were not really Greeks at all but Hellenized Albanians and Vlachs. In other words, they were Albanians and Vlachs made to feel like they were Greeks.

Lucy M. J. Garnett in her book “Greece of the Hellenes” published in 1914 on page 31 says: “The height standard for the Greek army is nominally 5 feet 1 inch the average Hellene by no means being a tall man. Nor is this standard rigidly adhered to, for a recruit is not rejected on the score of height, if certified physically fit in other respects. Some of the hardiest soldiers are recruits among the Albanians and pastoral Koutso-Vlachs of Thessaly who form an important contingent.”

Lucy M. J. Garnett in her book “Greece of the Hellenes” published in 1914 on page 33 speaking about the dress of the Greek Royal Guard says: “His feet are shod with Albanian red leather shoes the upturned, pointed toes of which are finished with woolen turfs.”

Lucy M. J. Garnett in her book “Greece of the Hellenes” published in 1914 on page 33 and 34 also says: “All Greek soldiers are required to be able to read and write, and if a conscript on joining has not already acquired those rudiments of education, he is put to school. Not-withstanding the educational efforts of the Government as many as 30 percent proved fifteen years ago or so to be completely illiterate, which not more than 25 percent had advanced beyond the ‘three R’s’. This may be partly accounted for by the fact that these conscripts include both Albanians from the settlements in Attica and other parts of the Kingdom and pastoral Koutso-Vlachs, all of whom habitually speak their own dialects, and learn Greek only as a foreign tongue.”

So what is Lucy M. J. Garnett telling us about the Greeks of the 19th century?

Here again Lucy M. J. Garnett is giving us evidence that the so-called Greeks of the 19th century were not really Greeks but Albanians and Vlachs. In other words, the immediate ancestors of today’s Greeks were not really Greeks at all!

My aim in this series of articles is to show that Modern Greeks are not only NOT entitled to the Macedonian heritage, but they should not even be entitled to be called Greeks. Underneath the highly polished “Modern Greek veneer” hides an artificially created nation constructed from the bones and ashes of the Macedonian, Albanian, Vlach and Turkish cultures that once flourished on those lands.

Author’s note:

Dear Macedonians, one way to defend ourselves from the Greek onslaught and gain back our identity and dignity is to fight back to the level to which the Greeks have reduced us; that is to attack their identity as they have attacked ours. We need prove nothing to them except to expose them as the artificial identity they truly are and to uncover their design to wipe us out in order to usurp our Macedonian heritage.

To be continued.

Many thanks to TrueMacedonian from www.maknews.com for his contribution to this article.

Greece is a hysterical member of the European Union

2009-01-03T19:08:00.001-08:00

By Miki Trajkovski

Translated and edited by Risto Stefov

rstefov@hotmail.com

Kitsa Kolbe is a Macedonian who for 40 years has lived in Germany and worked as a writer, photographer and translator. Her father is a refugee child from Aegean Macedonia (Greek occupied Macedonia). In her book entitled “Aegeans” published in 1998 she mentions that the “Aegean Macedonian question” is the nucleus of an ongoing Greek struggle with the name “Macedonia” about which Greece and Macedonia are currently in dispute.

KK- Those who recognize the work of psychoanalyst Freud, know this famous “defense mechanism” where the offender takes away attention from him or herself by putting the blame elsewhere. Greece is saying that it will not allow Macedonia to call itself Macedonia because if it does it may provoke “irredentist aspirations” in the Macedonians. Using this kind of “diplomatic fog”, Greek diplomacy has for 17 years succeeded in taking attention away from the real issue with the Macedonians and focused on a non-issue. This not only fooled the entire International public but, more bizarre, it also fooled most Macedonians.

Q- Is this not a result of inheriting Yugoslav lead International politics?

KK- During the Yugoslav era the rules were simple – do not strain relations with Greece on account of the “Aegean Macedonians” (Macedonians from Greece). After being told this time after time, even Macedonian politicians not only during the Yugoslav era but afterwards, after the 1990’s when Macedonia became independent, continued to use this “self-censure”. Then after Greece put a squeeze on Macedonia, Macedonian politicians, like obedient little children after being disciplined, immediately changed the Macedonian constitution to placate their southern neighbour. By doing so they in effect washed their hands of their responsibilities to the Macedonian minorities in the neighbouring countries. But if you look at the situation more closely you will see that neither Yugoslav nor Macedonian politicians cared much about the Aegean Macedonians. This confirms that the Aegean Macedonian question was always the nucleus of the Greek-Macedonian name dispute and should not be a surprise to anyone that it boiled to the surface only after Macedonia declared its independence.

Q- Why are Greeks so fearful of opening this question wide open?

KK- The Greeks know that during the two Balkan Wars (1912-1913) Macedonia was invaded, occupied and partitioned under an expansionist war for grabbing territories. The Greeks also know that they used unfriendly tactics to grab those territories and assimilate the Macedonians into their Greek fold. They know very well that they evicted many Macedonians under unfriendly circumstances not only in 1913 but also in 1946 to 1949 during the Greek Civil War. They evicted hundreds of thousands of Macedonians, expropriated their properties and citizenship and to this day will not allow them to return. Greece knows that it also conducted ethnic cleansing on its “newly acquired territories” in 1913 and knows the Macedonians have not forgotten. How do you think Macedonians feel about that?

The Greek attitude towards the Macedonians has not changed and neither have its assimilatory policies which are disastrous for the Macedonians. Extinguishing the Macedonian identity has been Greece’s policy since 1913 and has continued for the last 17 years by the strength of its diplomacy. We know very well that Greece changed all toponyms and peoples’ names inside Greece to modify or erase everything Macedonian. Why not continue this policy outside of Greece? There is no doubt that today’s Greek politics are a continuation of yesterday’s assimilatory policies and that is to continue to change Macedonian names for as long as it is allowed. And that is precisely why it is so important to open the “Aegean Macedonian Question” now! Another benefit of opening the question now is to give some dignity to the aging Aegean Macedonians like my father who not only has been waiting for this for most of his life but has been feeling somewhat ignored and unwanted. Aegean Macedonians have been carrying this pain with them alone for decades.

Even though it was not their fault, Aegean Macedonians have not only suffered immensely at the hands of the Greeks, but were neglected at the hands of fellow Macedonians. Macedonians from the Republic of Macedonia took them into their country and helped them settle and find homes and work but were not very sympathetic when it came to their desire to return to Greece or to find peace of mind with regard to their traumatic experience. The attitude was “we gave you apartments, education, jobs, careers, independence, etc., what more do you want? So you are refugees, so what? The world is full of refuges who are in a more desperate state that you are.” But all the “Aegeans” wanted was to be heard, to be taken seriously and to have their pain acknowledged by their fellow Macedonians. They wanted to hear from politicians with virtues like John Kennedy who stood in partitioned Berlin in the 1960’s and cried out “I too am from Berlin”. They waited expecting that some Skopje born or Ohrid born Macedonian politician would say “I too am an Aegean”. But it did not happen, not until recently.

Q- It happened recently with the first step taken by Prime Minister Gruevski who sent letters to various International organizations asking for the recognition of the Macedonian minority in Greece. The prime Minister also received responses to these letters, one from the Greek Prime Minister Karamanlis, who said that there were no Macedonians living in Greece. Even more surprising was Baroso’s response. Baroso is the President of the European Commission who has publicly stated that the EU is not qualified to decide on this kind of dispute. Was this a worthy response from a European politician?!

KK- I was not expecting anything different from Baroso. The most significant thing about these letters is that they expose the fact that “Macedonia knows why Greece is trying to change Macedonia’s name”.

Greece, as a member of the European Union, has been acting hysterically towards the Macedonians accepting absolutely no advice or recommendation from any of the EU members. Many European politicians unable to reason with Greece, before Gruevski’s letters, were hoping and counting on Macedonia to accept a compromise. The thinking was “since the Macedonians were willing to negotiate their name, they couldn’t have placed too much value on it, so let them ‘give a little’ and finally save ourselves from this ‘Greek theater’”. After Grevski’s letters however, the Europeans were starting to feel nervous. Their comfort level had been disturbed and not knowing what else to do; they took the road of being “incompetent”.

Baroso’s response is not worthy of a European Union politician, because he has failed all European Union principles. One good thing however is that he raised the hopes of the Aegean Macedonians. Now that the EU has abdicated its responsibility, it’s time to start anew knocking on more doors and continue knocking and spreading the truth. And by that I mean, spreading the truth by letters, books, films, etc. By taking our message out to the world and exposing more and more people and organizations to the truth the world is more likely to learn about the injustices perpetrated against us. The world will sympathize with us not because our suffering is unique – sadly there are many injustices and many “Aegeans” in the world, like the Armenian genocide – but on account of our persistence and on account of our self-awareness; we know who we are and we know what we want.

Q- The Greek-Macedonian name dispute is slowly unwinding and is leading into a dead end. What would you accept as a compromise if you had to?

KK- Politics are changeable. I am skeptical of the nucleus of the Greek campaign against Macedonia. I am also skeptical of the dual formula; “one name for home and another name for the outside”. This is provisional and everlasting dualism. During the 2001 conflict the name “Macedonia” was rarely mentioned as a problem with Greece. I believe Greece was expecting Macedonia to fall apart. Since it didn’t Greece has been saying Macedonia will not have a future without NATO. I would be happy to see Macedonia become a member of NATO as soon as possible but I fail to see where the danger is coming from? I am more worried about Brussels’s skepticism than I am about any perceived danger.

When Macedonia becomes a member of the European Union the Greek-Macedonia border will cease to exist, opening free communication and contact between Macedonians on both sides. Once this happens the Macedonian ethnic identity in Aegean Macedonian will solidify even more. I believe this is what Greece is really afraid of and is trying very hard to prevent. That is why the Aegean question is of such great importance for the survival of all Macedonians as Macedonians. The Aegean question can be exposed with persistent launching of lawsuits against Greece in the European courts and by exposing the Greek genocides against the Aegean Macedonians.

Q- The kind of changes to our identity, language, constitution, etc., proposed as compromises are they dangerous?

KK- Every change brings consequences. Names are not coincidental; they are expressions of identity, language, culture, etc., which in every community are enshrined in law, constitutions, etc. This is my opinion as a philosopher and writer. I often ask myself if such changes are made how will they affect the morale and dignity of our people? If people can no longer be what they were, what will they be? If this is allowed how many more ills will we witness in Aegean Macedonia?

We need to remember and remind ourselves of how badly our grandparents were treated by the Greek governments when their names were changed from Macedonian to Greek. In order to save their self respect, my own family refused to forget our true Macedonian name. The other name the Greeks gave us was a formal name for use in public. They had no choice but to use this name in public because they were prohibited from using their real name. There was no one there to help them or protect them. This has been their reality which we must not forget.

Q- What are your thoughts on the proposals for the name for example Upper Macedonia or Northern Macedonia?

KK- Traditionally someone else always gives us our name but only when we are baptized as newborns. The name with which we are baptized is a name which comes of love, of family, etc. A name is a blessing and a pledge.

We Macedonians already have a name, changing our name now is like changing the name of an adult who does not want their name changed but because of outside pressures we insist that they accept a conditional name. I ask you, was the temporary name Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, imposed on Macedonia by its International “godfathers” a name given out of love and concern? Is this a better name than the name “Macedonia” which this region has carried since biblical times?

Above all, the Macedonian people were also lied to. The name Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, imposed on the Macedonian people, was only to last three months. We need to remind our “godfathers” of that.

The “clever” Macedonian politician who fell for this lie now needs to be very vocal in the defense of the name and in solving the Aegean Macedonian question. I don’t want to think about changing our name because there is nothing worse than having someone else decide what our name should be.

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Нова Македонија. сабота, 04 октомври 2008

Интервју: Кица Колбе, философ од Македонија во Германија

Грција е хистерична членка во Европската Унија

Автор: Мики Трајкоски

Кица Колбе, Македонка што работи како писател, сликар и преведувач, веќе 40 години живее во Германија. Потекнува од семејство на бегалци од Егејска Македонија. Во нејзината книга „Егејци“ (1998 година) пишува дека во јадрото на грчката борба за името е токму „егејското прашање“.

- Оние што го познаваат Фројд, го знаат оној прочуен механизам со кој виновникот го одвлекува вниманието од својата вина со тоа што час поскоро ја обвинува жртвата за злоделото што го сторил. Грција велеше дека не дозволува Македонија да се нарекува Македонија затоа што тоа може да предизвика „иредентистички стремежи“ кај Македонците. Всушност, со таа дипломатска магла, грчката дипломатија успеа 17 години да го одвлекува вниманието на сета светска јавност, дури и на македонската, од вистинскиот проблем.

Но, тоа е резултат на некаквоси југословенско наследство во водењето на меѓународната политика?

- Во Југославија важеше правилото - да не ги затегнуваме односите со Грците поради Егејците. Тоа потоа стана самоцензура на секој македонски политичар во Југославија и на македонските политичари од деведесеттите, во независна Македонија. Тие како мало послушно дете кога ќе го искарате, веднаш го сменија македонскиот устав, се откажаа од грижата за македонското малцинство во соседните земји. А југословенските, а патем и македонските политичари, никогаш и не се грижеа толку многу за нив. Тоа потврдува дека егејското прашање беше отсекогаш во јадрото на грчко-македонскиот конфликт за името и не е изненадувачко што конечно „влезе“ јавно во игра.

Зошто Грците толку се плашат од поширокото отворање на ова прашање?

- Егејското прашање е следново: Македонија по Балканските војни е поделена, Грција ја доби Егејска Македонија во една експанзионистичка војна за територии, потем спроведе безмилосна асимилација врз Македонците, а по Граѓанската војна 1946-49 протера неколку стотици илјади од нив, на кои до ден-денес им го оспорува правото на враќање, државјанство и имоти. Таа направи етничко чистење на своите „новоосвоени територии“. Мислите дека тоа е безначајно за Македонија во проблемот со Грција? Така се мислеше досега и тоа беше погубно. За Грција тоа е клучно – оти е срцето на нејзината асимилаторска политика. Таа политика продолжи во овие 17 години со силата на дипломатијата. Ако Грција ги смени сите топонимии и сите лични имиња на Македонците во Егејска Македонија, зошто да не го избрише или модифицира, во своја полза, името Македонија и надвор од своите граници? Затоа, крајно време беше да се отвори тоа прашање. Знаете и уште зошто? Им го враќа достоинството на луѓето како татко ми, кои досега во својата држава се чувствуваа како приврзоци. Тие со децении ја носеа таа болка во себе. И кога ќе прозбореа за неа, другите Македонци, кои навистина по војната ги прифатија кај себе и многу им помогнаа, им префрлуваа (само поради онаа југословенска самоцензура во главите), што е сега, уште ли ќе се жалите, не ви дадовме ли доволно: станови, образование, работа, кариери, безбедност. Што сакате уште, вие Егејците? Сте биле бегалци? Па што - има толку бегалци на светов. А тие, Егејците, сакаа некој да ја чуе и да ја сфати сериозно нивната мака. Сакаа да чујат македонски политичар што ќе ја има доблеста на Џон Кенеди, кој стоејќи во поделениот Берлин во шеесеттите, извика, „И јас сум берлинец“. Тие чекаа на македонски државник роден во Скопје или Охрид, значи, во жаргонот Вардарец, да рече „и јас сум Егеец“.

Последниот чекор го презеде премиерот Груевски со испраќањето писма за признавање на македонското малцинство во Грција. На овие писма македонскиот премиер доби одговор од грчкиот премиер Караманлис, кој рече дека во Грција нема Македонци. Уште поизненадувачки беше одговорот на претседателот на Европската комисија, Баросо, кој јавно кажа дека ЕУ не се надлежни да решаваат таков спор. Достојни одговори за европски политичари!?

- Не очекував поинаков одговор од Баросо. Значајно е што му е укажано на тоа дека Македонија знае зошто Грција се обидува да ни го смени името. Грција е хистеричната членка во ЕУ. Европските политичари досега се надеваа дека кога веќе не можат да ја вразумат својата членка, дај барем тогаш овие Македонциве нека не „обесуваат“ многу, дај нека попуштат и конечно да нè спасат од грчкиов театар. Сега се нервозни оти Македонија почнува да им ја нарушува удобноста и почнуваат да се прават „ненадлежни“. Одговорот на Баросо е недостоен за политичар на Европската Унија, оти со него тој не ги закопа надежите на Егејците, туку ги изневери принципите на ЕУ. И покрај тоа, треба да се тропа постојано на сите врати, да се повторува пред сите македонската вистина, секогаш одново и одново, во писма, во весници, во книги, во филмови, во барања помош за такви потфати кај странски фондации, на крајот, сакале-не сакале, ќе ја прифатат нашата приказна за неправдата врз Македонија. Не заради тоа што е единствена на овој свет - за жал има многу неправда и многу Егејци во него, сетете се само на Ерменскиот геноцид - туку поради упорноста наша, поради самосвеста дека знаеме кои сме и знаеме што сакаме.

Грчко-македонскиот спор со името полека се одвива и како да води во ќор-сокак. Што вие би прифатиле како компромис?

- Политиката е променлива работа. Скептична сум поради јадрото на грчката кампања против Македонија. Скептична сум и во однос на решенија од типот „име за дома, име за надвор“. Тоа е провизорно, вечно двојство. До конфликтот во 2001, името Македонија и не се споменуваше како проблем со Грција. Мислам дека Грција очекуваше оти Македонија ќе се распадне. А сега се вели, без НАТО Македонија не ја чека добра иднина. Јас би се радувала Македонија што побрзо да стане членка на НАТО. Ама не разбирам од каде доаѓа опасноста за пропаст на Македонија без НАТО? Мене повеќе ме загрижува скептичноста во Брисел во однос на Македонија. Кога Македонија би била членка на Европската Унија, тогаш границата меѓу Грција и Македонија би морала еден ден да се релативизира, да не биде повеќе линија на забрана на комуникација меѓу Вардарските и Егејските Македонци. Може да се претпостави дека тогаш уште повеќе ќе се зајакне македонскиот идентитет на луѓето во Егејска Македонија. И тоа Грција сака да го спречи од петни жили. Затоа егејското прашање е од толку голема важност за опстанокот на сите Македонци како Македонци. Можеби токму инсистирањето на егејското прашање, особено со тужби пред европските судови и презентирање на темата егејски геноцид во сите европски културни средини, многу побрзо би ја донело Македонија пред портите на ЕУ.

Сепак, сметате дека каква било промена на идентитетот, јазикот, уставот е недозволив компромис во целиот овој случај?

- Секоја промена носи последици. Имињата не се случајни, тие се израз на идентитет, јазик, култура, кои се во секоја заедница зацртани и во закони, устави... Јас размислувам како философ и писател. Се прашувам како ќе дејствува тоа на умот и достоинството на луѓето. Тие повеќе нема да бидат тоа што биле пред преименувањето. За тоа најболно може да сведочат Македонците во Егејска Македонија. Треба да се потсетиме како им било на моите предци кога грчките власти им ги смениле имињата од македонски во грчки. За да си ја спасат самопочитта, моите предци си го паметеа како свое и вистинско само македонското име. Другото беше формално и само „за јавност“. Но тие тоа го трпеа од неслобода и немајкаде, оти немаа заштита од никого. Но тоа да се стори сега, доброволно, во сопствената држава?

Кои се вашите размислувања за предлозите за името како на пример горна Македонија или северна Македонија...?

- Името ни го дава друг само кога се крстиме, оти сме новороденче, недоветно. Крстеното име е чин на љубов, родителска. Тоа е благослов и завет. Кој е благословот за животниот пат на „новороденчето“, кое ако како возрасен човек прифати да му дадат привремено име-неиме БЈРМ, дури и кога меѓународните „кумови“ сега од љубов и грижа за него би му дале и најубаво име, кога тоа знае дека всушност не сака ново име, оти одамна си има свое? Македонците беа прелажани дека тоа име-неиме БЈРМ ќе биде само за три месеци. На тоа треба да ги потсетиме „кумовите“. Оној „мудар“ македонски политичар кој падна во таа лага сега би требало да биде најгласниот во одбрана на името Македонија и на егејското прашање. Не размислувам за имиња. Можам да ви кажам само како постапувам самата во вакви критични состојби. Се прашувам што е погрешното во моето досегашно однесување што ме довело до таму, некој друг да одлучува за моето име?

Let’s Not Forget the Exiled Macedonians from Greece

2009-01-03T08:24:00.000-08:00

By Risto Stefov

rstefov@hotmail.com

After reading the MINA article (http://macedoniaonline.eu/content/view/3525/46/) about Panayotis Dimitras, member of the Greek Helsinki Monitor, I couldn’t help but remember what my father had told me about other United Nations visits to the Greek concentration camps in the Greek islands in the past where Macedonians and others were tortured daily.

It was naïve of me to ask, “Why didn’t anyone report the abuses while the people from the UN visited you?” “Because no one wanted to die a horrible death,” was the answer. The UN and other investigative bodies came and went but the prisoners remained and were constantly reminded of what would happen not only to them personally but to their families and friends if they spoke up. They were also reminded that “the strangers will come and go but you will definitely stay”. “How were we to know that these people were truly from the UN and not another ‘Greek show’, a ploy to pull us into getting into trouble and giving the Greeks another excuse to torture and murder us?” was another answer I received.

If I were a Macedonian living in Greece today what would I think if a high profiled Greek such as Panayotis Dimitras is openly threatened in the face of the entire world with “high treason” and life imprisonment just for saying Macedonians exist in Greece? I would have to ask myself “if they can do that to Panayotis a member of the Greek Helsinki Monitor who is well known worldwide, imagine what they can do to me, an unknown person, if I speak up?” “Would I dare say I am Macedonian and risk my life and the lives of my family?” The answer would most likely be NO!

Macedonians have many examples to refer to where they were put in similar circumstances and many times were let down. The Greeks are back to their old tricks because these tricks are tried and proven tactics that have worked well for them in the past! They know this will bring them the desired results without any consequences.

But let me tell you something, not all Macedonians from Greece live inside Greece where the Greek government has them under its thumb. There are millions of Macedonians, yes millions of exiled Macedonians whose citizenship and properties were expropriated by the Greek government and who were driven out of Greece. To this day I have yet to find a single Macedonian who has left Greece willingly and hasn’t been driven out as a war refugee or as an economic refugee.

The Macedonians still living in Greece have no rights but they at least still have their lands, homes, citizenship and live where they were born. Unfortunately that is not the case with the Macedonians and other minorities which Greece has exiled over the years.

From what happened to Mr. Dimitras it should be obvious to everyone that the Macedonians living inside Greece are in peril from the Greek government and from the racist and fascist organizations the Greek state supports. Those Macedonians who volunteered information to the UN have put themselves and their families at great risk.

Greece has used similar threats before and knows its methods are tried and proven. It knows terror tactics will work because its minorities live and have always lived in fear and will not dare reveal themselves or freely speak to strangers. Greece will exercise its threats and send people to jail; it has done this before and has suffered no consequences so it will do it again. Macedonians living inside Greece unfortunately have suffered many consequences in the past and would be less willing to come forth with information.

Another place to obtain reliable information about the Macedonians in Greece is to interview Macedonians from Greece who live outside of Greece where they can’t be threatened with violence and long jail sentences.

To exile people from their homes and to have their homes, properties and citizenship confiscated is not only immoral but also illegal and today the law is on the Macedonian side.

WHAT IS A GREEK?

2008-12-31T18:24:00.000-08:00

Deconstructing the so called “Greek Nation”

By Risto Stefov

rstefov@hotmail.com

September 12, 2008

Ordinarily I couldn’t care less what the Greeks call themselves, it’s their right and who am I to interfere? But these are not ordinary times when self proclaimed Greeks take it upon themselves to dictate to others what they can and can’t call themselves.

Greeks say “Ethnic Macedonians” don’t exist! I say “Ethnic Greeks” don’t exist and I can prove it!

What makes a Macedonian an ethnic Macedonian?

According to Webster’s dictionary belonging to an ethnic group is belonging to a division of mankind as distinguished by customs, characteristics, language, common history, etc.

There should be no doubt in anyone’s mind that a large majority of people living in geographical Macedonia share common customs, traditions, songs, dances, and have a common language, a common history and a common religion that stretch back to at least one thousand years. So if we establish that such a group exists or existed in geographical Macedonia up until at least the time of Macedonia’s partition and annexation in 1912, 1913 by Greece, Serbia and Bulgaria then what should we call this group of people?

If a people lived on Macedonian lands for over a millennium, which I am sure we can establish, then a rational thinker would have no problem calling these people ‘Ethnic Macedonians” if that’s what they want to be called.

As I was browsing through the www.maknews.com forum I read an article Turkey: Macedonia's best friend posted by VMRO which can also be found at this link; http://www.mfa.gov.tr/denial-of-ethnic-identity.en.mfa in a Turkish official website.

Now who better than the Turks would know if Macedonians exist or not? Better still let’s see what the Turks have to say about the Greeks. After all both Macedonia and Greece belonged to Turkey for many centuries; Greece for four centuries and Macedonia for five. So I would say the Turks know something about both nations; wouldn’t you agree?

According to the information on the website;
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“The Greek Nation is based on the principle of belonging to the Greek race and the Greek Orthodox Church. On this subject, it is enough to glance at the speeches of the Greek statesmen about the ‘homogeneity of the Greek nation with the exception of the Muslim minority.’

If the Greek Nation is really homogeneous, one can not help but wonder about the destiny of the Albanians, the Muslim Albanians, Vlachs, Macedonians, Bulgarians, Jews as well as the Turks.
In this respect it becomes necessary to answer the question of how homogeneity has been achieved in Greek Macedonia while ethnic variety still survives in the Republic of Macedonia.”

But wait a minute what are the Turks talking about, what Albanians, Vlachs, Macedonians, Turks, etc. existing in Greece? Greece has always maintained it’s a pure and homogeneous nation with roots extending back to the so called Ancient Greeks. If their lineage does not stretch back to the ancient Greeks and ancient Macedonians of at least two-and-a-half millennium ago then how can they claim both the so called ancient Greek and Macedonian heritage as their own and at the same time exclude the ethnic Macedonians from claiming theirs?

Surely the Turks must know what they are talking about? They were the masters of Greece for four hundred years! They were the masters of Greece even before a Greek state existed or the Greeks (Romanoi) called themselves “Greeks”.

With regards to Greek claims that “no ethnic Macedonians exist in Greece” I would like to point you to the crucial question asked by the Turkish website: “In this respect, it becomes necessary to answer the question of how homogeneity has been achieved in Greek Macedonia while ethnic variety still survives in the Republic of Macedonia?” How indeed!

Before Greece became a country for the first time in 1829, the following ethnic groups lived in what today is called Greece: Arvanites (Albanians), Vlahi (Vlachs), Tourki (Turks), Slavi (Macedonians), Voulgari (Macedonians), Slavo-Makedones (Macedonians), Endopii (indigenous Macedonians), Gifti (Roma), Evreii (Jews) and others. There was absolutely no group of people called “Greeks”. These people were made into Greeks after the Greek state was created for the first time in 1829.

Before Greece was created by the Great European Powers, the Arvanites spoke the Albanian language and had their own unique customs and traditions. The Vlachs spoke the Vlach language similar to Latin and had their own unique customs and traditions. The Turks spoke the Turkish language and had their own customs and traditions. The many names the modern Greeks use, such as Slavs, Bulgars, Slavo-Macedonians, indigenous, etc., to identify the Macedonians also all spoke the Macedonian language which existed and still exists throughout all of geographic Macedonia. The Macedonians too have their own unique customs and traditions which are different from the other groups.

The Greek state, once created by the Great Powers, used force and coercion to artificially create the Greek nation by deconstructing the real ethnic identities of the Albanians, Vlachs, Turks, Macedonians, Roma and others it trapped in its borders. By stripping them of their natural mother languages the Greek state forced upon them the artificial Koine language which today is paraded as Greek.

The Koine language by the way, which many Greeks today boast connects them to the Ancients, is nothing more than an artificially imposed language which the Greek state stole from the Byzantine Church and taught to its people in school. One who learns this language in school is no more Greek, related to the ancient Greeks, than one who learns the hieroglyphs in school and claims to be related to the ancient Egyptians. But can modern Greeks see the absurdity of such claims? Judging from the thousands of e-mails I have received, apparently not!

If I may add, Greece has demonstrated its artificiality not only by imposing a dead language on its people but also by changing every place name and people’s names in all the territories since its creation. It renamed everything to make them “Greek sounding” and to demonstrate to the world how Greek Greece is! But in reality what does this really tell you? This tells me that as a Greek from Macedonia my history began in 1926 when my grandfather’s name and my village name were changed. There is no Stefou or Trigono before 1926! If I believe I was a Greek I would ask myself what was I before 1926?

So then, what makes a Greek an ethnic Greek?

Let’s see what the dictionary has to say?

According to Webster’s dictionary Greek (Graecus) is a native or modern inhabitant of Greece.

The name Greek is derived from the word Graioi originally the Latin name of a Boeotian tribe that settled in Italy in the 8th century BC.

So anyone from any ethnic origin can be a Greek as long as they inhabit the lands of modern Greece which very well defines what a real Greek is. But what makes a Greek an “ethnic Greek”? It can’t be culture, tradition or customs because the under layer of people (Albanians, Vlachs, Macedonians, Turks, Roma, etc.) that make up the Greek nation do not share similar characteristics. It can’t be language since the Koine language was adopted by the Greek state and imposed on the various diverse groups of people. Koine is not the mother language of any of these people.

So the people that make up modern Greece today shared none of the characteristics that make a group an “ethnic group” before Greece became a country for the first time in 1829.

Thus I have to conclude that “ethnic Greeks” do not exist.

So how can Greeks who themselves are NOT even Greeks and DO NOT qualify to call themselves “ethnic Greeks” are not only allowed to usurp the Ancient Greek heritage but also rob the Ancient Macedonian heritage? Furthermore how do they qualify to tell Macedonians what to do?

Obviously these people are frauds and pirates, what are we doing negotiating OUR NAME with them?

History or Propaganda

2008-12-30T10:17:00.000-08:00

By Pete Kondoff and Risto Stefov

rstefov@totmail.com

July 21, 2008

As founder and past president of the Canadian Macedonian Historical Society and a retired teaching specialist, Pete Kondoff is most pleased that Macedonians appear to have evolved into accepting who they are, where they come from and becoming much more aware of their own contributions to modern society.
Mr. Kondoff believes that the prime objections Macedonians have to mainstream history should not be exclusively directed at Greece. Most of the fundamental problems today between Macedonia and Greece are in fact historical inaccuracies introduced by 19^th century monarchs. The same monarchs who created Greece, a country which since its inception has employed distorting processes to justify its own existence, processes that to this day dominate how history is viewed, have introduced these inaccuracies.

When Greece, a country that never existed before as an entity, was being created in the early 18 hundreds, 19^th century monarchs directed academics under their employ to write a historiography for it, a historiography which was mostly based on myth.

To give Greece its existence and continuity academics were directed by their benefactors to initiate a process of revisionism modifying history to suit their objectives and justify the creation of this new Greek state. Once initiated, the process continued and eventually modified much of the region’s ancient history. Initially the goal of the then historians was to satisfy their benefactors, but ultimately with time, persistence and no objection to the newly created myth, this so called myth became a standard subject taught in schools.

To keep the myth alive and to continue to justify its own existence, Greece in the forefront together with Bulgaria and Serbia continued to deny the existence of Macedonians and to seize the Macedonian heritage for themselves.

The pattern for Greece has been to simply claim all history which preceded its creation as a nation and deny the existence of all previous cultures which may have contributed to it. Greece, if examined more closely, is a multiethnic state but to this day refuses to accept the fact that many diverse minorities exist within its borders. Adolph Hitler may also have taken a page from the same book when he tried to eliminate the entire Jewish race in Germany which is very similar to what the Greek government is doing to the Macedonians, who by the way were the dominant population of Northern Greece before the Christian Turkish population was deposited there in the 1920’s.

It must be also understood that the processes initiated to justify the creation of Greece were not restricted to only convincing the people inside Greece. The European monarchs who initiated these processes also had to try hard to convince their own people into accepting them. To do this they enlisted the talents of their own personal (paid for) academic advisors and instructed them to revise history by making fictitious claims and presenting them as historical facts thus creating a new entity which never existed before and connected it with an apparent fictitious past. It is most unfortunate for the Macedonians of today who by searching for their own roots have not only uncovered this 19^th century inaccurate historiography but by pointing it out have created animosity between nations not only inside but also outside of Macedonia’s geopolitical borders.

Given that these inaccuracies were initiated some two hundred years ago they have become standard knowledge accepted as fact and propagated through educational systems and the media. As a world society we have learned to accept far too many such views taking them for granted assuming they are factual and rejecting all else without examining it. The strongest defense on the part of Greece, Bulgaria and Serbia and to a lesser degree on the part of others is that the entire world knows this mainstream historiography to be fact therefore how can it be inaccurate? Unfortunately most of us learn inadvertently to accept what others want us to hear but far too often this also deviates from the actual facts. For example in the United States, Nathan Hale, a general in the revolutionary war, became a traitor because he spied for the British. But in Canada and Great Britain he is still a hero. It is all a question of perspective.

Greece never existed as a nation and as an ethnic cultural identity; it was created for the first time in 1829 AD by the Western Powers for political necessity. Macedonia on the other hand did exist before under the name Macedonia. Its borders were consolidated by Philip II and it maintained its unity and independence under a single central government for over two centuries until it was conquered by Rome. Since then over the years the Macedonian people have fought in over thirty national insurrections to free themselves and reclaim their state. The most recent national insurrection being the Ilinden Uprising of August 2^nd, 1903 when the entire Macedonian nation rose against its occupier but unfortunately because of many factors failed to achieve its aims. The people of Greece on the other hand had no notion of who they were because such a nation never existed before. What we today call Ancient Greece was nothing more than a dozen or so independent City States with their own unique governments and systems which were at constant war and only came together to fight against a common foe something like what modern European States would do when threatened. England, France, Netherlands, Spain, Portugal and the Austro-Hungarian Empire created a new nation and named it Greece. Even the name “Greece” is not Greek; it comes from the Latin word “Graecus”. First initiated by the monarchs then finalized by the Treaty of Berlin in 1829 AD, the prime motivator for creating such a state (Greece) was to limit even block the expansion of the Russian Empire into Mediterranean waters where Britain and other Western states dominated and which gave them access to India and the silk trade, the Middle East, and the African slave trade. Was it not a British monarch that addressed the British parliament directing it to do “whatever is necessary” to stop Russia from contaminating its backyard the Mediterranean Sea? Was it not a British statesman who said that by “creating Greece” the British Empire not only saved itself billions of pounds from having to send troops to protect its interests but it “created” a life long ally?

To justify the nation they just created, all previous history had to be buried and forgotten! It did not matter to the Europeans that for the last 2000 years Greeks did not exist and that Macedonians dominated the evolution of what would eventually become Europe. Unfortunately what the monarchs did resulted in the wholesale acceptance by world societies what Macedonians today are discovering to be “a greatly distorted history”. Today’s mainstream history is no more than just a regurgitation of what former monarchs created then and had justified through their own personal and most questionable historians. What is most unfortunate is not only that their own masses accepted this falsification but with the use of the printing press, it was mass produced and spread on a global scale to the entire world which has also accepted it and now it has become standard history taught in every school.
Far too much of what we, as a world society accept as facts, is initiated in our schools where under the guise of history we are taught fables implied to be scientific facts. Initiated at university level then passed on to subordinated levels such subjects virtually become accepted by all without question. These fables are further validated by mediums such as the American Geographical Society and the Encyclopedia Britannica, which profess to be experts in the field. Ultimately society learns to accept such misdirection and fiction becomes fact as it is repeatedly present through our press, TV and radio, Hollywood and eventually even our legal systems.
Initiated by titled professors, far too many of our institutions of higher learning inadvertently promote such misconceptions. Due to a system which appears to insulate its professors from scrutiny, these misconceptions continue to hide under an umbrella of immunity under the guise of "Academic Freedom".

History should not present isolated facts augmented with myths and folklore but should always be very scientific and never chauvinistic nor nationalistic in nature.
Pete Kondoff has personally been in direct contacted with; the University of Toronto, York University and Columbia University and finds that while they do wish to be factual they are not. By accepting that which professors present as generalized statements of fact without justification then justifying what has been done by simply saying that it is not the university’s responsibility, i.e. "We cannot tell our professors what nor how to teach", they must also accept the fact that they may be breaking the law. This is also contrary to the very basic principles every teacher accepts related to each topic they teach.
Most teachers accept the United Nations Declaration on Human Rights as a basic fundamental principle and abhor any inferences which would deny the rights of any peoples to their native culture heritage and exemplified in Canada by their acceptance of their Native Peoples identity prior to becoming a nation. Yet we appear to accept references to an Ancient Greek identity thousands of years before it was created and defined as a nation by all of the European monarchs (with the exception of Russia) in 1829 AD!
As an evolving society Macedonia’s prime opposition is not to the individual Greek but rather to the few in power who initially opposed Russian expansion and justified the creation of a false history but now no longer have a cause to do that. Continuing in this path to this day and propagating its false history Greece is on a collision course with the Macedonian people and because this false history is accepted as fact, the world it seems is on the Greek side and is faulting the Macedonians for seeking to understand their past.

One way to correct this problem is to demand from the educational institutions, especially from the Universities, to take responsibility for what they teach. They must separate fact from fiction and provide a balanced view of history. By teaching a falsified version of history, educational institutions are in fact denying certain societies, especially the Macedonians their human rights, which in Canada is against the law.

By this accidental or intentional falsification of history, Greece has laid exclusive claims on the Macedonian heritage and has robbed the Macedonian people of theirs. The only justification Greece has for “Macedonia being Greek” is based not on facts but on the historic myths initiated by the 19^th century monarchs and since propagated by the educational institutions and the press.

The Greeks recognized Macedonia and the Macedonians three centuries ago!?

2008-12-29T16:43:00.000-08:00

By Atanas Kirovski

Translated and edited by Risto Stefov

rstefov@hotmail.com

Sensational discovery: 18^th century gospel written in Macedonian

The Konikovo gospel is the oldest record written in the Macedonian language, even older than Danail’s Lexicon Tetragloson which dates back to 1802. The text is written in an Aegean dialect, more precisely in the Voden-Enidzhevardar folk language, using the Greek alphabet, and seems to be the first attempt at popularizing the Macedonian folk language and rejecting the Church-Slavonic language

The oldest discovered written record of the Macedonian folk language was found in the Alexandrian Library by a team of Finnish researchers. The discovered book was published in 1852 in Solun and is known as the Kokinovo Gospel. Its discovery is having Slavists saying that this is a first-class sensation. The gospel is written in the same folk Macedonian language that was spoken at the end of the 18^th century and is the oldest written record found to contain the Aegean dialect of the Macedonians who lived in Greece. The book was named after Kokinovo, the village from which its author/editor Pavle Bozhigropski originated and is signed Orthodox clerk Pavel born in Voden Region. Linguists believe the original version on which Pavel Bozhigropski was doing his editing is the oldest record of the Macedonian language ever found, older than Adzhi Danail from Moskopole’s Lexicon Tetragloson which dates back to 1802, but sadly there is no information on its author. The text is written in an Aegean dialect, more precisely in the Voden-Enidzhevardar folk language, using the Greek alphabet, and seems to be a first attempt at popularizing the Macedonian folk language and rejecting the Church-Slavonic language.

In August of this year the Finnish academy of Arts and Sciences made the discovery of “The Konikovo Gospel” known through the editorship of Jouko Lindstedt and Yuhani Nuorluoto from Finland. The editor from Macedonia was Professor Ljudmil Spasov.

This original handwritten gospel represents a splendid but somewhat damaged specimen of a book. The damage appears to be from excessive use. There are also many droplets of candle wax and oil on it and the pages at the lower edge are worn down from turning. There are also holes made by worms typical of old documents found in libraries.

Greek anti-Macedonian politics

Today, according to the Finnish publishers, in Konikovo generally speaking there are no Macedonians because they were cleansed from the village between 1912 and 1928, and the Greeks have renamed the village to Ditiko where only imported Christian settlers from Turkey live. The Voden dialect which was used to write the gospel was investigated by the Finns and with help from Vinizhito volunteers was discovered to also exist in Griva, a neighbouring village of Kokinovo. The foreigners in the team including those from Finland, who met the Macedonian population in Greece, were delighted that finally a new Greece was being uncovered, which they say they always knew existed but for them it was inaccessible.

Victor Freedman professor of Balkan and Slavic studies from Chicago wrote that the discovery of the Konikovo gospel is priceless: “The dialect in the Konikovo gospel is of extraordinary importance because it comes from the region that was given to Greece after the Balkan Wars in 1913. A region where later hundreds of thousands of refugees who only spoke Greek and Turkish were settled as a result of population exchanges between Greece and Turkey (1922-1923). Greece, between the two world wars, attempted to create a homogeneous state by destroying all minority languages. A little later many violent battles were fought in this region especially during the Greek Civil War which resulted in thousands of Macedonians being evicted after 1948, leaving very few to speak this dialect today.”

The significance of the written material found is enormous because persecution against the Macedonian language and literature dates back to the time of the Byzantines to the 11^th century, when all the books written in the Cyrillic alphabet were destroyed, and by the beginning of the 18^th century the Cyrillic language in Greece was completely eradicated. The gospel represents evidence of resistance against Greek politics.

During the Ottoman occupation, even though miliets (people) were identified by their religion, Orthodox Christians for example, in the non-Muslim categories there was always awareness that not only religion, but also language represented a division in people which became a basis for national identity, and precisely for that reason the gospel was written in the Macedonian folk language.

Professor Freedman writes: “Our understanding of the development of the Macedonian language and identity in the 18^th century and early 19^th century is considerably enriched with the discovery of the Konikovo gospel because this is the period from which the written form of the language appeared from which today the standard Macedonian language is derived. The Konikovo gospel is the earliest text discovered to use the colloquial Macedonian language as a written language. And while Pavle Bozhigropski the author attempts to write Macedonian for the first time, with his own corrections he is attempting to standardize that language!

Greek opposition to the Macedonians in Greece continues from that time to today, as attested by the publication of the Abecedar in 1925, intended as a primer for the Macedonians in Northern Greece but never used.”

About ourselves

Strange as it may seem even unreal and completely incredible, but at a time when Macedonia is in a collision course with Greece around the choice of a name, language and identity, the Ministry of Education would not grant the Macedonian scientific team 6,000 euros, about 2,000 euros per year, to investigate this exceptional find which is of great importance for the assertion of the Macedonian identity and for proving the existence of the Macedonians in Greece. The findings however were published by the Finnish Academy of Arts and Sciences in Helsinki with help from the Macedonians from the professorship of Macedonian language at the University Kiril and Metodi under the leadership of Professor Ljubomir Spasov and with much appreciated help from the Vinozhito volunteers.

Грците не признаа уште пред три века!?

петок 29.08.2008 /14:21/ (Форум)

Сензационално откритие: Евангелие на Македонски од 18 век!

Кониковското евангелие е најстариот запис на македонски јазик, постар и од Лексикон тетраглосон на Данаил од Москополе кој датира од 1802 г. Текстот е напишан на егејски дијалект, поточно на воденско-ениџевардарскиот народен говор, со грчкото писмо, и е првиот обид за популаризација на македонскиот народен јазик и отфрлање на црковнословенскиот јазик

Пишува: Атанас КИРОВСКИ

Фински истражувачки тим во Александриската библиотека го пронајде најстарото евангелие на народен македонски јазик печатено во 1852 г. во Солун познато како Кониковско евангелие. Славистите велат дека станува збор за откритие кое е првокласна научна сензација. Евангелието е напишано на народен македонски јазик на крајот од 18 век и е најстар запис на долновардарскиот или егејскиот дијалект на Македонците кои живееле и живеат во Грција. Името го добива по редакторот на текстот, Павле Божигропски од село Кониково (Воденско) кој се потпишува како Протосингел Павел родом Воденска. Лингвистите претпоставуваат дека оригиналот врз кој Павел Божигропски вршел редактура е најстариот запис на македонски јазик, постар и од Лексикон тетраглосон на аџи Данаил од Москополе кој датира од 1802 г., но, за жал, немаат никакви податоци за авторот. Текстот е напишан на егејски дијалект, поточно на воденско-ениџевардарскиот народен говор, со грчкото писмо, и е првиот обид за популаризација на македонскиот народен јазик и отфрлање на црковнословенскиот јазик.
Финската академија на науки и уметности во август годинава го објави делото The Konikovo Gospel во редакција на Јоуко Линдстед и Јухани Нуорлуото од Финска, додека редактор од Македонија е професорот Људмил Спасов.
Оригиналниот ракопис пронајден во Александриската библиотека претставува прекрасна книга оштетена од многу употреба. Постојат многу дамки од восок од свеќи и масло. Долните десни агли на листовите се закинати од листањето на страниците. Забележани се и дупки од црви, како и кај повеќето библиотечни ракописи.

ГРЧКАТА АНТИМАКЕДОНСКА ПОЛИТИКА

Денес, како што пишуваат финските издавачи во Кониково, воопшто нема Македонци бидејќи биле иселени од селото меѓу 1912 и 1928 г., а Грците го имаат преименувано селото во Дитико и таму живеат исклучиво маџири. Воденскиот дијалект на кој е напишано евангелието, Финците со голема помош на активистите на Виножито го слушнаа во околното село Грива. Странците во тимот, и тоа не само оние од Финска, кои се запознаа со македонското население во Грција, беа восхитени што конечно открија една нова Грција, за која велат дека отсекогаш знаеле дека постои, но за нив била недостапна.
Виктор Фридман, професор по балкански и славистички студии од Чикаго, пишува дека значењето на Кониковското евангелие е непроценливо: “Дијалектот во Кониковско евангелие е од извонредно значење зашто доаѓа од регион кој ì е доделен на Грција по Балканските војни во 1913 г. и каде што се населуваат стотици илјади бегалци кои зборуваат грчки и турски како резултат на размената на население меѓу Грција и Турција (1922-1923) и на обидот на Грција да создаде етнички хомогена држава со искоренување на јазиците на малцинствата меѓу двете светски војни. Истовремено, во овој регион се водат најжестоките борби за време на Граѓанската војна кои резултираа со заминување на илјадници Македонци по 1948 г., така што на овој дијалект денес зборуваат мал број луѓе”.
Значењето на делото е огромно зашто грчкиот прогон врз словенскиот јазик и литература датираат уште од времето на Византија во 11 век, кога се уништени сите книги на словенска кирилица, а до почетокот на 18 век кирилицата во Грција е сосема искоренета. Евангелието напишано на македонски јазик претставува очигледен отпор кон таа политика на Грција. Иако во времето на Отоманската Империја под зборот милиет (народ) влегувале ортодоксните христијани, односно станувало збор за религиска категорија во која спаѓале сите немуслимани, сепак постоела свест дека не само религијата, туку и јазикот се основа за националниот идентитет, и токму затоа и е направено евангелие на народен македонски јазик.
Професорот Фридман пишува: “Нашето знаење за развојот на македонскиот јазик и идентитет во доцниот 18. и раниот 19 век е значително збогатено со Кониковското евангелие, зашто тоа е од период кога за прв пат се појавува во писмена форма она што денес е стандарден македонски јазик. Кониково госпел е најраниот текст во кој се употребува колоквијалниот македонски јазик како пишан јазик. И додека авторот за прв пат пишува на македонски, Павел Божигропски со своите исправки се обидува да го нормира тој јазик!
Грчкото противење на Македонците во Грција продолжува од тоа време до ден-денес, и покрај печатењето на Абецедарот во 1925 г. во Солун, наменет како буквар за Македонците од Северна Грција”.

ЗА НАС САМИТЕ

Звучи нереално и сосема неверојатно, но во период кога Македонија е во најжесток судир со Грција околу одбраната на името, јазикот и идентитетот, Министерството за наука не му одобри на македонскиот научен тим 6.000 евра, по 2.000 евра годишно за истражување на ова дело од исклучително значење за македонскиот идентитет воопшто и за постоењето на Македонците во Грција. Делото го издаде Финската академија на науки и уметности во Хелсинки, со голема помош на македонистите од Катедрата по македонски јазик на Универзитетот Кирил и Методиј под водство на професор Људмил Спасов и со огромна помош на волонтерите од Виножито. Македонската држава и наука полека го губат реперот и наместо да се држат до цврстите докази, непобитните факти (како што е Кониковското евангелие) и науката која ни оди сосема во прилог, влегува во водите на политички мотивиран квазинаучен авантуризам, со кој преку крајно изнасилени аналогии (на јазикот на Хунзите, на пример) се обидува да покаже некаква теза дека македонскиот јазик не е словенски, туку е оној што го говорел Александар Велики. Светот на науката и нашите пријатели кои секогаш ни помагаа во борбата за зачувување на македонскиот идентитет, иако имаат разбирање за потребата идентитетот да го врземе за древни времиња, сепак ни се смеат.

In 1947 UN Proved Macedonian Minority in Greece

2008-12-28T10:45:00.000-08:00

By Dusan Sinadinoski

The Greek modern day folly always has been its persistent but reckless denial of the existence of Macedonian nationality/ethnicity. The hysteric intolerance of the Macedonian people permanently distorted Greek collective consciousness so much so that they are no longer capable of differentiating between their wish that Macedonians were truly nonexistent and the actual Macedonian reality which so defiantly confronts them. As their Macedonian phobia continues to feed their schizophrenic psyches, rather than dealing with the Macedonian reality like rational people, they instead cry out for sympathy and comfort while hoping to be freed from their Macedonian nightmare, just like a small child who has awaken from a bad dream and cries out to his parents for comfort. Such was the case in 1947 when the Greek Government protested to the United Nations’ Security Council regarding border violations by the northern neighbors. Greece demanded that Yugoslavia cease and desist overt military and logistical aid to the guerillas fighting in the Greek civil war, many of whom were Macedonians. On December 19, 1946, a Commission of Investigating was established by the United Nations pursuant to the resolution of the Security Council to examine the alleged Greek frontiers incidents.

To the surprise and dismay of the Greek government, the Commission of Inquiry broadened its scope of investigation to also include treatment of minorities, tendentious misstatements of facts in press and radio, activities of foreign military and police missions in four countries concerned and arraignments of free port or free zone facilities in Salonika. Utterly enraged by the Commission’s expanded mission, Greece threatened the immediate execution of the political prisoners and captured “bandits” unless the Commission narrows its scope of investigating to the original request. However, after a heavy arm-twisting by USA, the Greek government halted the executions and allowed the Commission to proceed without a further impediment. USA was concerned that if Greece carried out the execution of the Macedonian minority, the world opinion would turn against Greece which would give Yugoslavia, supported by the Soviets, a pretext to invade and detach Aegean Macedonia from Greece. In order to save face, and perhaps their country, the Greek Ambassador Dendramis was instructed by the US to urgently inform the Security Council that their “protest was filed merely in order that there could be no grounds for misunderstanding regarding the interpretation of the terms of reference” (Telegram from Secretary of State to the US Embassy in Greece, February 8, 1947). The US understood that if Greece continued on its reckless political course it was only a matter of weeks before it fell in the Soviet block. Therefore, such a communist scenario for the future of Greece had to be prevented from becoming a reality.

Once the Commission began its work, the investigation of the Greek border incidents was downgraded as a minor issue. Such incidents, as the Commission contended, were regular occurrences in the Balkans for centuries and this issue in itself did not warrant an investigation at the United Nations level. But USA and Britain used this issue as a pretax to counter balance the Soviet expansion to the Balkans by preserving the Greek territorial integrity. Britain and USA were convinced that Yugoslavia wanted to detach the Aegean and Pirin parts of Macedonia from Greece and Bulgaria respectively and to create an autonomous Macedonian state within the Yugoslav Federation. Thus in the midst of this global political drama, the Macedonian issue again took the center stage. But the ensuing colossal political battle between East and West instantly relegated Greece and Macedonia to the sidelines as spectators of their own destiny. The political drama was moved from the bloody foothills in Greece to the stately halls in Geneva. There, the ideological demarcation line between East and West was drawn alongside of Greek-Macedonian borders, and as the result of it, Greece and Macedonia continued its bitter rivalry on the opposite side of each other.

Nonetheless, the Commission’s investigation was not interrupted and it was able to gather first hand information on the issues in question. However, before the findings were officially published, the Commission representatives regularly communicated those findings to their respective governments for further evaluation and instructions by their foreign affairs departments. In one instance, the US Commission representative, Mark Ethridge, on May 8, 1947, sent a secret telegram to US Secretary of State, Marshall, informing him that “Greece itself by its own short sighted attitude and by its discriminatory and gangster-like methods was providing grist for the mill of political indoctrination and training in northern countries. It is noteworthy that very large proportion of the refugees from Greece are Slavo-Macedonians who bore the burnt of discrimination. It seems clear to me that unless the discriminatory treatment stops flight to mountains or across the borders will not stop. Thus this is interrelation between nature and the causes and conclusion that Greece discrimination has caused thousands to flee.”

This short but revealing passage summarizes the entire political landscape in Aegean Macedonia and it accurately depicts the state of Macedonian minority in Greece. It is also evident that the American diplomat clearly acknowledges the existence of the Macedonian minority in Greece and he leaves no room for questioning whether or not he is mistaken about which minority he is referring to. Additionally, he doesn’t hide the fact that Greece’s domestic policy is the root cause for the plight of refugees and the discrimination against Macedonian minority.

Ever conspiring and manipulating, the Greeks could not admit to the world that they could be guilty of the most notorious crimes against the Macedonian minority. Greece wanted the free and democratic world to believe that the existence of the Macedonian minority, the plight of the Macedonian refugees and the execution of the Macedonian political prisoners were fallacious charges because Greece denied them. To further cover up their mess, the Greeks shifted the blame on Yugoslavia for stirring up troubles in Greece. In their support, the Greeks offered to the Commission as evidence quotes from speeches of responsible Yugoslav and Bulgarian statesman and from the articles in the press which to the Greeks meant an unequivocal proof that Yugoslavia agitated a separate Macedonian state within the Yugoslav Federation and thus exploiting the aspiration of Macedonians in Greece for an autonomous Macedonia. This it seams that the Greeks wanted to simultaneously claim both the nonexistence of Macedonian minority in Greece and to blame Yugoslavia for fermenting dissatisfaction and disturbances among the Macedonians in Greece. This can’t be true in any world, not even in a Venizelos’ Greek-a-polis.

Based on its findings, the Commission’s conclusions clearly and unequivocally put the blame on the Greek government for a policy of systematic discrimination and persecution of the Macedonian minority in Greece. Even though Macedonians in Greece was not the primary goal, some of its conclusions undeniably confirmed the existence of Macedonian minority:

1) It was pointed out to the Commission and not disputed that after Varkiza agreement over 20,000 Greek citizens had fled into Yugoslavia either directly or through Albania or Bulgaria and approximately 5,000 into Bulgaria, a substantial proportion in each case being of Slavo-Macedonian origin. Evidence was also presented in support of the charge that Greece has sanctioned persecution of its Slavo-Macedonian minorities. Furthermore, the Commission heard some testimony that the Slavic dialect spoken by Slavo-Macedonians who comprise about 85,000 was not thought in schools and that in certain areas, use of this dialect by Greek nationals is prohibited.” These findings by the Commission are so compelling in its condemnation of the Greek state that they leave no room for doubt.

2) The Commission is of opinion that as long as such discriminatory treatment continues, there will be unrest and discontent on the part of Slavic minority in Greek Macedonia which will provide fertile breeding ground for seperationalist movement.

3) In connection with present situation, Greek commission was presented with body of evidence in support of charge that responsibility for situation lies in Greek domestic policy… This evidence was to effect that opposition political groups in Greece have persecuted by Greek gendarmerie and by right-wing bands, and that civil rights of Macedonian and Chamuriot minorities have been restricted

4) Commission also received sufficient evidence to warrant conclusion that immediately after liberation of Greece, the small Slav speaking and Chamuriot minority in Greco-Macedonia and Epirus had been victims of retaliatory excesses, and Chamuriot minority had actually fled en masse from the country. As regards treatment of minorities, Greek Government asserted that the acts in questions were committed before it established control areas concerned, and that many members of these minority groups have collaborated with Axis occupying forces during war

Considering that these conclusions were unintended consequences, the findings of the Commission revealed a disturbing and undeniable evidence of an official Greek policy of persecution and discrimination against the Macedonian minority. These accusations against the Greek state in 1947 were not “dreamed” up. They were findings by the United Nations Commission of Investigating and were consistent with the facts on the ground. These findings speak so loudly and so plainly to the world that the Greek denial of the Macedonian minority in Greece transcends all rationality. Indeed, this denial has become a Greek national blasphemy. The Greek national obsession with the Macedonian is sue continues to regenerate itself as a persistent and bloody hatred that is no longer capable of self control. Greece has gone wrong on the Macedonian issue and the Greek society as a whole can’t be expected to find a cure for their anti-Macedonian paranoia. It’s time for the international community to call upon Greece and help this nation transcend the bounds of their delusional fascination with Megale Idea.

The report of Commission of Investigation was signed at Geneva on May 23, 1947. The conclusions were subscribed by Australia, Belgium, Brazil, China, Columbia, Syria, United Kingdom and the United States. The delegations of Soviet Union and Poland did not approve the conclusions and the French delegation abstained. The United Nations has published the Commission’s report in Official Records of the Security Council, Second Year, Special Supplement No. 2.

The information used to write this article was taken from the University of Wisconsin Digital Collection Library, United States Department of State Foreign relations of the United States, 1947. The Near East and Africa: Volume V (1947). The United States economic and military aid to Greece and Turkey: the Truman Doctrine, pp. 1 -484.

Greek occupation army harrassing Macedonians in Egejska Makedonia

2008-12-28T05:42:00.000-08:00

POLITICAL PARTY OF THE MACEDONIAN MINORITY IN GREECE

Member of the European Free Alliance - European Political Party (E.F.A-E.P.P)

Member of the Federal Union of European Nationalities (F.U.E.N.)

Stefanou Dragoumi 11 Florina/Lerin Τ.Κ. 53100 PO Box. 51 Greece Tel/fax 0030 23850 46548

www.florina.org e-mail rainbow@florina.org

Press Release

Florina/Lerin,

The Greek “Ethnofylaki” or “National Guard” is a military unit, officially and legally integrated into the structures of the Greek Army.

It is a form of state organization, with the task to “protect the state against any form of extraordinary, internal or external, threats”

A few months ago the Florina/Lerin Greek National Guard Battalion organized a festive gunfire training for its members and all potentially interested civilians.

In the invitation for the event – public poster which was distributed among the population read:

Florina Greek National Guard Battalion

The Army Sign

The Commander of the Battalion Apostolos Giotakos

Invites all

National Guard members of the Florina region as well as all its citizens

to participate at a scheduled gunfire training with the rifle G3 A3/A4.

Honorary commemorative plates will be given to all participants

A BBQ outdoor reception will follow, upon conclusion of the gunfire training

“MACEDONIA IS ONE AND GREEK!”

The last sentence of the invitation, coming from an official entity of the Greek state, constitutes a flagrant and outrageous provocation against a sovereign state, the Republic of Macedonia, whose borders are only 20 kilometres away from the place the event took place.

Furthermore, yet again it is proof of Greece’s hypocrisy, which on the one hand accuses the Republic of Macedonia of irredentism while on the other hand constantly adopts irredentist policies and fosters provocative acts against this country.

We regret to conclude that Greece will never accept the existence of the Macedonian people, inside and outside of its borders, unless it is forced to do so.

EFA-Rainbow reveals the true face of the Greek “democratic” state, its real intentions, and urges all EU institutions to exercise pressure on our country.

Are we to wonder if the slogan "MACEDONIA IS ONE AND GREEK!" promoted by the Greek government and the Greek army will be used to invade the Republic of Macedonia in times of instability in the Balkans?

Greece must once and for all start acting like a true EU member-state and not like an expansionist totalitarian dictatorship of the past.

The Press Office

EFA – Rainbow

FROM THE MACEDONIAN VILLAGE OF MOKRENI (NEW NAME: VARIKO) IN THE LERIN DISTRICT

2008-12-26T21:05:00.000-08:00

PART 1 >> http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3x1q47aTGTM

PART 2 >> http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MFRgtmhLXDY

PART 3 >> http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BHwnt5VWKOQ

PART 4 >> http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fAiqd_qLHOI

Source: Tsutsul Pase Goveda from www.maknews.com

The Macedonians from Greece can paralyze Greece just by lodging a complaint

2008-12-26T08:12:00.000-08:00

By Aleksandar Bozhinovski, Nova Makedonija, number 21432

July 5th, 2008

Translated and edited by Risto Stefov

rstefov@hotmail.com

http://www.novamakedonija.com.mk/DesktopDefault.aspx?tabindex=0&tabid=1&EditionID=1055&ArticleID=57895

Macedonia has two strong cards against Greece. The first is the suffering of the Macedonians who by descent are from Aegean Macedonia now under Greek control. The second is International laws which by the Norwegian principles of 1946 can legally force Greece to compensate for its wrong doings undertaken against the ethnic Macedonians in Greece.

Sam Vaknin, an expert in this area, who has experience in analyzing and documenting such situations from the Jewish holocaust, has also analyzed the fate and rights of the Macedonians from Greece.

According to Vaknin, the Republic of Macedonia and the Macedonians from Greece have an exceptionally strong case if the case is supported by the Republic of Macedonia. For this to work two things are vital. First the government of the Republic of Macedonia must immediately offer citizenship to all Macedonians from Aegean Macedonia no matter where they live. And second, the Republic of Macedonia must immediately declare these Macedonians and their inheritors as refugees. Doing that will qualify them to fall under the protection of International law for refugees.

Vaknin thinks the Jewish experience can help the Macedonians because there are close similarities between the two. For example even though Israel did not exist as a state when the holocaust occurred and these Jewish people, citizens of Germany, were not citizens of Israel, the state of Israel was able to help them. Here is what was done;

In 1951 all Jewish organizations got together and held a conference with the Israeli government where all their demands were consolidated and documented. At this point Israel became the guarantor of rights for all Jews. Afterwards the demands were presented to the West Germans and when all the talks were concluded West Germany agreed to pay compensation. From 1953 to 1967 Germany paid 3 billion marks to Israel, 450 million marks to Jewish organizations and 700 million dollars to the holocaust survivors.

It is essential and imperative that Macedonia follows Israel’s example and become the successor-country and protector of all Macedonians.

Following this example the Jews launched around 100,000 disputes against Germany, Swiss banks, insurance companies and other companies which had robbed the Jews of their assets and all of these disputes have been resolved.

The Norwegian principles were adopted immediately after the Nazi trials which recognized the eviction of people from their homes as criminal acts against humanity. “Before the adoption of the Norwegian principles, evicting citizens from their homes was legal,” says Vaknin.

It is interesting to note that most countries that were occupied by the Nazis worked the hardest to settle their accounts with the exiled Jews. Denmark and Norway over the years have paid over 200 million dollars for damages. Besides this, says Vaknin, thousands of Jews who were used as slaves by the German companies like “Mercedes” “BMW”, “Alliance”, “Siemens” and others, were also forced to pay indemnities.

The Macedonians from Greece have been evicted numerous times from Greece between 1913 and today. Many were evicted during the Metaxas dictatorship in 1936 but the most to be evicted was during the Greek Civil War in the late 1940’s. The Norwegian principles are very important for those who were evicted at this time. Also Macedonia was in a better position than Israel to help the Macedonian people because the Peoples’ Republic of Macedonia (under a Yugoslav Federation) was already established at that time and was able to provide the exiled Macedonians with a home.

Now 80 countries subscribe to the Norwegian principles which have become law. The Norwegian principles do not discriminate against ethnic origins, nationality, or citizenship. If people’s assets have been confiscated, it does not matter if Greece has labeled these people Bulgarians or Slavs or if they are Greek citizens or not, the Norwegian principles apply. The key to enforcing these principles lies with the Republic of Macedonia which much choose the role of mother-country, protector and guarantor of rights for all Macedonians.

Let us also not forget that Greece returned assets only to people declared “Greeks by birth” which is discriminatory and according to Vaknin is illegal by US law.

There are examples of past agreements that Macedonia can use as arguments to build its case. In 1923 Greece and Turkey signed such an agreement (Treaty of Lausanne) where Turkey was obliged to pay Greece an indemnity for the assets of evicted so called Greeks from Asia Minor. The same year Bulgaria had to pay compensation to Greece for the evicted so called Greeks from Bulgaria. Bulgaria had to pay Turkey for the evicted 350,000 Turks who were evicted by Todor Zhivkov in the period from 1948 to 1949.

With the help of the Republic of Macedonia the Macedonians of Greece living in the USA too can lodge a complaint against Greece under Resolution 562. The United States Congress enacted resolution 562 on October 13th, 1998 and gave it exterritorial powers, which means that USA law under certain conditions can be enforced outside of the USA.

If a Macedonian from Greece launches a dispute against Greece for confiscated property in an American court, Greece, if found guilty will have to pay indemnity otherwise the USA will freeze all Greek assets which are part of the Greek national reserves in the USA. Eighty countries in the world support such laws and among them included are all Western European countries.

Aegeans in the Government: Our aims are clear

On the occasion of the Association of Child Refugees from Greece holding its 4th World Reunion in Skopje from July 18th to the 21st, the Prime Minister Nikola Gruevski held a meeting with Association representatives to inform them that their concerns regarding their confiscated assets were now relayed to Greece.

“The opening of such a question by the Republic of Macedonia is a giant step for the Macedonians from Greece who have been waiting for a long period of time for this” says Georgi Ajanovski, president of the World Reunion Organizational Committee of the Child Refugee Association of Aegean Macedonians.

Athens hopes that after Gruevski’s victory it can have an agreement

In the “Guardian’s”, the British newspaper’s estimation, it is believed that Gruevski’s majority win in the Macedonian elections will have a positive effect on the name dispute. According to the Guardian, now that Gruevski has a majority it will be easier for him to make a change to the name without much risk to his position.

The Greeks believe that now that Gruevski has strengthened his party’s position he will be more amicable to reaching a compromised solution that will put an end to the 17 year old name dispute. This may be hard to believe but the Greeks are grasping at straws here believing that Gruevski will do such a thing, who in fact was given a mandate by the voters to do the opposite; protect the Macedonian identity and the Republic of Macedonia’s name.

The Greeks also believe that Gruevski’s stubbornness will ultimately land him in trouble with the Macedonian Albanians and with the western countries which want him to reach a compromise with Greece.

The Guardian newspaper, to a large extent supports the Greek side, emphasizing that the older generation of Macedonians sees themselves more as Yugoslav while the younger generation sees themselves more as Macedonians and refusing to change the only name they know. “It is hard not to have a little compassion for the Macedonians, especially for the younger generation, who knows itself as Macedonian and finds itself hard against changing the name of its country” says the Guardian.

The leftist “Guardian” calls Gruevski a “hardliner” and a nationalist, who is willing to climb to warrior status just to anger Greece.

The Guardian also writes that Greeks are their own worst enemy in this dispute and that no one outside of Greece’s borders understands why Athens is so hypersensitive and unfriendly towards this mini state which calls itself the Republic of Macedonia.

What does it say in Resolution 562?

Resolution 562 says “Countries which have not returned wrongly confiscated assets to their rightful owners, or have not made appropriate compensation according to the principles of law, should remove all restrictions which are hampering such compensation or the returning of assets to the people who may or may not be citizens of those countries”.

According to this resolution, Greek law which is requesting that the claimant of compensation declare himself Greek by birth is illegal and contrary to US law.

Not a single refugee has sued Greece to this day!

Not a single Macedonian has ever sued Greece before the current lawsuit was launched by the Association of Refugee Children from Aegean Macedonia in the Human Rights Court in Strasburg.

“Yes it is sad, that’s the way it is. For a long time our actions were blocked by Yugoslavia so that Yugoslavia could have good relations with Greece. There were also many people who were afraid of retribution from the Yugoslav secret service if they instigated such actions. But what Vaknin is proposing is truly interesting,” says Gjorgji Donevski, Association president.

“If the Macedonians had divisions, the Greeks would not be in Macedonia”

2008-12-25T18:31:00.000-08:00

Nova Makedonija

Translated and edited by Risto Stefov

rstefov@hotmail.com

There was a “not so well” known hidden agenda in the Greek Civil War (1945–1949), a conflict between the Right and the Left, where Greeks deliberately aimed to accelerate the Hellenization process of Greek occupied Macedonia. A Hellenization process which began in 1923 with the Lausanne declaration designed to change the national composition of Macedonia by ethnically cleansing the Macedonians.

The Hellenization process began with the eviction of 70-80 thousand Christian Macedonians of whom 30 thousand were evicted to Bulgaria and the rest to Turkey. That does not include the 510 thousand Muslims who were also evicted to Turkey.

The plan of the then Monarchofascist Greek government (that is what it was called then) during the Greek Civil War was to complete the Hellenization process and with that to finally close the Macedonian question for Northern Greece. This Greece planned to do with a monstrous anti-Macedonian cleansing act - emptying that part of Greece of its Macedonians.

Here are a couple of quotes from Greek Resistance movement officers who not only were aware of the existence of the Macedonians but were afraid of them:

“Why were there entire battalions formed in Voden and Lerin Region when only the formation of companies were ordered?” bitterly asks Leonidas Stringos.

“What would have been the damage if divisions were formed?” answers Renos Mihaelas, with another question.

“You are indeed naïve! If the Macedonians had divisions we the Greeks would not be found in Macedonia”, answers Leonidas.

The Cairo branch of the Special Operations Executive SOE also had observers in Greek occupied Macedonia who were monitoring and reporting on the war situation during and subsequent to the German, Italian and Bulgarian occupation of the region.

Sixty-four years ago (March-October 1944) Captain P. H. Evans, member of the British War Mission, stayed in Greek occupied Macedonia with the National Liberation Army of Greece for more that seven months and made and recorded several observations.

Evans travelled the wider part of Lerin Region, particularly the Prespa-Kostur-Vicho-Lerin-Sorovich corridor and wrote about the various movements. These reports now serve as source documents which point to certain policies not only of Great Britain’s politics in the Balkans but also of the Greek aims towards the Macedonians. In that context, B. Barker has interpreted some of Captain Evans’s reports, specifically the one of December 1st, 1944 and asserts that the Lerin territory is predominantly Slavic, and not Greek. This is part of the territory where the Metaxas dictatorial regime introduced a law to silence the Slavic language.

In another report Evans asserts that all consecutive Greek governments with different political views are in agreement with one thing “how to carefully instigate a lie to tell their own people and the world that no Slav minority exists in their country”.

According to Evans however, when a foreigner visits Lerin Region, the foreigner will conclude that the opposite is true that the Greeks are a minority there. This region is foremost Slavic, and not Greek. The language in the homes and in the rural areas, villages and market is Macedonian Slavic.

In one of the seven of Evans’s chapters he concluded that the residents in that region are not Greek, Bulgarian, Serb or Croat, they are Macedonians. Their national feelings are interwoven and speak of a Macedonia be it in old songs or new ones just composed during the most recent war. Evans points out that the word “Macedonia” occurs regularly in the songs without distinction to region. The Macedonians are sincere and direct about the love for their country, and not with some sort of intellectual enthusiasm for a political idea.

The Greeks on the other hand have a negative attitude towards the Macedonians, which is also present in educated Greeks, and not only towards the Macedonian minority in the Slav Regions but everywhere. Their attitude unfortunately is characteristically foolish, misinformed and brutal to the extent of wretchedness, impossible to establish understanding between two people.

TRANSLATOR’S NOTE:

According to historian and author Andrew Rossos who had studied Captain Evans’s reports in detail, Macedonians in Greek occupied Macedonia were mistrustful of strangers and tended to hide their feelings about their ethnicity. Instead of calling themselves Macedonians they used the euphemism “nashi” meanings “ours”.

“Nashizam was evident to Captain P. H. Evans, a British officer with the Special Operations Executive (SOE) who was dropped in wester Aegean Macedonia in September 1943 and spent almost a year there a British liaison officer (BLO) and station commander. He dwelled and moved freely among the Macedonians, "who accepted and trusted him.”

He described them as "temperamental and distrustful creatures." Living under so many masters, they had developed "a perfect duplicity" character and "this makes them difficult to know. ...It is hard to find out what they are thinking." "The ordinary Macedonian villager,” Evans continues, "is curiously neutral, he adopts a protective colouring and, like the chameleon, can change it when necessary." However, he emphasizes:

It is also important to emphasize that the inhabitants, just as they are not Greeks, are also not Bulgarians or Serbs or Croats. They are Macedonians. ...The Greeks always call them Bulgars and damn them accordingly. ...If they were Bulgars, how is it that while they are spread over part of four countries, one of which is Bulgaria, they consider themselves a single entity and for the most part describe themselves as Macedonians? ...

The Macedonians are actuated by strong but mixed feelings of patriotism. .., a thriving and at times fervent local patriotism; and a feeling hard to assess because rarely uttered before a stranger. ..for Macedonia as such, regardless of present frontier-lines, which are looked upon as usurpation. ...

The same tenacity comes out in Macedonian songs, the traditional ones as well as those which have been made expressly in the present war. It is true that the songs usually mention Macedonia and not one particular place in Macedonia, but the feeling, which runs through them, is a simple and direct love of country, not an intellectual enthusiasm for a political idea. ...Passing through them all is the Macedonian's love of the place he lives in. ...

Macedonian patriotism is not artificial; it is natural, a spontaneous and deep-rooted feeling which begins in childhood, like everyone else's patriotism. (Rossos, Andrew, “Macedonia and the Macedonians a History”, Stanford, Hoover Institution Press, 2008. Pages 90 and 91).

„Ако Македонците имаа дивизии, Грците немаше да бидат во Македонија“

Nova Makedonija

Во грчката војна помеѓу десницата и левицата како граѓанска војна беше скриена традиционалната општогрчка стратегиска цел - елинизација на Егејска Македонија почната во 1923 година со Лозанската декларација (со што во голема мера беше изменет националниот состав). Тогаш е извршено етничко чистење во Егејска Македонија. Беа протерани 70-80 илјади Македонци, од кои 30 илјади православни отидоа во Бугарија, а 40-50 илјади во Пападокија, заедно со 510 илјади Турци, муслимани во Турција. Планот на тогашната монархофашистичка (така се именуваше тогаш) влада бил со Граѓанската војна (1945-1949) да ја заврши елинизацијата и со тоа конечно да го завршат македонското прашање во северна Елада (Грција) со чудовишната антимакедонска истребувачка акција - празнење на тој дел на Грција од Македонците. Тука е и ливчето од Јалта на Сталин и Черчил за влијание и поделба на Балканот.
„Зошто си формирал цел баталјон, кога наредбата е да се формира само по една чета во Воденско и во Леринско“, прашал огорчено Леонидас Стрингос. „А која ќе беше штетата ако беа формирани дивизии“, одговори со контрапрашање Ренос Михаелас.
„Ти си наивен! Ако Македонците имаа дивизии, ние Грците немаше да се наоѓаме во Македонија“, му објаснуваше Леонидас.
Пред 64 години (март-октомври 1944) капетанот П.Х.Еванс, членот на Британската воена мисија при единиците на ЕЛАС, во Егејска Македонија, престојува повеќе од седум месеци. Каирскиот разгранок на ЅОЕ планирал и испраќал групи и свои емисари во разни краишта на Балканот. Патрик е во пошироката околина на Лерин и на крајот пишува извештај за движењето на Слободна Македонија во леринската област. Споменатите имале задачи да се поврзат со одредени групи и елементи за кои се претпоставува дека можат и сакаат да се ангажираат во борбата против окупаторите и квислинзите, за да им се зададат удари на силите на Оската (Берлин-Токио, Италија во 1943 г. беше испадната, з.м.). Извештаите на британските емисари служеа и се уште служат како изворна документација за голем број историографски трудови и мемоари во кои се расветлувале целите и модификациите на политиката на Велика Британија спрема Балканот. Во тие рамки и за Македонија во текот на Втората светска војна. Така Б. Баркер го споменува и толкува извештајот на капетанот Еванс од 1 декември 1944 година за да ја соопшти својата констатација за леринската област дека била предоминантно словенска, а не грчка и дека Метаксасовиот диктаторски режим го ставил словенскиот јазик надвор од законот. Секако и заклучокот дека тогаш (1944) не било можно да се создаде слободна Македонија.
Евансовите впечатоци и сознанија се однесуваат за западните краишта на Егејска Македонија, за просторот Преспа - Костур - Вичо - Лерин - Сорович. Карактеристично е Евансовото категорично тврдење: „Сите грчки влади што се нижеа по ослободувањето на славонска Грција (Егејска Македонија и Одринско), покрај нивните различни политички гледишта беа согласни во едно: внимателно ја поттикнуваа оваа измама за да создадат впечаток кај својот народ и во светот дека не постои славенско малцинство во земјата. Меѓутоа, кога странец би ја посетил леринската област и од таа посета би создал впечаток за земјата како целина (Еванс вели) тој (странецот) би заклучил дека, напротив, Грците се малцинство. Оваа област е првенствено словенска, а не грчка. Јазикот во домовите и обично и в поле, на село и на пазар е македонски словенски јазик. И во едно од седумте поглавја Еванс заклучува дека жителите исто така како што не се Грци, не се ниту Бугари, Срби или Хрвати, тие се Македонци. Националните чувства се вткаени како во македонските песни од порано, така и во песните создавани во војната. Еванс истакнува дека во нив речиси редовно се споменува Македонија. Македонците се проникнати со искрена и непосредна љубов кон земјата, а не со некаков интелектуален ентузијазам за политичка идеја. Индикативна е и констатацијата: „Држењето дури и на образованите Грци кон македонското малцинство не само во словенските области туку насекаде е обично глупаво, дезинформирано и брутално до тој степен што човек паѓа во очајание дали е можно воопшто да се воспостави разбирање меѓу двата народа...“ (Напоменувам и истакнувам дека ова од Еванс е напишано по сознанието дека на 2 август 1944 година, на заседанието на АСНОМ, е формирана државата на Македонците - Демократска Федерална Македонија).
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Macedonian Political Refugees Once Again Denied Democratic Rights by Greek Authorities

2008-12-23T22:04:00.000-08:00

Greek Helsinki Monitor & Minority Rights Group - Greece
Source: www.greekhelsinki.gr

Greek Helsinki Monitor (GHM) and Minority Rights Group-Greece (MRG-G) denounce today's refusal by Greek authorities to dozens of ethnic Macedonian political refugees and relatives to enter Greece, preceded in recent days by similar refusals to a smaller number of such persons. These persons or their relatives had left Greece in the end of the Greek Civil War of the 1940s, alongside ethnic Greeks who both fought with the losing communist side. In 1982, the Greek state decided to redress the consequences of the civil war by allowing back in the country only the ethnic Greek political refugees: this was discrimination on ethnic grounds among a group of former Greek citizens, which is contrary to international and European human rights standards.

In May 2003, the Greek state announced its intention to allow the right to visit and consider the possibility of repatriation of the ethnic non-Greek political refugees, after an apparent broad consensus had emerged in the areas these persons had inhabited (mainly Florina and Kastoria in Western Greek Macedonia). However, the announcement was followed by a general backlash by influential conservative and/or nationalist politicians, media, scholars, etc. which led the government to backtrack and announce a limited right to a twenty day visit and only between 10 August and 31 October 2003 to those persons. It turned out that this was to apply only to those ethnic Macedonians whose birthplace was not mentioned with the old Macedonian name (used before the "Hellenization" of village and town names in the 1920s) and who were not on the state's blacklist of activists.

Greece may strictly speaking have the right to object to the use of only the Macedonian names for birthplaces in the passports of some of these persons. However, it has found a way to deal with the more important problem of the name of the Republic of Macedonia it does not recognize: the holders of the passports of that country get visas on separate paper, as the whole document is not recognized by Greek authorities. Greece could have done the same for the persons with Macedonian names of their birthplaces. Alternatively, Greece stamps mail and products from Macedonia with the phrase "recognized as FYROM". A similar procedure could have been used here as well.

Finally, Greek authorities officially stated that some 80 Macedonian activists living abroad are on a "blacklist." Preventing their entrance on grounds of their activism directly contravenes the special UN, OSCE, Council of Europe and EU provisions for the state's responsibility to respect and even defend NGOs and human rights activists. Moreover, in early July 2003, a Greek court in Florina rejected once again the registration of an ethnic Macedonian association, the Home of Macedonian Civilization, despite the fact that the ECHR convicted Greece in 1998 (case of Sidiropoulos and others) for a violation of freedom of association following a previous series of court refusals to register the same association in the late 1980s. Greece had -apparently deceivingly- pledged to the Council of Europe that it would conform to the ECHR ruling.

The international community has an obligation to urge Greece to conform to its international obligations or else sanction it; otherwise, it will reinforce the impression that there are double standards in the respect of human rights.