WHAT IS A GREEK?

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

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!?

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

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

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

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

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”

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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