To the Editor [of the Wall Street Journal]:.....


Andrew Apostolou’s “The Shame of Modern Greece” (Opinion Europe, January 20, 2010), about the arson attacks on a historic synagogue in Chania on the island of Crete, represents a case of a premature judgment used to support a simple-minded sermon without respect for the complexity of the historic relationship between the Greeks and the Jews, which stretches back about 2,500 years

Contrary to Mr. Apostolou, who did not have all the facts, of the five people accused of arson four are foreign, i.e. non-Greek nationals (two are British and two Americans), and one a Greek national; the two British and the Greek individuals have been arrested by the Greek police and will be charged based on video taped evidence of their actions and the confession of at least one of them. The US nationals are fugitives.

As for the larger issue of anti-Semitism in Greece, there are indeed bigots of all stripes in the country, though these are few and tend to be marginalized; Greece does not have an extreme rightist fascist or racist party that espouses anti-Semitism. Some on the left (including a major left-wing daily) promote “the now banal comparison of Israel with the Nazis,” a view that may be obnoxious but hardly racist. The comparison to anti-Semitism in Turkey falls flat, given that Hitler’s Mein Kampf has sold hundreds of thousands of copies over the last few years in that country, not to mention the fact that its political leadership is not particularly warm towards the state of Israel,

The relationship between the Greeks and the Jews is too complex to be reduced to slogans such as “[m]any Greeks do not know that their second largest city, Salonika, had a Jewish majority for most of its modern history.” The reality is that the many Greeks know this fact, as they also know that in 1492 the Jews were settled in Thessalonica by the Ottoman Turks after the latter had massacred and enslaved the Christian population of the city and seized its properties. The Jews replaced the tax base of which the Ottomans deprived themselves as a result of their massacres.

In the more recent past while during World War II over eighty percent of the Jews of Greece were exterminated by the National Socialist occupation forces, assisted by local collaborators (as in all of Europe), a significant number of Christian Greeks (including the family of the undersigned) simply assumed it their duty to protect and to hide their Jewish friends and neighbors. Mr. Apostolou’s accusatory tone about “the often shameful and ambiguous stance that too many (sic) Greeks took during the Second World War” reflects a studied ignorance of human nature universally and serves an anti-Greek political agenda. How many Europeans or Americans really intervened to stop the genocide of the Armenians, the Greeks and other Christians is Asia Minor by the Turks? Indeed many western countries still refuse to recognize that event, which prompted Raphael Lemkin to coin the very term genocide.

Aristide Caratzas
New York/Athens

• children born in the country, as soon as one of their parents manages to stay legally in the country for five years, by declaration of their parents
  
• children who attend the first three grades of grammar school, by their own declaration on their majority (18 years)
  
• children who attend any six grades of school, by declaration of their parents
  
• children born in Greece of one parent who was also born in Greece, ipso jure

To meet the expenses each member was compelled to contribute a fixed percentage of his income to the Committee chest, while rich members, in addi¬tion to this tax, made generous donations when funds were required. Arms and ammunition were secretly purchased. A considerable sum was set apart annually to provide for the families of members who lost life or liberty while working for the cause. Their several duties were apportioned to the members. There were the messengers who, disguised in various ways, went to and fro over the Empire carrying verbal reports and instructions. . . . There were the men who had to assassinate those whom the Committee had condemned to death—Government officials who were working against the movement with a dangerous zeal, and Palace spies who were getting on the scent. Other members were sent out to act as spies in the interest of the cause, and the contre espionage became at last so thorough that it baffled the espionage of the Palace. . . . The first and most im¬portant task . . . was, of course, that of bringing round to the cause the Macedo¬nian garrison—the Third Army Corps. ... By degrees a number of the young officers were affiliated and received instructions to win over the rank and file. . . . At last the whole Macedonian army was won over to the cause of the Young Turks. . .

Hello Black Manlis,
This is how your last name in the Macedonian language translates.
Let me ask You, even though I know my questions wont reach your ears: With what right do you insist of being Macedonian, when in your Turko-Greek language you are Karamanlis?
If you start digging a little bit in your roots, there is a great possibility of meeting a Turk who perhaps out of love, though more likely forced himself on your grandma or great-grandma, as it is usually done by occupational armies.
Have you ever wondered why you have KARA as your starting prefix?
Say hello to your Turkish compatriot Karajaferis, and ask him the very same question I asked You.
How do you ask for monopoly on history? No one is allowed to look back in history, apart from You, and your “Greeks”.
Will you ever be able to find some strength and dignity and admit that the prehistoric citizens of Athens, Sparta … referred to the Macedonians as barbarians?
With your quenching thirst today to all of a sudden become Macedonian, aren’t you jumping in your own deathtrap: that you are barbarian.
How else to describe, or explain the efforts of the Greek Government to destroy the Macedonians, their villages, cities, language, rivers, homes, names, graves… unless it is a barbaric move?
In the history books, only the barbarians committed such heinous crimes and unpunished (yet) methods of genocide.
But that was then when civilian criterias weren’t at satisfactory levels, or maybe I am wrong, I am awaiting your answer.
Are today’s barbarians wearing white shirts and ties instead of skins from killed animals?
If you know the answer, write to Milan.adzievski@forum.com.mk
PS: Do you know who was Arhimed? He ran naked through out Athens yelling “Eureka” because he found out that every body submerged in water, pushes out as much water as the volume of the body.
In your greek case, this law would be: Every fascist move submerged in nationalism, pushes out as much stupidity as the volume of the fascist.
What is your weight, Black Manlis?

I have always stated, and I repeat here, that modern Macedonians (people who have a Macedonian and not a Greek national identity) are not descendants of the ancient Macedonians; they are Slavs. This means that they speak a Slavic language. Similarly Greeks are Indo-Europeans, since they speak an Indo-European language. This does not mean that Macedonians should be called Slav Macedonians, any more than Russians should be called Slav Russians or Greeks should be called Indo-European Greeks. In my opinion, Macedonian nationalists who deny they are Slavs and claim they are direct descendants of Alexander the Great and the ancient Macedonians are extremists. They are making inaccurate statements that are bad scholarship and bad politics. Building a statue of Alexander the Great in Skopje and naming the Skopje airport after Alexander the Great are in my opinion irresponsible acts that are not in the best interests of the Republic of Macedonia.


I have also consistently stated that people who have a Greek national identity and a Macedonian ethnic or regional identity as Macedonians also have every right to identify themselves as Macedonians. In my opinion no one has the right to monopolize the term “Macedonians” and deny others the right to identify themselves as Macedonians. References to “occupied” portions of Macedonia are also extremely irresponsible and inappropriate. I support the human rights of the Macedonian minority in Greece, as I do the rights of the Greek minority in Turkey, and the Albanian minority in the Republic of Macedonia.

(1) A census of children has been taken by the guerrillas in certain areas of Greece under guerrilla control. The evidence is that this census is in connexion with the removal of children.
(2) A large number of children has been removed from certain areas of northern Greece under guerrilla control to Albania. Bulgaria and Yugoslavia and, according to radio reports from Belgrade and Sophia, to certain other countries to the north. However, the Special Committee has not been able to verify, by means available to it, the precise number of children involved.
(3) While a number of parents have agreed under duress to the removal of their children, and some children have in fact been forcibly removed, other parents have consented- or at least failed to object, to such removal. It has not been possible for the Special Committee to determine the exact number of children removed under these categories.
(4) The number of cases reported point to the existence of a programme to remove children from areas of Greece under guerrilla control to certain countries to the north.
(5) Although the responsibility for the initiation of the plan is not known to the Special Commitee, it follows from the appearance of Greek children on a large scale in the countries to the north and the numerous announce ments of the radios controlled by these Governments that the programme is being carried out with the approval and assistance of these Governments" .[10]

(a) The Slav-speaking area of Western Macedonia: The region around Lake Prespa, Florina and Kastoria, which is inhabited mostly by Greek citizens who speak a Slav language.
(b) The eastern part of Greek Thrace: There have also been a few reports of census-taking in areas of Epirus and in central and eastern Macedonia under guerrilla control.[11]

"When a village sympathized with the guerrillas, the guerrillas left the parents free to refuse to hand over their children and in Slav-speaking villages the majority of parents willingly accepted the offer In Greek-speaking villages the process resembled conscription; attempts were made to convince the parents and, after a minority of them volunteered, a list of all the children in the village was drawn up notwithstanding the parents1 desires. The summary report of Group 2 did not, however, establish the actual removal of children from its area to foreign countries."[14]

My mother’s denial to give my little brother and myself away to the communist guerillas, so that we might be delivered into the iron curtain countries, a deed organized by the KKE, placed her in the ranking of a shady “ reactionary” and put the entire family as KKE’s target for revenge. First they took my mother to help the rebels in the mountains carrying materials, where she was often physically tortured. My brother, along with other residents of our village and I, were ordered to abandon our homes and forced to live in makeshift huts in the nearby forest.

Later, they led us cross the borders secretly and we entered Albania. After walking on foot for several days, almost without food or water, we arrived in a dirty prison labor camp. Once reunited with our mother, we spent some time in various prisons in Albania, and finally we were dragged in the galley of Loulé in Romania, where my brother and I attended the Russian-Romanian schools of their “father” and “god” Stalin. In addition we suffered incredible pressure from the leaders of KKE to give up our motherland Greece and become Slavomacedonians

"This poor woman had probably been drawn into a Greek family or circle years before, and in order to keep peace in the family had decided to play dumb when it came to her linguistic and ethnic identity. To an outsider it appeared to be quite the sad spectacle, for her Greek handlers to parade her out at an academic conference as some sort of living proof of the non-existence of her mother tongue and ethnicity."
http://www.maknews.com/forum/general-discussions/report-macedonian-conferenceuniversity-of-utah-t17459.html

"I submit that Mrs. Damopoulou was denied at the University of Utah conference the common courtesy of being heard and respected as a member of the Greek Macedonian community and also as a credible eyewitness – by virtue of being a young victim of involuntary evacuation and forced migration during the Greek Civil War (1946-49).
Indeed, what Irene Damopoulou-Karatzios has recently experienced, both during and after the conference, is precisely the kind of dehumanization and disentitlement that is considered as one of the basic psychological substrates underlying the perpetuation of ethnic conflicts."

"The task of the Greek Red Cross was exceedingly difficult.


On the one hand the communists unleashed in this regard and on orders of the KKE an unforeseen campaign of terrorism, so that the gathering of applications (by parents for the return of the children) could be discouraged, as well as any expression of a desire for the repatriation of the children.


On the other hand, the KKE, with the aim to have favourable concessions from the parents for the commission of the children to the Communist Block, gave orders to communist commissars to tour the regions held by the communists to obtain in every possible way favourable declarations from parents about their "willing" surrender of their children.


It is obvious that this policy of extortion was designed not only so as to reveal a great number of parents who "willingly agreed" to the surrender of their children, but to shake through fear the will of many parents so that, were they to be called in the future to express their wish for the childrens´ return to refuse to do so, for fear of reprisals."

"Many of the parents had been forcibly recruited by the "symmorites" and therefore it was not possible to have expressions of a desire for the return of their children.


But the most terrible of all was the fact that, because of executions by the symmorites of a great number of individuals, the natural guardians of the children were no longer in live and it was exceedingly difficult to find and determine which among the relatives were the nearest to the children so that they may have the right to apply for the return of the children according to the UN directive."

On Feb 14th, 1950, an announcement had been made in Greek from Bucharest in response to requests from the Voice of America for the return of the abducted children to Greece:


"The Voice of America cannot stomach the fact that 28,000 Greek children and Slav Macedonians were transported to the Peoples´ Republics with the full accord of their parents. These children will continue to live there according to the wish of their parents, will be educated in their own language and national spirit and will learn a trade…"


"Here is an example of the agreement of a family to send their children to the Iron Curtain to be "educated in their own language and national spirit and to learn a trade". The village schoolteacher in Zerma in 1947 was one named Mitsis. I do not know if he is still living. He had a wife and five children.


Budapest, August 1949. We had our base in Budapest. In August 1949 I was supervisor of the Central Office and "Inspector" again of the Paidomazoma. One day Yiannis, the colleague in charge of censorship says to me: "Comrade, a letter has arrived and it appears to be suspicious from beginning to end. Read it so that we may see what this fascist says".


I took the "suspicious letter", put it in my pocket and continued my work. In the afternoon after I had finished, I went by the Danube and I sat somewhere, watching the murky water of the Danube that flowed quietly. There I remembered the letter of the "fascist" I had in my pocket. I took it out, I saw it was well written and scanned to the bottom of it to see who was writing. I saw then it was from Mitsis, the schoolteacher of Zerma. What does he want - I thought to myself. What business does he have with us? And, my God, the wretched man wanted to know where his children were, where is his little one, whether he cries for his father and mother and whether they are all together, "Whether Spyridoula takes care of you" … and "try to find where your mother is because I do not know". I read it over and over again. I remembered it was his Encyclopedia that we had confiscated and he was one our men were hunting and wanted to kill.


I went back to my office. I started browsing through the "registers" to see in which country were his children, because the letter said he had many. Five children!


I was glad to find they were in Hungary, and some indeed in Budapest. I thought to go immediately to find one of them , to give him the letter with his father´s kisses… but then I remembered about their mother. I had to find in which country she was, to put them in contact with each other so as to make them happy, the poor little souls.


I went through all the "registers´. I found nowhere the wife of the wretched schoolteacher. I began to curse the commissaries of the various countries for their insufficient records!!


I left my office and went to the Children´s Town. It was late and they were asleep. I returned to my room, but I could not rest!


Next day I returned to the Children´s Town. I found one of them, a little girl and without letting her suspect that I had a letter, I began to ask: Where is your father? Your mother? Your siblings? And the little girl said to me: "My father stayed in Greece, I do not know where and if he is alive. Myself, my sister and a brother are here, I do not know about the other two. We do not know where our mother is. She may be in one of the countries. Because when the men took us and we asked for our mother, because we did not want to leave without her, they told us that we will find her here. "She has already left, she is ahead of you" they told us. I turned to leave when I heard again the little girl say: "Comrade, go see where our mother is and tell us! We have a year and a half to see her and we long for her, we are as orphans. Why, comrade, the men tricked us? Where is our mother? "


I was not satisfied by the little girl. She did not know much and so I went to find men and women from the region of Konitsa to find the end of this case.


And I found it! But what did I find! When I found out my legs and my arms trembled from the emotion. They informed me that the men shot the children's mother near her village. That when the children were taken she was already dead. The children did not know. Neither their father! And the little one was waiting for me to come by the Children´s Town again, to tell her in which country(!) is her mother! Our men had taken care of her in the ravines of their village! And the children? The Party "took care" of them. And here "not even one child has been taken by force!..." What would the Communist Party of Greece claim? And what the criminal voice from Bucharest?"

"In the bleak city hall of Kozane, a northern Greek mountain town, 13 peasants stood before a U. N. field team. The peasants had been hostages of General Markos Vafiades' communist andartes. In the mixed Greek-Slav-Albanian dialect of the Macedonian border people, they haltingly told their story.


Black-shawled Athena Papalexiou, 50, spoke first. "All children between 3 and 14 were being registered by the andartes," she said. The rebels had told the parents that the children would be sent to good homes in the Slav "democracies." "Would the children come back again?" asked an investigator. "It was forbidden to discuss the matter," replied Athena.


John Natsis and Zagarus Voiliotis had been billeted with a widower in Kranies, in the rebel-controlled northwest corner of Greece. They had watched the widower give the names and ages of his three children to a rebel officer and a clerk. "They told him he must be glad that his children would be taken away to the safety of other countries," said the two peasants. "They said soon the Monarcho-Fascists would bomb Kranies, and in Romania his children would receive a good education.""

"Hell itself could not labour a plan more satanic. This heinous crime that defies description, was accompanied by cynical comments transmitted by the Albanian Radio Station, as well as the radio stations of Bulgaria, Hungary, Romania, for the "warm" and "loving" welcome, which was extended to the innocent little victims in the capitals of these countries.. They were abducted to be tutored to hate their parents, their religion and their homeland as their common cultural inheritance. There is danger that these unfortunate young souls will be lost forever and if they ever return they may act as offspring of "snakes" against the breast of their motherland. Thousands of Greek children, abducted by the red criminals who added the tragedy of their heinous child abduction to the terrible crime against their homeland, are facing the terror and abomination of Soviet totalitarianism and are under inhuman pressure to change their national consciousness and to become enemies of their homeland."

"The General Council of the International Union for the Protection of Children which met in Stockholm on 14-8-1948, informed that a considerable number of Greek children were abducted from their homeland without the consent of their parents and considering that such an act is an outright violation of the principles of the Declaration for the Rights of the Child, the so-called "Geneva Declaration". Resolves:

1. That the United Nations work to find the proper means such that the return to their homes of all the children that are held from their parents against their wish is achieved at the soonest time possible.


2. That the International Union for Child Protection offer their services, in coordination with other organizations, so that care may be provided to these children, wherever they may be.


3. That the United Nations may be requested to take measures such that the children of all nationalities may be protected against the violent transfer and detention far from their homeland without the consent of their parents"

"I was accompanied by an official who spoke Greek to the camp at BALATON FURE. The official talked to a young boy who, when he heard his mother tongue brightened up and started to talk in Greek. But a bigger child then came and pulled the little one by the hand and said that he must not disobey the orders, to speak Greek and in actual fact to foreigners…"

"They understand very well that, if they teach to the Greek children their false philosophy, their task in the world will be much easier".

"Since my brother and I refused to declare that we were Slavomacedonians and refused to take courses in Slavomacedonci, we were also thrown out of the Romanian school for three days. Our dismissal from school above all created a problem of survival as we had no more right to food from the school mess hall. When my mother complained to the community leaders because we were not given food, she was told that there was nothing that they could do and that we should think of the consequences of our denial to identify as Slavomacedonians. Then my mother went to the school to complain. She found one of the teachers, a man named Mr. Nikos from Kilkis [Greece]. Unfortunately, I cannot remember his family name. "Comrade Niko, why have you thrown my children out of school?" she asked. "Because you are Slavomacedonians from St. Demetrios!" he answered. "Your children need to change schools and attend the Slavomacedonian school.""

"Some mothers lost their lives trying to keep their children. For example that was the fate of Sultana Petridis. I happened to see it with my own eyes and hear with my own ears the terrible torture she suffered in the hands of the communist partisans because she refused to give her children away to the paidomazoma. Sultana Petridis was from the village of Polyanemos of Kastoria. She was divorced from her husband and had two small children, a boy and a girl, whom she refused to give to be taken into Iron Curtain countries. One day, as I was going from our house to my grandmother´s house, I met her in a narrow street of our village. She was walking between two partisans with guns, holding her head down and her hands behind her back. Two more partisans were following a few meters behind them. As the street was very narrow, I stopped and remained standing on the side for them to pass. When they reached the place where I was standing, auntie Sultana slowed her walk and asked me about my family´s name. When I told her, she asked me where my parents were. She asked first for my father, and then for my mother. About my father I said that I did not know, and for my mother I told her that she was at home. As the guerrillas pushed her to continue, she turned her head a little and told me to give "greetings to my mother from aunt Soulta".

Later that evening we started hearing Sultana´s cries and screams of pain from the torture she was obviously suffering in the hands of the communist guerrillas. The guerrillas had led her to my uncle Papagermanos´ house, which after his escape to Kastoria, was being used by them as their local headquarters. The torture of unfortunate Sultana Petridis continued late into the night. Next morning, the guerrillas put her on a mule and led her outside the village. Because of the torture she had suffered she could not stand on the mule. Thus, the guerrillas first placed a wooden structure on it and tied Sultana. As they were leading her on the mule by our house, she looked as having no life in her. Perhaps she was unconscious. My mother and I,saw this scene from a small window of our house. The guerrillas led her little further north from our village, inside the narrow valley and killed her.

The communists took Sultana´s children into the Iron Curtain countries. Later, they returned to Greece. Her son visited the area of Kastoria, and he was asking to find out "why the fascists killed his mother"? One of those he asked was my uncle, Leonidas Lazaridis, who related this to me. My uncle knew the real killers of Sultana Petridis, and informed him. He told him that the killers of his mother were exactly those people who had indoctrinated him and his sister with stories about "fascists killers," while he was away in some communist country. I do not know if he was convinced, or if he pursued the matter to learn all the truth about the torture his mother had suffered in the hands of the guerrillas of the Greek Communist Party before her killing."

Plea of the Greek Parliament to the United Nations, 1948 :


"The Hellenic Parliament seeing that the communist bandits enforce systematically a program of genocide via the abductions of children and the taking of hostages, that the noted abduction of hostages is the outcome of armed and raw violence perpetrated against widows and orphans, whose protectors were slain by the bandits


Resolves


Protests to the entire civilized world and especially to the Parliaments of free nations and makes a plea to the U.N. that as a mediator in this unprecedented drama of the Greeks will proceed without delay into taking practical and effective measures for the repatriation of the abducted as well as the termination of this unheard-of tragedy."

"The General Assembly having considered etc etc … (full text appended at the end of the article)


Recommends the return to Greece of Greek children at present away from their homes when the children, their father or mother or, in his or her absence, their closest relative, express a wish to that effect;


Invites all the Members of the United Nations and other States on whose territory these children are to be found to take the necessary measures for implementation of the present recommendation;


Instructs the Secretary-General to request the International Committee of the Red Cross and the League of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies to organize and ensure liaison with the national Red Cross organizations of the States concerned with a view to empowering the national Red Cross organizations to adopt measures in the respective countries for implementing the present recommendation.


Hundred and sixty-seventh plenary meeting,


27 November 1948"

"THREATS TO THE POLITICAL INDEPENDENCE AND TERRITORIAL INTEGRITY OF GREECE - 288 (IV) (18 November 1949)


Noting the report submitted by the International Committee of the Red Cross and the League of the Red Cross Societies on the question of the repatriation of Greek children,and expressing warm appreciation of the efforts made by the two International Red Cross organizations to facilitate the implementation of General Assembly resolution 193 (III) C, Noting that the Greek children have not as yet been returned to their homes….


2.Urges all the Members of the United Nations and other States harbouring the Greek children to make all necessary arrangements, in consultation and co-operation with the international Red Cross organizations, for the early return to their homes of the children with the aforementioned resolution;"

"My dear Mr. Speaker,


I fully share the concern of the House of Representatives for the thousands of children removed from Greece to eastern Europe by the communist guerrilla forces, and I welcome the adoption of House Resolution 514 of March 22, 1950, calling for the speedy return of these children to their homes and homeland.


The rights of children and parents to share the protection, comradeship and beneficent influence of a family home are fundamental and have been implicitly recognized, in the case of the Greek children, in two unanimous resolutions of the United Nations General Assembly. It is morally inadmissible that political considerations or technical difficulties should be allowed to stand in the way of the reunion of these children with their parents.


The Executive Branch of the Government has been persistent in its endeavors to secure effective compliance with the United Nations resolutions in this case. These efforts will not be relaxed until the Greek children are back in their homes."

"Resolved, That the House of Representatives expresses its profound concern for the thousands of Greek children removed or carried off into countries of eastern Europe by the Communist guerrilla forces during the course of the recent guerrilla warfare in Greece, and requests the President to exert all of his powers, acting through the United Nations and other international organizations and directly with the governments of the countries where these children are located, to the end that these thousands of children shall be speedily returned to their homes and homeland ."

-pursuing the imposition of its constitutional name, bypassing the obligation to work for a negotiated settlement, and

-proceeding to a number of irredentist and provocative actions and statements directed against Greece

1. the adoption of a definitive composite name with geographical qualification of the term Macedonia, for all purposes (erga omnes) and for all uses, so as to avoid confusion with Greek Macedonia and to put an end to the irredentist policy and territorial aspirations of FYROM,

2. that FYROM genuinely renounces the usurpation of historical and national heritage of the Greek people,

3. Endorsement of the definitive solution by the UN Security Council, so as to ensure respect for its implementation.

‘The name controversy pertains to Greece objecting to the Republic of Macedonia referring to itself as “Macedonia” because Greece annexed a territory known as Aegean Macedonia earlier this century in the Balkan Wars and fears that Macedonia may seek back this land, populated by ethnic Macedonians’.(34,Summer 2000, 477 f, with 484 n. 9)

Great interest should be created [in history] and there should be a systematic approach, with a materialistic elucidation of the historical past of our people in general, and special elaboration of the socialist movement in our country. The history of the people's liberation struggle should be particularly elaborated. A struggle should be carried out for systematic studies of our past among the broad masses as well as among party members. This is a necessary condition for the ideological uplift of party cadres and for the education of the masses in the spirit of socialism. [17]

Some of our people fail to understand correctly Kuzman Sapkarov's cultural activity in the struggle for the Macedonian language, and they are suspicious about the national character of our entire early national movement simply because Sapkarov or others in the movement were not clearly, explicitly and to the very end nationally inclined, because some of them felt "now a Macedonian, now a Bulgarian." In the same way, some people fall into uncertainty about the Macedonian character of the national liberation movement in Deltev's time simply because Goce Deltev wrote in Bulgarian, because he did not say definitely that Macedonia is one nation and that Bulgaria is another. [19]

Our socialists did not have a clear idea of the national belonging of the Macedonian people, nor of the need to establish it as a separate unit, and they adopted the stand that the population in Macedonia was composed of members of the Bulgarian, Serbian, and Greek nations and of the minorities.[24]

the (Slav)Macedonian nation did not emerge as a result of political manipulations in the twentieth century, but it emerged from the general struggle, resistance and awareness of the people, which began early in the 19th century.

The vocabulary of the literary language should be enriched with terms taken from all Slav Macedonian dialects. New words should be created with living inflections of the folk speech. Borrowed words from other languages should be retained only where necessary, [7]

We are meeting with blind acceptance of Great Bulgarian theories with regard to the struggle of our people for its national language. Study of the struggle for a national language is important, because language is one of the four basic elements without which there cannot be talk of a nation. The broad reading public, and even some teachers of national history, know little about the one hundred year struggle of our people for its own national language, or they underestimate it or misunderstand it, and thus they unconsciously become bearers of an anti-historical, unscientific stand with regard to our language. Some lecturers and publicists of our history are bringing to the masses the conception that the Slav Macedonians started in their schools and in their other cultural institutions with the use of the Bulgarian language as their literary language and that this language was used during the whole 19th and 20th centuries until the thirties, when progressive Slav Macedonian publicists took as their literary language one of the Slav Macedonian dialects. Thus it is made to seem that the Slav Macedonian literary language appeared as a shot out of the dark, because with such a conception the struggle for a national language, which started in the middle of the 19th century, is ignored.[8]

Many Slav Macedonians have not yet learned to use their native Macedonian on all stylistic levels.... It is only the small group of intellectuals daily concerned with the written word who now write easily, without frequent Serbisms of Bulgarisms.... The writers were burdened by their education in Serbian or Bulgarian; they had learned in the long hard years of school Slav Macedonian was only for intimate friends and the most familiar ideas and feelings, but in broader spheres Serbian (or Bulgarian) must be used. This means that even today many Slav Macedonians unconsciously slip into Serbian when discussing political, philosophical or artistic matters. [10]

Among the wide masses of the urban population and the intelligentsia, the Slav Macedonian language is accepted as the most important, and often the only good, aspect of the present day Yugoslavia. The children are learning it in the schools and their parents are very satisfied that this is the case. There are places in the country-side where people were reluctant to send their children to school in the days of old Yugoslavia, but now they do so willingly, for they want their children to learn the Slav Macedonian language....The new literature and poetry in the national language has aroused great interest, for through it is created and formed the new national spirit and language. This new literature, as well as the printing of prewar literature and poetry by Slav Macedonians in the national language, has resulted in much reading.

The Slav Macedonian language cannot be isolated from the mutual influence of the languages spoken by the Yugoslav peoples. Our common socio-economic development and socialist practice have created and are creating a number of new general expressions and terms accepted by all Yugoslav peoples.... The development of the languages of nations which have appeared late on the stage of history provides numerous examples showing that they are subjected to the influence of more developed languages and richer national cultures of related and neighboring peoples. [15]

"And she conceived and bare to Zeus who delights in the thunderbolt two sons, Magnes and Macedon, rejoicing in horses, who dwell round about Pieria and Olympus".
Hesiod (8th C BC), fragment; Constantinos Porphyrogenitos, 2 de Them. 2 p. 48B

Имав 16 години кога ме претставија на Јосиф Сталин, изјави еден од водечките светски модни креатори Пако Рабан во Москва, каде на руската публика прв пат и ја претстави изложбата на своите цртежи,

Сеќавајќи се на таа средба, 70-годишниот Рабан, кој тогаш со мајка му престојувал во Москва, посочи дека Сталин му оставил силен впечаток и оти имал некаква магнетска привлечност.

Мојата мајка беше еден од основачите на Комунистичката партија на Шпанија. Таа беше многу прагматична жена, голем реалист и силна личност", истакна Рабан за весникот „Известија".

Рабан е роден во Баскија, Шпанија, но пораснал со Франција.

Креаторот, чии модели од пластика, метал и хартија се изложени во музеи на современа уметност, смета дека модата денеска е во криза поради отсуство на идеи, но оти „има надеж за тоа што доаѓа од истокот".

Paco Rabbany: When I was in the Coast I met Stalin

I had 16 years ago when I was introduced to Joseph Stalin, said one of the leading fashion designers Paco Rabbany in Moscow where the Russian public for the first time and presented an exhibition of his drawings.

Recalling that meeting, 70-year-old Rabbany, who then resided with his mother in Moscow, Stalin said that he left a strong impression and that he had a magnetic attraction.

"My mother was one of the founders of the Communist Party of Spain. It was a very pragmatic woman, a realist and a strong personality, "said Rabbany newspaper Izvestija.

Rabbany was born in the Basque Country, Spain, but grew up in France.

Creator, whose models of plastic, metal and paper are exposed in museums of modern art, believes that fashion today is in crisis due to lack of ideas, but that "there is hope for what comes from the east".

Paco Rabanne: When Bev st Koskva introduced him to Stalin

Imav 16 years when I претставија of Јосиф Stalin изјави Eden sh vodechkite secular fashion kreatori Paco Rabanne st Moscow, the Russian audience Kade FTE ја pretstavi stalemate and the exhibition of their tsrtezhi,

Сеќавајќи to taa sredba, 70-godishniot Rabanne, кој gown pm мајка his престојувал st Moscow, Stalin said his deck remains strong and BTI had vpechatok nekakva magnetska privlechnost.

"Eden was Мојата мајка sh osnovachite of Komunistichkata партија of Шпанија. Таа беше многу прагматична жена, голем реалист и силна личност", истакна Рабан за весникот „Известија". Taa was многу pragmatic woman, realistic and strong personality, istakna Rabanne for vesnikot "Известија.

Raban was born st Баскија, Шпанија but grown Франција pm.

Kreatorot, whose models sh plastic, metal and exposed to хартија st museums sovremena umetnost, trash fashion deck is deneska st crisis due otsustvo ideas, "but BTI has hope for SG & A sh што доаѓа istokot".

Paco Raban: Where I was in Koskva go met Stalin

I had 16 years to when I presented the Joseph Stalin, said one of the world vodečkite fashion designers Paco Raban in Moscow, where the audience ruskata first time I presented izložbata on their drawings,

Seḱavajḱi at that meeting, 70-godišniot Raban, which then, with his mother stayed in Moscow, Stalin posoči that he ostavil strong vpečatok went and had a some kind of magnetic privlečnost.

"My mother was one of the founder of Komunističkata parties in Spain. It was very pragmatic woman, great realists and strong personality, "Raban pointed to newspaper" Izvestia ".

Raban was born in the Basque Country, Spain, no porasnal with France.

Kreatorot, CII models of plastic, metal and paper are exposed in museums of modern art, considers that fashion today is in crisis due to the absence of ideas, no go "for it has nadež which doaǵa of istokot".

- There is a political party in Greece, which claims to represent the “Macedonian minority”. This party operates freely and participates without any impediments in the elections. One of the leading figures of the party is a civil servant, working for the Greek State, regardless of his political activities and views.

- There are regular cultural events and festivities organised by the Slav-speaking persons in the region of Florina, where everyone is free to participate, including nationals of the neighbouring Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia.

The Albanians are universally acknowledged as the descendants of the Illyrians who gave the world Alexander the Great, Emperor Constantine, several other Roman and Byzantine Emperors, one of the popes of the Roman Catholic Church, several Grand Vizirs of the Ottoman Empire, Muhammad Ali Pasha, father of modern Egypt, Mustafa Kemal Atatürk, founder of modern Turkey, as well as Mother Teresa destined for sainthood because of her services to the poor of India. Albania was also the only country in Europe that protected all the Jews, i.e. the only European country where the Jewish population was increased during WWII.

Albanians are universally acknowledged as the descendants of the Illyrians…..

…Albanians are universally acknowledged…who gave the world Alexander the Great…

…Albanians are universally acknowledged…who gave…Emperor Constantine, several other Roman and Byzantine Emperors (were Albanians)…

…Albanians are universally acknowledged…who gave…pope in the Roman Catholic Church…

… Albania was also the only country in Europe that protected all the Jews, i.e. the only European country where the Jewish population was increased during WWII…

--Arbër, Arbën, Arbëreshë; the old native term denoting ancient and medieval Albanians and sharing the same root with the latter. At the time the country was called Arbër (Gheg: Arbën) and Arbëria (Gheg: Arbënia). This term is still used for the Albanians that migrated to Italy during the Middle Ages.

--Arnauts; old term used mainly from Turks and by extension by European authors during the Ottoman Empire. A derivate of Arbër, Albanian.

-- Skipetars; the historical rendering of the ethnonym Shqiptar (or Shqyptar by French, Austrian and German authors) in use from the 18th century (but probably earlier) to the present, the literal translation of which is subject of the eagle. The term Šiptari is a derivation used by Yugoslavs which the Albanians consider derogatory.

The Albanians are universally acknowledged as the descendants of the Illyrians who gave the world Alexander the Great, Emperor Constantine, several other Roman and Byzantine Emperors, one of the popes of the Roman Catholic Church, several Grand Vizirs of the Ottoman Empire, Muhammad Ali Pasha, father of modern Egypt, Mustafa Kemal Atatürk, founder of modern Turkey, as well as Mother Teresa destined for sainthood because of her services to the poor of India. Albania was also the only country in Europe that protected all the Jews, i.e. the only European country where the Jewish population was increased during WWII.

Albanians are universally acknowledged as the descendants of the Illyrians…..

…Albanians are universally acknowledged…who gave the world Alexander the Great…

…Albanians are universally acknowledged…who gave…Emperor Constantine, several other Roman and Byzantine Emperors (were Albanians)…

…Albanians are universally acknowledged…who gave…pope in the Roman Catholic Church…

… Albania was also the only country in Europe that protected all the Jews, i.e. the only European country where the Jewish population was increased during WWII…

The 260 Slav Macedonians historians, bringing out the government arranged the shipment was, they note that the Greeks, coming from the continent, with virtually cultural backgrounds, "settled by the local appropriating Balkan cultures, which were advanced and shown as its own achievements."

The unprecedented provocation of Skopje government reaches in the point to characterize the Greek culture as result of counterfeiting and intercepting other cultures, while not hesitating to seize the historic Parthenon and even the Homeric epics! "Even the epics of Homer and the Parthenon is not the result of Greek culture, but as result of counterfeiting, adoption and even interception of these local indigenous cultures such as ours, the Macedonia!"

Slav Macedonian academics base theirs view in a paper [2] that have published from a Spanish lab with the corporation of three Slav Macedonians genetic scientists. This paper had concluded that "Greeks are found to have a substantial relatedness to sub-Saharan (Ethiopian and West African) people, which separate them from other Mediterranean groups." The conclusions of the paper were related to the "Black Athena" debate and became embroiled in disputes between Greek and Slavmacedonians nationalists.

Shortly after this, three respected geneticists, Luca Cavalli-Sforza, Alberto Piazza and Neil Risch, argued that the scientific limitations of Arnaiz-Villena's methodology.[3] They stated that "Using results from the analysis of a single marker, particularly one likely to have undergone selection, for the purpose of reconstructing genealogies is unreliable and unacceptable practice in population genetics.", making specific allusion to the findings on Greeks (among others) as "anomalous results, which contradict history, geography, anthropology and all prior population-genetic studies of these groups."

Arnaiz-Villena countered this criticism in a response, stating "single-locus studies, whether using HLA or other markers, are common in this field and are regularly published in the specialist literature" .

No multiple-marker analysis has ever duplicated Arnaiz-Villena's results. In The History and Geography of Human Genes (Princeton, 1994), Cavalli-Sforza, Menozzi and Piazza grouped Greeks with other European and Mediterranean populations based on 120 loci . See the below MDS plot

Then Aryub [4] did the same thing using 182 loci and again no sub-Saharan admixture was detected in the Greek sample. Another study was conducted in 2004 at Skopje's University of S. Kiril and Metodij, using high-resolution typing of HLA-DRB1 according to Arnaiz-Villena's methodology. Contrary to Arnaiz-Villena's conclusion, and no sub-Saharan admixture was detected in the Greek sample.[5]

It seems that even the last study that conducted from FYROM University averted Slav Macedonians of the FYROM to write such as racists comments as regards the Greek nation and the ancient Greek civilization. The disputed data continues to be cited all over the internet, mostly by white supremacists, afrocentrists and Slavmacedonians nationalists (usually VMRO fans and Diaspora Centers like maknews.com) who have political motivations to relate modern and/or ancient Greeks to black Africans.

But now officially FYROM administration adopted these radical views and publish a encyclopaedia that flourish of lies, accuracies and racists views. The genetics, with its appearance of scientific objectivity, holds obvious—albeit illusory—appeal. As Appelbaums [6] remarked for nations with strong claims to territorial sovereignty, genetic data will be irrelevant; for nations with weak claims, such data will always be inadequate. Advocates who look to genetics for a decisive victory are certain to be disappointed.

Nationality is a matter of culture and education and not genetic (mixtures) issue. Who is the person that put blood standards as about the nationality (race)?

The racistS and the "white arryan" supremacistS that think the colour of the skin and eye or the blood markers are the definition of the race.

Modern Greeks are the descendants of all the peoples who have adopted and retained that language and that civilization from classical times to the present. I am not claim that genetic purity is an ideal for the Greek people and the others racist thinks.Asa I said even Sforza put two others factors except the clusters and these are the language and the history. Modern Greek nation is not an entirely modern formation, for it is based on much older cultural groups (ethnies). Greek ethnies (like Arvanites, Vlachs, Slavophones etc.) present "permanent cultural attributes" such as memory, value, myths and symbolisms. Greek ethnies present a common cultural origin descending from ancient Greece and Byzantium. Thus, as Smith points out, "the challenge for scholars is to represent more accurately and convincingly the relationship of ethnic, cultural (Greek) past to modern (Greek) nation". [7]

REFERENCES

[1]- [macedoniaonline.eu]

[2]- [www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov]

[3]- Dropped genetics paper lacked scientific merit, [www.nature.com]

[4]- Ayub et al. (2003 Nov). "Reconstruction of human evolutionary tree using polymorphic autosomal microsatellites". American Journal of Physical Anthropology 122 (3): 259-68.

[5]- High-resolution typing of HLA-DRB1 locus in the Macedonian population, [www3.interscience.wiley.com]

[6]- The Gene Wars, Diana and Paul Appelbaum.

[7]- A. D. Smith, National Identity, pp. 51, 236-237

ibox.bg

In the context of minorities, references made by a very small number of non-governmental organizations to a so-called “Macedonian minority” in Greece do not correspond to existing realities. The fact that a small number of persons who live in Northern Greece use, in addition to the Greek language, Slavic oral idioms, does not indicate the existence of a national minority. Furthermore, the use of the term “Macedonian” to describe a so-called minority usurps the name and national and cultural identity of some two and a half million Greeks who identify themselves for many centuries as Macedonians (Makedones) in the regional and cultural context and can therefore not be accepted.

In this connection, claims that Greece did not recognize the existence of a national linguistic minority by the name of “Macedonian” were totally unsubstantiated and threatened to create potential tensions over existing identities in the region, as well as serious confusion over that name, as it was also used by hundreds of thousands Greek Macedonians living in the northern part of the country, said Ms. Telalian. Also, the non-recognition of numerically small groups as a national minority did not imply discriminatory treatment.

JOSE LINDGREN ALVES, the Committee Expert serving as country Rapporteur for the report of Greece, said he could not agree more with Greece’s answer to his question as to why Greece had not ratified the Framework Convention for the Protection of National Minorities of the Council of Europe, while it had signed it in 1997. In its response Greece had said that the diversity of legal and socio-political circumstances and historic traditions prevailing in each country called for tailor-made rather than “one size fits all” conceptual approaches and practical solutions. If this response held true for Europe, it held truer for the rest of the world.

Turning to the question of those who insisted on a Slavic Macedonian minority, Mr. Lindgren Alves said that the most important thing was to assure their human rights in general, including their right to use their dialect or mother language, as any other group. The non-recognition of a group as a minority did not deprive such a group from the enjoyment of its rights. He had been interested to learn that even a political party to foster the claims of Slavic Macedonians had been accepted and had been freely participating in parliamentary elections.

One Expert noted that there was a group speaking a Slavic language in the country, they did not need to be considered as Macedonians, if this led to confusion over the name, but they were still using a Slavic language, which they had not invented and they should have the right to use it. Also political parties should not be divided by ethnicities as this could undermine the unity of the State. Further, for him it was more important to know whether a minority had the right to use its language, not if it had the right to form a political party.

On the so-called Slavic “Macedonians” the delegation said that this was not a case of self identification as this group did not base its identification on objective criteria. The “Slavic” qualifier was not used in this case. The only qualifier used by this community was the “Macedonian” one. The problem was that the “Macedonian” term was already used by thousands of people in Greece. Up until recently, this group of “Slavic Macedonians” had been completely unknown, not only to Greece but to the whole Balkan region.

The delegation said that the “Slavic Macedonians” were however not prevented from speaking their oral idiom or from stating that they were part of a certain group. The fact that the Greek State had not officially recognised them did not mean that this community was not fully enjoying its rights and that its members were not fully respected by the Greek State.

The delegation underscored that there was a dignity in the name of the Greek Macedonians and said that Greece had not gotten any answer yet on why the State should not respect the cultural and historical heritage of the Greek Macedonians. It had nothing to do with the denial of the existence of a minority group but the denial of a name that was already used since a long time.

Jose Lindgren Alves, the Committee Expert serving as country Rapporteur for the report of Greece, said that, on the question of the so-called “Slavic Macedonians”, he did not know that they were denying their Slavic origin, even though he had been an ambassador to the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia. He wondered if it would change something if this community would recognise its “Slavic Macedonian” culture.

Responding to this question, the delegation said that they were not in a position to respond in a hypothetical sense. Very recently, Greece had said that the “Slavic Macedonians” should have used a qualifier to clarify their origin. Why were they constantly using the name Macedonian, which already identified 2.5 million Macedonians in the cultural sense? Even the former leaders of the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia had admitted that they were of Slavic origin. This question had only come up in the last years. Everyone in the Balkans knew very well what minorities there were in the Balkans, as the question of minorities in the Balkans had created so many tensions in the region. This was the very first time that they had heard of a “Macedonian” group in this region. It was a question of dignity of the name “Macedonian”.

This difference had created a tension with the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia and even the United Nations Security Council had said that there was a difference in the name. This situation had to be solved. In Security Council resolution 1845, the Council had asked the two parties to settle the question under the auspices of the United Nations.

This clearly showed that what was in a name had several historical and political implications. It was not a question of a specific denial but the risk of creating tension among identities in the Balkans.

"Vasko Gligorijević is again free and in good general health. Be informed that his will, convictions, morale and clarity of reason and mind are strong. He was incarcerated involuntarily and illegitimately with regard to the cause, domestic Constitution, relevant laws and medico-legal procedures in the "Bardovci" psychiatric hospital from 04th of July to 01th of August 2009. Political arrest is certainly the name of the game.

The perversion of the case history which shall be offered by the regime's mouthpieces, belonging to the very same regime which invented a perversion of an entire national history should not be considered credible at all. Vasko continues his temporarily halted activism in full understanding that the circumstances radically changed and that they demand adaptation on which future action should be based, as a condition for any beneficial effect.

In light of the aforementioned situation, he is determined to pursuit his goals as an activist, publicist and philosopher as strongly as ever He is currently in Skoplje and available for contact at his email: vasko.gligorijevic@live.com .

He extends his gratitude to all individuals who launched the international campaign for his release from the imprisonment facilitated by Europe's most totalitarian and absurdist regime: activist, bloggers, publicists, journalists and others, with a special gratitude to Ms. Nina Gatzoulis and Mr. Stavros Vitalis, who visited the Balkan gulag of FYROM in defense of the norms on which the civilized world is based."

“The Greek government refuses to recognize its neighbor's constitutional name, the Republic of Macedonia, which it sees as a thinly veiled bid to lay claim to three of its northern districts, a region known as Greek Macedonia. After Macedonia declared independence in 1991, Greece prevented it from joining the United Nations and imposed an economic blockade that nearly strangled the fledgling country.”

“Greece also vetoed Macedonia's bid to join NATO last year and is blocking its admission to the European Union until it changes its name to the Republic of Skopje, the Slavic Republic of Macedonia or something similar.”

“Macedonian officials said they cannot understand why Greece sees their country's name as a threat or thinks they have a secret plan to annex northern Greece.”

"It's laughable," said Foreign Minister Antonio Milososki, noting that the Macedonian military consists of 8,000 troops and a fleet of eight helicopters. "In America, you have a good phrase to describe a confusing situation. You say, 'It's all Greek to me.' Sometimes we say it's all Greek to us as well." “

“The Athens government says there is no question that he [Alexander the Great] was Greek.”

“Under a truce brokered in 1995 by former U.S. secretary of state Cyrus Vance, Macedonia was allowed to join the United Nations on the Greek condition that it refer to itself in multinational institutions as the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, or FYROM. It was also required to change its flag and rewrite its constitution to include a promise never to violate Greek territory or interfere in Greece's internal affairs.”

“Leaders in Macedonia, a poor, landlocked country about the size of New Hampshire, warned they may have trouble holding the nation together if Greece does not relent soon. Internal unrest, they said, could easily spread to other fragile nations in the Balkans, such as neighboring Kosovo, where 1,500 U.S. troops serve as part of a peacekeeping force.
"The problem is threatening the fabric of our society," Gjorge Ivanov, the president of Macedonia, said in an interview. "The pressure that Greece is making is destabilizing the whole region." “

“Historically, territory inhabited by ethnic Macedonians has belonged to other nations: Greece, Bulgaria and Serbia. Those countries have been reluctant to recognize ethnic Macedonians as a separate people, to recognize their Slavic language as a distinct tongue or even to recognize the Macedonian Orthodox Church.”

“In an interview, he accused Greece of "practicing ethnic cleansing and genocide on the Macedonian nation" for the past 100 years. "They're denying our nationality and culture and church and history and our borders," he said. “

“It is not just Macedonia's national identity that is at stake. The Greek government does not recognize ethnic minorities within its own borders, including Macedonian-speaking residents of northern Greece.”

The internet documentation which is referred to in the letter may be right when it sees nothing but “a personal grudge” behind Demosthenes’ calling Philip II a “barbarian,” but to cite Herodotus 5.22 as conclusive evidence that Alexander the Great was “thoroughly and indisputably Greek” is seriously misleading, since Herodotus’ statement “I happen to know that [the forefathers of Alexander] are Greek” is triggered precisely by the existence of a dispute over the matter, long before the age of Demosthenes.

As for (b), the question “Why was Greek the lingua franca all over Alexander’s empire if he was a ‘Macedonian’?” cannot be adequately answered with the words “[Because] Alexander the Great was Greek,” given that we have numerous examples of ancient empires in which the lingua franca was not the language of the ruler.

What is at the core of the letter is a mistaken and unhealthy notion of historical identity. “While it is true that the Paionians were subdued by Philip II, father of Alexander, in 358 B.C. they were not Macedonians and did not live in Macedonia”—but is that really so? How many Paionians did we ask about it, and at what point in history?

The comparison with Egypt is awkward, for at least after the incorporation of “Paionia” under Antigonos Gonatas (249 BCE) a territorially continuous political unity had come into being which survived as such in the Roman provincial administration. That the case of Egypt is rather different in this respect need hardly be stressed.

Moreover, to use an ancient but immediately relevant analogy, are we really to think that Thucydides got it all wrong when he wrote that, decades before the conquest of Paionia, the term “Macedonia” also applied to lands not inhabited by “ethnic” Macedonians (Thuc. 2.99)?

But to call Cleopatra a “Macedonian” gives away what constitutes true identity in the eyes of the letter’s authors: to them, identity seems defined by ancestry and blood-lines, by the past more than the present. Are we then to conclude that, for example, John F. Kennedy—or George W. Bush or Barack Obama, for that matter—were never real Americans? And if John F. Kennedy’s ancestors spoke Irish at one point, is it preposterous for all English-speaking Americans to use him today in their construction of a national identity because of that?

By coming to America John F. Kennedy’s ancestors chose to become Americans (with Irish roots); but why could the Slavs coming to Macedonia then not become Macedonians (with Slavic roots)?

No matter what its ethnic mix was—and what serious scholar would nowadays want to argue that the only “good” states are ethnically “pure” states, in which everyone must speak the same language?—the tendentiously-labeled “pseudo-greater Macedonia,” far from being a recent invention, did exist as a real recent invention, did exist as a real identitarian concept well before the 20th century. And in a sense its roots can be traced back to the conquests of Philip II, Alexander the Great and their successors in “Paionia”; for if those conquests had never taken place, the history of the region would have looked different and the territory of “Paionia” might not have shared the fate and fortune of “Aegean” Macedonia for long stretches of its history. Thus, unless one subscribes to a dangerous “blood-and-soil ideology,” there is no reason why the modern Slavic Macedonians should not be allowed to continue to call their country “Macedonia” and to pride themselves in Alexander the Great just as much as the modern Hellenic Greeks do. What does it matter if Alexander “was Greek, not Slavic,” as long as no one claims the opposite?
This is a truly peculiar argument. Alexander's conquests influenced the history of much of the known world, so, should they all be called Macedonians on account of being conquered by the actual Macedonians?

Also, what can one make of the statement about sharing the "fate and fortune"? Was a Macedonian Greek in any case closer to a Skopje Slav because they both happened to live in a territory that Ottoman Sultans claimed to be Macedonia? Was he not closer --Ottoman borders notwithstanding-- to a Thessalian or Thracian Greek? If we abandon the "blood-and-soil ideology", should we replace it with a "borders-and-history ideology", whereby an annexation of Paionia 23 centuries ago has forever marked the territory as Macedonia?

FYROM Slavs may, of course, feel pride that the ancient Paionians were conquered by Philip and Alexander a thousand years before their linguistic ancestors came to Macedonia. I don't feel particular pride that Greece was conquered by the Romans or the Ottomans or the Nazis, but there's no accounting for taste.

One cannot fail to notice, however, how thoroughly un-Macedonian this attitude is. Philip and Alexander loved Greek culture, and proudly proclaimed their Greekness, while these modern "Macedonians" despise Greeks, and proudly proclaim their non-Greekness. I submit this as exhibit A in the case that they are not, indeed, Macedonians at all.

source: dienekes.blogspot.com

===========================================================

I want to add a remark as regards Pr Willi article and Dienekes comments. Andrew Rossos is not a Greek Macedonian as false has written from Pr Willi but a known Slav Macedonian Professor that lives and teach in Canada. His articles and his latest book is a hymn of propaganda and unbalanced critique. This show that Andreas Willi is missiformed as regards the Macedonian Issue.

"The problems arose with the way in which the totalitarian VMRO-DPMNE government energized the masses among which the national confusion brought by media exposure of contradictory data grew. Firstly, it reactivated the conflict with Greece by multitude of irredentist moves. Secondly, within FYROM it carried massive policy of introduction of Ancient Macedonian symbols (names of institutions, statues) after the expected and natural Greek negative reaction. The population, feeling threatened, mistook the attitude of aggressive "Macedonization" sponsored by the government as "defiance" against a hostile state (the hostility of which was precisely provoked by FYROM´s initial provocations). Capitalizing on the fact that the vast majority of the general population does not have neither a capability nor a will for sustained scientific research regarding ethnology, history and linguistics, the government managed to capture attention of the whole body of citizens. One can presume that the sheer authority the organized government yields in a conformist society where libertarian principles of critical thinking and individual self-reliance regarding the process of opinion-forming are practically absent is sufficient to impose an entirely absurd idea of identity. In FYROM it is unchallenged by organized bodies from which a better knowledge of the true state of affairs might be expected, including universities, institutes, museums etc. With the sole exception of Internet, all electronic and printed media are participants in government´s monopoly over identity dogmas. Only few individual voices of distaste and revolt against the lies have insofar voiced their concerns (Denko Maleski, Petar Hr. Ilievski) but they got a hostile, unsympathetic public response.

While the prospect of organized challenge of the pro-governmental stances regarding the identity issues is something expected given the conventional political dynamics within pluralist societies, this is not quite a case. Nikola Gruevski achieved dominance of his party by calling premature elections in 2008 at the time of peak in the approval rating of his first mandate caused by populist measures. That gave him an unprecedented might against which FYROM has no institutionalized mechanisms of control. Furthermore, in a state of affairs whereby the larger part of the Slavs have abandoned their Bulgarian and Serbian culture in belief that they represent a separate ancient ethnicity in a category of its own, creators of the policy of the opposition (led by the leftist SDSM party) must carefully measure their words of opposition to the lavish Pseudomacedonian rhetorics, since they may be branded as "traitors" given the appropriate circumstances. Consequently, in such occasion they would find themselves ostracized from the ongoing debate.

This leads to the conclusion that the solution to the Pseudomacedonian hysteria which totally dominates public life in FYROM is not only confined to the change in the internal situation which may come as a result of economic collapse or a full-scale civil war, but also from strong pressure from outside which would enable FYROM to conform itself to reality and to rational way of conducting cultural policy. The reign of VMRO-DPMNE, characterized by collectivist, group-centered policies, extensive role of the police in society, new legislature sponsoring religious education, subsidizing biological procreation with wealth redistribution, enforcing ethics of service to the "common good", emphasizing the feral, folklorist and medieval aspects of local national culture in opposition to modern as well as apolitical high culture, is the greatest political catastrophe FYROM faces in early 21st century. A hope remains that the Slavs of FYROM will reject the artificial and overbearing attempts to instill a connection with chronologically and ethnically distant Greek kingdom as well as to make history the most important aspect of their everyday lives. Only through enduring action from within and from abroad the local state-worshiping, centrally-planned tribal way of life may be liquidated and replaced with a political system based on freedom, a change which will forever put the era of Pseudomacedonism behind, as a doomed ideology based on lies."