The Greek Method of Assimilating and Oppressing the Macedonians!

**Daskalot** · 04-12-2010, 03:23 PM

BALKAN WARS (Pages 13-16)

At the time of the Balkan Wars (1912-13) the Macedonians were the
major group throughout Macedonia, the Greek ethnic minority was an
insignificant factor which constituted of no more than 4% of the
total population. The Greeks were to be found along the border area
between Macedonia and Greece, and along some coastal areas where
they formed fishing communities. Interestingly, the majority of the
"Greeks" in Macedonia were in fact not Greek at all, many were
bi-lingual Macedonians, and a significant proportion were Hellenised
Vlahs. Subsequently the actual size of the Greek ethnic minority was
less than 4% of the total population. Larger and traditional
minorities in Macedonia were the Turks, Vlahs and Jews. The most
likely place to have come across an ethnic Greek in Macedonia prior
to the Balkan Wars would have been in Solun. These Greek businessmen
had come into Macedonia for economic reasons to work as traders
exploiting the favourable conditions in its largest trading centre
and seaport. Traditionally the largest non-Macedonian group in Solun
were the Jews.

Macedonia was the final nation in the Balkans to remain under Ottoman
occupation. Greece obtained its independence in 1829 (autonomous 1821),
Serbia in 1878 (autonomous 1817) and Bulgaria in 1908 (autonomous 1878).
Whilst the Macedonians continued to struggle for national liberation,
the Balkan states quickly forgot the harshness of Ottoman rule. Rather
than assisting the Macedonians in their quest for freedom, they
entertained pretensions of a "Greater Greece", "Greater Serbia" and
"Greater Bulgaria".

Greek, Serbian and Bulgarian claims to Macedonia have been contradictory
to the extreme, this has at times depended upon which alliance exists
between these states at any given time. There have been Greek claims to
Ohrid, Serbian claims to Solun, Bulgarian claims to Kostur, etc. These
three Balkan states have pursued totally unjustifiable claims on
Macedonia.

The Ottoman Empire had decayed under corruption at the beginning of the
Twentieth Century. The Balkan States formed a number of alliances in
anticipation of realising their dreams of territorial expansion. The
following alliances were formed over several months leading to the
outbreak of the First Balkan War:
Serbia - Bulgaria 13 March 1912
Greece - Bulgaria 29 May 1912
Montenegro - Bulgaria 27 September 1912
Montenegro - Serbia 6 October 1912

On 8 October 1912 an ultimatum was sent to the Ottoman Turks demanding
"autonomy for Macedonia". War broke out on October 12 1912 (First
Balkan War), and within a short period of two months the Ottoman Turks
were defeated. The Bulgarians engaged in most of the fighting sending
the bulk of their troops towards Istanbul to thwart a possible Ottoman
offensive, this allowed the Serbs and Greeks to conquer and divide most
of Macedonia against numerically inferior Turkish forces.

Bulgaria occupied much less Macedonian territory than she hoped to gain,
and soon realised that Serbia and Greece planned to retain their much
larger "acquisitions". Peace negotiations began in London on December
16 1912. The question of territorial settlement created serious
tensions among the Balkan Allies, the traditional allies Serbia and
Greece agreed to secure a common frontier in Macedonia, leaving the
Bulgarians with only a portion of Eastern Macedonia's territory.
The Bulgarians bitterly rejected this arrangement.

The Second Balkan War broke out on June 29 1913 when the Bulgarian army
launched a surprise attack on the Greek and Serbian troops in Macedonia.
Montenegro and Romania entered the war as allies of Greece and Serbia,
the Ottoman forces also re-entered the war (regaining Eastern Thrace
and Edirne) and Bulgaria was soon defeated.

With the signing of the Treaty of Bucharest on August 10 1913 Southern
Macedonia (known as Aegean region of Macedonia) was awarded to Greece,
North Western Macedonia (known as Vardar region of Macedonia) to
Serbia, and Eastern Macedonia (known as Pirin region of Macedonia) to
Bulgaria. The partition of Macedonia was then sanctioned by the
Versailles Treaty at the Paris Peace Conference on 27 November 1919.
Furthermore at the London Conference in 1920 Albania was awarded a
small strip of Macedonian land along the Prespa and Ohrid Lakes
(otherwise known as Mala Prespa)"

Geographically Macedonia covers a total of 67,741 square kilometres,
as a result of the Balkan Wars and the so-called Peace conferences,
the following amount of Macedonian territory was divided amongst the
Balkan states:
34,356 sq klms 51% occupied by Greece
25,713 sq klms 38% occupied by Serbia
6,798 sq klms 10% occupied by Bulgaria
874 sq klms 1 % occupied by Albania

The repercussions of the Balkan Wars were disastrous for Macedonia,
the division of Macedonia is without doubt considered to be the
darkest moment in the history of the Macedonian people. Greek,
Serbian and Bulgarian imperialism resulted in their new boundaries
incorporating Macedonian territory which had never before been
historically or ethnically theirs. No consideration was given to
the national, political, economic or any other rights of the
Macedonian people.

Prior to the Balkan Wars Macedonia was the third largest nation
in comparison to its neighbours:
Country Territory (Sq kin) Population
Romania 131,353 7,314,000
Bulgaria 89,795 4,700,000
Macedonia 67,741 3,300,000
Greece 64,657 2,500,000
Serbia 48,303 3,390,000
Montenegro 9,074 281,000

As the Second Balkan War was fought entirely on Macedonian soil,
Macedonian people suffered enormously [12]. Most brutal were the
Greek troops in Southern Macedonia, particularly in the regions
of Kukush, Demir Hisar and Serres where systematic military
operations were carried out.

In the Kukush region 40 Macedonian villages were attacked, set
ablaze and completely destroyed. Reports of the savage and inhumane
actions of the Greek troops quickly spread. As the soldiers marched
northward towards the village of Akanyali, villagers from the
surrounding area had gathered and totalled 4000 people. Deeply
concerned for their fate, unarmed and frightened, they chose to
protect themselves by peacefully surrendering the village. A heavily
armed group of 300 soldiers arrived on Sunday 6 July 1913 between
3-4pm, a group of Macedonian civilians awaited their arrival with a
white flag. A Greek officer spoke with the Macedonian representatives
and accepted their loyalty to their rule. The soldiers were then fed
with bread, cheese and thirty sheep were cooked. The soldiers ate what
was offered, they then gathered approximately 100 men and took them
into the forest, they were never to be seen again. Another group of
soldiers gathered the weapons from the homes and demanded that the
people hand over their money. Later on that evening the soldiers
forced their way into the homes and raped the women and girls, those
which attempted to escape were raped in the streets and fields. The
villagers were subject to agonising torment for three days. On
Wednesday 9 July 1913 another large Greek military unit arrived
afflicting further misery upon the innocent Macedonians. [13]

The Ottoman Turks had ruled Macedonia for over five centuries, and
although their rule was harsh and oppressive they did not adopt
denationalisation and assimilation policies'4 as did the Greek,
Serbian and Bulgarian conquerors. Throughout Turkish rule the
Macedonians fought for political freedom, following the Balkan
Wars the struggle was aimed at national preservation.

Blood covered Macedonia as the Greeks, Serbians and Bulgarians
systematically commenced to violently assimilate and denationalise
the Macedonians. The Macedonians were declared to be "non-existent"
and instead they were forced to become "Greeks", "Serbians" and
"Bulgarians".

In order to disguise their imperialist empire building, the Balkan
States, particularly Greece and Serbia, which experienced the
greatest expansion to their boundaries at the expense of Macedonia,
were most active in their campaign of misinformation and fabrication
in the European and international arena concerning the identity of
the Macedonians.

Discussing the partition of Macedonia after the Balkan Wars,
John Reed in The War in Eastern Europe, 1916, states the following:

"A thousand Greek and Serbian publicists began to fill the world with
their shouting about the essentially Greek or Serbian character of the
populations of their different spheres. The Serbs gave the unhappy
Macedonians twenty four hours to renounce their nationality and to
proclaim themselves Serbs, and the Greeks did the same. Refusal meant
murder or expulsion".

The Serbians commenced their murdering in Macedonia by concentrating
on the intellectuals, the Bulgarians specifically targeted individuals
in the IMRO, while the Greek killing of the Macedonian population took
on the form of genocide.

n11 Vardar refers to the major river running through Macedonia. Pirin
is the highest mountain, Aegean signifies the sea and Mala Prespa
relates to the Lake.

n12 The Carnegie Relief Commission reported on the terrible story of
human suffering late in 1913 immediately after the Balkan Wars. One
hundred and sixty villages were completely devastated, sixteen thousand
people were left homeless and several thousand civilians were murdered.

n13 Kiselinovski Stojan, Greek Colonisation in Aegean Macedonia
(1913-1940) . Institute of National History Skopje Macedonia 1981
Page 45.

n14 The Ottoman authorities did not differentiate between the various
nationalities, instead they directed their discrimination towards
Christians in general. If a person changed religion to Islam they
would be granted special privileges. As the Balkans have traditionally
been Christian lands the inhabitants fought against religious conversion
and all the Balkan states remained predominantly Christian, apart from
the Albanians.

THE DIVISION OF MACEDONIA AND THE OPPRESSION OF THE
MACEDONIANS UNDER GREEK OCCUPATION

NICK ANASTASOVSKI

On Behalf of MACEDONIAN YOUTH ALLIANCE
MELBOURNE, AUSTRALIA,1995

"I do not believe that the words autonomy, liberty, independence,
hold such magic for any other people as they do for the Macedonians.
To free peoples the word liberty has lost some of its real
signification. They accept it as one of the appurtenances of life,
as one of the necessities, like air, like water. But to the Macedonians
liberty has become the highest goal for which man can strive ".

St Christowe
"Heroes and Assassins" New York 1935

for fair use only.

**Daskalot** · 04-12-2010, 03:24 PM

For fair use only.

THE DIVISION OF MACEDONIA AND THE OPPRESSION OF THE
MACEDONIANS UNDER GREEK OCCUPATION

NICK ANASTASOVSKI

On Behalf of MACEDONIAN YOUTH ALLIANCE
(MELBOURNE, AUSTRALIA),1995

"I do not believe that the words autonomy, liberty, independence, hold
such magic for any other people as they do for the Macedonians. To free
peoples the word liberty has lost some of its real signification. They
accept it as one of the appurtenances of life, as one of the
necessities,
like air, like water. But to the Macedonians liberty has become the
highest goal for which man can strive ".

St Christowe
"Heroes and Assassins" New York 1935

ETHNO-GEOGRAPHICAL MAP OF MACEDONIA

Ethnographic Macedonia covers an area of 67,712.2 square kilometers
on the central region of the Balkan Peninsula. It is geographically
bounded on the east by the River Mesta and the Rhodope Mountains, the
Shar mountains in the north, Albania and the Prespa-Ohrid Lakes define
the western frontier, and the southern boundary is defined by the
River Bistrica, the Aegean Sea and Mt Olympus.

Ancient Macedonia covered an area roughly equal in size to ethnographic
Macedonia today.[2]

n2 The territory of Ancient Macedonia is accurately designated as almost
equal with today's ethnographical map of Macedonia by ancient
cartographers Strabo and Ptolemy. The same borders are accepted by
various
Serbian and Bulgarian scholars. A Greek publication "Macedonia" (General
Editor M.B. Sakellariou, Ekdotike Athenon S.A., Athens 1983. Page 118)
presents a map of Ancient Macedonia incorporating today's ethnographical
borders, including the modern capital of the Republic of Macedonia,
Skopje.

6

**Daskalot** · 04-12-2010, 03:26 PM

I would like to obtain the full text, does someone here have it?
It is written by NICK ANASTASOVSKI in 1995.

**Pelister** · 04-13-2010, 12:41 AM

I found this.

Greeks introduced a "Communist Activity Law"

Propoganda for the detachment of "any part of Greece from the whole of the State" became one of the two forms of Communist activity Law 4229 and 1929 which was turned into a "special crime"

Source: Mavrogordatos, p.233, n.11 (Footnote 11)

You can understand that when Macedonians were asking for their rights, or for their lands to be unified - this sentiment immediately fell under Law 4229 and 1929. Who can say how many Macedonians were imprisoned for this.

**Onur** · 04-13-2010, 08:10 PM

Some quotes from "Republic of Turkey, Ministry of Foreign Affairs" web site and from the report of independent "Human Rights Watch" organization about Greece, dated January 7, 2000;

According to the former Article 19 of the 1955 Citizenship Law (No. 3370), a person of non-Greek ethnic origin leaving Greece without the intention of returning may be declared as having lost Greek nationality. According to the Greek government, between 1955 and 1998, approximately 60,000 Greek individuals, almost all are ethnic Turks or Macedonians were deprived of their citizenship under Article 19. Of these 60,000, approximately 7,182 lost their citizenship between 1981 and 1997.

1990 Komotini events
The Turkish minority, which is recognized by the Council of Europe as part of the Muslim minority in Western Thrace, with estimates as high as 160,000. The term 'Turkish minority' is officially denied by Greece via using "Hellenic Muslims" instead. On January 26, 1990 a Greek court jailed two newly elected ethnic Turk MP because they used the word "Turk" in their political organization.

The events started in Komotini, when 1,500 people gathered and chanting "We are Turks" in protest of the 1982 Supreme Court ruling restricting the use of the words "Turk, Turkish". After the broadcast of an erroneous news item on a local radio station, organized Greek mobs damaged and looted around 400 shops of the Turkish minority as well as beating some of the minority members including the religious leaders of the Turks.

According to an eye-witness reported by Human Rights Watch:
"Greek mobs consisted of approximately 40 to 50 people running wild, breaking windows, beating people and vandalizing cars; he saw a police car coming behind the mob, without making any effort to stop Greek nationalists. Foreign observers stated Greek shops were not ruined, and that police did not interfere to stop mobs."

Aftermath:
When a group from Synaspismos(Coalition of the Left) led by Maria Damanaki a member of Greek parliament visited the destroyed shops of the city two days after the events, they were verbally attacked by some Greek fanatics. During their meeting with the local politicians at the town hall, an angry mob gathered outside to protest calling Damanaki a traitor. The group could not meet the minority representatives under such circumstances and had to abandon the town hall under police surveillance.

Statements of Greek politicians about the incident:
* Former PASOK Minister of Macedonia and Thrace Stelios Papathemelis: �this action of the three deputies is very provocative and from all aspects repulsive. I should tell them in their language �Ai sihtir� [Fuck off!].

* The president of the socialist splinter DIKKI Dimitris Tsovolas: �It is an insolent provocation that stains the 25th anniversary of the restoration of democracy in our country. Greece does not have to defend itself to anyone, since the rights of all Greek citizens, regardless of political or religious beliefs, are fully respected. Such unacceptable, provocative, unhistorical actions are part of Turkish propaganda and of other anti-Greek circles�

With the exception of the leftist daily Avghi (with an April 1999 average daily circulation of 2,000 and with a pro-Coalition position), all other 21 Greek national dailies reacted with extreme hostility and hate speech.

* Kathimerini (40,000, center-right) engaged in the most blatant misinformation; �Unprecedented provocation yesterday by �obscure circles� which circulated a 19 �public appeal� that was allegedly signed by the three minority deputies asking for the recognition of the existence in Greece of �a Macedonian and a Turkish minorities,�� unprecedented provocation with criminal consequences at the expense of Hellenism by �unknown� individuals who are obviously playing the game of the nationalist circles of Ankara and others.� �The suspicious intentions become evident as the three minority deputies, with statements, deny they had any knowledge or participation in that action.�

Ownership of land
In 1922, Turks owned 84% of the land in Western Thrace, but now the minority estimates this figure to be between 20-40%. This stems from various practices of the Greek administration whereby ethnic Greeks are encouraged to purchase Turkish land with soft loans granted by the state.

Diaspora

Turkey
Between 300,000 to 400,000 Turks have left Western Thrace since 1923; most of which immigrated to Turkey.

Germany
There are some members of the Greek Muslim community among the some 350,000 Greeks living in Germany who are Turks or who espouse a Turkish identity. The majority of Turks immigrated from Western Thrace.

United States of America
A fairly large number of ethnic Turks from Western Thrace emigrated and settled in the United States roughly between 1900 and 1914 when American immigration policies were quite liberal. These Turks were listed as Bulgarians and Greeks due to their country of origin, even though they were ethnic Turks and identified themselves as such. Moreover, many immigrant families who were ethnically Albanian, Bulgarian, Greek, Macedonian or Serbian included children of Turkish origin whose parents had been cleansed after Macedonia was partitioned between Bulgaria, Serbia and Greece following the Balkan War of 1912-13. These Turkish children had been sheltered, baptized and adopted, and then used as field laborers. When the adopting families had to emigrate to America, they listed these children as family members, although most of these Turkish children still remembered their ethnic origin.

On 11 June 1999, the private �Mega Channel� censored its mandatory pre-electoral program devoted to presentations by small parties, by removing the presentation of �Rainbow,� the Macedonian minority party, while keeping all other presentations including the one made by the extreme-right �National Front�. The National Radio and Television Council did not take the prescribed by law sanction, while no one condemned this act of censorship.

On 21 October 1999, two journalists from Halkidiki�s �Super Channel� were beaten by a mob led by Mayor Costas Papayannis, in Kasandra, Halkidiki (Northern Greece). Costas Glykos and Michalis Katsamiras were covering the mob�s attempt to prevent the local Jehovah�s Witnesses (JWs) from starting the construction of their house of worship, construction that had been authorized by the authorities. During the violent incident, JWs as well as two representatives of the Ombudsman�s office were harassed by the mob. The two journalists and the JWs pressed charges against the mayor and some alleged accomplices. On 22 October, the prosecutor formally indicted the mayor and his accomplices for crimes that included inciting to religious hatred. Nevertheless, neither during the incident, nor in the ensuing forty-eight hours, did the police arrest the alleged perpetrators of the crimes as called for by the code of criminal procedure.

http://www.mfa.gov.tr/sub.en.mfa?ffe07e05-f4d8-4b0d-95b7-192eab7c2142

http://www.mfa.gov.tr/data/DISPOLITIKA/Bolgeler/hringreece.pdf

**Soldier of Macedon** · 04-13-2010, 09:12 PM

Onur,

Why haven't the Macedonians and Turks of Greece collaborated in a more intense manner to strengthen our causes against Greece's racism towards ethnic minorities? Together, we would be a strong force.

**kykypajko** · 04-13-2010, 09:35 PM

anyone good with google maps???

i would love to show a map of modern greece since 1820s growing with a pie chart on the side showing the ethnic cleasning

now that would be a good youtube video to share with academia, politicians, and Human rights org

**Babazuba** · 04-14-2010, 02:39 AM

Mr. google map

Originally posted by kykypajko View Post

anyone good with google maps???

i would love to show a map of modern greece since 1820s growing with a pie chart on the side showing the ethnic cleasning

now that would be a good youtube video to share with academia, politicians, and Human rights org

Do that! I am looking at a map of Macedonia before Othoman invasion
and Macedonian land touches Adriatic sea. There is no Albania.
I laugh when I here Albanians calling themselves indiginous of the land.
Wikopedian history is not clear. Its "facts" are political, as the batle
for Macedonian history, heritage, and land. A mesy peace of work.
Everibody in wikopedia, invides, proclaims victory and ownership
of the land they claime to be their since, forever.
But Macedonia always disaperes. Hush, hush, nothing, nowhere.
Perticularely, I find low level of inteligencia with historians, when they
claim that Greece had States in 700 BC.
I can not find this, in any document as a pruf, only here and there
as say so by some cruck pot historian who writes for a Geografical
Magasine. You can find amasing stuf there, which can not be proven
anyehere in history.
thats all for now.

**makedonche** · 04-14-2010, 04:57 AM

Originally posted by Babazuba View Post

Do that! I am looking at a map of Macedonia before Othoman invasion
and Macedonian land touches Adriatic sea. There is no Albania.
I laugh when I here Albanians calling themselves indiginous of the land.
Wikopedian history is not clear. Its "facts" are political, as the batle
for Macedonian history, heritage, and land. A mesy peace of work.
Everibody in wikopedia, invides, proclaims victory and ownership
of the land they claime to be their since, forever.
But Macedonia always disaperes. Hush, hush, nothing, nowhere.
Perticularely, I find low level of inteligencia with historians, when they
claim that Greece had States in 700 BC.
I can not find this, in any document as a pruf, only here and there
as say so by some cruck pot historian who writes for a Geografical
Magasine. You can find amasing stuf there, which can not be proven
anyehere in history.
thats all for now.

Babazuba
Da si zrav i zhiv, ako sakash dago naidish vistinskoto, sumo treba da gledash toolka na MTO!

**indigen** · 04-14-2010, 05:18 AM

OTTOMAN EMPIRE IN MACEDONIA (Pages 7 -12)

OTTOMAN EMPIRE IN MACEDONIA (Pages 7 -12)

During the Fourteenth Century the powerful Ottoman Turks began to expand their empire into the Balkans. By the end of the Century Macedonia fell under the occupation of the Ottoman forces. Within a short period Ottoman domination was firmly entrenched in the wider Balkans, with Serbia, Bulgaria, Greece and Albania all falling to the Ottoman Turks.

The Ottoman Empire was a feudal state which severely impeded Macedonian national, economic and social development. The Macedonians were forced to live under harsh conditions, subject to cruel exploitation and violence. Unable to tolerate oppressive Ottoman rule many rebellions and uprisings occurred. Although the uprisings were brutally suppressed, the Macedonian people continued with an even greater determination to rid their homeland of the foreign tyrants.

With the rise of nationalism in the Balkans during the Nineteenth Century, the Macedonian National Liberation Movement emerged out of the national struggle in Macedonia.

In 1893 the famous Internal Macedonian Revolutionary Organisation (IMRO) was founded in the Macedonian capital Solun. The founding members of the organisation were a group of Macedonian intellectuals, Hristo Tatarchev, Dame Gruev, Petar Pop Arsov, Anton Dimitrov, Hristo Batandjiev and Ivan Hadji Nikolov. The IMRO aimed at achieving national and political freedom for the Macedonian people through the establishment of a free and independent Macedonian nation.

The IMRO advocated national emancipation through armed struggle, and gained mass support from the Macedonian people. Its own organs of power were firmly established and these gave direction to the Macedonian national liberation struggle.

An American A.D Howren Smith travelled extensively throughout Macedonia at the turn of the Century together with the Macedonian revolutionaries. He was a correspondent for the New York Evening Post and later wrote his memoirs, accurately describing the IMRO organisational activities in Macedonia. �Outside of the Balkans it is believed that the IMRO is a society of semi-political leaders of bands, a union of revolutionaries. It is neither the one nor the other. The head of the Macedonian organisation is nothing other than a senate. Secretly chosen by the people of a forbidden republic. In the middle of Turkey, in the heart of a administration which is decaying, there appears an organisation which is as perfect as that of a free nation which governs itself There is a Macedonian police force, Macedonian court, Macedonian military force, Macedonian schools and newspapers and a Macedonian postal service.., everything, although the Turkish government is making the greatest possible efforts to destroy it �.[3]

The IMRO gained European and world attention to the plight of the Macedonian people within a short period following its formation. In 1887 the famous English politician W.E Gladstone advocated the slogan �Macedonia for the Macedonians� [4]

The Macedonian peoples desire for freedom was expressed on Ilinden (St Elijahs Day) August 2nd 1903, when they staged a rebellion and successfully liberated the city of Krushevo for ten days. The Turks responded by mobilising an enormous military force which crushed the revolution and destroyed the city. The Macedonian civilians suffered violent reprisals for daring to challenge the mighty Ottoman Empire, two hundred and one villages were destroyed, over 12,100 homes were torched, 8,816 men and women killed and 70,836 left homeless.

There was considerable support for the Macedonian cause after the linden uprising, particularly active was the famous missionary Miss Ellen Stone, whom earlier had been captured and held for ransom in Macedonia by the revolutionaries. Miss Stone (and other missionaries) held meetings and lectures throughout the United States familiarising the American people with the enormously difficult situation the Macedonian people were in, and expressing sympathy with the IMRO and its aims.

In September 1903 pro Macedonian independence groups were formed in New York and Philadelphia. These were known as the �Macedonian Committees� and were established by distinguished American figures who urged the American public to give aid to the victims of the Ilinden uprising.

The two committees sent a joint appeal to the American public titled �The Cry from Macedonia�:

�What Paul saw in the spirit, the vision of the man of Macedonia, who called for him for help for his country[5], we have before us in the flesh. Then suffering and destitution, resulting from insurrection in Macedonia, are extreme. Forty thousand Macedonians have managed to cross the border into Bulgaria. Several times that number remain in Macedonia, homeless, their herds and crops destroyed, perishing of cold and starvation. Everyone is familiar to some extent with the conditions which have prevailed in that unhappy country for the last two years and more, the active agitation of the Macedonian revolutionists, the rising in rebellion of a portion of the Macedonian people, the attempt of the Turkish authorities to suppress the revolution with the utmost severity by overwhelming force. With the rights and wrongs of the Macedonians we are not now concerned, but we cannot keep being concerned with the relief of fellow human beings and fellow Christians, of innocent women and children, who are perishing by the hundred, and will perish by the thousand, most cruelly, unless Christian Europe and Christian America come to the rescue�. Signed by the New York and Philadelphia Committees.[6]

The Greek government had been preparing for the expansion of Greece since the 19th century through the doctrine of the �Megala Idea� (Great Idea). The �great idea� sought to establish a Greater Greece stretching from the river Menderes in Asia Minor to the city of Edremit and deep into the western regions including the cities of Izmir, Aydin and Marmaris. Northern Thrace with Edirne, the Gallipoli Peninsula and including the Island Imroz, Western Thrace, Southern Macedonia up to Prilep, Southern Albania including the Gjirokaster region, nearby islands and the large Mediterranean Island of Cyprus. The master proponent of this �idea� was the Greek Prime Minister Venizelos, a Creatan.

In order for Greece to realise its Great Idea, it was necessary that it occupy Southern Macedonia as this would enable it to link the other �potentially Greek territories� directly to mainland Greece. It was therefore essential that Greece succeed in opening a path into Thrace and Turkey. Without Macedonia, the Great Idea would never be attainable.[7]

During the late Nineteenth Century and early Twentieth Century the Greek, Serbian and Bulgarian governments saturated Macedonia with their nationalistic propaganda. Each state was attempting to achieve their own spiritual and cultural domination over Macedonia, particularly by opening their own churches and schools, where it was envisaged that they would hinder the national growth of the Macedonian people, and channel it in the direction of their own interests. This process of denationalisation was supported by the Ottoman authorities as it was seen to be fostering division, and subsequently hindering the national unity of the Macedonian people.

The Balkan states were involved in a fierce competition, particularly Greece and Bulgaria, over who would denationalise the Macedonians. Following the Ilinden uprising in 1903, Greek, Serbian and Bulgarian propaganda activities intensely increased iii Macedonia, to prepare the ground for its partition. Each of these three Balkan states regularly sent armed bands into Macedonia which terrorised the Macedonian population bringing further suffering to innocent civilians, they set ablaze and destroyed entire villages[8], and attempted to destroy the revolutionary movement.

The activities of these terrorist bands were clearly described in a French Diplomatic Report dated August 10 1905 by Auguste Boppe, charge d�affaires of France in Constantinople, addressed to Maurice Rouvier, President of the Ministerial Council and Minister for Foreign Affairs. According to the report Macedonian inhabitants of villages close to Solun were ordered �on threat of death to declare themselves as Greeks in the census lists and to subordinate themselves to the Patriarchate Greek Church by a leader of a Greek band�. Furthermore he speaks of a �distressing increase of murders committed by the Greeks bands in the Bitola region�.

These terrorist bands and all the other forms of foreign propaganda were funded from the state budgets of Serbia, Greece and Bulgaria, and their military institutions � all aimed at destroying the Macedonian national identity, to transform the Macedonians into �Greeks�, �Serbians� and �Bulgarians�, and to create a sense of instability and insecurity in order to prepare Macedonia for its partition.

Apart from their terrorist activities in Macedonia, they were also anxious to present �their� interests in Macedonia to the European Powers (their patrons) and attempted to sway European public opinion in support of their theories for a �Greater Greece�, �Greater Serbia� and �Greater Bulgaria�. They each promoted their cause by claiming �their non liberated territories in Macedonia�. Initially they sent their own linguists, academics and census takers to Macedonia to write about �their people� and �their land�, national myths were being created in support of expansionist policies.

An enormous amount of biased literature was mass produced and promoted throughout Europe as academic studies by Greek, Serbian and Bulgarian scholars. Their theories and findings were contradictory to one another and contained a distinct nationalist flavour. The Balkan States considered propagandistic literature to be an important aspect to their designs on Macedonia and continued to pursue this strategy by employing an �army� of European �experts� to compile statistical data on Macedonia, each supporting the theories of the particular government they happened to be commissioned by [9]. These so-called scholars created a great deal of confusion regarding Macedonia to the point where they created a �territory of dispute� which became known as the �Macedonian Question�, this term was used to take them attention off the legitimate struggle of the Macedonian people. The propaganda activities were a justification for the Balkan States preparation for war over Macedonia.

Macedonians possessed a strong national consciousness despite every obstacle placed by foreign interests before them in their struggle to achieve the aim of a free and independent Macedonia. Objective observers in Macedonia, unlike the �commissioned agents� of Greece, Serbia and Bulgaria possessed no other motive than to present an honest account of what they witnessed. A Frenchman, Edmond Bouchie de Belle in his book �Macedonia and the Macedonia� (Paris 1922) states that of all the villages in Macedonia one meets people of a single nationality, speaking a specific language and belonging to the Eastern Orthodox faith, �Nine out of ten of these people, despite their being the subject of dispute by three adjoining countries � Serbia, Bulgaria and Greece � would reply in response to the question as to their nationality that they were Macedonians�.

A clear indication of the chauvinistic imperialist attitude of the Balkan States is given by Harilaos Trikoupis, Prime Minister of Greece from 1882 to 1895:

�When the Great War comes, Macedonia will become Greek or Bulgarian according to who wins. If it is taken by the Bulgarians they will make the population Slays. If we take it, we will make them all Greeks[10]�

NOTES:

n3 Howren Smith, A.D. Fighting the Turk in the Balkans, An American�s Adventures with the Macedonian Revolutionists. (New York � London 1908) pp.37-38.

N4 The London Times, February 6 1887.

n5 This particular reference is from the Holy Scriptures of the Christian Bible, �During the night a vision appeared to Paul, a Macedonian man who stood and pleaded with him,� Cross over into Macedonia and help us� (The Acts of the Apostles, Act 16:9).

n6 Andonov-Polyanski, Hristo. The Attitude of the U.S.A. Towards Macedonia. (Macedonian Review Editions, Skopje Macedonia 1983) pp.66-68. The appeal was signed by famous political, cultural and religious figures from New York and Philadelphia.

N7 loannis Hoidas an outstanding lawyer, politician and high ranking official in the Greek government commenting on the Great Idea in his History of the Macedonian Question (Athens 1907) wrote: �The Greeks had created a beautiful dream, the dream of acquiring rule over the whole of the Balkan peninsula.. .The knowledge of the geography and ethnology on which we were fed and by which we were enlightened is somewhat mythical and medieval, for they teach us in our schools that Prilep (Perlepes) and Veles (Velesa) and Skopje, Scutari and Apart from the great difficulties faced by the IMRO in liberating Macedonia of the Ottoman Empire, it was also required to simultaneously struggle against the territorial aspirations of neighbouring Bulgaria, Serbia and Greece.

Elbasan lie within the ethnic borders of Hellenism�. Moidas� comments on the Great Idea clearly reflect on Greek education at the time, and it would appear that little has changed today. Moidas goes on to say �. . . In such circumstances it is only easy and natural for a people to be deceived about its real rights and its reasonable national aspirations.. .We can no longer consider as Greek a population which is foreign not only in its language but, and this is most significant, in its awareness and wishes...�

n8 The fate of the village Zagorichani in the Kostur district was particularly tragic. On 25 March 1905 Zagorichani was surrounded and attacked at dawn by a group of 300 Greek bandits who were under the paid service of Metropolitan Gertnanos Karavangelis of the Greek church (Patriarchate) . The bandits, under the leadership of Captain Vardas massacred hundreds of civilians then set the homes ablaze, many with women and children still inside. All of Macedonia mourned for Zagorichani, and the European press reported the event. The village has till this day never fully recovered from the atrocities committed there. The massacre was hailed as a great victory by Metropolitan Karavangelis.

Other Greek terrorist bands also committed despicable atrocities in other parts of Southern Macedonia and in the central regions during 1905-1906. Many of the bandits were war veterans from the Creatan campaign, and they too were supported by the Patriarchate. One of the most notorious leaders was Pavlos Melas who was responsible for subjecting men, women and children to horrendous acts of violence, torture and rape.

N9 Statistics regarding the ethnic structure of Macedonia as presented by the Balkan States and their agents to the European Powers were contradictory to the extreme. Macedonia was incorrectly seen as a great ethnic mix and a new culinary term emerged at this time �Macedonine�, denoting fruit salad.

N10 History of the Greek People, Athens Publishing House, Vol 14.Page 18.
--------------
The Division Of Macedonia And The Oppression Of The
Macedonians Under Greek Occupation

Nick Anastasovski
On behalf of Macedonian Youth Alliance (Melbourne, Australia),1995

CONTENTS
1. Introduction
2. Macedonians, a Separate People Since Ancient times
3. Ethnographical Map of Macedonia
4. Ottoman Empire in Macedonia
5. Balkan Wars
6. Greek Method of Oppressing and Assimilating the Macedonians

7. Macedonians from Aegean Macedonia participate in World War Two and Greek Civil War

8. Greek Persecution of Macedonians 1950's - 1990's

9. Greek Policy and the Australian Government

10. Macedonian Demands in Aegean Macedonia

11. Appendices

-------------

Google search provided the above and a few more of the listed topics. Topics 1-6 (plus 9) showed up but the others might need someone with better search skills than I.

**indigen** · 04-14-2010, 05:20 AM

INTRODUCTION

This short pamphlet aims to provide the reader with a brief historical outline of the injustice of the partition of the Macedonian nation. Particular emphasis is made on Southern Macedonia, commonly referred to as Aegean Macedonia, which fell under the occupation of Greece as a result of the Balkan Wars (1912-13).

The pamphlet examines the period leading to Macedonian partition between Serbia, Bulgaria, Greece and Albania. And then provides evidence of the brutal methods used by successive Greek governments to assimilate and denationalise the Macedonians in Aegean Macedonia.

It aims to correct the misconceptions brought about by Greek fabrications concerning the Macedonian people and nation. The Greek position on Macedonia involves the manipulation of historical facts designed to serve their own nationalistic ambitions. Generally, throughout the past eighty years the Greek government maintained a policy, internally and internationally, that “there are no Macedonians anywhere in the world” (1986 Papandreou, Prime Minister of Greece). Since the occupation of Aegean Macedonia Greece has gone to excessive lengths to falsify and distort the historical truth concerning the Macedonian nation and people.

In recent years, the Greek propaganda campaign has taken on fanatical proportions aiming to “prove” the “Greekness of Macedonia”. The purpose of this strategy is: to oppose the establishment of the Republic of Macedonia as an independent and sovereign nation (that part of Macedonia which was occupied by Serbia in 1912-13 and which became a constituent republic of the Yugoslav Federation in 1944 until the disintegration of Serbian dominated Yugoslavia in 1991); to disguise the illegitimate conquest of Aegean Macedonia; and, to conceal the truth regarding Greek treatment of the Macedonians in Aegean Macedonia.

Greek violations of Macedonian national and human rights have taken on monstrous proportions and have made a mockery of the Charter of the United Nations and the dozen or so human rights agreements to which she is a signatory to.

Macedonians in Aegean Macedonia are no longer prepared to endure the negation of their identity and demand that their human and national rights be respected by the Greek government. Macedonians demand that the Greek government take immediate steps towards recognising them as a distinct and separate people with their own national, cultural, and linguistic uniqueness.

Macedonians appeal to all progressive democratic forces to pressure the Greek government to abide by universally accepted human rights principles, and urge Athens to fulfill its obligations under international human rights agreements.

The historical truth concerning Aegean Macedonia is presented in this brief pamphlet to inform the general Australian community of the plight of the Macedonians under Greek occupation, and the continuing harassment and intimidation of Macedonians in Australia. I sincerely hope that “The Division of Macedonia and the Oppression of the Macedonians under Greek Occupation” provides the reader with a greater understanding of Macedonia and the Macedonians, and dispels the myths that surround the Macedonian issue.

THE DIVISION OF MACEDONIA AND THE OPPRESSION OF THE MACEDONIANS UNDER GREEK OCCUPATION

NICK ANASTASOVSKI

On Behalf of MACEDONIAN YOUTH ALLIANCE (MELBOURNE, AUSTRALIA),1995

“I do not believe that the words autonomy, liberty, independence, hold such magic for any other people as they do for the Macedonians. To free peoples the word liberty has lost some of its real signification. They accept it as one of the appurtenances of life, as one of the necessities, like air, like water. But to the Macedonians liberty has become the highest goal for which man can strive “.

St Christowe
“Heroes and Assassins” New York 1935

**indigen** · 04-14-2010, 05:25 AM

MACEDONIANS, A SEPARATE PEOPLE SINCE ANCIENT TIMES.

The Ancient Kingdom of Macedonia was situated to the north of Greece.
Unlike Macedonia, Greece was not a unified country, it consisted of City States which were independent political entities. City States did not exist in Macedonia, Macedonia was vastly different in that a national patriarchal monarchy existed, political and social conditions were unique and basic Macedonian life was characteristically different to the Greek.

Culturally and linguistically the two peoples differed, and historical evidence confirms that the Ancient Macedonians considered the Greeks as neighbours, not as kinsmen. On the other hand the Greeks considered the Macedonians as foreigners.

Generally Ancient Greek writers use the term “barbarians” when referring to the Macedonians. This term was used by the Ancient Greek people when referring to non-Greek people. Today an abundance of ancient literature is available which supports the fact that the Macedonians were a distinct and separate group of people who were labelled as “barbarians” by the ancient Greeks. All who spoke a foreign language to Greek were considered “barbarian”, Macedonians were placed into this category because their language was incomprehensible to the Greeks. Ancient writers clearly spoke of the Macedonians as a separate people with a separate language to the Greeks, these include such famous writers as Herodotus, Thucydides, Curtius Rufus, Plutarch, Hesiod, Abel, Arrian and others.

The famous Athenian orator Demosthenes (384-322 BC) provides a clear indication of Greek opinion towards the Macedonians in his Third Oration against King Phillip II of Macedonia:

“Truly, Phillip calls himself a Hellenophile, that is a friend to the Greeks. Phillip cannot be a friend to the Greeks because of his barbarian origin. He is not a Hellene and is not in any way connected by kin with the Hellenes. He is not even a foreigner of respectable descent. He is only a miserable Macedonian, and in Macedon as is well known, one cannot even buy a descent slave”

Soon after this famous speech against the Macedonian King, an alliance was formed between the City States at Chaeronea in August 338 BC. The City State soldiers were overwhelmingly defeated by the Macedonian army under the leadership of King Phillip and his son Alexander the Great. Having conquered the City States, King Phillip II of Macedonia reorganised them under the League of Corinth and placed himself commander in chief of their forces. He then forced the League members to form a separate alliance with Macedonia. Macedonia itself was not a League member, the League was under Macedonian domination. The City States despised this state of affairs, as it was unthinkable that they should be dominated by the “Macedonian barbarians”.

The French historian Pierre Jouguet comments on how the Macedonians and Greeks viewed each other in his book “Alexander the Great and the Hellenistic World”’:

“When that union (between Macedonian and Greece) was achieved, it was only by policy and force... the Hellenes and the Macedonians regarded themselves as different nations, and this feeling did not cease to be the source of great difficulties for the union of Greece under Macedonian rule”.

Clearly, the Ancient Macedonians thought of themselves as a separate people to the Greeks, and the development of both the Macedonian and Greek people have taken separate paths through the natural processes of nation building.

It is interesting to note that Ancient maps present Greece under the name of Achaia. The Ancient Greeks called themselves Hellenes, they were divided amongst City States until the Romans wiped out the last City State (Corinth)in 146 AD, and for nearly two thousand years there was no such thing as a national Greek state until 1830.

The Macedonian name which existed over three thousand years ago is still used today by the Macedonian people. The Macedonian people consider themselves to be the natural heirs of Ancient Macedonia, and are outraged as modern Greek nationalists conduct an obsessive campaign involving gross manipulations and distortions to connect Twentieth Century politics to Ancient History. By claiming the Ancient Macedonians as Greek they believe they can justify the Greek occupation of Southern Macedonia (1912-1913) and their territorial ambitions.

Despite the historical facts confirming the differences between the Macedonian and Greek people, Greek “scholars” have embarked on an obsessive campaign involving gross manipulation and falsification of every aspect of Macedonian history, identity, culture, language, politics, customs, etc. At the same time modern Greek academics and historians maintain a direct lineage of “unbroken descent” between the modern Greeks and the Ancient Hellenes. The manipulation of their own history has reached absurd dimensions, it is also claimed that the modern Greek state is ethnically homogenous. This notion contains a distinct political connotation rather than a historical one.

1Ares Publishing Inc 1985.

4

Macedonians condemn Greek attempts at the falsification of the Macedonian identity and history, and suggest that they examine their own background. Recent historical evidence suggests that the racial origin of the modern Greeks is Turkic-Slavic. The purpose of this pamphlet is not to analyse the racial origin of the Greek people, the best people to do that are the Greeks themselves (objectively), unfortunately any serious discussion on this topic by Greek academics and historians is actively discouraged in Greece. There are brave historians such as Ioannis Kordatos (”A History of Later Greece – Turkish Rule” Athens 1957) who have expressed differing views to the official version embraced by the Greek government, Kordatos is of the opinion that K. Paparigopulous and Karolidis, leading historians of the second half of the 19th and early years of the 20th Century and founders of modern Greek historiography, used false arguments to support their claim that the modern Greek nation was in direct descent from the ancient Hellenes.

There are a number of non-Greek sources which question the historical continuity of Hellenism. Robert Browning in Greece Old and New, (edited by Tom Winnifrith and Penelope Murray, Macmillan Press, London 1963) states:

“In 1830 the Bavarian Johann Philipp Fallmereyer proposed that “the Slav invasions and settlements of the late sixth and seventh centuries resulted in the expulsion or extirpation of the original population of peninsula Greece. Consequently the medieval and modern Greeks.. . Are not the descendants of the Greeks of antiquity, and their Hellenism is “artificiaI” R.M. Henkins (1963 “Byzantium and Byzantinism” Cincinnati) revived the idea”.

“By the middle of the fourteenth and early fifteenth century the majority of people in the Peloponnese were Albanian speakers... the Albanian incursions into Greece continued under the Turkish system and went on right into the eighteenth century... the descendants of these people were still talking Albanian when I was in Greece in the 1930’s”

Regardless of how Greek academics, historians, nationalist organisations and the Greek government portray the Macedonians, it is an indisputable reality that Greece is desperately attempting to conceal the fact that approximately 1,500,000 – 1,800,000 Macedonians live in Aegean Macedonia today, and have been subject to brutal oppression and persecution in Aegean Macedonian for over 80 years by the Greek state.

5

**indigen** · 04-14-2010, 05:46 AM

ABECEDAR
During this period of immense suffering, the Macedonian people had a glimmer of hope that conditions might improve as a result of the Treaty of Serves which Greece signed earlier on August 10 1920. According to conditions of the Treaty, under Article’s 7, 8 and 9, the Greek government was to undertake certain obligations regarding “the protection of the non-Greek national minorities in Greece”. These Articles specifically stated free use of language and education. Initially Greece sought to neglect its obligations, however in March 1925 the League of Nations directed Greece to fulfil its obligations. By May 1925 an elementary school reader was published in the Macedonian language, it was known as the ABECEDAR. The ABECEDAR was to be used by Macedonian children in Macedonian schools which were yet to open in Aegean Macedonia. Strong reactions immediately came from Serbia and Bulgaria. Serbia and Bulgaria were caught totally by surprise, both were furious that the Abecedar was not printed in Serbian or Bulgarian respectively. Serbia threatened to break its treaty of alliance with Greece and to commence negotiations with Bulgaria for the division of Aegean Macedonia. Threats came from the Bulgarians, protesting loudly that they had previously signed an Accord with Greece which recognised the Macedonians as “Bulgarians”. What occurred next is truly a rare example, the Greek representative at the League of Nations Vasilis Dendramis responded by defending the Macedonian language as being “neither Bulgarian, nor Serbian but an independent language”. He listed various linguists, and linguistic maps as evidence to support his claim of the independence of the Macedonian language. This high ranking Greek official representing the Greek state not only recognised the existence of the Macedonian identity, but openly defended and supported it. However, Serbian and Bulgarian objections, together with internal opposition in Greece prevented the Abecedar from ever reaching the Macedonian children. The Abecedar was destroyed, but remains as a reminder to the Greek government of the Macedonians as a separate national entity.24

23 ibid. Page 78-79.
24 ABECEDAR, Jubilee Publication 1925-1985, (Skopje, Macedonia 1985) Andonovski, Hristo. The First Macedonian Primer between the Two World Wars – The Abecedar. Macedonian Review Editions.

25

THE DIVISION OF MACEDONIA AND THE OPPRESSION OF THE
MACEDONIANS UNDER GREEK OCCUPATION

NICK ANASTASOVSKI

On Behalf of MACEDONIAN YOUTH ALLIANCE
MELBOURNE, AUSTRALIA,1995

**indigen** · 04-14-2010, 05:48 AM

THE DIVISION OF MACEDONIA AND THE OPPRESSION OF THE MACEDONIANS UNDER GREEK OCCUPATION

NICK ANASTASOVSKI
On Behalf of MACEDONIAN YOUTH ALLIANCE MELBOURNE, AUSTRALIA,1995

“I do not believe that the words autonomy, liberty, independence, hold such magic for any other people as they do for the Macedonians. To free peoples the word liberty has lost some of its real signification. They accept it as one of the appurtenances of life, as one of the necessities, like air, like water. But to the Macedonians liberty has become the highest goal for which man can strive “.

St Christowe
“Heroes and Assassins” New York 1935

Greek Policy And The Australian Government.

Macedonians living under Greek occupation have been denied basic fundamental freedom which most people take for granted. The very existence of the Macedonians in Aegean Macedonia as a separate and distinct people has been denied by the Greek government and every effort made at Hellenising them.

The Greek government has maintained a discriminatory anti-Macedonian policy, and continues even now to use various labels to discriminate against the Macedonian identity. As we have seen, in Ancient times the Greeks referred to the Macedonians as “barbarians”, more recently other labels used include “Slavophone Greeks”, “bi-lingual Greeks”, “confused Greeks”, “Greeks”, “Yugoslavs”, “Slavs”, “Bulgarians”, “Skopian”, etc. Any form of manipulation of the Macedonian identity by the Greek government (or any other government) is an attack against all Macedonians, regardless of which part of the Macedonian divided homeland they originate from. The Macedonian people find all of the above terms as offensive, Macedonians identify as Macedonians and strongly object to any manipulation of their identity. The bond between the Macedonians was not severed by the illegitimate conquest of Macedonia during the Balkan Wars. The Macedonian name continues to signify both the ethnic and national identity to the Macedonians. The Macedonian people are a coherent group who continue to share common ties such as language, customs and culture, and have an awareness of their separate national individuality. The division of Macedonia has not resulted in four different Macedonia’s, or four different types of Macedonians. There is only one Macedonia and one group of Macedonian people. The emergence of politically motivated pseudo Macedonian groups in recent times is an exploitation of the Macedonian name to serve the interests of the Greek and Serbian nationalist alliance in its quest to foster confusion whilst pursuing their ultimate goal of territorial expansion.

Since the division of the Macedonian homeland the Macedonians did not cease the struggle for national rights and the reunification of their homeland. Despite being subject to all forms of persecution and terror under the Serbian, Greek, Bulgarian and Albanian occupiers, Macedonians strived at every opportunity to take control of their own destiny. At times this involved armed resistance against the oppressors, however since the 1950’s the Macedonians have directed their struggle largely through democratic peaceful means.

The struggle to break the chains of bondage has been particularly difficult as a result of the obvious complications to co-ordinate their activities under such harsh conditions. The occupiers systematically conducted a unified policy of denationalisation and assimilation.

Many chose to escape the cruel bondage and subsequently Macedonian emigre communities emerged in various countries abroad, most notably in the United States, Canada, Australia, Germany and Sweden. Community organisations were formed and they actively worked towards preserving and promoting their Macedonian identity and often informing the governments of their new homeland of the legitimate struggle of the Macedonian people.

Macedonians In Australia
Macedonians first settled in Australia at the end of the Nineteenth Century to work at Kalgoorie and Broken Hill. Larger numbers began arriving during the 1920’s, predominantly Macedonians from Aegean Macedonia fleeing from Greek brutality. The greatest influx occurred during the 1950’s and 60’s, and during the 1970’s a substantial number of Macedonians arrived from the Republic of Macedonia. Macedonians found Australia to be a free democratic country where they could express their ethnic identity freely without fear of persecution by the authorities.

In their new homeland Macedonians considered the savage hands of Greek, Serbian (Yugoslav) and Bulgarian discrimination to have been left far behind. In fact this was not to be the case at all. Macedonians in Australia found that the large Greek community and the smaller Serbian community [1], were to play an instrumental part in the continuation of anti-Macedonian activities outside of the Balkans. These communities built solid infrastructures quicker than the Macedonians, receiving support and guidance from their respective embassies and consulates. These foreign missions wasted no time in activating nationalist elements in their communities to form propaganda organisations to attack the identity of the Macedonian people and create unwanted tensions in our new homeland.

Tragically the harassment and intimidation of the Macedonian people has been directed through the Greek church, Greek newspapers, radio programs and their ethnic organisations[2] (many of these funded by Australian taxpayers) If a Macedonian is seen to be displaying his/her Macedonian identity publicly it is not uncommon that their families in Aegean Macedonia have pressure exerted against them by the Greek authorities. A devastating consequence of Greek intimidation following the Macedonians from Aegean Macedonia to Australia has caused some to fear attending services in a Macedonian Orthodox Church, send their children to a Macedonian Sunday School, attend peaceful rallies and even occasionally to openly identify as a Macedonian. The harassment and intimidation of the Macedonians has been so intense, that many genuinely fear being seen as pro-Macedonian.

A combination of factors which all have their roots in the persecution Macedonians experienced under the oppressive Balkan states, have flowed through to the census statistics which present inflated numbers for the Greek community in Australia, and also until recently a larger “Yugoslav” community (the Serbo-Yugoslav regime adopted many similar methods in Australia to encourage the Macedonians from the Republic of Macedonia to openly identify as “Yugoslavs”). Up until the disintegration of the artificial “Yugoslav” state Macedonians in Australia were generally categorised as either “from Yugoslavia” or “from Greece”, this was in the interests of the Balkan states who sought to foster division amongst Macedonian people, hinder their unity, and prevent them from appearing as a single visible factor in Australia. This strategy was successful to a degree, Australian governments certainly did compromise democratic principles (this continues today under Jeff Kennett’s Victorian Liberal State Government which has taken the “Macedonian issue” to new heights of absurdity), Dr Peter Hill explains “the Australian and some state governments see Macedonian nationalism as an embarrassment to good relations with Yugoslavia and Greece and are therefore disinclined to collect statistics on Macedonians. The Victorian government, in particular, has in recent years, under pressure from Greek consular representatives, abolished the Macedonians as a separate nationality and insists on the distinction between Yugoslavians and Greeks”[3]. The classifying of the Macedonians under the Greek or Yugoslav label was ideal for the Greek government, as a result official statistics present the Macedonians as a fraction of their true figure.[4]

Greek Fanaticism Climaxes

Since the disintegration of Serbo-Yugoslavia and the establishment of the Republic of Macedonia as an independent and sovereign nation in 1991 the Greek government has embarked on a frenzied attack to thwart international recognition fearing that an independent Macedonia will openly present to the world through international forums the tragic plight of the Macedonian people in Aegean Macedonia, the general nature of Greek democracy, and assist the Macedonians of Aegean Macedonia in their just struggle to attain basic human and national rights which Greece is obliged to provide under various international human rights laws and treaties which she is a signatory to.

The Greek government has clearly understood the ramifications of the establishment of one part of the divided Macedonian nation emerging as a sovereign and independent nation and exposing Greece as a violent oppressor of the Macedonians.

The response of the Greek government has demonstrated their past genocidal attitude to all things Macedonian, however this time it has taken on fanatical proportions where every Greek in the world has been called upon to show their unity with the Greek government and mobilise themselves against the “Skopani who are attempting to usurp the name Macedonia”, which according to the Greek government has been a Greek name since the very beginning of time itself![5]

Creating hysteria amongst Greeks through the distortion and manipulation of the Macedonian name has resulted in unwanted tension being brought here in Australia.

Greeks And Australian Political Parties
There is no doubt that the Greek hand in Australia has been immensely strengthened by their community’s organised political influence. Of the postwar migrant communities, it is probably true to say that the Jewish community was initially the most political and it contributed some prominent members of the Labor Party. For a variety of reasons, including the leftward trend of the Labor Party in the 1960’s, this influence waned. However, from the 1960’s onwards, the Greek community rose to prominence particularly under the left-dominated Victorian ALP. There was a Greek branch of the Communist Party operating for many years, as well as the left wing “Democritus League”. The Communist Party was instrumental in establishing the Greek community newspaper “Neos Kosmos”, and drew finances from it until the CPA collapsed in Victoria in 1984.

The Communist Party influence on the left of the Labor Party also helped to effect a reconciliation between Greek communists and Belgrade run “Yugoslav” communists. The Australian party was particularly close to the Tito regime. Both elements shared a common hostility towards Macedonian nationalism.

Left wing ALP activists such as Theo Sidiropoulos, a State parliamentarian in Victoria from 1977 onwards, confirmed the alliance between the ALP and the Greek community. Central to this was the approval by the ALP Socialist Left of “ethnic branches” which encouraged migrant power-brokers to move in on ALP suburban areas. What is today called “ethnic branch stacking” first became obvious within the Labor Party from the late 1970’s onwards. The Greek community was the pioneer of this practice, and has always been its main practitioner.

The first and the bulk of these ethnic branches were Greek, and this continues today. This grass roots weight of numbers is the key source of Greek influence in Australian politics. It is a practice endorsed by key sections of the Greek community.

The Socialist Left faction of the Labor Party is particularly affected. It has a sub faction within it openly known as the ‘Greek group” - centred around figures such as the brothers Andrew and Theo Theophanous (a federal and state MP respectfully) and state deputy leader Demitri Dollis. In at least one internal Socialist Left factional election held on a Sunday, a Greek priest in religious attire turned up with his flock to vote!

This Greek sub-faction is currently in alliance with the dominant Socialist Left group led by Senator Kim Carr. This results in real power being able to be brought to bear on the Federal government. Federal Minister for Immigration and Ethnic Affairs, Senator Nick Bolkus, is another Greek-Australian member of the ALP’s Socialist Left faction, from South Australia.

The Greek lobby today is in a strong position because of the groundwork laid in the 1960’s and 1970’s, whereby Greek-Australians in particular were well placed to capitalise on the rise of multicultural policies in the late 1970’s and 1980’s. Most other migrant communities are struggling to catch up.

Often Greek community representatives have been able to occupy center-stage by themselves, claiming to represent “non-Anglo” Australians almost by default. The only community which might rival the Greek community, the Italians, have been far less politically active.

As a result of the pressure exerted by the powerful Greek lobby in Australia, Australia recognised the Republic of Macedonia under the absurd name “Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia” and attached a list of conditions to prevent it from opening a much needed embassy and consulate in Australia. Jeff Kennett Premier of Victoria (Liberal Party) and State Ethnic Affairs Minister soon became involved in the vote grabbing exercise and stated that the federal government had gone too far and had betrayed the Greek community by including the name Macedonia in its recognition. This was parroted soon after by the then Federal Liberal leader John Hewson. The opportunism of the Liberal Party, in playing the “Greek card”, may be attributable to the influence of a couple of prominent Greeks within its ranks.

Some Liberal strategists believe that a switch in allegiance by Greek voters could save for them marginal State seats like Oakleigh, and even pick up current Labor seats such as Yan Yean. It appears to be a cold blooded playing of ethnic sectarianism – not unlike the Protestant and Catholic divisions which used to blight Australian politics. Again, the “up for sale” opportunism of the Greek anti-Macedonian campaign has reduced Australian foreign policy from a serious discussion of ethical principles to a demeaning and grubby rush for votes.

Politicians of Greek origin (most notably New South Wales Ethnic Affairs Minister Michael Photios, Federal Immigration and Ethnic Affairs Minister Nick Bolkus and New South Wales Upper House Member James Samios) have activated all their resources towards furthering Greek national interests in Australia through Australian political parties. Instead of representing the interests of all Australians, these parliamentarians have chosen to be loyal Greeks first. The Greek lobby, together with the influence of Greek politicians in Australian political parties have jeopardised ethnic harmony and cultural tolerance, and betrayed the interests of Australia.[6]

Greeks demonstrated, shouted, screamed, fire-bombed Macedonian Churches and Macedonian property and the two major Australian political parties the Australian Labor Party and the Australian Liberal Party shamefully could see no further than the statistics on the size of the Macedonian and Greek communities, marginal seats and their ethnic compositions.

On 9 March 1994 Prime Minister Paul Keating, Foreign Affairs Minister Gareth Evans and Federal Minister for Immigration and Ethnic Affairs Nick Bolkus met with a Greek delegation at a meeting in Canberra and agreed to a reclassification of the Macedonian people by distinguishing two artificial entities - “Slav Macedonians” and “Greek Macedonians”.

Most sections of the Greek community have taken part in the attack on the Macedonian identity. The autumn issue of the National union of Greek Australian Students magazine wrote “Thus as of 1994 the term Macedonia shall no longer be monopolised by the Slavic Macedonian community...NUGAS applauds the Governments decision, applauds the Greek community’s affirmative action.” The article also twice refers to “Skopian Australians”.

Even at local government level, the Canteburry and Marrickville Councils in N.S.W. Who each have several Greek councillors have taken a strong anti-Macedonian stand in relation to the racist “Slav” prefix. It is interesting to note that a Jack Passaris From the Marrickville Council is also a member of the Management Committee of the Ethnic Communities Council of NSW which is notorious for its high level of Greek domination and which has also played an instrumental part in advocating discrimination of Macedonians in Australia.

Macedonians in Australia are disgusted that Greek policies can be adopted by the Australian government, all Macedonians totally reject this racist decision and the dictatorial way in which it has been imposed. This decision by the Federal government makes a mockery of universally accepted fundamental human rights and of Australia’s policy of multiculturalism. Jeff Kennett Premier of the Victorian Liberal State Government has taken it even further by renaming the Macedonian language in the State of Victoria as Macedonian/Slavonic! This ridiculous directive has been issued to all Government departments and officers, including state school principles. In defence of the Macedonian language which is internationally recognised as Macedonian without qualification, the head of Linguistics at Monash University, Professor Michael Clyne, described the move as “disturbing and nonsensical”. The Professor of Linguistics at Macquarie University, Professor Christopher Candlin stated “In my view the term Macedonian/Slavonic is a political designation which has no basis as a linguistic description”.

The very fabric of our social democracy has been violated and the right to all Australians to freely identify with their ethnic background, to develop and promote their heritage within the wider Australian community without fear of prejudice and discrimination has been betrayed. The Macedonians have contributed towards the development of this country, have been decent hardworking people, and have always been loyal citizens of Australia. Until these recent events Macedonians believed they had left the hardship of the oppressive Balkan regimes behind, and assumed they were accepted as equal Australians. Due to these recent events Macedonians have been made to feel as second class Australians as a result of another ethnic community being more electorally appealing.

The Greek lobby has successfully demonstrated that foreign policies lobbied by any particular ethnic group with enough influence can be endorsed by Australian political parties at the expense of another ethnic group. Independent Australian policy is a victim of self interested ethnic groups and could have disastrous consequences for our society.

Notes:
n1 Serbo-Yugoslavia took a similar approach as did their traditional ally Greece, to encourage the migration of the Macedonians. Unless one was a “good Yugoslav”, opportunities were limited and the Republic of Macedonia was kept firmly under Serbian domination. The Serbs enjoyed all the benefits of “their” Yugoslavia and were therefore reluctant to leave.

N2 Greek organisations such as the Australian Institute for Macedonian Studies, the Pan Macedonian Association, Hellenic Business Forum and Heidelberg United Soccer Club have all played active roles in the Greek government orchestrated anti Macedonian movement here in Australia.

N3 Dr Peter Hill, The Macedonians in Australia. 1989 Page121.

N4 There are approximately 300,000 Australians of Macedonians background.

N5 It is not at all surprising to note that similar ultranationalist rhetoric has been widely used by the Serbian government in it’s imperialist campaign in Bosnia-Hercegovina.

N6 American Greek politicians have also acted in a similar anti-Macedonian manner as have their Australian Greek counterparts. After learning that the Clinton Administration planned to recognise the Republic of Macedonia Senator Paul Sarbanes of Maryland, Senator Michael Bilirakis of Florida, lobbyist Andrew Manatos, an assistant secretary of commerce under Carter who was once paid $100,000 by Greece for “advise on tourism” (article by Hanna Rosin in The New Republic, USA. June 1994), as well as several prominent Greek Americans with links to the Democrats, including Greek Orthodox Archbishop Ilakovos, and Eugene Rossidis, President of the American Hellenic Institute, went on a crusade to thwart recognition of the Republic of Macedonia placing Greek national interest above all.

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The Greek Method of Assimilating and Oppressing the Macedonians!

The Greek Method of Assimilating and Oppressing the Macedonians!

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