Will there be Justice for the Macedonians in Greece?
Risto StefovSeptember 28, 2008
When we speak of Macedonia most of us think of the Republic of Macedonia but what most people don´t know is that there is more to Macedonia than just the Republic of Macedonia. It´s a matter of fact that 51% of Macedonia´s geographical territory was annexed by Greece and another 10% was annexed by Bulgaria by the August 10th, 1913 Treaty of Bucharest. So by virtue of physical size most of Macedonia today is under Greece. Also by virtue of its physical territory we can assume that more Macedonians live in Greece than in the Republic of Macedonia. The Republic of Macedonia, by the way, occupies 39% of geographical Macedonia.
So when we speak of the Macedonian people it must be understood that we speak of the ethnic Macedonian people, not just of those living in the Republic of Macedonia, but of all ethnic Macedonians living in all of geographical Macedonia.
Another thing most people don´t know is that most Macedonians living in the Diaspora today are from the Greek part of Macedonia.
It is estimated that there are 200,000 Macedonians living in Canada or perhaps more since Macedonians have been coming to this country since the late 1800´s. More than 150,000 of these Macedonians have come from Greece. They have been coming to Canada to work and return home to invest their savings but since the failed Macedonian uprising against the Ottoman Empire in 1903 more and more have been coming to Canada to stay.
There are many Macedonians also living in the USA and Australia, perhaps in the hundreds of thousands, who also left Macedonia under similar circumstances as economic or political refugees.
Despite what Macedonia´s neighbours the Greeks, Bulgarians and Albanians claim, the Macedonian people from the entire region of geographical Macedonia, including the regions today occupied by Greece, Bulgaria and Albania, came together as one in 1903 and fought against the Ottoman Empire for their liberty and to create a Macedonian State. Unfortunately due to the superiority of the Ottoman military and due to lack of assistance from the outside world, Macedonians failed in that task. This however did not mean that Macedonians gave up their struggle for freedom and independence.
After their failed uprising many Macedonians placed their hopes for liberation on their neighbours but that too was a great mistake. The Ottomans were indeed driven out of Macedonia during the first Balkan War of 1912 by the combined actions of the Greek, Serbian, Montenegrin and Bulgarian armies but instead of liberating the Macedonian people as promised, these states (Greece, Serbia and Bulgaria) occupied Macedonia and partitioned it amongst themselves. Since then up to 1991 Macedonia remained occupied and under the control of foreign hands, more ruthless than those of the Ottoman Empire.
In 1991 the part of Macedonia that was originally occupied by Serbia, by referendum, declared its independence from the Yugoslav federation and became a free and sovereign state called the Republic of Macedonia. The parts occupied by Greece, Bulgaria and Albania remain under foreign control to this day.
Besides occupying and annexing Macedonian territories without the consent of the Macedonian people, Greece, Serbia and Bulgaria over the years also committed many atrocities against the Macedonian people. The Greeks for example burned many villages and murdered and exiled their inhabitants as documented by the 1913 Carnegie Endowment Inquiry. Later Greece exiled tens of thousands of Macedonians because they refused to pledge allegiance to the Greek State. Even later they exiled still more Macedonians because they happened to be of the Muslim faith and replaced them with twice the number of Christian Turkish colonists form Asia Minor. At about the same time Greece implemented a number of policies to change the Macedonian people´s names and make them Greek sounding. Greece, in an attempt to show the world that Macedonia was Greek, changed all the Macedonian peoples´ and place names including village, town and city names as well as lake, river, road, valley and mountain names and made them Greek sounding. A little later Greece banned the Macedonian language and made it illegal to be spoken and fined people for speaking it. These were people who spoke no other language but Macedonian. During harder times Greek authorities imposed heavy fines, beat, fed castor oil to them and jailed Macedonians for speaking the Macedonian language, the only language they knew.
After the Greek Civil War (1946-1949) tens of thousands of Macedonians including 28,000 children ages 2 to 14 were exiled from Greece, had their citizenship taken away and had their properties confiscated. More than half of these people are now living in Toronto, Canada.
Canada´s recognition of the Republic of Macedonia by its constitutional name has given these Macedonians some comfort that there are people in the world who still care but it is not enough to repair the injustices perpetrated by the Greek State over the years.
For some Macedonians it has been more than five generations of exile while patiently waiting for Greece to make things right.
Judging by how Greece and the Greek people behave nowadays however it appears, at least to this observer, that Greece has no intention of making things right for the Macedonian people. If Greece does not make reparations soon and continues to abuse and torment the Macedonian people then Macedonians have no choice but to want to separate from Greece and join the free Republic of Macedonia.
It has been proven over and over and over again that there is no justice in Greece for the Macedonian people so the only option left to them is to seek justice for themselves by removing themselves from the Greek yoke. It is clear at least to me that Greece fears this will happen but does not have the courage to take proper action to make it right.
Macedonians have shown for many generations that they can co-exist with other ethnicities but have refused to accept subordination. Macedonians can live in Greece as equals to the Greeks but not as their subordinates. Unfortunately after one hundred years of living under Greece, Greece has made no effort to better the condition for Macedonians living there. Greece has proven its cruelty towards the Macedonian people by its hostile acts not only in Greece but worldwide. So I ponder, what does the future hold for the Macedonian people? One and only one thing comes to mind! If Greece does not reverse its injustices and make things right there is but one choice for the Macedonian people; struggle to separate Macedonia from Greece.
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Greek-Macedonian Name Dispute – Simplified
Risto StefovSeptember 26, 2008
Ever since the Republic of Macedonia declared its independence from Yugoslavia in 1991 under the name "Republic of Macedonia" Greece has been waging a propaganda campaign against it promoting the idea that Macedonia is exclusively Greek and that no one except Greece had the right to claim its ancient heritage, including its symbols, flags and name. This is echoed, loud and clear both inside and outside of Greece. Greece´s basis for the so called dispute with the Republic of Macedonia is, according to Greece, "the Republic of Macedonia harbors territorial ambitions toward Greece´s northern province also called Macedonia".
Even though the Republic of Macedonia made amendments to its constitution to disclaim any "territorial ambitions", removed all disputed symbols and changed its flag, the Greek State still stubbornly persists on its mission to prevent Macedonia from entering international institutions and from gaining world recognition.
The purpose of this essay is to provide the reader with relevant information that;
1. Proves that Greece has no basis for its arguments with Macedonia.
2. Proves that Greece´s arguments are a ruse to sidestep more important issues.
3. Highlight some very important issues that Macedonians living in Greece are faced with, which Greece has so far ignored.
ARGUMENTS
A. Greece claims that Macedonia is exclusively Greek because the ancient Macedonian heritage belongs to Greece but it provides no valid arguments to qualify its claims.
The creation of the modern Balkan States during the 19th century was a result of (a), the collapse of the Ottoman Empire and (b) the introduction of nationalism in the region.
Throughout the later part of the 500 year old Ottoman occupation of the Balkans and up to the 19th century, national awareness did not exist among the Balkan people. The concept of "nationality" was unknown to the Ottoman citizen who at the time identified only by his or her religion be it Muslim, Christian, Jew, etc.
It is also a well known fact that the Balkan region was without borders for more than twenty centuries and was conquered, invaded and settled by a variety of people.
When Greece became a state for the first time in 1829 it consisted only of the region today known as the Peloponnesus which was then populated by a majority of Albanian, Turk, Vlach and Macedonian speakers (there were no other ethnic indicators to distinguish the various language speakers from one another since ethnicity at the time was unknown to those people). Historically an organized and united Greek state never existed. The ancient world was never unified and existed not as one but as many states and worlds with varying governments, languages and cultures.
Over the years the modern Greek people, by war and imperial ambitions, incorporated more lands into their state including Epirus, Thessaly, Crete and Macedonia, which historically were never unified as a single state and never belonged to Greece. Further, the people on those lands were also not Greeks and linguistically belonged to the Albanian, Vlach, Turk and Macedonian speaking families.
So it would not be wrong to state that the entire southern Balkan Peninsula on which modern Greece is located today was populated by a vast majority of non-Greek people who spoke Macedonian, Albanian, Turk, Vlach and other non-Greek languages and who at the time had no national awareness and had only their religions in common.
It is also accurate to state that according to census reports compiled by the Republic of Macedonia after 1991, there are predominantly Macedonian, Albanian, Turk and Vlach speakers living in the Republic of Macedonia today, the same linguistic groups that existed in Macedonia before the fall of the Ottoman Empire.
In other words, when the Greek State was formed in 1829 it consisted of exactly the same ethnic identities that the Republic of Macedonia had in 1991.
The reason there is a difference between the 19th century ethnic identities in Greece and those of today is that Greece has "Hellenized" them (mostly by force) and turned them into Greeks. In 1928 Greece declared that the population in Greece is homogeneous consisting of 98% pure Greeks and 2% Muslim Greeks.
Although Greece today claims that its people are the descendents of the ancient Greeks the truth is Greece has no basis for this claim. Its people are modern Balkanites similar to those who live in its neighbouring countries and nothing more.
In other words, a modern Greek making claims that he or she is a descendent of the ancient Greeks who lived on the same lands 2,500 years ago is equivalent to a modern Canadian making claims that he or she is a descendant of the ancient Canadians who lived on the same lands before the Europeans discovered them.
B. Greece claims that the name Macedonia belongs exclusively to Greece because Greece has a province with the same name. Greece however provides no valid arguments as to how it acquired that Macedonian province and why only "it" can be called Macedonia when that very same province belongs to a greater geographical and historical region called Macedonia.
Nationalism was imported into the Balkans in the early 19th century and took hold in Greece, Serbia and later Bulgaria. Macedonia being the most oppressed region in the Balkans stood at the center of the then Ottoman State and was less accessible to the outside world so naturally nationalism took longer to infiltrate Macedonia. This however did not stop the Macedonian people from acquiring a Macedonian national consciousness, or from making a bid to free themselves from the Ottomans or from attempting to create a Macedonian state that would have encompassed all of geographic Macedonia including the Republic of Macedonia and all the geographical Macedonian regions held by Greece, Bulgaria and Albania today.
The Macedonians are the only people in the southern Balkans who organized a massive national liberation movement and in 1903 rose up against the Ottoman Empire to free themselves without outside help.
Unfortunately the Macedonian uprising did not produce the desired results and opened up Macedonia to foreign intrigue and territorial ambitions especially on the part of its neighbours who in 1912 invaded, occupied and in 1913 divided Macedonia among themselves.
In other words, 51% of the Macedonian geographical territory which Greece today exclusively calls "Macedonia" or "Greek Macedonia" or the "Greek Province of Macedonia" did not belong to Greece prior to 1912 and was never Greek.
Prior to 1912 Macedonia was part of the Ottoman Empire and belonged to the people who lived in Macedonia, the true owners of Macedonian lands. Greece gained this territory through war and by evicting all those who opposed it including the legitimate owners of those lands. Greece invaded Macedonia in 1912 under the pretence of liberating the Macedonian people, occupied and partitioned it with its Serbian and Bulgarian partners against the will of the Macedonian people.
In fact Greece gained its part of Macedonia through deception and a force of arms without the consent of the Macedonian people.
Unable to free themselves from the Ottoman yoke the Macedonian people welcomed the Greek, Serbian and Bulgarian armies in 1912 as their liberators. But instead of being liberated they quickly found themselves occupied and their state partitioned.
As for the name "Macedonia" I would like to remind the reader that before 1912 there was one Macedonia, the entire region of geographical and historic Macedonia, the very same region the Macedonian people rose in 1903 to liberate and create a Macedonian State.
Therefore, the Republic of Macedonia has both geographical and historical rights to call itself "Macedonia" since that state belongs to geographical Macedonia and to the people who rose up in 1903 and during the Second World War to liberate it.
As for Greece claiming rights to the name "Macedonia", here are some facts:
In 1913 after Macedonia was partitioned, Greece named its part of Macedonia "New Territories". Later it renamed it "Northern Greece". Then in the late 1980´s when it was inevitable that a new Macedonian state was about to declare its independence from Yugoslavia, Greece renamed it "Macedonia".
Therefore Greece has neither historical nor geographical rights to the name "Macedonia". Greece only uses this argument to sidestep other more important Macedonian issues and as a ruse to deflect attention from them.
C. Greece claims that there are no Macedonians living in Greece or in geographic Macedonia, only Greeks, Serbians and Bulgarians and that the Macedonian nation was created by Tito in 1945.
The ethnic mix of people in Macedonia prior to the 1912 Greek, Serbian and Bulgarian invasion consisted of a large ethnic Macedonian majority indigenous to the region, Turks, Arnauts (Albanians), Vlachs, Roma and other smaller minorities. In other words, the same mix of ethnic identities that exist today in the Republic of Macedonia (with the exception of the Turks who left Macedonia soon after the Greek, Serbian and Bulgarian invasion) was present in the entire region of geographic Macedonia prior to 1912. There were no ethnic Greeks or ethnic Bulgarians in Macedonia at that time, only ethnic Macedonians who served "Greek" and "Bulgarian" interests.
Most census statistics released before 1912 were compiled by Greek, Serbian and Bulgarian statisticians and were based on "religious affiliation". As mentioned earlier, at the time there was no clear identifier to determine ethnically who was who except for language and religion. However, the vast majority of people living in Macedonia were Macedonian speakers. So the only option census takers had was to use "religion" as an identifier of ´nationality". Since most Macedonians were Christians the only difference between them was "whose" Church they were affiliated with. However the only churches allowed to operate in Ottoman Macedonia at the time were the Greek, Serbian and Bulgarian Churches. So the census statisticians used "religious affiliation" as the identifier to which "nationality" the people living in Macedonia belonged. In other words a person was considered to be a "Greek national" if he or she attended liturgy in the Greek Church, a "Serbian national" if he or she attended liturgy in the Serbian Church and a "Bulgarian national" if he or she attended liturgy in the Bulgarian Church. So naturally there being no Macedonian Church, census statistics showed no Macedonians living in Macedonia, only Greeks, Serbians and Bulgarians.
Therefore it is not that Macedonians did not exist, as Greece likes us to believe, but it was the method that census takers and statisticians employed to represent the ethnic composition of the region that was incorrect. In fact the method was simply wrong and only served the territorial ambitions of the Greek, Serbian and Bulgarian states.
In 1991 the part of Macedonia that was originally occupied by Serbia, by referendum, declared its independence from the Yugoslav federation and became a free and sovereign state called the Republic of Macedonia. Upon its successful and peaceful separation from Yugoslavia, the Republic of Macedonia conducted its own census study and concluded that over 60% of its population was ethnic Macedonian.
As for Greece, it has yet to conduct a proper census and still relies on outdated methods such as "religious affiliation" to determine its ethnic composition. This way it can hide its minorities and pretend that 98% of its people are pure Greeks and 2% are Muslim Greeks.
D. Macedonians living in Greece are faced with a number of issues since the forceful invasion, occupation and illegal partition of Macedonia.
The Greek, Serbian and Bulgarian invasion of Macedonia brought catastrophic results to the Macedonian people. After driving the Ottomans out with the Macedonian people´s help, the three invaders Greece, Serbia and Bulgaria began to fight among themselves inside Macedonia for a larger portion of the Macedonian territory. In the process they burned down hundreds of Macedonian villages and murdered, tortured and exiled thousands of civilians including women and children as documented by the 1913 Carnegie Endowment Inquiry.
Finally when they stopped fighting they partitioned Macedonia between themselves under the 1913 Treaty of Bucharest where Greece received 51% of Macedonia´s territory, Serbia received 39% and Bulgaria received 10%.
In 1991 the part of Macedonia that was originally occupied by Serbia, by referendum, declared its independence from the Yugoslav federation and became a free and sovereign state called the Republic of Macedonia. The parts occupied by Greece, Bulgaria and Albania remain occupied to this day.
IMPORTANT ISSUES
There are many issues the Macedonian people deem "important", which Greece "needs to deal with" but so far has refused to address. Some are listed as follows;
1. Greece refuses to recognize that it illegally occupied Macedonian territories in 1912 without the Macedonian people´s consent. Macedonians were lead to believe that Greece was entering the conflict in 1912 to liberate the Macedonian people from the Ottoman yoke but through deception and intrigue Greece along with its partners, Serbia and Bulgaria, forcibly occupied and subjugated Macedonia.
2. Greece refuses to recognize that Greece, Serbia and Bulgaria under the 1913 Treaty of Bucharest partitioned Macedonia into three pieces without the Macedonian people´s consent. Greece, Serbia and Bulgaria in 1913 occupied and partitioned Macedonian lands creating artificial borders that have divided families to this day.
What Greece calls liberation, the Macedonian people call occupation. Having one exiled from his or her ancestral home, having his or her lands confiscated, having his or her name changed, being forced to speak a foreign language, being publicly humiliated by being forced to denounce one´s own identity and being forced to publicly pledge allegiance to a tyrannical occupier is no "liberation". It is subjugation.
3. Greece refuses to accept the fact that its army committed atrocities and genocide against the Macedonian people during the two Balkan Wars of 1912, 1913 as documented by the 1913 Carnegie Endowment Inquiry.
4. Greece refuses to repatriate the thousands of Macedonians who it evicted from their homes and forcibly exiled after 1913 simply because they were affiliated with the Bulgarian and Serbian Churches. Greece exiled tens of thousands of Macedonians and had their homes and properties confiscated simply because they, during the last years of the Ottoman occupation, attended liturgy in the Bulgarian and Serbian churches; not in the Greek Church.
5. Greece refuses to allow the return of the tens of thousands of Macedonians who it expelled to Turkey during the 1920´s and had their homes and properties confiscated simply because they were of the Muslim faith.
6. Greece refuses to provide compensation to those Macedonians who´s lands and homes it confiscated in the 1920´s to accommodate the imported Christian colonists from Asia Minor and other places. During the 1920´s Greece imported 1.1 million colonists from Turkey and settled most of them in Macedonia.
7. Greece refuses to reverse the imposed name changes the Greek State forced on the Macedonian people. During the 1920´s Greece introduced assimilation policies in Macedonia to "Hellenize" every person by changing their first and last names so that they would sound Greek. Greece did this without the consent of those whose names were changed.
8. Greece refuses to reverse the imposed toponym changes the Greek State forced on the Macedonian people during and subsequent to the 1920´s to "Hellenize" the region. Greece changed all Macedonian toponyms including cities, towns, villages, lakes, rivers, mountains, roads, etc. from Macedonian to Greek without the Macedonian people´s consent.
9. Greece refuses to reverse the illegal abolition of the Macedonian language. During the 1930´s the Greek state introduced anti-Macedonian laws banning the Macedonian language and ordering the destruction of every Macedonian inscription found on buildings, monuments, gravestones and religious icons that contained Macedonian writing. People, even those who spoke no other language, were heavily fined and forced to drink castor oil when caught speaking Macedonian. The Macedonian language is illegal in Greece to this day.
10. Greece refuses to abolish anti-Macedonian laws and discriminatory practices against the Macedonian people. Greece over the years has punished Macedonians for having Macedonian sentiments by public humiliation, beatings, imprisonment and murder.
11. Greece refuses to repatriate and return the properties and citizenships to those Macedonians expelled from Greece without a trial for being suspected of aiding the losing side in the Greek Civil War. Greece murdered and expelled tens of thousands of Macedonians and confiscated their properties and citizenship simply because they were suspected of aiding the losing side in the Greek Civil War.
12. Greece refuses to repatriate the 28,000 refugee children ages 2 to 14 it expelled in 1948 whose citizenship and ancestral properties it confiscated.
13. Greece refuses to scrap the 1982 anti-Macedonian discriminatory law. Greece passed law 106841 in 1982 allowing Greeks by birth to return to Greece but excluded Macedonians, even though these Macedonians were born in Greece and in fact were all Greek citizens.
14. Greece refuses to end systemic discrimination against the Macedonian people which is ingrained in the Greek government, church, media, schools and other institutions.
15. Greece refuses to recognize the Macedonian minority living inside Greece today even though it is required to do so in accordance with international agreements to which Greece is signatory.
In view of the above, which the Greek State refuses to deal with, past Greek governments have concocted less damaging issues such as the name dispute to:
a. Lead the Macedonian people away from important issues and bog them down with nonsensical ones.
b. Give the world the impression that the Greek-Macedonian dispute is really about unimportant "nonsensical issues" such as ancient history. By doing this Greece hopes to cover-up its misdeeds against the Macedonian people.
CONCLUSION
Greece has been very successful in its endeavour and has succeeded in painting the "wrong picture" about its "dispute" with Macedonia.
The Macedonian people do indeed have a dispute with Greece but it is not about historic names, symbols and flags, it is about equality, human rights and human dignity.
Given Greece´s track record on its treatment of the Macedonian people, today´s Macedonians are left with the following options;
I. Do nothing and accept Greece´s status quo. In other words, end the pursuit of human rights for the Macedonian people, which may be acceptable to Greece but totally unacceptable to the Macedonians.
II. Lobby international bodies to pressure Greece into accepting its responsibilities in coming to terms with the Macedonian issue. Pressure Greece to making amends to the Macedonian people. Force Greece to recognize the Macedonian minority living on its soil in accordance with international human right norms to which Greece is signatory and is obliged to uphold.
III. Start lobbying for the separation of the part of Macedonia under Greek control and call for its reunification with the Republic of Macedonia or for the creation of a new Macedonian state similar to Kosovo.
Greece had almost a century to correct the wrongs it committed against the Macedonian people. How much longer must the Macedonian people wait to receive justice from Greece before taking matters into their own hands?
You can contact the author at rstefov@hotmail.com
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What is a Macedonian?
Risto StefovSeptember 23, 2008
What will you say to a stranger when they ask, "What is a Macedonian?"
We are often confronted with this question but have we ever given it a thought? There are people in this world who genuinely don´t know who the Macedonians are especially since their neighbours have been busy trying to erase them, to make them extinct like the Dodo bird. But in spite of all odds Macedonians are still here and thriving.
It has not been easy or fun being Macedonian, far from it has been darn hard. Macedonians don´t know why fate has dealt them such a lousy card but they know they can´t argue with fate. Some say they are the "cursed" children of Alexander the Great, cursed for the violence and destruction he befell on the world. Others say they are too passive and meek and let others bully them and push them around. But deep down in their hearts they know that their kindness, no matter how misconstrued, will not go unrewarded. Isn´t it the bible that says "the meek shall inherit the earth"? The bible also says "violence begets violence" heed for those who wish the Macedonians ill.
Today´s Macedonia reminds me of Ancient Macedonia before she became mighty and glorious. Macedonians had neighbours who raided their homes every fall after the harvest, took their crops and burned their villages down to the ground without giving a second thought as to the hardships and pain they inflicted by leaving them to endure the winter cold and hungry. But Macedonians were agile, industrious and determined to survive to rebuild their livelihood only to have it destroyed the next fall. Such was life in the distant past until they became passive and asked their enemies to "take what they wanted" but leave them be and not burn their villages.
Macedonians never raised a hand in anger then and they have not raised one since. It has been the Macedonian way.
But there was only so much even a Macedonian could take!
It´s a different world today but Macedonians still have their enemies who wish us ill. They may not raid their crops and burn their villages but their deeds are just as destructive. Today their enemies have taken their lands, denied their language, changed their names and denied their existence. They stole their history robbed them of their heritage and made them feel like strangers in their own homes. Such is life today as Macedonians remain passive and offer their selves to their enemies.
Again, there is only so much a Macedonian can take!
As it was then in the distant past it shall be again in the future, a Macedonian will be born who will declare "this is no way for my people to live" and will rise and make Macedonia glorious and her people proud again. As it was then when there was no greater honour than being a Soldier of Macedon it shall be again when there will be no greater pride than being Macedonian.
So what do you say to a stranger when they ask, "What is a Macedonian?"
You say to them a Macedonian is a human being who has suffered and is still suffering for what she or he is.
To be Macedonian is;
1. To have your homeland invaded, occupied and portioned into four pieces.
2. To have your enemies fight over your possessions and your identity.
3. To have your enemies speak on your behalf while they divide your country.
4. To have seen your brothers, sisters and cousins evicted from their homes for just being Macedonian.
5. To have a choice of swearing loyalty to your occupier, a foreign power, or to die.
6. To be forced to denounce your mother tongue in public and to swear to never speak it again.
7. To have to go to prison and endure hardships just because you want to be Macedonian.
8. To have to witness your demography change overnight, your village populated with strangers whose language, mannerisms and traditions you do not understand.
9. To have to endure beatings, fines and large doses of castor oil for being what you are, Macedonian.
10. To have witnessed your culture being wiped out in front of your eyes, be it your toponyms, language, bibles in the church, church icons or gravestones of your relatives bearing your native writings.
11. To have to witness your enemy secretly remove and hide ancient treasures belonging to your past.
12. To have no say in what happens in your community.
13. To fear strangers entering your village, not knowing what harm they might bring.
14. To have to go to church and listen to a liturgy spoken in a foreign tongue, words spoken that you do not understand.
15. To have to go to your local school to learn a foreign language where your mother tongue is prohibited.
16. To have to endure becoming an unrecognized minority on your native soil.
17. To have to become mute to the beloved tongue your mother taught you, the only language you understood.
18. To have to imagine the music you used to dance to and dance to it in silence.
19. To have been robbed of your dignity, land and identity.
20. To have witnessed your enemy burn your home and kill and torture your relatives.
21. To have endured and lived through other peoples wars who fought on your native soil.
22. To have survived attempts at integration, assimilation and denationalization.
23. To have endured pain, humiliation, denigration and persecution.
24. To have felt isolation, forced expulsion and the pain of having to leave your beloved home, Macedonia, against your will.
25. To have to never speak your mother tongue in public on your own native soil.
26. To have been ridiculed for speaking a foreign language with an accent which you were forced to learn.
27. To have been told numerous times and constantly reminded that you don´t exist.
28. To have to endure being called derogatory names like Slav, Skopjan, Fyromian, Gypsy, Bulgarian, Old Bulgarian and many more, but never Macedonian!
29. To have to endure listening to your enemies telling you who you are and who you are not.
30. To have absolutely no rights, not even the basic of human rights
31. To have more freedom and rights in foreign lands than in your native Greek occupied Macedonia.
32. To have your enemies change you name and tell you who you are and force it upon you if you don´t agree.
33. To have endured the exodus of your friends and to never be able to see them again.
34. To witness tens of thousands of children leave their homes and never be able to return.
35. To listen to your enemies lie about who you are in front of you and you being unable to defend yourself.
36. To have your enemies steal your history, traditions and heritage and tell you it´s theirs and not yours.
37. To have your enemies call you a liar for telling the truth.
38. To have the ability to keep silent while your enemies insult and denigrate you in your presence.
39. To have your troubles follow you no matter where you go, be it America, Canada, or Australia.
40. To have to fight for things that other people take for granted.
Such is the fate of being Macedonian!
So why would anyone want to be Macedonian?
As it was said before and it will be said again and again, "Macedonians want to be Macedonian because that is what they are, Macedonian". There are no choices to being Macedonian just as there are no choices to be human. Macedonians accept who they are just as they accept who others are. There is a deep, almost spiritual feeling to being Macedonian. To be Macedonian is to have willingly accepted the burden of being Macedonian.
Why do Macedonians put up with such suffering?
This is like asking a Christian "why did Christians put up with such suffering"? Why did they put up with abuse and torture for so many centuries?
Macedonians put up with abuse and suffering because, above all, they are true to themselves. Macedonians can be no other just as a goat cannot be a sheep no matter how great its desire. Suffering after all makes Macedonians stronger and more appreciative of who they are. Macedonians are an enduring people that perceive their troubles like a passing storm. Experience has taught them that patience is a virtue. Their troubles like a violent storm come and go and so their current problems too will pass. They have learned to hope and trust that the future will bring a better day.
So the next time you meet Macedonians know who they are. Know that they exist in spite of their enemies´ determination to render them extinct. Macedonians come from a rich culture that has a long standing Macedonian tradition, rich history like no other, unshakable faith and shining pride in being Macedonian. Suffering has made them strong and more determined to be proud Macedonians.
Macedonians know by instinct that they will weather this storm as well as they have weathered many others before it and have survived.Leave a comment:
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The Forced Homogenization of Populations in Greek Macedonia
Risto StefovSeptember 21, 2008
Ordinarily I could care less what people call themselves, it's a personal issue how one wishes to present and even when I know people are lying about their ethnic heritage I let it slide. But, when today's self-proclaimed "Greeks" take it upon themselves to dictate to others how they may call themselves then it's time to speak up.
The Greek government routinely denies the existence of ethnic Macedonians, as it denies the existence of all ethnic and national minorities within its jurisdiction. Greece, you see, is a pure country with no minorities, a miracle in the modern World and unique in Europe - or so we are told.
In truth today's Modern Greek identity, the Greek identity of such luminaries as Kostas Karamanlis and Dora Bakoyannis, is the result of enforced homogenization. It is a political identity and historically artificial.
Prior to 1913 the majority of people living in geographic Macedonia shared common customs, traditions, songs, dances, language, history and religion. These people had lived in Macedonia for some 1500 years and their relationship is probably much older than that. Any decent person, any civilised human being would have no problem referring to such people as 'ethnic Macedonians'.
Now, let's consider the so-called "ethnic Greek" identity of today's Modern Greeks.
According to Webster's dictionary, belonging to an ethnic group means belonging to a division of mankind as distinguished by customs, characteristics, language and sharing a common history, etc.
I recently read an interesting article at in an official Turkish website:
What do Turks have to say about today's Greeks? After all both Macedonia and Greece were ruled by Turkey for centuries; Greece for four centuries and Macedonia for five.
The site states:
" The [Modern] Greek Nation is based on the principle of belonging to the Greek race and the Greek Orthodox Church. On this subject, it is enough to glance at the speeches of Greek statesmen about the homogeneity of the Greek nation with the exception of the Muslim minority.
If today's Greek Nation is really homogeneous, one cannot help but wonder about the destiny of the Albanians, the Muslim Albanians, Vlach, Macedonians, Bulgarians, Jews as well as Turks. In this respect it becomes necessary to answer the question of how homogeneity has been achieved in Greek Macedonia while ethnic variety still survives in the Republic of Macedonia ."
What are the Turks talking about? Who are these Albanians, Vlach, Macedonians, Turks, etc. existing in Greece?
As mentioned above, Athens denies the existence of any national or ethnic minorities on its territory. Greece claims to be an ethnically homogeneous nation whose roots extend back to the ancient Greeks of thousands of years ago.
Such a claim is utter nonsense, of course, but this is the official mythology of the Modern Greek state. This is what today's Greeks are taught in school and this is the kind of historical fiction promoted by Greek society.
The Ottoman Turks were masters of Greece for four centuries, long before a Greek state was created and prior to the Romanoi altering their identity and referring to themselves "Greeks". There was indeed a great variety of ethnic populations in what is today Greece, but apparently they have all vanished.
The Turkish site puts it succinctly:
"In this respect, it becomes necessary to answer the question of how homogeneity has been achieved in Greek Macedonia while ethnic variety still survives in the Republic of Macedonia ?"
How indeed!
When the Greek kingdom was created in 1829, the following ethnic groups dominated the territory: Arvanites (Christian Albanians), Vlahi (Vlachs), Tourki (Turks), Voulgari (Bulgarians and Macedonians), Slavi (Macedonians), Slavo-Makedones (Macedonians), Endopii (indigenous Macedonians), Gifti (Roma), Evreii (Jews) and others. Some citations carelessly refer to those who spoke Greek as "Greeks" but such people more often than not belonged to one of the distinct non-Greek ethnic groups.
It is impossible to gauge to what extent ancient Greeks (including the huge slave populations) survived in the lower Balkans and preserved a 'Greek' identity for 2500 years. It is extremely unlikely that more than a miniscule fraction of today's "Greek" population has any connection whatsoever to the ancient Greeks. The vast bulk of today's "Greeks" have been recently made "Greek" as part of the political homogenization process.
European powers created the Greek kingdom in an effort to block Russian access to warm waters. At that time, in 1829, the Arvanites still spoke the Albanian language and had their own unique customs and traditions. This was the majority population in the region of Attica (Athens) so much so that there was discussion as to whether Greek or Albanian should become the official language of the new kingdom. The Vlach still spoke their mother Vlach language similar to Latin and they had their own unique customs and traditions. Turks spoke the Turkish language and had their own customs and traditions, etc.
Notwithstanding the many names Modern Greeks use to refer to Macedonians, e.g., Slavs, Slavofoni, diglossos, Voulgaros, Slavo-Makedones, Dopii and more recently the ignorant Skopianoi, Macedonians spoke the Macedonian language, which existed and still exists throughout all of geographic Macedonia. Macedonians too have their own unique customs and traditions, which are different from the other groups.
If the truth be told today's Greece is inhabited by diverse Ottoman Christian populations of various ethnic backgrounds. These people did not have a "Greek" ethnic identity, that identity was imposed on them later. It was only after the creation of the Greek kingdom that authorities fabricated a new "Greek" identity, the purpose being to homogenize the population.
Authorities systematically destroyed people's original ethnic identity. They made the declaration of any non-Greek identity socially repulsive and illegal. People became too ashamed to refer to themselves as Arvanites and Vlach. Even today you see Arvanites like former Greek foreign minister, Pangalos, denying his Albanian heritage and proclaiming himself a pure Hellene. That's quite pathetic but Modern Greeks are taught that any non-Greek identity is vulgar and inferior to the newly fabricated Greek identity. Modern Greeks have buried their true ethnic heritage, and where they still remember it, they have become self-loathing. This is what it means to be a modern-day "Hellene".
Greek authorities also taught the citizenry that it was "patriotic" to monitor one's neighbours and hand over to authorities the names of people who refused to identify as Greek and who continued to speak their non-Greek mother tongues. This process of spying on your neighbours and betraying them to authorities went on for generations and still goes on today, even in the Diaspora.
Politicians in Athens fabricated a state mythology, a fake history if you will, for these newly minted Greeks to share, the purpose being to bind the different ethnic groups together and unify the state.
Greece adopted Koine, which today is paraded as the Modern Greek language. But, just as the Modern Greek flag was stolen from the British East India Company, Koine, which many Greeks boast connects them to the ancients, was stolen from the Byzantine Church. Greece was fabricating its new history, identity and language in a hodgepodge manner via theft. In fact most of today's "Greek culture" is stolen from the various assimilated populations and misrepresented as "Greek".
People who learnt Koine are no more Greek nor related to the ancient Greeks than people who learnt hieroglyphs are Egyptian and related to the ancient Egyptians. Adopting a new language doesn't give one rights to the heritage of the ancient populations who spoke it.
It made sense to impose the church Koine as religion was the only thing the various ethnic groups of Greece had in common. But, religion is not ethnicity.
Greece changed the place names and people's personal names, renaming everyone and everything to make them appear Greek. This tells us that neither the places nor the people were Greek and they had to be made Greek by force. This is Greece's famous policy of ethnic and cultural genocide.
As a Macedonian from Aegean Macedonia my new (artificial) "Greek" history begins in 1926 after the Greek government changed my grandfather's name and the name of my village from Macedonian to Greek. There was no Stefou or Trigono before 1926 and everyone spoke Macedonian, not Greek.
If I am to believe that after 1926 I am Greek then I must ask: What was I before 1926? What was I before they changed our village name and our family name from Macedonian to Greek? What was the original ethnic heritage of my family?
And just what is it that makes today's citizens of Greece "ethnically Greek"? Just what is it that makes Greekocised Macedonians, Vlach, Arvanites, Roma, Turks, etc., share the same "ethnicity" in Greece?
According to Webster's dictionary a Greek is a native or modern inhabitant of Greece. So, anyone who lives in Greece is Greek by virtue of geography. One must assume that if such people move to a different location they would take on a new identity. That hardly sounds like an ethnic group.
The name Greek is derived from the word Graioi, originally the Latin name of a Boeotian tribe that settled in Southern Italy in the 8th century BC, but clearly the Boeotians did not give rise to today's Modern "Greeks". Use of the term "Greek" cannot, in itself, define an ethnicity. There must be more to it.
So, what makes today's Greeks "ethnic Greeks"?
It can't be culture, tradition or customs as the original cultures, traditions and customs of today's Greek population (Albanians, Vlachs, Macedonians, Turks, Roma, etc.) were distinct and non-Greek.
It can't be language since Koine was formally imposed on diverse groups only after the Greek kingdom was formed in 1829. Koine was not the mother tongue of people living in what became Greece, this was a church language just as Latin was the church language to the West.
So, it isn't language, culture, tradition or custom. It's not history either, as more than half of today's Greek population is not indigenous to the region and was only transplanted into the area from Asia Minor and the Black Sea over the last century. These are unrelated, historically disjoint populations.
You can see why the Greek government was under pressure to manufacture a language and identity for all these different groups. The only thing they shared, the only thing they had in common, was their religion.
Today's Modern Greek state is based on religion, not ethnicity or history. Historically, it is unrelated to ancient Greece. When the Bavarian royal house established the new Greek kingdom it was meant as a haven for the persecuted Christians of the Ottoman regions. The first Greek constitution beckoned to all Christians to immigrate and settle there - it did not beckon to "Greeks" to come and settle there.
Other than a common religion there is little if any of the characteristics of an "ethnic group" prior to the formation of the Greek kingdom in 1829.
That's why forced homogenization was necessary in the first place. That's why everything and everyone had to be renamed. That's why a new Greek language had to be imposed and people's mother tongues and ethnic identities had be suppressed and destroyed. That's why ethnic variety still exists in the Republic of Macedonia but has vanished from the new Greek state.
How is it, then, that people who only recently and just barely qualify to call themselves "ethnic Greeks" are allowed to usurp the ancient Greek heritage and the ancient Macedonian heritage? From what authority does this group attempt to tell ethnic Macedonians who they are and how they may call themselves?
Obviously today's Greeks are ethnic frauds, their identity is nothing more than the product of a government program. We indigenous Macedonians of Greece know this first hand as we have been resisting the ruthless ethnocide of Greece for a century now.
What is the Macedonian government doing negotiating our Macedonian identity and Macedonian ethnic heritage with such racists and frauds?Leave a comment:
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Let´s Not Forget the Exiled Macedonians from Greece
Risto StefovSeptember 22, 2008
After reading the MINA article (http://macedoniaonline.eu/content/view/3525/46/) about Panayotis Dimitras, member of the Greek Helsinki Monitor, I couldn´t help but remember what my father had told me about other United Nations visits to the Greek concentration camps in the Greek islands in the past where Macedonians and others were tortured daily.
It was naïve of me to ask, "Why didn´t anyone report the abuses while the people from the UN visited you?" "Because no one wanted to die a horrible death," was the answer. The UN and other investigative bodies came and went but the prisoners remained and were constantly reminded of what would happen not only to them personally but to their families and friends if they spoke up. They were also reminded that "the strangers will come and go but you will definitely stay". "How were we to know that these people were truly from the UN and not another ´Greek show´, a ploy to pull us into getting into trouble and giving the Greeks another excuse to torture and murder us?" was another answer I received.
If I were a Macedonian living in Greece today what would I think if a high profiled Greek such as Panayotis Dimitras is openly threatened in the face of the entire world with "high treason" and life imprisonment just for saying Macedonians exist in Greece? I would have to ask myself "if they can do that to Panayotis a member of the Greek Helsinki Monitor who is well known worldwide, imagine what they can do to me, an unknown person, if I speak up?" "Would I dare say I am Macedonian and risk my life and the lives of my family?" The answer would most likely be NO!
Macedonians have many examples to refer to where they were put in similar circumstances and many times were let down. The Greeks are back to their old tricks because these tricks are tried and proven tactics that have worked well for them in the past! They know this will bring them the desired results without any consequences.
But let me tell you something, not all Macedonians from Greece live inside Greece where the Greek government has them under its thumb. There are millions of Macedonians, yes millions of exiled Macedonians whose citizenship and properties were expropriated by the Greek government and who were driven out of Greece. To this day I have yet to find a single Macedonian who has left Greece willingly and hasn´t been driven out as a war refugee or as an economic refugee.
The Macedonians still living in Greece have no rights but they at least still have their lands, homes, citizenship and live where they were born. Unfortunately that is not the case with the Macedonians and other minorities which Greece has exiled over the years.
From what happened to Mr. Dimitras it should be obvious to everyone that the Macedonians living inside Greece are in peril from the Greek government and from the racist and fascist organizations the Greek state supports. Those Macedonians who volunteered information to the UN have put themselves and their families at great risk.
Greece has used similar threats before and knows its methods are tried and proven. It knows terror tactics will work because its minorities live and have always lived in fear and will not dare reveal themselves or freely speak to strangers. Greece will exercise its threats and send people to jail; it has done this before and has suffered no consequences so it will do it again. Macedonians living inside Greece unfortunately have suffered many consequences in the past and would be less willing to come forth with information.
Another place to obtain reliable information about the Macedonians in Greece is to interview Macedonians from Greece who live outside of Greece where they can´t be threatened with violence and long jail sentences.
To exile people from their homes and to have their homes, properties and citizenship confiscated is not only immoral but also illegal and today the law is on the Macedonian side.Leave a comment:
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What is the Macedonian Question? - Cutting through the Rhetoric
Risto StefovSeptember 22, 2008
I have often heard references to the Macedonian question without understanding what it really means. Why is the Macedonian question so elusive and mysterious and why has it been thrown around for so long?
The Macedonian question was not a question that Macedonians have asked but rather a question the Great Powers were asking during late nineteenth century when Macedonia was still occupied by the last remnants of the Ottoman Empire. Simply put the Macedonian question was, "What will happen to the Macedonian territories and the people living on those territories when the Ottoman Empire ceases to exist?"
Obviously the Macedonian question was answered in 1912, 1913 when Macedonia was occupied, partitioned and annexed by Greece, Serbia and Bulgaria. Or was it?
If the Macedonian question was answered then, why does it still linger on? And better still, why has it evolved? In view of what is happening today with regards to the Greek-Macedonian name dispute and the Bulgarian refusal to recognize the Macedonian ethnicity and language, it´s time once again to ask, "What is the Macedonian question of today?"
If the Macedonian question was satisfactorily answered by the division of Macedonia and by declaring that only Greeks, Serbs and Bulgarians live in the geographic territories of Macedonia, why then do we today have a sovereign and independent Macedonian State with no less than 1.8 million people declaring themselves to be ethnic Macedonians? Likewise if all those people living in the Macedonian territories that Greece annexed in 1913 were Greeks then why do we today have Macedonians living in Greece? Similarly, if everyone in Bulgarian annexed Macedonia were Bulgarians, why then today do we have Macedonians living in Bulgaria?
We can all bury our heads in the sand and keep on believing "no Macedonians exist" to the satisfaction of Greece and Bulgaria, or we can wake up to the reality that ethnic Macedonians do exist not only in the Republic of Macedonia but in all of geographic Macedonia, including the Greek and Bulgarian annexed territories.
Being made aware of that reality, then what will the "new Macedonian question" be that the new Great Powers should be asking?
Before answering this question, we should take a look at what was done to "answer" the original "Macedonian question" and what has changed to lead to the "new Macedonian question".
Before the breakup of the Ottoman Empire the Great Powers were preoccupied with how to maintain political stability in the region. Being itself a Great Power, as the Ottoman Empire began to break up, the other Great Powers struggled to maintain a balance of power without themselves losing influence and at the same time looking for ways to expand their own influence. There was agreement between the Powers that should the Ottoman Empire collapse they would not allow its replacement to be a single state or another Great Power. Thus the "Eastern Question" was born which simply put stated, "What will happen to the lands and people when the Ottoman Empire ceases to exist?" The only acceptable solution was to replace the Ottoman lands with smaller states that could not possibly unite. In other words "create a number of smaller, equal sized, politically diverse" states that would oppose one another and remain loyal to the Great Powers that created them.
As the Ottoman Empire began to wear down at its fringes, Greece and Serbia were born. As it continued to collapse greater Bulgaria was born but it was a short lived birth. The Powers could not agree on San Stefano Bulgaria because for one, it was much larger than the other two newly created states and being created by Russia, Bulgaria would show loyalty to Russia and would allow Russia, a rival Great Power, greater influence in the Balkans as well as access to the Mediterranean waters, something the Western Powers did not want. Instead, a smaller Bulgaria was created and the Ottoman collapse was somewhat stabilized and its territory in the Balkans reduced to present day geographical Macedonia, Albania, Thrace and European Turkey (the Dardanelles).
By now no one had any doubts that the remainder of the Ottoman Empire was going to collapse, it was a matter of time. This created new worries for the Great Powers, "What to do with the remainder of the lands, especially with Macedonia." This gave birth to the "Macedonian Question". Simply put "what will happen to Macedonia and the Macedonian people" when the Ottoman Empire disappears? Of course, as I mention earlier, the problem was solved by allowing Greece, Serbia and Bulgaria to annex parts of Macedonia and its people. Since Macedonia was an existing entity with defined borders, a long and illustrious history, and with ethnic Macedonians living on it, it was difficult to find dividing lines. So Macedonia´s eventuality was decided by conflict. The three states were allowed to simultaneously invade Macedonia and whichever parts they liberated by evicting the Turks they would get to keep for themselves. The invasion took place in 1912 and resulted in the successful eviction of the last remnants of the Ottoman Empire. Unfortunately none of the three states were happy with the territories they gained so once again they renewed the conflict in 1913 resulting in the current partition and annexation of Macedonia which exists to this day.
No matter what Greece and Bulgaria claim today about how they acquired their part of Macedonia, it is a well known fact that Macedonian territories were a prize from the spoils of war. The 1913 Treaty of Bucharest, and how it was achieved, is a living testament that Greece, Serbia and Bulgaria fought over Macedonia and gained its lands by conflict. No historical claims were ever made prior to or during the signing of the 1913 Treaty of Bucharest.
It is a well known fact that neither Greece, Serbia, nor Bulgaria ever existed before as sovereign states. Bulgaria and Serbia existed as empires encompassing parts of Macedonian territories but it is well understood that these territories were occupied by force and never belonged to them. Greece on the other hand had never before occupied or owned Macedonian lands. That is why Greece has resorted to using the ancient Macedonians from 2,300 years ago to claim "historic rights" to Macedonian territories. Greece it seems can only claim legitimacy to Macedonian territories and to the Macedonian heritage if it can prove to the world that the "Ancient Macedonians were Greek". While ignoring the reality of how it obtained Macedonian territories, Greece has taken the argument back 2,300 years and is fighting a war of words, semantics, as to who is the real heir to the Macedonian heritage. Greece is ignoring the facts that Macedonians lived in Macedonia for countless generations or at least 1,500 years by its own accounts. Greece knows very well that no one cares about what happened 2,300 years ago. And why does it matter? Why argue semantics while ignoring reality? Arguing semantics suits Greece and Bulgaria perfectly because while the Macedonians are arguing over semantics Greece and Bulgaria (1) continue to make them look like fools and (2) continue to benefit from Macedonia´s occupation to the detriment of its true owners the Macedonian people.
Let´s clarify some things. First and foremost Macedonians are people with legal rights and privileges no matter what Greece and Bulgaria call them. Second, these people indisputably lived in Macedonia for at least 1,500 years which is more than enough to qualify them as the indigenous people of Macedonia. These people, according to international law, have the right to self identify in whatever way or means they see fit. So what is the problem with Greece and Bulgaria?
The real problem here is not whether Macedonians qualify to be called Macedonians but rather, whether Greece has the right and can prove it has the right to the Macedonian heritage. Does Greece truly have a case by claiming "Macedonia is Greek" on account that the "Ancient Macedonians may or may not have been Greek in 400 BC"? Greece only has a case as long as Macedonians believe it has a case and continue to argue with Greece over frivolous issues! Do the Macedonian people have a case against Greece for losing their lands to Greece because Greece chose to illegally occupy Macedonia by force in 1912, 1913? Yes they do! If Macedonians stop fighting with Greece about 2,400 year old issues and begin to focus their efforts on today´s real issues then they can expect to gain international attention and achieve their rights as Macedonians living on this planet!
Even though Macedonia was served on a platter to Greece, Serbia and Bulgaria by the Great Powers in 1913 by the Treaty of Bucharest and again in 1919 by the Treaty of Versailles, does not change the fact that Greece, Serbia and Bulgaria gained Macedonian lands illegally by force and without the consent of the Macedonian people.
Do the Macedonian people have a strong case against Greece and Bulgaria? The answer is yes! Macedonians can prove that Macedonians have been evicted from their lands and their lands have been confiscated only because they are Macedonians. Macedonians can prove that both Greece and Bulgaria have broken treaties which Greece and Bulgaria have signed to provide Macedonians minority rights. Macedonians can prove that Greece and Bulgaria continue to disobey international law by not recognizing the ethnic Macedonians in their respective states. Case and point, the Greek State passed a law in 1988 allowing all Greeks by birth to return to Greece but not the 28,000 Macedonia refugee children, refugees from the Greek Civil War. These were children between the ages of 2 and 14. They are not criminals or agents of foreign states. Greece has yet to explain why these children, who now are all over 60 years old, are not allowed to return. Why is Greece on one hand claiming that everyone who lived in Greece since 1928 is Greek and on the other hand it passes a law that discriminates against non-Greeks who supposedly do not exist? Greece will not allow Macedonians to return to Greece because Greece has confiscated and sold or given away their lands to the colonists it imported from Asia Minor in the 1920s and is still importing to this day.
The name dispute between Macedonia and Greece is a fabricated issue, fabricated by Greece to take attention away from its dismal human rights record towards its minorities, especially its Macedonian minority which Greece has robbed of its heritage. Greece has created this issue to keep Macedonians on the defensive and away from seeking compensation for their lands or to fight for their human rights as ethnic Macedonians and as citizens of that state. There is no international law or precedence that would allow legally or morally for a state to evict people from their lands and rob them of their property and ethnic rights based on 2,400 year old "ambiguous claims". Besides, how do we know for certain and how can we prove that the modern Greeks truly have legitimate rights to the Macedonian lands and heritage? How do we know that the Macedonians themselves who lived in Macedonia for at least 1,500 years have no rights to Macedonian lands and the Macedonian heritage? Are we to take the word of a state who denies the Macedonian peoples´ existence? Are we to believe Greece, a state that has robbed the ethnic Macedonians of their ethnic rights? Who has evicted Macedonians from their own homes? Who has changed all the Macedonian names? Who has tried to make Macedonians into Greeks by force? I think not!
Since Macedonians are placed in a position where they have to justify their identity wouldn´t you say it is only fair that Greeks be put through the same scrutiny? How can a person by simply saying that they are "Greek" own the right to both the Greek and Macedonian heritage yet a person who says they are Macedonian has no rights at all, not even the right to call him or herself Macedonian?
How did all this start and what has changed since?
As mentioned earlier, Greece is a product of Great Power intervention. It was artificially created for the first time in 1829 from the ashes of the crumbling Ottoman Empire. I am saying "artificially created" because most states when created are modeled after something vibrant and living, like a living culture or a practicing tradition. The language a newly created state adopts for its people is usually a living language or the mother language of the people. If more than one language exists, it´s usually the language of the majority that is adopted. Some states to be fair to all people are bi-lingual or even multi-lingual. Greece, on the other hand, was modeled after a dead culture which existed 2,400 years ago. The language the Greek state adopted for its people was also a dead language which was only preserved by the Ottoman administration and the Orthodox Church. The name "Greece" itself is also a non-Greek word. It is a Latin word.
When Greece was created for the first time there was no Greek ethnicity. The 19th century ethnicities that comprised the raw material for the modern Greek state were Albanians, Vlachs, Turks, Macedonians and other Slav speakers, Christians from Asia Minor, Gypsies and other ethnic minorities. Each ethnicity that comprised the so-called "Greek ethnos" was not Greek and each spoke a unique language different from the others.
It is understandable that in order to unify these various people under one nation the Greek state had to undertake some measures in order to keep a balance between the needs of the individual against those of the state. Unfortunately, in its zeal to create a mythical nation modeled after a dead culture which only could be viewed as ideal, Greece went too far. It not only literally destroyed what was real but it also attempted to erase the peoples´ collective memory about their current culture, language and history and replace it with an ideal and fictitious one. For example in Macedonia, after Greece consolidated its control over the people, it initiated a denationalization process by eliminating the spoken and written form of the Macedonian language and replaced it with the dead language it adopted for its own people. It destroyed all records, books, monuments, religious icons, even tombstones with Macedonian writing. It changed peoples´ names and gave the people new and Greek sounding names. It changed all the names of the cities, towns, villages, lakes, rivers, mountains and roads to make them look "ancient Greek". The prohibition of the Macedonian language and identity as well as the name changes were enforced by the passing of laws which exist and are enforced to this day.
In other words, Greece is Greek today not by birthright or any legal means but simply by enforcing an idea, the idea that everyone who lives in Greece is Greek.
Unlike Greece which created its "ethnos" by destroying the true ethnicities of its people, Macedonia has a living and vibrant Macedonian ethnicity. Ethnic Macedonians in the entire region of geographic Macedonia have a mother tongue comprising of at least 26 dialects. Macedonians have a living language which is at least 1,500 years old. In spite of Greek attempts to eradicate it, the Macedonian language has survived and is widely spoken today. The publication of the Abecedar, a Macedonian language primer, published by the Greek state itself in 1925 is a testament that Macedonians and their Macedonian language existed in Greece.
Macedonians in Greece and Bulgaria have refused to join the newly created "ethnos" for various reasons. The primary reason is because they are not Bulgarians or Greeks. Remember Macedonia was occupied and partitioned by foreign forces without Macedonian consent. In other words, no one asked the Macedonians if they wanted their country to be occupied and partitioned. There are no treaties signed by Macedonians giving Greece and Bulgaria permission to annex Macedonian territories. On top of that, no one asked the Macedonians if they wanted to become Greeks or Bulgarians voluntarily. Macedonians were forced into declaring themselves what they were not under duress. They were forced to give up their own ethnic identity for the sake of joining the cult of their occupiers. Yes, "occupiers"!
Let´s face reality here. What the Greeks and Bulgarians did was not exactly pleasant for the Macedonian people. Upon their occupation of Macedonian territories, both the Greek and Bulgarian state executed Macedonians on masse, evicted Macedonians from their homes and both states forcibly attempted to denationalize, Hellenize and Bulgarize the Macedonian population. Greece went further and changed the names of people and places and gave away Macedonian lands to foreign colonists. How can Macedonians forget that? Even those Macedonians who chose the "Greek way" were not above been systemically discriminated. Greece has a file on everyone and if a person has Macedonian roots he or she is viewed with suspicion and prohibited from achieving higher education or high positions in the military or in government. So really where is the incentive for Macedonians to turn into Greeks? The 1914 Carnegie report is a testament of what Greece and Bulgaria did upon the occupation and annexation of Macedonia. When war broke out in the Balkans in 1912 and 1913, the Carnegie Endowment dispatched a commission on a fact finding mission. The mission consisted of seven prominent members from the United States, Britain, France, Germany, Austria-Hungary and Russia. Among them was the distinguished journalist Henry N. Brailsford, author of the book "Macedonia its Races and their Future". A report was written and testifies to the atrocities committed by these states against the Macedonian people!
What has changed since then?
Since Macedonia´s occupation and partition, Serbian occupied Macedonia saw a resurgence of the Macedonian language and culture as Serbia slowly softened its stronghold on Macedonia. With the advent of the Yugoslav federation, Macedonia took its rightful place as a republic inside Yugoslavia. The people chose to call their republic "The Peoples´ Republic of Macedonia" and their language "Macedonian" to which Greece had no objection. There are schoolbooks in Greece that attest to the fact that Greece had no objection with Macedonia calling itself Macedonia. Greek children were taught in school that one of the republics in Yugoslavia was called "Macedonia" and the people living in it spoke "Macedonian". When Yugoslavia disintegrated, the Serbian occupied part of Macedonia became the sovereign and independent state the Republic of Macedonia.
Greece and Bulgaria in the meantime continue to illegally occupy Macedonian territories and refuse to acknowledge the existence of ethnic Macedonians.
Sadly for Greece and Bulgaria, Macedonians do exist and are re-opening the Macedonian question. The days of imperialism and treating people like raw material for Nation Building are over. Macedonians don´t want to be Greeks or Bulgarians or any other names Greece and Bulgaria feels like calling them. The Macedonians want to be called Macedonians. They want to be recognized for who they are. The new Macedonian questions should be about recognizing Macedonians as a separate ethnic identity with rights and privileges in accordance with international norms. The new Macedonian question should be about restitution and correcting past wrongs. It should be about long overdue repatriation of long forgotten citizens.
I believe it is time to re-examine the facts, re-open the 1913 Treaty of Bucharest and all associated treaties that have to do with human and minority rights as well as with land claim rights that Greece and Bulgaria have violated. It´s time to stop the pursuit of fantasy like the name dispute and face reality like how and under what conditions Macedonia was occupied, partitioned and annexed. It´s time to review the atrocities the Greek and Bulgarian states have committed against the Macedonian population in 1912 and 1913 and from 1940 to 1949. It´s time for Greece to start making plans to repatriate the Macedonian citizens it evicted for no good reason. It´s time for Greece and Bulgaria to recognize those Macedonians living in their states as Macedonians with full rights and privileges in accordance with international law.
Mr. Karamanlis, its time to stop stalling and muddying the waters by one day pretending there are no Macedonians in your country and another day saying everyone who lives in your country is Macedonian and Greek. Mr. Karamanlis it´s time for you and your Government to start facing real issues like providing human and national rights to the minorities that live in your country today not 2,400 years ago.
Since Macedonians are refusing to "go away" it´s time for you Mr. Karamanlis to deal with them in a civilized and equitable manner.
Mr. Karamanlis, the next time you feel like making statements about how the Macedonians are stealing your "Greek heritage", please take a good look at your own Greek nation and how it was created and decide for yourself who is stealing whose heritage!Leave a comment:
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THE MACEDONIANS IN USA AND CANADA
(HISTORICAL VIEW)
By Slave Nikolovski - Katin
slavekatin@gmail.com
8. MACEDONIAN CHURCHES AND NATIONAL
CENTERS, NEWSPAPERS, AND ASSOCIATIONS IN USA
I. INDIANA
Indiana is a federal state of USA. Its capital city is Indianapolis, one of the famous world centers. The city of Gary is the biggest metallurgical center. It is located in the North-Western part of this state and is directly linked to Chicago in Illinois. Rectangular shaped Indiana stretches north to Lake Michigan and south to the Ohio River. The first immigrants here were the French, who arrived in 1735. It has been a federal state of USA since 1816. A large number of Macedonian emigrants who arrived at the beginning of the last century now live in Indiana.
SV. PETAR I PAVLE, (Sts. Petar and Pavle) IN CROWN POINT
The first Macedonian Orthodox Church, which was named Sts. Petar and Pavle, was built in Gary, Indiana. It has a population of over one hundred thousand people. Emigrants from various parts of Macedonia began migrating to Gary at the beginning of the previous century. Since then their number has increased constantly. According to some estimates about seven thousand Macedonians live there at present, the majority of which is employed in the heavy industry. They come mostly from the areas of Bitola; Ohrid, particularly the villages of Velgoshti, Draslajca; Struga; D’mbeni; Kostur (Castoria); Demir Hisar; Prespa; Prilep; Struga; Kichevo; Skopje; and other areas in Macedonia.
The restoration of the Ohrid Archiepiscopate and the foundation of thee Macedonian Orthodox Church in 1958 strongly encouraged the emigrants in Gary and its surrounding area to undertake actions toward construction of their own Macedonian Orthodox Church. Soon afterwards, in September 1960, several Macedonian patriots from Gary, who had come to USA before the Second World War, were initiators of the action. Namely, about a hundred families requested permission from the American authorities for construction of their own Christian, Macedonian church. The initiative for construction of a church was greeted and accepted by a large number of Macedonian emigrants. In 1961 the church parish was registered and a request was made to the Macedonian metropolitan in Skopje for a priest to be sent. In the meantime, for the very first time this priest held a service for the Orthodox emigrants in the Macedonian mother tongue at a Syrian Orthodox church.
The Sts. Petar and Pavle Church was built with relatively modest funds and voluntary work of church members. The foundation stone of the church was placed on 14 October 1962. The church, which is the first Macedonian building on the North American Continent, was devoted on 14 July 1963 by Archbishop Dositej.
At the end of 1971 the Synod of the Macedonian Orthodox Church appointed a new priest in the place of the previous priest who had broken away with several members of the church committee and acknowledged the jurisdiction of the Eastern Orthodox Church in USA. The situation with the Macedonian colony changed in a positive sense with the arrival of the new priest. Numerous religious, cultural, church, educational, and other activities began, and many clubs such as the folk dance, theatre, choir, youth, and other clubs were activated. In 1972 a church choir was formed, which began performing compositions in the church-Slavic and Macedonian tongue.
With the arrival of the new emigrants from Macedonia, especially in the 1970’s and 1980’s, the number of believers rose significantly, which contributed positively toward the church being financially well provided. However, it was relatively too small to fit the activities of the Macedonian emigrants. For this reason in 1986 they decided to purchase land on which on 16 October 1988 they placed and blessed the foundation stone of the present church of Sts. Petar and Pavle in Crown Point.
At the decision of the Holy Archbishop Synod of the MOC the new church and additional buildings were blessed on 21 July 1991. Metropolitans Timotej and Stefan conducted the dedication ceremony. The Sts. Petar and Pavle Church has the capacity to hold 400 believers. It satisfies all of the church needs of the Orthodox Macedonians, and includes a hall that can fit about a thousand people. There are also other smaller rooms where everyday activities are conducted. The whole picture of the complex of church buildings is enriched by a sports building and the large car park.
The folk dance group “Kitka,” made up of young Macedonians born in USA, has functioned within the church since 1979. Clubs such as the women’s, youth and sports club, theatre group, church choir, Macedonian Sunday school, “Vardar” football club, library, and humanitarian organization, all show a wide variety of activities.
MACEDONIAN NEWSPAPERS AND RADIO PROGRAMS
After the Second World War the Macedonian newspapers played a huge role for the Macedonians throughout the world. They were an expression of the long and enduring struggle of the Macedonian immigrants, regardless of which part of Macedonia they came from, for affirmation of their national identity, religion, language, folklore, and traditions of their fatherland Macedonia in their new environments.
The proven presentation of all the accomplishments of the Macedonian emigrants was fully expressed particularly after the restoration of the Ohrid Archiepiscopate within the Macedonian Orthodox Church. St. Clement’s mother church enabled a wide process of creating Macedonian Orthodox churches in which, in addition to God’s word, the Macedonian truth is also expressed. Hence, authentic Macedonian organizations, cultural and artistic societies, supplementary Macedonian schools, literary, entertainment, sports, village, and other associations were founded. In most cases they bear the name “Macedonia” or the adjective “Macedonian” which clearly shows the deep connections of the emigrants of every part of Macedonia with their motherland the Republic of Macedonia. Emigrant newspapers are mainly preoccupied with the cultural and historical events, and the church-national life. Through their contents they try to awaken the reader’s patriotic feeling, and most important of all, to experience it as a kind of support of their land Macedonia and all that is related to its name.
Therefore, we can rightfully conclude that the newspapers, magazines, bulletins, radio shows, and other means of information have special significance for the emigrants. They play a huge role in the maintenance of the Macedonian language, and especially in deepening the cultural and other national and spiritual traditions of the Macedonians in the new environments. Most important of all they strengthen the unity among those that have been torn away from their native land.
To a large extent they try to familiarize the reader, the listener, and viewer with the Macedonian language, culture, religion, history, folklore, customs, and so on. Macedonian newspapers also express the cultural activities and life of the Macedonian ethnic communities. They affirm the overall scientific, social and political activities and progress of the Macedonian state, the Republic of Macedonia. To a certain extent they serve as a barrier to the foreign propaganda among the Macedonian emigrants. At the same time in there new environments the emigrants enrich their national values an in so doing they enrich the mosaic of multinational cultures.
The following newspapers have been published as part of the activities of the Macedonian Orthodox Church of Sts. Petar and Pavle in Crown Point:
“CRKOVEN BILTEN 1974” (Church Bulletin)
First edition of this church bulletin was published in February 1974 as a newspaper of the Macedonian Orthodox Church of Sts. Petar and Pavle in Gary Indiana. It was printed on 26 pages, with a format of 21.5 x 28 cm, in Macedonian using Latin alphabet, and had some articles written in English. The bulletin was of internal character. It was published from time to time. On the occasion of the Petrovden holiday in 1986, and the 23rd Anniversary of the MOC Sts. Petar and Pavle, the last edition of the bulletin was printed on 68 pages and was identical in form and content with the previous issues.
“BILTEN 1978” (Bulletin)
It was published on the occasion of the Fourth Church-People’s Assembly held on 2 and 3 September 1978 in Gary, Indiana. It had 36 pages and a format of 21 x 29.5 cm. It was printed in Macedonian using the Cyrillic Alphabet but also has articles in English. On the front page there is a photograph of the icon of Sts. Petar and Pavle, followed by photographs of g.g. Dositej and g. Kiril, and articles about the church.
“BILTEN 1987” (Bulletin)
The thirteenth in order bulletin was published on the occasion of the Thirteenth Church-People’s Assembly held on 5 and 6 September 1987. It was a very significant publication. It consisted of 82 pages, it had the same format as the previous editions, and was printed in Macedonian using Cyrillic alphabet. The bulletin was prepared in collaboration with all of the parish priests in the Eparchy.
“MESECEN BILTEN (1988)” (Monthly Bulletin, 1988 )
The arrival of the new priest in 1988 also meant the beginning of a bulletin which continues to be published today and to present and affirm the activities of the Sts. Petar and Pavle church and of the Macedonian commune in Gary.
“BILTEN 1999” (Bulletin)
This bulletin was published on the occasion of the Jubilee Church-People's Assembly held in Crown Point during 3-6 September 1999. This special edition is of great importance for increasing the publishing activities of the Macedonian emigrants in USA and Canada.
On the other hand, the radio and TV shows for the Macedonians in USA, with few exceptions, are mostly amateur, with commercial aims, and insufficient organization. However, they are conducted with strong enthusiasm precisely because of the need of the Macedonians and other immigrants from the Balkans to hear and understand about the situation in those colonies and further, about the “stari kraj” and their native hearths in Macedonia. The carry a deep message: they strengthen the patriotic spirit; they manage to maintain the national identity, language, culture, and the rich musical and folklore achievements of the Macedonian people. From a musical aspect, unlike the other radio and TV shows in USA and Canada, with only a few exceptions they carry a Macedonian character above all.
The first attempts to begin a radio program among the Macedonian emigrants in USA appeared in the 1950’s. Thus, in October 1954 a Macedonian radio program began in Gary, titled “Amerikansko-makedonski radio-cas” (American-Macedonian radio-hour). This was the first radio hour among the Macedonian emigrants in the USA.
On the occasion of the two-year Jubilee on 21 October 1956 during this radio-hour a celebration was conducted and a brochure was printed. Among other things its preface also states: “Two years have passed since our Macedonian radio-hour began its program. Together we proved to everyone that we, the Macedonians, can also have our own radio-hour through which we advertise our businesses, congratulate our celebrations, and announce news of family and other character. We hold this Macedonian radio festival evening in honor of that day when the Macedonian radio program first began.”
The 3 March 1972, when the Macedonian radio program began and continued till 1980, was of special significance for the information of the Macedonians in Gary. This program broadcast news, advertisements, messages, folk songs, pop music and other numerous supplements. This radio-hour began broadcasting programs again on 6 August 1980 and has continued doing so till the present day. This Macedonian radio-hour celebrated its thirteenth anniversary on 11 May 2002. This marked an important period in the information activities of the Macedonian emigrants in Gary.
In 1977 a radio hour began in Gary which broadcast numerous shows that affirmed the Macedonian truth. The owners paid for the time of the radio hour, but due to financial reasons it stopped broadcasting towards the end of 1983.
In Gary, the iron city, there is an Association of Macedonian drivers as there are about one hundred and fifty Macedonian truck drivers living there. Every year they organize a driver’s evening and they donate the funds to the Sts. Petar and Pavle Church.Leave a comment:
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FEEDBACK
Hi Risto,
Let me say a few words to calm down our friend that paints a mixed picture. According to the American definition of "A Nation" is a group of people that can fight and conduct a war to defend themselves or expend.
According to Stalin's definition of a nation, definition in the 4th congress of the Mans: Macedonian American National Society,; "Zahto nia Makedontsite sme Posebna Natsia", it says we have our language, we have our history we have a common tradition , we live on this land for 100 years etc, etc.
Macedonians :"Postoeme, Dostoeme i Otstoeme." "We exist, persist and resist."
Life is a struggle, therefore struggle. When Mr. Z complains about many economical and ethnic problems, compare yourself with your neighbours or other countries of the world.
No 1 Greece, 200 years of its artificial creation, where does it stand now?
From what we hear people have a better standard of living in Macedonia and unemployment in Greece reaches the same as in Macedonia. The strife and self-destruction in Greece is worse than in Macedonia.
No 2 Albania, 100 years of artificial existence, Macedonia is much better off economically than Albania and Kosovo.
Emigration is the same problem all over the world.
Makedontsi, Gore Glavata. Macedonians keep up your heads.
The conspiracy against Macedonia is a long story: it is against Russia, against the Pope and Catholicism, against Judaism.
Macedonia will triumph, but unity and wisdom are necessary, reliance on our friends is necessary, patience, trpenie is necessary.
To be continued.
Dedo Manu
Hi, Risto,
Xmas Greetings.
Now about this Xmas Manifesto by the world Macedonian Congress, I suggest a word of caution.
Although every word in this manifesto is right, we, Macedonians should not confront the EU with such abruptness. Remember what happened in 2001, when the Talibans, not the Albanians invaded Macedonia?! It was part of the Taliban force used in Kosovo.
The CIA did not even tell NATO what they really were doing. So if you tell them you do not want to join the EU and NATO, they will encourage the Albanians to take the initiative. So, please be careful and don’t infuriate them. Keep our dear Republic prospering and go along and say to them, yes, we can hardly wait to join you, but be glad you are not a member because they are going to charge fees and taxes to support the Greko-Italian drones, parasites.
They are afraid that if you are not with us, you are with somebody else. That means we can not wait long enough for Maika Russia to come to our help. Caution, politeness, intelligence is the game. 90% of the world is with us. Expose their "Democratic" flaws, but don’t be rude.
Let Greeks prance the way they are doing but the world hates them and we are winning more friends and supporters. The Present leadership in Macedonia is going the right way.
Don’t rock the boat.
Napred Makedontsy
Sreken Bozhik, Krachun po Kostursky.
Dedo Manu.
Risto,
In this Digest the comparison of Greece with Ireland is simply abhorrent. Nothing is similar. Irish are real people, Greeks are artificially created, no history, no common tradition. They were invented by France, Franko-Bavarian Illuminati, to create a new society, new world order, based on the Arian model, to destroy Macedonians, Catholics and Jews and to elevate France to the top of the world pedestal, the heir of the ancient Hellada which never existed. Greece does not deserve to be a state, let alone the hub of the world civilization. Greece is a dead horse which France is trying to resuscitate.
Shame to the Franko liars.
Dedo Manu
Hi, Risto
Good declaration but?!
The present push, thrust of Albanians, Arnauts, Arvanites is an expansion and colonization. This is stimulation by USA and NATO. There is a base called Still bond which Americans protect and encourage Albanians to ask for more.
Now one question: how come Albanians celebrated 100 years of the Albanian flag in Skopje?
Is not Tirana or Prishtina big enough? Ne gi sozeva tamo?
That also proves that Macedonia is the only Democratic country in the Balkans. Now on the positive side, those aspirations of expansion have not given good results in Greece, 200 years going backwards in reverse to Hell and Albania 100 of statehood has not improved one iota, because these people are scavengers by nature, nomads and thieves.
And at present they are aiming the same. On the contrary Macedonia is a legitimate nation, with history, economy, and tradition. At present if Albania, Greece and Bulgaria do not join Macedonia in a common economic project they will finish in the historical rubbish basket.
Dedo Manu
Risto,
Talking about Kukush dialect I would like to make few comments. The Kukush area was the centre of the Macedonian renaissance since about 1830. Kukushani taught Macedonian, local speech at school and through the Western missionaries, they translated the Bible in the local Macedonian speech and taught it at school. Somebody Kuzman Shapkarev was boasting: “in Kukush there is not one Fanariot (grkoman) family”. Only a few Moslem families other than Macedonians. There started the movement for Macedonia's liberation.
But disaster struck. Fanariots agitated Bulgarians and Serbian Orthodox, spurred by the Istanbul Ortho. Patriarch agitated to smother the Macedonian movement and went to Moscow to convince them that the Pope wants to take over the Balkans and convert them to Catholicism.
Russians sent Ignatiev to Istanbul to handle the issue. The result was no Macedonian church, the Bulgarian Exarchy given authority over Macedonia.
About 1871 the Balkan Macedonian church issue was settled: Northern part of Macedonia, Bulgarian Language, central part mixed Patriarch and Exarch, to fight it over. Let the people make a choice: Bulgarian or Greek language church and schools. Then came the armed bands slaughtering innocent Macedonians. The rest is history.
Manoly
Risto,
Now here is my second comment; As I explained the patriotism and the uniqueness of Kukush in the Macedonian renaissance, the Greek Fanariots decided to wipe out any trace of the nativity of the first Macedonian fighters and their leader Gotse Delchev.
They burnt to the ground the beautiful, prosperous Macedonian town of Kukush, burnt, raped scorched pillaged slaughtered. The survivors fled to Bulgaria. Now Bulgaria deemed them as pure true Bulgarians and settled them in Melnik, "Melinikon", by expelling over the border the natives vlasi etc. to the new Kilkis as pure Greeks.
That was not the end. The Stanishev family from Kukush was a great patriarchal family related to Delchev: Three brothers: Hristo, engineer, Konstantin doctor to the court, Alexander architect, editor of the magazine: "Makedonsky Pregled", in Bulgarian and French.
Hristo and Konstantin presided over the Macedonian Associations in Bulgaria till 1940.
The communist regime destroyed this family, one member fled to Russia, Father of Igor Stanishev. These people were neither communists nor fascists.
Why today our fellow Macedonians do not mention their names and contribution to the Macedonian cause! Very regretful and pathetic!
Manuel Stanisheff.
Re: The Enemy from within
This was a good article. In my opinion one of the best that you have posted recently, and that is another awakening after the “Aleksandar/Solun/FB/Mina” case, yes, we should focus from inside on how to prevent it from further escalation? Should we become like Israel or Greece or any other fascist state based on myths, or any other Balkan barbaric nation. All that is happening right now with us the Macedonians (and any other aboriginal people around the world) has been already instructed/engineered decades, and centuries ago by the west powers.
What is happening to the Macedonians is a human tragedy, I wonder what the purpose of it is, and I can only take guesses. It is obvious that there are many of us who are still around with true Macedonians patriot feelings, and especially the ones that are abroad, the ones that are in Macedonia do not really care about it, they live it, it is different there, and they are not afraid and do not worry about it.
That is my impression. However, many of us just don’t have time to help anyhow for the Macedonian cause, but what to do first, the job/career, the family, the children, the house, the studies etc, etc.
What is happening to us perhaps is what we deserved for all the bad things our forefathers have done, and the crimes that they have committed to the other nations/tribes. Or it could be for instance Seleucids, who dared to put an idol in the temple of Solomon (the one who governed over the region BC, area that is today Syria and Armenia, and after the collapse of the Macedonian Empire). I assume they were corrupted, as many people are. So we are paying. Besides that, many Macedonians that I know have abandoned the Church. Perhaps we should be praying more often. Perhaps all these fake Balkan (and European) states are constructed in order to make the Christianity disappear, as we can chronologically see they are against the sign of the cross. And off the record, they have invented Islam, and they broke away from the Apostils and broke away from the Church of God, since then they work against us, even though the Romans also did worked against us, so it is a continuation, now with the Albanians is the final in the pains it is like a lid on top of all, now they are claiming rights of history that belongs to Macedonians they are there brought by the Ottomans from Albania (see old map) Azerbaijan. I got confused about who the real Albanians are, they are not the same as the ones that live in Albania, they are different people. I am still researching about them, the language, origins...Vlachs are Romanized Thracians and Macedonians during the Roman occupation BC.
I suppose there should be an organization, group or team with mature Albanians, Vlachs, Roma, Macedonians, and perhaps other foreigners, or waken-up Greeks or Bulgarian citizens who know about the injustice in Macedonia. I tried to seek for such people while I was there with my family there this summer. They can have meetings in order to act as an example for all Balkan stereotypes. (The meetings can be either on-line or there in Macedonia).
An organization created in order to educate the young ones in Macedonia, with meetings around Macedonia, to show them the tolerance he have, and the tolerance we had back one hundred years ago, when the very same people (Vlachs, Albanians, Turks loyal to the Macedonians, and other minorities) helped us, not much in percent proportions but a number of these minorities that helped for the uprisings and rebellions in historical Macedonia against the colonizers.
The organization can have their projects thru magazines distributed to the high schools, coffee shops, etc. A magazine that can have information and use it to educate the youth in Macedonia to love each other.
We can prevent it from happening, see this intolerance, and injustice (and what have started it and/or who have started it. etc) and joined in a team to discuss these topics for preventing the young generation from further slaughter that can bring us again backwards for 50 years, (history is repeating it itself all over since Alexander of Macedon).
I agree with all you have said, Mr. Stefov, and I am thinking the same way too, but you have written it, as you have written it in many of your articles. I consider you Mr. Risto Stefov as one of the modern komita and I have read you for many years. I lived abroad for many years too, and I researched for Macedonia, and since Chris Stefou was there, explanation came quick, the puzzle was solved (we could not know anything about it back in the schools in RM or SFRJ, but after the Internet beast was realized) and that information was quite enough for a beginner like me, all “dogma” was there.
I must tell you that I love the first 24 editions of the Macedonian digest, and many others articles we have at maknews. That information is quite enough to convince anyone that can see, no need of further proves, we don’t have to prove anything, it is more than obvious who we are. It is curved in us, and it is knitted in us, it is like magnetism, it just can’t hide.
A couple of friends of mine whose origins are mostly from Taiwan or from the new world, let’s say US and Australia, have checked that website and now they can see clearly what is going on there, what in detail happened in the last 100 years, 200 years, 1000 years, 5000 years, and 8000 years. Very educational website.
Besides that this year with my friend from travelkitchen.com I have organized many Macedonian nights. First my mother cooked, then the idea was born. We organized things, I suppose I should have contacted you, there were people from the Taiwanese national TV TVBS, who covered the documentary about Macedonia with their host and my friend, and a Macedonian ambassador Mrs. Amy Tsai from Taipei, Taiwan, we managed to get Adriana Alachki with her crew here in Taiwan to make a presentation of the Macedonian cuisine, tradition, dance, and music. All that is going to be shown on Taiwanese TV for the next 6 months.
Thank you for your effort, and may our Lord Jesus Christ bless you and have mercy on us all.
Yours , Serjoza N.
Hi, Risto
After I read this 18th chapter, I feel obliged to clarify few points about the "Emphilios".
It was all a deceit and betrayal by none other than Nikos Zahariadis the biggest idiot in the world, double agent, Stalin and Churchill, the traitor of the civil war in Greece 1945-1949.
I read many books written by Greek DAG leaders who condemn Zahariadis for everything he did. The last author I read was a Macedonian from Gramos: Argiris Novatsis, who fought in the Albanian war, fought with ELLAS, started with Gianulis and saw his leader killed, fought in the last battles of Prespa and saw the betrayal.
Three of the top commanders entered Yugoslavia in the last days and the Yugoslav commander asked them to cross the border quickly because the bourandary had superior power and will annihilate them. One of the Partisans asked if they could keep the weapons. The Yugoslav said no. They returned back and decided: One group to flee to Albania, one to fight off the Burandary and A. Novatsis to return to Siniachko and gather the scattered partisans. They had to fight across the border quickly and left the ones in the lakes in disaster. Now the preamble as told by other commanders.
Zahariadis had no plans to fight at any time. He refused to vote in the 6th of March 1946. Big Blunder or deliberate betrayal. Told the Elasites not to go to the mountain. In 1946 at the communist Congress in Prague he gave orders for a unit to strike at the police station at Litohoro.
Told the Congress: "our uprising has begun"
He goes and asks Stalin for help. Stalin’s advice: "afti i ypothesy prepy na teliosy".
The Americans will invade Albania and Bulgaria and we can't defend them Tito is an obstacle.
Zahariadis returns with the intent to abort the movement and finds all sorts of excuses. The Lerin attack was a planned failure. He goes to Stalin and Stalin asks: "Ti egine"
Zahariadis: "Etsi kai etsi"
Stalin Bravo, tora rixta alla ston Titi. This is the testimony by senior Partisan. He killed Yanuly and other Macedonians. All the ponti were sent to Romania to recover.
So, the poor people suffered because of the idiot Zahariadis. He was brought up in Skopje where his father was a Greek teacher. He was a cunning bastard.
Mano.
Reply to some Greeks who claim Philip II and the Ancient Macedonians were Hellenes:
Macedonians never considered themselves “Hellenes”, because “Hellenes” did not exist those days.
Hellenism was invented by Johan Gustav Droysen, in 1834 a Bavarian member of the Franko-German Illuminati, who conspired to bring a new order and to destroy all the world royal families and to install themselves as new kings.
Neither Greece nor Hellas existed before modern Greece 1828, after the battle of Navarino, between the Turkish imperial fleet and the Anglo-Franko- Russian fleet and installed a new independent principality called Morea, Administered by Yoanis Kapo-de Istrias former Russian diplomat, foreign minister.
He was later assassinated by the local militaries for not doing the will of the people.
Little prince Otto of Bavaria of the house of “Gliksburg was appointed king as a minor and his mother AMALIA was appointed as regent. Gustav Droysen was his Tutor and he was playing with kingdoms and he offered them some ancient roots. King Otto was also assassinated. Modern Greece is a collection of former Ottoman Fanariots, who are ruling by dictatorship and now are back in the Hell.
Europe is trying to revive a dead horse because Greeks are a mob of liars and brigands.
Europe, the fabricators of modern Greece, keep Macedonia out of European forums with the intent to destroy its existence in order to support modern Greece, a Dead Horse!
BistritskyLeave a comment:
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Update From Pollitecon Publications
December 2012
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New material including several new books, reports and links have been added to the Pollitecon web site. See below for details.
Books
Macedonian Translation of The Contest for Macedonian Identity
Pollitecon’s book The Contest for Macedonia Identity 1870-1912 by Nick Anastasovski has been translated into Macedonian.
The translation and publication was by the Foundation Open Society - Macedonia (FOSM). The book was launched earlier this month by two Macedonian historians. A YouTube video of the launch is Here.
The book is available for free by sending an email, including your postal address, to Vladimir Milcin by clicking Here.
This is the second Pollitecon book to be translated into Macedonian. Several years ago FOSM also translated Children of the Bird Goddess by Kita Sapurma and Pandora Petrovska.
Macedonian Communities
Communities in Greece, Australia, USA, and Canada
The Macedonian Communities section of the Pollitecon web site has been updated with the community links for Greece, Australia, USA, and Canada consolidated onto a single page for each country. Go to http://www.pollitecon.com/html/communities/index.htm then click on any live link for each country. Alternatively, click on Greece, Australia, USA and Canada.
The Macedonian Diaspora in Australia
There is also a new ink to the report: The Macedonian Diaspora in Australia: Current and Potential Links with the Homeland, by the United Macedonian Diaspora in Australia. There is also a summary report is ‘Diasporas and Links with their Homelands: Italian, Macedonian, Tongan and Vietnamese communities'. Click Here
The Macedonian Orthodox Church in Perth
The page on Australia also has a new link to an ABC TV 7.30 Report on The Macedonian Orthodox Church in Perth. Click Here
Macedonian Speakers in Australia
SBS has published interactive data from the 2011 Census on the Macedonians and other communities in Australia. The data also allows you to compare ethnic groups. Click Here
Links
When a Name Becomes a Game
The Links section has been updated with a link to the free book: When a Name Becomes a Game, by Dusan Sinadinoski. The book takes a detailed look at the name dispute started by Greece.
Click Here then look under Books And Sites By Other Publishers and then When a Name Becomes a Game, by Dusan Sinadinoski (Free Book)
New Books
The Deposit
Catherine Monti, a Greek citizen of Macedonian origin who lives in Thessaloniki, has written a political novel called The Deposit about an Aegean Macedonian and their adventures in the Greek state.
The book is in Greek. Further information is at
www.alterthess.gr/content/bibliokritiki katerina monti i katathesi
aesopus38.blogspot.gr/2012/03/blog post.html
literarybistro.blogspot.gr/2012/06/blog post_3528.html
Bulgaria and the Holocaust
The book Shameful Behavior: Bulgaria and the Holocaust by Shelomo Alfassa looks at the complicity of Bulgaria in the dispossession, torture and murder of thousands of Jews, something which the author says the Bulgarian government continues to whitewash.
“While it is known that the Bulgarian government elected not to deport some 50,000 Jews from 'Old' Bulgaria to German death camps in Poland what is not known is that Bulgaria was directly complicit in the murder of some 13,000 Jews from 'New' Bulgaria (Thrace and Macedonia),” says the publisher.
More information is Here.
Come and Take a Ride in Tito’s Time Machine
Macedonian author Risto Stefov has published Come and Take a Ride in Tito’s Time Machine, a satirical look at the Greek propaganda that Macedonians were created by Tito.
“The only thing that explained how Tito could have created the Modern Macedonians as per Greek testimonies and how Macedonians existed before his time, as documented by newspapers, was that “Tito must have had a time machine and went back in time to create the Macedonians,” says the author.
The book is a free PDF and can be requested from the author by clicking Here.
Macedonian Herald
The United Macedonians of Canada publish a bi-annual Macedonian Herald magazine with both English and Macedonian stories. The latest edition, July 2012, plus back copies are Here.
Essays
Greek Crisis Shows Weak International Ethics
The article Greek Crisis Shows Weak International Ethics by Victor Bivell can be found Here. The articles look at Greece’s poor record of compliance with the requirements of major international organizations and treaties, particularly in regard to human rights and its minorities. Click Here.
Pollitecon Books
Discount for Complete Set of Books
A reminder that a complete set of Macedonian books published by Pollitecon can be purchased at a discount of free postage in Australia and reduced airmail postage overseas. See Here.
Thank you
Victor Bivell
Pollitecon Publications
PO Box 3102
Wareemba NSW 2046 Australia
Ph 02 9705 0578
Fx 02 9705 0685
Email vbivell @ pollitecon.com
Web http://www.pollitecon.comLeave a comment:
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“P’pli throughout the past”
07.12.2012
A new book written by Janche Andonovski, entitled “P'pli throughout the past”, published by the Association of Refugee Children from the Aegean part of Macedonia under its own Library “Nezaborav”, was recently promoted in Skopje.
Janche Andonovski, known for the various dramas, several screenplays and a collection of poetry he has written, has now authored a book about the history of the village P’pli. P’pli is located in Prespa Region near Mala Prespa Lake, in Aegean Macedonia now under Greece. The life of P’pli, one of 14 villages located in Mala Prespa, has been well captured and portrayed in a brilliant manner by the author with not only its historic narrative that spans from ancient times to today but also with many illustrations and beautiful photographs. Janche Andonovski has also managed to preserve some of the village’s heritage including some of its folklore and folk music. It’s a must read and own book. (KB)
“П’пли низ минатото”
07.12.2012
„П’пли низ минатото“ е насловот на книгата на Јанче Андоновски која неодамна беше промовирана во Скопје, а ја издаде Здружението на децата-бегалци од Егејскиот дел на Македонија, во рамките на својата библиотека „Незаборав“.
Во неа авторот, кој досега има издадено повеќе драми, неколку сценарија за играни серии и збирки поезија, ја презентира историјата на селото П‘пли, кое се наоѓа во реонот на Преспа во Егејскиот дел на Македонија, во непосредна близина на Мало Преспанско Езеро. П’пли е едно од 14 села во Мала Преспа, чиј живот авторот го отсликува на мошне умешен начин, презентирајќи во книгата податоци за неговата историја и за историјата на некогашните и денешните малобројни жители, дел од зачуваното народно и фолклорно творештво, како и впечатливи фотографии во прилог на посакуваниот незаборав. (К.Б.)
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Albania: letting its EU prospects slip?
By Marije Cornelissen
21 December 2012
The EU gave Albania a dozen items of homework to achieve before granting candidate status – but with just three piece of legislation to pass the mood of cooperation between political players is unravelling, writes MEP
Albania was on the way up in the past year. For a long time, the country has been striving for European Union candidate status and the opening of membership negotiations. It almost seemed within reach, if not this December, then in the coming spring. The European Commission gave Albania a list of 12 items of homework to complete before it would recommend candidate status. Government and parliament energetically started working on these, and had only three more pieces of legislation to pass.
The best thing about it was that coalition politicians, led by Prime Minister Sali Berisha, and opposition politicians, led by Socialist leader Edi Rama, seemed to have started cooperating. For years, the greatest worry of EU officials and politicians had been the political climate in Albania, with both sides taking turns accusing each other of election fraud and corruption, boycotting parliament, going on hunger strike, leading demonstrations, voting against everything the other proposed, slinging mud in the press and other strategies not quite helpful to responsible cooperation in a mature parliamentary democracy. After years of political stalemate caused by this, the leading parties came to an agreement in November 2011. Political life and parliamentary work resumed more or less normally; debates were held, decisions were passed, steps were taken.
Things seem to be unravelling now, just a year after the agreement. There are a couple of signs, and they are not good. Albania had three items of homework left, three laws to pass, but parliament failed to pass them. They required a three-fifths majority, for which both coalition and opposition were needed. Opposition forces refused to vote in favour because of a power struggle about an entirely unrelated issue. The power struggle was obviously considered more important than the European agenda. The Albanian parliament thus gave EU member states, some of whom were reluctant to grant candidate status to begin with, a perfectly legitimate reason to postpone the decision.
In the press, Berisha announced that all ethnic Albanians would have a right to an Albanian passport, to show himself a great patriot. Outcry in the region, especially from countries with large Albanian populations, followed predictably and immediately. Berisha later claimed his remarks were made "in a historical context" and were wrongly interpreted. Not a very credible excuse. Berisha has been a politician for far too long not to have known exactly what the effect of his remarks would be. So: no brownie points for regional cooperation.
On December 20, I was supposed to be in Albania with our inter-parliamentary delegation. In this format, a delegation from the European Parliament has two days of debate with a delegation from the Albanian parliament about the situation in the country and the state of play of the accession process. This was not always easy. We have had delegation meetings where all of us from the EU parliament lost our tempers in turn out of sheer frustration with the lack of even the willingness to cooperate on the minutest things between opposition and coalition.
Most delegation meetings ended without a common statement, because the Albanian delegation could not agree on anything. This seemed to have changed for the better in the last year too. An agreement was reached on a statement, an actual debate was held on important topics like the economy, unemployment, combating organised crime and corruption. Now, the delegation meeting in Tirana was cancelled at the very last moment. The Albanian chair of their delegation had to cancel because none of the members of parliament were interested to be there. It could just be that they were looking forward to holidays. But if I was an Albanian MP and I wanted to take a next step in accession, I would make sure I was there.
Perhaps I am wrong. Perhaps coalition and opposition politicians will come back from their holidays well-rested, eager and ready to resume cooperation to bring Albania further in its reform and accession process. But somehow, I doubt it. What I fear is that the election campaign for the general elections in June 2013 has already started in earnest, and that there will be not much sensible thought in Albanian politics until long after the elections have happened.
Marije Cornelissen MEP is a member of the Greens/European Free Alliance group in the European Parliament
Read more: http://www.publicserviceeurope.com/a...#ixzz2Fi9tdC93Leave a comment:
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Bulgaria asks for permanent US troops presence
Tuesday, December 18, 2012
Bulgaria has asked the United States to place a permanent military force in the country aimed at strengthening security in the region and increasing their military cooperation, local media reports.
Bulgarian Defense Minister Anu Anguelov has discussed the opening of a US military base in Novo Selo, near Sliven, with officials of the Pentagon in early December, reports Dneven Trud daily newspaper citing sources in the Bulgarian military.
Nothing has yet been set in ink, but if the deal is to go through, it could double the American troop numbers in the country, according to the report.
If an agreement is reached, anti-war activist Brian Becker, argues it would surrender Sofia’s power to the US government, as troops pose “a threat to the national sovereignty of the people of Bulgaria because they have foreign military bases, and it incorporates Bulgaria, makes it more secure as part of an American political, economic as well as military formation. You really can't be a free country and free people and have foreign troops on your soil,” he told RT.
US troops have been present in Bulgaria for over six years under a Defense Cooperation Agreement signed by the both states in April 2006. Under the arrangement, Americans are allowed to train their troops at four Bulgarian bases, which remain under Sofia’s command and under the Bulgarian flag.Leave a comment:
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Greece migrants face rising racist violence
By Tim Hancock
20 December 2012
If the EU is to truly deserve the Nobel Peace Prize, it must act to stamp out racist violence in Greece – and the Greek authorities should stop the anti-immigrant rhetoric that is fuelling the problem, says Amnesty International
They say the benchmark of a civilized society is how it treats its most vulnerable. If that is the case, the Greek authorities must take a serious look at the country's treatment of migrants – many of them asylum seekers fleeing conflict in the Middle East –as the impact of austerity cuts deepens.
It is estimated that 80 per cent of migrants enter the European Union through Greece. Amnesty has carried out research on their plight and found that they are facing a dramatic rise in levels of racist violence. In a new briefing published today called The end of the road for refugees, asylum-seekers and migrants, Amnesty also exposes how asylum seekers, including unaccompanied children, are forced to live in increasingly overcrowded and unhygienic conditions. They have to deal with a chaotic asylum system that leaves many without papers and at risk of criminalization.
Asylum seekers and other migrants are some of society's most vulnerable people. Often fleeing wars or persecution, or simply looking for a better life for their families, they are often cut off from wider family and social networks and lack access to basic health services, education and housing. Now, with no let-up in immigration, a profound economic crisis and rising xenophobic sentiment, Greece is proving itself incapable of providing even the most basic requirements of safety and shelter to the thousands of asylum seekers and migrants arriving each year. The current situation is totally unworthy of the Nobel Peace Prize winning EU and so far below international human rights standards as to make a mockery of them.
Most worrying is the rise in racist violence fuelled by anti-immigration rhetoric of politicians and carried out by supporters of far-right groups like Golden Dawn. Throughout 2012 asylum-seekers and migrants have been beaten up and community centre, shops and mosques vandalized. These assaults have been reported on an almost daily basis since the summer.
In one case in September, two men dressed in black entered a barbershop run by a Pakistani man. Two Pakistani men who were present, one of them staff, told Amnesty how the men verbally abused a Greek customer for having his hair cut in a Pakistani-owned barbers. When the customer responded, one of the men dressed in black stabbed him. Then they started attacking the shop and throwing Molotov cocktails. The police came to investigate and arrested the two Pakistani nationals because they had no documents. They both ended up in detention, pending deportation.
Migrants also face significant obstacles from border police. In June, a group of Syrian refugees were on a boat in the river Evros, where the Greece/Turkey border lies, trying to get to Greece. The Greek police arrived in a patrol boat and reportedly started pushing the migrants' inflatable dinghy back towards Turkey. Then a police officer used a knife to stab the boat, which deflated and sank, leaving the refugees to swim to the Turkish shore.
When migrants do make it to Greece, they face an uphill battle to register with the authorities. In Athens, asylum seekers have to queue for days to register at an office only open one day a week because of staff shortages. Those who do not manage to register, or give up trying, risk arrest in police sweep operations. They are then systematically detained in overcrowded, unhygienic detention facilities, in many cases for a year or more.
The detention of unaccompanied children is particularly worrying and in breach of international human rights standards. On a recent research visit to the detention centre in the city of Corinth, Amnesty found several children detained in very poor conditions. If a place is not found at a reception centre, children are released with nowhere to go.
If the EU is to truly deserve the Nobel Peace Prize awarded in October it must take urgent action to stamp out racist violence in Greece as well as in other countries like Spain. It must put pressure on member states to ensure that the most vulnerable within its borders do not face prejudice, discrimination and violence. As for the Greek authorities, they must stop the anti-immigration rhetoric fuelling this violence. They must also ensure they act within international human rights standards on immigration. People should not be locked up just because they are migrants and the detention of children must end now.
Tim Hancock is campaigns director at Amnesty International
Read more: http://www.publicserviceeurope.com/a...#ixzz2FdJu3Js5
Golden Dawn: In Greece, hunger feeds hate
Published on Saturday December 15, 2012
ATHENS—On a grey, drizzly Saturday morning, the farmer’s market downtown is bustling with hundreds of customers. There is a fresh citrus tang in the air as farmers unload the first of the season’s oranges. The produce is sold directly to the public, which keeps prices down: a kilogram of oranges costs 35 cents, eggplants are one euro per kilo.
But even these prices are too high for some Greeks, which is why there are nearly as many people at Golden Dawn’s food handout outside the party’s newly opened office in Alimos, a middle-class neighbourhood. An hour before the food distribution starts, a line of about 500 people snakes down the sidewalk.
The young and old, the unemployed, men and women too poor to buy food have come to collect free groceries from Greece’s ultra-nationalist party.
Constantinos Chartsias, 36, made a 20-kilometre round-trip journey just to collect a plastic bag of carrots and potatoes.
“I haven’t worked in two years and this is the only help I get,” he says, stamping out a cigarette and zipping up his black leather jacket.
“Things are going from bad to worse,” adds the former salesman. “We should start caring about the country. We need to start changing our mentality, like evading tickets on public transport, or not jumping the queue, or a plumber not giving a receipt for his work to evade taxes. If we start changing these things the political elite will, too.”
Greece is suffering more than any other country from the global economic crisis, now in its fourth year. In a country of 10.7 million people, 4.5 million are either unemployed or have stopped looking for work, according to Elstat, the Greek statistics agency.
Fear and despair are driving Greece: fear of being thrown out of the 17-nation Eurozone, whose leaders are dictating the terms of Greece’s bailout, despair of ceaseless austerity, fear of immigrants overrunning the country. A terrible brew simmers — xenophobia, rage and the desire for revenge.
There are stories of parents abandoning their children because they are too poor to look after them. In the first five months of 2011, the suicide rate rose by 40 per cent. Most of the deaths were blamed on the financial crisis. It is a shocking statistic in a nation blessed with an easy-going Mediterranean culture where suicide rates have always been the lowest in Europe.
Enter Golden Dawn.
The party won 18 seats in parliament in May’s election and it is opening offices nearly every week — 49 at last count, up from eight during the elections. It is broadening its support from the usual anti-social neo-Nazis to the moderate middle ground: the young and old, professionals and blue collar workers, housewives and grandmothers.
If an election were held today, Golden Dawn would surge to third place in parliament with 12 per cent of the vote, according to a September survey of 1,000 Greeks by the polling firm VPRC.
“I voted for Golden Dawn because I am a nationalist, because I believe we are a superior race,” Chartsias says. He nods in approval at the sight of two Golden Dawn volunteers sweeping the grimy sidewalk. “Herodotus said, ‘same religion, same blood, same language.’”
The famous words of the ancient historian who helped define ethnic nationalism ring true for those who believe Greece’s salvation is blood kinship — in other words, Greece can only be saved if it belongs to the Greeks.
Chartsias supports Golden Dawn because it promises what other politicians do not: to cleanse the country of corruption and foreign influence, whether it is Eurocrats in Brussels or Afghan migrants looking for asylum.
Party leader Nikolaos Michaloliakos has denied the Holocaust, while party members give the Nazi salute and, according to human rights organizations, have been linked to attacks on immigrants.
Foreigners are barred from Golden Dawn’s food handouts. Heavily muscled volunteers form a human chain, standing shoulder to shoulder to keep them out.
The event is run with military precision. Most volunteers are men in their 20s and 30s, dressed in fatigues; a few wear stab-resistant vests. Anyone who wants food must show police-issued identification that states the cardholder’s nationality, religion and father’s name. Identification is double-checked and personal details are collected to enter in a database. One by one, people are escorted to large piles of plastic bags filled with food. They are allowed one bag per person, a maximum of five per family.
Volunteers telephoned local families with three or more children and invited them to pick up food, says Panayodis Constantinou, 51, who joined the party a year ago. He says he owned a business selling uniforms to the army but it went bankrupt when the army didn’t pay.
“They owe me 367,000 euros ($469,000),” he says. A young man approaches him and hands over 15 euros for a pair of combat fatigues.
A few metres away, Golden Dawn MP Ilias Panayiotaros is being interviewed for local television. “Greece belongs to the Greeks,” he says, as a dozen people crowd around him, applauding. He wears a black shirt emblazoned with the party’s insignia, the Greek meander, which was a common decorative motif in classical architecture but bears a likeness to the Nazi swastika.
“Very soon, we will take power. We have to take care of our economy, illegal immigration and politicians who stole the money. Everything will start from zero.”
Panayiotaros is furious that the U.S. Embassy has warned American citizens of Middle Eastern, Hispanic and African descent that they could be victims of unprovoked violence because of their colour.
“We have had 10 Greeks murdered by illegals, what about them?” he says. “They want to make a white country black.”
Greece does not keep race-based crime statistics but Panayiotaros, like other Golden Dawn members, are convinced minorities commit more crimes than white Greeks. The murder rate is increasing, from 1.2 for every 100,000 people in 2008 to 1.5 per 100,000 in 2010. But that is still low and comparable to Canada’s 2010 murder rate of 1.6 per 100,000 people.
The perception, however, is that deadly crime is out of control. Several people at the food handout mentions the case of Manolis Kantaris who was robbed of his video camera and killed as he got ready to take his pregnant wife to hospital in Athens in May 2011. Two Afghans were later jailed.
Chartsias agrees with Panayiotaros, and adds that immigrants are taking over the country. “Did you know the Albanians are being handed out citizenship and it’s part of the political establishment’s plot to buy votes?”
There is no evidence of this. Less than 1 per cent of migrants who apply for asylum in Greece are accepted as legal refugees at first instance — never mind citizens — according to Eurostat, the European Union’s statistics agency.
But people feel under siege. A recent cartoon in the Kathimerini newspaper showed a dying man crawling through a desert. Ahead was an umbrella labeled “eurogroup,” sheltering a man standing next to a water cooler. “You are heading in the right direction,” he tells the thirsty traveller. “Another 10 kilometres.”
The bailout loans — $195 billion so far — are supposed to help rescue the economy. But no one believes Greece is going in the right direction.
When the crisis began in 2008, sparked by bad loans, widespread tax evasion and a bloated public sector, Greek debt stood at $400 billion. Next year, that figure is expected to rise to $440 billion. The bailout from the so-called troika of the European Commission, International Monetary Fund and European Central Bank are only paying interest on earlier loans and recapitalizing the banks.
In return, the Greek government has to push through unpopular austerity measures. The common perception is that politicians caved to the demands of foreign creditors rather than look after Greeks when they increased the retirement age from 65 to 67 and decided to fire 150,000 public sector workers by 2015.
In an interview with the German newspaper Handelsblatt, Prime Minister Antonis Samaras likened Greece’s social upheaval to Germany in the 1930s when the Nazis rose to power.
The Nazi comparison is frightening for a nation that suffered a brutal Nazi occupation and has been firmly on the left of the political spectrum since the seven-year military junta ended in 1974. The book Golden Dawn’s Black Bible, which charts the party’s emergence, is a bestseller. Its author is Greece’s premier investigative journalist, Dmitras Psaras.
“The worst part of the crisis is not that people have lost jobs or income but they lost hope,” Psaras says while sipping an espresso in a downtown café. “There is no way out. The only thing they have to look forward to is revenge and voting for Golden Dawn is revenge against the system.”
When Golden Dawn MP and spokesman Ilias Kasidiaras slapped a communist colleague during a live television debate in June it boosted the party in public opinion polls. So did Kasidiaris reading out loud in parliament from the Protocols of Elders of Zion, the anti-Semitic hoax outlining a supposed plan for Jewish global domination.
“Quite a few people thought when the violent side of Golden Dawn came to the surface their support would fall, but the opposite has happened,” Psaras says.
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On Athens’ northern edge is the impoverished neighbourhood of Agios Panteliemonos, where Golden Dawn won 20 per cent of the vote. It is a no-go zone at night. There are running street fights between Golden Dawn supporters and migrants. Groups of black-clad men and women armed with metal bars, knives and wooden bats patrol areas like this, attacking dark-skinned migrants, according to a recent report by Human Rights Watch.
Greece is home to as many as 1 million undocumented refugees fleeing the miseries of Afghanistan, Bangladesh and Syria. For most, Greece is not a final destination, but they arrive here because the country’s porous borders offer easy access from North Africa and the Middle East. The migrants circle Greek ports looking for a chance to sneak aboard boats and trucks heading to richer European shores.
But under the European Union’s Dublin II regulation, the country in which a refugee first sets foot is responsible for handling his or her asylum case. As a result, migrants who are smuggled from Greece to Germany, for example, are sent back here. But there is only one office in all of Greece processing asylum cases and it is only open for a few hours a day.
The would-be refugees end up staying in a country that neither wants them nor can afford them. In places like Agios Panteliemonos, they live 10 to 20 people in a room in dilapidated buildings and are targets of attacks. A café in the neighbourhood owned by an Afghan has blue graffiti written across the shutters: “Foreigners out.”
In the shadow of a church is Zax’s 1979 café, where retired residents are discussing the recovery of the Greek hairdresser who was stabbed several days ago and the migrant who allegedly attacked him.
“He was dark-skinned,” says Georgia Papamikrouli, who is in her mid-60s. “The same night, 100 people came out and broke all the immigrants’ shops in the area, five to 10 shops. They don’t come out at night any more because Golden Dawn is coming after them,” she says, and laughs. “Local residents chase them out, too.”
Papamikrouli has lived here since 1963 and says it has become poorer and more dangerous. Although she has never been attacked, Papamikrouli is afraid to go outside at night.
“It’s not enough that we are host to them but they commit crimes against us as well? What does it matter if they don’t have enough food or water?” she asks. “Many Greeks don’t have it either.”
Petty crime in Athens is increasing. In 2007, pre-crisis, there were 26,872 armed robberies, a figure that jumped to 47,607 in 2009, according to Greek police.
The response by police — 40 per cent of whom support Golden Dawn, estimates Psaras — also appears to have changed.
“There is a local police station here,” says Papamikrouli. “We call them and they call Golden Dawn.”
During the summer and fall’s austerity debates, up to 100,000 Greeks marched to Syntagma Square in central Athens, throwing Molotov cocktails and dodging tear gas. The Nov. 7 budget calls for $17.3 billion in government cuts over four years. Police, firefighters and judges will see their salaries slashed.
The New Democracy party of Prime Minister Samaras voted for it in coalition with the leftist Pasok and Dimar parties. It passed, but just barely: 153 voted for it in the 300-member parliament. The budget had to be approved for Greece to qualify for the next tranche of bailout money, worth $51 billion, but many Greeks didn’t like the prescribed medicine.
“There is revenge and anger and people have put Golden Dawn in parliament to take revenge on both MPs and immigrants who they think have f---ed up the country,” says Vasiliki Katrivanou, an MP with the main opposition, Syriza.
Syriza voted against the austerity budget. “There is no future in austerity,” she says. “People have to choose between paying taxes or paying electricity.”
With such a narrow mandate, Katrivanou says the government is shoring up its popularity by pandering to populist fears of foreigners. Recently, a Golden Dawn MP asked the education minister for the names of all immigrant children attending kindergarten and pre-school.
“Instead of saying, ‘No, this is not your business,’ the minister asked the municipalities for numbers, percentages of immigrant children in their schools, and gave it to Golden Dawn,” she says. “These are children, babies.”
Golden Dawn also voted against the austerity budget because, as spokesman Ilias Kasidiaris said, it was part of the “deconstruction of Greece” so foreigners could seize its “national assets.”
Another morning in Athens, this time Attiki Square, and another food handout.
Bags of spaghetti, tomatoes and milk are heaped in piles. Kasidiaris is here, trim and muscled, wearing reflective, aviator-style shades and a tight grey T-shirt. He is among three MPs who had their parliamentary immunity stripped in October by MPs. They could face trial for alleged involvement in violent attacks and robbery.
The 31-year-old denies his party is full of Nazis, then changes the subject under questioning.
“These hands have never stolen from the Greeks,” he says, raising his palms. He is referring to the rampant corruption among the political establishment. “We are not doing politics the usual way. We are giving back to the people.”
With the Greek state slowly retreating — hospitals are closing, schools are running out of money — Golden Dawn uses free food to peddle simple political messages. It pays for the food in part from the 3 million euros a year in state funding it now receives as an elected political party, says Kasidiaris.
An aide hovers nearby. “You are from Canada?” he asks. “We get many phone calls of support from Greeks in Canada.”
The party opened a Montreal branch earlier this year and is organizing a Christmas food drive.
Kathy Milianidou, 61, an unemployed secretary, lives with her 38-year-old son, who drives a taxi. They barely make ends meet. Her hair is scraped back into a ponytail and her pink jogging pants are dirty.
“We’ll soon be so poor that we’ll be cheap labour for Europe.”
There is a theory doing the rounds this morning that the rest of Europe wants to turn Greece into a manufacturing ghetto, like China, which is why the standard monthly minimum wage of 751 euros ($972) is being cut by 22 per cent.
“This is a country that gave the world civilization,” she says blaming the crisis on the “mentality” of the “Ottoman empire” which ruled Greece until 1832. “Hopefully, the younger generation will change that. We should be like real Europeans.”
At the food handout is Matthaiopoulos Artemios, a music teacher and Golden Dawn MP who lives in Greece’s second city, Thessaloniki. Artemios, 28, has the air of a young fogey with his beard and shaggy overcoat. He once played in a band called Pogrom which wrote songs such as “Auschwitz.”
He claims Athens is overrun with Africans, Arabs and Asians.
“Not all, but the majority are criminals and rapists, and they are people who have repeatedly committed crimes. We have to expel those who are illegally here, which is the majority of them. It can be achieved easily if there is political will. And the only party that speaks the same language as ordinary people is Golden Dawn.”
Niki Damaskopoulou, 70, and a grandmother of six, came today for her first food handout. She is angry with politicians for cutting her pension from 727 euros per month to 500. “All the other parties are thieves and liars.”
She hobbles across the square, pulling a trolley. Golden Dawn’s message that it will kick out foreigners makes sense because there will be more money to spend on Greeks, she says.
“We didn’t use to be like this. Our kids have no future. I believe Golden Dawn has the solution.”
She walks away, having handed over her political support for a bag of spaghetti.Leave a comment:
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Bulgaria to block Macedonia from accession talks
Tuesday, 11 December 2012
Bulgaria will not be among the countries to set a date for the launching of EU accession negotiations with Macedonia, President Rosen Plevneliev and Prime Minister Boyko Borissov agreed at their meeting on Tuesday.
The issue will be on top of the agenda of the upcoming European Council in Brussels on Thursday. Plevneliev and Borissov were categorical that Bulgaria supports Macedonia's European perspective but the Bulgarian support is not unconditional and depends on the fulfillment of the membership criteria with good neighbourly relations having priority, news agency BTA quotes the President's Press Secretariat.
According to the two, the EU membership perspective will be promoted not through propaganda and "marketing campaign" but through real actions for strengthening of good neighbourly ties between Bulgaria and Macedonia.
In view to achieving progress in this respect, Bulgaria proposed to Macedonia to sign a Treaty of Good Neighbourly Relations, Friendship and Cooperation based on the principles of the 1999 Declaration, reaching an agreement on joint observances of outstanding personalities and events of the two countries' common history and terminating of the anti-Bulgarian campaign and the replacement of historical facts.Leave a comment:
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Lucky Macedonia avoids Train wreck called EU
Wednesday, 12 December 2012
Yesterday was a busy day, a day which showed Macedonia's true friends during a lively EU debate. These are not "EU friends", rather just friends
Austria? Somewhat unexpected to us, however Austria was a major player lobbying for Macedonia during the EU debate. Austria was joined by Slovakia, Hungary, UK, Sweden, Czech, Latvia, Finland, Estonia, Lithuania and Slovenia. Germany and France according to a reporter from MIA preferred to be silent and did not support Macedonia or Bulgaria and Greece. France appeared ready to support Greece due to continued influence and remaining representatives from the old Sarkozy administration.
Macedonia did not get a date for EU accession talks, which in the opinion of this author is a blessing in more ways than we can count.
Congratulations to Bulgaria for standing up against Macedonia and taking over the baton from Greece. Sofia's blocking of Macedonia marked the first time Bulgaria has been in the news for something other than corruption and assassinations.
The phrase 'good neighborly relations' has become the most abused phrase with no defined meaning. This phrase was officialized by Athens and Sofia and accepted by Eurocrats who bowed to the hysteria from Bulgarian and Greek politicians. Last night the debate got loud and in few moments crazy, respect for Theodoros Sotiropoulos who can never control himself.
Macedonian media was somewhat indifferent to what was happening at the EU. Satire appeared on online Macedonian magazines with one depicting Alexander's horse Buchephalus issuing a statement regarding the "no date" - This is for the things me and my boss did in the past.
Macedonian journalist Jorgos Papadakis chose his words carefully in his op-ed piece: "Just when you think the Europeans would kick the Bulgars and Greeks in the a** they bowed to some ridiculous demands against a small sovereign nation. Hypocrites! Not a single European needs this farce called EU. Macedonia, Scotland, South Tyrol, Catalonia, Flanders, Basque... don't need membership in this pathetic corrupt organization" says Papadakis who in the future should really tell us how he feels.
University Professor Biljana Venkovska in an interview for Skopje based media appeared certain EU officials are confused and use language they don't seem to understand. Venkovski attempted to make sense of a statement from Stefan Fule where he commented on the 'no-date' as great news for the country.
"This is the first time we have a non-static language which creates conditions for non-static solutions to this problem. What does this mean? The way I understand is we need to come up with unprincipled solution which satisfies Brussels, under condition it first satisfies Athens and Sofia." This will simply never happen.
Jan Oberg from the Peace and Collaborative Development Network had this to say: "Dear Macedonia, just like Serbia you will be mistreated by the EU for the next 20 years due to the balkanization of politics across Europe." // Gorazd VelkovskiLeave a comment:
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