Risto Stefov - Articles, Translations & Collaborations

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  • Soldier of Macedon
    Senior Member
    • Sep 2008
    • 13670

    I read through the whole article, Risto Stefov knows what he is talking about and this article is one of the better one's I have read from him in a while, well written and strongly delivered.
    In the name of the blood and the sun, the dagger and the gun, Christ protect this soldier, a lion and a Macedonian.

    Comment

    • Pelister
      Senior Member
      • Sep 2008
      • 2742

      This is an excellent article by Risto, once again.

      Western Europe have described us Macedonians as "the rot" of the balkans, as "a cancer" among other horrendous things.

      To see the appalling treatment handed out to the Macedonians by Western Europe after 1919, this is a must read:

      'An Evil for All Concerned': Great Britain and Minority Protection after 1919
      Patrick B. Finney
      Journal of Contemporary History, Vol. 30, No. 3 (Jul., 1995), pp. 533-551
      In 1925 the British government was "secretly" advising the Serbians and the Greeks to deny we exist. Finney exposes this.

      For more information on our appalling treatment by Western Europe post 1919, see Andrew Rossos, British Forieng Office and Macedonian national identity.

      For excepts of it go here:



      We were invaded illegaly, we were dispossessed and Western Europe was sending out DIRECTIVES to the Serbians and the Greeks to deny we exist.

      Comment

      • Daskalot
        Senior Member
        • Sep 2008
        • 4345

        Come take a ride in Tito´s time Machine – Part 11 - Contested Landscapes



        Come take a ride in Tito´s time Machine – Part 11 - Contested Landscapes

        Risto Stefov

        October 25, 2009


        If we "must" believe that Josip Broz Tito (May 7, 1892 - May 4, 1980), the Yugoslav dictator, along with the Communists, "invented" the Macedonians then we must also believe that Tito possessed a "Time Machine" because in this series of articles we will show you that the Macedonians existed way before Tito´s time.

        It was late at night the same day when I was suddenly awakened from my sleep inside the Delorean´s trunk from shots being fired. It was Tito and the team returning in haste while being pursued by Greek fascists. The time machine was powered-up in record time and vanished before the Greeks could discover it. When we came back to our own time I could hear Tito fuming and scolding the team, particularly Marty, for not wearing the proper attire of the time.

        "How stupid could you be, wearing running shoes made in the 1980´s?" I overheard Tito say as the team left the Delorean and departed for the night. With shoes like that, the Greeks must have figured Marty to be some sort of spy. Oh well no matter, the important thing at the moment was the team was back, safe and sound.

        Just as I was about to open the trunk I heard footsteps quickly approaching. "It is me, TrueMacedonian," I heard a muffled voice say as the Delorean´s trunk flung open.

        "Ah, you are a sight for sore eyes," I said. "I was worried about you guys. What happened?"

        "Well, we were doing fine until Marty was spotted by a cop and then all hell broke loose," said TrueMacedonian. "We were late returning because all this time we were being chased and shot at by the police. Lucky for us these idiots were such poor shots they couldn´t even shoot an elephant standing still. None the less it was dangerous and we took our time returning," explained TrueMacedonian.

        "But I did not come back to talk about our trip, there are more important things to discuss," said TrueMacedonian as he searched in his coat pocket for something.

        "What could be more important?" I asked myself, unaware that I had spoken the words out loud.

        "I will tell you what is so important as soon as I find it," said TrueMacedonian as he continued to search through one pocket after another.

        "We can´t even begin to comprehend what really happened in Greece in the nineteenth century, the kind of disease that was created by a bunch of overzealous Philhellenes," he said. "This is truly Frankenstein science at its best!" he continued as he pulled out a book and searched for a specific page. "Here, read this," he said as he handed me the open book.

        Here is what I read;

        "A number of scholars have described and analyzed the process of national identity formation following the creation of the Modern Greek nation state and the opposed visions of Hellas and Greece in Greek discourse (Kyriakidou-Nestoros 1978; Herzfeld 1982, 1989; Just 1989). As Herzfeld (1982, 1989) has pointed out, this opposition echoes the tensions between an outward-directed conformity to western powers´ expectations about what modern Greece was to be, and an inward-looking, self-critical collective appraisal. Both visions emerged in response to the regulating discourse formulated by Western political and intellectual powers, a body of representations accumulated from the Renaissance onwards, strongly oriented towards classical antiquity. As central agents in the construction of national cultural identity and the management of Greece´s archeological remains, national scholars took on the additional task of ´convincing´ skeptical Western onlookers that the new state could fulfill its role as guardian of the heritage of the glorious past, thus claiming indigenous control over the idea of Greece and its identity.

        The management and landscaping of monumental sites provided striking instances of interventions by the apparatus of modernity that work on the multiple layers of meaning inscribed onto landscapes through time, striving to rearrange these living palimpsests in ways that are deemed appropriate to the national project. And the Hellenic-centered ´Purist´ vision (Greece as Hellas) held a key position in the discourses of the agents involved in such interventions.

        When Athens was chosen as the site of the modern capital of the new nation, and its (re)construction was planned along lines of its purity, the unsettling evidence of Greece´s Ottoman heritage along with local vernacular forms had to be confronted, all the more so when situated in the immediate vicinity of remains of classical antiquity. Early nineteenth-century Athens was viewed as a ´disgraceful sight´ (Boyer 1996: 163) full of imperfections, ranging from the city´s physical aspects to the spoken language, (2) that called for ´filtering out´ interventions.


        In the midst of this process, a group of rural immigrants employed – and this is one of the ironies of this story – in the neoclassical-inspired reconstruction of the capital proceeded from the 1860´s onward to build themselves a cluster of small houses just under the Acropolis of Athens. By the end of the nineteenth century their settlement, the Anafiotika, formed a permanent presence on the northeast slope of the sacred rock.

        (2) Herzfeld (1989: 101, 22) explicitly links the language question to other forms such as architecture, music, dress, gesture, moral values, seeing them as domains where the issue of the double image of Greek culture origins is played out." ("Contested Landscapes Movement, Exile and Place", edited by Barbara Bender and Margot Winer, page 23.)

        "Read it again then perhaps you will truly begin to understand what happened there. It boggles the mind; most people cannot comprehend it and dismiss it as crockery, but crockery it is not! Modern Greece is truly artificial, perhaps the most artificial nation in the world; a well kept secret!" said TrueMacedonian as I stood there stunned, in disbelief.

        I read the page again, as TrueMacedonian had suggested, and found new meaning in what was said. It was unbelievable!

        "I myself am a product of this ´new Greek creation´," I said "being born in Greece and being indoctrinated into the Hellenic ideal from youth. But I would never have guessed that Greece was fake and that the lies were so deeply entrenched, especially down south in what we from the north call Greece proper," I continued. "In northern Greece, where I was born, which should be referred to as ´Greek occupied Macedonia´, we slid along calling ourselves ´Greeks´ without questioning its meaning. To us, the so-called ´Greek identity´ was as solid as a sphere made of solid steel; impregnable and untouchable. In Greek occupied Macedonia however it was different. We called ourselves Greeks because it was the safest thing to do but in private we couldn´t understand how we could be Greeks when none of us were really Greeks. It was comical! A couple of our neighbours, when inebriated and unable to keep their pants up, were the only ones boasting in public about how ´Greek´ they were and how ´Greek´ blood flowed through their patriotic veins; the same blood that flowed in Pericles and Plato. To us these were the real Greeks of the north, a bunch of idiots! And when the Bulgars had occupied our village these same idiots were then the most patriotic Bulgars calling themselves the true sons of the Khans. But this was Macedonia where we knew we were not Greeks or Bulgarians, but we had no idea it was the same all the way down to the tip of the Peloponnesus. We thought those who lived in the Peloponnesus were really true Greeks. But as it turns out, we were very wrong!" I said as I again read the page in disbelief.

        "So there you have it!" said TrueMacedonian, "but you ain´t seen nothin yet! There are hundreds of books like this one where the truth is separated from fiction and what happened and the madness that took place in the nineteen century is exposed! Now these neo-Greek ´lost souls´ have become our teachers and baptizers, telling us who we are and what to call ourselves! How insane!" said TrueMacedonian and after a long pause he declared he was very tired and wanted to go home and get some sleep.

        "Tito will be on my case all day tomorrow if I don´t look and act sharp, so I need to go home and get some sleep. See you early tomorrow morning," were TrueMacedonian´s last words before he departed for the evening.

        It was time for me to go home too. It was very late at night and would probably take me forever to fall asleep, pondering the shocking things I had just learned today.

        To be continued.

        Other articles by Risto Stefov:





        Many thanks to TrueMacedonian from http://www.maknews.com/forum for his contribution to this article.

        You can contact the author at [email protected]
        :rmacedonia
        Macedonian Truth Organisation

        Comment

        • Daskalot
          Senior Member
          • Sep 2008
          • 4345

          Come take a ride in Tito´s time Machine – Part 13 – GREEKS BETRAY MACEDONIANS



          Come take a ride in Tito´s time Machine – Part 13 – GREEKS BETRAY MACEDONIANS

          Risto Stefov

          November 12, 2009


          If we "must" believe that Josip Broz Tito (May 7, 1892 - May 4, 1980), the Yugoslav dictator, along with the Communists, "invented" the Macedonians then we must also believe that Tito possessed a "Time Machine" because in this series of articles we will show you that the Macedonians existed way before Tito´s time.

          Anxious to meet up with TrueMacedonian, I arrived early at the usual place the next morning only to find Tito pacing back and forth, looking at his watch and swearing and cursing. "Where are they? I told them to come earlier," he kept repeating. With Tito there what was I to do? How could I board the Delorean unseen?

          After pondering my situation for a while, it occurred to me that I should somehow distract Tito and then board the Delorean before the others arrive. But how could I do that? As I slowly snuck through the woodland and came as close to the Delorean as possible without being seen, it occurred to me to throw a rock behind the bushes. When Tito turned around and went to investigate the noise, I quickly snuck into the trunk and quietly closed the hatch behind me. And just in time too because as the others arrived I overheard Tito scolding them for being late. "There´ll be more about this later," he said "I don´t have time to deal with you now. We are going to Constantinople, to March 13th, 1897," were Tito´s orders as the time machine swished its way to the next destination.

          The next day I discovered the following piece in The New York Times;

          "MACEDONIANS AND TURKS FIGHT

          LONDON, March 13. – A dispatch from Constantinople states that fighting has occurred near Gravena between a number of Macedonian insurgents and a body of Turkish troops. Details of the fight are lacking." (New York Times, March 14, 1897)

          No sooner had the team left than they were back again and according to Tito´s instructions were going to Constantinople again but this time to May 11, 1901.

          It must be nice, I thought to myself, to be able to plant seeds and see the fruits grow in a matter of minutes. Isn´t time travel wonderful?

          The next day I checked the New York Times and discovered the following;

          "Wholesale Execution of Macedonians.

          VIENNA, May 11. – A dispatch from Constantinople announces the wholesale shooting of revolutionary Macedonians, including women. Twenty-four persons were executed at Monastir, fourteen at Beria, eighteen at Iating, eighteen at Seres and twenty-nine at Uskab." (New York Times, May 12, 1901)

          Again with the sad and devastating news! Why can´t we have some good news for a change? Is it too much to ask? The team was back and off again, unfortunately in my state of thought, pondering the sad news I missed the first part of Tito´s orders and only heard that we were going to March 21, 1902.

          The next day I checked The New York Times for March 22, 1902 and discovered the following piece;

          "SERIOUS REVOLT IN ALBANIA

          Rebels said to be masters of town of Yanina – fighting between Turkish troops and Macedonians.

          LONDON, March 22. – According to the Rome correspondent of the Daily Mail, the Italian consul at Yanina, southern Albania, has sent news of a serious revolution in Albania. The governor´s palace at Yanina was attacked and several gendarmes were killed. The revolutionaries are masters of the town.

          The consul says further outbreaks have occurred at Berat, Paramythia and Avlona and that the revolution is spreading throughout Albania.

          The correspondent of The Morning Leader in Vienna reports a conflict between Turkish troops and Macedonian revolutionists at Sistova near Kastoria. The Turks surrounded the village and overcame the rebels. In the course of the fighting four Macedonians and two Turks were killed and twenty-six of the rebels were wounded.

          All the male inhabitants of the village were arrested. (The New York Times, March 22, 1902)

          As I finished reading the third article I realized that the team had already been on three missions today and should be going home next but when I looked at my watch it was too early to go home.

          The team was back again and instead of going home Tito had another mission in mind. "We are going to Athens," he said "to March 30th, 1902".

          I see! That´s why Tito wanted the team there early, so it could go on an extra mission. But why go on an extra mission?


          I got my answer the next day when I read the following piece in the March 31st, 1902 New York Times newspaper;

          "GREEKS BETRAY MACEDONIANS.

          Threatened Outbreak This Spring Will Probably Be Prevented – Montenegrins To Invade Turkey?

          London Times, New York Times Special Cablegram

          LONDON, March 31. – A dispatch to The Times from Athens says the grave situation in Macedonia and Albania causes considerable uneasiness. It is thought that the propaganda from the Macedonian committee in Bulgaria is somewhat discredited among the wealthier classes, owing to the crimes and extortion connected with it. Still, the physical force party, which may be compared to the Fenian section of the Irish Nationalists, continues to follow the lead of President Sarafof who has planted a general rising of the Christians in the coming Spring.

          The dispatch says the overtures made in Athens and Belgrade have not been found tempting and that the Greeks have disclosed the scheme to Turkey. This, in conjunction with a strong military precaution being taken, will probably prevent the threatened outbreak. Improvement, however, is impossible without reform, and the Sultan´s personal fears and the disunion of the European powers make the prospect of reform remote." (The New York Times, March 31, 1902)

          This particular mission took a little longer than expected, I guess the team has learned to be extra cautious when traveling in Athens. None the less the team was back in time to get a good night´s sleep.

          It´s late already, there is no point in me waiting for TrueMacedonian to return I thought as I exited the trunk. "But! What? How?" were the only words I could muster in my startled state as I found TrueMacedonian standing beside the Delorean.

          "I am sorry to have startled you," he said "but I never left the Delorean. I stayed here all the time as the others disappeared over the horizon, unaware that I wasn´t with them."

          Before I could muster another word, TrueMacedonian said he had something for me to read. He rummaged through his deep pockets and pulled out a book with a book mark stuck in it.

          "Ah, here it is," he said. "Read this page and tell me what you think?"

          Here is what I read;

          "The Greeks had not taken much interest in their past until Europeans became enthusiastic discoverers and diggers of their ruins. And why should they have cared? The Greeks were not Greek but the illiterate descendents of Slavs and Albanian fishermen, who spoke a debased Greek dialect and had little interest in the broken columns and temples except as places to graze their sheep. The true philhellenes were the English – of whom Byron was the epitome – and the French, who were passionate to link themselves with the Greek ideal. This rampant and irrational phili-Hellenism, which amounted almost to a religion, was also a reaction to the confident dominance of the Ottoman Turks, who were widely regarded as savages and heathens. The Turks had brought their whole culture, their language, their Muslim religion and their distinctive cuisine not only here but throughout the Middle-East and into Europe as far as Budapest. The contradiction persists even today: Greek food is actually Turkish food, and many words we think as distinctively Greek, are in reality Turkish – kebab, doner, kofta, meze, teramasalata, dolma, yogurt, moussaka, and so forth; all Turkish." ("The Pillars of Hercules", by Paul Theroux, page 316)

          After reading the text I was speechless. All I could think of was the nerve of those Modern Greeks calling the Macedonians artificial. "Artificial, who is artificial, don´t they know their own history?" I blurted out as TrueMacedonian nodded, understanding what I was talking about.

          "Think about it," he said. "But don´t let it boggle your mind. I have to go now because I am sure Tito will be on my case tomorrow if I don´t get some sleep." And with those words, TrueMacedonian left, leaving me to think about what I had just read!

          To be continued.

          Other articles by Risto Stefov:





          Many thanks to TrueMacedonian from http://www.maknews.com/forum for his contribution to this article.

          You can contact the author at [email protected]
          Macedonian Truth Organisation

          Comment

          • Risto the Great
            Senior Member
            • Sep 2008
            • 15658

            Modern Greeks are quite simply a modern race.
            Any attempts to connect them with the ancient Hellenes is simply politically convenient and an abstract attempt to usurp history that belongs to many people.
            Risto the Great
            MACEDONIA:ANHEDONIA
            "Holding my breath for the revolution."

            Hey, I wrote a bestseller. Check it out: www.ren-shen.com

            Comment

            • julie
              Senior Member
              • May 2009
              • 3869

              Originally posted by Pelister View Post
              This is an excellent article by Risto, once again.

              Western Europe have described us Macedonians as "the rot" of the balkans, as "a cancer" among other horrendous things.

              To see the appalling treatment handed out to the Macedonians by Western Europe after 1919, this is a must read:



              In 1925 the British government was "secretly" advising the Serbians and the Greeks to deny we exist. Finney exposes this.

              For more information on our appalling treatment by Western Europe post 1919, see Andrew Rossos, British Forieng Office and Macedonian national identity.

              For excepts of it go here:



              We were invaded illegaly, we were dispossessed and Western Europe was sending out DIRECTIVES to the Serbians and the Greeks to deny we exist.

              your quote
              In 1925 the British government was "secretly" advising the Serbians and the Greeks to deny we exist. Finney exposes this.

              not surprising. The Brits "forgot" their call for assitance with the Aussie soldiers, and the slaughter at the Dardanelles , Gallipoli. Turkey acknowledged and apologised, still waiting for the Brits....
              "The moral revolution - the revolution of the mind, heart and soul of an enslaved people, is our greatest task."__________________Gotse Delchev

              Comment

              • George S.
                Senior Member
                • Aug 2009
                • 10116

                When is the sorry going to come from Greece regarding the attrocities it has committed on the Macedonian Nation.It doesn't seem to be coming because the big bully Greece just keeping it on,no one is willing to say NO or to do anything to stop this rolling juggernaut.Greece is hellbent on destroying the Macedonian nation,there is a saying a rolling stone gathers no moss.Well Greece does not care how much damage it can cause or has done simply because there's no one to stop it.We as Macedonians can still say enough is enough stop the negotiations NOW.Greece has to be made aware we Macedonians are not fools or simpletons & we are not taking it anymore.If we need world support then we should seek support.
                "Ido not want an uprising of people that would leave me at the first failure, I want revolution with citizens able to bear all the temptations to a prolonged struggle, what, because of the fierce political conditions, will be our guide or cattle to the slaughterhouse"
                GOTSE DELCEV

                Comment

                • julie
                  Senior Member
                  • May 2009
                  • 3869

                  Originally posted by George S. View Post
                  When is the sorry going to come from Greece regarding the attrocities it has committed on the Macedonian Nation.It doesn't seem to be coming because the big bully Greece just keeping it on,no one is willing to say NO or to do anything to stop this rolling juggernaut.Greece is hellbent on destroying the Macedonian nation,there is a saying a rolling stone gathers no moss.Well Greece does not care how much damage it can cause or has done simply because there's no one to stop it.We as Macedonians can still say enough is enough stop the negotiations NOW.Greece has to be made aware we Macedonians are not fools or simpletons & we are not taking it anymore.If we need world support then we should seek support.
                  Too right.
                  We are "negotiating" our extermination.
                  Its all a big game, and playing into their hands. reece will always be supported by the Brits, who are masters at destroying and colonising and "civilising" indigenous nations
                  Walking away from the "negotations (meaning for us: flag.. check , gone, name next check ..going, going gone. Next - our rights to call ourselves Macedonians in the Diaspora......going , going GONE
                  Enough
                  I can see where all of this is heading and its all for the sake of what.....what can gaining entry into the EU with a bullshit made up name, another acronym perhaps.
                  FYROM , how utterly insulting.

                  Makedontsi, razbudayste site, imeto makedonsko da ne se menuvay.

                  I , for one, will be mighty pissed off down the track , living in a Western country and being sued by HellAss for calling myself Macedonian, imagine
                  legal lawsuits....no more freedom in western countries, our churches gone...
                  Can't every Macedonian see what will become of us!!!!!
                  "The moral revolution - the revolution of the mind, heart and soul of an enslaved people, is our greatest task."__________________Gotse Delchev

                  Comment

                  • George S.
                    Senior Member
                    • Aug 2009
                    • 10116

                    THanks Julie for the sentiments exactly These Greek Nazis will hunt everyone down & kill us like cockroaches & rats until everyone of us is dead & ceased to exist.If we don't realize it Greece is hell bent on destroying he name & the M<acedonian people.Can everyone wake up it's a reality it's not a dream.Snap out of it tell the POLITICIANS we don't negotiate our name we are & want to be MACEDONIANS.WE love our idetity dearly.
                    Last edited by George S.; 11-27-2009, 12:05 PM. Reason: edit
                    "Ido not want an uprising of people that would leave me at the first failure, I want revolution with citizens able to bear all the temptations to a prolonged struggle, what, because of the fierce political conditions, will be our guide or cattle to the slaughterhouse"
                    GOTSE DELCEV

                    Comment

                    • Silver
                      Junior Member
                      • Sep 2009
                      • 85

                      Very well said Julie. It seems we in the diaspora are well aware of 'Greece's' intentions. How aware are Macedonians in the Republic?

                      Comment

                      • julie
                        Senior Member
                        • May 2009
                        • 3869

                        Originally posted by Silver View Post
                        Very well said Julie. It seems we in the diaspora are well aware of 'Greece's' intentions. How aware are Macedonians in the Republic?
                        Cheers Silver and George.

                        There seems to be an air of apathy and laissez-faire approach from the Republic. I banter with my dad (who was born in a village out of Bitola) who is of the mindset that gaining entry into the EU will open up tourism, assist with employment, and that people will be able to travel freely.
                        I disagree with him and our discussions are quite interesting to say the least.
                        I tell him that the rights you are enjoying here , in the Diaspora will cease to exist.
                        Greece will NOT STOP. They will take the name. They have won with the flag. They will not stop. They will sue every citizen in the Diaspora and do submissions to western governments and annihilate us - they will make us rename our Macedonian Communities and Churches, and it will be all for what?
                        Oh, yes the GOD the EU
                        fuck them

                        I am sick and tired of the bullshit as it is from the Greeks lobbying parliament to keep our beloved bullshit FYROM acronym. Of justifying myself to the community, and correcting people as it is that JAS SUM MAKEDONKA, it will create an avalanche, one that there will be no turning back. Because Greece will win.
                        STOP these bullshit negotiations and let us have our freedon in the Diaspora.
                        I generalise here, I do have family in the Republic, however the apathy that emanates from there and the brainwashing by what appears to be traitors makes my stomach churn.

                        WE are our own worst enemy
                        WAKE UP MAKEDONIA
                        "The moral revolution - the revolution of the mind, heart and soul of an enslaved people, is our greatest task."__________________Gotse Delchev

                        Comment

                        • George S.
                          Senior Member
                          • Aug 2009
                          • 10116

                          yes we are our own worst enemy.Look at Bulgaria what benefit did it get from the EU?
                          The same can be said for Macedonia,there seems to be some sort of apathy or are they fooling around with Greece deliberately.Maybe they are waiting for a Greek response no one knows??
                          "Ido not want an uprising of people that would leave me at the first failure, I want revolution with citizens able to bear all the temptations to a prolonged struggle, what, because of the fierce political conditions, will be our guide or cattle to the slaughterhouse"
                          GOTSE DELCEV

                          Comment

                          • George S.
                            Senior Member
                            • Aug 2009
                            • 10116

                            Come take a ride in Tito’s time Machine – Part 19 – Conclusion

                            Come take a ride in Tito’s time Machine – Part 19 – Conclusion



                            By Risto Stefov

                            [email protected]

                            December 20, 2009



                            If we “must” believe that Josip Broz Tito (May 7, 1892 - May 4, 1980), the Yugoslav dictator, along with the Communists, “invented” the Macedonians then we must also believe that Tito possessed a “Time Machine” because in this series of articles we will show you that the Macedonians existed way before Tito’s time.



                            As soon as I had read the newspaper articles left for me by TrueMacedonian I left for home. I couldn’t help but wonder what had happened to Tito. Was he sick? He didn’t look like he’d had too much rakija. Besides it was too early in the morning for rakija, he usually drinks in the evenings.



                            Why would TrueMacedonian want to see me at midnight? Could it be because of this new departure time?



                            All was about to be revealed when I showed up at the “secret spot” at midnight and finally had a talk with TrueMacedonian. Surely he will tell me everything! After all, that is why he wants to see me, I thought to myself.



                            I noticed the time was 11:50 PM as I took the turn for the “secret spot” on my way to meet with TrueMacedonian. It was dark and impossible to see where I was going when I suddenly noticed a beam of light illuminating my path. The person lighting my way must have realized they startled me because the next thing I saw was a face lit up. The beam of light was now illuminating the person’s face. It was TrueMacedonian. In spite of my startled state, I recognized him. “What are you doing all the way out here?” I asked.



                            “I figured you might forget to bring a flashlight,” he said “so I came out here to meet you.”



                            “I have so many questions,” I said “I don’t know where to begin.”



                            “For starters hello to you too,” he said as he stood silent with a disappointed look on his face!



                            “What is it?” I asked.



                            “Well, let me get to the point,” he said. “Tito has fallen sick and has cancelled all future missions. Today at 6:00 AM we are, I mean the team without you, is boarding the time machine for the last time. Each one of us will be taken back to our actual time and place of origin and will be left there permanently. So this is actually goodbye. I will not be able to see you again. I will however answer all your questions before I go,” explained TrueMacedonian.



                            The shocking news of not being able to go on missions and not being able to have my talks with TrueMacedonian dulled my senses and made all my questions pointless.



                            “I knew this would happen. That is why I had Soldier of Macedon from the Macedonian Truth forum compile this list just for you,” said TrueMacedonian as he handed me a piece of paper.



                            “Before you read it just listen to me, my time here is short and I want to emphasize some important things,” said TrueMacedonian as I gave him my full attention.



                            “The idea of publishing century old articles was good; it gave the readers ample information with which they could combat Greek propaganda, Greek fabrications and false Greek claims that the Macedonian identity was created by Tito. But there is something more important that needs to be done and that is to expose the Greek lies about themselves. Modern Greeks on one hand claim to be ethnically pure ‘Greeks’ who have descended from the ancient Greeks and on the other they claim ‘Macedonians don’t exist’! How can that be since Macedonia and Greece not only have been without borders for over two millennia, but both have been exposed to the same invasions and ravishes of time. Whatever happened in Macedonia happened in Greece. Historically this, without a doubt, can be proven. Sorry but Greece can’t have it both ways and I can’t emphasize this more strongly. The world needs to know the truth, particularly the Macedonian and Greek people. Both Macedonians and Greeks need to know that the Modern Greeks are just as diverse a collection of ethnicities as are the Macedonians. The truth is that all peoples in the Balkans are so mixed that only their politics makes them unique. And by that I mean by living without borders, by mixing with one another and by being exposed to the same invasions, we have become indistinguishable from one another except for our politics of course. This we all need to understand!



                            We also need to understand that it was the Western Europeans who came along and told us who we can or can’t be. Let’s not forget that and let’s not let others and their plans be the object of our division. Heck let’s tell it the way it is! We are Macedonians, we feel Macedonian and that is what we always have been and will be. We deserve to be treated the same as our neighbours because we are no different than them. We should not be asked to make ‘compromises’, especially to our detriment, in order to make our enemies happy. Unfortunately it goes deeper than just happiness. I think the question of who we are has nothing to do with ‘really who we are’ but has a lot to do with who benefits if we are not Macedonians. Our loss is someone else’s gain, more precisely it has to do with what the Greeks will gain because of our loss; something they have stolen from us and now don’t want to give back. Personal interests are always at the root of every ‘conflict’ be it between individual people or between countries. Western Europeans created Modern Greece basically out of fiction to satisfy their own interests and as a result they sacrificed us and our Macedonian identity. Why they did this is another story but it does not change the fact that they allowed Greece to invade, occupy and annex Macedonian territories, displace people, commit genocide, confiscate properties and assets and all that without any compensation. Perhaps that was fashionable in the old days but none the less it was illegal. Things, unfortunately (for them), have changed now and the winds favour us, the Macedonians, and we want back what was once taken from us. Besides compensation for what was illegally stolen from us we also want recognition for the injustices perpetrated against us. We are asking them to admit their guilt for their wrong doings, which for them is very difficult to do. So they maintain that ‘Macedonians don’t exist’; out of sight out of mind. How can they be guilty of committing crimes against a people that don’t exist? Thus abusers continue to excuse themselves of their responsibility and of the criminal acts they committed against the Macedonian people. Besides that, Greeks want it all for themselves. They already have the so-called ancient Greek heritage but they also want the ancient Macedonian heritage all to themselves. Outside of that, they have 51% of the historic Macedonian territories and those too they want to own exclusively at the expense of the Macedonians. Is that fair? I would say not! Above all are they really the true heirs even of the Greek heritage? We need to question that since history tells us different. And since they have put us in this precarious position it is only fair that we also put them in a precarious position and expose them for the frauds they truly are! Don’t you agree?” demanded TrueMacedonian.



                            “Yes I do!” I replied.



                            “Then you know what to do,” continued TrueMacedonian “and you will do it until every Macedonian and every Greek is fully aware of the reality of our mutual situation and of our predicament. I wish you good luck and perhaps we shall meet again someday in the future. I must go now to prepare for my return to my own time. Goodbye.”



                            I too said my goodbyes, and as TrueMacedonian left I was overcome with a feeling of loss. As I watched TrueMacedonian’s silhouette vanish behind the horizon I realized I had a piece of paper in my hand. Unfortunately it was too dark to read it there so I left and when I came across the first street lamp I began to read. Here is what it said;



                            “A collection of excerpts gathered from the Macedonian Truth forum, largely brought to our attention by Daskalot and myself, TrueMacedonian, who have buried many a myth of the Modern Greek on countless occasions.



                            Compilation put together by Soldier of Macedon

                            Origins of the inhabitants of Modern Greece:





                            Albanian origins of the liberators and leaders of Modern Greece:





                            But the revival was only for a time, and, in spite of Greek struggles, at the end of the tenth century Sclavonians formed almost the entire population of Macedonia, Epirus, continental Greece and the Peloponnesus…….It was during these centuries, that what remained, if indeed anything remained, of even degenerate Hellenic blood absorbed or was absorbed into that of the Slav……Indeed, the Albanians appear to have done for Greece in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries something like that which the Sclavonians had done in the sixth and seventh….They number about 200,000 souls; and within a greater part of the districts occupied by Albanians at the present day the Greeks have been as completely expelled as the Celtic race in England by the Saxon. Unlike the Greek, for him the bonds of nationality are stronger than those of religion…..to assert that a Greek Christian is a Hellene is as reasonable as to call all Roman Catholics Italians; and to claim a Slav or Albanian as a Hellene because he speaks Greek, is much the same as calling an educated Russian French, or an Irishman English, because they prefer French or English to their own less developed languages. (A Monthly Review – Greece, Spoilt Child of Europe)



                            The chief authority was conceded to the Albanian ship owners; George Konduriottes of Hydra was elected president of Greece, and Botasses of Spetzas vice-president…..The Greeks are the most prejudiced of all Europeans when there is a question of the purity of the Hellenic race, and no people regards education with more favour; yet with all this nationality and pedantry they entrusted their public affairs, in a period of great difficulty, to two men who could not address them in the Greek language. (George Finlay, History of the Greek Revolution)







                            The castle of Karytena, even in its ruins, has a proud feudal aspect, and was again, early in our century, the stronghold of one of the most famous and notorious of the revolutionary chiefs – Colocotroni. He ranks as a hero in that war……..He is described as of the Albanian type. (J. P Mahhafy, Greek Pictures)







                            ……the liberators of Greece…..Nine or ten of them performed the Albanian national dance, to the sound of a bad fiddle and a little jingling guitar played with a quill, for the amusement of her Majesty, who did not seem enchanted with this exhibition….these men, who were exposing themselves in this absurd manner, were the far-famed Colocotroni, Nikitas, surnamed the Turkophagos, or Turk-eater, Makryani, Vasso of Montenegro, Kota Botzaris,, and others equally celebrated…….this was merely the dance of the Albanians, a totally distinct race of men from the Greeks. (Blackwood’s Magazine, XLIII)







                            Athens, twenty-five years ago, was only an Albanian village. The Albanians formed, and still form, almost the whole of the population of Attica; and within three leagues of the capital, villages are to be found where Greek is hardly understood. Athens has been rapidly peopled with men of all kinds and nations..........Albanians form about one-fourth of the population of the country; they are in majority in Attica, in Arcadia, and in Hydra..…..(Edmond About, Greece and the Greeks of the Present Day)



                            Reflections on the East Roman Empire:





                            Until 1821, Greeks knew that there had once been a Christian empire with its capital at Constantinople, but they did not think of it as a Greek empire, and they certainly didn’t call it the Byzantine Empire. (Katerina Zacharia, Hellenisms)



                            Philhellenism; its aim and impact:





                            Most Greeks did not share Byron’s views and would not have understood his allusions. They did not think of themselves as Greeks at all – and certainly not as Hellenes…but as Christians or Orthodox. (N. Hammond, Greece – Old and New)







                            …Philhellenism was a sort of social disease, caused by hallucinations and the by the illusion of finding in the present mongrel inhabitants of Morea and Attica the descendants of the ancient Hellenes. Subsequent contact of Greece with Europe has already considerably modified these ideas, as the modern Greek begins to pass for what he is: a semi-barbarian, a not yet cultivated citizen, and already a spoilt savage……Our classical recollections will have been proved a fallacy…only because they inhabit a soil where the Parthenon was built. (Baron Augustus Jochmus, The Syrian War and the Decline of the Ottoman Empire)







                            It is certainly unlikely that before the infiltration of European Philhellenism the inhabitants of Kastri knew (or cared much, for that matter) that they were indeed the inhabitants of Delphi. (Stathis Gourgouris, Dream Nation)


                            The foundations of Neo-Hellenic Culture:





                            It is significant that many of the nineteenth-century alterations to the Acropolis were carried out at the instigation of Germans, whose contribution to the modern Greeks’ sense of their classical heritage was crucial………….. an attempt was made to Hellenize the Greek collective consciousness, and through katharevousa, to “purify” the modern Greek language. (Katerina Zacharia, Hellenisms)







                            University of Athens - This, was the first institution of higher learning in the independent kingdom of the Hellenes, was founded by King Otto on the German model. (John Koliopoulos, Greece – The Modern Sequel)







                            The new fate did not attach itself to the immediate past, as it had been preserved in the popular memory, but rather adapted itself to the convenient image of the ancient Greek past already created in the West. Otto’s father, King Ludwig I of Bavaria, was obsessed with ancient Greece and brought up his children with the aspiration that one day one of them would reign over this glorious land. (Discourses of Collective Identity in Central and Southeast Europe, Texts and Commentaries)







                            In 1834 it was decided to create Athens the capital of the independent Kingdom of Greece. A German architect, Schaubert, was employed to plan the wide streets, the squares, the boulevards: and so Athens, which in 1834 was a village of five thousand inhabitants, has become in 1936 a city of over four hundred and fifty thousand people. (H. V. Morton, In the steps of St. Paul)







                            Ancient Sparta has entirely perished….New Sparta is a creation of King Otho, who has formed the useless project of resuscitating all the great names of Greece. It is a governmental and commercial town, composed entirely of shops, barracks, and public offices. (Edmond About, Greece and the Greeks of the Present Day)



                            Need I say more.



                            http://www.macedoniantruth.org/forum...ead.php?t=1627



                            As I finished reading the compilation I couldn’t help but feel that I was headed for a long and treacherous journey, but a necessary one!



                            The End.



                            Other articles by Risto Stefov:









                            Many thanks to TrueMacedonian from http://www.maknews.com/forum and from http://www.macedoniantruth.org/forum/ for his contribution to this article.



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                            "Ido not want an uprising of people that would leave me at the first failure, I want revolution with citizens able to bear all the temptations to a prolonged struggle, what, because of the fierce political conditions, will be our guide or cattle to the slaughterhouse"
                            GOTSE DELCEV

                            Comment

                            • George S.
                              Senior Member
                              • Aug 2009
                              • 10116

                              Come take a ride in Tito’s time Machine – Part 18 – Macedonian Leaders Murdered

                              Come take a ride in Tito’s time Machine – Part 18 – Macedonian Leaders Murdered



                              By Risto Stefov

                              [email protected]

                              December 13, 2009



                              If we “must” believe that Josip Broz Tito (May 7, 1892 - May 4, 1980), the Yugoslav dictator, along with the Communists, “invented” the Macedonians then we must also believe that Tito possessed a “Time Machine” because in this series of articles we will show you that the Macedonians existed way before Tito’s time.



                              It was still dark when I got up this morning but none the less I was determined to be at the secret site as early as possible just in case the team had decided to go on another early mission. To my dismay, when I arrived the Delorean was gone; it had again disappeared. I couldn’t understand what had happened but this time I was determined to find out. I parked myself out of sight in the bushes in the darkness and waited for dawn to break. It was peaceful and quiet in the forest with the occasional bird call and the sounds of insects.



                              It seemed like hours had passed as the first rays of the sun cut through the trees, illuminating and warming the dense bush in the forest.



                              Ah, there it was! I caught a glimpse of the Delorean as it crossed time barriers only to appear and disappear from my world. I was certain the schedule was changed and the team was now leaving much earlier than usual. But why? And how could I find out when?



                              As I sat there hidden in the brush contemplating my dilemma I witnessed the Delorean appear and disappear several times. This is unusual, I thought, the team usually goes on two to three missions and occasionally on a fourth mission in a single day. But today I witnessed the Delorean appear and disappear three times already and it’s not even noon! What’s going on?



                              Just as I was thinking of leaving and going home, I heard the Delorean’s engines power down. I quietly and quickly peeked through the brush only to see the team leaving. I could see that Tito was not well as Marty and Doc carried his arms over their shoulders. As usual TrueMacedonian was last to leave and, not to disappoint me, tossed something behind him.



                              I kept my eye on the rolling object making sure to note its point of rest. I then looked at the team leaving and saw TrueMacedonian waving goodbye. That rascal knows I am here and is toying with me!



                              Just as the team disappeared on the horizon I bolted out and quickly picked up the rolled-up ball TrueMacedonian had tossed and began to unravel it. It contained four pieces of paper. They were newspaper clippings of today’s missions. The first one read:



                              “600 MACEDONIANS COMING



                              Emigrating to America – Atrocities Still Going on in Turkey.



                              BELGRADE, March 18. – Six hundred Macedonian emigrants left here to-day for the United States by way of Feume.

                              All of them possessed sufficient funds to permit their entering into the United States.

                              Although the Turkish Government reports the conditions of the Macedonian valyets to be ‘tranquil’, it appears that, after all the efforts of the powers and the elaborate measures taken by the foreign gendarmerie officers, the condition of the Christian population is very little better than it was two years ago.

                              On Feb. 28 Bulgaria addressed a ‘note verbale’ to the Ottoman Commissariat, calling attention on the suffering inflicted on the Bulgarians in Salonika and Monastir Provinces by Greek bands and by Turkish officials and troops.

                              The note gave details regarding a series of atrocities perpetrated by Greek bands in recent times, including numerous cases of assassinations, arson, and pillage. Among the instances cited was an attack on the village of Bernek, where nine men and one woman were killed, others wounded and five houses burned: the burning of the village of Poutouros, where two men and one woman were murdered and two children committed to the flames; the burning of the village of Tzernitchani, and the series of exploits by the famous Capitan Panayoti, including the plundering of the village of Iveeni, from which twelve of the principle inhabitants were carried away and subsequently put to death.” (New York Times, March 19, 1906)



                              Missing a title, the second article read;



                              VIENNA, July 18. – The Porte has already made choice of three prelates for the vacant Macedonian bishoprics. They are Monsignor Theodosius for Uskab, Monsignor Sinessius for Ochrida and Monsignor Jusma for Kossovo. All three are Macedonians who have never lived in Bulgaria nor concerned themselves with politics.

                              The principle semi-official journals of the Greek Government, that is the Palingenesis, the Nea Ephemeris, and the Acropolis, are warmly protesting against the appointment of Bulgarian bishops in Macedonia. They say these bishops cannot be tolerated by the side of the Greek bishops, as Macedonia is the very core of Hellenism, and the whole future of Greece depends on its being able some day to annex that province. It is said in diplomatic circles that these complaints are producing in Constantinople quite a contrary effect to that which the writers desire.

                              The Austrian and German Ambassadors at Constantinople have communicated an identical note to the Porte, in which they complain of the capture by brigands of the two Austrian engineers, Messrs. Mejor and Gersen and request that stringent measures may be taken to protect foreigners employed on public works in Turkey from similar misadventures. Herr Mejor was released 24 hours after his capture in order that he might fetch 1,000 pounds of the ransom demanded and make arrangements for the payment of the rest. The money was given to him by the local agents of the railway contractors, but on arriving at the place where he was to meet the brigands he found that the whole band had been scared away by the Turkish soldiers having begun a premature pursuit. The consequence of this blunder is that the brigands have now carried away Herr Gerson into the mountains.” (The New York Times, July 19, 1890)



                              The third article read;



                              “MACEDONIAN LEADERS MURDERED



                              ALEXANDROFF DEAD.



                              (From our correspondent).



                              SOFIA, September 15. – Todor Alexanderoff, the Macedonian leader, was assassinated on August 31 by Macedonian opponents who had lately come under Bolshevist influence.

                              News has been received at the Bulgarian Legation that Aleko Pash and Colonel Athanasoff, two prominent members of the Macedonian Revolutionary Organization, have been murdered at Gorna Jumaya, in South-Western Bulgaria. At the same time two leaders of the Macedonian Federalists have been killed in Sofia.

                              Todor Alexandroff who was born in 1882, was one of the most picturesque leaders in the Balkans. He began life as a school master but soon forsook this profession for the more war like one of komitaji (political brigand). He took part in the continuous struggle which the Macedonians waged against the Turks, but in 1913 his health gave away and he went to France. During the European War he belonged to the Macedonian Division which operated against the allies on the Struma front and worked for the Germans as a spy. After the war he sank into comparative obscurity, but when the Treaty of Neuilly was signed, in November, 1919, dividing the greater part of Macedonia between Yugoslavia and Greece, Alexandroff resumed his crusade for an autonomous Macedonia. Together with General Protogeroff and Peter Chauleff, Alexandroff directed the policy of the Revolutionary Organization, and roamed the countryside to keep the revolutionary spirit alive.

                              Possessed of a most magnetic presence, Alexandroff, as the writer knew him, was the type of fanatical patriot who would stop at nothing to achieve his goal – the creation of an autonomous Macedonia. He had undoubtedly been responsible for many assassinations and it is therefore not to be wondered at that he himself came to a violent end.

                              It is too early to say what the effect of his death would be, but General Protogeroff is likely to take his place as revolutionary leader.

                              An account of an interview between Todor Alexandroff and a correspondent, which took place a month ago in the mountains of Macedonia, will be found on p. 9.” (The New York Times, September 16, 1924)



                              The fourth article read;



                              “MACEDONIAN AIMS



                              MURDERED LEADER’S DECLARATION.



                              (From a Correspondent.)



                              In August I had a nocturnal interview with Alexandroff in the mountains of Macedonia in a spot some distance from the Bulgarian frontier, where we were surrounded by Komitajis armed to the teeth. I was anxious to find out to what extent the Macedonian Revolutionary was in alliance with the Bolshevists, who had announced in their organ, La Federation Balkanique, which is published in Vienna, that the Macedonian chiefs had signed a manifesto strongly supporting the policy of the Soviet for the overthrow of all existing Balkan Governments. It was reported that two at least of the Macedonian Triumvirate, Alexanderoff and Protogueroff had denounced this manifesto referred to in the Times of August 5 and 6, as a forgery, and the only means of obtaining definite information on this point was to get it from Alexandroff himself.

                              In reply to my question, the Macedonian leader said: -

                              I declare that I did not sign either the manifesto published in La Federation Balkanique and attributed by that review to the Central Committee of the Macedonian Organization, nor have I signed any other similar documents. If my signature is at the bottom, of this manifesto, it is false; Protogeroff also affirms that he has not signed this manifesto. We have no desire to struggle against European capitalism, which does not concern us. The Organization has only one aim: the liberation of Macedonia. And as long as I am alive, and as long as I am at the head of the Organization, I shall not allow the Organization to fall away from this its fundamental and only aim and to become an instrument for aims which are strange to it. The Organization has nothing in common with Communism and Bolshevism.

                              I do not deny the fact that the Bolshevists have tried several times to win over the Organization and in every occasion it is they who have taken the initiative in negotiating. It was after an order received from Moscow that the Bulgarian Communist Press ceased to attack us in 1922, although we did not ask anyone to spare us the attacks of the Communist papers.

                              In 1923 the Soviet agents again proposed to me to begin negotiations. I then put the following conditions as an essential preliminary to the negotiations; The dissolution of Pandurski’s Communist band, the suppression of the Macedonian Communist paper Osvobojdenje, and the dissolution of the Communist organization of the Macedonian émigrés. My ultimatum was accepted and fully executed in August, 1923, but in September of the same year there was the rising of the Agrarians and Communists in Bulgaria and I had declared to the Communists that I consider all risings and coup d’etat complicated the already difficult position in Bulgaria, and were injurious and inadmissible. In the name of the Organization I informed the Communists that the independence of Bulgaria was extremely dear to me and as a Communist coup d’etat would threaten this independence, the Organization would be obliged to consider every attempt to overthrow the existing Government and to substitute for it a Government of Communists and Agrarians as a blow to the independence of Bulgaria, and that consequently it will begin a direct and pitiless struggle with the authors of such attempts, and will deal with them as it deals with all its enemies. It will be understood that after such a declaration negotiations could not be continued.



                              ‘LEFT’ ELEMENTS.



                              But I do not deny that in our Organization there are ‘Left’ elements who invariably say that during five years we have not been able to obtain anything from the League of Nations, Paris, or London, and that consequently we must try and come into an agreement with Moscow. Under the influence of the ‘Left’, but, again, on the initiatives of the Soviet representatives in Vienna, negotiations were began in 1924. The representative of the Soviet of Moscow put as a condition for an agreement with us the consent of the Organization to the ‘Sovietizing’ of Bulgaria and Macedonia. We replied that this condition was unacceptable to us and negotiations ceased. Since then they have not again been resumed.

                              In London I did not see Rakovski, and I did not sign any agreement with him. Information concerning this agreement probably comes from the same origin as the manifesto.

                              I repeat that, as long as I remain at the head of the Organization, the latter will fight by all means against Bolshevism, which, in my opinion, is greatly injurious to the national Macedonian movement. And again, a few days ago, I informed the Bulgarian Communists, in the name of the Organization, that the Organization will not permit a Communist coup d’etat in Bulgaria.

                              But I must say that the situation in Macedonia becomes intolerable. From the memorandum which the Organization will present to the League of Nations in September, Europe will be able to convince itself that the Serbian and Greek regimes are worse than the Turkish. For the Serbian and Greek regimes by their cruelty, illegality, and violence surpass anything that can be imagined. As long as these continue and as long as Macedonia is governed by barbarous methods, the Organization will not desist from its armed struggle; on the contrary, its struggle will be increased. But we shall willingly put aside our arms and begin a political and cultural existence as soon as the necessary conditions for free political and cultural development are guaranteed to the Macedonian population.



                              CONDITIONS DEMANDED.



                              Our requests are very modest. We do not want the dissolution of Yugoslavia; we desire that Yugoslavia becomes a Federal, free and strong State. And in the name of the Organization I formally declare that the Organization will cease its armed struggle if the following conditions are fulfilled: -



                              1. The dissolution of subsidized Serbian official bands of Stoyan Micheff, Zikleff and other traitors throughout Macedonia and the prosecution of the members of these bands for the crimes which they have committed (rape, assassinations and brigandage).



                              2. The application of the clauses included in the Peace Treaty for the defense of the rights of National Minorities under the control of the League of Nations and under the guarantee of the Great Powers.



                              3. An amnesty of all arrested Macedonians and the permission to return to Macedonia the refugees and émigrés also under the control of the League of Nations and the guarantee of the Great Powers.



                              4. The liberty of elections in the Skupshtina and the granting of the Macedonians to the right to form legal political parties.



                              These are our fundamental requests, and if our demands are executed in a strict, loyal, and honest manner, we engage ourselves to put aside our arms and to cease our armed struggle.

                              We also insist in the same way as other people included in Yugoslavia in the reconstruction of Yugoslavia into a federal state in which Macedonia would enter as a member of the Federation on equal rights with other members of the Yugoslav Federation. Taking into consideration the inevitable decomposition in the near future of Greece we ask the incorporation of the Autonomous Macedonia of the Macedonian territory which is now under the Greek dominion. When all the above conditions are sincerely and honestly executed the part of Macedonia which is in the hands of Bulgaria must also be incorporated into the Autonomous Macedonia. I am convinced that it is only in this way and acting as I have indicated that it will be possible to avoid Bolshevism in the Balkan Peninsula, that peace will be insured in the Balkans, and that a strong and durable Yugoslavia will be created. The duty of the Western European Democracies, in which we still have faith, is to save Macedonia from death and the Macedonian population from destruction, or, which is the same thing, from Bolshevism.” (The New York Times, September 16, 1924)



                              I never liked Todor Aleksandrov (Alexandroff), I felt he was too close and too chummy for my comfort with the Bulgarians but I do like what he was proposing; an Autonomous Macedonia; a Macedonia for the Macedonians. I like that!



                              Just as I finished reading the last article, I could see some handwriting, lightly written in pencil, at the bottom of the piece of paper. It said, “Meet me here at midnight tonight.”



                              To be continued.



                              Other articles by Risto Stefov:



                              "Ido not want an uprising of people that would leave me at the first failure, I want revolution with citizens able to bear all the temptations to a prolonged struggle, what, because of the fierce political conditions, will be our guide or cattle to the slaughterhouse"
                              GOTSE DELCEV

                              Comment

                              • Dimko-piperkata
                                Senior Member
                                • Sep 2008
                                • 1876

                                What´s Europe´s Problem with Macedonia?

                                December 29, 2009, Risto Stefov
                                What´s Europe´s problem with Macedonia? Some people would say that most Europeans know so little, or next to nothing, about Macedonia how could they possibly have a problem with it?

                                By now anyone who has read my articles knows what I think so I will spare you the repetition.

                                More recently I received a letter from Australia from Vasil Bogov, the author of the book "Macedonian Revelation, Historical Documents Rock and Shatter Modern Political Ideology", who reminded me that there may indeed be "other reasons" why Europe has a problem with the Macedonians.

                                And finally in response to that very question another friend e-mailed me a link with an article entitled "The Macedonian Question" by the Foreign Relations Council for Research Into South-Eastern Europe; Macedonian Academy of Sciences and Arts, which I have included in its entirety further down the text.

                                And now I will begin with Vasil Bogov´s compilations. Here Vasil draws on the words of others who shed a different light on European affairs regarding Macedonia and the Macedonians. The themes in the various sentences may seem to be out of context with each other which, by the way, is done on purpose, drawing the reader to form his or her own opinions. Do the Macedonian people deserve the "wrath" of Western Europe because of the historic influence of their Macedonian Church? Read and decide for yourselves! Here is what Vasil had to say;

                                "Panslavism was always primarily an instrument of Russian nationalism and politics, it never stood for Christian union.

                                It is true there are a few Turkish settlements in Macedonia, which live by agriculture.

                                They are genuine Osmanly Turks, who are exiled from Asia, in order that they might be isolated. (1)

                                Many in Western Europe doubted whether Hellenism existed at all in Macedonia, and regarded it solely as the invention of the Greek press. (2)

                                Since nationality in terms of practical politics, was chiefly a question of ecclesiastical registration, more than ever the Macedonian struggle developed into a conflict over Macedonian churches. (3)

                                Hellenismos was chiefly a propagandist organisation. (4)

                                The modern Western influence that thus spread into the main body of Christendom, the Ecumenical Patriarch had transmuted their old dream of raising from the dead, the East Roman ghost of the Roman Empire, in to a new dream of solving the Western question, on a political plan, in making the Ecumenical Patriarch the official head of all the Eastern Christians, the Sultan had given this Constantinopolitan prelate, political authority over Christian peoples, that had never been under the rule of any Constantinopolitan Emperor. (5)

                                However, as soon as there were Turks in Europe, The Eastern Question was born, and one might add that:

                                As soon as there was an "Eastern Question" war followed. (6)

                                Turkey was the ally, throughout the years, of the great European powers, in turn exploiting their rivalries in her own interest; whilst the European powers made the best of this field, in the great Christendom of Macedonia, of constant intrigues and perilous successes. (7)

                                Their Catholic priest brought pressures to bear in their proselytising of the Greeks. (8)

                                Their power in Macedonia was reinforced by the Orthodox clergy.

                                The new western "system of liberty", which at that time was being imported into the Christian world, not only contradicts the scriptures, but is really no more than a bastard freedom, allowing each individual to pursue his own most selfish interests and appetites. (9)

                                The spirit of western liberalism, was as alien to the Christian church in Macedonia, as the Sultan himself. (10)

                                Throughout the period of Turkish occupation the Holy Mountain was the great academy of Pravoslavni Christian Monasticism. (11)

                                It was here those monks above all others, who by their ardent and unswerving preaching, encouraged the customary to stand by their faith, and not abandon it in favour of Islam. (12)

                                But something had changed, by the middle of the 19th century, a Greek Bishop, as we call today, had been installed in Constantinople, to represent Roum Millet in the Balkans. (13)

                                His name was Melety, such Bishops are not only a burden to the Christian people, but also a sore wound of Christ's flock. (14)

                                The modern clerical members exploited the church, and between them, they set themselves to crush the Pravoslavni Christian faith in Macedonia, with the authority of the Turks behind them. (15)

                                It is from that egoistic standpoint that the "Greeks" hold themselves justified in combining with the Turks, to resist the old Christian religion in Macedonia. (16)

                                Greeks had never been a nation; it was doubtful whether they were even a race.

                                Greeks were not Hellenes, Romans, "Byzantines," nor Ancient Macedonians, as they are written in today's modern European history. (17)

                                Greek race is a mere invention of pseudo-science, and Greek language is another artificial invention. (18)

                                Greeks were loyal subjects to Abdul Hamid. (19)

                                What a land, then, is that comprised within the limits of the Turkish Empire that was Holy Mountain, with 64 monastic estates and monasteries in Macedonia. (20)

                                Out of its past speaks Christian faith, and material wealth, literature and art, philosophy and religion. (21)

                                And that land which today lies desolate, and its people, who were the glory of the past, repressed by injustice, cruelty, and tyranny – that land possesses today the same elements for material and spiritual greatness, that made it the first to develop a modern civilization. (22)

                                From whatever angle one views Macedonia, it beholds a land of extraordinary fascination.

                                To the historian, the archeologist, or to the geographer, it is a storehouse of wealth, worth a lifetime of exploration and study. (23)

                                Poetry and proverb are in the daily speech, while monasteries proclaim from every mountaintop, and market-place, that religion is a part of the very life of the Macedonians. (24)

                                The land of Macedonia looks out on the present from a historic past that is the study of all ages.

                                On the banks of the Dardanelles Constantine founded his world capital, and from that day Macedonian Christianity and the Macedonian city has figured in all great world movements. (25)

                                It has been the centre of intrigues and treaties, of councils and machination, around which have circled the policies of Europe for the last eighteen hundred years. (26)

                                If one could only turn aside from the horrors of misrule and injustice done to Macedonia, and out of a wonderful past could construct a vision of a more glorious future!

                                For, in spite of five centuries of retrogression under the rule of the Turks, there is promise of a golden age for the generation about to come.

                                The same broad plain that once fed and clothed a population of 40,000,000 beings, are waiting today for the plow to seed, and the reaper.

                                The mountains still hold riches of coal and iron and copper.

                                The rivers are potent with power to turn the wheels of industry.

                                The natural harbours invite the fleet of merchantmen, and the river valleys and mountain passes offer natural lines of communication and transportation, as in days when great caravans passed along these natural highways, bringing the merchandise of the East to the markets of the West. (27)

                                For centuries – a land, that modern exploration reveals as one of the richest in natural resources, and as unsurpassed by its geographic location, for being the trade centre of the world. (28)

                                However, in short the people of Macedonia become the victims of ruthless, unrelenting exploitation by a modern big idea of nationality.

                                If we take books, it was virtually nothing in Modern Greek, and naturally all Athenian periodicals and newspapers – save an innocent sheet published under the censor's eye in Smyrna (Asia Minor) are articles of contraband. (29)

                                It is that egoistic standpoint that the Greeks hold themselves justified in combining with the Turks to crush the Macedonian Christian church. (30)

                                The Patriarchate Greek priests were the tool of the Sultan. (31)

                                If one must balance criminality, the weight of horrors now rests with the Greeks.

                                And I am within the mark in saying that the Turkish authorities wink at the doing of the Greek "Bands" in Macedonia.

                                The Turk promotes and helps Greek propaganda in Macedonia – and this is the blunt truth – against the old and long established Christian religion. (32)

                                The Greek fails to notice that the whole proceeding is part of a scheme, by modern political powers in Europe, to keep the Christians at enmity in Macedonia. (33)

                                And now I offer you some of Henry Brailsford´s wisdom on the subject of "the Greeks", quoted in square brackets, from his book "Macedonia Its Races and their Future". Here is what Brailsford has to say about the Greeks with regards to the Macedonians;

                                It is a sorry transition to turn from this dream of a revived Hellenism which is to civilise the Near East once more, to the actualities of Greek politics. One may say of the Greeks with equal truth that they are capable of superb devotion to an idea, or that they are the ready victims of any catch-word or abstraction. "The Slav is the enemy" is a phrase which their journalists have been repeating to them for the last thirty years, and at length it has obsessed them so powerfully that they have almost forgotten their own past and their heroic struggles against Turkish tyranny. They have been taught to believe that all Turkey south of the Balkans is theirs by right, and they can think of the Macedonian movement only as a sort of invasion of their inheritance planned by the enemy in Bulgaria, if not by Russia herself. That it can be a spontaneous Macedonian movement, that it is a real revolt against Turkish tyranny, they will not for a moment believe. It is for them only a plot by the foes of Greece against the sacred cause of Hellenism. It is from that egoistic standpoint that they hold themselves justified in combining with the Turks to resist "the Slav." For them these miserable peasants, taking arms under any leader who will promise them deliverance from the tax-collector and the bey, have no concrete existence. They are Slav, and "the Slav is the enemy." It is part of the Greek temperament that it does nothing by halves. They flung themselves into the new alliance with enthusiasm. In 1903 deputations of Greek officers actually visited the Turkish Minister in Athens to offer him their swords, and the Greek press wrote of Abdul Hamid as though he were a philosopher-king and a pillar of Hellenism. Bulgarian refugees captured in Thessaly were handed over to the Turkish police to be tortured in Turkish dungeons. The Patriarch issued an encyclical ordering his Bishops and priests to denounce the insurgents and their sympathisers to the Turkish officials. Every Greek consulate in Macedonia became a department of the Turkish secret police, and the work of espionage went on unchecked, even while the Turks were slaughtering the Hellenised Vlachs of Kruchevo. For to the Turk all Giaours are one. "There are white dogs and red dogs, but all of them are dogs." In fairness to the Greeks we must admit that this policy has been followed by their rivals in times past. M. Stambulov worked steadily for a Turco-Bulgarian entente, and undoubtedly he meant to use it against the Greeks. I have never heard that he carried it to such an extreme as this — the circumstances hardly arose — but there is a nasty story which accuses him of encouraging M. Tricoupis to develop his plan for a Balkan coalition against Turkey, only to carry the scheme to Constantinople on the eve of its execution. (34) No sense of chivalry prevented the Bulgarians from profiting by the reverses of Greece in 1897. But apart from the morality of this Greek policy or the amount of provocation which might be held to justify it, it is an extremely foolish venture. It had no doubt a certain brief and superficial success. It was easy to force a Bulgarian notable to call himself a "Greek" by threatening to denounce him to the Turks, and the Archbishop of Castoria won many villages for the Patriarch in this way. When that failed, a Bishop had only to go on tour among the villages with an immense "escort" of Turkish troops, as the Bishops of Serres and Florina did, "converting" them by force. As a last resort, in one case at least, the Bishop of Serres even arrested a Bulgarian priest and kept him a prisoner in his own palace, only releasing him when he renounced the Exarch. But these are ephemeral triumphs. The "converted" villages still maintain their sly commerce with the Committee, still harbour "bands," still talk Bulgarian. And assuredly they do not love "Hellenism" the more. Worst of all, the loyal Greek and Vlach villages are puzzled and impatient. They saw their Slav neighbours marching out to fight the traditional enemy, and they wished to join them. "You know we too have rifles, and we want to use them," said a young man of Klissoura to me one day. "Against whom?" I asked. "Why, against the Turks, of course. We are only waiting for Greece to tell us to move." And he went on, in the same tongue, the same accents that the mountaineers of Crete have used so often in my hearing, to explain how intolerable life was under Turkish rule. The policy which prompted Greece to use the occasion only to weaken Bulgaria while the chance of freedom slipped by, was quite beyond his comprehension. He, too, wanted autonomy, and he could not understand why Greece should claim it for Crete and oppose it in Macedonia. It is only the official or the educated Greek who prefers anarchy and the status quo to any surrender of the grotesque territorial claims of Hellenism over the Bulgarian interior. The average Greek official vowing in one breath that all the Macedonians are Greeks, and declaring in the next that he would rather have them massacred than governed by a Bulgarian majority, is painfully like the false mother in Solomon's judgment, who was quite ready to allow the other woman's child to be cut in two.

                                The immediate result of the Greek policy of espionage and denunciation, so lightly planned in Athens and Constantinople, was to expose the Greeks of Macedonia — or, to be more accurate, the villagers of the Greek party — to the fury and revenge of the Bulgarian Committee. If a Bishop had frightened a village into joining the Patriarchist Church by holding the fear of the Turks over its head, it was always possible for the next Bulgarian band which came that way to compel it to return to the Exarchist schism, by threatening to burn it to the ground. The one method was as legitimate as the other, and quite as efficacious. If a Greek priest in obedience to his Bishop's instructions had betrayed a group of insurgents to the Turks, there were always comrades left to come round and hang him from the nearest tree. The next stage in the evolution of party feeling was naturally that the Greeks came to think of the Bulgarians as wild beasts, who slaughtered from mere lust of blood. Legitimists always, they seemed to regard their own work of denunciation as an unexceptionable use of the weapons of law and order. The Bulgarians, after all, are rebels, and the Greeks as loyal subjects of Abdul Hamid were only setting the machinery of justice in motion. The Turks, however, have failed to protect them, and they had to devise some more effective plan for defending themselves. The scheme was to organise counter-bands to hold the Bulgarians in check. I had the chance to meet in Monastir in March, 1904, the emissary from the Greek Government who was preparing this scheme. He was travelling as a cattle-dealer under an assumed name, but I had known him first in a European university where we were undergraduates together, and again in the East. He comes of an influential family, and is himself a man of a certain magnetism and wayward talent, who has had some experience as a guerilla chief. The climate of Macedonia seemed to have transformed him. He talked his French, his English, and his German as fluently as ever, but the ideas he expressed — as far as the pale vocabulary of these languages would allow him — were the ideas of his Phanariot ancestors. In the name of Hellenism he proposed to make of Macedonia a shambles and a desert. Where the Bulgarians had murdered one man, he declared, he would slaughter ten. He shrank only from one thing — he would not imitate what he described as the "anarchist" methods of the Committee. He would not arm his men with dynamite. But all manner of straightforward bloodiness with lead and steel came into his programme. And yet he was firmly convinced that he was fighting for "culture," for "ideas," for "a superior civilisation,"against the Bulgarian "wolves." (35) The earth might be a very tolerable place to live in, if every abstract word could be eliminated from human speech. Mephistopheles must have been fresh from a visit to the Balkans when he told Jehovah that mankind have used the reason which He gave them to become more beast-like than any beast. (36)]

                                The Macedonian Question

                                The Macedonian question appeared in foreign relations in the 1870's during the great Eastern Crisis when armed uprisings for liberation of the subdued peoples started in the Balkans. The uprisings in Bosnia and Herzegovina in 1875, in Bulgaria in April 1876 and in Macedonia in 1876 raised the question of the further existence of the Ottoman Turkish Empire in Europe. Following its current policy for the Balkans, Russia opposed the policies of the great Western European powers to retain the integrity of the Ottoman state, guaranteed by the Treaty of Paris concluded on April 15th 1856, and supported the fight of the conquered nations for liberation and independence. The Russian political programme devised several years before by counsellor Gorchakov was announced at the end of 1860 and included a solution to the Macedonian question.

                                The Russian plans for the Balkans anticipated a direct involvement of Russia in the liberation of the Orthodox Christian peoples and creation of national states: independence and territorial expansion for Serbia and Montenegro (in their ethnic borders), establishment of two Bulgarian principalities (north and south of the Stara mountain as counter-balance to the two Serbian principalities), and a separate, independent Macedonian principality. The Macedonian question divided the interests of Austria-Hungary and Russia. The Austro-Hungarian Minister for Foreign Affairs, Count Abrashi, requested establishment of an autonomous Macedonian state in customs union with Austria-Hungary. Gorchakov in principle agreed to it, but it soon turned out that Russia could not accept it.


                                In 1876-77 an Ambassadors' Conference of the great European states was held in Constantinople. It was expected to reach a diplomatic solution to the problems of the conquered nations within the Ottoman state and thus prevent further escalation of the crisis. The USA, which did not have any special interests in Macedonia, initiated an appropriate inquiry and solution to the Macedonian question. The American diplomacy in association with the American professors from the Robert College in Constantinople who were well-acquainted with the real situation, submitted to the Conference a proposition for the autonomy of Macedonia. However, the Conference failed due to the opposing interests of the great powers. Russia changed its policy on Macedonia and abandoned the plans for creation of a Macedonian state and started working in favour of a greater Bulgarian state instead. This happened after the secret negotiations on the Balkans among Austria-Hungary, Russia and Germany in April 1878 when Austro-Hungarian diplomacy renewed the question of the creation of an autonomous Macedonian state, i.e. Macedonian principality (with General Radich as its governor). On that occasion the Russian representative, General Ignatiev, did not oppose that solution, but in May 1878 Russian diplomacy refused to clarify its view on the question or support the Macedonian demands for an independent state submitted in Constantinople to General Ignatiev by Dimitar Robev, a Macedonian representative in the Ottoman Parliament.

                                On July 13th, the International Treaty of Berlin (Art.23), gave Macedonia a special autonomous status. The government of the Ottoman state was assigned to regulate the status of Macedonia and the other provinces with a separate Statute. However, as there was no international control to observe the implementation of these resolutions or authorize sanctions for their non-implementation, the government in Constantinople did not fulfil its duties. The Macedonian uprising from 1878-79 and the actions of "Edinstvo" ("Unity"), the Transitional Government of Macedonia (formed secretly at the meeting of the National Assembly held from May 21st to June 2nd 1880) renewed interest in the Macedonian question in the diplomatic circles of the Great European Powers. The Transitional Government sent an Appeal to the great powers accompanied by a Protocol of the National Assembly for liberation of Macedonia and its constitution as an independent state. Furthermore, on March 23rd 1881, it issued a Manifesto which was distributed among the diplomatic representatives in the Ottoman Turkish state. Macedonia became an object of special interest in the relations between Russia, Austria-Hungary and Germany. The agreement on a secret alliance of the emperors of these three states signed in 1881 included a separate stipulation for the protection of Macedonia from a possible attack by Bulgaria.

                                The beginning of the Ilinden uprising for national liberation of Macedonia in 1903, which the European diplomats called "The Macedonian revolution", marked the Macedonian question as an acute one for European diplomacy. The uprising and the creation of the so-called Krushevo Republic proved that the Macedonian people were ready to fight for their national freedom and the formation of their national state. At that time, the European powers were against the creation of a new state in the Balkans. European diplomacy had to intervene in order to calm the situation by proposing several projects for reforms among which were the Austro-Hungarian - Russian project known as the Murzsteg Reforms Programme and the British initiative that gave Macedonia a special status in its natural and ethnic borders. US diplomacy also became involved. The secretary of state and the USA president T. Roosevelt himself wrote to the British government acclaiming the British initiative for the autonomy of Macedonia.

                                As regards the reforms in Macedonia, American diplomats in 1907 suggested strict control of their implementation by the mandatory powers. In the beginning of March 1908 the government of Great Britain launched an initiative for the introduction of more radical reforms in Macedonia. This initiative was readily accepted by Russia. The two state sovereigns (British and Russian) met in June 1908 in Reval (Tallinn) and adopted a new proposal for reforms as a preliminary phase towards full autonomy for Macedonia."' Nevertheless, this initiative did not take place due to the revolution of the Young Turks which declared and introduced a constitutional order and democratization of the Ottoman Turkish state. However, the rule of the Young Turks with its Greater Ottoman politics stopped the process of further democratization and of a peaceful democratic solution to the Macedonian question within the Turkish state for which there existed the necessary conditions. It only led towards further deterioration of the situation which was used by the neighbouring Balkan states to interfere in the internal affairs of the Turkish state and to manifest openly their expansionist intentions.

                                Due to the worsening relations on the Balkans, in 1911 US diplomats undertook steps to influence the governments of the Balkan states to ease the tension and avoid the war they were preparing for, which could have led towards further involvement of the great powers in the solution of the eastern crisis. However, European diplomats showed no interest in preventing the military conflict on the Balkans. Moreover, they took part in its preparation governed by their original interests. At the time of the Balkan Wars when Macedonia was occupied and partitioned by the neighbouring Balkan states which was confirmed by the Treaty of Bucharest of August 10th 1913, European diplomacy had its own interest in accepting the partitioning as such. This could well have been predicted as the European powers, divided into two opposite blocks, started hasty preparations for the forthcoming Great War. Thus, the Macedonian question entered a new and extremely dangerous phase, not only for the future of the Macedonian nation, but for the peace on the Balkans and in Europe too.

                                These fears soon came true with the beginning of the First World War. At the end of the war the Macedonian question became a crucial problem in the negotiations and the plans for the post-war organization of Balkan relations. The high military and political circles of the Entente powers and the US diplomats considered the creation of an independent Macedonian state, under the protectorate of one of the great non-involved powers (having primarily in mind the USA) as an unbiased, just and permanent solution to the problem. The final aim of this idea was the establishment of radically new relations on the Balkans which would ensure permanent stability in that neuralgic region. Such a solution was also presented at the secret negotiations for separate peace between the powers of the Entente on the one side and Bulgaria on the other under the observance of the USA. The interest in the Macedonian question was renewed yet again in the official diplomacy of the USA, with President W. Wilson's peace programme. In the official American interpretation of the "14 items'.', the USA declared that they would support an objective and unbiased investigation of the problem. An American expert group studied the Treaty of Bucharest of 1913 and concluded that it could not serve as a basis for a solution to the Balkan problems because that agreement was "an act of the corrupted Balkan bourgeoisies".

                                At the beginning of the Paris Peace Conference, twenty- five renowned intellectuals from different European countries, Great Britain and the USA signed a Memorandum on the Macedonian question and sent it to the President of the USA. They demanded the formation of an autonomous Macedonian state in its natural and ethnic borders, which in the south would stretch from the Lake of Kostur to the Vardar estuary, thus leaving the towns of Ber and Negrita and the Halkidiki Peninsula to Greece. Furthermore, it was suggested that in the beginning the autonomous Macedonian state be under the protectorate of one of the great powers (the USA presumably). An unsigned Memorandum with identical contents was sent to Great Britain, too. The issue of the formation of a Macedonian state was the subject of an intense exchange of opinions and viewpoints among the members of the USA Peace Delegation, the American diplomatic representatives in the European states and the members of the American teams of experts. This was especially evident after the request of the Macedonians to be allowed a presence at the Paris Conference in order to present their demands. The member of the team of experts for Balkan questions C. Day informed A. Dulles in a letter about his numerous consultations with impartial experts on the Macedonian question who admitted the existence of problems arising from the issue, but were unanimously for the formation of an autonomous Macedonian state. The envoy of the American President, his personal friend and an expert on European relations, Professor George Herron urged President W. Wilson and the American Peace Delegation to put the Macedonian question on the agenda of the Peace Conference, supporting the integrity and independence of Macedonia. In a letter of May 26th to Colonel Haus, the leader of the American delegation and the most influential political figure after the President, Professor Herron wrote that the Macedonians were a separate nation, unified in their demands and wishes to form an independent state under the protectorate of the USA. Col. Haus himself supported "the cause of Macedonian freedom".

                                Despite the favourable attitude of most of the USA representatives, the Macedonian question remained outside the agenda of the Peace Conference due to the categorical opposition of France and Great Britain who supported the aspirations of the Balkan Allies, Greece and Serbia (i.e. the Kingdom of the Serbs, Croats and Slovenians) to keep the occupied parts of Macedonia. At the Paris Peace Conference, when the peace terms were negotiated with the Balkan states, the Macedonian question was treated as a minority problem and discussed at the Committee for New States and the Protection of the Minorities. At its meeting on July 15th, 1919 the Italian delegation submitted a proposal for the autonomous status of Macedonia "within borders fixed by the Great Powers and their allies" with the highest possible degree of self-government, but within the borders of the new Kingdom of SCS. The meeting of July 18th discussed the stipulations which were to be introduced at the peace negotiations with the Balkan states concerning the protection of minorities. These stipulations also included the Macedonian minorities in the Balkan states, referred to as "Macedonians". At the meeting of July 30th the Committee discussed the Italian proposal for the autonomy of Macedonia and the British proposal for the establishment of League of Nations control over Macedonia. As regards this, it was suggested that the League of Nations be authorized to send its representatives to Macedonia. The following meetings discussed the same proposals in a somewhat modified form. Due to the opposing views on the question, it remained open till the beginning of November 1919. The text of the Peace Agreement on minorities and the obligations of the government of the Kingdom of SCS for the protection of the rights of minorities were then finally formulated. On November, llth the Supreme Council accepted the proposed text of the document and obliged the government of the Kingdom of SCS to sign the agreement. The Committee for New States also prepared stipulations for protection of minorities in Greece where the Macedonian people were given minority status.'

                                The Committee informed the Greek delegation about the draft-agreement for the protection of minorities and the stipulations included in it. The president of the Greek government and a leader of the peace delegation responded to this document issued by the Committee with a false statement that Greece had provided protection for the Albanian, Moslem and Slav minorities (the latter referred to as "the Slav communities in Macedonia") and claimed that Greece was ready to accept the agreement. According to this, the president of Greece recognized the existence of a Macedonian minority. The stipulations for the protection of minorities put Greece under an obligation to introduce minority languages in the state schools, but Venizelos resisted this and demanded reformulation of the decrees for the protection of minorities. At the meeting on September 18th the Supreme Council rejected all the Greek comments and on November 3rd ratified its agreement with Greece. Having imposed his plans for a reciprocal exchange of population between Greece and Bulgaria, the aim of which was only to conduct an ethnic cleansing of the occupied Aegean part of Macedonia with international approval, Venizelos presented himself as especially co-operative as regards the Agreement. Accepting his demands, the Committee for New States formed a separate Sub-Committee which prepared "special stipulations" for "voluntary emigration" of the citizens of these states during a period of four years after the effectuation of the Agreement. The Committee for New States only redefined this decree as an individual right for voluntary emigration, thus changing nothing essential in it. The suggestion of expanding these stipulations to refer to the Kingdom of SCS and Turkey was not accepted. The Committee prepared a separate convention for an exchange of citizens between Greece and Bulgaria on a voluntary basis. The Supreme Council approved of its text and obliged the Bulgarian delegation to sign it within 48 hours. The Bulgarian delegation signed the convention within the given period of notice. The stipulations for the protection of minorities which also referred to parts of the Macedonian people were not respected by the Balkan states. The Macedonian people was subjected to very severe de-nationalization and assimilation. Greece applied such means of violent pressure that it forced a great part of the Macedonian population to accept "voluntary" emigration.

                                By the Foreign Relations Council for Research Into South-Eastern Europe; Macedonian Academy of Sciences and Arts

                                Sources:

                                Bogov, Vasil. Macedonian Revelation, Historical Documents Rock and Shatter Modern Political Ideology. Western Australia, 1998.

                                Brailsford, H. N. Macedonia Its Races and their Future. New York: Arno Press, 1971.



                                NOTES:

                                1. MACEDONIA by H.N. Brailsford London 1906 Pages 87-88

                                2. THE GREEK STRUGGLE IN MACEDONIA 1897-1913 by Douglas Dakin 1966

                                Page 19

                                3. " " " " " Page 149

                                4. THE GREEK STRUGGLE IN MACEDONIA 1897-1913 by Douglas Dakin 1966

                                Page 143 N

                                5. A STUDY OF HISTORY by Arnold J. Toynbee 1957 Great Britain Page 156

                                6. DIMITRI STANCIOFF by Nadeja Muir 1957 London Pages 260- 261

                                7. " " " " " " Page 261

                                8. THE GREEK PASSION by Kenneth Young 1969 London Page 126

                                9. THE STRUGGLE FOR GREEK INDEPENDENCE by Richard Clogg 1973 Page

                                182

                                10. THE STRUGGLE FOR GREEK INDEPENDENCE by Richard Clogg 1973 Page

                                182

                                11. HISTORY OF MACEDONIA 1354-1833 by AE. Vacalopoulos Balkan Studies 1973

                                Page 182

                                12. " " " " " " Page 182

                                13. THE STRUGGLE FOR GREEK INDEPENDENCE by Richard Clogg 1973 Page

                                184

                                14. THE TRUTH ABOUT MACEDONIA, AMERICAN MISSIONARIES

                                TESTIMONY INDIANA U.S.A. 1964 Page 47

                                15. MACEDONIA by H.N. Brailsford London 1906 Page 195

                                16. " " " " " " Page 210

                                17. THE GREEK PASSION by Kenneth Young London 1969 Page 146

                                18. MACEDONIA by H.N. Brailsford London 1906 Page 197

                                19. MACEDONIA by H.N. Brailsford London 1906 Page 212

                                20. HISTORY OF MACEDONIA 1354-1833 by A.C. Vacalopoulos Balkan Studies 1973 Pages 168-169

                                21. THE NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC MAGAZINE WASHINGTON DC July 1918 UNDER THE HEEL OF THE TURK Page 53

                                22. " " " " Page 53

                                23. " " " " Page 51

                                24. " " " " Page 51

                                25. " " " " Pages 51-52

                                26. " " " " Page 52

                                27. " " " " Page 53

                                28. " " " " Page 53

                                29. MACEDONIA by H.N. Brailsford London 1906 Page 203

                                30. " " " " Page 210

                                31. PICTURES FROM THE BALKANS by John Foster Fraser 1912 Page 181

                                32. " " " " Page 15

                                33. " " " " Page 15

                                34 This tale may be a calumny. M. Tricoupis always denied that he had attempted to bring about an alliance with Bulgaria (see Nicolaides, La Macedoine," p. 203).

                                35. As a matter of history the Greeks have been neither more nor less humane than other Balkan people. The War of Independence was a dialogue of massacre in which outrage answered to outrage. The Cretans perpetrated a wholesale massacre at the expense of the Moslem minority in the eastern (Sitia) districts of the island in 1897. I saw with my own eyes young Moslem girls who had escaped mutilated from these horrors. During the Thessalian campaign of 1897 I was present when an Evzone regiment strung up a Turkish prisoner by his heels from a tree, and proceeded to lay a fire of wood and straw under his head. Fortunately he promised to give them valuable information before the fire was actually lit, and at that moment some Italian officers of the Foreign Legion appeared on the scene.

                                36. MACEDONIA by H.N. Brailsford London 1906 Pages 210-213

                                You can contact the author at [email protected]
                                1) Macedonians belong to the "older" Mediterranean substratum...
                                2) Macedonians are not related with geographically close Greeks, who do not belong to the "older" Mediterranenan substratum...

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