Can we ever expect from the ‘neo-greeks’ (ie. modern-day Greeks) and of the ‘neo ”graeco-latin” peoples’ of the hellenic peninsula (ie. the modern-day Albanians and Romanians and/or Moldovans) to live in peace with their slavophone neighbours, and also accept to much of their most ridiculous propaganda, which somehow claims that Alexander the Great spoke ‘ancient slavic’ and that even Alexander’s horse, Voukephalas, was a Yugo Zastava?

To the extend that the modern-day slavophone-Macedonians remain ‘true macedonians’ who only got slavicized in language but not in spirit, they have to rid off the muck of all these centuries of roman, slavic and of ottoman occupations, and yet again lean on to Greece for guidance and acceptance. Be sure, that like anyone lost or stray child who gets back home to his mother, Greece will accept and take back her all of her lost and stray children; and that, along with the greek people today, Greece will -for once more- open her arms to hug and protect them again, like she did in the distant past of the proto-bulgarian (ie. tataric) and of the avaro-slavic (ie. tataric and caucasian scytho-sarmatian) raids and invasions.

The scytho-sarmatian slavophones are no longer the slaves (ie. ’slavs’) or the servants (ie. ’serbs’) of the various tataric and turranic hordes and tribes. They no longer are the southernmost ‘extended arm’ of the Tzarist Russia and of her imperialist foreign policy nor they no longer remain the southernmost ‘invisible hand’ of Stalinist Russia’s diplomacy in the balkans. It is about time for the slavophones of the balkans to find a common ground with the more ancient peoples of the peninsula (ie. first and foremost with the Greeks, then with the Albanians and the Romanians) so that they will soon co-operate, learn how to live toghether in peace, learn how to build stronger intra-national relations so that any part in this accord will benefit, prosper and progress.

The neo-Greeks (of ancient dorian and ionian greek origins), the modern-day Albanians (of ancient graeco-illyrian and of graeco-latin origins), the modern-day Romanians and Moldovans (of ancient thrako-pelasgian greek and daco-roman and graeco-byzantine origins) shall learn to cooperate with the ‘mixed’ in terms of origin, slavophone peoples of the penisnula (ie. with the modern-day bulgarians, serbo-croats, bosniacs, slavophone-macedonians, and so on) and lead them to a united europe of the peoples, and to a united balkan peninsula of all its peoples.

A southern balkan federation could begin very shortly, which would include Greece, Albania and Kosova, Montenegro, FYROM and Bulgaria. Later on, to that federation could also take part the Serbo-Croats, along with the Bosniacs, and the Romanians, along with the Moldovans. An extended balkan federation could also include the Hungarians and the Slovenians to the north, as well as, the Cypriots in the south, the southern-Italians and the Sicilyans in the west, and the western-Turks of ancient Ionia and of Asia Minor in the east. The name of the Federation could possibly be that of Pelasgia or Hellenic Republic, since all the peoples who inhabit those lands today -to a lesser or greater extend- can claim a common unique ancestry, given that they all come from the ancient common genator named Pelasgus and/or from his children, the Hellenes.

Indeed, the peoples of the balkans today look so much alike that, despite of their significant difference in terms of the language they speak today (note, that from all the ancient and indigenous peoples of the balkans, it is only the greeks who have kept their original laguage almost intact until the present day), their -more or less- common culture and their alomost identical physical characteristics, clearly indicate that they have significantly more in common with one another than with any other people in the whole of europe or, as a matter of fact, in the whole of asia.

Long live the united balkan federation, long live Pelasgia and the federal Hellenic republic

Elias Leon Assimakopoulos,
Athens, Greece.

There is the assumption that the Illyrians of the north, as well as those of the north-western parts of the hellenic peninsula, from pannonia and upto the dalmatian coast, had become ‘romanised’ prior to their partial slavicisation, which happened many centuries later. To the extend that something like that could have really happened many centuries earlier than the avaro-slavic raids of the balkans, we can explaine the uniqueness of the methysteron ‘albanian faenomenon’. The albanians always attested their kinship and traced their historic roots to the illyrians, the dardanians, the paeonians, the mollosians (ie. an epirotan-greek tribe), the ancient macedonians (ie. a dorian-greek tribe), the mythical troyans (achean-mycenaean greeks) of Ilium and finally to the ancient pelasgians (ie. ionian-mycenaean greeks), which were probably the first inhabitants of the greek peninsula. By the time when they were violently pushed southwards by the raiding avaro-slavs -and by the time when they finally managed to reach the lands of the graeco-illyrians in montenegro, south serbia, northern albania, as well as, when they finally reached the dardanians and the paeonians -in and around the lands of Kosovo and in Fyrom, they had already developed an up to a certain extend romanized illyrian-latin dialect, by which they tried to communicate with the hellenic and/or hellenicized peoples in the south and in the ‘new lands’ (ie. in the northern and central albania, in kosovo, in the northwestern parts of Fyrom, and so on) where they found refuge.

On the other hand, the graeco-illyrians, or the so called ‘real illyrians’ of montenegro and of northern albania (ie. the ancient illyro-macedonian kingdom of Illyris) did not ever develop a significant latinophonia or simply put it, they had never become at any extend significantly romaniazed up until the arrival of the north romanized latino-illyrians. The reason for it, has been that their lands were laying -for most of the time- within the boundaries of the hellenistic byzantine empire. Hence, the language of them remained greek, as it quite probably ever was. Moreover, to the extend that those real illyrians -along with the original dardanians, the indigenous epirotans, the paeonians, the macedonians, and so on- were mixing with the fleeing, romaniazed and up to a certain extend, latinophones illyrians of the north, they finally developed a rather different and unique language of graeco-latin origin, which up until nowadays is widely spoken amongst the albanians. Hence, the contemporary albanians trully can claim ancestry to the ancient illyrians, and to all the other graeco-pelasgian tribes of the north-western parts of the hellenic peninsula, since they are of ancient romanized illyrian-pelasgian -and therefore of an indigenous to the peninsula- northern greek stock, which developed a particular gaeco-latinophonous language by the times of the roman conquest.

The same applies, more or less, to ancient macedonians. Before the avaro-slavic raids, that is before the 6th-8th centuries, they all spoke greek and quite probably they all fell macedonian, which is also greek. Despite the many centuries of the roman conquest they never seem to have lost their original language, unlike the northern illyrians of pannonia and of dalmatia or the northern thrakians, who lived beyond the mount Haemus and the river Danube. The northern thrakian tribes have got completely romanized and therefore developed a certain latinophonia (ie. the dacians, the northern thrakians, the triballoi, the mysians, and so on, all of them nowadays speak romanian or the vlackh language, which is akin to ancient latin).

As for the macedonians of the north, the paeonians, the southern dardanians, and for some thrakian agriannes, throughout the centuries that followed the furious avaro-slavic raids and their final conquest by the barbarians, and throughout the centuries of the turkish-Otthoman conquest, they all adopted the boulgarian or, alternatively, the serbian languages as their own. However, it is significant that -up to a certain extend, and especially during the last two centuries in particular, there is a continuous process of national re-awakening of those ”mixed”, ancient and barbarian peoples alike. That is the case, especially amongst the peoples that today inhabit much of the land of Fyrom and of the Pyrin-macedonian region, which lays into the modern day Boulgaria.

On the other hand, the slavicized graeco-thrakians and the ionian-greeks mixed with the avaro-slavs and with the proto-boulgarians of the contemporary boulgarian province of Eastern Romylia, as well as those of the boulgarian-pontic coastal-line region (which, also belonged to the historic north Thrake and layed within the ancient greek world for many centuries, indeed) still do not seem to show any significant signs of national re-awakening.

Hence, it is to the benefit of Greece for the slavophones-macedonians to return to their macedonian origins, even though more or less abnormaly. This particular abnormality has to do far less with their ‘prototype’ -and up to a certain extend ‘unique national consiousness’ of macedonianism, as something dinstictive and, in general terms, even opposed to greekness and to historic facts. Moreover, the muck of centuries of violent slavicisation will fall apart as soon as the slavophone-macedonians find their common ground with Greece, which has to be a non-antagonistic common ground for sure that respects the two macedonian cultures; that of the greek continuouity as well as that of the slavo-macedonian ‘pseudo-ekremes’. The slavophone macedonian brothers of modern-day greeks need protection from Boulgaria’s historico-political aspirations and expantionist-nationalist ideology. Greece should be on their side, not against them. Together, we surely can!

Elias Leon Assimakopoulos,
Athens, Greece.

For ancient Greeks, including ancient Makedonians, the word ‘e8nos’ had a quite different meaning. In ancient greek culture, anyone genuine e8nos had to meet 3 criteria.

a) ‘Omaimon’ (and sometimes reffered to as ‘omotropon’), that is for the immense majority of its people to belong to the same ‘race’ or simply to ’share the same blood’. Because, they could not conduct any significant an8ropological studies (sic!) or accurate ‘blood-tests’ by that time (lol), they had to meet the condition of the ‘omaimon-omotropon’ as the sharing of a common tradition, of having a common culture with a standrardised way of living. That is why they always tried to point to the sharing of common ancestry and they were preoccupied with the construction of explicit and thus, of very detailed ‘family trees’. In a word, they had to share a more or less ‘common’ ancestral blood-line. By that token, ancient makedonians claimed that they were of ancient dorian-hellenic stock and traced their roots back to Argos Orestiko and to the ancient Mycenean greek world.

Almost the same applies further north to the Illyrioi -or, to the Graeco-Illyrians, children of the mythical Illyrios, son of the greek Theban king Cadmos and of the greek royalty Armonia. The graeco-Illyrian kingdom extended from the Mat Valley of today’s N.Albania, well into the Montenegro and the Dalmatian coast in Croatia, Bosnia-Herzegovina and much of Serbia. That is, southwards of course of the Celtic city of Singidunum, ie. the ancient Beograd, and up to the land of the Dardanians near today’s Kosovo. Between, the city of Beograd and Kosovo, the ancient illyrian tribe of the Aytariatae lived, which was distinguished to the so called ‘real-illyrians’ of N.Albania, Montenegro and Dalmatia. Many illyrian tribes, feeling that they were either of Graeco-Hellenic (ie, dorian, magnessian, makedonian, north-western greek and/or epirotan, aeolic, etc.) or of Pelasgian (ie, ionian, arkadian, achean, danaian, thessalian, minoan-cretan, arkado-cyprian, graeco-pheonician, cretan-philistinean, cycladean, etc) discent and origin, had the need or simply were feeling compelled to apply for admitance to the olympic games, which by that time were only for greeks of origin. Note that the ancient makedonians were always allowed to compete to the olympic games and that their greekness was more or less taken for granted.

Equally, the Dardanoi in modern-day Kossovo, which by that time Dardania included the cities of Scopje in FYROM and that of Nis in contemporary Southern Serbia, claimed a common ancestry with the ancient greeks, the ionian and pelasgian greeks in particular, through their mythical hero, an ancient Dardanos who has been one of the founders of ionian-pelasgian city of Athens. Many 8rakian ‘fyles’ or tribes also claimed their common ancestry with the southern greeks, including the paeonians of Fyrom and of modern-day southwest Bulgaria, the agriannes, the triballoi, the bryges and the frygians, the bythinians, the lydians, the lykians and the lykaonians, even the kapadokians and the kolcheans, etc. The same is true for the roman and latin tribes of italy which claimed a common ancestry with the mythical graeco-pelasgus and with the trojans of the mycenean era. Not to mention the Tyrsinoi or the tyrrhenoi
(ie, the etrurians or etruscans), the Venetoi, the Istrians, the Messapians, the Japyges and the Japodes, the Liburnians, and so on.

b) The second criterion was that of the ‘omodoxon’ or ‘omo8riskon’; that is, the condition of a common religious dogma, of a system of common metaphysical and spiritual beleifs (and, up to a certain extend, of a system of common social and political beleifs), an exeigesis for the cosmos, for their relationship and for their attitude towards the nature or the ‘physis’, for their common past and their common ancestors, for the devine and for the ‘8eio’, etc. Not only the makedonians had the same religion with the southern greeks, they worshiped the same olympian gods with their southern ‘omoe8neis’ greeks, but also many thracian, illyrian, roman and various other ancient tribes had common religious and cultural beleifs. Hence, the greeks, makedonians included, the other pelasgians, ie. the illyrians, the thracians, the pelasgian tribes of asia minor, the pelasgian tribes of rome, latium and of italy, all of them had more or less the same gods, the same religious systems, they worshiped Zeys and the Olympians, Dionysos, Hercules, Aleksander, and all of their ancestors of various importance, historic or mythical persons of any significance to them like glorious kings, politicians, emperors, ’stratilates’ or famous army officials of past war expenditions from their glorious and long forgotten past, as well as the nature, the sun and the ouranos, the mother earth and the seas, and so on.

c) The third criterion was that of the same and a common language, the ‘omoglotton’ or the ‘omoglosson’. The makedonians could easily understand and commounicate effectively with the southern greeks and with all the hellenes, and vice versa. The greeks though could not easily communicate with many of the northern-illyrians, with some of the northern thrakians, with the triballoi, the dacians and the mysians, and so on. Some of them could easily understand or even speak the more demanding and thus, more intellect southern ionian or the ‘attic koine’ dialect, which had been adopted by most fo the graeco-hellenic (dorian) and the graeco-pelasgian (ionian) tribes. That language was clearly understood and were spoken among the tribes of epirous and of the north-western greeks, among those tribes throughout the original makedonian lands and even in paeonia and dardania, in the greek epiroto-makedonian area of the ‘illyris’ (extending for the Mat Valley to the Dalmatian coastline and to the Montenegran heartland) as well as in much of the thrake, up to south of the Mt Aemos (today Stara Planina) and the river danube (Istros/Isteros), and southwards to mainland greece and up to the peloponese, crete, cyprus, the greek islands, in much of southern italy and in much of asia minor.

Others though didn’t adopt too quickly, so they left behind and their culture began to defferentiate significantly from that of the pelasgian-greeks or of the hellenic-greeks of the peninsula. Hence, the illyrians in libournia, istria, pannonia, japygia, the venetioi, the rhaetians, the carrinthians in southern austria, the etruscans and the lygurians, the messapians in italy, the aytariatae in today serbia, the triballoi, much of the mysians, as well as the northern thrakians, especially those in dacia (in modern-day Romania) did not adapt too quickly to the southern pelasgian-greek language, up until the era of the hellenistic kingdoms, the era of Alexander the Great and even much later, when they began to adopt the ‘hellenistic koine’ language the peoples from the balkans and asia minor, to the caucasus and the pontic regions, and up to the middle east, in syria and in palestine, and even among the peoples of the tigris and the eyphratis rivers.

Implications: First and foremost, ancient and historic makedonians were found on all three conditions greeks, like those of the south. Ancient and historic illyrians, at least the so-called ‘real illyrians’ of northern albania, montenegro and dalmatia, were also pelasgian-greeks -and, closer to greeks culturally, linguistically and according to the three conditions that were mentioned above, were closer to official ‘greekness’ and ‘greekhood’than to any other culture, spoken language and material civilisation of that particular era. Clearly though, they were not Celts, Slavs or Germans.

Along with the paeonians and the dardanians, and along with most of the thrakians up until the Mt Haemos that shared a common greek and pelasgian culture with the epirotans, the makedonians and with the southern greeks, the so called ‘real illyrians’ can be considered as to be indeed, fully-flegged graeco-pelasgians of the same ancient greek and pelasgian stock of the indigenous peoples of the north-western parts of the hellenic peninsula. From then onwards, this peninsula was homogenious ethnically, racially, linguistically, culturally and religiously up until the roman conquest. A significant and common culture was to be developed among most of the pelasgian peoples from the Mt Haemos southwards, to Dardania, Montenegro and Dalmatia, and yet again southwards to the peninsula into the greek mainland, westwards to S.Italy and Sicely and easternwards to Asia Minor and N.Egypt.

Few centuries later, even more of the peoples of thrake, dacia and up to the depths of asia minor met in full the above criteria and gained their position into the glorious ancient greek pantheon of eternity.

H.L. Assimakopoulos,
Athens, Greece.

8a prepei na krinoume th skopimothta twn syn8hmatwn ths aristeras symfwna pantote me thn epikairothta k’ thn olh politiko-koinwnikh sygkhria. Anamfivola, alles oi syn8hkes to 1923, alles to 1944, alles to 1991-91, k polu pi8ana k’ alles akomh kai shmera. To oti shmera den yparxei meionothta sthn perioxh ths ellhnikhs makedonias de shmainei kala kai nte oti pantote htan kai etsi. Otan to 1922-23 to SEKE-KKE yio8etouse th 8esh ths KOMINTERN gia dikaioma sthn aytodia8esh k prwo8ouse kai thn efarmogh tou sth ellhnikh xersonhso tou Aimou -dld, se oloklhrh th valkanikh mazi me ta alla KK ths perioxhs, ta pragmata htan entelws diaforetika. H plh8hsmiakh syn8esh ths ellhnikhs makedonias kai ths 8rakhs htan teleiws diaforetikh apo ayth pou exoume sto myalo mas emeis shmera. Allh htan h pleiopshfia sth 8essalonikh tote, alloi einai h shmerinh. Alloi htan oi ply8hsmoi oloklhrhs ths perioxhs ths voreias elladas tote kai alloi einai shmera, idiaitera meta apo tis ‘antallages twn plh8ysmwn’ me thn tourkia k tis alles valkanikes xwres, k pantote ystera apo thn eisodo twn prosfygwn apo th mikra asia.

Se mia ellhnikh makedonia poy tote akoma den yphrxan oi ellhnes prosfyges ‘mikrasiates’ k’ ‘pontioi’, poy den eixan akoma apoxwrhsei polloi tourkoi, voulgaroi, slavo-makedones, roumanizontes k’ latinofonoi-vlaxoi, alvano-tsamhdes, polloi evraioi alla k’ ellhnes tsigganoi-’rom’, oi apaithseis twn kairwn gia thn aristera htan diaforetikes, opote kai ta syn8hmata ofeilan na einai alla tote kai alla shmera. As mh vlepoume ta pragmata statika. Yparxei mia dynamikh alla kai ena synexes ‘protses’ politiko-koinwnikhs e3eli3hs, posotikwn k’ poiotikwn allagwn sta dedomena twn koinwniwn kai twn e8nwn thw perioxhs, ka8ws kai diaforwn shmantikwn gia th plh8ysmiakh systash ths makedonias tou aigaiou tote kai shmera, to opoio kai an paravlepsoume 8a katalh3oume se esfalmena symperasmata gia thn epikairothta twn syn8hmatatwn ths aristeras tote, opws k’ twra.

Se genikes grammes loipon tote oi syntrofoi toy SEKE k epeita toy KKE poly swsta ekanan kai yperaspizontan ekeinh th grammh. To na yperaspizesai to dikaioma twn e8nwn sthn aytodia8esh, mexri aposxisews, akomh k’ e8nikou apoxwrismou gia ta en logw e8nh, de shmainei kiolas pws propagandizeis ayta ta syn8hmata taktikhs, oute k’ pws ousiastika ensternizesai ta e8nikistika oramata twn e8nikwn meionothtwn pou tygxanei na dinoyn to diko toys agwna gia e8nikh ane3arthsia, aytodia8esh k gia apeley8erwsh. As mh 3exname pws to ‘e8niko’ einai kai ‘astiko’ kai pws tis perissoteres fores, idiaitera de se mia perifereiakh mini-imperialistikh xwra opws einai kai h ellada tou shmera, o ex8ros vrisketai mesa sthn idia mas th xwra!

Ara, se kamia periptwsh ta syn8hmata ths aristeras, akomh pio poly shmera, sto edw kai to twra, den mporoun na einai ta idia me ekeina ths egxwrias astikhs ta3hs. H aristera ofeilei na exei diaforetika syn8hmata apo thn astikh ta3h shmera gia to 8ema twn e8nikwn meionothtwn, ara epeishs kai gia to 8ema ths makedonias kai twn slavomakedonwn. Den mporoume na arnoumaste peismatika thn ypar3h tous, thn e8nikothta tous, tis paradoseis tous kai to dikaioma tous ston e8niko ayto-prosdiorismo, oso ki an mas stenoxwroun oi ypervoles kai oi e8nikistikoi dy8yrramvoi pou dystuxws akougontai kai apo thn allh meria twn synorwn.

Apo thn allh pali, as mhn 3exname pws oi slavomakedones shmera sthn ellada einai mia katapiesmenh meionotikh e8nothta, sthn opoia anamesa stis alles e8nikes meionothtes ths xwras, ofeiloume san aristeroi alla kai san die8nistes na anagnwrisoume plhrh dikaiomata sth glwssa, ton e8niko ayto-prosdiorismo kai th politikh ‘ thn 8rhskeytikh syneidhsh. Eidallws, den 8a eimaste pragmatika aristeroi kai die8nistes, toulaxiston a3ioi aytou tou orou.

Hlias L. Assimakopoulos,
A8hna, Greece.

By the way, the modern-day greek nation-state tries for over a century now to convince the macedonian-slavs that they are not bulgarians but, that they too are somewhat.. ‘macedonians’. On the other hand, the greek state tries to convince the bulgarians, they are not tatars and turko-mongols as the proto-voulgarians and the avaro-slavs were in the past but that they too are indeginous greco-thrakians, mixed or blended with a bit of celtic, german, baltic-slavic and miscalaenious ‘noric’ blood, which in general ‘is not a bad thing at all..’ (lol).

Equally, they try to convince the albanians that they too are of ancient greco-italic or greco-latin stock, that is greco-illyrian or simply ‘illyrian’, which historically is more akin to ‘greek’, ‘greekness’ and ‘greekhood’ than to the modern-day italian-papistans or to the slavs and/or to the turks and to the ottomans..

It is funny that the modern-day greeks have somehow succeeded to convince more or less the albanians that they are ‘pure’ greco-illyrians or greco-dardanians, the bulgarians that they are greco-thrakians, the macedonian-slavs that they are not bulgarians but somehow.. ‘macedonian-slavs’, the serbo-croats that they are greco-illyrian and persian-iranian and not slav or baltic and finaly the turks that they are not turanic, yellow or asian but, because of their greek origins and of their glorious past, they too are ‘mikrasiates’, that is greco-ionians and greco-frygians and thus, that they too are a pure white, european and indigenus people.

This is madness, but some people like it! So, keep it up you ‘neo-greeks’ and you modern-day ‘greculoi’ of avaro-slav origin, you people of turano-mongol, tataro-fino-hungrian and of turko-albanian stock. And if you find the true and the pure discendants of the ancient inhabitants of the greek peninsula i will make a ’spondi’ to Zeus and to all the Olympian Gods!

Hlias Leonidas Assimakopoulos,
Athens, Greece

But we really can not help by agreeing as we do. The Republic Macedonia would like to claim Alexander a direct ancestor while Greece wants to claim Alexander as a direct ancestor of their Macedonians who are Greeks! Both claims are ridiculous and right at the same time! since there is no other people who could have such a claim; and, as you seams to agree, that such a claim, so concrete and so defined claim is - ABSOLUTELLY irrelevant.

Let me say a word more, not for you but may be for the others who are also following this discussion. You seam to know the works of Ernest Renan, or modern authors alike Gellner or Hobsbawm on the notion of “nation”. There is an entry in Wikipedia about “nation” which is not of much help, although some good literature is given. So let me say briefly: I thought, long ago, that the “nation” did not exist in reality. Now I think that it could be a kind of World 3 object (as Popper defined it), and that its reality can not be contested, although it escapes all definitions.

But! There are moral reasons why we should behave as we most often do in respect to “nations”: respect personalities and human rights. I think that we are all born in time and place and this may be, for majority of us – and should hold for ALL of us, where we are “at home”. Certainly, people may change their preferences. But we, we should respect their feelings about belonging to places and times. Displacement of populations is a crime and if we do not keep this to be an essential rule, we will have terrible problems (take Palestine for example).

In our context this should mean: keep all as it is and try to recompense for the losses in the recent past without casing another harm. Then we should accept that there are no historical rights that can be transformed into the sufferings of the people who even were not born then when these rights had been presumably gained.

We hvery likelly have similar conclusion. Macedonians of all ancient Macedonian territories and all that feel being Macedonians would have to find a way, as you propose, for example, to tune finely the names of their regions or states so that they could, in collaboration, help each other to survive. Since the region is such that there are forces around which tend to expand on the account of exactly Macedonian entity which is being mutually negated by exactly those who should do just the opposite: acclaim each other.

By your own admission you’ve said that a Macedonian is someone who has lived in the land of Macedonia for generations (let’s not get on to silly topics of who has been living there the most generations as this is obviously irrelevant). If this is the only requisite of being Macedonian, then all the peoples of this region have an equal right to identifying themselves by this name regardless of ethnicity, race or language.

Would you not therefore agree that the only way forward is for each group to use a disambiguated form of the term ‘Macedonia’ and ‘Macedonian’? A geographic or ethnic qualifier perhaps e.g. Northern Macedonian, Greek Macedonian. This would be fair to everyone.

North Macedonia or New Macedonia or Upper Macedonia can henceforth start to have a normal relationship with Greece, consolidate its place in the world and address the ‘real’ issues facing its existence.

There is no single word for which we are sure to be ancient Macedonian word. Kalleris I think cited 156 glosses. Indeed when we have a glossa (a word), we do not know whether this is its preserved original form, or Hellenised original one or whatever combination of use or reuse, indirect import etc. When surroundings is linguistically clear then such inferences could be made. Unfortunately our knowledge of 4th century BC and of earlier times is very limited, there is no language from the region that is preserved (Illyrian may be some glosses, Thracian I think 5-6 glosses in spite of the fact that certainly over 200 language were spoken and that there were almost all quite distant.

The Macedonians from the Republic of Macedonia speak a variant that is south Slave and if the ancient Macedonians in reality spoke that language, then we would have a surprise of the order of a revolution. But, one has to compare Sanskrit with the old languages, old Slave for example, or Baltic languages, and then the ancient Greek to realise that the languages are in fact not so distant and that, who knows, we may have surprises.

However, this what I just said is all on some other level and has NOTHING to do with today’s political problem.