Neither in this book we find any “Makedonski”.

By ChicagoGeorge

By ChicagoGeorge

Another source from 1903 describing the races of Macedonia. Greek, Bulgarians, Turks, Albanians……. It describes the Greeks as the most ancient race of Macedonia number 350,000, 500,000 Bulgarians, and 3/4’s of all Muslims are Turkish…. As usual for the frustration of Skopjan Propagandists, no independent Makedonskian group listed.

By ChicagoGeorge

Η ΜΑΚΕΔΟΝΙΚΗ ΜΕΙΟΝΟΤΗΤΑ ΣΤΗΝ ΜΕΤΑΛΛΑΓΜΕΝΗ ΜΙΚΡΗ ΒΟΥΛΓΑΡΙΑ

Με την αλλαγή φρουράς στον Λευκό Οίκο στις πρόσφατες αμερικανικές εκλογές και την επάνοδο των Δημοκρατικών στην εξουσία, ανοίγει ουσιαστικά ξανά το θέμα των Βαλκανίων, ως συνέχεια του έργου της κυβέρνησης του Μπίλ Κλίντον.

Η διάλυση της Γιουγκοσλαβίας έχει παγιωθεί πλέον και η φαινομενική εκκρεμότητα του θέματος των Σκοπίων πλησιάζει στη λύση του..

Ρόλο κλειδί στις εξελίξεις θα παίξουν τρεις σημαντικοί παράγοντες.

Οι δυο είναι ορατοί στην διεθνή κοινότητα –Ηνωμένα Έθνη και Ε.Ε.- ενώ ο τρίτος που ακούει στο όνομα ΜΑΚΕΔΟΝΙΚΗ ΜΕΙΟΝΟΤΗΤΑ στο νομό της ΠΕΛΑΓΟΝΙΑΣ και που θα παίξει σημαντικό ρόλο στις εξελίξεις, έχει πάρει το δρόμο της αποκάλυψης.

Το Πρώτο και κύριο που απασχολεί τους Αμερικανούς, είναι η παγίωση της κρατικής οντότητας του Κοσσόβου και η πλήρη εξομάλυνση παράλληλα των σχέσεων με τους Σέρβους, αλλά ΚΥΡΙΩΣ με τους …Ρώσους.

Γι αυτό και ο προσανατολισμός πλέον προς τη λύση της προσάρτησης στην Σερβική κυριαρχία, των Σερβικών περιοχών του Κοσσυφοπεδίου, μοιάζει αναπόφευκτος.

Στην περίπτωση αυτή όμως αυτόματα, εμπλέκεται ο Πρώτος παράγοντας του εδάφους των Σκοπίων, που ακούει στο όνομα Αλβανοί της περιοχής του Τετόβου.

Με δεδομένη την απόσχιση της Μιτροβίτσας, το Κόσσοβο για να σταθεί ως κρατική οντότητα στην ευρύτερη περιοχή των Βαλκανίων, έχει ανάγκη των εδαφών αλλά κυρίως των καθαρών αλβανικών πληθυσμών της περιοχής του Τετόβου.

Το πρώτο κομμάτι του πάζλ μπήκε στη θέση του.

Είναι αδιαμφισβήτητο επίσης το γεγονός εδώ και καιρό και γνωστό στον διεθνή παράγοντα, η ύπαρξη 150.000 και πλέον κατοίκων των Σκοπίων που κατέχουν ΒΟΥΛΓΑΡΙΚΟ διαβατήριο.

Η εμφάνιση του Γκεοργκιέφσκι εξάλλου ξανά στην πολιτική σκηνή των Σκοπίων, βρίσκεται προ των Πυλών.
Να υπενθυμίσουμε απλά στο σημείο αυτό, ότι ο Γκεοργκιέφσκι ήταν κάποτε πρωθυπουργός των Σκοπίων, που ανακάλυψε αργότερα το …αυτονόητο: ότι είναι ΒΟΥΛΓΑΡΟΣ!

Οι φωνές που θα μιλούν για ΒΟΥΛΓΑΡΙΚΗ ΕΘΝΟΤΗΤΑ η οποία υπέστη ΠΟΛΙΤΙΣΤΙΚΗ ΓΕΝΟΚΤΟΝΙΑ την περίοδο της Γιουγκοσλαβικής ΚΑΤΟΧΗΣ επί δικτατορίας ΤΙΤΟ, να είστε απολύτως σίγουροι ότι θα αρχίσουν να αυξάνονται με …γεωμετρική πρόοδο τους αμέσως επόμενους μήνες και η επιβεβλημένη σιωπή που υποδείχτηκε από τους ΡΕΜΠΟΥΜΠΛΙΚΑΝΟΥΣ τα τελευταία 8 χρόνια στη ΒΟΥΛΓΑΡΙΑ θα σπάσει!

Η εξάπλωση της Βουλγαρικής επικράτειας προς δυτικά, έχει ξεκινήσει!
Εδώ μπαίνει και το δεύτερο κομμάτι του παζλ στη θέση του.

Και αρχόμαστε στον τρίτο παράγοντα της ΛΥΣΗΣ του προβλήματος των Σκοπίων, που ακούει στο όνομα ΜΑΚΕΔΟΝΙΚΗ ΜΕΙΟΝΟΤΗΤΑ στην ευρύτερη περιοχή της Πελαγονίας.

Με την πρόσφατη διαδήλωση των Ελληνικών οργανώσεων στις 28 Οκτωβρίου στη Νέα Υόρκη, μπροστά από το κτήριο των Ηνωμένων Εθνών, με κύριο σύνθημα ‘ΝΤΡΟΠΗ ΣΤΗΝ ΠΓΔΜ’ και ‘ΔΙΚΑΙΩΜΑΤΑ ΣΤΗΝ ΕΛΛΗΝΙΚΗ ΜΕΙΟΝΟΤΗΤΑ ΤΩΝ ΣΚΟΠΙΩΝ’, έχει ανοίξει ο δρόμος για να έρθει στην επιφάνεια η μεγάλη ΜΑΚΕΔΟΝΙΚΗ μειονότητα των Ελλήνων που ζουν στην περιοχή της Πελαγονίας εδώ και εκατοντάδες χρόνια.

Είναι οι περήφανοι Ελληνόβλαχοι στην πλειοψηφία τους.

Είναι άνθρωποι που κυνηγήθηκαν από το δικτατορικό καθεστώς του ΤΙΤΟ – και που για λόγους της Ελληνογιουγκοσλαβικής φιλίας και του ΝΑΤΟ η Ελλάδα σιωπούσε-και συνεχίζουν να υφίστανται καταπιέσεις και περιορισμό της αυτοδιάθεσής τους από το ΝΑΖΙΣΤΙΚΟ καθεστώς του VMRO.

Αυτά που τράβηξε ο Αλβανικός πληθυσμός από τους Γιουγκοσλαβοποιημένους ΒΟΥΛΓΑΡΟΥΣ των Σκοπίων τόσα χρόνια, μπροστά σε αυτά που έκαναν και συνεχίζουν να κάνουν στην ΜΑΚΕΔΟΝΙΚΗ ελληνική μειονότητα των Βλάχων οι ίδιοι δολοφόνοι, μοιάζουν με παιδικό όνειρο!

Καταπίεση, φυλακίσεις, εκβιασμοί!

Η βίαιη αλλαγή των ονομάτων για να εξαφανιστεί τεχνικά η ΜΑΚΕΔΟΝΙΚΗ μειονότητα από τον ΤΙΤΟ στα Σκόπια, έπεσε στο κενό.
Η πολιτιστική γενοκτονία που επιχειρήθηκε να εφαρμοστεί και στους Έλληνες, δεν έπιασε!
Αυτό που έπαθε ο Βουλγαρικός πληθυσμός των Σκοπίων από τον ΤΙΤΟ, δεν το έπαθε ο Ελληνικός!
Έμεινε ζωντανή η πίστη του στο Πατριαρχείο, έμεινε ζωντανή η ΓΛΩΣΣΑ η ελληνική.

Η προσπάθεια να καταγραφεί αυτή η ΜΑΚΕΔΟΝΙΚΗ μειονότητα των Σκοπίων από τις ελληνικές αρχές τα τελευταία χρόνια, βρήκε πρόσφορο έδαφος, με δεδομένο το γεγονός ότι το ΝΑΖΙΣΤΙΚΟ καθεστώς του Γκρουέφσκι έχει σπείρει την τρομοκρατία.

Υπάρχουν δυο γνωστές περιπτώσεις στην διεθνή κοινότητα τρομοκρατίας του καθεστώτος των Σκοπίων.

Η πρώτη αφορά την οικογένεια ΠΑΠΟΥΛΗ, Βλάχων κατοίκων των Σκοπίων, οι οποίοι εξαναγκάστηκαν να αλλάξουν το επίθετό τους σε KOSTOF και σήμερα το ΝΑΖΙΣΤΙΚΟ καθεστώς του Γκρουέφσκι τους απαγορεύει να ξαναπάρουν πίσω το κανονικό τους όνομα!

Η δεύτερη υπόθεση, αφορά τον επίσης Βλάχο Νίκο Κωνσταντινίδη κάτοικο Μοναστηρίου http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KLfPoaQIeKM ο οποίος βγαίνει επίσημα και επώνυμα και δηλώνει ότι είναι Έλληνας και δέχεται απειλές κατά της ζωής του από τους καθεστωτικούς του Γκρουέφσκι.

Χιλιάδες είναι οι Βλάχοι που στενάζουν κάτω από την ΝΑΖΙΤΙΚΗ μπότα του Γρουέφσκι. Ένας πρόχειρος υπολογισμός του προξενείου μας στο Μοναστήρι τους υπολογίζει περίπου κοντά στις 150 με 200 χιλιάδες.

Αυτό είναι και το τρίτο κομμάτι του πάζλ, ο νομός της ΠΕΛΑΓΟΝΙΑΣ, που θα κολλήσει –όταν έρθει εκείνη η ώρα-ξανά στην μητέρα Ελλάδα.

Αναστάσιος Καζαντζίδης
Εκπαιδευτικός-αρθρογράφος
Υ.Γ.
Η λύση που ήρθε πρόσφατα στη δημοσιότητα από την ίδια τη CIA, μιλάει για δημοψηφίσματα που θα γίνουν για να αποφασίσουν οι πληθυσμοί των Σκοπίων σε ποιες χώρες θέλουν να ενσωματωθούν: Βουλγαρία, Κόσσοβο και Ελλάδα.
see english version, here>>

taxalia blog

In their follow-up paper, an explanation was provided for the first paper’s findings, probably because when one submits a manuscript to a scientific journal, there are word limits and they thus required a second paper to describe their theories in greater detail. It is clear that they understand their findings are against all historical evidence when they claim that there needs to be a revision of history in order to fit in their theories.

Another completely ridiculous assumption is how the Japanese seem to be related to sub-Saharans as well. Using their faulty analysis, they link the Japanese to Ethiopians and Greeks and show it in a figure in their paper BUT DO NOT MENTION IT ANYWHERE ELSE IN THE REST OF THE PAPER. This explanatory hypothetical paper completely ignores this finding!

The authors of these 2 manuscripts take their pseudoscience a step further trying to explain that because there are Greeks who “Negroid” genes, their theory of black ancestry in Greeks is true!

First of all, Greeks are not the only “Caucasians” to carry “Negroid” genes. All humans “races” (for lack of a better word) have “Negroid” genes in their DNA. The origin of the human race is well known to have come from Africa. Arnaiz-Villena and his team’s theories do not hold water based on their assumption.

At the end of their papers, they provide references that they used to explain their hypothesis. Not only do they misquote Herodotus, they use Bernal’s Afro-centric theory to link the Greeks directly to Africans. M. Bernal views can be viewed as skewed and politically motivated to counter 19^th Century white racism against Africans. His book Black Athena was not well received in the academic community. In fact, in 2003, the Intercollegiate Studies Institute (a non-profit US educational organization comprised of over 50 000 academics) listed Black Athena as one of the worst books of the twentieth century.

October 25, 2008

The following letter is in response to the theories put forward by Mr. Risto Stefov, who disseminates his own ignorance as a matter of historical fact. First, with regard to his absurd allegations about the lack of Greek spoken during the period of the Greek War of Independence, Mr. Stefov should refer to the work entitled “The Great Church in Captivity” by the late acclaimed scholar Sir Steven Runciman whose research leaves no doubt as to the fact that the Greek language and Greek culture have always existed. The point of his book is not only to showcase the survival of the Greek Orthodox Church under the Ottoman Empire, but to demonstrate the extent to which Hellenic consciousness never ceased to exist even during the centuries when Greek independence was nonexistant.

Mr. Stefov proceeds with his anti-Greek prejudice by seeming to deny that Greek was the language of the New Testament. As is well known by serious Biblical scholars, the New Testament was written in what is referred to as “Koine Greek”. Therefore, the Greek language has long been in continuous use from the classical period and was the language of Alexander the Great. Mr. Stefov should refer to the work of the acclaimed New Testament scholar Raymond Brown in his book, “An introduction to the New Testament” which very clearly shows not only that the Greek language is the language of the Christian scriptures, but that Macedonia where Saint Paul preached Christianity was unquestionably Greek.

Mr. Stefov proceeds to attempt to define Greek civilization by containing it to the regions that were liberated from the Ottomans in 1821. In actual fact, Greeks lived and spoke their language in lands far outside the borders of present day Greece owing to the spread of Hellenic civilization by Alexander the Great and more closely in what was once Constantinople and Asia Minor in present day Turkey. Mr. Stefov should refer to the work of Professor Apostolos Vacalopoulos who has traced the history of Greek national consciousness and traditions in his book “Origin of the Greek nation”. During the Byzantine era, when Constantinople was the capital of the Greek speaking world, Universities successfully preserved historical documents and manuscripts emanating from the classical past. (See the works “Scholars of Byzantium” by N.G Wilson and “Christianity and Classical Culture” by Jaroslav Pelikan.

Much of what is known about the Classical Greek past is known because Greek scholars who fled Constantinople in the years preceding the conquest brought with them to the West ancient manuscripts and other historical writings. Mr. Stefov claims he does not trust Greece’s statistics, that is hardly an indictment of Greece coming from an individual aligned with a movement based on the falsification of the history of ancient Macedonia despite the overwhelming evidence of ancient Greek writings and inscriptions in the region, archeological evidence, and the fundamental fact that Slavs did not arrive in the Balkans until the sixth century.

Finally, pertaining to the Turkish ethnic cleansing and genocide of Greeks which resulted in the uprooting of Greeks from their ancestral lands in Asia Minor, Mr. Stefan attempts to deny the Hellenism of these Greek populations by asserting that the so called “exchanges” with the Turkish Kemalists were purely religious. Mr. Stefov should go back and find the Churches and Monasteries of Constantinople, Pontos, and Cappadocia and he will find the Greek writings on Church frescoes. During the years of the Ottoman Turkish captivity, there were numerous Greek folk songs, poems, and writings which survive to this day which affirm the continuous survival of the Greek language and Greek consciousness. Mr. Stefov should ask the descendents of the Asia Minor Greeks what their ancestry was before making bogus claims on the basis of his historically and intellectually bankrupt separatist political agenda.

Theodore G. Karakostas
TKarakosta@aol.com
Member of HEC Executive Council
www.greece.org

http://www.americanchronicle.com/articles/78948

The Awakening

“Beware of Greeks bearing gifts” they´ve said and no truer words have ever been uttered in the history of man.

Greeks have a way of enticing you with their wears, they charm you with their words and wit, they gain your trust with their cunning and, before you know it, they have entered your most guarded inner sanctum, feast at your table as honoured guests and open you up to their world while you remain oblivious to any of it, until it´s too late.

They did this to the Trojans, they did it to the Romans and through them they did it to the western world and the world at large.

But the gift given, by the Greeks to humankind, was much more tempting than a simple lifeless idol, it was much more enticing than a wooden horse offered in hypocritical humiliation, much more powerful than a symbol of false defeat; this gift was the brilliance of critical thinking that was to revolutionize human contemplation and give rise to change and hope through all the coming ages, it was a spirit of being.

It was from this simple offering, given in feigned humility, that came forth, from the belly of the beast, the forces of deliberation that were to open the mental doors of ignorance and superstition and lay the world bear to the power of mans creativity and curiosity.

It was from this offering that, under the cover of darkness, the forces of human awareness were to make, mans most well devised defences of fear, ignorance and insecurity, ineffective and that showed once more that there is nothing more potent and insidious in the universe than intelligence, wisdom and guile.

From that moment on, when the gates to the walled city were opened, man has reached for heights never before attained by any civilization and to depths imagined by few cultures before.

This simple breaching of the minds ramparts, using intellect where brute force failed, is what the Greeks offered mankind as their lasting legacy through time and has made them immortals in the memories of all those that have come since.

In the fertile soils of critical thought watered by honest scepticism, they planted for us philosophy, science, mathematics, geometry, astronomy, gymnastics, history, theatre, aesthetics and many other seedlings of the human imagination; but much more than this they grew acceptance of mans true nature and awareness of mans promise and possibility.

From the serrated, sea beaten shores of the Greek peninsula, man stood for the first time next to the gods and did not just cower in submission beneath them; like Homers Odysseus man set off into the unknown sea looking for his way to Ithaca and no monsters or enticers would keep him from his course; no threatening horror or promising pleasure would divert his attentions.

The gods, representing the mysterious forces of nature as all deities do, were no longer unreachable icons or omnipotent despots, but exhibited the imperfections and limitations that man sees in himself and in the universe around him. Man, was to be, no longer an unwilling, helpless pawn or a witless, grovelling victim of unknown powers and domineering entities but was to stand to his full height, face the world with courage and pride and fight for his place in it as an equal and full participant or perish in the fight.

The gods may have been placated, tricked, bribed, cajoled and honoured but they were not idealized; the gods may have been feared, followed, respected, worshiped, loved and hated but they were not surrendered to.

From this straightforward stance on life these Hellenes became a subtle power that affected men from all cultures and through all times and as a consequence conquered Europe as no military or economic power ever could have.

Their power was their message and their message was mans destiny.

The Coming Darkness

Despite this glorious beginning hard times were to later come, that were to plunge the Greek spirit into the darkness for centuries and that was to weaken, a once powerful civilization, to such an extent that it became vulnerable to foreign, slavish moral systems that still, to this day, plague western civilization and chain the human spirit to mediocrity and herd psychology.

The decline of Hellenic thought, not surprisingly, coincided with the deterioration of its last greatest conquest and bastion, the Roman Empire.

Through years of power and privilege the Romans became tempered by easy living and unearned security, as often happens with all empires and elites, which made them susceptible to foreign ideals and moralities coming from the lower classes of Roman society and from the outlying conquered realms, populated by peoples seeking a reprieve from Rome´s dominion and an escape from their viciousness.

Christianity, being an amalgamation of eastern religions, Hebrew ethics and Greek metaphysics, quickly became attractive to the masses of the weak and the deprived and, like communism, preached the degradation of the strong for the appeasement of the frail; as such it was fast to spread amongst the under-classes and the subdued as a new hope for salvation, not only from the cruelty of the Romans but mainly from the brutality of life itself.

Slowly the Greek paideia that was taught to the children of the roman elites for centuries lost its hold and its meaning and in its place Judeo-Christian ethics started replacing it in the consciousness of the nation at large, starting from the ground up.

This was one more cause, amongst many more, that in due course lead to the infiltration of northern tribes into the heart of roman rule and eventually caused the split of the Roman Empire into the Holy Roman Empire in the west and, what was later referred to, the Byzantium Empire in the east.

But the onslaught of Christianity against Hellenism was not to end here.

In later years through the Crusades and the Iconoclastic Wars, Greek culture- now labelled paganism- was either completely illegalized and forced under ground or assimilated into Christian doctrine and rituals; the heart of the eastern roman empire now- after the acceptance of Christianity as its official religion- called Constantinople, was repeatedly ransacked by western Christian hordes on their way to the “Holy Lands” and so weakened that it became easy prey for the coming of the Turks that were to completely destroy Byzantium and later threaten all of Europe.

Europe plunged into the Dark Ages losing its past in the process and strengthening the control of Christianity over its soul.

How revealing it is that during these dark times Christianity flourished and prospered as all religions do in times of desperation and need.

Like the vulture that can only feed on the weak and dying, this mutated religion feasted upon the carrion of Greco-Roman civilization and grew strong upon the fat of the meek and fearful.

It would be unjust of me to blame the fall of Rome and the decline of Hellenism entirely on Christianity. It is obvious that empires and civilizations come and go as a natural course of history and of life as a whole and keeping this in mind we can see Christianity more as a natural consequence rather than a decisive cause of Roman decline; but I also believe that there are environments that breed destruction as there are environments that breed construction as an innate aspect of their nature, as there are mentalities that cause enlightenment and ones that cause degradation and ignorance through their mere existence. Because of this I believe Christianity hastened, even if it didn´t completely cause, the fall of Rome.

It is interesting to note here that in present day Greece the idea of Christianity {Orthodoxy} has so immersed itself in the psychology and identity of the population that Christianity is now considered a necessary particle of Hellenism and is often considered a tautology even if, in essence, these two ideals are irreconcilable with each other.

It is, therefore, ironic that in modern day Greece there are very few real Greeks as described by their own ancestors.

To be Greek is neither a national identity nor a racial one, but it is a way of thinking, a way of education, a position towards life and a spirit of being.

How can there be Greeks in a country so submersed in Judeo-Christian theism and how can Hellenism coexist with Jewish morality?

Hellenism teaches man to stand strong and courageous in front of the mysteries of the universe; Christianity teaches shame and humility.

Hellenism teaches man to stand in defiance of fate and in opposition to the unknown; Christianity teaches surrender and ignorance.

Hellenism proposes a man as a full and equal participant, beautiful in his nature, proud in his being and creator of his destiny; Christianity proposes a man as a blind puppet to a strange puppeteer, hideous in his denial of his spirit, his body, his nature and a slave to chance and superstition.

Hellenism proposes a man of wisdom through effort, knowledge and ability; a dominator of what is beneath him and builder of his world.

Christianity proposes a man of faith through acceptance of another´s hope and subjugation to his inner insecurities, egotism and fears; a follower and unaware nothing in a herd of nobody´s.

Hellenism interprets existence as an opportunity; something to be explored, understood and conquered.

Christianity interprets existence as a period of atonement for life itself; as an opportunity for offering payment for even being what one is and in longing for escape into a promised “otherness”.

Hellenism breeds men of the world: brave, proud, aware, challenging, changing, becoming and knowing; while Christianity breeds sheep for slaughter: meek, huddled in pools of “averageness” and hoping for a better death than a life.

Through the propagation of Judeo-Christian ideals and false democratic equalitarianism throughout the western world, western man has been degraded and diluted. Weakness and inferiority is promoted and sheltered while the distinct and superior are asked to lower themselves or to hide their special nature so that the many will not feel insecure or irrelevant in comparison.

Political correctness is a modern catch phrase that harnesses language and personal expression to the cart of conventionality.

This levelling of man for the sake of peace and conformity has declined western civilization but has also altered it from what it was or supposed to be, into a horrific mutation with nothing in common with the original and has made man into a terrible replica of his original Platonic Idea.

The Reawakening

Fortunately Greek thought was not to perish. It lay dormant in Arabic libraries and in the minds of learned men waiting for the long night to pass and the tides of time to bring back fertile ground to seed the minds of men once more, and to tempt the west with the same original gift.

The Renaissance was a period of reacceptance, rediscovery and a rebirth of ancient ideals, but this time with the added obstacle of struggling against, a now, firmly entrenched alien ideology that would resist it all the way.

Christianity with its Buddhist selflessness and denial of life coupled with Jewish shame and original sin and the addition of Greek mythology and spirituality within its dogma imposed limits to the extent as to which Hellenism took root.

Up until our time the struggle continues.

The most remarkable aspect of the reincarnation of Hellenism is that it has mostly been advanced by Anglo-Saxons and other Europeans not originally infected by its message in the early years.

It is, in fact, a German, Nietzsche who stands as the last great “Greek” philosopher of our times; it was he who first appreciated the true spirit of Hellenism and freely displayed his appreciation of it throughout his work.

The modern Greeks themselves, never having participated in the Renaissance due to their enslavement to the Ottoman Empire and still weighed down by Christian Orthodoxy and its stifling effects, rediscovered their own ancestors through third parties and foreign philosophers and still, to this day, resist them and their teachings.

The Forked Road

Man is torn being; two forces push and pull him in different direction even though they are effects of the same cause and are motivated by similar goals.

Nietzsche described these two opposing natural human impulses as Dionysian {change, creation, destruction, movement, rhythm, ecstasy, oneness} and Apollonian {order, lawfulness, perfect form, clarity, precision, self-control, individuation} where as Schopenhauer stated that it was the will struggling against intellect or rather the excess of intellect becoming pure will-less knowledge trying to break free from its servitude to the blind will.

Through the lifetime of a man he will be asked to decide between these two facets of his being and due to this decision he will form his character and values that will guide his actions and designate his virtues.

But more than this man is torn between complete acceptance of his being or total denial of it.

Christianity, in its true spirit, as with Buddhism, teaches a full withdrawal from the temptations of existence and an extreme ascetic subsistence devoid of all pleasures and pains as a penitence for mans nature and a payment for mans consciousness.

Despite the infringing theologies and ideologies that have mutated modern Christianity, the real spirit of Christian dogma contains a selflessness and denial of life equal to Buddhist teachings and Schopenhauer´s philosophy of pessimism.

Atheistic materialism, on the other hand- as well as hedonism as its encompassing dogma- holds that the other extreme position towards life is the wise one. Here pleasure is valuable for its own sake and since no other higher entity exists there are no rules, no purposes, no goals worth sacrificing personal contentment for; life is its own reward and any denial of mans nature or his will is a waste of time and an exercise in futility.

Hellenism contains both paths but not to either extreme. The Greeks recognized the meaninglessness of human existence and the melancholy and horrors it contains.

Socrates and Plato made no effort to hide their disdain for life and they labelled it a disease that only death could cure; Diogenes turned inward seeking fulfilment and truth and the stoics accepted pleasures, if offered, but made no effort to indulge themselves.

Asceticism, and the mental discipline it breeds, was a necessary part of Hellenic thought and an acknowledgment that the mind made up mans particular distinctness in nature, but the Greeks never went so far as to deny life in its entirety and to preach an extreme asceticism as was taught in the eastern faiths and later by Christianity.

Within Hellenic thought both the horror and ecstasy of life are represented and embraced. It is this opposition, this dual nature of Greek thought that gave birth to tragedy and comedy that so fully expresses the duality of human thought and the inner struggle that often reveals itself in contradictions bordering the ridiculous or sad.

This battle between Apollonian and Dionysian impulses was how Nietzsche explained the birth of Tragedy and Comedy in ancient Greece and it so perfectly represents Greek thought overall.

The Hellenes have built their symbolic icon and they place it before us as a tempting gift to our vanity; it contains insidious forces, anti-establishment notions and challenging ideas that will open our mental doors to the world where we will either be lost or inflamed but we will not remain the same.

Will we allow it through the walls of our mind, will we succumb to their calling and allow the idol within our walls, will we surrender to the Greeks and become one of them ourselves?

info@macedonian.com.au

http://www.macedonian.com.au

Source: http://www.americanchronicle.com/articles/78936

The Russian reemergence as a global power after years of absence following the end of the Cold War, has had many repercussions and has therefore provided the incentive for US foreign policy to accelerate certain processes and tie up loose ends. One of these has been the military encirclement of Russia (the discovery of the “new Europe” during the second Iraq war, the installation of the anti-ballistic shield in Poland and the Czech Republic, the NATO enlargement with former Soviet Republics and Warsaw-pact countries on the Russian borders, etc). Another has been the “Balkanization” of the Balkans, meaning their slicing into small, weak and quarrelling states subservient to the US, a policy also followed by the EU. This new reality is expected to greatly benefit the US-Turkish hegemony over this geopolitically vital region (many oil and natural gas pipelines already pass, or are planned to pass from there in the near future, circumventing Russian oil routes). This policy was inaugurated during Bill Clinton’s presidency, with the dismemberment of Yugoslavia after 1992, and continued with the NATO bombings of Serbia in 1999 and its own subsequent dismemberment. It has now culminated with the unilateral declaration of independence by Kosovo and its secession from Serbia.

Often these two policies coincide, e.g. as happens with the US goal of including into NATO the states formerly belonging to Yugoslavia. As part of this acceleration, George W. Bush has decided to recognize FYROM (Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia) with the contested (by Greece) name of “Republic of Macedonia”. And he chose to do this on November 4th 2004, only hours after his reelection. His aim was to stabilize FYROM’s inherently unstable government in view of a very controversial referendum just three days later (November 7th 2004). The stabilization of FYROM as a state is still an open question, due to its competing Slav and Albanian populations (violent fights had broken out on 2001); its Euro-Atlantic integration is considered as the remedy for all ills. This is why G. W. Bush pushed so hard to include it in the NATO enlargement during last April’s NATO summit.

The conflict with Greece stems from FYROM’s demand to be internationally recognized as the “Republic of Macedonia”, asserting that it is the state of the descendents of ancient Macedonians (the kingdom of Alexander the Great), implying claims to the Greek province of Macedonia in Northern Greece. I will be referring to this doctrine “Slavomacedonism”. I will not go into the historical veracity of these claims, as this would take too much space and time (very briefly, ancient Macedonia was a Greek kingdom, while modern “Macedonians” have a Slavic descent as FYROM’s first President Kiro Gligorof had admitted in 1992, when he said: “We are Slavs, we have no connection with Alexander the Great, we came to this area in the 6th century A.D.”). Besides, 25% of FYROM’s population are ethnic Albanians (2002 census), who do not ascribe to this “Macedonian” descent. Thus, I will rather analyze the roots of Slavomacedonism, the ensuing conflict and its implications on Greek security and sovereignty. And eventually on regional stability, should these claims be considered useful for regional destabilization.

Brief historical overview

Macedonia in antiquity was a Greek kingdom, mostly known by the reign of King Phillip II and the legacy of his son, Alexander the Great. The whole debate of ancient Macedonians being ethnically, genetically, linguistically, and culturally related to the present Slavophone populations of the region has been created (as will be described) for particular geopolitical purposes. It is not worth spending time and space to debunk it here. Instead, I would rather proceed to describe the creation of Slavomacedonism.

Macedonia till the mid 19th century

Slavs started migrating into Central Europe and the Balkans (including the region of Macedonia) from the Ukraine, in the beginnings of 6th century AD. In medieval times, Slavs managed to create several state-like formations (Bulgaria, Moravia, Russia, Poland, Serbia and Croatia, in chronological order). However, many Slav populations did not do so. Instead, they were assimilated by neighboring states, as distinct linguistic communities, but without a distinct national identity. For example, when the “Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes” was formed in 1918, a referendum was held to determine the luck of the Austrian province of Carinthia, on the Northern border of the newly established Kingdom. Carinthia was populated by a 2/3 Slovene-speaking (Slavophone) majority and a 1/3 German-speaking minority. Despite that, however, 59.1% of Carinthians (22,025) opted to stay within Austria, while only 40.9% (15,279) opted to join the Slavic kingdom. Thus, most Slavophone Carinthians opted to remain within Austria, showing that their national identity diverged from their linguistic one.

In Macedonia things were similar. Kofos writes: “Until the middle of the 19th century, Macedonia was generally regarded primarily as a Hellenic region and there was good reason for this. During four centuries of backward Ottoman rule, the national consciousness of the illiterate peasants, with the sole exception of the Greeks, had receded to a point near non-existence. Only the common Orthodox Christian heritage acted as a link between the Balkan peoples and set them apart from Mohammedan Turks. The Church was in the hands of the Greeks and the Greek language was a characteristic of a social and cultural superiority to such an extent that even the Bulgarian elite in order to raise itself from the masses had to learn it.” In a report of 1885, the Secretary-General of the Bulgarian Exarchate writes: “It is a sad fact but we must admit that the largest part of the Bulgarian population of Macedonia does not have a Bulgarian national consciousness… If Europe were to demand today that the Macedonian people decide on their fate and say to which nationality they belong, we are certain that the largest part of the Macedonian people and of Macedonia would slip away from our hands. If we exclude two or three regions of Northern Macedonia, the inhabitants of the other regions are ready to declare that they are Greeks… If the Great Powers were to intervene and demand a plebiscite to solve the Macedonian problem the Greeks would come out as winners.” [1]

As Lunt puts it: “the majority of Slavs in Macedonia in the middle of the nineteenth century probably had no strong ethnic consciousness and were content with the label Christian, essentially meaning non-Muslim. The remaining minority included some, particularly in the south, who would accept the label Greek, others, particularly in the north, who allowed themselves to be called Serbian, then another–surely larger–group who as non-Greek and non-Serb would use the ethnonym Bulgar, and finally those who insisted they were non-Bulgarian as well and who, for lack of any better name, declared themselves to be Macedonians.” [2]

During the Byzantine and subsequently the Ottoman empire, other peoples had joined the Greek population of Macedonia: Christian-orthodox populations like Albanians and Vlachs; Sephardic Jews; Roma; Muslim populations like Turks, and Islamized Pomaks and Islamized Albanians. And of course Slavs, that through time had been Christianized and some of which were later Islamized, like Bosnians. Travelers of the time (like the Turks Evlia Tselembi and Catzi Kalfa, the French Robert De Dreux and the English Ed Brown (1674) and John Covel (1667)) often speak of all these populations, but none speaks of “Macedonians” in an ethnological sense of the term.

A turning point in the Balkan affairs came after the Russian defeat in the Crimean war (1854-56). It was than that Russia reverted from its Pan-Orthodox doctrine (Catherine the Great had assisted the Greek struggle against the Ottoman rule) to Pan-Slavism, a “theory and movement intended to promote the political or cultural unity of all Slavs”.[3] This change in strategy required that many Slavophone Orthodox populations of Macedonia, that previously identified themselves as Greeks (like the Carinthian Slavs identified themselves as Austrians), should now revert to a different national identity. This coincided with the rise of the Bulgarian and Serbian nationalisms, and of their “Great Ideas”, i.e. the renaissance of the state of Hegemon Symeon (893-927) and Tsar Samuel (976-1014), for the Bulgarians and of the state of Stephan Doussan (1331-1355), for the Serbs. This new identity was to be the “Slavo-Macedonian” one. These two “Great Ideas” were to collide with the Greek “Great Idea” of unliberated Greek populations, which had fought against the Ottoman empire in the Greek Revolution (1821-1828). These were dreaming the renaissance of the Byzantine empire.

Bulgarian Slavomacedonism

Slavomacedonism was initially put to the service of the Bulgarian nationalist movement. In 1870 the Bulgarian bishoprics seceded from the Patriarchate of Constantinople, to form the Bulgarian Exarchate. This secession was validated by a firman (decree) of the Sultan on February 28th, 1870. The Exarchate thus included the areas today occupied by Bulgaria and FYROM, as well as parts of today’s Northern Greece, Serbia, Albania and Romania. In 1878 (February 21st), Russia obliged the Ottoman Empire to sign the Saint Stefan Treaty, with which the Ottoman empire recognized the independence of a Bulgarian state (Hegemony) that lay from Danube river to the Aegean Sea and from the Black Sea to Salonica (without Salonika, Chalkidiki, Kozani, Servia). This was unacceptable by the Greek populations, which had the Great Powers intervene and cancel this treaty with the Treaty of Berlin (July 1st, 1878). In 1893 the VMRO (Vnatresšna Makedonska Revolucionerna Organizacija, or IMRO, Inner Macedonian Revolutionary Organization) was founded as a Bulgarian autonomist organization. It proclaimed the creation of an independent multiethnic “Macedonian” state that might later be annexed to Bulgaria.

The Balkan Wars

Between 1904-1908, violent fights between Greeks and Bulgarians took place for the capture of the region of Macedonia. These stopped in 1908 when the Young Turks movement (a reformist, antimonarchic and antitheocratic Turkish group) took power and promised reforms. However, the Young Turks’ policies were even more resented by the Balkan populations. As a result the Balkan League was formed on 1912, after a series of treaties between Greece, Bulgaria and Serbia, with independence as its main request. This led to the Balkan Wars. During the First Balkan War (1912-13), Montenegro, Greece, Bulgaria and Serbia formed an alliance and successfully fought the Ottoman Empire, freeing most of its Balkan territories. However, the division of these territories among them, and especially of the region of Macedonia, triggered the Second Balkan War (1913). This started when Bulgaria attacked Greece and Serbia to capture Macedonia and led to the quick defeat of Bulgaria and the loss of most of the regions it had freed from Ottoman rule.

First World War

The First World War started with an attack of Austro-Hungarians on Serbia in 1914. Serbia was not overrun until Germany, Bulgaria and the Ottoman Empire aligned with the Central Powers. Greece was initially neutral due to the internal division of the Germanophile King Constantine I and the Anglophile PM Eleftherios Venizelos. When, however, the Bulgarian army entered Greece in 1916, capturing newly-won Greek areas of Macedonia, Venizelos proceeded with various army officers to stage a coup (Movement of National Defense). He then set up a second government in Salonica which fought on the side of the Entente powers (Britain, France and Russia). In 1918 the Central Powers and Bulgaria were defeated. Serbia, Croatia, Bosnia-Herzegvina, Slovenia and Montenegro formed the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes (Kraljevina Srba, Hrvata i Slovenaca).

Interwar period

After an administrative redistribution (1922) of the newly found Kingdom, the former Serbian District of Skopjie was renamed to Oblast of Skopjie. After King Alexander’s January 6th Dictatorship (1929) the kingdom was renamed Kingdom of Yugoslavia (Yugo-slavia meaning South-Slavia). Following another administrative subdivision of the kingdom the same year, it was subdivided into nine provinces (banovinas), one of which was Vardarska Banovina with Skopjie as its capital; the denomination “Macedonia” still carried many negative connotations, associated with Bulgarian claims and was, therefore, avoided. The purpose of this administrative subdivision on geographical criteria, was the artificial intermixing of the various Slav ethnicities, on the premise that they were anyway all members of the same nation (recent developments proved that this was not exactly so).

In that same time period, the problem of mixed populations was “solved” by a series of forced relocations. Between 1922-26, 500-700 thousand Muslims were relocated to Eastern Thrace and Asia Minor. 150-200 thousand Bulgarians or Slavs abandoned Greece. Also, 2 million Greeks left Asia Minor, Eastern Thrace and the Black Sea, while over 300 thousand were forced to abandon territories under Serbian or Bulgarian rule. As a result, the populations of those countries were separated according to their nationalities for the first time. A 1926 census of the League of Nations reported that 77 thousand Slavophones remained in Greek Macedonia (the bulk of the historical region), with a Greek population of 1,341,000. Bulgaria, still under the influence of the treaty of Saint Stefan and the vision of a Great Bulgaria, never abandoned its territorial claims. It still coveted Greek Macedonia and Yugoslav Vardarska and insisted upon the issue of “Slavomacedonians”. The Bulgarian Communist Party never ceased to proclaim the creation of an autonomous Republic of Macedonia and Thrace.

Of paramount importance at that time was Comintern’s (Communist International) position on the Balkan issues. As early as the 1920’s, the goal of the expansion of Communism in the Balkans was clearly set and Bulgaria was considered as the ripest of the countries for this expansion to commence. This would allow the Soviet Union access to warm waters, a goal dating back to the Russian Tsars. The position upheld by Bulgaria and endorsed by the International meeting (March, 1924) of the Balkan Communist Federation (in which all Balkan Communist parties were represented) was that of an “independent and united Macedonia” consisting of Greek, Yugoslav and Bulgarian territories. According to it, Bulgaria had the most to gain, while Yugoslavia and Greece had the most to lose. The 5th International meeting of the Comintern (May, 1924) ratified this resolution. Bound by the Soviet-dominated Comintern requirements, the Greek Communist Party (KKE) delegates also acquiesced to this position. This was a disastrous choice, as it brought them against Greek public opinion, particularly in Macedonia, which was very sensitive about that matter. As a consequence, in 1928 KKE faced a crushing electoral defeat (1.41% of votes) and was left out of the parliament. This position held until December 1935, when during its 6th congress the KKE backpedaled to another position, of equality of all minorities, dropping the subject of an “independent and united Macedonia”.

The Second World War and Yugoslav Slavomacedonism

When the Second World War broke out, Bulgaria (allied to the axis forces) invaded and occupied a large portion of Greek Macedonia and the Yugoslav Vardarska. However, a portion of Slavophones in Yugoslav Vardarska enlisted in the newly-formed Yugoslav Partisans of Josip Broz Tito (member of the outlawed Communist Party of Yugoslavia at that time). Another portion enlisted in the communist Greek Liberation Army, ELAS (in Greek Macedonia), against the axis forces. Now, Tito found it useful to use the “Slavomacedonian” ideology himself to draw Slavophones of the region of Macedonia into his own camp against the Bulgarian fascist forces.

From the Bulgarian side, it was the nationalist VMRO that continued to profit from the use of the “Slavomacedonian” ideology.[4] After Germans invaded Greece, the leader of VMRO, Ivan Mihailoff helped organize the Slavophones of non-Greek identification. This was done with Mussolini’s help at first, and after mid-1943, with Himmler’s as well. Thus, the “Bulgarian Committee” was founded by Anton Kalchev, as an annex to the Bulgarian Ohrana (”Defence”) organization. After the Italian capitulation, several VMRO militia regiments were organized with Himmler’s permission, and armed by the Nazi to fight against the ELAS. The 4th SS division assisted the VMRO in these battles.

When, in 1943, the axis appeared to be losing the war, many Slavophone Nazi collaborators, Ohrana members and VMRO regiment volunteers fled to the opposite camp by joining the newly founded “Slavomacedonian National Liberation Front” (Slavjano Мakedonski Narodno Osloboditelen Front, SNOF). SNOF, was created by Yugoslav communists with the reluctant acquiescence of the KKE, in the hope that it would draw Slavophones away from the Bulgarian fascist propaganda. KKE was bound by Comintern to recognize the existence of a “Slavomacedonian” population. SNOF regiments fought with ELAS, until they were disbanded by ELAS itself (October 1944) due to SNOF’s overt secessionist propaganda, and driven off Greece.

The Cold War and the Greek Civil War

Bulgarians definitively left Greek territories in October 1944 and reduced (though not abandoned) their “Macedonian” claims. It was now Tito that made use of Slavomacedonism, making the Macedonian issue a Greek-Yugoslav one. In 1945 the largest part of Vardarska formed one of the federate states of Yugoslavia and was renamed to People’s Republic of Macedonia. It was the first time that an official entity bore the name “Macedonia” outside Greece. Until that time, the Greek Province of Macedonia was the only official entity to carry that name. Around that time the terms Vardar, Pirin and Aegean Macedonia were coined, to denote the Yugoslav, Bulgarian and Greek territories of “Macedonia”, respectively, implying that these territories should be united. This irridentism was Tito’s way of projecting expansionist claims over Greek Macedonia. This time also brought a qualitative differentiation of Slavomacedonism. Up till that time, Greek, Ottoman, Bulgarian, or other records, spoke about Greek, Bulgarian, Turkish, Armenian, Jewish, etc, populations of Macedonia. In that way, the term “Macedonian” was only used to describe the place of one’s residence. As of that time, however, the meaning of that term was transformed to denote a new ethnicity, that of “Macedonians”, whose ancestry dated back to the ancient Macedons. Thus, a new “nation” was born. The language of that “nation” was dubbed “Macedonian”, disregarding the fact that it was mainly Bulgarian, whereas all ancient coins and inscriptions excavated throughout Macedonia are in Greek.

At that time, SNOF was succeeded (April 23rd, 1945) by the NOF (National Liberation Front), a secessionist organization calling for the independence of the “Macedonian people”. Although KKE and its leader Nikos Zahariadis initially denounced NOF for adopting this line, at the end of 1945 they chose to “overlook” it, being in need of Yugoslav cooperation. The imminent Greek Civil war between Communists (Democratic Army of Greece) and the official Greek National Army, dictated that the KKE-NOF relations be “normalized”. Thus KKE again changed its position vis-a-vis Slavomacedonism (which now became more acceptable) and NOF (which it fought on the side of the Democratic Army during the Greek Civil war).

In 1947, under the Bled Agreement (or Tito-Dimitrov treaty, August 2nd, 1947) between Yugoslavia and Bulgaria, Bulgaria agreed to recognize a Macedonian nation and language and to prepare the way for a unification of the “Vardar Macedonia” with the “Pirin Macedonia”. Tito envisioned a Balkan Federative Republic with him at the helm. This, among others, angered Stalin. The subsequent Tito-Stalin split in the summer of 1948 brought this agreement to an effective collapse, as Bulgaria withdrew from it under Soviet pressure, while denouncing all their bilateral accords and breaking diplomatic relations.

This rift between Tito and Stalin brought KKE between a rock and a hard place: it collaborated with the Yugoslav-influenced NOF, but received Soviet aid through Bulgaria. In trying to please both, it tepidly accepted Cominform’s decision to denounce Tito, without however overtly turning against Yugoslavia. Nevertheless, this caused the pro-Yugoslav wing of NOF to start organizing desertions of Slavophone fighters of the Democratic Army into Yugoslavia. Under these developments, and to counter these desertions, Zahariadis imposed yet a new line during the 5th Plenary Session of KKE in 1949: he called for “national reinstatement and self-determination of the Macedonian people”, while it was announced that the 2nd NOF conference would rally for “a united and independent Macedonia in a People’s Balkan Federation”. This decision brought him against not only Tito, whose Yugoslav-centered Slavomacedonism he questioned. It also brought him against Greece, whose territorial integrity was thus jeopardized.

At the same time, Tito’s defiance toward Stalin and the USSR, dictated that NATO offered a preferential treatment to Yugoslavia. Therefore, during the Cold War, Greece (albeit a NATO ally after 1954) had to “go along and get along” since the Macedonian issue was considered secondary. During the Cold War period and under Tito, the “Macedonian history” was rewritten in order to create a new “Macedonian” national identity. Slavomacedonism was officially introduced in schools and Universities and used to raise new generations. The “Macedonian language”, an idiom very close to, and intelligible with Bulgarian was codified at that time. And the links between Alexander the Great and modern Slavs started to be forged. This systematic work persisted throughout this period and raised new generations:

After the Cold War

This “Pandora’s box” reopened with the dissolution of the Yugoslav federation and the independence of its constituent states. The “Socialist Republic of Macedonia”, as was formerly named within Yugoslavia, dropped the “Socialist” and demanded recognition as “Republic of Macedonia” after seceding from the Yugoslav Federation (1991). Its Slavophone inhabitants, after decades of indoctrination, could not bear the blow of abandoning their glorious “links” with Alexander the Great, as that would deprive them of an equally glorious past. As acknowledged by Roudometof: “By 1983, only 10% of FYROM’s population had been born before 1923. This means that a considerable portion of FYROM’s current population has been socialized into the Macedonian national culture (as it evolved through the course of the post-1944 period) and has no personal experience of the Macedonian Question as it was expressed during the interwar period (1918-1941) or earlier”. [5]

After two years of dispute with Greece, the newly independent state was admitted in the UN under the provisional name of “Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia” (April, 1993), pending settlement of the naming issue. This decision of the Greek government (of the conservative New Democracy party) was so controversial that it caused its collapse, when several of its deputies split from the party, thus toppling its slim majority. The government of PASOK, that took power after the next elections, imposed an embargo on FYROM as of February 1994. This lasted until September 1995, when under US pressure the embargo was lifted and the Interim Accord was signed. Under that accord the two countries pledged to continue negotiations, while FYROM was obliged to remove the Vergina’s sun from its flag (a symbol of the ancient Greek kings of Macedonia) and promised to revise its constitution so as to remove from it any expansionist allusions.[6] However, the use of the term “Macedonia” which Greece vehemently opposed and which FYROM refused to drop, led to an effective halt of the discussions. This changed in 2004 after the recognition of FYROM by the USA under its constitutional name, as we mentioned in the beginning.

This unresolved matter has not assisted the stability of FYROM, which is inherently unstable due to its ethnic composition. Its Albanian minority adheres to the vision of a “Great Albania” rather than to that of Slavomacedonism. Their language is Albanian and not the Slavic spoken by the Slav majority (very close to Bulgarian). In addition, they are Muslim, in contrast to the Christian Slav majority. The Albanian minority had repeatedly protested regarding its treatment by the government. In January 2001 the National Liberation Army (NLA), an Albanian paramilitary, started attacks against government forces, in a way similar to that of the KLA in Kosovo. The armed conflicts reached the brink of civil war, before the US and the EU intervened, by having the two sides sign the Ohrid Accord in August 2001.

Today, FYROM remains unstable, with the US acting as the guarantor of its territorial integrity. The centrifugal forces due to the Albanian minority are certainly far from quenched by the financial adversities of the country. With an official 35% unemployment rate (the grey market is estimated to more than 20% of the GDP) and about a third of its population below the poverty line, it is heavily dependent upon foreign investment for its economy to function. In 2007, Greek capitals invested in FYROM had reached 950 million Euro (US$1.42 billion), rendering Greece the largest foreign investor of the country. The 300 Greek businesses active in FYROM account for 20,000 jobs.

In the second part, we will review the recent developments in the Greece-FYROM conflict and their geopolitical context.

By Athanassios Boudalis

http://www.zmag.org/znet/viewArticle/19054

info@macedonian.com.au

www.macedonian.com.au

References

1] D. Missev-Obreikov, 1885, “Report on the Present Situation of Bulgarism in Macedonia”, by the Secretary-General of the Bulgarian Exarchate. Cited by Evangelos Kofos in “Nationalism and Communism in Macedonia”, 1964, Institute of Balkan Studies, Thessaloniki, pp. 12-13. Taken from D. Vogazlis, “Macedonia: a Comparative Historical, Ethnological nd Legal Study”, 1962 Athens, unpublished.

2] Horace G. Lunt, 1984 “Some Sociolinguistic Aspects of Macedonian and Bulgarian.” In Language and Literary Theory, edited by Benjamin A. Stolz, I. R. Titunik, and Lubomir Dolezel, 83-132. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press.

3] The Columbia Encyclopedia, Sixth Edition. Copyright 2008 Columbia University Press. “The first Pan-Slav Congress, held at Prague in 1848 […] was confined to the Slavs under Austrian rule and was anti-Russian. The humiliating defeat suffered by Russia in the Crimean War (1853-56) helped transform a vague, romantic Russian Slavophilism into a militant and nationalistic Russian Pan-Slavism. […] Pan-Slav publicist […] Rotislav Andreyevich Fadeyev […] claimed that it was Russia’s mission to liberate the Slavs from Austrian and Ottoman domination by war and to form a Russian-dominated Slavic federation. [publicist Nikolai Yakovlevich] Danilevsky predicted a long conflict between Russia and the rest of Europe, to be followed by a federation of states including the Greeks, Magyars, and Romanians as well as the Slavs.”

4] VMRO is Mr Gruevski’s party currently governing FYROM. During the 30’s it was led by Ivan “Vancha” Mihailoff. Mihailoff was a close friend and collaborator of Ante Pavelic, the leader of the Croatian Nazi organization of Ustashe. In fact, it was Mihailoff that introduced Pavelic to Heinrich Himmler, leading to the Croatian-Nazi alliance during the war. For more information on Pavelic see here and for more of his photos see here.

5] Victor Roudometof, Journal of Modern Greek Studies 1996, 14:2, 253-301.

6] The following articles imply territorial claims and have been recently commented here.

Article 3. Par. 1: The territory of the Republic of Macedonia is indivisible and inviolable.

Par. 2: The existing borders of the Republic of Macedonia are inviolable.

Par. 3: The borders of the Republic of Macedonia can only be changed in accordance with the Constitution and on the principle of free will, as well in accordance with generally accepted international norms.

Par. 4: The Republic of Macedonia has no territorial pretensions towards any neighboring state.

Article 49. Par. 1: The Republic cares for the status and rights of those persons belonging to the Macedonian people in neighboring countries, as well as Macedonian expatriates, assists their cultural development and promotes links with them. In the exercise of this concern the Republic will not interfere in the sovereign rights of other states or in their internal affairs.

Article 68. Par. 1: The Assembly of the Republic of Macedonia:…

makes decisions concerning any changes in the borders of the Republic;

In red, are the amendments to accomodate Greek concerns, which nevertheless, leave the core of the articles intact.

http://www.americanchronicle.com/articles/78299

As always it´s highly amusing to read another one of Risto Stefov´s articles.

Starting from the opening statement, one notes the factual distortion present. For an individual who allegedly doesn´t care about what Greeks may claim about themselves; he certainly seems to waste much time and energy intentionally distorting texts and manipulating history in his articles and books, and distributing his propaganda.

Right after his first bout of hypocrisy, Stefov continues by distorting his very own claims. While he intentionally misinforms us by claiming that he´s never supported some twisted direct descendance from the ancient ´Makednoi´ theory; he conveniently forgets about his article: “Evidence of the Existence of Macedonians Throughout the Ages” in which in his opening statement in the introduction is: “This document was prepared in response to Greek allegations that Macedonians do not exist and have ceased to exist since the so called “Slav invasions” of the fifth and sixth centuries AD.

The logical question of why would any individual who allegedly doesn´t, nor has ever supported the “continuity theory” ever waste time to gather and intentionally distort sources to prove that the modern day population of the FYROM has every right to title themselves and claim heredity from the Makednoi?

Stefov’s opening statement which attempts to refute Greek allegations and the insinuation of providing proof that the Macedonians have existed, since Slavic invasions doesn´t do much for his case.

It is obvious that he is at the very least intentionally misinforming readers of his true objectives.

Stefov and his followers constantly insinuate that Greeks allegedly strive to present the FYROM population as Bulgarians (he should know the difference between Bulgars and Bulgarians) and Slavs.

While this is partially true, what Stefov intentionally neglects to mention is that Greeks are simply reproducing what his ancestors themselves had stated.

We could take for example the organization called BMARC (Bulgarian Macedonian-Adrianopolitan Revolutionary Committee) all members of which, today, are considered as fine FYROM patriots. It is this very organization, (their very own national heroes) which totally legitimize our reference to the true ethnicity which they detest.

In its 1896 statute BMARC states:

Art. 1. The goal of BMARC is to secure full political autonomy for the Macedonia and Adrianople regions.

Art. 2. To achieve this goal they [the committees] shall raise the awareness of self-defense in the Bulgarian population in the regions mentioned in Art. 1., disseminate revolutionary ideas - printed or verbal, and prepare and carry on a general uprising.

So the question asked must be, which is the population FYROM national heroes aimed to raise the awareness in and title Bulgarian; if not the forefathers of the population that today attempt to usurp a history and heritage which they have no connection to?

Stefov also accuses Greeks of titling the population of FYROM as Slavonic.

But what defines a Slav?

Slavs are an ethnic group connected by language, customs, traditions, beliefs.

We know beyond doubt that the population of FYROM does speak a Slavic language. We also know from their own authors like Tanas Vrazhinovski and Vladimir Karadzoski that FYROM folklore is predominantly Slavonic.

Both authors give numerous examples of worship of Slavonic deities and place names directly related to these deity´s names. Customs as any Bulgarian or Serb may confirm are also highly similar, if not identical.

So identical that we may safely conclude that the population of FYROM is indeed Slavonic and the attempt to present the use of the ethnonym ‘Slav’ as some form of insult, simply indicates the extent of propaganda aimed at (not to an international audience), but as its main target group has the FYROM youth. In some futile attempt to teach the FYROM population to hate their true origins and believe that their only true destiny is indissolubly connected upon usurping a history and culture which is totally alien to them is unacceptable.

Yet another fallacy promoted by Stefov for his audience is the case in which Philip of