FYROM’s national MYTH and Eugene Borza

Nationalists from the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia (F.Y.R.O.M) and her diaspora allege that there is a cultural, linguistic and genealogical continuity between the ancient Macedonians and the “modern Macedonian” nation. Until the recent past these claims were usually confined to radical nationalists circles in F.Y.R.O.M and her diaspora. With Gruevski’s administration now leading F.Y.R.O.M the claims involving a relationship between F.Y.R.O.M and ancient Macedonia are being promoted and encouraged at the official state level.

No credible and objective historian or social scientist relates the modern “Macedonian nation” to ancient Macedonia. Any credible authority on the history of the region knows how ridiculous the state sponsored myths involving relationships between F.Y.R.O.M and ancient Macedonia are.

Eugene Borza is one of the most frequently cited historians on F.Y.R.O.M nationalist websites (see historyofmacedonia.org as an example). His views on ancient Macedonia are quoted ad infinitum because Borza is skeptical of whether the ancient Macedonians of the 4th century BC could be classified as ancient Greeks. Nationalists from F.Y.R.O.M and her diaspora completely ignore Borza’s position that the ancient Macedonians were fully Hellenized by Roman times. They also completely disregard Borza’s assertion that “modern Macedonians” have no relationship to ancient Macedonia.

This is Borza’s position on F.Y.R.O.M’s modern history:

Note: Borza makes no mention of a “Macedonian” ethnicity in his description of Macedonia’s pre 20th century demograpics.

Note: Borza states that the region of Macedonia was an ethnic quagmire. This is a far cry from the F.Y.R.O.M nationalist claim that “Macedonia” was populated in the vast majority by “ethnic Macedonians”.

Note: Borza claims that only the most radical Slavic factions, mostly found in F.Y.R.O.M’s diaspora, make claims of a relationship to ancient Macedonia. Keep in mind that Borza wrote this article a few years before the Gruevski administration took power in F.Y.R.O.M. Even Borza, who is one of the favorite historians of F.Y.R.O.M nationalists, would classify Gruevski’s ideology as radical!

Note: Borza states that the “Macedonians” are a new ethno/national group that have no history and as a result must construct one.

In light of the fact that the modern “Macedonian” ethno/national identity is a mid to late 19th century construct, and in light of the fact that no credible historian or social scientist supports the notion of any cultural or genealogical lineage between ancient Macedonia and the modern “Macedonian” nation, it seems absurd and comical that the Gruevski government is claiming a relationship between the Slavs of F.Y.R.O.M and the ancient Macedonians.

Gruevski’s desperate attempts at promoting a relationship between the modern “Macedonian nation” and ancient Macedonia are evidenced by his bizarre and now ridiculed official state meeting with the leader of the Pakistani Hunza tribe. The Hunza claim that they are the remnants of Alexander’s ancient Macedonian army that traversed through Pakistan.

The following picture is of Gruevski meeting with what the F.Y.R.O.M government advertises as the long lost kin of the Slavic inhabitants of F.Y.R.O.M.

This visit was ridiculed and criticized by international media as is described by the following article from the Financial Times. The history being promoted by the Gruevski administration, and F.Y.R.O.M’s cultural institutions, in the context of the year 2008, makes his government look like amateur radicals promoting an 19th century nation building ideology based on ancient lineages. No credible and objective historian or social scientist substantiates this mythical relationship.

by Chris Philipou

http://maktruth.blogspot.com/2008/07/fyroms-national-myth.html

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Tags: borza, eugene, fyrom, gruevski, macedonia, myth, national, philipou

Comments

Yorgos Skeparnis says:

January 4, 2015 at 2:10 pm

One must be insane if he tries to break the bond between classical Greece and Macedon because he destroys historical coherence! The Hellenistic heritage, Alexandria as a center of hellenic culture will always remind thiw bond!

Стојан Емперов says:

November 14, 2014 at 3:40 am

Why I can‘t find the name Eugene Borza anywere in this book? Probably because this is a cheap greek propaganda blog 😀

Boyan Lazaroff says:

February 22, 2014 at 10:40 pm

Article and Analysis full of bullshit 😀 . You struggle “Greeks” to accept prof Eugene Borza’s studies, that Macedonians were not Greeks, simply as for their time and today, as Diodorus wrote of ethnic tensions among Macedonians and Greeks.
Ps: Borza has written that about today’s Macedonians in early 90s.. So how can he be “informed” of these Macedonians merging from the Yugoslav federation so quickly about their history? How could he know that in 19th century, during the national awakening for creating modern Balkan states, Macedonian poets and revolutionists identified with Alexander of Macedon and ancient Macedonians. How could he know this? After all Borza’s strengths lie in the ancient Macedonian period, not in 19th-20th century.
No “ethnicity” can be created, Macedonians were always there as independent people from it’s neighbors.

Veroia says:

March 21, 2012 at 11:17 pm

Discussions about ancient macedonia origins are pointless. We deal with a people who identified themselves as being Greek and spread everywhere the greek culture and language. Let slavs trapped in their own fantasy world. I cant stop laughing whenever a slav is being presented an inscription from an ancient macedonian and he cant understand a single word. No serious scholar links slavs with ancient macedonians. Time for slavs to stick with their bulgarian history.

Andreas says:

March 21, 2012 at 2:43 pm

Borza claims:

-- Macedonians were racially most likely of Greek Stock
-- Their language developed most likely starting from the Proto-Greek
-- They Developed separately from the southern Greeks at THE MOST for 4 centuries
-- They crucially protected the Greeks from Non-Hellenic Balkan people inroads
-- They became known only through Greek historiography and literature
-- They spread the Greek culture all over their conquests
-- They merged culturally with them eventually in the common Hellenistic world.
-- Their kings claimed to be Greeks and this was widely accepted.

Fyrom’s slavs shouldnt worry about Borza’s view as himself admits they have NOTHING to do with antiquity.

DK says:

March 15, 2012 at 1:48 am

Don’t forget that
Borza also argues that ancient Macedonia -- present-day northern Greece and the Republic of Macedonia -- should be studied as a nation distinct from ancient Greece. The Greeks never liked Alexander in his day. It was only after he became a respectable legend that they laid claim to him as their own, heterosexual, hero.