The Macedonian Digest

“From the readers for the readers”

Edition 62 – February 2011

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Editor’s Notes
AMHRC Census Campaign 2011 – Australia Only!
As with Australia's two previous censuses, the Australian Macedonian Human Rights Committee (AMHRC) has prepared instructional leaflets in both English and
Macedonian, for the benefit of the Macedonian community. We request that all Macedonian media outlets and Macedonian organizations reproduce and distribute
this leaflet at regular intervals, right up to the census date in August.

Click the following links to download the leaflet:

 English version (PDF - 256KB)

 Macedonian version (PDF - 3.5MB)

About the AMHRC

Established in 1984, the Australian Macedonian Human Rights Committee (AMHRC) is a non governmental organization that informs and advocates to governments,
international institutions and broader communities about combating discrimination and promoting basic human rights. Our aspiration is to ensure that Macedonian
communities and other excluded groups throughout the world are recognized, respected and afforded equitable treatment. For more information please
visit www.macedonianhr.org.au, or contact AMHRC at info@macedonianhr.org.au or via +61 3 9329 8960.

Our Name is Macedonia

www.mhrmi.org/our_name_is_macedonia

Feature Stories
Greeks Debate about Macedonia dispute, hope the country Ceases to Exist
http://macedoniaonline.eu/content/view/17367/46/

Greece and Macedonia are both buying time and avoid any sort of solution. Athens hopes Macedonia
would cease to exist, while Skopje is expecting recognition only under its constitutional name - say
Greek experts.

- Andreas Papandreou with the Interim Agreement and all steps taken during the Karamanlis and even
the present Government, in reality are steps to buy time. Our neighbor to the north, we believe, we
hope, naturally, that at some point will cease to exist - says Petros Tatsopoulos, a writer.

"When Macedonia in the 90's agreed to a complicated name, the Greek side was against it, now when
Athens is with a changed and softer stance, the other side led by nationalist Gruevski doesn't accept it",
this was the consensus of the sides involved in the Athens debate.

Gligorov agreed to "New Macedonia", claimed Greek professor Tanos Veremis, "we agreed, let’s close
the problem, but of course one day we received that fatal phone call. Not to ignite the flames, I won't
tell you who was on the phone, well, I will tell you today he is a leader of a major party... Samaras!

Greek analysts, writers and professors involved in the debate did not deviate at all from the well known
stance by official Athens , however, the audience at the debate did not share the same opinions…

"Today 130 or 140 countries and counting have recognized our neighbor as Macedonia . It's only a
matter of time when we say "Well, we are forced to accept Macedonia " said one audience member.

- I only want to say we are wrong...

- No, I won't explain anything to you, you should already know this...
- We'll never recognize them...
- Lower your voice lady, you don't scare me...

These were some of the things overheard among audience members as the debate got heated.

Surprisingly, the microphone ended up in the hands of an ethnic Macedonian from Lerin who was
allowed to speak.

- All of my childhood, we were forbidden to say that we're Macedonians. I had a very tough time
growing up because I didn't speak Greek, only Macedonian. I knew my language as Macedonian, but
was told that was wrong, never got an explanation what was wrong about it? The word Macedonian
was strictly forbidden in Greece , and just few years ago, all of Greece adopted the word as its own?!!!

The Macedonian question - the good the bad and the ugly, was part of the debate where the Athens
debate had to decide which is which.

- The Balkans has a tendency that one is good, and that's usually us, the others are bad and the rest are
boring. In our case, the ugly can be Nimetz, the mediator in this dispute - says Elina Makri, a
coordinator of Athens CafeBabel.

The debate was organized by CafeBabel in Athens , with the hope of educating Europe 's youth about
the dispute with Macedonia . The debate will be translated into numerous languages and sent to all
Cafebabel members.

Not another BIG Greek Lie?

THE FOLLOWING ARTICLE IS IMPORTANT FOR ALL MACEDONIANS TO READ,
ESPECIALLY FOR THE MACEDONIAN REFUGEE CHILDREN AND THOSE WHO
ACCOMPANIED THEM AND WITNESSED THIS “TRAGIC EVENT” FIRST HAND.

IT IS IMPORTANT TO READ IN ORDER TO UNDERSTAND THE GREEK MENTALITY

AND GREEK HYPOCRICY AND HOW FAR THESE GREEKS WILL GO TO TORMENT
INNOCENT MACEDONIANS WITH THEIR POISONOUS LIES AND DECEIT!

ARE THEY TALKING ABOUT THE SAME 28,000 MACEDONIAN REFUGEE CHILDREN
HERE, WHO GREECE EXILED FROM 1948 TO THIS DAY AND WILL NOT ALLOW TO
RETURN, NOT EVEN FOR A VISIT? YES THEY ARE!
THIS IS YET ONE MORE PIECE OF EVIDENCE THAT BELONGS IN “THE LITTLE BOOK
OF BIG GREEK LIES” FOR THE WORLD TO SEE!

FOR SHAME!

Risto…

From the article “Innocent’s Day” by Time Magazine on January 9, 1950

http://www.time.com/time/magazine/ar...1653-1,00.html

Peace had come to battered, impoverished Greece ; the Communist guerrillas had been driven out,
perhaps for good. But last week, on Innocents’ Day (the Church calendar’s anniversary of Herod’s
Slaughter of the Innocents in Judea ), Greece had a day of mourning—for 28,000 children abducted by
the bandits and now living on foreign, Communist soil.

A two-gun salute from Mount Lycabettus woke Athenians at dawn. Church bells tolled and flags
drooped at half-mast. Newspapers appeared with black-framed front pages. Places of amusement were
closed all day, and for half an hour all traffic stopped, streets emptied, doors were closed and blinds
drawn.

Queens Do Not Beg. Earnest young Queen Frederika, mother of three, broadcast a poignant message
from the royal palace. She begged for the return of the 28,000 children living in exile “as a mother—
because queens are not supposed to beg.” Added Frederika: “The civilized world has remained silent
too long.”

The civilized world had made some well-meaning but ineffective protests. UNSCOB (the U.N.’s
Special Committee on the Balkans) had verified the mass deportation of Greek children. The U.N.
General Assembly had called on Yugoslavia , Bulgaria , Poland , Czechoslovakia , Hungary , and
Rumania for the return of the children. These governments had finally agreed to return any children
called for by petition of their parents. Up to last week the Greek Red Cross had forwarded 8,000
petitions, but not one child had been sent back.

Not Even Goodbye. In the palace with Frederika was a group of black-clad peasant women huddled at
her side. Kaliroe Gouloumi, from Gorgopotamos, in Epirus , remembered how the Communists took
her children: “They were in our village for a year. First they took our animals, then our food, then our
children. I had three.” Kaliroe wiped her eyes with her black shawl. “They did not even let me say
goodbye. They said they were no longer my children but their children.”

Said Kleoniki Kiprou from Monopilo Kastoria: “First they hanged the priest, then they cut off his
mother’s hands, and then they ordered us to follow them. What could we do?” In Albania her eight-
year-old girl and five-year-old boy were taken from her and a rifle was thrust into her hands. Tapping
the weapon, the rebel capetdnias said: “This is your husband, this is your child.” Kleoniki was forced
into the battle of Vitsi. She deserted and got back to her village—without her children. In Fourka
Konitsa, the villagers learned in advance of the guerrillas’ abduction plans. They hid the children in
ditches. The guerrillas, frustrated, took Sofia Makri and 20 other mothers to the mountains and tortured
them. Said Sofia last week: “They hung us from pine trees. They burned our feet with coals. They beat
us. When we fainted they revived us with cold water from the spring. Fourteen of us died up there but
we did not tell. When the Greek army entered our village they found the dead living, for out of the
earth came our children.”

There is no evidence that the Greek children living in Communist countries are physically abused.
International Red Cross investigators have seen some of the children and reported that they are well
fed. They are being schooled as young Communists and they are expected to feel and show enthusiasm.
Said a U.N. delegate in despair: “In ten years there will be NO abducted Greek children; they will have
been absorbed.”

EXCERPT FROM: I FONI TIS IRINIS (THE VOICE OF IRENE)

I Martyria tis Irinis Damopoulou apo to Paidomazoma (The Testimony of Irene Damopoulou from the
Child-gathering)

By Ioannis Bougas
Erodios Publishing House
Thessaloniki , 2006

Part II (Chapter 19), pages 124 – 127

The KKE (Communist Party of Greece) Constructs Slavomacedonians

It was decided by KKE officials in our community in Florika [ Romania ] to divide the inmates of the
base into Greeks and Slavomacedonians. This division into Greeks and Slavomacedonians started in
school. The primary person responsible for the classification of children into one or the other group
was the teacher Kostas Triantafyllides from Kalohori, Kastoria [ Greece ]. Although he had studied to
become a teacher in Greece , he had become a fanatical communist, Slavomacedonian, and a persecutor
of Greeks. He had personally thrown my brother Ilia and me out of the Greek school [in Florika]. He
told us that we were Slavomacedonians and not Greek because we were from St. Demetrios [ Greece ],
which according to him was a village solely of Slavomacedonians.

Since my brother and I refused to declare that we were Slavomacedonians and refused to take courses
in Slavomacedonci, we were also thrown out of the Romanian school for three days. Our dismissal
from school above all created a problem of survival as we had no more right to food from the school
mess hall. When my mother complained to the community leaders because we were not given food, she
was told that there was nothing that they could do and that we should think of the consequences of our
denial to identify as Slavomacedonians.

Then my mother went to the school to complain. She found one of the teachers, a man named Mr.
Nikos from Kilkis [ Greece ]. Unfortunately, I cannot remember his family name.

“Comrade Niko, why have you thrown my children out of school?” she asked.

“Because you are Slavomacedonians from St. Demetrios!” he answered. “Your children need to change
schools and attend the Slavomacedonian school.”

My mother retorted, “Comrade Niko, you are making a big mistake! My children and me are Greeks!
We are descendants of Alexander the Great! We have nothing to do with Slavomacedonians. Just
because we lived in St. Demetrios, doesn’t mean that we are Slavomacedonians! My father was a
Greek priest and fought against the [Bulgarian] komitadjis so that Macedonia could remain Greek. I
heard that you, comrade, originate from Pontus [ Asia Minor ]. With your logic, you should be Turkish
then!”

My mother’s fervent complaints had a positive effect, I suppose. My brother and I returned to the
Romanian school and continued to take Greek and not Slavomacedonian classes.

The Greek communists on the Florika base also tried to divide the adults into Greeks and
Slavomacedonians. They created a committee of communist members that visited the inhabitants of the
base one by one so that they can classify them into one or the other group. It was evident however that
for many people, the committee members had already decided the result before the visits. Perhaps these
visits were a means to inform the inhabitants of their classification, or a means to convince them of it.

Many inhabitants were greatly shocked when they learned that from one day to the next they had
become Slavomacedonians. Some actually dared to complain. Others on the other hand accepted the
committee’s decision without a word. This should not come as a surprise to anyone today as we lived
under such oppressive conditions that all decisions depended on the communist leadership of the
community.

When the committee members came to our room to classify my mother, she was naturally informed
that she was Slavomacedonian. My mother however, did not accept this. My brother and I cried and
pleaded with her to accept so as to avoid seeming oppositional because we were afraid that the
community leaders would take her away from us into exile again. My mother however did not hold
back her tongue and did not display any fear as she harshly criticized the Greek Communist Party’s
plan.

“Comrade Elpida, I had heard of you but I never imagined that you would be so difficult,” said one of
the committee members who had visited our room that evening.

After visiting our family, the members went to see an old lady who lived in the next room. Like us, she
was from Macedonia [ Greece ] and had also been brought as a hostage by the KKE to Romania .
Unlike us though, she had originally been a refugee from Asia Minor but had immigrated to Greece
after the Asian Minor [Ottoman Turkish ethnic cleansing] Catastrophe. My brother and I were listening
behind her door:

“How should we classify you granny? Greek or Slavomacedonian?” they asked.

“Greek! How else, my children? I am from Asia Minor , poor old me! What business do I have with
Slavomacedonians?” she replied.

The Olympian false Gods

By Samson Stanislavsky, Phd

Greeks of today and their paid “Hellenistic” supporters and French creators of “Hellenism” insist that
Macedonians and Greeks are one and the same race and ethnos, because they worshiped the same Gods
and spoke the same language. This view is nowhere near the truth.
First of all, all the Olympic Gods were Egyptian deities imported to Athens by merchants. The ancients
only changed their names from Egyptian to Athenian.

Macedonians did not worship any of the Olympic gods; actually they did not worship any gods.
We have to look at none other than Aristotle himself, the greatest philosopher ever to live on this
planet. Aristotle expressed doubts on the value to worship those immoral notions living on the
mountain Olympus and ridiculed them. For his disrespect he was sentenced to death by the Athenian
elders for insulting their false religion.

Aristotle, the Macedonian philosopher and teacher of Alexander the Great, escaped his execution by
fleeing Athens and returning to his native Macedonian city Staggira.

In this instance he made his famous statement about the Athenians and their criminal behaviour.
“I don’t want to give opportunity to the Athenians to commit a third crime against philosophy” he
uttered.
First they poisoned Socrates the Athenian philosopher for telling them the truth. Socrates was famous
for saying: “Man know thyself”.
The second crime against philosophy by the Athenians was the condemnation of Protagoras, the
Macedonian philosopher from Abdera for expressing doubts about the morality of the Olympian gods.
He was condemned to death but fled in his boat and died in the sea during a storm.
Aristotle also fled but died of natural causes at age 62.

Now here is what Protagoras had to say about the Olympian gods, according to the book: “The Greek
Philosophers, from Thales to Aristotle”, by W.K.C. Guthrie;

Doubts have been cast upon the Olympian deities of the Greek polis, however, long before the time of
Alexander the Great. In the world of fifth-century Greece , philosophers and playwrights already
questioned the virtues and implicitly, the existence of gods and goddesses who were portrayed, with
anthropomorphic vividness, as lustful, jealous, malevolent immortals. The cities demanded to know
how one could worship a god like Zeus who according to Greek myths, dethroned his titanic father
Kronos, pursued and ravished, often while in bestial disguise, many a beautiful woman, and resorted to
countless stratagems in order to evade his suspicious wife Hera. Such behaviour on the part of the
Olympians raised serious theological doubts in the minds of the more reflective people.

Amongst the philosophers and professional thinkers of the fifth century BC, a number of free thinkers
offered rationalistic interpretations of religion and the gods to explain the existence and nature of the
tarnished Olympians. Some philosophers, like Protagoras of Abdera embraced agnosticism. In his work
On Gods, Peri Theon, Protagoras declares that he is unable to say whether the gods actually exist, and
if they do, of what sort they might be. For this statement the Athenians brought him to trial and
condemned him to death. While Protagoras escaped the Athenians, he could not evade the power of
mighty Poseidon, and died in a ship wreck.

Ioannis Kapodistria (1776 -183l)

Background and early career

Ioannis Kapodistrias was born in Corfu , then the property of Venice , and studied in Padua , Italy .
An ancestor of his was made conte, Count, by Charles Emanuel II, Duke of Savoy, the title originated:
CAPODISTRIA, from a city of the Eastern shore of the golf of Venice , now Koper in Slovenia .

So, all the Capodistrias were Italian born and educated citizens who went to Russia studied there and
one of them became minister for foreign affairs, later Prime Minister of Greko-Rumely in the
Peloponnesus .

This type of distinguished scholars and western diplomats were attached to the Ottoman Empire to
strengthen its stand in Europe . They were settled in the “Phanar” (Light house) district in Istanbul and
became known as Phanariots. After the unsuccessful invasion of the Balkans by Austrian-Polish
Christian armies, in 1688, all the native leaders were declared undesirable persons, servants of the
Russo-Austrian empires. The Phanariots, distinguished diplomats of various Balkan ethnicities, armed
with a new artificial Greek language were installed as Turkish governors in former vassal to the Sultan
Christian provinces.

Supported by the Turkish army the Phanariots became tax collectors for the Sultan executing Turkish
law in Macedonia, Bulgaria, Romania, Georgia in the Caucasus, Armenia, Crimea, Syria, Lebanon,
Egypt and others. Local ethnic teachers throughout the Empire were expelled and imprisoned as anti-
Turkish elements and replaced with Phanariot teachers and priests who became the new
“Quisling”class in the Ottoman Empire . Then in the early part of the 19th century when uprisings
began to flare up in the Balkans, the Phanariots began to change sides and tried to take control of the
new movement. Helped by France and Britain , they executed the leaders who disobeyed their orders
among whom were Tudor Vladimirescu, Karagiorgevich, Hristo Botev and Vasil Letsski. The uprisings
unfortunately failed, but the West kept pushing but instead of fighting to form a Balkan free Christian
confederation, the West redirected the struggle towards forming a new modern Greek state.

Submitted by Manoli

Opinions
It is fashionable today for academicians and plebeians to speak of Greek “civilization” as if it was some
monolithic expression of a monolithic state (country) Greece . But whether this is so and whether this
could be established, is a matter altogether different—but what it does do is give us some pause of
thought.

In examining these matters, we must first throw off the yoke of Western scholarship, Western bias, and
Western humdrum oration. Let us take apart, piece by piece, the mythos surrounding the nonexistent
ancient state of “ Greece ,” and let us reveal the truth of these matters.

So notwithstanding “My Big Fat Greek Wedding,” and the father’s proclamation of “pick any word,
and I will show it to be of Greek origin,” and “the Greeks invented pottery,” let us press ahead and
document the errors of Western scholarship and Greek propaganda.

The ancient writer Tatian, writing over 1500 years ago, understood this all too well when he stated
“Cease, then, to miscall these imitations inventions of your own.” So in other words, the Greeks steal,
without admission or recognition, other cultures ideas as their own. If they do this for ideas, imagine
what they might do with “persons”; wait, they already do that too!

The alphabet, itself composed of the Greek letter alpha and beta, originated with the Phoenicians.

Astronomy (Greek word) originated with the Babylonians.

Geometry, another Greek word, originated with the Egyptians.

Imagine if English and other European countries used the original words for alphabet, astronomy,
geometry, and so forth, they wouldn't sound so Greek! But when you Hellenize the name, they become
Greek!

By Aristotle posted at http://www.macedoniantruth.org/forum/showthread.php?t=5050

Concerns
Examples of Human Rights Abuses in Greece - 1913 to 1993
In 1913 following its victory in the First and Second Balkan Wars, Greece officially annexed 51 per
cent of Macedonia . This was against the desire of the population of Macedonia for an independent and
autonomous country.

In 1916 the author John Reed in his book “The War in Eastern Europe ” wrote about the aftermath of
the First Balkan War and how the Greeks and Serbians tried to legitimize their takeover of the territory
while also trying to wipe out the Bulgarian influence.

He wrote “A thousand Greek and Serbian publicists began to fill the world with their shouting about
the essentially Greek or Serbian character of the populations of their different spheres. The Serbs gave
the unhappy Macedonians twenty four hours to renounce their nationality and proclaim themselves
Serbs, and the Greeks did the same. Refusal meant murder or expulsion. Greek and Serbian colonists
were poured into the occupied country...The Greek newspapers began to talk about a Macedonia
peopled entirely with Greeks - and they explained the fact that no one spoke Greek by calling the
people "Bulgarophone" Greeks...the Greek army entered villages where no one spoke their language.
"What do you mean by speaking Bulgarian?" cried the officers. "This is Greece and you must speak
Greek".”

The Carnegie Commission Report on the Balkan Wars indicated that 161 villages were burned down
and more than 16,000 houses were destroyed in the Greek occupied part of Macedonia .

On August 10th, 1920 at Serves, Paris , Britain , France , Italy and Japan concluded an agreement with
Greece on the protection of non Greek people. Greece pledged full protection for the Macedonians
living in Greece , their language and culture and the opening of Macedonian schools.

In Section 2 of the agreement Greece pledged to extend full care over the life and freedom of all
citizens irrespective of their origin, nationality, language or faith.

Clause 7 reads: "All Greek citizens will avail themselves of the same civic and political rights
irrespective of nationality, language and faith... and to legally guarantee the freedom of use by each
citizen of any language in personal, trade and religious contacts, in print and publications or
meetings..."

Clause 8 states: "Greek citizens belonging to national, religious or language minorities will be treated
on par with native Greeks."

Clause 9 reads: As regards education, the Greek government will create appropriate facilitations and
will safeguard the possibility of learning one's own language in schools of towns and areas inhabited by
citizens speaking a language different than Greek."

On September 4, 1925 , the office of High Commissioner for National Minorities was established in
Solun, northern Greece , for the observance of international agreements concerning national
minorities.

However, none of these assurances were put into practice. Instead the Greek government adopted a
policy of denationalization and assimilation while simultaneously denying the existence of
Macedonians in Greece .

In 1925 the ABECEDAR, a primer in the Macedonian language was published in Athens . This was an
elementary book for teaching the Macedonian language and was written in the Latin alphabet. It was
designed for Macedonian children. However, it was never distributed to them. After the departure of
representatives of the League of Nations , the booklets were destroyed.

This booklet was republished in Perth in 1993 by the Macedonian Information Centre to prove the
booklet's existence and the fact that Greece was once accountable to the world for its Macedonian
people living in Greece .

In the 1920s Macedonian schools were closed, not opened. Kindergartens were established in
Macedonian localities so children could be inculcated in a Greek spirit and to limit the influence of
parents. This was despite a November 11, 1930 press conference in Athens at which prime minister
Elefterios Venizelos said, "The problem of a Macedonian national minority will be solved and I will be
the first one to commit myself to the opening of Macedonian schools if the nation so wishes."

On March 30, 1927 the Greek newspaper Rizospastis wrote that 500,000 Macedonians were resettled to
Bulgaria .

On the basis of a Greek thesis: "the faith determines the nation", hundreds of thousands of Turks and
Macedonians of Muslim faith were resettled to Asia Minor . They were replaced by 638,253 Christian
Turk colonists brought in from Asia Minor .

November 1926: a legal Act was issued to change Macedonian geographic names into the Greek
version. The news of the Act was published in the Greek government daily “Efimeris tis Kiverniseos”
No. 322 of November 21, 1926 . The same newspaper in its No. 346 published the new, official, Greek
names. The names of the people were changed too. First names as well as family names were changed
to Greek versions. These are still officially binding to this day.

In 1929 a legal Act was issued On the Protection of Public Order, whereby each demand for “national
rights” was regarded as high treason. This law is still in force.
On December 18, 1936 the Metaxas dictatorship issued a legal Act On the Activity Against State
Security. On the basis of this Act, thousands of Macedonians were arrested, imprisoned or expelled
from Greece .

On September 7, 1938 the legal Act 2366 was issued. This banned the use of the Macedonian language.
All Macedonian localities were flooded with posters that read "Speak Greek". Evening schools were
opened in which adult Macedonians were taught Greek. There was not a single Macedonian school at
the time. It is estimated that nearly 5,000 Macedonians were imprisoned or sent to prison camps for
having used the Macedonian language.

During the Greek Civil War, the Headquarters of the Democratic Army of Greece reported that from
mid-1945 to May 20, 1947 in Western Macedonia alone 13,529 Macedonians were tortured, 3,215 were
imprisoned and 268 were executed without trial. In addition, 1,891 houses were burnt down and 1,553
were looted and 13,808 Macedonians were resettled by force.

During the war years, Greek-run prison camps where Macedonians were imprisoned, tortured and
murdered included: the island of Ikaria near Turkey , the island of Makronisos near Athens , the jail
Averov near Athens , the jail at Larica near the Volos Peninsula , and the jail in Solun. Among other
places, there were mass killings on Vicho, Gramos, Kaymakchalan, and at Mala Prespa in Albania .

In 1947, during the Greek Civil War, the legal Act L-2 was issued. This meant that all who left Greece
without the consent of the Greek government were stripped of Greek citizenship and banned from
returning to the country. The law applied to Greeks and Macedonians, but in its modernized version the
Act is binding only on Macedonians. It prevents Macedonians but not Greeks who fought against the
winning side to return to Greece and reclaim property. Among those not allowed to return to Greece are
the 28,000 child refugees who have not renounced their Macedonian ethnicity.

On January 20, 1948 legal Act M was issued. This allowed the Greek government to confiscate the
property of those who were stripped of their citizenship. The law was updated in 1985 to exclude
Greeks but it is still binding on Macedonians.

On November 27, 1948 the United Nations issued resolution 193C (III) which called for the
repatriation of all child refugees back to Greece . However, discriminatory laws introduced by the
Greek government have prevented the free return of many thousands of the Macedonian child refugees.
This is still the case in 2011.

On August 23, 1953 legal Act 2536 was issued. This meant that all those who left Greece and who did
not return within three years' time could be deprived of their property. This facilitated the confiscation
of Macedonian property.

Around the same time a decision was taken to resettle Macedonians. A wide ranging media campaign
was launched to induce the Macedonians to leave their native areas voluntarily and to settle in the south
of Greece and on the islands. The Greek intention was to separate Macedonians living in Greece from
their relatives, living in the Republic of Macedonia, and to create a 60 kilometer-wide belt along the
border with the then Yugoslavia where "the faithful sons of the Greek nation" could be settled.

A firm reaction from Yugoslavia saw the cancellation of the plan.

In 1959 legal Act 3958 was issued. This allowed for the confiscation of the land of those
(Macedonians) who left Greece and did not return within five years' time. The law was amended in
1985, but it is still binding on Macedonians.

In 1960 the first secretary of the Greek Communist Party, H. Florakis, was brought to court and
charged with high treason for supporting the existence of Macedonians in Greece.

In September 1988 at the press conference in Solun, the same Florakis said that the Greek Communist
Party had changed its views and that it now recognized neither the existence of Macedonians nor the
existence of a Macedonian national minority.

On August 30, 1989 , the same H. Florakis demanded from the Greek parliament the eradication from
the currently legally binding Acts the term "Greek by origin" which made it impossible for the
Macedonians to return to their homeland and to recover their property. He branded this term “racist”.
The Greek press charged him with treason.

In 1961 Michal Gramatnikowski was not allowed to get close to his mother. Michal saw his mother on
the Greek frontier from a distance of 100 meters. The Greek border guards would not permit them to
come closer.

Filip Wasilew Dimitris from Pozdivista (official Greek name: Halara) of Moscow made repeated
attempts to obtain a Greek visa in the Greek embassy in Moscow . The last application he put in was in
August 1989 but to no avail.

Georgios Nicolaos Cocos, a Macedonian political refugee who fought against a German armored
division in the defense of Greece , was living in Tashkent (former Soviet Union ) and wished to return
to Greece . But, despite his repeated attempts to enter Greece the Greek authorities would not give him
a visa. He even made a direct request to Prime Minister Andrea Papandreou from his death bed and that
too did not help him. He died without seeing his family, his home or his homeland.

Sandra Cinika twice tried to go to her village of birth in Greece on an excursion for aged and disabled
pensioners. Each time the Greek embassy in Warsaw would not give her a visa because she was not a
Greeks by origin. Cinika as well as other Macedonians, including mixed Greek-Macedonian couples,
were refused visas.

In 1962 legal Act 4234 was issued. Persons who were stripped of their Greek citizenship were banned
from returning to Greece . A ban on crossing the Greek border also extended to spouses and children.
This law is still in force for Macedonians, including those who left Greece as children.

Macedonians abroad believe Greek diplomatic posts worldwide are not allowed to issue visas to
Macedonians. They have lists of Macedonian refugees from Greece who do not qualify for visas.

In 1969 a legal Act was issued to allow Greeks to occupy and confiscate abandoned Macedonian farms
belonging to exiled Macedonians.

The Greek government has continued its ethnic restocking program with the colonization of Greek
occupied Macedonia with over one hundred thousand colonists originating from the ex-Soviet Union .
These are termed Pontian Greeks.
In 1978 the consul of the Greek embassy in Warsaw , Poland stomped over a travel document issued by
Polish authorities which had the Polish national emblem. The reason: the name of the applicant was in
Macedonian/Polish and not in Greek. The Macedonian name Mito Aleksowski was written on the
document and not the Greek Dimitris Alexiou.

In 1980 Michal Gramatnikowski, a Macedonian, sent a letter to the Greek prime minister asking him to
grant him a visa so that he could visit his ill mother in Greece. He received neither a reply nor a visa.

In early 1982 a confidential report by the security branch of the Greek police in Solun came to light.
Dated March 8, 1982 , the report contained highly controversial and inhumane recommendations and
strategies on how to deal with the "Macedonian problem".

On December 29, 1982 legal Act 106841 was issued by the government of Andreas Papandreou. This
allowed Greeks by origin that had fled during the Greek Civil War to return to Greece and reclaim their
Greek citizenship. Macedonians born in Greece and their families were excluded and remain in exile.
Heads of various State administration departments were given the right to use the abandoned properties
left by Macedonian refugees.

Greek authorities frequently reject requests from Macedonians for the recovery of their Greek
citizenship. This is done despite the Universal Declaration of Human Rights which says that "Everyone
has the right to leave every country, including one's own and to return to his own country," that "Each
person has the right to have a citizenship," and that "No one can be freely dispossessed of his
citizenship."

In 1983 the Greek government decided that it would no longer recognize university degrees from the
Republic of Macedonia . Its stated reason was that "the Macedonian language is not internationally
recognized." This is incorrect and hides the real motive.

On October 17, 1983 Lazo Jovanovski wrote a letter to the Greek Minister of Internal Affairs asking for
the restoration of his citizenship. He has never received a reply.

The same happened to Spiro Steriovski and Kosta Wlakantchovski in 1983.

In 1983 Toli Radovski, living in Gdynia , Poland , wrote a letter to the Greek Ministry of Internal
Affairs in Athens asking for the restoration of his citizenship. He did not receive a reply. The lack of
reply forced him to ask the Centre for Human Rights in Geneva for help. Thanks to the intervention of
the Centre, after four years a reply from Athens arrived. Quoting the relevant legal Acts, the Ministry of
Internal Affairs rejected his demand for the recovery of citizenship.

In 1984 Toli Radovski wrote a letter to the Ministry of Internal Affairs asking for a visa. He did not
receive the visa or a reply.

In 1984 the Movement for Human and National Rights for the Macedonians of Aegean Macedonia,
operating in Greece illegally, issued a Manifest for Macedonian Human Rights. This states "In Greece
human rights are openly disregarded and our human existence is cursed. We, in Aegean Macedonia, are
determined to carry our struggle on various levels, employing all legal means until our rights are
guaranteed."

On April 10, 1985 legal Act 1540/ 85 was issued. This amended the previously issued Acts regulating
property relations so as to make it impossible for Macedonians to return. This discriminatory Act limits
the definition of political refugees to ethnic Greeks and permits the recovery of illegally seized
property to "Greeks by origin" only. Once again, the Macedonian refugees from Greece are denied the
same rights.

In 1986 former Minister for Northern Greece , N. Martis, addressed a letter to the Australian Prime
Minister, Bob Hawke, entitled Falsification of the History of Macedonia, in which he denied the
existence of a Macedonian nation.

Several times during the 1980s Greek officials have admonished overseas officials for recognizing a
Macedonian nationality. Minister for Macedonia and Thrace (previously for Northern Greece) Stelios
Papatamelis sent a letter to Pope John Paul II admonishing him for having uttered his Christmas and
New Year greetings in the "non-existent Macedonian language." Greek authorities protested to the US
ambassador in the then Yugoslavia for having uttered a few sentences in the "non-existent Macedonian
language" while visiting the Republic of Macedonia .

In June, 1986 at its 49th Congress, the international writers' organization, PEN, condemned the denial
of the Macedonian language by Greece and sent letters to the Greek PEN Centre and the Greek
Minister for Culture. The Greek response was a denial of the existence of a Macedonian minority.

In 1987 the Encyclopedia Britannica put the number of Macedonians in Greece at 180,000. This is
considerably more than the Greek government will admit to, which is around 80,000, but considerably
less than what the Macedonians themselves believe, which varies between 300,000 and one million.

In 1987 Macedonian parents in Aegean Macedonia were forced to send their 2 and 3 year old children
to "integrated kindergartens" to prevent them from learning the Macedonian language at home. The
ruling was not implemented elsewhere in Greece .

The far right Greek newspaper Stohos has written: "Everyone who will openly manifest his views
concerning the Macedonian minority will curse the hour of their birth."

In February 1988, the Athenian newspaper Ergatiki Alilengii criticized the discriminatory policy of
Greek authorities towards Macedonians. It also criticized the anti-Macedonian hysteria in certain mass
media.

In June 1988, Gona and Tome Miovski of Perth were on their way to Yugoslavia and wished to visit
Greece . They were arrested in Athens airport, beaten up and locked in separate underground rooms.
They were beaten up again the next day. They were released 24 hours later, after the intervention of the
representative of Yugoslav Airlines and were expelled from Greece .

On July 5 and 6, 1988 two groups of Macedonian refugees who had come from Australia and Canada
wanted to visit their homeland in Greece . Both coaches were stopped on the Greek frontier.
Surrounded by armed policemen the coaches stood in the open air at 42 degrees Centigrade: one for
two hours and the other for four hours. Opening of the windows was prohibited. The passengers had a
seal stamped in their passports which forbade them to cross the Greek frontier. The vehicles and their
passengers had to return. There are photographs and video-film of this incident.

During late June and early July 1988 a large demonstration of Macedonians who had left Greece as
children in 1948 took place in Skopje , capital of the Republic of Macedonia . The demonstration was
attended by several thousand Macedonians from all over the world. A petition to the United Nations
and many national governments was addressed.

On August 10, 1988 , on the 75th anniversary of the occupation and partition of Macedonia , a large
demonstration by Macedonians was held outside the UN building in New York .

On September 4, 1988 Mito Aleksovski addressed an open letter to the Greek embassy in Warsaw
asking for a visa. He received no reply.

In the northern autumn of 1988, the Alagi newspaper in Lerin (Greek name Florina) wrote that the
Macedonians do exist and that they should have the full rights of a national minority. The newspaper
pledged to fight for those rights until victory.

In November 1988 the same newspaper published the statement by one of the leaders of the Greek
Communist Party, Mr Kostopulos, who said that it was a fact that the Macedonian minority existed in
Greece .

In its issue No 1/89 the Athens monthly Sholiastis published an article by Mrs Elewteria Panagiopoulou
entitled “Nationalists and the Inhabitants of Skopje”, in which she demands a halt to the discriminatory
policy of authorities and abolition of the inhuman legal acts aimed against the Macedonians. In another
article the same author calls Macedonians "the Palestinians of Europe".

In the spring of 1989, 90 Greek intellectuals addressed a note of protest to the Greek government in
connection with the common violation of human rights in Greece .

In 1989 during the Bicentenary of Australia, Greece organized an exhibition in Sydney entitled Ancient
Macedonia: the Wealth of Greece. The Greek President Sardzetakis toured various Australian cities and
disseminated anti-Macedonian propaganda. After a sharp reaction from Macedonians in Australia , the
Greek government protested to the Australian government for letting the Macedonian protests to occur.

On May 11, 1989 a Macedonian folk ensemble was expelled from Greece without reason. The
ensemble had come to the locality of Komotini for a "Festival of Friendship" at the invitation of its
organizers. A similar occurrence took place in 1988.

On May 20, 1989 Minister for Macedonia and Thrace ( Northern Greece ) Stelios Papatemelis appealed
to the Greeks to wage a sacred war against Macedonians.

On May 28, 1989 the Association of Macedonians in Poland sent to the Greek embassy an invitation
for its first congress. There was no representative from the embassy and there was no answer to the
invitation. On June 10, 1989 the participants of the First Congress of the Association of Macedonians in
Poland addressed a petition to the Greek government concerning the situation of Macedonians. There
was no reply. On June 26, 1989 the Association of Macedonians in Poland sent a letter to the Greek
embassy in Warsaw concerning visas for Macedonians. The embassy informed the Polish Post Office
about the receipt of the letter. Despite this there was no reply.

In May 1989 an international delegation of Macedonians from Australia , Canada and Greece presented
the problem of the Macedonian national minority in Greece to the Centre for Human Rights in Geneva .
They also met with representatives of the European Parliament in Strasbourg .
On June 22, 1989 the Helsinki Committee in Poland addressed an appeal to the state cosignatories to
the CSCE Final Act concerning the situation of Macedonians in Greece .

In summer 1989 the New York Times printed an article entitled Macedonians are not Greeks.

Between June 26 and 30, 1989 at Columbia University in New York , Greeks held a symposium
entitled History, Culture and the Art of Macedonia. The purpose of the symposium was to convince
American society that Macedonia is Greek. The symposium occasioned strong protests from
Macedonians in the United States and Canada .

In the summer of 1989 the Atika, the Munich-Athens-Munich express train serviced by Greeks would
not take, despite available seats, passengers from Skopje , capital of the Republic of Macedonia .

In June 1989, Greek Prime Minister A. Papandreou at a pre-election meeting in the Macedonian
locality of Lerin (Florina in Greek) said that if he won the election he would build a factory in which
only the locals (that is how he described the Macedonians) would be employed.

He also said that he would abolish law 1540. This law was issued during his rule and of his own
initiative in 1985 and deprived the Macedonian refugees of the right to the property they had left
behind in Greece .

In July 1989 the Athens Information Agency issued a leaflet in English entitled “The So Called
Macedonian Problem”. This leaflet denies the existence of a Macedonian minority in Greece .

At a rally in Solun on July 29, 1989 President Sardzetakis said " Macedonia was, is and will always be
Greek."

After parliamentary elections in 1989 thousands of leaflets were found in the ballot boxes in the area of
Macedonia in Northern Greece which contained protests against the disregard for human rights in
Greece .

On August 30, 1989 a legal Act rehabilitating the participants in the Greek Civil War of 1946-49 was
issued. The Act granted damages and disability pensions to fighters in the civil war who now have
Greek citizenship. By this measure the Macedonian fighters living in exile who earlier had been
stripped of their citizenship were rendered ineligible.

In September 1989 the Athenian newspaper Avriani wrote that the demands of some members of
parliament for the abolition in Greek law of the term "Greek by origin" creates a serious threat to the
national unity and territorial sovereignty of Greece .

The newspaper also wrote that the "second group" of refugees i.e. Macedonian refugees as opposed to
refugees of Greek origin, could return to Greece under the condition that they unambiguously declare
their Greek origin, i.e. deny their Macedonian ethnicity.

In September 1989 the Ta Maglena newspaper asked "Why are the Macedonians discriminated
against?" The newspaper also asked "Why does Greece not observe international legal acts?" At the
same time it warned Macedonians against the agents of the Greek Security Service whose number in
Macedonian localities is unimaginable.
In November 1989 the Sholiastis monthly published an interview with several members of the illegal
Movement for Human and National Rights for Macedonians of Aegean Macedonia.

In December 1989, during a period when there was public discussion about the Macedonian problem,
the Greek press warned "The enemy is at the door."

On January 29, 1990 The Times newspaper published an ethnographic map of Europe which shows that
Macedonians are living in Greece , Bulgaria , Albania and the Republic of Macedonia .

In February 1990 The Guardian newspaper wrote "the Macedonian problem is knocking on the door of
Europe . It must be solved before the Balkans joins the united Europe ."

In 1990 a feature film entitled Macedonia was made in Sweden . It is a six part TV series which
correctly presents Macedonian refugees as homeless and wandering.

On February 21, 1990 Constantinos Mitsotakis, then leader of the New Democracy party, said at a
press conference in the town of Janina that he is increasingly convinced that the Greek policy in
relation to national minorities should be more aggressive. He said "We have nothing to fear. We are
clean because Greece is the only Balkan country without the problem of national minorities." He added
"The Macedonian minority does not exist and is not recognized by international agreements."

On March 7, 1990 Nikolaos Martis, former Minister for Northern Greece , declared that the
Macedonian nation is an invention of the Communist party of Yugoslavia .

On March 25, 1990 in a television address, President Sardzetakis said "Only native Greeks live in
Greece ."

The Greek government warned the former Yugoslavia that should it not stop discussing the problem of
the "so-called Macedonian national minority" Greece will not render it support in cooperating with and
eventually joining the EEC.

In 1990 the High Court of Florina under decision 19/33/3/1990 refused to register a Centre for
Macedonian Culture. An appeal on August 9 the same year against the decision was also refused. In
May 1991 a second appeal was refused by the High Court of Appeals in Solun. In June 1991 the
Supreme Administrative Council of Greece in Athens dismissed a further appeal.

In June 1990 at the Copenhagen Conference on Human Rights (CHD), the Greek delegation requested
that the executive secretary of the conference remove the Macedonian Human Rights delegation's
literature from the non-government organization's desk. The request was refused.

Later, two Macedonian human rights campaigners from Aegean Macedonia who participated in the
CHD experienced official State harassment upon their return to Greece .

One, Hristo Sideropoulos, was transferred through his work to Kefalonia, several hundred kilometres
from his home place. The other participant, Stavros Anastasiadis, was given discriminatory tax
penalties and dismissed from his job.

On July 20, 1990 at the village of Meliti near Lerin (Florina) a Macedonian folk festival was broken up
by force by Greek authorities and police.
In its June, 1991 edition the Atlantic Monthly magazine ran an extensive story detailing many of the
atrocities committed in Macedonia during the Balkan Wars and following the partition of Macedonia .

The author, Robert Kaplan, also said "Greece, for its part, according to a Greek consular official whom
I visited in Skopje, does not permit anyone with a "Slavic" name who was born in northern Greece and
now lives in Yugoslav Macedonia to visit Greece, even if he or she has relatives there. This means that
many families have been separated for ever."

On December 10, 1991 the Greek Central Committee of the Australian Labor Party in Victoria sent a
letter addressed to all Victorian Labor Federal parliamentarians and all State Labor parliamentarians.
The letter explicitly denies the existence of a Macedonian minority in Greece . Point 4 refers to
"Misinformation claiming that an ethnic "minority" of Macedonians in Greece is being denied its
cultural rights. Greece has no ethnic minority other than a Moslem religious minority."

In January, 1992, six members of the OAKKE anti-nationalist group were condemned to 6 and a half
months imprisonment for putting up posters for the recognition of Macedonia .

In February, 1992 the Guardian newspaper published an article about the town of Florina in Greece and
the struggle of its Macedonian inhabitants to maintain their identity in the face of Greek repression.

On March 12, 1992 the Canberra Times ran an article, What's in a Name? For Greeks a Great Deal, by
Peter Hill, the author of the section Macedonians in the official Australian Bicentenary encyclopedia
the Australian People. The article affirmed the existence of a large Macedonian minority in Greece and
the existence of official discrimination and the denial of human rights.

Mr. Hill said "The claim by the Greek Republic that their part of Macedonia has "one of the most
homogenous populations in the world (98.5 per cent Greek)" is quite absurd. In fact, some parts of it,
such as the county of Florina (Lerin), do not have any indigenous Greek inhabitants at all."

In March, 1992 the organizers of the Moomba Festival in Melbourne asked the Macedonian
community participants not to use the name Macedonia on their float after representations were made
to the Moomba organizers by the Greek lobby in Australia and by the Victorian Minister for Ethnic
Affairs. The Macedonians refused. The ministry later said that threats to the Macedonians' safety had
been received.

On April 2, 1992 the Ambassador of Greece to Australia , VS Zafiropoulos, wrote a letter to the
Canberra Times newspaper in which he said " Macedonia , Greece 's most northerly province, does not
contain a significant minority who are ethnically related to the Slavs across the border".

"In fact, Greece is the most homogenous country in Europe and if a small number of Greeks on the
border speak, beside Greek, a Slavic idiom, this bilingualism does not constitute a minority."

In May, 1992 Australian journalist Richard Farmer visited Aegean Macedonia and published an article
in the Sunday Telegraph, Sydney entitled Freedom Fragile in Macedonia . The article described
numerous examples of human rights abuses witnessed by Farmer, including the jamming by Greek
authorities of Easter services broadcast in the Macedonian language from the Republic of Macedonia
and listened to by Macedonians in Greece .
The Greek lobby in Australia subsequently took Farmer to the Press Council but were unable to deny
him his right to publish.

In July, 1992 Archimandrite Nikodemos Tsarknias, a priest with the Greek Orthodox Church and a well
known Macedonian human rights campaigner, and a parishioner, Photios Tzelepis, were issued with a
Writ of Summons to appear in the Magistrate's Court of Solun. The priest was charged with insulting
his Archbishop. He is also accused of being a homosexual and a Skopjan ( Republic of Macedonia )
spy.

However, a KYP (Greek Secret Service) report published in a Greek newspaper revealed that the minor
charge in the Summons was a pretext to harass the priest for his human rights activism. The report says
the authorities "did not find the courage to say that they kicked him out of the church for his anti-
Hellenic stance and to ask for his committal to trial for high treason but instead they removed him with
the lukewarm "justification" which we reveal today so that it will stain with shame all those who
contributed to it."

In July 1992 the Macedonian Human Rights Association of Newcastle ( Australia ) published the book
“The Real Macedonians” by Dr. John Shea, an Irish academic at Newcastle University . The book gives
a great number of reference sources about the ethnicity of the Macedonian people, the partition of
Macedonia , the ethnic cleansing and repopulation of Aegean Macedonia, and the Greek Civil War.
Chapter 13 is titled “Denial Of Human Rights For Macedonian Minorities”.

On August 15, 1992 The Spectator magazine published an article, The New Bully of the Balkans, by
Noel Malcolm. The article discusses the plight of the main ethnic minorities in Greece including the
Macedonians, the Vlachs, and the Turks.

On the Macedonians, Mr. Malcolm asks "How many of these Slavs still live in Greece is not known.
The 1940 census registered 85,000 'Slav-speakers'. The 1951 census (the last to record any figures for
speakers of other languages) put it at 41,000; many who had fought on the losing side in the civil war
had fled, but other evidence shows that all the censuses heavily underestimate the Slav's numbers. The
lack of a question on the census-form is not, however, the only reason for their obscurity."

Mr. Malcolm says "One group of these Slavs has started a small monthly newsletter, with an estimated
readership of 10,000. But they have great difficulty finding a printer (even though it is in Greek), and
they say that if copies are sent through the post they tend to 'disappear'. ‘Even if we find a sympathetic
printer,’ one told me, ‘he's usually too scared to take the work: he's afraid of losing his other contracts,
or perhaps of getting bricks through his window."

In 1992 a spokesman for the Pan Macedonian Association of Victoria, a Greek racist organization, was
interviewed on SBS television. The spokesman said that there are no Macedonians in Florina. This was
a direct lie as Florina (formerly Lerin in Macedonian) is well known to have an almost exclusively
Macedonian population. In fact a large number of Macedonian immigrants now living in Melbourne
and Perth are from Florina. This organization has on other occasions made similar claims on SBS
television.

In November, 1992 Amnesty International published a report entitled “ Greece : Violations of the Right
to Freedom of Expression”. This gave details on a number of human rights abuses by Greece including
the repression of the Macedonian human rights campaigners, Hristos Sideropoulos and Tasos Boulis.
In November, 1992 Pollitecon Publications of Sydney published the book “What Europe Has
Forgotten: The Struggle Of The Aegean Macedonians”. The book was written by the Association of
Macedonians in Poland and was one of the first English language books to detail human rights abuses
against the Macedonians in Greece .

On December 5, 1992 The Sydney Morning Herald published an article titled “The Balkan Dance of
Death” by Bob Beale. Mr Beale says " Greece 's record of dealing with its Greek Macedonian minority
is poor. A specialist in Balkan ethnic minorities, Hugh Poulton, has noted that in the wake of the bitter
civil war - during and after World War II - Greece actively sought to remove Slav Macedonians from its
north as ‘undesirable aliens’."

"At various times since, it has forbidden Macedonians in Greece from using the Macedonian forms of
their names, removed them from official posts in Greek held Macedonia and suppressed their language
- measures that led many to emigrate to places like Australia."

In January, 1993 Amnesty International published another report – “ Greece : Violations of the Right to
Freedom of Expression: Further Cases of Concern”. This report detailed the case of Michail Papadakis,
a 17 year old school boy who had been arrested on December 10, 1992 for handing out a leaflet that
said "Don't be consumed by nationalism. Alexander the Great: war criminal. Macedonia belongs to its
people. There are no races; we are all of mixed descent."

In January, 1993 the Macedonian Movement for Prosperity in the Balkans held its first congress, in
Sobotsko , Greece . The MMPB issued a statement highlighting Greece 's discriminatory policy
towards its Macedonian minority and in particular the denial of basic human rights.

The MMPB said ethnic Macedonians in Greece and Macedonians in the Diaspora should cooperate
closely to further ethnic, religious, linguistic and social freedoms for all minorities in Greece . The
organization urged the Greek government to allow Macedonian political and economic refugees to
return to Greece if they desired.

In February 1993 a meeting was held between the Macedonian Forum for Human Rights and the Greek
Balkan Citizens' Movement to open up dialog to help solve existing problems between the two
countries.

In February, 1993, president of the Republic of Macedonia , Kiro Gligorov, speaking at the United
Nations on the possible admission of Macedonia to the body, criticized Greece for its treatment of its
Macedonian minority.

Mr. Gligorov said "It is surprising that the Republic of Greece disputes article 49 of our Constitution
which refers to the care of the Republic of Macedonia for our minority in the neighbouring countries. It
should be pointed out that there is a similar provision in the Greek constitution. It is a well known fact
that the Republic of Greece does not admit the existence of a Macedonian minority there. From this we
derive the following logical questions."

"A. If such a minority does not exist in the Republic of Greece , then this article does not refer to this
country and their reactions are surprising."

"B. If such a minority does exist, which is indisputable, why does Greece not fulfill at least the basic
rights of this minority provided in the UN Charter, the Helsinki Document, the Charter of Paris, etc., of
which it is a signatory party."

"C. "Most important of all, is this the reason that the Republic of Greece opposes the recognition of the
Republic of Macedonia under its constitutional name?"

In March 1993, the Archimandite Nikodemos Tsarknias was defrocked and expelled from the Greek
Orthodox Church for his human rights activism.

On March 26, 1993 , five members of the OSE organization were put on trial for publishing and
distributing a pamphlet entitled Crisis in the Balkans: the Macedonian Question and the Working Class.
They were charged with exposing the friendly relations of Greece with foreign countries to risk of
disturbance; spreading false information and rumours that might cause anxiety and fear to citizens; and
inciting citizens to rivalry and division leading to disturbance of the peace.

On April 1, 1993 Macedonian human rights campaigners Hristos Sideropoulos and Tasos Boulis were
put on trial after their comments about the existence of the Macedonian minority were published in
ENA magazine in March 1992. They were charged with spreading false information and rumours that
might cause anxiety and fear to the citizens. They were sentenced to five months imprisonment.

The World Macedonian Congress said that the defense counsel was not allowed to present its views. An
appeal was launched to the higher court in Athens .

In April, 1993 the Macedonian Information Centre in Perth republished the booklet the ABECEDAR,
originally published by the Greek government in 1925 as a teaching aid for Macedonian children, but
which was never distributed.

In April, 1993 the Belgian press was quoted as saying that Greece was quickly losing its democratic
reputation. The press was quoted as saying that " Greece , undermining the European principles of
respecting basic human rights, is placing itself at the margins of Europe ."

In May, 1993 the Macedonian Movement for Balkan Prosperity, based in Arideja , Greece , said that it
wanted to participate in the Macedonian-Greek dialog underway under the auspices of the United
Nations to settle the issue of the name of the Republic of Macedonia . The Movement said the
participation of the Macedonians in Greece was imperative and that it was time to determine the status
of the Macedonians in Greece as well as those forced to leave during the Greek Civil War.

Choices

AMHRC Spring Review 2010 - Bulgarian National Myths

By Ivan Hristovski and George Vlahov
http://macedonianhr.org.au/06AHMRCReview/
The negative attitude the government in Sofia manifests towards its minorities, especially the
Macedonians, appears to be symptomatic of a xenophobia permeating Bulgarian society in general:
from the average citizen to the highest official state levels. Bulgaria has persistently refused to
recognize the existence of Macedonians within its borders. This is in line with a popular view held by
all segments of Bulgarian society; namely that there is no such thing as a Macedonian nation, and that
those who call themselves Macedonians (in an ethnic sense, including the Macedonians in the Republic
of Macedonian) are nothing other than ‘lost’ members of the Bulgarian nation, inhabiting a territory
that was unlawfully taken from Bulgaria in 1878, via the Treaty of Berlin (Engstrom, 2009: 80).

In order to begin to develop an understanding of why Bulgaria has a chauvinist policy towards
Macedonians and the Macedonian state, it would be useful to examine aspects of the cultural history of
what became Bulgaria in 1878, prior to its independence.

Myths, Terminologies and Interpretations

Bulgarians pride themselves on the idea that their national “revival” began not with a gun but with a
book. The book that is seen in Bulgarian nationalist mythology as the fountainhead of that process, is a
medieval Bulgarian history written in 1762 by Father Paisii (Slavo-Bulgarian History of the Bulgarian
Peoples), a monk in the Hilendar monastery in Mount Athos, one of the centers of Eastern Orthodoxy
(Dimitrov, 2001: 8). But Father Paisii’s work only began to be disseminated in the mid 19th century
and it should also be noted that illiteracy, at this time, was extremely high in the regions of the Ottoman
Empire that were eventually to constitute Bulgaria . Thus, to describe Father Paisii as “the father of
Bulgarian nationalism” is to engage in myth-making (Karpat, 2002: 467).

It could be argued that this is hardly a malevolent myth; however there are more serious problems
connected to the Father Paisii myth as presented by the modern Bulgarian nationalist interpretation of
his writing. Bulgarian academics and numerous others seem to accept without question that Paisii
wrote an ethno- nationalistic Bulgarian history book to counter the supposed denationalizing of
Bulgaria , via Hellenistic nationalism. But as Detrez explains, it is actually not possible to accept this
claim at face value:

“According to Paissi the Greeks are ‘wise and sophisticated’ but also ‘sly and proud’, they ‘take away
from the simple people and appropriate unfairly’. Moreover they treat the Bulgarians with contempt
considering them ‘simple and stupid’….. Paissi characterizes the Bulgarians as ‘hospitable and
charitable’; they are ‘simple diggers, ploughmen, shepherds, and simple artisans’. To substantiate this
claim, he refers to God who “loves the simple and harmless ploughman and shepherds more’. The two
groups Paissi opposes to each other are not necessarily ethnic communities, but seem to be social
classes and even professional groups in the first place: the Greeks were merchants and city-dwellers
(both categories were often called ‘Greek’ in Bulgarian popular speech), while the Bulgarians are
peasants.” (Detrez, 2008: 41-42)

In the light of Detrez’s observations, one must acknowledge that the social phenomena in question had
more to do with socio-economic status, rather than the modern ethnic/national realm.

Another aspect of the national mythology propagated in Bulgaria today is the belief that throughout the
Ottoman era there was a systematic process of “ethnic Greek” clerics converting “ethnic Bulgarians”
into “ethnic Greeks”. However, these attempts made by the Orthodox Greek speaking Patriarchate
church to spread Greek literacy to the illiterate masses, were not generally about creating ethnic Greeks
– rather, they were about attempting to advance Orthodoxy via a semi-Westernized education (Detrez,
2008: 42).

Moreover, many people make the assumption that the terms “Bulgarian”, “Greek”, “Turk”, “Vlach”
etc. possessed the same meaning during the time of the Ottoman Empire as they do today. However, at
the time in question, these present day ethno-national labels were socio-economic/cultural categories,
that numerous anthropologists and sociologists like Loring Danforth have described as a “cultural
division of labour” (Danforth, 1995: 59).

Many scholars agree that during much of the Ottoman Era a “Greek” was a merchant, a city-dweller, or
someone well to do (Roudometof, 2001: 48). A “Turk” was someone who may have been a government
official (Brown, 2003: 59). A “Vlach” might denote someone who is a shepherd (Detrez, 2003: 43) and
a “Bulgarian” might be someone who is a peasant or labourer (Mackridge, 2009: 56), or a villager
(Detrez, 2003: 43). This is how Paisii perceived people in his time.

Even more revealing is the substantial incidence of “Bulgarian” peasants actually pursuing
“Greekness”, because this would signify an advance in their class status and wealth. If a “Bulgarian”
managed to rise above his occupational peasant-farmer class status and become a wealthy city dweller,
it was not unusual for him to then begin referring to himself as a “Greek” and to send his children to a
Greek speaking school for the purpose of giving them the literacy/education he never possessed. What
took place was not a change of ethno-national status, but of class (see for example, Amfiteatrov, 1990:
51-52).

Sociologically grounded etymological investigations like these outline a picture of life in the Balkans,
very different to the one presented by ultra-nationalistic Balkan historians. For our present purposes, it
is worth singling out Bulgarian historians for utilizing centuries old traveler’s chronicles with
references to inhabitants of various parts of the Balkans, including Macedonia , as “Bulgarians”; in a
manner that deliberately ignores the socio-economic contextual meaning of the usage of the term
“Bulgarian” and instead, reprehensibly ascribes to it, modern ethno-national connotations. Such
misinterpretations serve to provide support in Bulgaria , for the fictional notion that Bulgarians possess
unbroken ethno-national identity continuity, extending back from the present to early medieval times.
Moreover, these distortions are also enlisted in aid of the myth that Macedonians have consistently
been an integral part of the Bulgarian ethnos (Balikci, 2008: 178).

This helps to illustrate that “historiography in Bulgaria is constituted within the context of a broad
national agenda.” (Elenkov & Koleva, 2003-4: 183) Or in our words, Bulgarian historiography has
been imbued with a serious dose of fiction in the service of sinister political ambitions and at the
expense of genuine scholarship.

The complexity of the terminological issues we have been discussing is increased when we note that
the terms under investigation were also to become entangled with rival religious denominations later in
the 19th century, with the formation in 1870 of the Bulgarian speaking/literate Orthodox Exarchate
church as an opponent within the Ottoman empire, to the long standing Greek speaking/literate
Orthodox Patriarchate church. Furthermore religion was often used to identify people in a manner
differently from and in some contradiction to the socio-economic/cultural categories we have been
outlining.

Throughout the Ottoman period a “Turk”, in the context of a discussion with someone possessing a
religious outlook on life (and such were very numerous within the Ottoman Empire, for reasons soon to
be given), referred to anyone who was a Muslim (Detrez, 2003: 43) and a “Greek” or “Rum” could
mean someone who was an Orthodox Christian regardless of their language or class (Danforth, 1995:
59).

The historian R.W. Seton-Watson wrote of “the ignorant Bulgar peasant, when questioned as to his
nationality, would answer with the misleading confession that he was a "Greek." (Seton-Watson, 1918:
78) Again, the deceptive nature of the “confession” is understood only when it is pointed out that the
ethno-national meaning that is today associated with the label “Greek”, did not generally apply for
much of the duration of the Ottoman Empire. As we have been arguing, generalized primary identity
markers appear to have been mostly underpinned by class and religion. It is not surprising that the
“Bulgarian” peasant (Bulgarian in a socio-economic occupational/class sense or perhaps one could
describe him as a Bulgarian speaking peasant, but not as an ethnic Bulgarian in the modern sense – it
seems clear enough that such a notion was not present in his mind and that is what matters) replied that
he was “Greek” - for, by this he meant that he was an Orthodox Christian and it is a perfectly
understandable attitude for a resident of an empire that placed Muslims above Christians in numerous
practical ways. In addition, the Ottoman authorities usually officially referred to all Christians as
“Rum” or “Greeks”. Moreover, it is this attitude which explains the failure of some uninformed 19th
century travel writers to detect the presence of “Bulgarians” in regions that later became an integral
part of the Bulgarian state.

Thus the writings of western tourist authors need to be used with a considerable amount of care –
something that Bulgarian and Balkan historians in general, appear to consistently lack (Seton-Watson,
1918: 78). Notably, Seton-Watson also condemns the fact that “In the West there grew up the highly
inaccurate habit of referring to all branches of the Orthodox or Eastern Church as "the Greek Church,"
and more than one distinguished historian and traveler was guilty of the most ludicrous errors.” (Seton-
Watson, 1918: 22)

We are now in a position to better understand that it is not really possible to speak of the Hellenization
of Bulgarians in an ethnic/national sense. During much of the Ottoman period, the labels in question
were mostly underpinned by class and religion. The modern ethno-national project, among other things,
has in the Balkans, generally been about taking some of these pre-Modern identity markers and
converting them into ethno-national markers – which entails the creation of a state inhabited by an
entire population that is unified in a manner that more or less transcends the limits of class and religion;
a mass social grouping which feels it possesses a very strong identity, in spite of its very high division
of labour. These are disturbing revelations for ultra-nationalistic Bulgarian (see Pilbrow, 2005: 129) and
other proponents of myths asserting an ancient to modern essentialised ethno-cultural identity
continuity.

Conclusion

At this point, some would no doubt like to assert that all social groups possess, need and maintain
foundation myths. There appears to be some truth to this claim and be that as it may, it is not acceptable
to maintain narratives with aspects which breed arrogance, hatred and the negation of others –
especially minorities. Of the themes specifically mentioned in Bulgarian history textbooks today, the
[I]“national unification of the Bulgarian areas”[/I] (meaning Macedonia and adjacent land) remains a
dominant theme. For example, in the 1992 textbooks it was mentioned seventy times versus only thirty
for the 1991 textbooks. Other themes include “ Greece 's denationalization policy,” mentioned twenty-
four times in 1991 and twenty times in 1992 etc. (Roudometof, 2002: 14). All of this is directly linked
to the often intentional misinterpretation of the pre-Modern identity marker, “Bulgarian”.
The result is a perpetuation of Bulgarian chauvinism towards Macedonians which manifests itself by
constant declarations asserting the Macedonian language to be a “Bulgarian dialect”; by consistent
references to Macedonian history as “Bulgarian history” and to Macedonia as chiefly a “Bulgarian
land”. Moreover, Bulgaria , an EU member country (and this tells us much about the EU!), does not
recognize the existence of its Macedonian minority and inflicts upon it, a variety of other human rights
abuses. Members and supporters of OMO "Ilinden" - PIRIN (a Macedonian political party and human
rights organization operating in Bulgaria – which the Bulgarian state unlawfully refuses to register)
have been harassed, beaten, fined and even imprisoned simply for asserting their Macedonian identity.
This has to stop and ultimately, only an educational/cultural ‘sea-change’, facilitated by the Bulgarian
state and academics, is going to ensure a relatively prompt end to the ethnic chauvinism and the
development of a lasting reconciliation.
　
Bibliography

Amfiteatrov, A. Land of Discord, Makedonska Kniga, Skopje , 1990 (Macedonian translation of the
Russian original published in 1903).
Balikci, Asen. The ‘Bulgarian Ethnography’ of the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences: Some Critical
Comments, in Vintilă Mihăilescu, Ilia Iliev, Slobodan Naumović(eds.) Studying Peoples in the People’s
Democracies II, Lit Verlag, 2008.

Brown, Keith. The Past in Question, Princeton University Press, 2003.

Danforth, Loring. The Macedonian Conflict, Princeton University Press, 1995.

Detrez, Raymond. Relations between Greeks and Bulgarians in the Pre-Nationalist Era: The Gudilas in
Plovdiv , in Dimitris Tziovas (ed.) Greece and the Balkans, Ashgate, 2003.

- Between the Ottoman Legacy and the Temptation of the West: Bulgarians coming to terms with the
Greeks. In Raymond Detrez, Barbara Segaert (eds.)
Europe and the historical legacies in the Balkans, P.I.E. Peter Lang, Brussels , 2008.

Dimitrov, Vesselin. Bulgaria : the uneven transition, Routledge, 2001.

Elenkov, Ivan & Koleva, Daniela. Historiography in Bulgaria After the Fall of Communism: Did “The
Change” Happen?, Historein Volume 4, 2003-4.
[url]http://www.nnet.gr/historein/historeinfiles/histvolumes/hist04/historein4-elenkov.pdf[/url],

Engstrom, Jenny. Democratisation and the Prevention of Violent Conflict, Ashgate, 2009.

Karpat, Kemal. Studies on Ottoman social and political history: selected articles and essays, Brill ,
Netherlands , 2002.

Livanios, Dimitris. The Quest For Hellenism, The Historical Review, Vol.3, 2006.

Mackridge, Peter. Language and national identity in Greece , 1766-1976, Oxford University Press,
2009.

Pilbrow, Tim. “Europe” in Bulgarian Conceptions of Nationhood, in Hanna Schissler, Yasemin

Nuhoğlu Soysal (eds.) The Nation, Europe, and the World: textbooks and curricula in transition,
Berghahn Books, 2005.

Roudometof, Victor. Nationalism, Globalization, and Orthodoxy, Greenwood press, 2001.

- Collective memory, national identity, and ethnic conflict, Praeger Publishing, 2002.

Seton-Watson, R.W. The rise of nationality in the Balkans, E.P. Dutton, New York , 1918.

Free Advice
The history of the Greek Revolution would often be obscure unless the importance of the Albanian
element, which pervaded military society in the Ottoman Empire , be fully appreciated.

A trifling but striking mark of the high position which the Albanians had gained was exhibited by the
general adoption of their dress. Though a strong antipathy to the Muslim Albanians had been always
felt by the Ottoman Turks, towards the end of the last century they began to pay an involuntary homage
to the warlike reputation of the Albanian mercenaries. It became then not uncommon, in Greece and
Macedonia , to see the children of the proudest Osmanlis dressed in the fustanella, or white kilt of the
Albanian Tosks.

Subsequently, when Veli Pasha, the second son of Ali Pasha of Joannina, governed the Morea, even
young Greeks of rank ventured to assume this dress, particularly when traveling, as it afforded them an
opportunity of wearing arms. The Greek armatoli and the Christians employed as police-guards, even
in the Morea, also wore this dress; but it was the fame of the Albanians—for the military reputation of
the armatoli was then on the decline and that of the Suliots on the ascendant—which induced the
modern Greeks to adopt the Albanian kilt as their national costume.

It is in consequence of this admiration of Albanian-ism that the court of king Otho of Greece assumes
its melodramatic aspect, and glitters in tawdry tinsel mimicry of the rich and splendid garb which
arrested the attention of Childe Harold in the galleries of the palace of Tepelen; but the calico fustanella
hangs round the legs of the Greeks like a paper petticoat, while the white kilt of the Tosk, formed of a
strong product of native looms, fell in the graceful folds of antique drapery.

A History of Greece : The Greek revolution, pt. 1, A.D. 1821-1827 By George Finlay pages 39-40

I thought "Hellenism" was the thing in modern “ Greece ” not " Albania ".

Posted by TrueMacedonian

History
THE MACEDONIANS IN USA AND CANADA
 (HISTORICAL VIEW)

By Slave Nikolovski - Katin

slavekatin@gmail.com

3. MACEDONIAN ORTHODOX CHURCH

AND ITS RELATIONS WITH THE NEIGHBORING COUNTRIES

The Macedonian Orthodox Church has been and probably will continue to be the target of
discussions, arguments, and even attacks of the church institutions in the neighboring countries and
wider, who are trying to prevent, or postpone its joining the family of the equal Orthodox Church
organizations. In so doing an entire propaganda and media mechanism has been engaged to conduct
pressure, isolation, and negation of the Macedonian Orthodox Church and its legitimate existence. Its
aim is to distort and hide historical facts from the past and the present. The purpose of this write-up is
to bring into question the essential characteristics of the Macedonian Orthodox people, its church
organism and its truth as a people that possesses its own independent and sovereign state – the
Republic of Macedonia .
In the name of the truth we need say that certain circles and individuals of the sister Orthodox
churches in the neighboring countries seem to have forgotten their own way to their independence and
right to their own national church. In doing so they hide the fact that the Ohrid Archiepiscopate has
existed for eight centuries and that its basic nucleus, from its establishment till its illegal closure, had
represented the Macedonian Christians from every part of ethnic Macedonia . At the same time they
fail to mention the centuries old movements of the Macedonians (during the XIX and XX centuries) for
restoration of the Ohrid Archiepiscopate, which disputes the continuity of this institution in the face of
the Macedonian Orthodox Church as a legitimate representative of every Macedonian believer in
Macedonia and the entire Macedonian people in the Diaspora.
The fact that at present, even after international recognition of the Republic of Macedonia and its
membership in the UN, there is continuing negation of the autocephaly of the Macedonian Orthodox
Church, this can be regarded as an attack on the Christianity of the Macedonian people. Therefore,
together with the historical truths of the Macedonian people it is also necessary to point out the
historical and canonical foundations of the Macedonian Orthodox Church, its continuity as part of the
world cultural heritage; to lighten the unprincipled efforts of previous rulers – conquerors of
Macedonia, to impose foreign spiritual hierarchy and to usurp its cultural and church wealth, all created
throughout its millennium old spiritual living.
For more than a millennium the Macedonian Orthodox church, in the face of the Ohrid
Archiepiscopate, has lived spiritually with its protector Saint Clement of Ohrid. In the ninth century he
opened the ways to the cultural renaissance of the Macedonians who had migrated to Macedonia
toward the end of the sixth century where they met with the already Christianized native Macedonians
whose Christian beginnings are linked to missionary work of St. Apostol Pavle (Apostle Paul) and his
followers.
When the holy deed of the Solun brothers, Saints Cyril and Methodius, failed in Velika Moravia ,
what it had achieved was saved, strengthened, and many times multiplied by their most distinguished
disciples, St. Clement and St. Naum, in Macedonia , in their churches, shrines, and schools alongside
the shores of Lake Ohrid . Thus, this literacy, created on the basis of the South Macedonian tongue and
the books translated to the first Slavic speaking literary tongue, were the saviors of the entire Slavic
speaking people, and even the European culture as a whole. St. Clement of Ohrid had been chosen first
Slavic speaking bishop about 1,100 years ago. His Great Eparchy in Macedonia is a spiritual Christian
foundation on which the Macedonians could build their church hierarchy. Thus, with 3,500 students at
the Ohrid spiritual school, St. Clement of Ohrid educated the people in Macedonia and further, while
the holy books written in Cyrillic were used to Christianize even the Russians toward the end of the X
century.
Czar Samoil founded his state on Macedonian soil with the Capital in Prespa and Ohrid, depending
on the Macedonian ethos above all to organize his spiritual and autocephalous church organization. The
very fact that after the defeat of Samoil’s descendents in 1018 the Byzantine Emperor recognized and
set the rights of the autocephalous Ohrid Archiepiscopate, shows the respect that this church institution
had, with a jurisdiction covering the most part of the Balkans and within the borders of Samoil’s state.
For almost two centuries the great diocese of the Ohrid Archiepiscopate, inherited from Samoil’s age,
was maintained within the borders of the Byzantine Empire .
During the Byzantine Empire , as well as under the authorities of the Bulgarian and Serbian states
during the XIII and XIV centuries, the Ohrid Archiepiscopate enjoyed respect as one of the leading and
oldest church institutions in the Orthodox ecumenical order. Even the most educated Ohrid
archbishops, who were Greek (Hellen), treated the missionary activities of St. Clement and St. Naum,
their teachers St. Cyril and St. Methodius, and the seven martyrs, with greatest respect. Their
monasteries along the shores of Lake Ohrid were considered to be the greatest shrines in the
archiepiscopal city because they were the resting places of the relics of these saints and teachers, and
here they nurtured the traditions of the founders of the Ohrid church. Thus, the Ohrid archbishops had
left behind them inspirational pages devoted to St. Clement of Ohrid, praising him as their spiritual
father.
This attitude was confirmed at the time when the Serbian Orthodox church was rejected by the
Tsarigrad patriarchate in 1346as a result of the acceptance of a patriarchate title. The Ohrid
Archiepiscopate then mediated investing efforts in Tsarigrad to resolve the dispute and to regulate
relations between Tsarigrad and Serbia , thus succeeding in the resolution. This confirmed the good and
correct relations between the Serbian Orthodox Church and the Ohrid Archiepiscopate.
At the same time, during the Middle Ages and the Ottoman Empire , the Macedonians expressed
their spiritual and intellectual potentials through the activities of the Ohrid Archiepiscopate. The
nurturing of church literature, architecture, and every kind of fine and applied arts linked to
iconography and liturgy is ranked very high in world science. It has been assessed that masterpieces for
their time were created in Macedonia , and these works of art enrich not only Macedonian but the
world treasury of art and culture in general.
During the Ottoman domination the Ohrid Archiepiscopate legalized its activities and expanded its
diocese significantly during the XV and XVI century, not only throughout Macedonia but abroad as
well. At this time the Serbian and Bulgarian Orthodox Churches were abolished, and the Ohrid
jurisdiction was expanded over a number of their eparchies. However, many Ohrid leaders made efforts
to organize a union for liberation from the Ottoman rule, which led to some archbishops finding
themselves in exile, jails, and emigration.
The Pek Patriarchate was restored in 1557 and it included the Northern Macedonian territories and
Western Bulgaria . For this reason the Serbian rulers adapted their title to the new situation. Because of
the jurisdiction over parts of Macedonia and Bulgaria they showed that the Pek Patriarchate was not
just a church of the Serbian people. The Ohrid leaders did the same thing previously, during the XVI
century, authorizing that they were authorized for Serbia and the other parts of the Balkans. During the
Austro – Turkish wars, following the Karposh Uprising joint alliances were formed among the Balkan
Christian leaders for joint action in the liberation from Ottoman slavery between the Macedonians,
Greeks, orthodox Albanians, Vlahs, and other Christians, on which mutual negotiations had been held.
A movement for the restoration and liberation from Turkish rule appeared in the Ohrid
Archiepiscopate during the XVIII century. This rise was met with resistance in the fanariotic circles in
Tsarigrad who had a great influence over the activities of the Celestial Patriarchate, while a strong
feeling of closeness to their spiritual throne grew within the Ohrid Church . The people wished to retain
the historical continuity and greatness of Ohrid calling upon the annexations of the fanariotis, who on
the other hand wished to abolish the autocephaly and Archiepiscopate, and to have it join the Tsarigrad
Patriarchate. In 1767 Arsenij, the last Archbishop of Ohrid had to withdraw before the influential
circles. Hence, the abolishment of the Ohrid Archiepiscopate one year after the abolishment of the Pek
Patriarchate was explained by its financial difficulties and material weakness.
The centuries old Christian living of the Macedonians from the time of St. Clement through the
long history of the Ohrid Archiepiscopate till the time of the renaissance in XIX century, all contributed
to the creation of masterpieces of universal significance, with exceptional esthetic value and deep
humanistic message. Thus, in the churches and monasteries of Macedonia significant works of art were
created with which humanity can be proud of. The icons in Ohrid, the frescos of St. Sophia, Nerezi,
Nagoricani and Kurbinovo, the architecture, constructors, and the works of applied arts, all enter the
anthology of significant achievements of their time. These works contain original characteristics and
features connected to Macedonian cultural tradition and they represent a major contribution to
Macedonian and Byzantine cultural and spiritual relations.
Macedonia is the cradle of iconography of the All Slavic speaking teachers and the presence of
several hundred portraits of St. Clement and his contemporaries. This is sufficient evidence of the
cultural continuity of the traditions of the Macedonians from most ancient times till the present day.
The question is why is the presence of these apostles of Slavic speaking literacy not so strongly
emphasized with the other peoples as it is in Macedonia ? This would be because their activities took
place among the Macedonians and because their work became part of their living and beliefs
throughout the centuries.
Macedonian spiritual space was never closed. Instead, Orthodox spiritualists, writers and artists,
were always involved in the noble humanistic currents based on Christ’s learning and the traditions
of St. Clement’s Church. Ornamental decorations as well as Glagolic and Cyrillic transcripts from the
Ohrid school and created in Kratovo and Slepce during the period from X to XVI centuries are also
specific occurrences in the history of Macedonian culture.
Many Macedonian artists also made their contribution to the neighboring Balkan peoples. Thus,
many Macedonians took part in the development of art in Serbia and Bulgaria during the XVIII century
and were involved in every Balkan environment to build the most complicated church structures. At the
same time the Mijachki carvers enjoyed the respect of leading masters in the Balkans for a long time.
A specific construction and arts culture developed in Macedonia even after the abolishment of the
Ohrid Archiepiscopate, especially in the struggle of the church and school communities for performing
church services in the Macedonian tongue. Thus, hundreds of churches were built throughout
Macedonia , made of Macedonian stone, with Macedonian wood, Macedonian brick; with Macedonian
soul and heart….All of these churches most often have monumental dimensions and a basilical shape in
order to remind one of the greatness of the ancient church glory. The renaissance period in Macedonia
brought with it a specific iconography within orthodoxy, with a special emphasis on the native
Macedonian saints, their hagiographies, and on All Slavic speaking literacy.
All of this confirms that Macedonians made a huge contribution to the cultural and spiritual being
of orthodoxy in the global arts treasure. For this reason the Macedonian Orthodox Church and the
Macedonian people are shocked by the alleged special rights of certain orthodox churches to the
ancient Christian Macedonian churches. It is incomprehensible that the works of the builders, carvers,
icon painters, and writers of church books, all created for centuries throughout the past on Macedonian
soil, could all be declared as non – Macedonian. It is a surprising fact that throughout the long presence
of the feudal rulers throughout the XVI century, the gifts of the church founders and individuals at the
time given for renovation or reconstruction of the older churches of the Early Christian and Byzantine
period, are all being declared as foreign. In so doing they forget the ancient church founder’s principles
that these gifts signify deep respect and prayer of the gift givers toward the ancient Macedonian
churches and admiration of the holy traditions of the Ohrid Archiepiscopate. We need emphasize that
the donation to a church does not represent a possession of the church, but instead, a prayer for
salvation of the donator. The church founder’s gift within the Ohrid Archiepiscopate, as in the other
churches, represents admiration and not feudal possession of the amateur rulers of the Middle Ages.
Christian monuments in Macedonia are the works of its builders and carvers, they were owned by
every citizen of Macedonia , while their spiritual and artistic value was admired by every well
intentional person, everyone who believed in the human values of love and peace among people.
Church monuments truly were holy places for coming together among the Christians from every
Balkan country and the world. For this reason the Macedonian people continue to protect these using
the most modern methods, maintains them and cares for these buildings which are constantly open and
accessible to every well intentioned believer and analyst from throughout the world, while the masters
and donators communicated through these structures according to their spiritual virtues.
Macedonians have never treated the works of their creators in other countries as their own
possession, but instead as a natural circulation of the cultural values and religious relations. The
Macedonian people built spiritual and cultural shrines with a strong desire, love, and faith toward
orthodoxy. In order to survive in these Balkan regions the orthodox people in Macedonia, throughout a
period of about ten centuries, helped each other with the other nations, lent each other a Christian hand,
and so survived slavery and assimilation, persecution, and injustice. He survived and will survive for as
long as time runs and the world turns, for the Macedonian nation is Biblical, with a huge Christian soul,
with faith, hope, and love of God and himself.
All Orthodox churches should finally face the truth in the eye and accept the objective reality that
since 1958 the Macedonian Orthodox Church has lived and created independently according to the
learning of the holy fathers and teachers of the Church, based on its Constitution and in the spirit of the
Celestial and other assemblies and the pure Orthodox faith. The inconsistent attitude of the Orthodox
churches toward the Macedonian Orthodox Church and their ignoring its church reality, all inflicts
great damage not only within the Macedonian Orthodox Church, but to the holy orthodoxy in general.
It is a fact that the Macedonian people now live in their own sovereign, independent state – the
Republic of Macedonia , which is internationally recognized. This was requested by the Macedonian
people and citizens of the Republic of Macedonia and they voted for total sovereignty including
independence of the church. The Macedonian Orthodox Church has lived an active independent life as
a true domestic church, satisfying the spiritual needs of its believers in the country and abroad.
Therefore, the Macedonian Orthodox Church and the Macedonian people must not be left alone in the
winds of the Balkans, the crossroads of many faiths, nations, and religions.
Unlike the relations of the Macedonian Orthodox Church with its neighboring sister Orthodox
churches, it nurtures good relations and collaboration with the Catholic, Anglican, Evangelist,
Methodist, Lutheran, Adventist’s, and other churches, as well as with the Jewish, Islamic and other
religious communities in the world. In the last forty years it has nurtured particularly good relations
with Vatican and the Catholic Church in Rome . This collaboration was especially intensified in 1969 at
the 1,100th Anniversary of the death of the Macedonian and all Slavonic educator, Saint Cyril of Solun.
An idea was born then that on the 24 th May every year in Rome in the name of the Macedonian people
respect would be paid to St. Cyril and his epochal deed. A ceremony takes place at the famous basilica
of San Klemente, the place of the modest grave of Saint Cyril of Solun. The ceremony takes place in
the presence of a state delegation of the Republic of Macedonia, of the Macedonian Orthodox Church,
representatives of the Holy See of the Italian state and religious institutions, organizations and
associations, journalists and other public and cultural workers, friends of Macedonia, foreign tourists,
church choirs, and believers from Macedonia who come to attend or to participate in this rare and
significant event. In 1970 this was permanently inscribed in Macedonian and Latin on a copper
commemorative plaque, expressing the veil of time past.
A similar manifestation is held every year in honor of St. Methodius in Elvangen , Germany .
These manifestations are now known as “ Macedonia in honor of St. Cyril and Methodius.”
 These ecumenical relations with the Macedonian Orthodox Church caused the Vatican certain
difficulties in their relations with the Serbian, Bulgarian, and Greek Orthodox Churches . Some circles
among these churches condemn the Vatican because of its good relations with the Macedonian
Orthodox Church especially since Pope John Paul II has had the custom for a number of years to
express his Christmas and Easter greetings in Macedonian as well as the other languages. They
interpret these relations and meetings in Rome as breaking away of the Macedonian Orthodox Church
from orthodoxy, forgetting that Vatican cannot but accept ecumenical dialogue with those Orthodox
churches which wish to have such dialogue.
It is true that arguments between the Macedonian Orthodox Church and the neighboring sister
churches will continue, which is nothing new in the history of the Orthodox Church. This is a “normal”
step in recognizing the autocephaly of another church. Thus, in their solidarity to the Serbian church
other Orthodox churches refrain from acknowledging autocephaly of the Macedonian Orthodox Church
even though they know quite well that many of them, including the Serbian Orthodox Church itself had
to survive the same experiences and expectations before they were acknowledged their independence.
At the same time, there is no Orthodox Church that negates the existence and truth about the
Macedonian Orthodox Church. However, there are Orthodox churches who continue to postpone
official recognition of the Macedonian Orthodox Church because of obvious and understandable
political reasons, submitting to the interests of their countries and governments. The Greek and
Bulgarian churches do not recognize existence of the Macedonian nation so that they would not have
to, as a consequence of this, recognize the existence of a Macedonian minority on their territory. Other
Orthodox churches do not wish to enter a formal conflict with the Serbian Orthodox Church because
this issue does not touch them directly.
The historical problem of the Macedonian Orthodox Church is extremely clear. It is one of the
ancient local churches in the Balkans, headed by the Ohrid archbishop. It was founded and created by
St. Clement of Ohrid, one of the disciples of St. Cyril and Methodius. At the same time all of these
churches know that there is no returning once the autocephaly process has begun. Unfortunately, such
is the history of the Orthodox churches not only in the Balkans but throughout the world.

Stories
The Prehistoric Zets (Son-In-Laws)

Risto, I read and understood the inscriptions of the names and surnames of some ancient Zets which were
found in Macedonia.

The link is http://www.unet.com.mk/ancient-macedonians-part2/voved-e.htm

Zeting (Son-In-Lawing) is said to be the oldest prehistoric form of ruling.

The following Zets lived in a period from 7000 BC to 1385 BC!

ZET KUZO HERUZI (7000-6000 BC)

ZET STOLE N'D'MSEJ (7000-5000 BC)

Z'T T'RPE OD ORESHT (5000 - 4500 BC)

Z'T T'GIL T'FIL (Z'T TEGIL TEFIL) (2100-1500 BC)

IG'L AL (1385 BC)

UTIK (1385 BC)

The "BIG" Question is: When are the bastardized Koine speaking Arvanitovlachs going to show us the
inscriptions of the names and surnames of the prehistoric Zets which they have no doubt found on the territory
of the Peloponnesus?!!!

By Dusko L

DANNANS, NOT GREEKS!

The bastardized Koine speaking ArvanitoVlachs are in denial.

If we took a ride in Tito's time-machine and went back in time to approximately 1330 BC we would find that the
"real" Dannans were the Hebrew conquered proto-Slavic Pelasgians of Morea (modern day Peloponnesus). Aye
laid down the law and said that all people called Pelasgians were now to be called Dannans.

Troy fell in 1250 BC. In the 8th century BC Homer in the Iliad mentions Macedonian tribes (Paeonian, Brygian or
Phrygian, Pelasgian, Venets or Enets, etc). They fight on the side of the proto-Slavic Trojans against the Hebrew
controlled Dannans!

*In the 8th century BC, I believe the Romans got it wrong when they called a Eur-African Boeotian tribe who
migrated to Sicily "Grecos". Much the same wayColumbus got it wrong by calling the American natives
"Indians".
”Grecos” is a Slavic word! In fact, G-re-cos means S-la-v (if people have been reading the Digest!)
How can the Boeotians be G-re-kos/S-la-v when they are in fact hybrids? (ie. part Hebrew, part Nubian, part
Pelasgian, part Phoenician, etc).

The indigenous tribes which constituted the ancient Macedonian state were purely S-la-v!
(It would perhaps have been better for all if indeed the Romans had vaguely used the name Danaoi instead!)

Homer was a Pelasgian.

Herodotus was hybrid.

The Ancient Macedonians conquered the Ancient City States from 338 BC after they were provoked.

Not surprisingly, the ancient Macedonians called the citizens of the ancient City States "Danajtsi" (Dannans), not
Greeks (Grecos).

By Dusko L

THE MYTHOLOGY OF OSIRIS

The king Demi-god

By Samson Stanislavski, Phd,

University Parhon Bucharest , Romania

European civilization and religion originate from Egypt , especially from the story of Osiris. Osiris has
many explanations where the west Hellenised his name from :As-Ar.
Europeans changed the original, Egyptian name from “As Ari” to “OSIRIS”. During long history,
scribes read the script from left to right, top to bottom and that’s why many of the names changed form,
pronunciation and meaning.

Osiris in its original form means Ka-Ra, the all powerful Ra, the sun’s spirit and power. Some
historians claim that Osiris is synonymous with Ocharis, all seeing god. That is closer to the
Macedonian word, ochi, ochari many eyes or all seeing eyes. Since Osiris is equated with omniscience,
here we give the story, how he wanted to civilize the world and export his knowledge and technology
to less advanced people.

And so begins the story which also includes Macedonia in this plan and the origin of the word
Macedonia .

This text is taken from the book “Osiris And The Egyptian Resurrection” by E. A. Wallis Budge, in two
volumes, Vol I, pages 10-11. First time published 1973, Dover publications, New York , USA .

“Osiris was greatly devoted to agriculture. He was brought up in Nysa, a town of Arabia Felix , where
he discovered the use of the wine. He was the first to drink wine. He held Hermes, in Egyptian Thoth in
high honour, because of his ingenuity and power of quick intention. Hermes taught men to speak
distinctly, he gave names to things that had none before, he invented letters, and instituted the worship
of the gods, he invented arithmetic, music, and sculpture, and formulated a system of astronomy. He
was the confidential scribe of Osiris, who invariably accepted his advice on all matters
Osiris’s Missions

“Osiris raised a large army ,and determined to go about the world teaching mankind to plant vines and
to sow wheat and committed the government of his whole kingdom to Isis , and gave her as an assistant
Hermes, his trusted scribe who excelled all others in wisdom and prudence. Osiris took with him
Apollo, in Egyptian Horus, Anubis who wore a dog’s skin, Macedon who wore a wolf’s skin, Pan, in
Egyptian Menu, and various other skilful husbandmen.

As he marched through Ethiopia , a company of satyrs was presented to him; he was fond of music and
dancing and therefore added them to the body of musicians and singers, both male and female, who
were in his train. Having taught the Ethiopians the arts of tillage and husbandry, he built several cities
in their country and appointed governors over them, and then continued his journey.

On the borders of Ethiopia he raised the river banks, and took precautions to prevent the river Nile
from overflowing the neighbouring country and turning it into a marsh, and he built canals with flood
gates and regulators. He then traveled by way of the coast of Arabia into India , where he built many
cities, including Nysa, in which he planted the ivy plant. He took part in several elephant hunts, and
journeying westwards he brought his army through the Hellespont to Europe . In Thrace he killed
Lycurgos, a barbarian king, who refused to adopt his system of government. Osiris became a benefactor
of the whole world by finding out food which was suitable for mankind and after Osiris’s death, he
gained the reward of immortality, and was honoured as god.”

The entire story above was taught to Alexander the Great by Aristotle, and there is nothing Greek in all
this narration. Alexander The Great in his intention to conquer the then civilized world was to establish
a universal kingdom like Osiris, whom he thought was his father at least spiritually.
The above story deserves some comments from the Macedonian point of view, as Macedonia was on
the radar of Osiris’s plans, likewise St. Paul of the Bible of the Christian New Testament where he
began the work of establishing a world Christian kingdom and Macedonia became one of this
foundation’s stones.

Macedon, one of Osiris’s apostles was appointed as governor of the land called Macedonia and in
Macedonia was established the first monotheistic kingdom whose ruler was the Egyptian king
Akhnaton, the worshipper of the single god Aton. The cult of Aton is still alive in the holy mountain
Aton, in Aegean Macedonia, which became the holy Mountain of the Christians similar to Mecca of the
Muslim world.

Book and other Reviews

Dragi Risto,

I would like to inform you that this month has been published "Zbornik osme konference Izvor
Evropejcev" (Proceedings of the Eighth International Topical Conference Origin of Europeans),
Založništvo Jutro, Ljubljana 2010, and two books by Vinko Vodopivec: - "Starejša slovenska
etnogeneza" (Ancient Ethno-Genesis of Slovenes), 407 pp. - "Jezikovni temelji starejše slovenske
etnogeneze" (Fundamentals of Ethno-Genesis of Slovenes), 407 pp. Založništvo Jutro, Ljubljana 2010

These can be ordered at: jutro@siol.net or at vinko.vodopivec@uau.si

In the Zbornik there are the contributions by O. Belchevsky, which you helped redacting, A. Škokljev,
S. Nikolovski, etc, a total of 15 contributions.

For Macedonians, in my opinion, should be interesting especially the book "Fundamentals ...", where
on pp. 288-402 are collected all known Old Phrygian inscriptions and given their understanding using
the Slovene language. It would be advisable that a Macedonian, knowledgeable in Macedonian
dialects, would give the Macedonian-based interpretations of
those inscriptions.

I wish you a successful next year!

Tone

About the Hellenization of Southern (Aegean) Macedonia

A Review of 'Fields of Wheat, Hills of Blood'

"Elsewhere in Greek Macedonia, the term [en-] dopyi ("local") is used to refer to Slavic-speakers who
had inhabited the region prior its incorporation into Greece in 1913; in the Edessa and Florina
prefectures, for example, the phrase dopyos Makedhonas ("local Macedonian") is used by many to
signify a Slavic-speaker, and his descendants." Perhaps this quotation from the book of Dr Anastasia
Karakasidou was the reason why the same passed through various troubles before it was published. Or,
maybe this was the main motivation for certain Greek extremists to accuse Dr Karakasidou of "high
treason". When in 1993 she published one part of her research in the periodical "Journal of Modern
Greek Studies (vol.11, 1993)", she received several death threats from US-based Greek right-wing
organizations, even before her colleagues had a chance to congratulate her. At the same time, the Greek
newspaper "Stohos", describing her as a state-enemy, published both her address in Solun and her car
registration number.

But she didn't give up, she continued with her research, and when the book was finished she made a
publishing contract with Cambridge University Press. The surprise came when at the last moment
Cambridge Press decided not to publish the book - allegedly because of the intelligence coming from
the UK Embassy in Athens saying that such a step might endanger the security of British citizens who
resided in Greece . The case has now gathered a great deal of world-academic attention. There were
stories in the Washington Post and The New York Times. Three academic editorial board members
resigned from the publishing house in protest at the decision. The "Karakasidou case" became known
worldwide. Generating interest even before its publishing, the book was finally printed in 1997 by
Chicago University Press. Today Dr Karakasidou is Professor at Wellesley College in the US , and her
book "Fields of Wheat, Hills of Blood" is one of the most circulated among the students of
anthropology and Balkan history.

This book, which is very readable and comprehensive, is an outcome of her fact-finding mission in the
region of Assiros (originally Guvezna), a small town located twenty miles northwest from Solun. In the
research that covers the time period from 1870-1990, Dr Karakasidou describes the life of the region's
inhabitants, their migration, their customs, professions, languages, as well as the impact of the
numerous wars on the population. Particularly emphasized is the role of the local notables in the
processes of shaping or rather reshaping the national identities of the inhabitants. The local notables,
known as tsorbadjihi (local Christian elite), merchants, priests, teachers and state administrators,
consisted of the lowest but obviously the most effective tool in the process of national assimilation.
According to Dr Karakasidou, the key factor in this process, until 1913, were the local tsorbadjihi and
the Greek Church - Patriarchate. The Patriarchate had cleverly used its privileged position in the
Ottoman Empire in opposition to the recently re-established (1870) Bulgarian Church (Exarchate),
even though the later had noticeably enjoyed stronger support among the "Slav-speaking" population
all over Macedonia . After the partition of Macedonia, beside the Patriarchate, state-sponsored schools
and the Army (through the army-obligation for adult males) undertook the leading role in the process of
nation-building of the Greek national consciousness among the non-Greek inhabitants, which at that
time consisted of the majority of the population in Southern (Aegean) Macedonia. Those were the main
assimilation-levers for the realisation of the state-sponsored project for the Hellenization of that part of
Greece . In that respect, speaking about the situation in Assiros in the war-periods (Balkan Wars, Word
Wars, and the Civil War), the author, using both oral memory and written history, brings the destiny of
the "ordinary people" closer to the eyes of the reader.

Where in the region trade, agriculture, religion, common customs and mixed marriages had connected
its inhabitants, it is easy to notice how, under the pressure of the neighbouring propagandas, year by
year the differences (particularly in the language) became far more important than the similarities. For
example, many "Slavic-speaking" women from the surrounding villages who had married into the
Greek-speaking families in Assiros found themselves forbidden by their husbands or in-laws to speak
their "native Bulgarian dialect" in their new households. At the same time, the author underlines that
the labels "Macedonian" and "Bulgarian" represent synonyms, which, particularly today, are used in
Greece interchangeably in reference to "Slavic-speakers", in respect both of their language and
ethnicity.

Further on, one can understand the significance of the refugees (prosfighas) and their immense
importance in the process of "national homogenization" of the young Greek state. Actually, Anastasia's
father was a Turkish-speaking prosfighas himself, compulsory evacuated to Greece in the wake of the
Asia Minor War in 1922. His life had been deeply affected by the Greek nation-building process. And,
although after his settling in the region of Macedonia he had acquired some sense of belonging to the
Greek collectivity, yet every evening he would tune his short-wave radio to an Istanbul station and sing
along with the slow Turkish songs, explaining to his little daughter their verses. From the
comprehensive analysis about the colonization of this part of the country it becomes clear that the
Greek nation, particularly in the regions of Southern Macedonia and Thrace , has derived from
profoundly diverse ethnic and cultural backgrounds. The next method that had accelerated this process
of state sponsored assimilation was the so called "voluntary resettlement" of the native population,
mainly to Turkey and Bulgaria , but also to the East-European countries during and after the Greek
Civil War.

All in all, the book represents a well-founded publication about the Hellenization of one small part of
Southern (Aegean) Macedonia . Nonetheless, it gives us more than enough evidence to draw the
conclusion that Macedonia has never been exclusively Greek. Moreover, at the beginning of the
twenty-century, Southern Macedonia was a multiethnic region with an overwhelmingly non-Greek
majority. As the Bishop of Florina (Lerin) Augostinos Kandiotis once said "If the hundreds of
thousands of refugees had not come to Greece , Greek Macedonia would not exist today". The book is
well worth reading. Unraveling the complex social, political and economic processes through which
these desperate people become amalgamated within the expansionistic Greek identity, this book
provides an important corrective to the developments of the "Macedonian Question".

Poetry
THIS MACEDONIAN SUN
[The National flag]

By Spero Thompson

Patriots rose and fell in the llinden uprising

Turks holocaust villages, hope flees the land
Greeks, Serbs, and Bulgars drive out the Ottomans
Partitioning of Macedonia , their Balkan war prize demand

Europe ’s power struggles bring a darkness of night

Ilinden, Balkan, World wars; repeatedly Macedonia is overrun
Sunrise overcomes night, announcing a new day
In 1991 history records the rising of the Macedonian Sun

Macedonia ’s twentieth century featured bloodshed and hope

Began in bloodshed, ending in independence, hope realized
A standard is raised to represent and identify themselves
By symbol and colour, their nationhood is visualized

For so long a people oppressed and suppressed

Now masters of their own house and land
 A century of, sultanate, monarchy, communism then autonomy
Today under their own flag they stand

The Macedonian Sun, a boldly emblazoned flag

On a field of red, a golden risen sun
The sun signifies a new day of self –rule
Red, for a history written in blood, a memorandum

A banner derived from their ancient heraldic emblem

Eyes see… 'we are a people' its proclamation
Proud emigrant sons and daughters see it fly
World acknowledged, flag of their mother nation

Historically, countries play leading or supportive roles

Now Macedonia is cast in a modern part
Ally to all who pursue peace and democracy
The Macedonian Sun, their pledge of national heart

Reader, listener, understand the meaning of this flag

With both prospect and retrospect you will see
The sun looks ahead, to a new era begun
Red, looks back on blood, sacrificed for country

This century, as nations strive, ideology against ideology

Fly in honour and freedom, oh Macedonian Sun
Until all flags are lowered, required no more
When His kingdom come, Gods will be done

From the Archives

Ex German ambassador - What the European archives speak about Macedonia

German Ambassador: “Never yield to Greece ”

http://macedoniaonline.eu/content/view/3315/1/
Former German Ambassador to Macedonia , Hans Lottar Stepan in an interview with Mia, Mina, A1,
says Macedonia should not under any circumstances yield to Greece . He also calls Macedonia a
“victim of Europe ’s 20th century conspiracies”.

- Your Excellency, for your book “The Macedonian knot”, you have received numerous awards. Most
recently the “Krste Petkov Misirkov” award, but also award from Macedonian Academy of Sciences.
How much these awards mean to you, as a satisfaction for your 15 years of research on Macedonia .

I became a spiritual warrior for Macedonia . I have received awards from the County of Kisela Voda ,
from MANU, and the latest from the Ramkovski Foundation. It’s an honor for me to receive any, and
all of them, I am very happy.

- Arguments you have put forward in your book, “The Macedonian knot” have helped many people
here and abroad to learn about Macedonia , its history.

I am convinced that if any politician wishes to understand today’s political conflict between Macedonia
and Greece , must look deep into the history. This history proved what I believed, for example, Greece
prior to 1913 had never had Aegean Macedonia in its possession. Not in Antic, not in Roman, not
during Ottoman, not at any point of time did Greece had anything to do with Macedonia .

Only after an outrageous breach of international law in 1912-1913 during the Balkan Wars, together
with Bulgaria and Serbia & Montenegro . They all occupied and took Macedonia , Thrace , and Epirus .

The main basis here is, Greece has illegally stolen Macedonian territory, which is against international
law.

This historical connection is independent from the right of Macedonia to self determination. Everyone
on earth has the right to self determination, so does Macedonia , and no one can change this.

-Your public speaking on Macedonia , as well as your positions in your book are somewhat different
from Official German Politics.

When I returned home, after I had spent three years as a German Ambassador to Macedonia , I had few
speeches in Germany , regarding Macedonia , the Balkans, Southern Europe , Yugoslavia etc. I began
to understand I am missing information on the origins, on the identities of the Balkan peoples. I spent
several months in Bonn , looking at the vast Archives of the German Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Then
spent several months in Berlin .

It is then and there that I realized what Macedonia ’s neighboring countries are asking from you is
completely unjustified and quite simply ridiculous.

- You had sent letters to members of the European Union, NATO, to Scheffer and Barroso. Can we
expect that a German diplomat not receive a response from EU and NATO?

The EU and NATO are aware that Greece is very ’skillful’. The EU and NATO are completely aware
that Greece is lying to them and to Macedonia and are even more aware that they should put a stop to
it.

All this is coming from a country that calls itself a “cradle of democracy”. Greece must have
responsibility for truth and justice.

The European Commission also saw through Greece ’s lies. If they continue to show their fake
solidarity to Greece , then we are talking about bigger interests behind the curtains. I believe the
background is the Balkan Wars and the relations between the Balkan League and the Entente*.

Editor Notes:

* The Entente is a French word for a diplomatic “Understanding”. The ‘entente’ was struck in 1904, by
the two founding members: France , UK to expand their influence and governing of other countries.
This entente is responsible for France 's and UK colonies in Africa , Europe , Asia . The “Entente”
existed since the early 1800’s however was put in writing much later.
UK , France and Russia decided to expend their influence at the expense of the Turks. Both countries
contemplated, and decided it was better to have a country called “ Greece ” than the Ottoman
continuing dominance in Southern Europe . The Russians agreed.

Since 1829, the French, UK and Russian Army battled the Ottomans with great losses on both sides.

In 1832 the Ottomans gave up, hence the creation of Greece commenced.

The first ruler of the new country hand picked by UK and France was Prince Otto of Bavaria . It was
the German prince who thought of introducing the “Latin” but later decided to introduce the long lost
“Koine” language to a Turkish, Albanian speaking population. The “Koine” language today is known
as “Greek”.

Macedonia remained under Ottoman rule, even though in 1903 the Macedonians became the first
people on the Balkans to defeat the Ottomans without outside help.
The UK and France decided not to help Macedonia even though the people there were holding off a
400,000 Ottoman Army for 10 days. The Macedonians were considered not subservient and extremely
difficult to rule, in comparison to the Greeks.

In 1912-1913, the UK and France expanded their influence in the Balkans through Greece by
occupying parts of Macedonia . UK and France viewed this as their territory, not as Greek.
In 1944-45, the Greek Army (DAG) promised the Macedonians a “self governing” Aegean Macedonia
if they would join their war to overthrow French and UK ownership of Greece .
Ethnic Macedonians , around 80,000 of them entered the DAG. The UK and French ruled Greek Army
suffered major losses. Reinforcements of about 250,000 British and French soldiers were brought in,
under the excuse “The Communist are coming”.

What DAG and the Macedonians tried to do is overthrow the foreign French and British rulers.
Eventually, the Macedonians and DAG gave up and fled, were not helped nor equipped by anyone and
could not sustain fighting for a long time against the constant fresh reinforcements of British and
French soldiers.

Today, UK has still major influence and control over Greece , and Greek politics, even though officially
are out of it. Officially, the UK is also "out of" South Africa .

Interestingly enough, France has also asserted its influence in Greece after a brief hiatus.
Macedonia is negotiating with UK and France , not with Greece . Greece doesn't have control of
Greece since 1832. The Macedonian leadership may have realized this, which is perhaps why they are
still 'negotiating' with " Greece ". Macedonia has said "No" to UK and France before, can do it again.

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