As it was requested by the Pan-Macedonian Association of USA
However, before I respond to the matter of the Ancient Macedonians versus the Modern Macedonians who are of Hellenic descent and the Slavs who want to be Macedonians, I want to emphasize that Greeks never were anti-Semitic. When the Jewish population in Spain was persecuted, the Greek people helped them dwell among them. Furthermore, during WW II and when the nazi Germans and their friends and allies were gathering and sending the Jewish population to various concentration camps, the Greek people managed to save as many as they could from certain death. The Greek Church felt equally the pain of their Jews, because in their eyes they were human beings and Greek citizens. I am attaching a translated copy of a letter sent by the Archbishop of Athens and All Greece to the President of the occupied by the Germans Greece, in which the pain of the Archbishop is obvious. Actually last year a memorial was inaugurated in the city of Thessaloniki, Capital of Greek Macedonia, in honor of the victims of the Holocaust.
Another point I want to clarify is that the claim of the MPO that the ancient Macedonians were using the Cyrillic alphabet is outrageous. The creator of the Cyrillic alphabet was St. Cyril. He created this alphabet in the tenth century AD. It was impossible for the ancient Macedonians to use an alphabet that was created approximately 12 centuries after the capitulation of Macedonia to the Romans and 13 centuries after the death of Alexander the Great!! St. Cyril and St. Methodius, Greek brothers from Thessaloniki, Hellenic Macedonia were the ones who translated the Bible from Greek into Old Church Slavonic.
The present Slavic language of the FYROM, which is the language of the MPO members, did not have an alphabet until 1945. The communist dictator Josip Broz Tito commissioned the linguist Blago Konev, who changed his name to Blaze Koneski, to devise an alphabet. Konev or Koneski did just that by modifying the Serbian version of the Cyrillic alphabet and called it "Macedonian alphabet."
As for the slogan “Macedonia is Greek” the facts are as follows:
To start with the statement is wrong. The Greeks were uttering "Macedonia is Greece," and it was the Macedonian Greek response to the demands of the FYROM Slavs that Greek Macedonians merge their territory under the leadership of Skopje, the FYROM. The statement "Macedonia is Greece" was taken from Strabo, an ancient Pontic Greek geographer, who in his book "Geography" (fragmented volume VII, para. 9) he explains that "Macedonia is also part of Greece."
The Macedonian Greeks used the term Macedonia meaning their own part of Macedonia, not the FYROM. Greeks do not recognize the country north of Greece as Macedonia, since only a small part (areas of Ohrid, Bitola and Gevgelija) of the ancient Macedonian Kingdom lies within FYROM territory.
Moreover, ICG suggested a double name for the FYROM with the catch that Greece would have control over the History schoolbooks of the FYROM. Thus FYROM could not even suggest that its inhabitants claim lineage from the ancient Macedonians.
The FYROM however, has rejected the proposal. Greece has also rejected the proposal, because it would be foolish and suicidal to have the World recognize the FYROM as Macedonia, while Greece calls it under a different name. The FYROM Slavs desire the Greek Macedonia and claim it as their own. If Greece however does not recognize them as Macedonians, they are NOT Macedonians, and the Slavs know it well enough.
STATEMENT
I
read your 92nd General Assembly's Senate Resolution 446 and just cannot
believe a State of the United States would allow itself to become part of
such a genocidal act of international magnitude. We have the State
Department of our country to handle such matters. What gives Illinois
the right to legislate what peoples' origins are? Nobody has that right. I
am sure the State of Illinois has more serious problems, rather than to
decide who the Macedonians are, like solving your budget deficit problems.
RESPONSE
The audacity of Slavic
organizations to deliberately misinform the Governor of our State and its
Legislative Bodies by attacking the democratic institutions of our State and in
general our country’s institutions is appalling. The Resolution 446 legitimized
unshaken facts recorded for over nine centuries from the capitulation of the
Greek states to the Romans, to the coming of the Slavs in the south Balkan area
at the end of the sixth century AD
STATEMENT
Your examination of Macedonia needs some major
clarifications to correct historical inaccuracies that you have been told.
Throughout the Ottoman Empire and since its demise, the area called Macedonia,
which includes the Republic of Macedonia, Northern Greece, and the Pirin region
of Bulgaria, has been recognized by the world and even Greece as geographic
Macedonia. In 1830, when Greece was freed from the Ottoman Empire, no part of
Macedonia was included.
RESPONSE
Throughout the
Ottoman Empire the geographical area of Macedonia was divided in three
administrative areas called vilayets. Each vilayet was further divided in
smaller areas called sandzaks and each sandzak was further divided in kazas.
Thus during the period of the Ottoman Empire there were three vilayets that
included, but not limited to the area of geographic Macedonia. One vilayet was
Manastir with its capital the city of Manastir
(present day Bitola, the FYROM). The other one Kosova, with capital the city of
Prizren (present day Kosovo), which included parts of present day Kosovo and
the northern part of the FYROM). The third one was the vilayet of Selanik with
Selanik as its capital (present day Thessaloniki, Macedonia, Greece). This
included parts of Greek Macedonia, parts of the southeastern FYROM and parts of
southwestern Bulgaria.
After the demise of the Ottoman Turkey under the terms of
the Treaty of Bucharest of 1913, Greece was awarded the south geographical part
of Macedonia, Serbia the north geographical part, and Bulgaria was awarded a
small portion of the northeastern geographical part of Macedonia. The Serbs
called their part South Serbia and later Vardarska Banovina, which included the
whole territory of the FYROM, Kosovo and part of present-day southeastern
Serbia.
It is very true that
when Greece was liberated in 1830 it did not include Macedonia. However, it is
also true that it did not include various other territories such as Epeiros,
Thessaly, Thrace and many islands. This does not mean these territories,
including Macedonia, did not have a heavy Greek population. Greece acquired the
remaining territories as a result of wars, all of which were defensive. The
Macedonians (Emmanuel Pappas, Karatassos etc.) participated in the 1821
independence uprising, which began in Southern Greece, but did not succeed in
liberating Macedonia because of the heavy concentration of the Turkish army.
After the liberation of Greek Macedonia from the Turks however, Greece was the
only country to establish the “Administration of Macedonia.” The United States
started with only 13 states.
STATEMENT
Ancient Greece extended
southward in the Balkan Peninsula from the 40th parallel to the 36th
parallel. Although, this space was less than the area of the State of Ohio, it
was divided into 24 separate city-states politically independent of each other.
North of these was Macedonia. Macedonia was never one of those city-states. The
ancient Greeks, who referred to the Macedonians as "barbarians", meaning
"foreigners" or
"Non-Greeks", excluded them from participating in the Olympic Games on those
grounds. After all, Alexander the Great conquered the Greeks!
RESPONSE
Macedonia before Philip II (a Greek name meaning horse
lover) was roughly an equivalent to a federal
kingdom comprised of small areas. Philip II united Macedonia into one Homeric
type of a kingdom and then he launched his Campaign to unite the remaining
parts, the city-states of Greece. Due to this action Demosthenes, a staunch
proponent of Democracy, called Philip “ a barbarian” out of mere spite.
Demosthenes called Philip a barbarian because he knew very well this name would
aggravate Philip. Demosthenes knew the Macedonians spoke a Hellenic dialect. It
is the instance when someone calls a faithful patriot a traitor out of hatred
and spite.
There is NO document or any other similar case anywhere that states the Greeks considered the Macedonians barbarians. On the contrary, Macedonians were considered Greeks and that’s why they did participate in the Olympic games. Alexander I of Macedonia participated in the games as a runner (Herodotus book V, chapter 22). He is the same person who had been bestowed the title of “philhellen,” which at that time meant “philopatris” or “patriot.” Greeks have bestowed such a rare title only to one more person, Jason of Pherrai.
Just after the battle of Granicus, Alexander the Great sent to the Athenians 300 full suits of Persian armor, as an offering to the goddess Athena, with the following inscription: “Alexander, son of Philip, and the Greeks (except the Lacedaemonians) dedicate these spoils, taken from the Persians who dwell in Asia.” Alexander mentioned NO Macedonians, since he considered his soldiers and himself to be part of the Greek nation (Arrian, The Campaigns of Alexander, Book I, Para. 17).
Dr. Fanula Papazoglu, born in Bitola, the FYROM, a member of the Academies of Arts and Sciences of Serbia, and the FYROM, the foremost expert on Central Balkan tribes in her book “The Cenral Balkan Tribes in Pre-Roman Times,” states “The Dardanians were too far away from Macedonia to be overtaken by the fate of the Paeonians (who were gradually, as we know completely Hellenized and merged with the Macedonians), …” How could the Macedonians Hellenize the Paeonians if they were not Hellenes or Greeks themselves?
In an interview with the Ottawa Citizen on February 24, 1999, Gyordan Veselinov, FYROM’s Ambassador to Canada, admits, "we are not related to the northern Greeks who produced leaders like Philip and Alexander the Great. We are a Slav people and our language is closely related to Bulgarian". He also commented that "there is some confusion about the identity of the people of our country". On the question of international recognition of his country, he accepts that this has been delayed and attributes this to Greek objections to the name, symbols and certain articles in the constitution, adding that "In 1995 my country agreed to remove the Greek symbol from its flag and modified the controversial phrases in the Constitution".
The above statement of the FYROM's own ambassador ends the argument whether the ancient Macedonians were Greeks or not. Now, the question is why do the Slavs want to appropriate the name Macedonia and its derivatives?
As for the
language of the ancient Macedonians we have testimony of written monuments.
There are 74 names all of which are Hellenic and 25 words that denote an
Aeolian-Dorian [both Hellenic dialects] origin. Furthermore the Roman Historian
Titus Livius [Livvy in English] in his book “The History of Rome” includes a
speech made by a Macedonian ambassador to the Aetolian and Acarnanian (both were
Hellenic speaking tribes) Assembly. According to Livvy the Macedonian
ambassador said "…The Aetolians, the Acarnanians, the Macedonians, men of the
same speech, are united or disunited by trivial causes that arise from time
to time …" (book XXXI para XXIX; Loeb Publishers). The Aetolians and Acarnanians
were definitely Hellenic tribes
In another occasion Livvy writes "…(General Paulus) took his official seat
surrounded by the whole crowd of Macedonians … his announcement was
translated into Greek and repeated by
Gnaeus Octavius the praetor…". (book XLV, para XXIX; Loeb Publishers). If the
crowd of Macedonians was not Greek speaking, why then were the Romans
translating Paulus' speech into Greek?
Moreover, there is an implication in the MPO letter that the reason Philip II fought and occupied the Greek City-states is proof enough that the ancient Macedonians were not Greeks.
Greece is an area, which lacks geographic continuity. The ancient Greeks did not have a common national conscience the way we understand it today and that is why they were warring against each other. The Macedonians destroyed or burned cities belonging to other Greek City-states for the same reason the Athenians and the Spartans did.
They knew that somehow they were related, but local conscience was stronger than a Pan-Hellenic one. The Ancient Greeks, of the Hellenic mainland, were united before an enemy attack that could endanger the common freedom and welfare. This fact was displayed every time the Persians attacked the Hellenic lands. Greeks from Ionia and Aeolia (present day Aegean shores of Turkey) however, were mostly Persian allies against the Mainland Greeks.
Various Hellenic states formed political / military alliances with each other and against each other, but not ethnic ones. It was a common practice for them to do so. There are plenty of such alliances in the ancient Hellenic world. The only time the Hellenic States allied with a foreigner was toward the end of the Hellenic glory. Long after Alexander the Great's death various states either formed alliances or consulted with the Romans.
It took a few centuries
for the Greeks to develop a national conscience, as we understand it today. The
Greeks had finalized the completion of a national conscience definitely by the
time the Emperor of Byzantium Justinian was crowned. Very few ancient Greeks,
such as Pericles, Demosthenes and Philip II of Macedonia, had the vision of a
united country, but each one wanted to see his state as the leading force of
such a union. Pericles dreamed of it, Demosthenes advocated it, but Philip II
materialized it. Also the Macedonians had common religious practices and customs
with the Spartans.
STATEMENT
Presently, Macedonia is
suffering from the results of the Treaty of Bucharest of 1913, which ignored
Macedonia's expectation for independence and instead, partitioned it among
Greece, Serbia, and Bulgaria. Only since the establishment of the Republic of
Macedonia in 1991 has Greece attempted to restrict the use of the name to its
own territory. Greece also said there cannot be two areas named Macedonia, yet
there are two Greeces, the second on the island of Cyprus. A little hypocrisy
here. They do not
have the franchise rights to any name.
RESPONSE
Macedonia as
a legal entity could not be partitioned, since it did not exist as such. Could
we ever say the US Midwest, as a geographical entity, is partitioned into so
many states?
This would be absurd.
The term Macedonia had been used officially within the Socialist Federal
Republic of Yugoslavia since April 30, 1944. But now as an independent state the
former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia has in the past and will claim exclusivity
on the term Macedonia and its derivatives. Now the country, which wants to be
called “Macedonia", wants to have exclusive rights on the name Macedonia and its
derivatives. The danger in this is that FYROM could find patrons and then it
could very well claim all adjacent Macedonian territories with the Capital of
Greek Macedonia, Thessaloniki, as its prize. That is why FYROM's inhabitants
and their compatriots abroad insist on the ethnic name Macedonia, whereas as you
see below they admit they are Slavs.
It is very true there
could not be two areas with the name Macedonia and it is very false that there
are two “Greeces.” Cyprus and Greece are two independent countries with two
different names.
STATEMENT
The Macedonians are Slavs;
those people Greece say don't exist in their country. The Macedonians are those
people in the Carnegie Report of 1914 said Greece and Serbia committed cultural
genocide against, today known as ethnic cleansing. The Macedonians are those
people referred to in the 1991 United States Department Report on Greece's human
rights violations.
RESPONSE
Finally, we agree on something. Those who today want to be called Macedonians admit they are Slavs. There are approximately 50,000 Slavophones [Slavic-speaking people] living in Greece. Approximately 5,000 of them declare themselves ethnic Slavs; however two points have to be made: 1. Greece belongs to NATO and is a European Union country, fully democratic and entirely abiding to all membership requirements in both organizations. 2. Greece has offered to the 5,000 Slavophones full rights to its constitution and enacted laws that guarantee equal rights to ALL citizens of the country. Greece cannot recognize the 5,000 Slavophones as “Macedonians” since the majority, approximately 2.5 million inhabitants of the same area call themselves Macedonians for four thousand years.
As for the Carnegie report of 1914 it is necessary to say that it reported the plight of all Macedonians as they were described in the Manifesto of Kruhevo. It has used the term as a geographical entity with various peoples inhabiting Macedonia. Between 1903 and 1914 ALL Macedonian inhabitants suffered under the oppressive Ottoman tyranny and the knife of the Bulgarian komitas [armed bands] and later the Bulgarian Army. The Slavs of the FYROM know very well what that means, because during WWII the Bulgarian occupiers of the area of present day FYROM fully demonstrated their cruelty.
STATEMENT
It is time to
forget the protest concerning a Republic, which has already legislated a
guarantee of existing borders. It is time for the truth about Macedonia to be
told accurately to the world. It is time to correct the terrible mistakes made
by the Great Powers when they partitioned Macedonia among its neighbors by the
Treaty of Bucharest of 1913. Clearly, it is time to grant full membership
to the Republic of Macedonia into NATO and the European Market. President Bill
Clinton granted full diplomatic
recognition to the Republic of Macedonia during his term on February 9, 1994.
MACEDONIA FOR THE MACEDONIANS!
RESPONSE
The United States, NATO and EU do NOT recognize that country as “Republic of Macedonia,” but under the provisional name “The former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia” or the FYROM pending negotiations with Greece on the name of that country. The FYROM’s representatives in the UN sit between Thailand and Togo.
As for the slogan “Macedonia for the Macedonians” when that phrase was coined it referred to the meaning of the Manifesto of Krushevo, which in its beginning called all “Fellow countrymen and dear neighbors! We, your perennial neighbors, friends and acquaintances from beautiful Krushevo and its pretty villages, regardless of faith, nationality, sex or conviction, not being able to endure any more the tyranny of bloodthirsty murtats [Turkish police] who hunger for human flesh, who would like to lead both you and us to slaughter, to reduce both you and us to poverty, and to turn our dear and wealthy land of Macedonia into a wasteland, we have today raised our heads and decided to defend ourselves with rifles in our hands from our and your enemies, and obtain freedom.” "!…. Macedonia is the mother of us all and she calls on us for help. …. If you consider us as your brothers, too, if you wish us well, if you intend to live with us again as you have lived up to now, and if you are faithful and worthy sons of our mother Macedonia, … Long live the fighters for freedom and all honest and good Macedonian sons!
The Manifesto of Krushevo is a document written on August 2-3, 1903. In essence it is a Declaration of Independence written originally in Bulgarian by Bulgarian organizers of a revolt. The Republic of Krushevo lasted only 10 days. This is the document that the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, the mother nation of the MPO members, according to the Preamble of its Constitution, draws its legitimacy from that Republic.
As one can see the Manifesto used the term Macedonia as a geographic term and not as the land of a specific "Macedonian" ethnic group.
If one group of people could be called Macedonians, these are the Macedonian Greeks, the same people that Illinois Senate Resolution 446 very correctly called descendants of the ancient Macedonians