THE FALSIFICATION OF HISTORY- Symposium at Columbia
University
The symposium, titled "The Importance of Ilinden in the Awakening of
Macedonian National Consciousness", took place in the School of
Journalism, Columbia University, presenting falsifications, distortions of
historical facts, omissions of documented events, as well as deliberate
unresponsiveness to the Pan-Macedonian delegation who were present during
the presentations. Mr. Kiro Gligorov, the former President of the FYROM,
was the main speaker.
The event which took place on September 20th, was sponsored by the
Harriman Institute of Columbia University, the East Central European
Center and the Macedonian Arts Council, had as its main theme the
anniversary of the Ilinten revolution against the Turkish rule in the
Balkans.
The theme of Mr. Gligorov's speech was "Macedonia from Ilinten until Now".
Other participants in the discussion were Dr. Nadine Akhund, from Columbia
University, addressing "1903 Seen Through the Eyes of Europe", Dr. Duncan
Perry, "1903-The Ilinden Uprising and its Legacy". Mr. Blaze Ristovski
from the Macedonian Academy of Science and Arts (MANU) introduced
"Macedonia in 1903" and Dr. Andrew Rossos from the University of Toronto
spoke on "Macedonian National Consciousness in 1903".
Dr. Nantine Akhurd, who received her doctorate at the University of
Sorbone, France, spoke first. She addressed the events that occurred in
1903 in Macedonia. She came to certain conclusions from the research she
did, based on the correspondence of various European diplomats of that
time. She read certain letters of diplomats and at the end she concluded
that the Turks did not keep accurate records, "therefore it is difficult
to calculate the exact number of the ethnicities that existed in the
Turkish-occupied Macedonia. However from the correspondence of the
diplomats we can assume the most prevailing nationalities were Slavic,
Bulgarian and Serbian. In addition there were French, German and Italian
companies in Salonik". No mention at all about the Greek element in the
area!!
The rest of the academicians spoke and all of them praised and glorified
the Ilinten uprising, which even though was not successful, "Macedonia"
emerged as an international issue, which resulted in the awakening of the
"Macedonian" national consciousness. No one mentioned that this uprising
was staged by the Bulgarians and the Bulgarians were inviting all the
nationalities in the area, even the peasant Turkish population, to revolt
against the Sultan. No one pointed out that the Manifesto of Krushevo was
written in Bulgarian. None of the academicians revealed that during the
revolt, with Krushevo as its epicenter, the Turks who had been bribed by
the Bulgarians exterminated the Greek population and the Hellenized Vlachs
of Krushevo. No one mentioned that 366 Greek homes and 203 Greek shops
were destroyed by the vengeance of the Turks and Bulgarians. The Slavs,
today's self-proclaimed "Macedonians" were coerced to finance the
"revolution", but as soon as they found the chance, they escaped to the
mountains. The scholars totally glorified individuals such as Damien
Grueff and their horrid actions during that period. Dr. Duncan Perry in
his book The Politics of Terror: The MacEdonian Liberation Movement,
1893-1904, identified this uprising as an act of terror. It is not known
under which circumstances he changed his opinion and why during the
deliverance of his theme he concluded that the Ilinten revolution
"awakened the "Macedonian" national consciousness".
A translator read Mr. Blaze Ristovski's lecture. King Philip, Alexander
the Great, as well as Cyril and Methodius were depicted as "Macedonian"
personas. Following a ten-minute break, Mr. Herbert S. Okun, former
American Ambassador to UN, introduced the keynote speaker, the former
President of the FYROM, Mr. Kiro Gligorov. The American former Ambassador
named Mr. Gligorov as the "peace-maker" of the Balkans and "George
Washington" of "Macedonia", since under his direction "Macedonia" was able
to face various problems such as the problems with the Serbian Church,
problems with the Albanians and issues with Greece about the name".
A copy of Mr. Gligorov's translated in English address was distributed to
the audience, since the former President spoke in "Macedonian". This
surprised us because later the Vice-President of the Pan-Macedonian
Association conversed with Mr. Gligorov and he noted that Mr. Gligorov was
an excellent speaker of the English language. Obviously we couldn't follow
Mr. Gligorov's speech, however we are certain of one fact, that the former
President's oral lecture was much lengthier than the translated copy we
held in our hands. A couple, who was sitting near us, explained that they
were Bulgarians, they however could understand everything that Mr.
Gligorov was saying (but don't the FYROMians insist that their language is
the same language that Alexander the Great and his "Macedonian" soldiers
were using to communicate?). Mr. Gligorov's speech lasted for two hours
and he continuously was receiving messages from various individuals. In
the beginning we thought that individuals in charge of the symposium were
trying to urge him to be brief, but as we assumed they were rather urging
him to do otherwise. Thus reaching the end of his lecture there was no
time for the academically established etiquette of "questions and answer
period" between panelists and audience, especially in such an institution
of higher learning as the Columbia University. Consequently the plethora
of questions that we had remained unanswered, an unacceptable incident for
the caliber of such an institution. There is no doubt that the machination
of the Skopjan propaganda cannot face situations that is not ready for, or
have answers to questions that it is unable to answer.
After the lectures were delivered we approached the panelists and we
offered Dr. Nantine Akhurd the book titled, The Events of 1903 in
Macedonia, published by the Museum of the Macedonian Struggle, in which of
course the predominance of the Greek element in Macedonia is obvious and
well stated. When we referred that the Ilinten uprising was a Bulgarian
revolt, Dr. Akhurd would not accept it.
Mr. Spiliakos, the Vice President of the Association, approached Mr.
Gligorov and in a affable manner said to the former President: "if half of
the good things that the Ambassador said about you are true, then I wish
our Association to be invited in Skopje and to have our scholars and your
scholars discuss a few things". At that moment Mr. Okun intervened, "I
knew that there are no real problems between "Macedonia" and Greece", to
which Mr. Spiliakos answered: "it is not POSSIBLE for Greece and Macedonia
to have problems. However there are problems between the FYROM and
Greece". A photograph depicting the White Tower of Thessaloniki and the
Stettinius air gram was cordially offered to Mr. Gligorov and to the
Ambassador.
We do have to clarify that this symposium was nothing else than an attempt
for this little state to acquire history prior to 1945 and thus to be more
intimately connected with its "Macedonian" element.
