Former Hellenic Government Minister
President of «Macedonian Hestia»
8 Kaissarias Street, 115 27, Athens
Tel +30210 777 8800 and +30210 620 4826
H.E.Mr Dimitris Rupel
Foreign Minister of Slovenia
President of the EU, c/o The Embassy of Slovenia in ATHENS
12th February 2008
cc : The Foreign Ministers of the EU
The Security Council of the UN
The European Commission President Mr. Emanuel Barroso
Mr. Oli Rehn, Member of the European Commission, responsible for EE Enlargement
Your Excellency,
I was prompted to write this letter, by the fact that Slovenia used to be part of Tito’s Yugoslavia and I am afraid that entire generations of Slovenes have been taught, like the Skopjans, the unprecedented political and historical fraud, that Skopjans are Macedonians and Skopje is Macedonia.
This Republic was founded on the transparent lie that the Macedonians were not Greek. Hence, FYROM’s school - books show two maps. One, where the Greek border stops at mount Olympus and another of «Macedonia», with the subtitle that there had never been any presence of Greeks in Macedonia, Thrace and Epirus. This is belied, at then very least by:
• The arrival of Apostle Paul in Macedonia in 50 A.D., where he preached the gospel in Greek and met Greek men and women in Thessaloniki and Veria, who became Christians. Furthermore, the letter he addressed to the inhabitants of Thessaloniki, was written in Greek and not in any other language.
• The fact that many Macedonians under Turkish rule, excelled and held high positions in countries of Central Europe and the Balkans, always as Greek-speaking Greeks, who had emigrated from Macedonia and transported, preserved and transplanted their traditions and culture to these countries.
• The Greek history, the Greek language and the Greek civilization of ancient Macedonia, is irrevocably proven by archaeological findings, more than five thousand inscriptions in the Greek language, works of Macedonian philosophers and scientists, such as Aristotle, Democritus and others.
• The Greek names of places such as Philipus, Veria, Thessaloniki, Pella and other places, have been kept the same since antiquity.
• The history and civilization of the Hellenistic period, which starts with Alexander the Great and ends with Cleopatra, during which the famous Library of Alexandria was founded, as part of the Museum (the House of the Muses), in which all the works of the Hellenic culture were collected and sciences were developed.
It is worth mentioning, that at the time the Greek language prevailed, its learning and use was pursued by both Egyptians and Jews, which were the other two large communities of Alexandria. After the Arabs invaded the illustrious city in 642 A.D., the Greek language continued to be the official language for one hundred years further. Moreover, a Centre of Hellenistic Studies has been founded lately in the New Library of Alexandria, which constitutes the revival of the ancient Library of the Greek Ptolemys.
• Christianity used the Greek language. The Gospels and the Acts of the Apostles were written in Greek and the Old Testament was also translated into Greek; the reason being that the Jews of Diaspora knew only Greek. The books of ancient Greek philosophers, as they had been collected and classified in Alexandria, were translated into Arabic in the 8th century at the House of Wisdom in Bagdad and subsequently brought to Europe, where they were translated into Latin by Abelard in the 12th century and constituted the inception of the Renaissance.
• Confirmation of the above offers, among many others, the research made in 1995 by the Institute of Foreign Affairs of Sweden, in collaboration with the Lund University, signed by the renown author Staffan Stolpe, according to which the history of Macedonia is not only the history of the Greeks, but also of all Europeans, because the Macedonians were those who spread the Greek civilization and disseminated its culture, which continues to exert a beneficial influence on us.
Consequently those who accept the Skopjan views, are at least historically ignorant. The historical identity of a people is corroborated by archaeological findings and inscriptions. The Referendum Skopjans call upon, to justify the usurped name Macedonia, cannot subvert the truth and cross out frauds, lies and belie important historical facts.
Solely the fact that Skopje was during antiquity and in the period of the Roman Empire capital of Dardania, in the period of the Turkish Empire capital of the Kossifopedio and until 1940 capital of the area of South Serbia Vardraska, while Thessaloniki has been since 319 B.C. capital of Macedonia and, according to Strabo, «Metropolis of Macedonia» and was declared capital of Europe a few years ago, unravels fully the political and historical fraud of the Skopjans.
The Socialist Republic of Macedonia was fabricated in August 1944 by Stalin and Tito, to serve the Soviet Union’s expansionary pursuits.
Stettinius, USA Foreign Minister, denounced by his 2680 14/26.11.44 circular, addressed to the USA Ambassadors and Consuls, the announcement of the formation of the «Republic of Macedonia» as demagoguery, notifying thus indirectly the democratic peoples, about the expansionism pursued by the Soviet Union.
Therefore, the Referendum to establish the name "Democracy of Macedonia", had been guileful, as this name was fabricated in 1944 and it cannot make good lies, frauds and cannot subvert historical facts. Only those who do not know history, accept this referendum as legal.
Serious Skopjans know that they have no relation whatsoever to the ancient Macedonians, as reveals the characteristic incident, which Kiro Ghligorov mentions in his book «Memoirs» (page 259). At the party that took place in New York on the day following the recognition of Skopje as an independent state, a group of young people from Australia said to him: "
You spoke, but you did not mention the most important thing. You did not say that we are descendants of Alexander the Great. This could be interpreted that you disavowed our origin, our ancestors». "I found it difficult to give an immediate answer"- Ghligorov goes on to say in his book - "and finally I said to them: It is up to you. But according to history, the opinion that prevails among the Macedonian people is that we are Slavs. We came to the Balkans in the 6th and 7th centuries and settled down in the territories that bear the name of Macedonia. I do not know to what degree any blood of the ancient Macedonians still runs in our veins! But even so, this is not what gives the identity of our people. I do not want to persuade you about the opposite, if you still hold onto this opinion. It is up to you, but this should not alter your view about the fact that the Republic of Macedonia is an independent state. They stayed, I think, another half an hour in the hall and left dissatisfied".In 1992, the late Greek President of Democracy Constantine Karamanlis, in a letter addressed on January 3 to his colleagues of other countries, mentions:
"The matter of the recognition of the self-named «Republic of Macedonia», is of fundamental significance for Greece. This I happen to know better than anybody else, as I myself am Macedonian. This Republic, (he continued), has no right whatsoever, either historical, or ethnological, to use the name «Macedonia». Historical, because the Slavs who constitute the majority came to the Balkans in the 6th century A.D., namely 1.000 years after Alexander the Great had established Macedonia as an important part of the Greek world, and ethnological, because the population of this Republic consists of Slavs, Albanians, Gypsies and other nationalities, all respectable, but without any relation to the Macedonians.In June 1992, the Summit Council of Lisbon resolved to recognize this republic, provided its name did not include the word «Macedonia».
When the Agreement of Association of the EU and FYROM was signed in 2001, Skopje, in order to mislead third parties, presented it on their governmental website, as Agreement of the «Republic of Macedonia» and not of FYROM, as they ought to, and of the 15 countries of the EU, and not as the EU; presenting also Greece as having signed the Agreement with the «Republic of Macedonia»! It should be noted that the said Agreement set the following 4 essential conditions:
• Respect for the democratic principles and human rights, in Article 2
• Stability and peace and relations of good neighborhood, in Article 3
The Skopjans do not respect the democratic principles, because they forbid by law any discussion about the name of this Republic, other then Macedonia and its inhabitants as Macedonians. Consequently Skopje is not a real Democracy.
The main substance of the Skopjan problem is the historical verification of the identity of the Macedonians, which constitutes the most important human right.
Mr Oli Rehn, as competent Commissioner of the EU on issues of Enlargement, ought to have visited, together with Members of the Commission and Skopjans:
• the National Research Centre in Athens, where 5.000 inscriptions in Greek are published in books, as well as 11.000 names of Macedonians and to see for themselves that there is not ONE inscription in the so called «Macedonian language», which is a variation of the Bulgarian language,
• the archaeological sites and the Museums of Macedonia and Skopje, in order for the Skopjans, who had been misled by the forgers of the Communist Party, to confront the historical truth.
In 1982, the late President of France Francois Mitterand, said to the journalists, after visiting Vergina:
«I did not know about the excavations and I did not imagine the stamp of Greece would be so strong here. I delved into the grandeur of the ancient Macedonians».Similar statement was made by the most distinguished American journalist Schultzberger, who after his visit to Pella and Vergina, wrote me a letter, published in my book, which he said:
«I am leaving for Yugoslavia tomorrow, leaving behind a large part of my heart in Macedonia!» Namely, he made a clear distinction between Macedonia and Yugoslavia, despite the fact that he was about to cross Skopje!It is to be expected that a visit of Mr Rehn, together with Members of the Commission of the Association Agreement of 2001, to the archaeological sites of Macedonia, would have restored the historical truth and the solution of the problem might have commenced. It is therefore inexplicable why Mr Rehn has not done this so far. A behavior that cannot, but raise certain questions. Is it that he does not want or is he pressed? He cannot, for obvious reasons, claim that he receives pressures from NATO, whose main concern is the preservation of the stability, security and peace in the region or from the USA, which, as it is known, seeks and wishes stability in the region. The creation of this Republic in 1944, was a step against the USA, in view of the Cold War. That is why, Constantine Karamanlis mentioned in his letter:
«It is inconceivable to legitimize at the end of the Cold war the resolution of Stalin and Tito, who changed the name of South Serbia into "Macedonia", in order to gain control over the Aegean, extracting Macedonia from Greece». Greece that alone fought the Italian and German Axis powers for 216 days and delayed Hitler in invading Russia and winning the war, as he himself admitted.May I wish you every success and hope that you will choose the truth, the whole truth, the historical truth, however unpleasant it might be for some, which, nevertheless, constitutes the Shield of Democracy. Something that the EU as a union of democratic peoples, should seek and pursue in order to secure stability, peace and good neighborhood, but also Education and Culture.
Yours sincerely,
NIKOS MARTIS
Former Hellenic Government Minister
President of the «Macedonian Hestia»
Enclosures:
• My book «The falsification of the History of Macedonia»
• Copies of letters from Pope John Paul II & Mr Helmut Schmidt