NIKOS MARTIS
Former Minister
SPEECH OF FORMER MINISTER NIKOLAOS MARTIS
59TH PAN-MACEDONIAN CONVENTION IN KAVALA
Dear Macedonians,
I welcome you to Kavala, the ancient city of Neapolis, and my hometown.
Apostle Paul came for the very first time in this Macedonian land as he
began his mission to the Nations. I congratulate the Prefect of Kavala
who invited you because this Convention is of particular importance. In
1976 a black American reporter visited me in the Ministry and he told
me: “You have a great treasure here. You have the steps of Apostle Paul.
If you make it known to the world, Christians of all faiths will come to
visit the steps of Apostle Paul”.However, this fact does not only
constitute a great asset for Tourism or Religion, but as it has been
proven by an event in US, it is also an
irrefutable component against the falsifiers of the Macedonian History.
Please follow the Steps of Apostle Paul, as did His Grace Archbishop
Iakovos with his clerical entourage back in 1977. Take photos of the
areas where the Apostle stepped on when he came to Macedonia; that is
the pavement of Egnatia Road, the road which led him to Philippi, where
he baptized Lydia; the place where he preached and also the prison where
he was held captive; notice the Conference Center of Apostle Paul
erected by our Metropolitan. Show all these sacred sites and edifices to
your people when you return home.
In the Acts of the Apostles, the reference to St. Paul’s arrival in
Macedonia annihilates the FYROM “creation” because it falsifies their 3
main allegations: a) that Macedonia is not Greek, b) That Greeks did not
live in Macedonia and c) That the language of the Macedonian people is
not Greek.
Macedonia was the starting point that St. Paul, with divine
intervention, was chosen to spread Christianity; Macedonia was the place
of origin of the two Greek Apostles - Monks Methodius and Cyrill,
without whom, as the Patriarch of Russia declared, the Russians would be
an Asiatic people and also Muslims and Europe would not have existed.
Macedonia is the place that the renowned Mount Athos exists. One hundred
twenty six monuments of religious and post-Byzantine artifacts in
Thessaloniki, Veria, and Kastoria, establish Macedonia as the most
important religious center after the Holy Land.
My presentation consists of four chapters:
1.
Macedonia “Mother and Nurse to All.”
2.
The FYROM issue would not have been provoked if the German
attack
against Greece had not taken place,
or if Tito had not dominated Yugoslavia.
3. The FYROM should not hope for an admission in the E.U. if
they are not to abandon the stolen Greek names “Macedonia” –
“Macedonians”.
4.
Not any Agreement or Treaty can reverse the historic truth about
Macedonia.
FIRST CHAPTER
Margaritis Dimatsas in his book in1884, rightfully
characterized Macedonia as “Everyone’s Mother and Nurse” with the
prophetic title “Macedonia that is carved on rocks and saved on
monuments”, because:
1.
The southern Greeks would not have been undisturbed to create
the works of art and literature, humanity’s property today in a global
sense, if (as Professor Apostolos Daskalakis writes) the Macedonians did
not exist to prevent the barbarians going down Olympus” (Polyvios, The
Macedonians a pre-barrier of the Hellenism).
2.
Historians report that the Persians and the Romans would
obliterate Hellenism after the damage the 30-year Peloponnesian War
caused, if the strong Macedonian State did not exist.
But also because:
Philip and Alexander, in reality the true pioneers of the EU
consept, united the Greek city-states. Furthermore, Alexander and his
Macedonian successors created the new Hellenic Civilization in the East,
known as the Hellenistic Era, which has been considered the greatest
contribution that a nation made to the world. Particularly:
1.
Alexander the Great and his Macedonian successors spread
Hellenic Civilization and established the Greek language as franca
lingua, thus having the Old Testament translated in the Greek
language, the New Testament written in Greek and Christianity spread in
Greek throughout the world.
2.
The Soviet Academic, Abraham Rankovitc, in his book “The
Hellenistic Era” writes: “The civilization that Alexander and his
successors created, has been inherited by Rome, Byzantium, the nations
of Near East and affects us even today”.
3.
Dennis Overbye wrote in New York Times in 2001, “The spiritual
meeting of Greeks and Arabians (as a consequence of the spread of the
Greek Civilization by the Troops of Alexander the Great), was one of the
greatest events in History, with enormous consequences, not only for
Islam but also for Europe and the entire world”.
4.
The Institute of Foreign Affairs of Sweden and the University of
Lund by the signature of the famous author Staffan Stolpe, in their
study about Macedonia in 1995 write:
“The European Ministers are unaware of history. They do not know that
the History of Macedonia is the History not only of the Greeks but of
all the Europeans, because the Macedonians spread the Hellenic
Civilization in Europe and throughout the world”.
5.
In various academic centers, mostly of Alexandria, Pergamos,
Antiochia, Efessos, Tarsos, the texts of the Ancient Greek philosophers,
through the efforts of Alexander and his Macedonian successors, have
been saved and translated in the Arabian language in the 8th
century in Baghdad. These texts have been transferred to Spain and
during the 12th century they were translated into Latin, thus
leading into Renaissance. The sciences have been developed in those
academic institututions.
Consequently, the above-mentioned role of the Macedonians in
world History and Civilization does not concern only Hellenism but also
every civilized human being.
SECOND CHAPTER
A significant event of World War II, which now is globally
silenced, is the Struggle of the Greeks in 1940-41. In October 1940,
when almost all Europe had been subjugated to Hitler, the Soviet Union
was then an ally of Germany and all the Balkan countries have had
contacts with Hitler; Greece received an attack by Fascist Italy and as
it is known, and without anyone’s aid, Greece defeated the Italian army.
This Greek victory forced Hitler, to come to Mussolini’s
aid, and after Stalin’s agreement, on April 6, 1941 he attacked Greece.
The result of all these events was that Germany suffered a great number
of losses in Greece and the attack against the Soviet Union was delayed,
thus resulting in the humiliating defeat in the Eastern Front to follow
its initial sweeping victory.
A direct confirmation, in addition to
the Memoirs of many German Generals, is Hitler’s declaration to his
famous film-maker friend Leni Riefenstahl that: “Italy’s attack against
Greece was disastrous for Germany. If the Italians had not attacked
Greece and if they did not need our aid, the war would have taken a
different turn. We would have had time to conquer Leningrad and Moscow
before Russian winter settled in (from the book of Riefenstahl)” Also in
his Political Testament which had been dictated before his death, he
categorically attributed his failure to Mussolini’s attack against
Greece. Keitel (p. 26 of the book), Iden (p. 25), General Alexander (p.
27) and the Radio Station of Moscow had similar positions during the
trial of Nuremberg.
The surprising victory of the Greeks in 1940, according to
New York Times, dissipated the bad nightmare of the Democratic world and
dissuaded the Axis to win the War. It has to be noted that the struggle
of 1941, as a consequence of the Struggle of 1940, is the most important
turning point of World War II. It saved the Soviet Union, dissuaded
Hitler’s victory and led, with USA’s participation in the War, to final
victory.
Greece’s decision however resulted in terrible consequences
for the Greek people, but also contributed in creating the FYROM issue.
It is a fact that in 1919, the Kingdom of Serbocroats and Slovenians was
established. Had there been a Macedonian Nation then Macedonians would
have existed too. This Kingdom signed a Friendship Treaty with Hitler on
March 25, 1941, but its military force revoked it on March 28. Hitler,
postponing the attack against Greece on April 6, 1941 (originally it was
scheduled to take place at the end of March), attacked Yugoslavia
leading to Tito’s communist regime over Yugoslavia.
Tito on August 2, 1944 and with Stalin’s concession, materialized the
1921 decision of the Komidern and all the Balkan Communist Parties,
regarding the annexation of Greek Macedonia and renamed Southern Serbia
as “Socialist Republic of Macedonia”. Ensue the Bulgarian and German
withdrawal from Skopje on September 1944, Tito went to Skopje and
manufactured in paper the non-existent components of a non-existent
Macedonian Nation; in other words he constructed a State with its
Language, Church and History.
As it is known the German attack began against the fortifications of
Macedonia-Thrace. Hitler was amazed with the heroism the Greek soldiers
displayed during the battle and on May 5 1941 he declared: “ the Greek
soldiers fought with more heroism and self-denial than any of the armies
we have confronted”. When finally the Greeks surrendered, the German
soldiers, saluted in their honor.
The German attack from the Bulgarian land against the
fortifications of Macedonia – Thrace, which I witnessed as a Mounted
Officer of the Artillery, reveals that Macedonia from the 8th
century B.C. and from 1912 (as it is certified from the military
registry, but also from many maps) existed only in Greece. In the same
day the Germans, charging from the Bulgarian land, entered Skopje which
was the capital of Vardarska and not Macedonia, where they were welcomed
as liberators. Unfortunately, many countries, amongst them the US in
2004, recognized this Republic as “Macedonia”.
As I mentioned in my book, “The USA
and the Case of Macedonia”, President Bush’s recognition of the FYROM as
“Republic of Macedonia” in 2004, just after the elections, was the
result of false proposals to the State Department and is considered a
shocking, unfriendly action against Hellenism, because:
a)
The unforgettable President of Democracy, Konstantinos Karamanlis, wrote
to the leaders of the EU: “It is inconceivable today, with the end of
the Cold War, to historically legalize Tito and Moscow who had named the
Southern Yugoslavia as Macedonia.
b)
It discards the fixed policy of American Presidents who condemned the
creation of “a Republic of Macedonia”.
c)
The Minister of Foreign Affaires of US Stettinious, in December 1944,
described the “Republic of Macedonia” as demagogy and threatened with
sanctions (Doc. 3).
d)
President Truman with the American taxpayers’ money (Truman Doctrine)
and the blood of the Greeks saved not only Macedonia turning communist
and annexed by Skopje, but also saved the Eastern flank of NATO during
the period of the Cold War.
e)
President Bush (senior) in 1991 praised the Greeks who in 1947, alone
stopped the Soviet expansion in Macedonia and Europe.
f)
President Clinton, before the elections, declared: “I will not accept
the name Macedonia”.
g)
President George W. Bush (son), in 2004 he mentioned twice the help of
US to liberate Greece and Berlin in 1947, and consequently he fell into
line with Presidents Truman and Bush.
The recognition of the FYROM as “Macedonia” however,
reveals the two Bush administrations as having opposite positions. On
one hand father Bush praises the Greeks who opposed the Slav communism
and on the other the son Bush rewards the Slavs.
My
report about certain circles of the State Department’s biases is not
arbitrary because:
a)
The USA Ambassador to Yugoslavia, Mr. Skalnon, in 1986, in his
speech in the University of Skopia, declared that: “The USA will help
the Macedonian Nation”.
I denounced the aforementioned fact with a
letter to the then State Department Secretary, Mr. Schultz, who as he
wrote to me, forwarded my letter to confirm these facts, but I never
received a response from the State Department.
b)
Mr. Eagleburger, former Secretary of the State Department and
former US Ambassador in Yugoslavia, if I remember well, is considered by
the FYROM the ‘Laurence of Macedonia”
c) When National Geographic revealed FYROM’s stance, an American citizen
and a Greek- American protested. The Magazine responded that the data
originated from the State Department.
d) When Holbrook announced the Interim Accord between the FYROM
and Greece, he referred to Tservekovsky as “Macedonia’s” Minister of
Foreign Affairs.
e) The State Department’s official website
http://www.state.gov/r/pa/ei/bgn/26759.htm refers to FYROM as
Macedonia and gives the false impression that the History of this
country begins from the ancient years and presents Alexander the Great
affiliated with The FYROM contemporary residents.
The State Department also adopts false assertions of the falsifiers
of Greek Macedonia’s History. The fact that the revolt of Iliden, in
1903, is a “Macedonians” insurrection is a blatant example. The then
Consuls of USA, England, France and Austria to Monastery (today Vitola)
in 70 reports to the Ministers of Foreign Affairs of their respective
countries (Doc. 23), as well as the one of the Turk Ambassador in Paris
reporting to the French Minister of Foreign Affairs (Doc. 39), state
that the Ilinden Revolt was a Bulgarian insurrection. They also reveal
as false the assertion of the FYROM school children that have been
systematically misled to believe in this version of falsified history.
Many politicians, as well as many history-illiterate individuals around
the world have absorbed these untruths as facts.
America’s reputation is not only ensured by her great financial and
military supremacy (which, as history teaches cannot be everlasting),
but also by the democratic way of its administration and the life of its
citizens who search for truth. Consequently, it is inconceivable that
the USA appears adopting blatant lies, which even former American
Presidents had confronted and denounced.
THIRD CHAPTER
The FYROM must be aware that in order to become a candidate
member for admission in the EU, unanimity
of all its States members is required. Consequently, as they insist on
the stolen Greek names Macedonia –
Macedonians and they impudently appropriate the history and the cultural
heritage of Macedonia, the EU, according
to Articles 2 and 3 of the signed Treaty of Union and Stability between
FYROM and EU in 2001, is obliged not to approve the request of the FYROM
to be candidate member for admission. If the EU does not do so, Greece
will exercise Veto.
The FYROM Minister of Foreign Affairs declared in one of her
visits to USA that her country’s admission
in the EU would not be affected by the abeyance of the name.
Unfortunately, Mr. Oli Rehn, Delegate of the expansion of the EU, made a
similar declaration to the Prime Minister of the FYROM, Mr. Bukofsky.
Mr. Rehn added that the
issue of the name concerns the FYROM and Greece. In my open letter to
Mr. Ren, with copies to President of the European Committee Mr. Barozo
and to all the Delegates, I denounced his position as erroneous.
The name of this Republic cannot be ignored.
The Macedonian President of the Hellenic Republic,
Konstantinos Karamanlis, in his letter on January 8,1992
to the leaders of the EU (Doc. 2) stated: “The issue about the name of
the self-called “Republic of Macedonia” is of fundamental importance for
Greece”. This Republic has absolutely no right, whether historical or
ethnological, to use
the name Macedonia”.
As a consequence of Karamanlis’ letter, on June 21, 1992, in
the Summit Meeting in Lisbon, the European Community decided the
non-recognition of the Republic of the FYROM, as long as the word
“Macedonia” exists in
its name.
In my letter I stated that the
perception that the problem of Macedonia is a problem only between
Greece and the FYROM, is false. All the details I brought up in the
First Chapter of my speech about the role of the Macedonians in Greek
and Universal History relate not only to Greeks but also to every human
being, having primary historical knowledge and intelligence.
The FYROM propaganda machination
based on false assertions that Ancient Macedonians were not Greeks and
that the Slavs found out after 1950 that during the 6th
century they united with the non-Greek Macedonians and they also became
Macedonians. As I reported in my texts with documents, it is obvious all
their positions are based
on deceits and falsehoods.
Greece, more than any other country, desires and has serious
interests that this Republic survives and
prospers, but under the condition that it will abandon the stolen Greek
names as the Undersecretary of Foreign Affairs of the US in 1992, Thomas
Nails, declared to the Congress Committee and obtains a name of its own.
Only with a new name peace will prevail in the area; the
neighboring populations will stop using their fellow-countrymen for
political aims and the FYROM political community will stop fibbing the
existence of “Macedonian” minorities in the neighboring countries that
are suppressed.
President Selef of Bulgaria characterized the “Macedonian” Nation as the
“crime of Tito-Stalin” and the Albanian
leader in the FYROM, Tzaferi, as “something fictitious that is supported
in myths”.
Macedonia, as the other Greek city stats, since its conquest
by the Romans stopped to exist as an independent State and since then it
appears as a Greek region. Consequently, it is inconceivable that
another independent state be recognized with the name Macedonia that,
according to Stalin’s confessions (Doc. 12, p. 91-93), was deceitfully
acquired.
I communicated to Mr. Rehn that the fallacy of his position
is based in the two following views.
1.
The Athens Academy in a unanimous Decision of the Senate on
January 17, 1992 declared: “The spurious “Macedonia” contests the true
Macedonia which is a part of Greece and is inhabited by Greeks. This
Republic has
the right to become an independent State. But it has no right to
acquire, with international recognition, an advantage
that no State in the world has: to use a name that supports land
expansion ” (Doc. 11).
2.
Given that the FYROM asserts that Macedonians are not Greek, it
is inconceivable to accept the President
of the Republic and the Prime Minister of this State as “Macedonian”,
because it will be an insult to the memory of the unforgettable
Macedonian President of the Republic, Konstantinos Karamanlis and an
insult to Prime Minister of Greece, the Macedonian Kostas Karamanlis. At
the same time, it will be an insult of the true Macedonians worldwide,
because their right to their national and cultural identity has been
assaulted. This identity is carved in stones throughout Macedonia.
FOURTH CHAPTER
No agreement or treaty can change the History.
Korbatchov and the White House
Official in their declarations to journalist Mr. Apokis, have supported
the above-mentioned views, regarding the name, during Prime Minister
Karamanlis’ first meeting with President Bush, in 2004.
All those who believe we apparently lost the name
“Macedonia” can be characterized as History illiterate and naïve
defeatists. Obviously, they ignore that the Greek and Global History and
Civilization make no sense without the part of Alexander’s the Great era
and his Macedonian successors’ era, known as Hellenistic Era.
Not without reason, the renowned archaeologist Andronikos
declared: “We faced the FYROM issue with timidity as if we were guilty
and the falsifiers of historical truth”. The foreigners, who visit
Macedonia and are informed of the truth, denounce the FYROM deceit.
The Pan-Macedonian Association of USA, not without reason,
succeeded that the Legislative Bodies of 16 States unanimously issue
Resolution about the identity of the Ancient and Modern Macedonians as
Greeks.
This in fact is our base problem with the FYROM and not only the name
issue in which the Greek side has been badly involved.
The Committee of Reports of the European Parliament in which
I posed the problem of Macedonia as a problem of the EU, with a
reference attached in my book “The Treaty of Amsterdam”, responded to me
that the
matter falls within the EU interests and forwarded my texts to nine
Committees of the European Parliament, but unfortunately, no one dealt
with them.
The President of the European Parliament, Mr. Joseph
Fontelles, responding to my letter about the FYROM issue and thanking me
about my books of Macedonia I sent him, wrote to me: “The deep knowledge
of the subject
and your political reputation are an indisputable guarantee for the
validity of their content”.
Of my own experiences about the matter of foreigners, I
report an event that took place in USA confirming
the fact that one could only bring up St. Paul in the Acts of the
Apostles to reverse the FYROM “creation”.
During the Olympic Games in Atlanta, the President of
Intersalonika, Melas Gianniotis, visiting the US needed
to make a call to Thessaloniki. The directory of the Southern Bell did
not include Thessaloniki as one of the Greek
cities, and surprisingly he saw a map (which is published in the public
school books of the FYROM) with the
boundaries of Greece ending just before Mount Olympus and Greece having
“Macedonia” as a neighboring country.
After the Acts of the Apostles was sent (Doc. 9) to the
Telephone Company it changed its directory and included Thessaloniki as
a city in Greece. The boundaries of the map have now been defined and
the neighboring country is not called “Macedonia” but FYROM.
As conclusion I have two proposals:
1.
To denounce the FYROM and their supporters who shamelessly
dispute the memory of Apostle Paul.
The text of the Acts of the Apostles, which refers to St. Paul’s rout in
Macedonia, brings out the 3 main assertions
that I have already mentioned as false, that is:
a)
It brings out Macedonia’s identity as being Greek.
Apostle Paul (IST9, 10) in 50 A.D. visited Filippi, Thessaloniki and
Veria, cities with Greek names centuries ago until today.
b) In the Acts of the Apostles (IZ 4, 12) it is
mentioned that: “Apostle Paul met Greek people from Thessaloniki and
Veria who believed”. It is clear that the FYROM deceives its pupils by
creating maps in their school-books that demonstrate Greeks did not live
in Macedonia and
c) Apostle Paul spoke and wrote his letters to
Thessalonians and Philippians in the Greek language, and
2. After you inform the FYROM that 5,000 Greek
inscriptions of Macedonia and 11,000 names of Macedonians exist and are
published in books in the National Research Centre of Athens, challenge
them to bring ONE, just ONE, inscription of the so-called “Macedonian
language” in order to take the name.
