CONDITIONS UNDER WHICH THE TREATY OF BUCHAREST WAS DRAFTED - Part 01

CONDITIONS UNDER WHICH THE TREATY OF BUCHAREST WAS DRAFTED

As mentioned earlier, there were no definite plans on how to divide Macedonia since Macedonia never belonged to any of its neighbours. There were no national dividing lines to speak of other than the Patriarchist or Exarchist affiliated villages which existed all over Macedonia. So after the first Balkan War ended, arbitrary borders were set up more or less where the armies stopped their advance. Serbia was looking to gain access to the Adriatic Sea but Austria-Hungary and Italy saw to it that it didn’t by proposing the creation of Albania. This loss of territory on the Serbian side lead to a renewed conflict in the region termed the second Balkan War in 1913 involving Greece, Serbia, Bulgaria and Rumania. As a result of this conflict, the original borders proposed after the first Balkan War were shifted and Macedonia was once again arbitrarily partitioned.

HOW WERE MACEDONIANS MADE INTO GREEKS, SERBIANS AND BULGARIANS?

In order to prevent future problems, the Great Powers insisted that Macedonia be partitioned along ethnic lines which basically became the blueprint on how to divide Macedonia between Greece, Serbia and Bulgaria. Unfortunately the people of the Balkans under Ottoman rule had no concept of what “ethnicity” was. For many centuries they identified by their religion and language and not by ethnicity. By the 1890’s when nationalism had gripped Macedonia and the Macedonian people began to awaken to their ethnic and national consciousness, Macedonia was already promised to Greece, Serbia and Bulgaria. So rather than supporting the Macedonians in fostering growth in their Macedonian consciousness, the Great Powers allowed Greece, Serbia and Bulgaria through propaganda and armed intervention to suppress it. While Macedonians were busy struggling to free themselves from the Ottoman yoke, Greece, Serbia and Bulgaria were busy publishing demographic statistics of ethnicities in Macedonia to prove to the world how “Greek”, “Serbian”, or “Bulgarian” Macedonia was. These demographic statistics were based purely on “Church Affiliation” and not on ethnicity. In other words, the ethnic identity of a Macedonian

was based entirely on which church he or she attended liturgy. Those attending liturgy in the Greek churches were counted as Greeks, those attending liturgy in the Serbian churches were counted as Serbians and those attending liturgy in the Bulgarian churches were counted as Bulgarians. To increase their numbers Greece, Serbia and Bulgaria each secretly employed armed thugs to scare people into changing churches. Priests affiliated with the opposing church were usually driven out or outright killed. Unfortunately, even by using church affiliation as a substitute for ethnicity none of the three competitors could muster any regional support. The best they could do was maintain full or partial support at village level. In other words in a cluster of villages most villagers would be of mixed affiliation. Even if entire villages were affiliated with one church or another they would belong to a mixed cluster thus making it very difficult to divide them by any means. After Macedonia was invaded and occupied by Greece, Serbia and Bulgaria in 1912, all three states continued to refer to the Macedonians by their church affiliation calling them “Greek” if they went to the Greek church, “Serbian” if they went to the Serbian church and “Bulgarian” if they went to the Bulgarian church. But after each state consolidated its power over Macedonian territories, Macedonians belonging to the competitors’ churches were forced to change church affiliation or “get out”. Many were driven out and exiled. This practice of identifying Macedonians by their church affiliation continued even outside of Macedonia. That is why we have western authors referring to Macedonians as Greeks, Serbians and Bulgarians.

Essay 19 – Is there a Misunderstanding?

No matter what I do these days there seems to be a misunderstanding between what I say in my articles and what is understood by most Greeks. Once again I will repeat myself. For various reasons, which every Greek should understand, successive Greek governments and the majority of Greek people who elect those governments have been denying the Macedonians their ethnic identity. This has been going on since 1878 when it became obvious that Macedonian lands were available for the taking. One of the excuses Greek governments and many Greeks use to deny the Macedonians their identity is their empty claim that “Macedonians do not exist”. So then who were these people living on those lands which Greece acquired by war in 1912, 1913? Depending on which Greek you ask, you get a variety of answers which range from; they are “Slavs”, “Bulgarians”, “Serbians”, “Skopjans”, “Slavo-Skopjans”, etc., etc.; but NEVER Macedonians. Greeks have been denying the Macedonians their ethnic identity for over a century not because there are no Macedonians but because they, the Greeks in 1912, 1913 usurped 51% of Macedonia’s lands and stole the Macedonian heritage and they don’t want to be exposed and identified as the lying and thieving culprits that they are. The excuse Greeks use to justify this, without an ounce of proof of course, is that “Macedonia is Greek”. And how is Macedonia Greek? They say because the Ancient Macedonians were Greek. Are we missing something here? Even if the ancient Macedonians were related to the ancient people living south of Olympus, and they themselves say they were not, it is neither here nor there because the modern Greeks have nothing to do with either the so-called ancient Greeks or with the ancient Macedonians. In fact as I have shown numerous times the only people the Modern Greeks are related to are the Slav, Albanian and Vlach immigrants who descended upon the territory of modern Greece during the 7th, 11th to the 14th centuries. Again as I have shown in these essays, Modern Greece and the Modern Greeks are a 19th century creation, a fabrication of the Philhellene imagination. How many times must that be said to be understood? Up until the late 1980’s the rules were that one had to be born a Greek to be a Greek. It was my understanding that a Greek could not be made, he or she had to be born Greek. In fact Greece, in 1982 by Ministerial Decree number 106841, announced the passage of Law no. 400/76, providing that; “Free to return to Greece are all Greeks by genus, who during the Greek Civil War of 1946-1949 and because of it

have fled abroad as political refugees, in spite that the Greek citizenship has been taken away from them.” Similarly Law no. 1540 was subsequently introduced making provision for the return of confiscated properties to political emigrants, read political refugees. The wording used in the legislation was again unjustly circumspect. It defines political emigrants for whom the law shall have application limited to those who are “Greeks by genus”. The term ‘Greek by genus’ is a term used by Greek authorities for all those who identify themselves as being ‘ethnic Greek’ (even though such a thing does not exist). Hence ethnic Macedonians who are also political refugees and have had their Greek citizenship rescinded and/or properties confiscated are excluded from enjoying the rights granted under these laws, therefore severely questioning the very standing of the laws based on grounds of equity and fairness. Moreover, the construction of the wording as relating to these laws is not benign, it has the clear intent to discriminate against all those who belong to the category of people classified as political refugees and who are not “Greeks by genus”. Given that ethnic Macedonians predominantly make up this category of people, it is indisputable that they have been the ones targeted by this exclusivist definition and the ones to have suffered the most. What exactly then is “Greek by genus”? Does it means Greek by birth or Greek by blood born from Greek parents? Yes it does according to the way it has been applied in laws! How then can a Greek with Slavic, Albanian, or Vlach ancestry be a “Greek by genus” and not someone who was born in Greece, is a Greek citizen but feels Macedonian? My friends the “Greek jig is up”! “There is no such thing as a Greek” because according to Greek law a Greek has to be born from a Greek. But how can a Greek be born from a Greek when “there is no such thing as a Greek” in the first place? But as I say this I get comments from Greeks like the following; “Ethnicity is not based on genetic make-up. In no country is one required to take a genetic test before he is accepted as a citizen. Even Hitler did not require any such tests. For Risto Stefov, however, and some of his colleagues, the fact that Greeks cannot prove a genetic identity to someone (not defined thus impossible anyway) who was Greek, means Greeks are not Greeks. Therefore the Greek word Macedonia and the Greek administrative district of Macedonia (in Greece) with its Greek history are up for the taking. The only merit of such an extreme form of racism is that it does not openly ask for the extermination of Greeks as it mercifully makes Greeks non-existent by an act of free will. Nevertheless, through this invention, part of Greece,

Greek property (in the administrative district of Macedonia) as well as Greek heritage and history may be appropriated just the same. Unfortunately for Risto Stefov and his friends, ethnicity is not decided by a set of genes and besides we know nothing about how genetically homogeneous the original Greeks (whoever Stefov thinks these might have been) were. This racial, or even racist, attitude towards the definition of ethnicity, ignores thousands of years of linguistic and cultural continuity and the self-definition at all times of Greeks as Greeks. Stefov conveniently also ignores the geographic continuity, for Greeks never lived just around Athens and Sparta by their own accounts and the accounts of others.” (Tymphaios, March 06, 2009) So, what is Mr. Tymphaios telling us? Is he telling us that “anyone who feels like a Greek can be Greek”? What about someone who is and feels Macedonian can they be Macedonian? For over 100 years Greeks have been saying NO! No matter how you slice it Mr. Tymphaios, this type of “Greek logic” is very difficult to swallow. All I want from you Greeks is to apply the same logic to the Macedonians as you apply to yourselves! If a Slav, Albanian and Vlach can be “a Greek” because, if I understand Tymphaios correctly, he or she “feels like a Greek” then why a Macedonian, born of Macedonians, who lived in Macedonia for many generations, cannot be a Macedonian? You can’t have it both ways! Mr. Tymphaios goes on to say “The nationalistic principles of the nineteenth century, in which an ethnicity was genetically unchangeable through time, is a fossil of pre-scientific thinking. Thanks to Darwin and the scientific revolution he brought about, we know a little bit more now than people knew in the 19th century. Humans, like other species, are not static. The ancient Greeks had no special properties all of which disappeared with them when Demosthenes, or Alexander [for your information Mr. Tymphaios, Alexander was not Greek, he was Macedonian] or someone or other died. Linguistic, historic and cultural continuity is what determines the survival of an ethnicity not a unique ‘blood’ or an exclusive set of genes. Like species, so human ‘ethnicities’ evolve over time. Risto Stefov´s quest is a constant search for a genetic contamination from Albanians or some other ‘impure’ ethnicity, so that like a creationist he may say: aha, Greeks as known today were never created by God, or Greeks of the ancient times have no connection to today’s Greeks because they did not call themselves Romioi, presumably did not mix with Albanians, etc. So therefore they were a different ‘race’. He cuts a lonely figure in such a quest, because this kind of thinking is more and more recognized as belonging to those

racist theories promoted by the fascistic states of mid-20th century. Stefov´s ethnic principle is like that of Creationism in the sense of lines that are not evolving but can only stay or disappear. Today this is a thought rarely entertained even by ordinary laymen.” But what Tymphaios fails to understand, or is hypocritical about it, is that the exact same thing he speaks of and accuses me of doing is practiced by Greece today! Mr. Tymphaios, principles which apply to the Greeks as you stated above equally apply to the Macedonians! I can and have accused you of doing the same thing you are accusing me of, except that Greece and Greeks are the ones who deny the Macedonians their ethnic identity and not the other way around? All I am doing is pointing out what others, whose research you might appreciate, are saying about you. So again I will ask the question “why can’t a Macedonian, who calls him or herself Macedonian, born from Macedonians and feels like a Macedonian, according to Greeks, cannot be a Macedonian”? Mr. Tymphaios and the rest of you Greeks who deny the Macedonians their ethnic identity, I anxiously await your answer. Frankly Mr. Tymphaios, I couldn’t care less what you Greeks call yourselves and who you think you are and who you think you have descended from. What I don’t like about you is your lack of fairness when it comes to treating those different from you and your disregard for the rights of the Macedonian people both inside Greece and in the Republic of Macedonia. First, you, and by you I mean Greece and the Greeks, invaded, occupied and annexed our country Macedonia without our consent, which I call theft, then you tormented, killed, assimilated and evicted us from our homes in the name of Hellenism. You then changed our personal names, toponyms and hydronyms and made them Greek sounding so that you could show the world how Greek Macedonia is. You then banned our mother tongue and made us speak your alien Hellenic language which we detest. You openly practice racism by publicly denying Macedonians their most basic human rights and you dare call me a racist for defending myself? Where is the fairness in that? Perhaps Mr. Tymphaios you should learn a bit more about the real Greece before you leap to accusing others for things your country and your countrymen practice every day. And now I will leave you with this; “It is, after all, through the same neo-Classical elite ideology that today rejects Bernal’s arguments out of hand that Greeks were taught to reject everything familiar in their vernacular culture as ‘foreign’ to the Classical Hellenism invented by the eighteenth-century German scholars who had sired both the

‘autochthonous’ theory of Greek ethno-genesis and, in the lineage of ‘Aryan’ linguists, the so called racial science of the Nazis. This is also the ideology that today made it necessary to specify whether one means modern Greeks, as I have just done, because the West has made Classical antiquity the only acceptable touchstone of their cultural worth. The example of modern Greece provides a useful key to historicizing those who Eric Wolf has ironically dubbed ‘the people without history’ (Wolf 1982). For the modern Greeks – a people arguable plagued by an excess of history, but for a kind invented for them by more powerful others – face a real life dilemma…” (“Anthropology, Theoretical Practice in Culture and Society” by Michael Herzfeld, page 67)

Essay 20 – What is Greece up to?

So for Slavs, Albanians and Vlachs who want to be Greeks they can be Greeks because they feel like being Greeks but for Macedonians who are Macedonians and want to remain Macedonian, according to twisted Greek logic, they cannot be Macedonians! Why is that, why the double standard and what are the Greeks up to? Well to put it bluntly, it is very simple. Greece has stolen Macedonian lands and has expropriated the entire Macedonian heritage. It doesn’t want anyone to know about it or to have to give back what it stole from them. So instead of dealing with its issues Greece is making all kinds of childish accusations to avoid them. One of its most childish accusations is its claim that “Macedonians don’t exist”. First and foremost everyone must understand that it is not up to Greece to decide whether Macedonians exist or not; it is up to the Macedonians and the Macedonian people decided a long time ago that they do exist and have spilled blood to establish themselves in this world. YES there are Macedonians and YES they exist all over the world and inside Greece and Bulgaria. Most of the world, except for Greece and Bulgaria and their European Union supporters who shall remain nameless, has accepted the fact that Macedonians exist and have no problem with it. It is well known to historians and to most laymen that Macedonia was a “nation state” and even an empire with historic roots which proves its existence, whereas Greece was NEVER a nation state that is not until 1829 when the Philhellenes artificially created it. Greece has no proof of its existence as a nation state prior to that. In fact there is not a single ancient map that shows the words “Greek” or “Greece” to ever have existed. If you have been reading these essays by now you should also know that “there is no such thing as a Greek” in a natural or ethnic sense. The Modern Greek nation was created by the 19th century Western European Philhellenes and rests on the bones of the Slav, Albanian and Vlach cultures which were sacrificed to artificially create Greece. Macedonians on the other hand are a genuine people who do have their own unique culture and recognize, acknowledge and respect their true roots. Besides stealing Macedonian lands and expropriating the Macedonian heritage, the Greeks have also committed many atrocities against the Macedonian people of which I am sure they are not proud and of which they don’t want the world to know. These include burning Macedonian villages, killing innocent civilians, exiling families, exiling children, confiscating properties, imprisoning and torturing tens of

thousands and downright murdering thousands of Macedonians. These are recent and well documented historic events that can easily be proven and cannot be denied. On top of that Greece has also changed peoples’ personal and family names, changed all Macedonian place names and prohibited Macedonians from speaking their Macedonian language and from identifying as Macedonians. In fact Greece went even further and erased everything that was Macedonian including Macedonian inscriptions on public buildings, church icons and gravestones. Why did Greece do all this? Obviously it had a reason! The reason Greece did all this is because it is hiding a deep dark secret, a secret it doesn’t want the world to know. So to avoid revealing this secret, Greeks will do anything to keep Macedonians distracted and away from these issues. But as long as Macedonians pay attention to the Greeks, the Greeks will continue to engage them in their lies and rhetoric which will keep them busy and away from finding the truth. Greeks love nothing better than to engage people in nonsensical issues like the “name dispute” to keep them from finding out what truly matters to Greece, the “Macedonian lands”. Greeks couldn’t care less what the world thinks of the “crazy debates” that go on between Macedonians and Greeks as long as they are distracting and not about what matters to Greece most, the “Macedonian lands”. Greece would rather have the entire world believing that all Balkan people are crazy with nothing better to argue about than ancient names and who was who 2,000 years ago. And as long as the world thinks we are all crazy the Greeks will enjoy living in the warmth and luxury of our Macedonian homes while we freeze out in the cold. As long as we engage the Greeks in nonsensical issues and the world thinks we are crazy the Greeks will continue to pillage and rape our Macedonia, our inheritance from our fathers and grandfathers. And while the Greeks enjoy the comfort of our homes and lands we will roam the Diaspora as political and economic refugees. You want the truth about Greece? This is the truth about Greece and our predicament with it! Macedonian homes and lands today are occupied by former Albanians, Vlachs and Asia Minor Turks who today call themselves Macedonians, themselves victims of Hellenism, while the real Macedonians are roaming the world living in foreign lands. And why is this? Because Greece wants to hold onto Macedonian lands at any cost, lands that do not belong to Greece, lands that Greece acquired by war in 1912, 1913 and against the wishes of the real Macedonian people.

Why is Greece making childish claims that “Macedonians don’t exist”? Why is Greece continuingly inventing new lies? So that it could lay claim to Macedonia, so that it could say that Macedonia belongs to Greece. So that it could forever steal our inheritance from us! In order for Greece to “lay claim” to Macedonian lands, it must remove all other claimants who may have similar claims or who may challenge its claim. The only people who have legitimate claims to Macedonia and the Macedonian heritage are the Macedonian people themselves. So by denying the existence of the Macedonian identity Greece is in effect is removing the Macedonian people from this equation. So, according to Greek logic, if Greeks continue to believe Macedonians do not exist they cannot challenge Greece’s claim to Macedonia: plain and simple. In order to “lay claim” to the Macedonian lands and heritage Greece requires proof of ownership. So far however there were no reasons for Greece to show proof of ownership because there were no challengers to its claims. But with the appearance of the Republic of Macedonia, Greece is becoming increasingly insecure and feels that sooner or later those challengers are bound to surface. So to delay or divert those challenges Greece has invented a number of nonsensical issues such as “the name dispute” and the various vetoing threats to keep the Macedonian people busy and away from the main issue; challenging Greece’s hegemony over Macedonia, a land and heritage that does not belong to Greece, a land and heritage that belongs to the Macedonian people. And there ladies and gentlemen lies the crux of the entire problem. Now for those who think they know Greece! (This includes most Greeks and many foreigners) No one knows Greece’s attitude towards the Macedonians better than the Macedonians themselves who have lived in Greece. No one knows Greece better than the Macedonians who have experienced Greek justice first hand. Being Macedonian from Greece and having lived in Greece we qualify, more than anyone, to judge for ourselves what Greece is and why Greece is behaving the way it is. We have a good idea of what it is like to be abused by Greece and Greeks and I can assure you our story is not a pretty one. We know exactly what the Greeks are capable of, what they will do and how far they will go to hold onto Macedonia. And as Macedonians from Greece we know that there is but one real issue to focus on and that is the lands the Greeks have stolen from the Macedonians; everything else is trivial. Everything that Greece has done to this day was done to safeguard its hold on the Macedonians lands. By what it has done to this day is proof that Greece will stop nothing short of exterminating the entire

Macedonian nation in order to safeguard its hold on Macedonian lands and to hide the atrocities it has committed against the Macedonian people. The so-called “name dispute”, veto threats, history lessons, etc., etc., that Greece continues to invent are nothing more than smoke and mirrors to hide the only tangible item Greece values “the Macedonian lands”. “The recent furor over the publication of a relatively mild historical and ethnographic account of the progressive Hellenization of the Greek province of Macedonia (Karakasidou 1997) exhibits both the nervousness of the Greek establishment and the persistence of stereotypes of Greeks as irrational, hysterical Balkan lunatics among supposedly sober commentators in the West. It also demonstrates the neuralgia that anthropology can induce in those who are committed to unitary myths of national origin…” (“Theoretical Practice in Culture and Society, Anthropology” by Michael Herzfeld, page 68). Are Greeks who know their own true identities and who are well aware of how they acquired Macedonian lands nervous? You bet they are! More nervous than ever since the Republic of Macedonia came into existence and the Macedonian people started to take matters into their own hands. Greece was launched in early 19th century like a sailing ship without a rudder. What happened to it was not entirely its own fault. But since then Greece had all the time in the world and plenty of opportunities to build a rudder and change direction. But as of yet it hasn’t! Instead of joining the post World War II democratic nations and embracing democracy, Greece has chosen to remain static; a racist bigot nation which refuses to submit to the truth and reality of its own situation.

Essay 21 – My personal Opinion

Recently one of my readers wrote to me asking for my personal opinion of what I think is Greece’s dispute with the Macedonian people. More precisely as a Macedonian from Greece what do I think is the core issue that troubles Greece with regards to the Macedonians? Let me start by saying that, in my opinion, there is one core issue that troubles Greece and that is the Macedonian lands. Greece in 1912, 1913 occupied 51% of Macedonia’s territory and since then has turned it into Greek lands at the cost and exclusion of their real owners, the Macedonian people. Irrespective of what one calls them and how they identify themselves, I see the Macedonians as the indigenous people that have lived in Macedonia for millennia. Macedonians have no collective memory of ever arriving in these lands or having lived anywhere else except in Macedonia. So naturally I support the fact that those lands belong to the Macedonians. On the other hand the Greeks in 1912, 1913 invaded, occupied and annexed Macedonia, which never belonged to them and makes their annexation illegal under international law. But worse than that, after annexing Macedonian lands the Greeks were not satisfied with having the Macedonians living on them so they implemented assimilation policies to turn Macedonians into Greeks. Naturally many Macedonians resisted and over the years were punished by Greece. Many were tortured, exiled, jailed and even murdered. It is difficult for people to believe that Greece would want to assimilate alien ethnic groups and turn them into Greeks. What would be their motive? There is plenty of evidence that suggests that the Greeks did this to expand their manufactured Hellenic Empire and bring back the glory of the mythical Hellas of ancient times, a type of Hellas that never existed before. Given that Modern Greeks themselves are a manufactured entity and having nothing to do with the so-called Ancient Greeks, these modern charlatans felt it was their duty to convert every Macedonian into a Greek, even if it meant doing it against their will. The Greeks did this in order to create a false idea that Macedonia somehow was once part of Greece and that the Macedonian lands, heritage and people belonged to Greece. Today however we know that the Macedonians are a unique ethnic entity entirely different from the Greeks and that the Modern Greeks are in reality the descendants of the Slav, Albanian and Vlach immigrants who came to Greece during the 7th, 11th to the 14th centuries AD.

So through its assimilation policies Greece turned the 51% of Macedonia it occupied into a type of Borg-hive (like in the fictional Star Trek movie series) where people were not allowed to have real names, speak a real language, or express themselves in their own familiar culture. Real things like personal names, place names, mother language and familiar writing were forbidden from being used and were replaced with alien names, an alien language and an alien writing system all in the name of Hellenism and all for the glory of modern artificial Hellas. The Macedonian peoples’ lives in Greece are full of tragedy. Not only was one occupier (the Ottomans) replaced with another (the Greeks) in 1912, but many Macedonians lost their lands and all of them lost their identity, language, culture and continuity. But their tragedy doesn’t end there. Outside of the Macedonians who were forced out of their homes and lands and outside of the ones who submitted to Hellenism because of fear or for personal gains, there are also the majority of Macedonians who felt oppressed with no opportunity to improve their lives and political situation. These Macedonian are left in limbo waiting for an opportunity to bounce back. Unfortunately the Greeks know this and have made sure such an opportunity never presents itself. That is why consecutive Greek governments since 1912 have made it their mission to suppress and torment the Macedonian people so that such opportunities are avoided at all cost. Besides losing their lands, freedom and identity and being treated like second class citizens in their own lands, the Macedonians in Greece who feel Macedonian, even without publicly expressing it, have been unjustly persecuted. Greece continues to this day to close the border to Macedonians and to confiscate Macedonian lands. Greek authorities look away when Macedonians are harmed and Greek courts often side with the perpetrators in such cases. Putting it more bluntly, Greece not only discourages people from expressing their ethnic sentiments but will legally prosecute those who do. Given the current situation and Greece’s attitude towards the Macedonians what can be done to help bring positive change? A valid question indeed, a question I have struggled with for many years but to this day I have found no answer. Since Macedonia’s occupation in 1912 Greece has maintained a singular policy; exterminate the Macedonian people and permanently annex their lands and heritage. This policy has not changed since it was implemented in 1912 which leaves the Macedonian people with little room to maneuver. In fact the only options left for the Macedonians in Greece are to disappear all together or fight back for their survival! In my

opinion there is but one option for the Macedonians and that is to “liberate Macedonia from the Greeks”! To do that, however, Macedonians must first stop responding to Greek engagements in nonsensical issues and start focusing their effort in highlighting the truth about their status in Greece. Macedonians must let the world know what Greece has done and is still doing to them. All Macedonians originating from Greek occupied Macedonia who care about their inheritance, who care about their family’s lands, properties and homes which their fathers, grandfathers and great grandfathers poured sweat and spilled blood to build and protect, must stand up and demand their human rights from Greece. Failing that, they must then demand that the Greeks leave Macedonia. It doesn’t matter what the world thinks and what the Greeks will do; Macedonians have a duty to express their own feeling, their own desires and their own needs. By any definition, the 51% of Macedonia that was occupied by Greece in 1912 is still occupied by Greece to this day. Greece had all the time in the world and plenty of opportunity to voluntarily stop its persecution of the Macedonians and award them their human rights as prescribed by International law. Unfortunately Greece to this day has ignored every call from every International institution to voluntarily comply. Perhaps what the Macedonians need to do, to give Greece a wakeup call, is amass in every major city in the world and hold human rights demonstrations with huge placards held high with slogans like “Macedonia is Macedonian”, “Greeks get out of Macedonia” and “Greece stop the ethnic cleansing of Macedonians”. It’s about time the Greeks are given reciprocal treatment by challenging their identity as they have challenged ours for the last one-hundred years. It’s time we raise placards with slogans like, “There is no such thing as a Greek”, “a Modern Greek is nothing but a Slav, an Albanian and a Vlach”, “Hellenism is Barbarism” and “I am a Macedonian from Greece and I exist”. Greece has proven it will not yield on human rights on its own unless it is extremely pressured from the outside. Greece has a long record of abuse against all people who are not committed to Hellenism and fear they are a threat to its integrity. Greece feels that if it recognizes any of its ethnic groups living on its soil it will have to justify to them the violence and criminal conduct it perpetrated against them over the years. In other words, what Metaxas and others like him did to the Macedonian people in pursuit of Hellenism, will no longer be viewed as an act of “glory for Hellas” but a criminal act of “cultural genocide” against an innocent population.

If the Greek government recognizes a single minority it will have to explain to the people why in the past it committed cultural genocide against that minority. It will also have to punish all those involved in perpetrating the “cultural genocide”. And how can it do that when everyone in the entire Greek government today is a devout Hellene who believes in the glory of Hellas and that no “minorities” exist in Greece? How can it do that when Greeks who today hold high positions in Greek society are the pillars of Hellenism and claim to be the descendants of Plato and Pericles? What are the chances of the Greek government ever doing that? Greece will not become a democratic state and will not allow its ethnicities to self declare until racism and intolerance are completely eradicated in that country. Greece cannot and will not free itself from its prejudices until it deals with its past and corrects the injustices perpetrated against its innocent population. There can be no closure for any of the ethnic groups living in Greece until Greece gives up its Hellenism and its imperial plans for glory and the pursuit of its expansionist Megali Idea, an Idea that today lays dormant. Given that Greece will not yield on its own, what can be done to improve the Macedonian situation in Greece? First and foremost we need to fight for our human rights as a people protected by international law. As people we have certain rights that need to be exploited. We can’t continue to dismiss what Greece is doing to us thinking of it as “an act of fate” when in fact it’s “an act of crime”. Second we need to learn to voice our concerns and no longer be silent and put up with abuse. After all the harm Greece has done to us, how much more harm can it do? Keeping silent only prolongs our agony and allows Greece to further rob us of our lands, heritage and dignity. The Greeks today live warm and comfortable lives in our homes, the very same homes our Macedonian ancestors slaved to build and died to protect. And while the Greeks live comfortably consuming “our inheritance” we roam the Diaspora. It is time to speak up and tell Greece to recognize us and accept us for who we are, Macedonians, or to speak up and tell the Greeks to “get the hell out of our Macedonia”! “The relationship between the Modern Greeks and the Macedonians is a relationship marked by bloodshed, murder, unimaginable atrocities that have yet to be accounted for - and it all started with An Invasion in 1912 that broke every international law, and treaty of its time. This is what needs to be addressed - if the Macedonians raise this one point, it will be a massive blow to Modern Greece, and significantly Europe too, which has unofficially sanctioned Greece's state sponsored genocide of

the Macedonians. If the Macedonians, anywhere in the world, can get this point (and only this point), there is hope some wrongs of the past, might be addressed.” Paul from www.maknews.com/forum And now I leave you with this. Thanks to one of my readers for bringing it to my attention; Please click on this link; http://www.youtube.com/ristostefov As much as I don’t like what this person is doing, especially the “impersonating” part, I welcome the initiative which proves that I am getting my message across. This imposter while accusing me of “falsification” has failed to notice the irony in his message which hypocritically, is also an act of falsification! Thank you again for reminding me why I do this (fighting for the rights of all Macedonians) and for confirming that I am on the right track. By impersonating me and by your rude comments you not only have belittled yourself but you have inadvertently validated everything I have said about your behaviour and the way your kind treats the Macedonian people. Congratulations, whoever you are, in your depraved ways you have done your racist country proud! “There cannot be an Athenian alive today who can trace a direct line of descent from classical times to the present without leaving Athens. Because of numerous and protracted foreign occupations, true Athenians were a relatively small minority even in the age of Pericles. In a later period the city was suffering with severe depopulation and was re-stocked with Albanians! At the time of Greek independence in 1834, Athens was a miserable village with a population of only 6000. So, in this sense, there cannot be any true Athenians of classical breeding.” (Insight Guides, Athens, Greece Series, page 42)

Essay 22 – More questions

As much as I don’t want to turn this book into a “Dear Risto” column, a couple of you have asked some very important, worthwhile and valid questions that I would like to answer. 1. As Macedonians should we be abandoning our “Slavic” culture in favour of the Ancient Macedonian one? 2. What is your personal, and not a dictionary quote, definition of a Hellene? In your opinion who and what is a Hellene? I will begin answering the first question by saying that the Macedonians of today are a product of all that has happened in Macedonia. We are the descendents of all the people who set foot on those lands and therefore are the inheritors of everything that was left for us. Since man set foot on Macedonian soil our culture has been evolving, growing and adding to our being; culminating in what it is today. We are Macedonians because we have lived in Macedonia for many generations and have experienced what is Macedonian and that which we have experienced has made us into who and what we are, Macedonians. If we seek the truth about who we are then we have no choice but to accept and embrace everything that makes us who we are. We are Macedonians, one of the deepest rooted people in the world and inheritors of everything that was Macedonian since before history was recorded. In an ethnic sense we are Macedonians but linguistically we speak a Slavic language, a language that today is described as belonging to the family of Slavic languages. Ethnically we are not Slavs, we can’t all be Slavs from the Balkans to Siberia. We are Slavic speakers who over the years have evolved into a unique entity which can only be described as Macedonian. We have, however, contributed immensely to what we today call “Slav culture” more than any other ethnic nation in the Slavic speaking world. We know for a fact that Slav culture, particularly the written form of the language, was spread from Macedonia by the Solun brothers Kiril and Metodi and that is undeniably part of our Macedonian heritage. Are the modern Macedonians the descendants of the ancient Macedonians? My answer to that question is why stop with the ancient Macedonians? Why not go even further back and ask “are we the descendants of all the people that occupied Macedonian lands since the melt of the last ice age”? We cannot say with certainty that we are and neither can we say that we are not. All we can say is that Macedonia, the land and all that has taken place on it over the ages has made us into

who we are today, Macedonians. One thing we need to refrain from is allowing others, particularly our enemies to define us. Our neighbours to the south, the Greeks, have made the mistake of defining themselves as the “descendants of the ancient Greeks” ignoring many years of evolution, population movements, invasions, conquests and so on. The Greeks followed the “Western European” blueprint for nation building and falsely linked themselves to the ancients and only the ancients, leaving a wide gap in their culture. However they only did this to make political gains and take advantage of their neighbours, particularly of us the Macedonians. In fact most of Western Europe has used mythical historiography to build its modern nations. Macedonia does not need to resort to myths because Macedonians have historically existed since pre-history. If there is the question of who the Modern Macedonians are then there must also be a question of “who the Ancient Macedonians were”. As far as we know the Ancient Macedonians began as a small tribal nation somewhere in today’s Kostur Region sometime in the 9th century BC. They only occupied today’s geographical Macedonia in the 4th century BC after Philip II became king. From what we know, Philip II defeated the various tribal kingdoms in the vicinity of today’s geographic Macedonia and incorporated the people and their lands into his Macedonian kingdom. These tribes were not all Macedonian before Philip conquered them. So what were they? From what we know from history, Ancient Macedonia, before it became a nation state, was the land of the Pelasgians, Illyrians, Thracians, Phrygians, Paeonians and others. Hardly anything is known about these great ancient and prehistoric tribes except that they were very numerous “like leaves in a forest”. So what happened to these people? Naturally modern mainstream history would have us believe that they all disappeared, but did they? Or could these people be the ancestors of today’s modern Slav speakers? There are some well educated and prominent scientists today who believe that large groups of people who moved into the Balkans and Europe after the last ice age are still living there to this day. Could one of those large groups be the modern day Slav speakers? There are some who believe they are! How else does one explain the Slav language being spoken over such a large expanse and by so many different people in Eastern Europe? Now if we put two and two together we come to the realization that there is a high probability that today’s Slav speaking Eastern Europeans are the descendents of any or all of the prehistoric Illyrians, Thracians, Phrygians, Dardanians, etc.; the very same groups of people mainstream history claims have disappeared.