“FAMILY

“FAMILY

I am a little boy. You are a big girl. That boy is playing with a ball. We are little boys. You are big girls. These are old women. I have a father, mother, one brother and one sister. My father, mother and the children make up a family...” (Abecedar, p. 38.)

This is my mother tongue, the language of the people from the Lerin-Bitola area. By publishing the “Abecedar” the Greek Government recognized our existence, the existence of Macedonian people in Greece. However, the governments in Sofia and Belgrade intervened protesting and demanding that the Bulgarian, or Serbian language, be used in the Macedonian schools in Greece. These protests were good for the ruling powers in Athens, which immediately withdrew the “Abecadar” and destroyed it making sure it never reached the Macedonian children and no Macedonian schools were ever opened. The Greek government did not publish the “Abecedar” on its own territory because it was forced to by foreign propaganda… The “Abecedar” appeared because Macedonians do exist on its territory. In other words, the appearance of the “Abecedar” was quite justifiable. Ironically, now Greece says that Macedonians do not exist… How hypocritical is that?

But, no matter what it says now, the Greek government did recognize the existence of Macedonians in this part of Macedonia…

There was another way the Greek government recognized the existence of Macedonians living in its territory and that was through the treaties it signed for the various population exchanges. How can we forget the November 27, 1919, Neuilly Accord, or the September 29, 1924, “Kalkof-Politis” Geneva Protocol, that Greece signed with Bulgaria for the “voluntary” exchange of populations?

There was still another way the Greek government recognized the existence of Macedonians living in its territory and that was through the Convention, signed on August 17, 1926, between Greece and the

Kingdom of Yugoslavia, where Greece recognized the Macedonians living in Greece as a “Serbian national minority”.

And now, of course, we have Minister Stephanopoulos recognizing that “Macedonians do exist in Greece”. By declaring to the Greek Parliament that he does not want the Macedonians to come back to Greece he, in effect, recognized the existence of Macedonians...

7.

On top of that we have the respected Athens newspaper “To Vima”, referring to the debate in the Greek Parliament mentioned earlier, arguing that there is no Macedonian national minority in the Greek state but acknowledges that previously there was one. This is what “To Vima” wrote: “In the context where there truly existed a group that could be characterized as a Slavo-Macedonian minority, it should be said that that group left the country during internal disorders in Greece... Therefore the question of Slavo-Macedonians as a minority group in the Greek state is closed…” In other words, according to “To Vima”, Macedonians did exist in Greece at some point in time… but not any more.

In March of this year, the world witnessed over two hundred thousand people fleeing Southern Lebanon, leaving their homes and properties, because Israel invaded their territory.

We also know that over two hundred thousand Greek Cypriots abandoned their homes and properties, the hearths of their ancestors, because the Turks invaded their territory.

Even though it is a clear case of people fleeing to save their lives, “To Vima” cannot help itself but blur the situation and conceal the fact that these Macedonians were Greek citizens who fought side by side with their Greek comrades in DAG’s ranks, and were forced to flee after DAG was defeated in order to save their lives. Namely, they did not freely flee the country… They were forced to flee because they were driven out...

Further on “To Vima” wrote: “This minority just established its nationality and settled in the Federal Republic of Macedonia.”

Meaning, the Macedonian people from Greece just determined the place where they were going to relocate and live.

This is the same as saying that over two hundred thousand people from Southern Lebanon, or over two hundred thousand Greek Cypriots, decided to leave their homes on their own, without being forced, and found a new place to rebuild their homes... This is not only absurd but crude and unconvincing.

“To Vima” went on to accuse Skopje of exercising chauvinism and “operating with categories from the old antagonism of supremacy over Macedonia and the Balkans” by which it aroused the “Aegean dream” (Slavs gaining access to the Mediterranean Sea).

But that was not true. The opposite is true: the Macedonians were victims and are still victims of Serbian chauvinism (being referred to as “South Serbians”), Greek imperialism (the “Megali Idea” (Greater Greece)) and Bulgarian megalomania - the Aegean dream… (“San Stefano Bulgaria”.)

Yugoslavia, under the right conditions became a multinational state and with its strong and well-organized Communist Party, which did not “deviate” on the national question, created the necessary conditions for the emergence and survival of national freedom and statehood for each of its nations. Yugoslavia, as an established multinational centre, guaranteed the existence and survival of the Macedonian nation and state. With the disappearance of the Serbian chauvinist, the chauvinistic danger from that side disappeared for the Macedonian people. As a result, the Macedonian people initiated a process of affirming themselves and spreading their culture worldwide.

This, however, has not stopped the pursuit of the “Megali Idea” in Greece, or that of a “San Stefano Bulgaria” in Bulgaria which clearly mutually deny each other and direct their ambitions against the Macedonian people in the Socialist Republic of Macedonia and Yugoslavia in general. Both Greece and Bulgaria are striving not only to deny the existence of a Macedonian people in the Socialist Republic of Macedonia but also have aims to continue to deny the

Macedonian people’s existence and to erase their national and democratic rights and freedoms in Greece and Bulgaria. Namely:

The Macedonians in Bulgaria are completely disadvantaged as Bulgarian citizens. They have no right to identify as Macedonians and are obliged to call themselves Bulgarian.

The Macedonians in Greece are also completely disadvantaged as Greek citizens. They have no right to identify as Macedonians and are obliged to “pretend” to be Greeks and call themselves Greek. And those who were forced into exile have no right to return home...

At the end of its long text, “To Vima” proposes to “certain Yugoslav circles” that they forget about the “Slavo-Macedonians” and, “in the interest of Greek-Yugoslav relations”, give up their position with regards to the “Macedonian national minority” in Greece.

According to this Greek “suggestion” Yugoslavia was expected to give up on the Macedonian people, a component of the Yugoslav federation which, according to the Yugoslav constitution, it was expected to support and protect. Yugoslavia was not looking for “border changes”; all it was looking for from Greece was for Greece to show respect and understanding towards its minorities. It was Yugoslavia’s duty to show an interest in their fate as a legitimate right and obligation.

Nature brought all these people to the Balkans and over time created the space for them to live together and next to one another, that is, until the Great Powers and other outsiders began to meddle in their affairs. Not only were these people divided, but they were made to believe that the Balkans belonged to them and exclusively to them. We now have the Bulgarians, fueled by their “San Stefano” illusions, who, not once but twice, joined the German imperialists because they promised them Macedonian and other peoples’ lands. We now also have the Greeks who have forgotten who they are and now believe they have directly descended from the ancient people who lived on the same lands some two thousand years ago, but are convinced that they belong to the West, forgetting the fact that they are also Balkan people and cannot escape from it.

But of course, as long as there are anti-historical and anti-Balkan manifestations of behaviour, aided by outsiders like the Great Powers, there will never be sincere friendship and close cooperation between the Balkan people.

The absence of respect and understanding for the Macedonian people in Greece is the core reason why official Greece claims that there are no Macedonians in Greece.

However, just because Greece does not want Macedonians to exist, does not mean that Macedonians don’t exist. They do exist!

In the subdivision of my village each smaller part or area has its own Macedonian name: Lakite, Shirokopat, Sviokot, etc. It’s the same everywhere in all the villages and even cities in Greek occupied Macedonia. In 1968, the military regime of the Athens junta enacted its own decree obliging the local Greek authorities to replace all these Macedonian names with appropriate Greek names and impose them on the population.

The junta, however, is now gone but the Macedonian names remain and exist to this day.

In fact after the junta was ousted the grip on the country began to loosen and people began to breathe easier. They began to move freely and speak freely. The Macedonian language began to resurface and was spoken again, especially in the markets. Besides Macedonian, one could hear Vlach, Albanian and Turkish spoken everywhere. This situation was similar throughout the entire Balkan region. People speaking different languages were ready and destined to live together and next to each other. But, its seems, those who divided the Balkan people in the first place, were not happy with the way events were progressing and made sure that that did not happen…

The idea of the Balkan people living in sincere friendship and peace did not please some of those who divided the Balkans in the first place so they made sure new “turmoil” was introduced and things were put back where each country and nation competed to dominate the others.