KING CONSTANTINE’S TELEGRAM - Part 06

RISTO – Yes I do, I have a reprint of the original abecedar. The abecedar, unfortunately never reached the schools in Greek occupied Macedonia.

Here’s what happened back in 1925;

During this period of immense suffering, the Macedonian people had a glimmer of hope that conditions might improve as a result of the Treaty of Serves which Greece signed earlier in August 10, 1920. According to conditions of the Treaty, under Articles 7, 8 and 9, the Greek government was to undertake certain obligations regarding “the protection of the non-Greek national minorities in Greece”. These Articles specifically stated free use of language and education. Initially Greece sought to neglect its obligations, however in March 1925 the League of Nations directed Greece to fulfill its obligations. By May 1925 an elementary school reader was published in the Macedonian language, it was known as the ABECEDAR. The ABECEDAR was to be used by Macedonian children in Macedonian schools which were yet to open in Aegean Macedonia.

Strong reactions immediately came from Serbia and Bulgaria.

Serbia and Bulgaria were caught totally by surprise, both were furious that the Macedonian book ABECEDAR was not printed in the Serbian or Bulgarian language respectively.

Serbia threatened to break its treaty of alliance with Greece and to commence negotiations with Bulgaria for the division of Aegean Macedonia. Threats came from the Bulgarians, protesting loudly that they had previously signed an Accord with Greece which recognized the Macedonians as “Bulgarians”.

What occurred next is truly a rare example, the Greek representative at the League of Nations Vasilis Dendramis responded by defending the Macedonian language as being “neither Bulgarian nor Serbian, but an independent language”. He listed various linguists and linguistic maps as evidence to support his claim of the independence of the Macedonian language. This high-ranking Greek official representing the Greek state not only recognized the existence of the Macedonian identity, but openly defended and supported it.

However Serbian and Bulgarian objections, together with internal opposition in Greece, prevented the Abecedar from ever reaching the Macedonian children. The Abecedar was destroyed but remains as a reminder to the Greek government of the Macedonians as a separate national entity.

Another thing worth mentioning here is what was found in newspaper archives. While the Greeks were screaming and yelling that Tito created the Macedonian and that no Macedonians existed before Tito, western libraries began to digitize their archival materials, especially the newspapers from the early 1900’s. And guess what?

These newspapers were saying Macedonians existed and were fighting against the Ottomans during the 1903 Ilinden Uprising and not “Bulgarians” as the Greeks were claiming.

Before major libraries started digging up old newspapers, scanning and digitizing them and making them available online and accessible from the internet, the Greeks had us convinced that Macedonians did not exist; they had all died off a long time ago. But when we pointed out that there are people today who call themselves Macedonians and showed them examples, they brushed that off and said those people were not “real” Macedonians but “Slavs.” But when we

asked for an explanation as to how they become Macedonians, the Greeks explained that “Tito created them when he created the People’s Republic of Macedonia.” And what purpose would Tito have to create these Macedonians, we asked? Most Greeks believed that “Tito created these Macedonians in order to lay claim to Greek-Macedonia!” You know, the one that the Greeks “liberated” in 1913.

The Greeks had convinced the entire world that “Macedonians did not exist” and that “the Modern Macedonians were created by Tito.” To this day I get e-mails from Greeks attesting to this “fact!”

But when old newspapers, especially major dailies from the late 1800’s and early 1900’s were made available on the internet, we began to see that Macedonians did exist even before Tito was born. This was indeed a puzzling problem, especially if we were to believe both the Greeks who tell no lies and all the major daily English language newspapers which reported on the Macedonians even before Tito was born.

Faced with this dilemma a number of us got together and after many hours of brainstorming, thanks to a fellow called True Macedonian, we found our answer.

The only thing that explained how Tito could have created the Modern Macedonians as per Greek testimonies and how Macedonians existed before his time, as documented by all those newspapers, was that “Tito must have had a time machine and went back in time to create the Macedonians”.

Like today’s major dailies that report on world events on a daily basis, so did the dailies of a century or so ago. The newspapers were reporting on all sorts of activities in the Balkans and in Macedonia, including on the Macedonians preparing and executing the 1903 Macedonian National Ilinden Uprising against the Ottoman Empire.

If we “must” believe that Josip Broz Tito, the Yugoslav dictator, along with the Communists, “invented” the Macedonians then we must also believe that Tito possessed a “Time Machine” because the Macedonians existed way before Tito’s time.

Almost every e-mail I have received from Greeks in the last half a dozen years or so mentions the name “Tito” as the “creator” of the Macedonian ethnic identity. “You are not Macedonians, you are Slavs and you came to the Balkans in the 6th century AD” seems to be the standard Greek definition of a Modern Macedonian. But if we are all Slavs and came to the Balkans in the 6th century AD then how did we become Macedonians? Well the Greeks have a ready answer for that too. They say “Tito created the Macedonian ethnic identity”.

Greeks, it seems, feel very uncomfortable when a question pops up for which they have no ready made answers but on the question of “How did the Macedonians become Macedonians?” they are pretty sure Tito created them.

“Greek propagandists and Greek government officials have brainwashed their Greek citizens into believing that Josip Broz Tito, the Yugoslav dictator, along with the Communists, ‘invented’ the Macedonians. The Bulgarians too, like the Greeks, are in denial when it comes to the existence of a Macedonian nation,” says True Macedonian.

True Macedonian knows Tito’s secret because he, along with Marty and Doc, accompanied Tito on his voyages back in time watching Tito “create” these Macedonians. But unbeknownst to them I, Risto Stefov, too accompanied Tito, Marty, Doc and True Macedonian watching things unfold as I hid in the back seat of the Delorean, recording events as they unfolded.

So why don’t we all take a trip back in time and let’s see exactly when and where Tito landed and how he “invented” these Macedonians.

One puzzling question however. “What identity were these people before Tito ‘made’ them into Macedonians”? I guess we will have to turn to the Greeks for that answer!

The best trick Tito ever pulled was to assemble his best scientists to create his time machine. Upon being pushed to 88 miles per hour his time machine broke the time barrier and disappeared back into the future. Tito’s first trip was to 1985 where he acquired a Yugo engine

for his Delorian. From then on he traveled under his own power and went wherever he wanted just by setting the time machine’s time dial. I snuck up and boarded the Delorian while it was briefly visiting my neck of the woods on January 1st, 2000. My first ride was to 1907 when Tito went to Pennsylvania to do some dirty deeds. (Story inspired by True Macedonian.)

After landing in Pennsylvania Tito took a trip to the Statistics office and ordered the statistician to enter the following;

“Iron and Steel Supplement – Labor…Macedonians…17” (“Annual Report of the Secretary of Internal Affairs of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania”, Part III, Industrial Statistics, Vol. XXXV, 1907, page 73)

By the way registered on page 73 you will also find Greeks…159 and Slavish…3,408.

“Labor Supplements – Sole and Harness Leather…Macedonians…43” (“Annual Report of the Secretary of Internal Affairs of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania”, Part III, Industrial Statistics, Vol. XXXV, 1907, page 191)

Registered on page 191 you will also find Greeks…20 and Slavonians…285.

“Labor Supplements – Tanning Extracts…Macedonians…3” (“Annual Report of the Secretary of Internal Affairs of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania”, Part III, Industrial Statistics, Vol. XXXV, 1907, page 247)

Tito’s best work in convincing the statistics office in 1907 to record 17 Macedonians working with iron and steel, 43 Macedonians working with sole and harness leather and 3 Macedonians working with tanning extracts. It was quite an accomplishment for Tito to create 63 Macedonians just like that!

After visiting Pennsylvania, Tito decided to jump back to the 19th century to add some Macedonian in an English-Arabic dictionary. He knocked off a few shots of rakia for courage and then bribed the

dictionary author with some more rakia. When the author was drunk and passed out Tito ordered True Macedonian to modify the dictionary as follows:

“Saklabah, The Sclavonians, supposed by the Arabians to be descended from Seclab, a son of Japhet. Under this name, however, the Mahometans comprehend often the Servians, Bulgarians, Moesians, Thracians, Albanians, Macedonians and the northern parts of Greece.” (“An English Arabic Dictionary” by Josiph Catafago, 1858, page 131)

Not satisfied with modifying just some statistics and one definition in a dictionary, Tito figured it was time to influence some newspapers so he set the Delorian time dial to the year 1897. February 6th, 1897 to be exact. Here Tito influenced the New York Times to write the following:

“Mr. Gladstone and the Balkan Confederation. – The Byron Society, which is actively engaged in disseminating appeals in Greece and Bulgaria to help the cause of the Macedonians, has communicated to its agents a letter from Mr. Gladstone for distribution in the vernacular in South-Eastern Europe. The Society aims at inducing the Greek, Servian and Bulgarian governments to come to an early agreement in reference to the Macedonian question. The letter is as follows: - ‘Hawarden Castle Jan. 19, 1897. Dear, Sir, the hopelessness of the Turkish Government should make me witness with delight its being swept out of the countries which it tortures. Next to the Ottoman Government nothing can be more deplorable and blameworthy than jalousies between Greek and Slav and plans by the states already existing for appropriating other territory. Why not Macedonia for the Macedonians as well as Bulgaria for the Bulgarians and Servia for the Servians? And if they are small and weak, let them bind themselves together for defense, so that they may not be scattered by others, either great or small, which would probably be the effect of their quarreling among themselves. Your very faithful, W. E. Gladstone.’” (“New York Times”, February 6th, 1897.)

Bravo Tito, I don’t know exactly how you did it but you convinced a British Prime Minister to say “Macedonia for the Macedonians” which became a rallying cry for the Macedonians before your time!

Still not satisfied that enough was done, Tito set the Delorian time dial to August 11, 1900. Here he convinced a reader to write the following to the New York Times Editor;

“Christians in Turkey

To the Editor of the New York Times:

The writer read with much interest a letter in THE TIMES of to-day relating to the Macedonian disturbances. It has been said that ‘The worst Christian Government is better than the best Muslim Government’, but Mr. Burman, the writer of the letter in question, apparently thinks Turkish rule good enough in its way or feels that international justice demands that Turkey in Europe be preserved at any price. He speaks of ‘acts of retribution on the part of their (the Macedonians’) Turkish masters.’ As the Turks have long referred to the Christians in their dominions as ‘dogs’ the term is perhaps a very apt one.

K. C. Bataille, Orange N. J., August 11, 1900.”

Oh, I forgot to tell you. When everyone was busy keeping the “dictionary guy” company and drinking rakia, I borrowed the Delorian for a brief while and took a trip to London to January 12, 1814 where I convinced Reverend Hughes to write the following;

“The Serai stands in an open space, near the south-east corner of the Castron: it is a vast irregular pile of buildings… The great hall of this building was crowded with attendants of every variety in costumes, from red-shawled Macedonians and turbaned Osmanli, to the Albanian with his shaggy white capote, and the Greek archon in robes of ermine and enormous calpac.” (“Travels in Sicily Greece and Albania” by Rev. Thos. Smart Hughes, 1820, page 472.)

By setting the return time dial to seconds after I left for London, I was able to spend considerable time in London without Tito

discovering his Delorian was missing. I just hope he doesn’t keep track of the “time mileage”.

And now I will leave you with this; “Since the Christian era, as we have said, a successive downpour of foreigners from the north into Greece has ensued. In the sixth century came the Avars and the Slavs, bringing death and disaster. A more potent and lasting influence upon the country was probably produced by the slower and more peaceful infiltration of the Slavs into Thessaly and Epirus from the end of the seventh century onward. A result of this is that Slavic place-names to-day occur all over the Peloponnesus in the open country where settlements could readily be made. The most important immigration of all is probably that of the Albanians, who, from the thirteenth century until the advent of the Turks, incessantly overran the land.” (“The Races of Europe A Sociological Study”, by William Z. Ripley, Ph.D., 1910, page 408).

So tell me now, who are the “real” Slavs, the so-called Greeks or the Macedonians?

This is only a very minute sample of what there is out there about how Tito created the Macedonian identity as per Greek claims. I have an entire book written about this with quotes from newspaper articles from major European, American, Canadian and Australian newspapers from the late 1800’s and early 1900’s when, supposedly, no Macedonians existed. The book is called “Come take a Ride in Tito’s Time Machine”.

I am at a loss for words about how the Greek people can lie to your face with such overwhelming evidence that disproves their claims and still expect to be taken seriously!

In my opinion these Greeks have zero credibility and have done injustice not only to the Macedonians but to their own cause. But then why should they care? They are inside our homes, nice and warm, while we roam the streets freezing and looking for justice.

And who is going to provide this justice?

The Great Powers or the international law wielded by the same Great Powers? When are we going to learn?

INTERVIEWER – Do you have these newspaper articles?

RISTO – I have hundreds of them. They are all available in most library archives. New York Times and various other newspaper archives as well.

INTERVIEWER – And these are all in your book?

RISTO – I published some of them in my book to give you an idea that they exist. You will need many volumes of books to publish them all. But what would be the point… All you need is a few dozen or so articles to blow away the Greek lies.

INTERVIEWER – And how did you find these?

RISTO – They actually found me. You wouldn’t believe the kinds of articles people send me and the kinds of requests they made of me….

INTERVIEWER – The internet, right? That’s how I found you.

RISTO – Yes through the internet. People find what I write agreeable because it fits with their reality of events. It fits with what their grandparents had told them. That’s what they tell me.

INTERVIEWER – Can you put requests for this kind of material on your website….I mean for people to come to you…?

RISTO – I did. I did exactly that in 2006. I started an electronic monthly magazine called the “Macedonian Digest” which began in January 2006. This gave my readers a forum, to say what they wanted to say and reveal unusual stuff. Then people started sending me things; information about all sorts of things. I found out of all kinds of measures the Greek government had undertaken to get rid of us.

INTERVIEWER - What sort of measures?

RISTO – Greeks marrying Macedonians to assimilate them. Kindergartens especially opened to stop Macedonian children from learning their Macedonian language from their grandparents; Macedonians leaving Greece for Australia having to sign a declaration that they would not return… But you have to fault the Macedonians for signing such declarations without reading what they signed…, and so on.

INTERVIEWER – Really this is all on paper? And people sent this to you?

RISTO – Yes. The Greeks actually sent military and administrative personnel to Greek occupied Macedonia and ordered them to marry Macedonian women so that they could assimilate the Macedonian population. They were doing the same thing the Ottomans were doing. They were putting people in certain places to hold power. The silly thing about that is that the mother is usually the one who teaches the children who they are and the first language they speak. That is why it is called “the mother tongue” and not the “father tongue”.

And this is why Greeks are intellectually superior to the Macedonians.

INTERVIEWER – Is there any Macedonian life left in Greece today?

RISTO – Well, even though the world was changing all around us, the Macedonians in Greece continued to suffer abuses at the hands of the Greek government.

During the late 1950’s inhabitants of several villages in the Lerin, Kostur and Voden Regions were forced to take oaths swearing loyalty to Greece and denouncing their Macedonian ethnicity and mother language.

This policy of denationalization continued to meet with resistance however, as the Macedonian people continued to feel Macedonian and speak their Macedonian language in secret.

With the imminent breakup of Yugoslavia, the oppressed Macedonians in Greece also began to feel the fervor and started to form their own movements, which gave birth to such organizations as the Macedonian Movement for Balkan Prosperity and Vinozhito.

In regards to developments with the Macedonians in Greece, on September 8th, 1995 members of the ethnic Macedonian political party in Greece, the RAINBOW PARTY, also known as the “VINOZHITO PARTY” in Macedonian, opened an office in Lerin.

On January 19th, 1997 a Second Conference of the “RAINBOW” party was held in Lerin and was attended by 76 delegates of all local units. A Political Manifesto and Organizational Principles were adopted and a Central Council comprised of 19 members was elected.

The Central Council held its first session in Voden on January 26th, 1997 and elected a five-member Political Secretariat, an Economic Commission, an Editors Council, etc.

In its Political Manifesto “RAINBOW” has aired its wish to cooperate with all democratic and anti-nationalist forces in the country in its struggle for peace and European integration.

The RAINBOW PARTY is a member of the European Free Alliance which has been standing up for the rights of stateless nations, peoples and regions for decades.

Other development with regards to the Macedonians in Greece includes the opening of the Greek branch of the European Bureau for Lesser Used Languages (EBLUL), an organization dedicated to the preservation of lesser used languages in Europe.

Across the European Union, no fewer than forty million people speak languages in their everyday lives, which are different from the official language of the state in which they are living. At present this figure represents 10% of the total European population but shortly, with the expansion of the Union, the number of people speaking a different language from the official language of their state will be

much, much greater. Greece, too, is no exception; however vigorously the state may deny it, the facts tell their own story. A by no means negligible section of the Greek population is bilingual. It is not possible to provide precise figures, since none of the censuses carried out to date has included a question on language. The one exception was the census of 1920, yet the figures it yielded for the northern regions of the country were never published.

Moreover, the long-standing policy of marginalization and suppression has succeeded, naturally enough, in reducing the actual number of those speaking the non-official languages. This hostile treatment of heteroglossy in Greece had its beginnings in the early days of the modern Greek state, 190 years ago. In those areas of the country where Arvanitika (Albanian) was prevalent, every effort was made to discourage its use. There was perhaps some justification for this in the desperate efforts being made to unite the regional populations into a single Greek state, using as a means to this end a policy of homogenization of the various populations.

Macedonians such as Nase Parisis, who is currently President of the Greek branch of EBLUL, are striving to introduce the Macedonian languages into the Greek educational system.

In 1995 Human Rights Watch - Helsinki condemned Greece for the oppression of its ethnic Macedonian minority, which Greece denies exists. Both Amnesty International and the European Parliament urged Greece to recognize the Macedonian language and to stop oppressing ethnic Macedonians living within its borders.

In regards to Macedonians in Bulgaria, political changes after the capitulation of fascist Bulgaria and the September 9th, 1944 coup d’etat positively influenced the Macedonians in Pirin. On August 9, 1946 the Communist Party of Bulgaria, under the leadership of Georgi Dimitrov, officially recognized the Macedonian nation and the right of the Bulgarian controlled part of Macedonia to attach itself to the People’s Republic of Macedonia. After World War II the Macedonians in Bulgaria were recognized as a separate and distinct ethnicity. Demographic data from a free census in 1946 revealed that the majority of the population in Pirin Macedonia declared itself to be ethnic Macedonian. There was a period of

cultural autonomy and affirmation of Macedonian national and cultural values. The Macedonian literary language and national history were introduced into the educational system and almost 32,000 students were taught Macedonian. In 1947 in Gorna Djumaja (Blagoevgrad) the first Macedonian bookstore, reading room and Regional Macedonian National Theater were opened. Macedonian newspapers such as “Pirinsko delo”, “Nova Makedonija”, “Mlad borec” etc. were also published. Literary, cultural and artistic associations were founded contributing to the spread of Macedonian culture.

In the 1956 census conducted by the Bulgarian government, 63.7% of the population living in Pirin Macedonia declared itself Macedonian. Since that census, and after Tito broke relations with Russia and Bulgaria, Bulgaria changed its attitude and negated the existence of Macedonians thus forbidding the expression of the Macedonian ethnicity and language. Another census conducted in 1965 shows only 8,750 or less than 1% of the total population living in the district of Blagoevgrad to be Macedonians. This was a region with the highest percentage of Macedonians shown to live there by a previous census.

In 1989 a group of Macedonians formed the United Macedonian Organization - Ilinden (OMO Ilinden) with aims at gaining cultural and national autonomy for the Macedonians in Pirin. OMO Ilinden PIRIN was a political party of the Macedonian minority in Bulgaria. It was registered as a political party in 1999 and participated in municipal elections in October 1999, where it elected five local officials. However, on February 29, 2000, the Constitutional Court in Bulgaria declared OMO “Ilinden” - PIRIN unconstitutional. This was in direct violation of the right to freedom of association and the right to freedom from discrimination.

The Bulgarian government refuses to acknowledge the existence of the large Macedonian minority in Pirin Macedonia and continues to violate its basic human rights. Members and supporters of OMO Ilinden PIRIN (political party and human rights organization) and OMO Ilinden (human and minority rights organization) have been videotaped, harassed, beaten, fined and even imprisoned simply for asserting their ethnic Macedonian identity.

In regards to the Macedonians in Albania, at the local elections in Albania, held on February 18, 2007, a Macedonian from the party Macedonian Alliance for European Integration (MAEI) was, for the first time, elected as mayor. Edmond Temelko, a 36-year-old veterinarian turned politician won the mayoral position in Prespa municipality, making him the first Macedonian elected in Albania.

Macedonians in Albania are still unable to fully exercise their basic human rights such as obtain schooling in their mother tongue, using Macedonian national symbols and participation in state institutions. Macedonians fought hard to register their political party, the Macedonian Alliance for European Integration with success which is a major accomplishment for Macedonians, because they demonstrated maturity and voted for themselves. By doing so they showed Albanian society that they were part of it and would take an active role in dealing with issues in the country.

The Prespa municipality has nine towns, inhabited mostly by ethnic Macedonians who speak their own language and foster their own cultural heritage. The Macedonian language will become the second official language and all Macedonian landmarks will be given their original names which were changed during Enver Hodza’s regime.

Albania gained the Mala Prespa region from Greece in 1919 in exchange for some Albanian lands in Epirus.

In regards to the Macedonian people in the Republic of Macedonia, as federal Yugoslavia began to disintegrate in the late 1980’s the Macedonians in the Peoples’ Republic of Macedonia sought their chance to finally create their own state. On September 8, 1991, in a referendum, 95% of eligible voters approved of a sovereign and independent Republic of Macedonia with Kiro Gligorov as its President.

The will of the people was confirmed on September 18, 1991 at the Macedonian Parliament with the declaration for acceptance of the results from the referendum.

The next important step in strengthening the state was the adoption of the Constitution on November 17, 1991, which was supplemented after the 2001 conflict and signing of the Ohrid Framework Agreement.

The internationally legal subjectivity of the state was recognized on April 8, 1993 with an acclamation of the UN General Assembly. Macedonia was admitted as the 181st full-fledged member.

Fearing that it might lose its Macedonian occupied territories, Greece was first to object to the Republic of Macedonia’s independence.

Although the European Community acknowledged that Macedonia had fulfilled the requirements for official recognition, due to the opposition of Greece which was already a member of the community, the EC decided to postpone the recognition. Greece, afraid that Macedonia might put forward a historical, cultural and linguistic claim over Aegean Macedonia, insisted that the new nation had no right to use of the name “Macedonia” and use the emblem of ancient Macedonia on its flag. In July of 1992 there were massive demonstrations by Macedonians in the capital Skopje over the failure to receive recognition. But despite Greek objections, Macedonia in 1993 was admitted to the United Nations under the temporary reference (not an official name) “the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia”. Full diplomatic relations with a number of EC nations followed, while Russia, China, Turkey, Bulgaria and most nations ignored Greece’s objections and recognized Macedonia under its constitutional name “Republic of Macedonia”.

Greece, dissatisfied with the results, in February 1994 imposed a trade embargo on Macedonia in an attempt to force President Gligorov to make changes to his country’s name, nation and language and amend the Constitution to remove Article 47 which stipulated that “the Republic of Macedonia cares for the statue and rights of those persons belonging to the Macedonian people in neighboring countries, as well as Macedonian ex-parties, assists their cultural development and promotes links with them.” Ironically, Greece also has a similar article in its own Constitution,

as is normal for any country in the world to care for its minorities in other countries.

Faced with an economic collapse and left without any support from the international community, Macedonia had no choice but to change its flag and constitution, after which Greece lifted the embargo.

Still reeling from the Greek embargo, from the internationally imposed embargo on Serbia, its traditional trading partner, and from unresolved issues with Greece, the Republic of Macedonia was faced with a new set of problems, a war at home.

Due to the conflict north of Macedonia and as a result of the NATO bombing of Serbia, an influx of war refugees numbering in the three hundred thousand entered Macedonia. This created economic as well as political strain on impoverished Macedonia which on one hand, had to cope with a 15% overnight population increase and on the other criticisms from various human rights groups for the ways it handled the refugees.

No sooner was that crisis was over than armed bands of Albanian fighters, spilled over from the Serbian conflict, began to infiltrate and stir up trouble in Macedonia. In 2001 these illegal bands, first branded as terrorists and later as “freedom fighters”, began to occupy camps and later villages in western Macedonia. Initially these bands were seen as benign but as they started to assert themselves by restricting travel, kidnappings, torturing civilians and cutting off electricity and water supplies to various communities, the Macedonian police and military began to pursue them. There was an immediate backlash from the western media which, in spite of their violent acts, viewed the Albanian bands as human rights fighters and the Macedonian government and people as aggressors.

This war placed great strains on Macedonia’s economy and created a long-lasting divide between the Macedonian and Albanian communities inside Macedonia, communities that coexisted peacefully for centuries.

The war lasted approximately six months and officially ended with the signing of the Ohrid agreement on August 13, 2001.

“According to the Ohrid Peace Agreement, the international community was invited to support the challenging road of Macedonia from the brink of civil war in August 2001 to peace, stability and integration into Euro-Atlantic structures.

In response to a request for NATO assistance, made by the Macedonian President Boris Trajkovski on June 20, 2001, this military organization drew up the operational plan that was dedicated to the peace and stability of the Republic of Macedonia. However, NATO had imposed three conditions for its help in resolving the crisis: conclusion of political agreement between the various parties in the Republic of Macedonia, armistice linked with amnesty for the members of the so-called NLA and finally a pledge of full demilitarization from the so-called NLA. Once the Macedonian political parties signed the Ohrid Peace Agreement, the way was opened for NATO’s first mission in the Republic of Macedonia. The NATO military support to the Republic of Macedonia effectively commenced on August 27, 2001, with Operation Essential Harvest / Task Force Harvest (TFH). This UK-led mission involved the rapid deployment of 4,600 Allied troops that were initiated to fulfill NATO’s promise to assist the Macedonian people by collecting and destroying arms and ammunition on a voluntary basis from ethnic-Albanian extremists.

INTERVIEWER – Thank you for your participation in this interview.

Analysis of historical events in Greek occupied Macedonia Part 2

An interview with Risto Stefov

Analysis of historical events in Greek occupied Macedonia An interview with Risto Stefov Part 2

Published by:

Risto Stefov Publications rstefov@hotmail.com

Toronto, Canada

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording or by any information storage and retrieval system without written consent from the author, except for the inclusion of brief and documented quotations in a review.

Copyright © 2016 by Risto Stefov

e-book edition

* * *

November 3, 2016

* * *

INTERVIEWER – Risto, there was quite a response to the interview conducted earlier, which was mostly about the past, so I would like to ask you some more questions, concerning the present if possible. For example what is going on with the so-called name dispute and what is that all about? What can you tell us about the name dispute?

RISTO – Thank you. But since I published the first part of the interview I received a number of comments, all of them positive, a couple of which I would like to discuss with you before we continue with the interview.

One of the questions was about the Greek language and the other about the Slavs and the Macedonians.

One reader wanted to know if the so-called “Greek” language was around for thousands of years, as the modern Greeks claim, then how come “no country” outside of today’s Greece speaks it and even those Greeks who do speak it today have learned it in school?

Dear reader, this is a question for the Greeks. They should be the ones explaining why “Greek” is not their mother tongue or the mother tongue of their nation or any other nation for that matter. But, before giving us an explanation as to why this is, they need to first ask themselves: “If their so-called ‘Greek language’ existed for thousands of years, as some of them claim, then why is it spoken only in Greece and nowhere else?” Greece became a country in 1828 but before that it existed without borders for about 2,300 years. How was it that this ancient language was not spoken more widely and outside of modern Greece’s borders?

Unfortunately, the reason it was not spoken anywhere else or by more people is because the so-called “Greek language” was a dead language, just like the Latin language. It was used only by governments and Church institutions. On top of that it was not a mother tongue of the modern “Greek” people. It was adopted after Greece became a country and taught to the “Greek” people in school.

And the reason, if I may add, as to why the “Greek” language never caught on anywhere else in the world is because it was never a

common people’s language. Even since Alexander’s time, when the Koine (or so called Greek) language began its life, it has been a language of trade and commerce used in government institutions and later in the Christian Orthodox Church. This is how it survived. Then when Greece became a nation state for the first time in 1828, it adopted it as the language of its people and taught it to its people in school.

Why do you think the Greeks banned the Macedonian language in Greek occupied Macedonia? They banned it so that the Macedonian people could be taught Greek. This is an ongoing process that exists in Greece to this day. It’s called Hellenization.

Just to be fair I would also like to say a few words about the Macedonian language but first I would like to take up the next question… the Slavs.

A friend from Slovenia sent me the following:

“Dear Risto,

In your interview you seem to avoid talking about the connection between the Slavs and the Macedonians. Why is that?

It wasn’t too long ago when Slovenian warriors, fighting in the “Solun Front” during WW I, came into contact with local Macedonians and your Macedonians were very proud to say that they were not Greeks but Slavs.

Weren’t the Slavs ubiquitous in (Greek occupied) Macedonia? These people who claimed to be Slavs were Macedonians from Greece, not from the Republic of Macedonia.

Also, I get the impression that you missed an important point in Curta’s book, namely his economic analysis of the situation in the Byzantine Empire.

According to Curta, after the worldwide climatic crisis in 535 AD, caused by the eruption of the Krakatoa volcano, and towards 540 AD, more and more peasants were commandeered from the Balkans

which was followed by a drastic depopulation of the area. This depopulation was followed by the incursions of “Slavs”, who apparently were familiar with the situation in the region, affecting mainly the towns. These Slavs were coming into Macedonia from the north to plunder it and then were retreating back across the Danube, and not settling in Macedonia. Most of the time they were able to avoid the Byzantine military. But the citizens of Tsari Grad (Constantinople) and Solun soon realized that these Slavs were very similar to the “Slavs”, i.e. to the Macedonians who lived around these cities. No Slavs settled in the region until about 700 AD, which is the upper time limit in Curta’s book.

Following Curta’s presentation, mentioned above, it is my understanding that the intruding “Slavs” were in fact the Macedonians who had escaped and had fled north of the Danube over time. So you can say that there was an influx of Slavic Macedonians out of Macedonia and not foreign Slavs settling in Macedonia.

Good luck with your research.

Regards, your friend from Slovenia”

I would like to thank my dear Slovenian friend for that information and for all the helpful information he has given me over the years.

As for the Macedonian language, no doubt it is an ancient language which has taken root in prehistoric times and has evolved and exists to this day. To me it doesn’t matter where it began and how it got there but from what I have learned it is a language that is closely tied to nature and has all the elements to make it a very old language. That in itself and the fact that there are so many dialects attests to its old, old age.

The Macedonian language is truly a people’s language and the mother tongue of every Macedonian born in Macedonia. And, unlike other ancient languages, such as Latin and Koine, which were languages of institutions and which eventually died, the Macedonian language has survived and thrived, particularly through Christianity

when the word of God was in the process of being spread to the common people in the language they understood.

Traditionally the Macedonian language had been an oral language passed on from generation to generation along with the traditions necessary for living. This is why, I believe, there is very little of it recorded. Then, when the time came and the word of God needed to be delivered directly to the common people, the Macedonians were the first to step up to the forefront and create a written form. Since then the Old Macedonian language, known to the west as “Old Church Slavonic”, became the language of enlightenment. This was more than just a “mere” language, it was an international language created to serve everyone who understood it. This language has been used in every aspect on life in dozens of countries and for more than one millennium. That much we know for certain. Yet our enemies say “it does not exist”.

My response to that is “look around”, the Macedonian language not only exists but is one of the oldest people’s languages in existence today. It has survived everything that was thrown at it and is still thriving.

Now, if we are to examine the Greek explanation as to who the Slavs were and where they came from, as well as why they only “invaded” and settled in Macedonia and not Greece, we will find that there is not enough information to adequately explain the so-called “Slav Migration” supported by mainstream history. In fact, from my observations these Greeks don’t seem to care to explain the Slav migration theory other than to say that it “happened” and to quote authors who support their point of view. On top of that they use the word “Slav” in a derogatory manner to put down the Macedonians. They also seem to be silent on the question of why the Slavs stopped their migration in Macedonia and did not migrate into Greece, when in fact we know Slavs existed in Greece and they still exist to this day, as my Slovenian friend kindly pointed out to me. In fact there are people in the Peloponnesus villages who still speak Slavic to this day.

Here is what I found in the history books:

“Macedonian king Perseus was defeated at the Battle of Pydna in 167 BC. After that Macedonia was divided into four parts and put under Roman domination. Macedonia was deprived of external independence but was allowed to retain internal self governance. The four parts (meres, partes, regiones, T. Liv., XLV, 30, 2) were forbidden from mutual marriages, from trade and from mining the gold and silver mines. All prominent Macedonians older than 15 years old had to leave Macedonia ‘voluntarily’, under the threat of death, in order to prevent renewal of the country and rebellions from taking place against foreign dominance.”

It has also been said that a large segment of the Macedonian population fled Macedonia during the Roman-Macedonian wars, especially when Macedonia was defeated. These people went north. Of course there was no other direction to go because Macedonia, at that time, bordered the Mediterranean Sea to the south, the Adriatic Sea to the west, the Black Sea to the east and the Danube River to the north.

Taking the safest route out, the Macedonians escaping the horrors of wars fled north across the Danube River.

A lot of Macedonian people fled north! And where did they go? We are told they went north of the Danube River, where the Slavs were later found.

So, my first question is “What happened to these Macedonian people?” To these many Macedonian people who fled “north”?! Could they be the “Slavs” who later returned to Macedonia and found people there speaking the same language?

My second question is “How far north did these Macedonians go?” Did they go as far north as Siberia? If they did then that would explain why there are toponyms and people’s names in Russia that are exactly the same as the ones existing in Macedonia. Or is this a coincidence?

And most importantly: if these Slavs “from north of the Danube” and the Slavs from around Solun spoke a Slavic language then what does that tell us? It tells us that there was a linguistic relationship

between the Macedonians in Macedonia and the Slavs north of the Danube! Or is this too a coincidence?

Now we need to ask ourselves how did this “linguistic relationship” come about and did the Macedonians who fled Macedonia during the Roman-Macedonian wars speak a Slavic language or a “Greek” language as the Greeks would have us believe? If the Macedonians spoke “Greek” then why does “no one” north of the Danube River speak “Greek” today… or at any other time in recorded history? There is no trace of “Greek” anywhere north of the Danube.