THE TRUTH - Part 03

THE TRUTH

The Ancient “Greek gods” were not Greek at all! In fact, referring to them as “Greek gods” would be a myth in itself.

It is more appropriate, truthful and precise to call them Mediterranean gods than it is to call them “Greek gods”. After all they were celebrated, revered and feared by many more nations and cultures north, east and west of Mount Olympus than they were south of Mount Olympus. And that is the truth.

BIG Greek Lie # 4 - “There is no such thing as a Macedonian”

(Some modern Greeks are conditioned to believe that Macedonians do not exist)

In fact Macedonians do indeed exist, not only in the Republic of Macedonia but also in Greece, Bulgaria, Albania, Canada, Australia, the USA and in every remote corner of this planet. This BIG Greek lie is my favourite because I can relate to it from personal experience. I am not referring to my experience in Greece, I am talking about my experience in Canada. One could not say they were Macedonian to a Greek inside Greece without severe consequences! Being an immigrant teenager in Canada, and speaking English with an accent, I was often asked for my ethnicity, more often by Greeks. It seemed like there were no barriers to torment against Macedonians anywhere. The conversation/interrogation which many Macedonians, especially those from Greece, will relate to usually went like this;

“Are you Greek?” No I am not! “What are you?” Macedonian! “What is that? There is no such thing!”

(They would not even say the word “Macedonian”.)

After a few run-ins with the Greeks I began to develop anxiety about revealing my ethnicity.

Unlike the modern Greeks who were artificially created in the 19th century by Hellenizing and assimilating a variety of ethnic groups; Vlahs, Albanians, Turks, Macedonians, Anatolian Turks and more recently Georgians, Russians, more Albanians and others, the Macedonians are a real ethnicity. Unlike the modern Greeks who, before the creation of their state, spoke anything but Greek, the Macedonians have always spoken Macedonian, a living vibrant language, a language learned from mothers. Greeks on the other hand abandoned their natural languages in favour of a dead language, the ancient Koine, which the Greek government resurrected and taught in school. Before the Republic of Macedonia codified the modern Macedonian literary language, Macedonians all over geographical Macedonia spoke a variety of beautiful dialects. Macedonians living in Greece and Bulgaria,

which those states refuse to recognize, still speak Macedonian in their original dialects. Unlike the Greek language which is spoken by only about ten million Greeks, Macedonian is a Slavic language which belongs to a large family of languages spoken by about six-hundred million people throughout Eastern Europe. The fact that this language is so widespread shows that it has survived for many millennia and has been passed on orally from generation to generation. Modern scholars and scientists believe that the Slavic language has its roots in prehistory. A number of ancient inscriptions deemed undecipherable have recently been successfully deciphered by linguists Vasil Iliov, Anthony Ambrozic, Sergei V. Rjabchikov [4] and others, by using the Slavic languages which indicates that these languages have been around a lot longer than previously thought. Even Alexander the Great may have spoken Slavic. It is well known that Alexander spoke at least two languages. We know one was Koine and the other was a language indigenous to Macedonia labeled “unknown” by Greek historians. Since no Macedonian or foreign archeologist has even been allowed to dig in Greek occupied Macedonia or examine any archeological findings unsupervised, we can’t verify what other language Alexander the Great spoke. Greek archeologists cannot be trusted to factually report findings, especially those findings that don’t agree with the Greek Government’s “politically correct policies”.

If Greeks refuse to acknowledge the existence of “living and breathing Macedonians” what makes you think they would acknowledge the existence of artifacts that do not agree with their political ideology? Aren’t they the same Greeks who destroyed every speck of Cyrillic (Macedonian) inscription from every single gravestone and church icon in Greek occupied Macedonia in order to erase everything that is Macedonian? Are they not the same Greeks who torched and burned every single Slavonic book and bible and banned the Macedonian language and made it illegal to speak?

The question that begs to be asked is NOT whether Macedonians exist or not but, “Why do Greeks deny the existence of Macedonians?” I have often asked that question and to this day I have not been able to get an honest answer. I believe those Greeks who deny our existence genuinely don’t know themselves why they do it. They have been conditioned from a very young age to believe that somehow Macedonians are a threat to their own existence. I have often heard expressions like, “They will do anything to take our Macedonia away from us” but to this day, I don’t know who “they” are. Sometimes “they” are the “Bulgars”, other times “they” are the “Communists” and sometimes “they” are “the bad people” like myself.

I have repeatedly stated that I was born in Greece and am a Greek citizen of Macedonian descent and yet to this day no Greek has acknowledged that. They keep ignoring what I say and go back to calling me “Skopjan” and treating me as if I was born not in Greece but in a totally different country. (I am using myself as an example but my situation is identical to the tens of thousands of Macedonians who were born in Greece after 1912, after Macedonia was occupied by Greece.) Why is it so hard for Greeks to accept the fact that Macedonians live in Greece? 1. It is a well-known fact that Greece occupied about half of Macedonia’s territory in 1912-1913. The other half was occupied by Serbia and Bulgaria. 2. It is a well-known fact that Macedonia was already fully populated by Macedonians when it was occupied. 3. It is also a well-known fact that Macedonians became Greeks by force. Is it not possible then that some of those Macedonians who were forced into becoming Greeks actually don’t want to be Greeks? Well my Greek friends, there IS such a thing as a Macedonian. In fact there are many of us living throughout the entire planet. Our history goes back to about 1,000 BC when the word Macedonian was first coined. I can’t say with certainty that we are direct descendants from those early Macedonians but I can say that there is a high probability that we are not only the descendants of those pre-historic Macedonians but also the descendents of all those who overran and conquered our Macedonia. Before the nineteenth century, most Macedonians lived in geographical Macedonia. Nineteenth and twentieth century turbulence such as the breakup of the Ottoman Empire, a number of uprisings inside Macedonia, the two Balkan wars, the partition of Macedonia, WW I, WW II, the Greek Civil War and Greek, Bulgarian, Serbian and Albanian oppression, have all contributed to the displacement of many Macedonians. Many left their homeland and went wherever they were welcome. More recently displaced Macedonians as well as political refugees and willing immigrants have been concentrating in Canada, Australia, the USA and Europe where they endeavour to preserve their culture and make their revival.

Greeks can deny our existence as much as they want, but it doesn’t mean that we don’t exist.

BIG Greek Lie # 5 - “Greece is an ethnically homogeneous nation”

(To this day there are some Greeks who believe in the myth that they are an ethnically pure race)

To Macedonians it is irrelevant what Greeks believe in as long as they don’t interfere in Macedonian affairs. Unfortunately Greece’s self-portrayal as an “ethnically homogeneous State” is not only interfering with Macedonians, it is downright hostile to them. “Greeks' contemporary self-image is built upon a series of myths. The myth of continuity. The myth of the racial and cultural superiority of our ancestors (and, thanks to continuity, our own). The myth of being special The myth of racial and religious purity. The myth of the genius of the Greek race. The existence of these myths provokes certain predictable reactions. Thus, my typical compatriot while proud to be Greek (95 percent, according to polls) will abuse and censure his countrymen at the slightest provocation. And this, naturally, because they fail to live up to the expectations and the demands created by the myths.” (Nikos Dimou) [5] Greece, over the years, has taken extraordinary measures to erase what is real in favour of something artificially manufactured. “Greek-ness” or “Hellenism”, as the Greeks like to call it, is a 19th century invention modeled after a culture and a race of people that ceased to exist more than two millennia ago. Greece has destroyed the real cultures, traditions and languages of its indigenous people living on its soil in favour of this artificial creation it calls Hellenism. Worse, today Greece not only denies the existence of its non-Greek roots but it insists that no indigenous races such as Albanians, Macedonians, Vlahs, Turks, Roma, etc. ever existed in Greece. Greece has not only forsaken its indigenous cultures but is consistently punishing all those who want to return to them. The so-called “Greek Nationality” (Ethos) was artificially created during the 19th century by the Great Powers in order to break up the Ottoman Empire and to stop the expansion of Pan Slavism. Britain’s fear of Russia entering Mediterranean waters and contaminating its “backyard garden” motivated British officials to do whatever was necessary to stop the “Slav proliferation”. After Greece was created it needed people “Greeks” to maintain and enlarge itself. These people came from the territories it occupied during its period of expansion. One need only ask, “How come there are Macedonians, Albanians, Vlahs, Turks, Roma, etc. living in the Republic of Macedonia and none of these ethnicities live in Greek occupied Macedonia?”

It is well known that these ethnicities existed in all of Macedonia during Ottoman rule before geographic/ethnographic Macedonia was occupied and partitioned in 1912/1913. In fact there are Greek statistics compiled prior to 1912 that attest to these facts. Yet in 1928 Greece declared itself “ethnically pure” with only “pure Greeks” living in Greece. Naturally the burning question is “what happened to the other ethnicities that lived in Macedonia after it was occupied by Greece in 1912?” Did they simply vanish? Of course they did not! They were Hellenized! They were “made” into Greeks! In her infatuation with the glory of her “false” past, Greece became ashamed of her “real self” and buried her true present. Greece did not want a bunch of ignorant Slavs, Albanians, Vlahs, Turks, Roma, etc. for citizens. It preferred the “mythical” types like Pericles, Leonidas and Temistocles or descendants thereof. This was all done with encouragement from her benefactors, the Great Powers. In fact, outside of some Greeks who have been labeled traitors [5], no one questioned Greece’s motives for doing this. Macedonians have no problem with Greeks calling themselves whatever they want as long as they do not interfere in their affairs. Macedonians would like to be known for who and what they really are, Macedonians. The crux of the problem unfortunately is that while the Greeks continue to believe in their mythical past, they interfere with reality. Falsely believing that they are all Greeks, descendants from an ancient people, they refuse to acknowledge the reality that Macedonians do exist and live on their territory. Further, to prevent the discovery of their falsehood, they even interfere in the affairs of the Republic of Macedonia, an independent and Sovereign State.