CONDITIONS UNDER WHICH THE TREATY OF BUCHAREST WAS DRAFTED - Part 09

set? With a border arbitrarily set as recently as 1913 then how can you have pure Greeks on the south side and pure “Slavs” on the north side? Here again I would like to remind the reader of the conditions under which the 1913 Treaty of Bucharest was signed. This Treaty was signed after the Second Balkan War ended and is the instrument by which Macedonia was partitioned. Since Macedonia never belonged to any of its neighbours it meant that its neighbours would have to fight each other if they wanted to gain more Macedonian territory. 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 Ottomans were driven out the first Balkan war ended and 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 potential territory, especially access to a seaport, on the Serbian side led to a renewed conflict termed the Second Balkan War involving Greece, Serbia, Bulgaria and Romania. As a result of this conflict, the original borders proposed after the First Balkan War were shifted and Macedonia was once again arbitrarily partitioned. So the bottom line is that Greece arbitrarily acquired Macedonian territories in 1913. At that time all kinds of people lived all over Macedonia. The same people who lived in the Greek part of Macedonia also lived in the Serbian and Bulgarian part of Macedonia. Regardless of their ethnicity be they Macedonians, Greeks, Serbians, Bulgarians, or Martians for that matter, they were the same people living on all sides of the 1913 artificially imposed borders. Then the question that begs to be asked is, how can all these people living on the Greek side be “pure Greeks, descendents of the ancient Greeks”, and all those people on the Serbian side be newcomer “Slavs” who came from somewhere north of the Carpathian Mountains? If they were the same people then shouldn’t they be the same people today? Yes they should! And this ladies and gentlemen is where this infamous “Greek claim” falls apart and reveals its flaws. So you don’t have to be a historian, anthropologist, or even a genius to separate facts from Greek myths. The Greek claim that “only pure Greeks, descendents of the ancient Greeks live in Greece” is nothing but a common myth propagated so that the fake Modern Greeks can usurp the Greek heritage. And if that is not enough, these same pirates and identity

thieves now want to also usurp the Macedonian heritage at the expense of the rightful owners, the Macedonian people! In reality Greece is another multi-ethnic, multi-cultural Balkan country with the same types of ethnicities that exist all over the Balkans. The ethnicities that exist in the Republic of Macedonia are the same ethnicities that exist in Greece. Unlike the Republic of Macedonia however, which has embraced all its ethnicities living on its soil, Greece has suppressed its true ethnicities and forced them all to accept the myth that they are pure Greeks, descendents of the ancient Greeks. Those who did not wish to comply were exiled, imprisoned, tortured, tormented and even killed. Those who still do not wish to comply and claim to be something other than Greek, Greece claims don’t exist. And those are the facts! As far as Greece being a “democratic country” one has to look at the definition of democracy and see that a democracy Greece is not! A country that is persecuting its minorities by denying them their human rights does not qualify to be called democratic no matter how hard it tries to “market” itself as “democratic”. The question is “why hasn’t Greece recognized its minorities?” the answer to which you will find in a previous essay (Essay 40).

Essay 42 - Some Modern Greeks today believe there is one story to Greece, their own story

Again I would hate to disappoint you but there is always more than one side to a story when more than one individual is involved. My aim here is to present you with my side of Greece’s story; the side most Greeks don’t want you to know. For God’s sake please be specific when you address my assertions and stick to what I said and not to who I am or who I am not. I have repeatedly said “please let me know exactly what it is that you disagree with in my articles and please point me in the direction of what you think should be the correct answer”. So far it seems I have been a target of ridicule by many Greeks who seem to think I am “anti-Greek”, “uneducated”, “a liar”, “a propagandist”, “a Skopjan agent”, “a revisionist”, etc., etc., all because I don’t follow the Greek government prescribed and politically motivated methods of writing about Greece and the Greeks. I am an ethnic Macedonian from Greece and my experience is real, perhaps different than yours but none the less real. Who are you to personally criticize me because you don’t agree with what I say? And, why are you nasty about it?

Here is an e-mail I recently received from a Shelly Papadopoulos;

Your OpEd in American Chronicle October 27, 2008

Mr. Stefov:

The OpEd articles you write persistently in American Chronicle are so far fetched historically and geographically with regard to the country of Greece, Greek and Macedonian citizens and the Greek language. What you claim as "facts" are downright fabrications . . . perhaps of your imagination, your lack of education or, perhaps, where you were educated. It is obvious you were not schooled here in the United States. Otherwise, you would know very well the history of ancient Greece, Hellenism AND MACEDONIA. This history is taught both in middle school, as well as high school. Sorry to burst your bubble, but Macedonia has always been Greek. There are no Greek names ending in "ov," "ski," or the like. Before writing another one of your ill-conceived and historically inaccurate articles, consult a recognized historian, or even a local library. You do no justice to anyone when you perpetuate your own

biased falsehoods. All you do is fan the ignorance of individuals such as yourself. Having been born in Macedonia, and having family in this area of Greece for centuries, I assure you it was, and is, 100% Greek. My family has only spoken Greek and has only practiced Greek customs. "Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery." Perhaps you want to be Greek but, since you can't, you choose to make yourself and Slavic people your own definition of "Greek." You'll never succeed. The contributions by Greeks and Macedonians to the world are endless --democracy; philosophy, medicine, mathematics, and the list goes on and on and on and on. The Greek language can be found today in parts of Russia and India. You have received many responses to your emails contesting your "facts" and challenging them. They have provided you with sources to legitimize Greek history. You have no facts to back up any of your writings; hence, your falsehoods. "There is nothing more frightful than ignorance in action." (Johann Wolfgang)

S. Papadopoulos

Shelly Papadopoulos says “What you claim as ‘facts’ are downright fabrications . . . perhaps of your imagination”. Ms Papadopoulos said this without specifying what ‘facts’. So far I have written over 100 articles. Without specifying details as to what you consider “downright fabrications” and “of my imagination” I don’t know what to respond to. Shelly Papadopoulos says “Your lack of education or, perhaps, where you were educated”. Ms Papadopoulos says this without knowing anything about me. Does having a different opinion from Ms Papadopoulos or telling another side of the same story constitute being “uneducated”? Or does Ms Papadopoulos mean I was not indoctrinated into believing Greek propaganda as the only story and “truth” about Greece? Ms Papadopoulos are you forgetting that I too am from Greece and I too am a Macedonian! What makes you think your side of the story is “correct” and mine is “wrong”? I was educated at the University of Toronto, does that make me uneducated because I was not educated in a Greek University? By the way when I was a student in Greece I was not good enough to receive more that grade 6 education. According to the Greek educational system “a non-existent Macedonian” such as myself did not have the

intelligence to be educated beyond grade 6. Is that what you mean by “my lack of education”? Shelly Papadopoulos says “It is obvious you were not schooled here in the United States. Otherwise, you would know very well the history of ancient Greece, Hellenism AND MACEDONIA.” Ms Papadopoulos you are wrong! It is precisely because I was educated in the west that I know another side of Greece which I would have not known had I been educated inside Greece! You must have realized by now that I don’t subscribe to “Hellenism” and that I see “Hellenism” as the enemy that is attempting to destroy my culture and my identity. Shelly Papadopoulos says “This history is taught both in middle school, as well as high school.” I don’t doubt that Ms Papadopoulos but what good is a history that tells one side of the story and neglects reality. What good is a history that is based on myth and is taught as a parable? What good is a history designed to vilify the Macedonian people and rob them of their heritage? This is how I see the “history” of which you are so fond! Shelly Papadopoulos says “Sorry to burst your bubble, but Macedonia has always been Greek.” Sorry to burst you bubble Ms Papadopoulos, Macedonia was never Greek not until 1912, 1913 when the Greek army along with the Serbian and Bulgarian armies invaded, occupied and partitioned Macedonia against the will of the Macedonian people. Check out the 1913 Treaty of Bucharest. Shelly Papadopoulos says “There are no Greek names ending in "ov," "ski," or the like.” Thank you for pointing that out Ms Papadopoulos. But do you know why there are no names ending with “ov”, “ski” or the like in Greece? Because in the early 1920’s the Greek government initiated a policy to change everyone’s names from Macedonian to Greek in an attempt to Hellenize everyone. Here again you and I have our differences of opinion which proves my point that there is always another side to a story. By the way Greece also changed all the Macedonian place names and made them into Greek sounding. The Greek administrators came to my village in 1926 and change its name from Oshchima to Trigono. They also changed my family name. But I guess you didn’t know that did you? Shelly Papadopoulos says “Before writing another one of your ill-conceived and historically inaccurate articles, consult a recognized historian, or even a local library. You do no justice to anyone when you perpetuate your own biased falsehoods. All you do is fan the ignorance of individuals such as yourself.”

You know what Ms Papadopoulos? I will do just that! From now on I will quote historians such as Richard Clogg, John Shea, Peter Green, Eugene Borza, George Kennan, David Holden, William St. Clair and others with western names! Is that acceptable to you? Would these be “recognized” enough historians? Shelly Papadopoulos says “Having been born in Macedonia, and having family in this area of Greece for centuries, I assure you it was, and is, 100% Greek. My family has only spoken Greek and has only practiced Greek customs.” Well Ms Papadopoulos I too was born in the same Macedonia you speak of and am Macedonian and my ancestors spoke Macedonian which makes my story different from yours. I saw and heard Macedonians everywhere speaking Macedonian and know many Macedonians whose mother tongue is Macedonian and not Greek. My first language was Macedonian, I learned Greek in school. If your family is 100% Greek I assume you are an exception because as far as I know there were no indigenous Greeks living in Macedonia with the exception of Vlachs, Albanians and Turks whom today you call “Greeks”. Greece was created in 1829 and Macedonia did not become Greek until 1912, 1913? If you are a Greek from Macedonia and don’t belong to the above, then you must be a Christian Turk settler from Asia Minor. Shelly Papadopoulos says “‘Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery.’ Perhaps you want to be Greek but, since you can't, you choose to make yourself and Slavic people your own definition of "Greek." You'll never succeed.” Dear Ms Papadopoulos you truly insult me by suggesting that I want to be Greek. Perhaps you missed my point in all my articles! I don’t want to be Greek, if I did I would have been one by now. What qualifies a person to be a Greek? To be born a Greek? NO! Anyone can be Greek as long as they subscribe to the Greek indoctrination! Did you know that even today your Greek government accepts immigrants from Russia who claim they are Greeks? All one has to do is say they are Greek, accept a Greek name and they become instant Greeks, descendants of the Ancient Greeks! Does that surprise you? Ms Papadopoulos did you know that Greece imported 1,100,000 Christian Turks in the 1920’s from Asia Minor and turned them into instant Greeks? More than 600,000 of these people were settled in Macedonia. Today they claim to be the “real” Macedonians, descendents of the Ancient Macedonians. Shelly Papadopoulos says “The contributions by Greeks and Macedonians to the world are endless -- democracy; philosophy,

medicine, mathematics, and the list goes on and on and on and on. The Greek language can be found today in parts of Russia and India.” Which Greeks are you talking about Ms Papadopoulos? The Ancient so-called Greeks or the modern ones? Perhaps the ancients did contribute something but the question is “What have the modern Greeks contributed to the world?” The Greek language can be found in Russia and India? Please elaborate! Do Indians and Russians speak Greek today? Show me where? Perhaps the Ancient Athenians 2,500 years ago practiced some kind of democracy similar to that which the Fascists of the 19th century practiced where slavery was widespread and women had no rights not even the right to be called human. Unfortunately I can’t say modern Greece practices any kind of democracy when it refuses to recognize its minorities and violates their human rights. Shelly Papadopoulos says “You have received many responses to your emails contesting your ‘facts’ and challenging them. They have provided you with sources to legitimize Greek history. You have no facts to back up any of your writings; hence, your falsehoods.” Let me ask you this Shelly, and be honest with me, if I provide you with western sources on everything I say would you then believe me? Shelly Papadopoulos says “"There is nothing more frightful than ignorance in action." (Johann Wolfgang)” Ms Papadopoulos this goes both ways!

Essay 43 - Is Greece forgetting something?

It has been twenty years now since the Republic of Macedonia declared its independence from Yugoslavia and Greece is still tormenting the Macedonian people over idiotic issues such as ancient symbols, ancient flags and ancient names. Even though the Republic of Macedonia is part of geographical Macedonia and by international rights has every right to call itself Macedonia, Greece is adamantly against it. According to Greece, which has chosen to ignore historic evidence, “Macedonia is Greek” and only the part of geographic Macedonia now under Greece can rightfully call itself “Macedonia”. Greece chose to ignore what was real when it went in pursuit of the ancient glory associated with Ancient City States and tried to portray itself as the New Athens, modeled after an Ancient culture that died more than two millennia ago. When Greece became a country for the first time in 1829, the only real and vibrant cultures living on its soil were Albanian, Vlach, Turkish and Macedonian but Greece ignored reality and opted for creating a brand new mythical culture totally alien to the people. It seems that everyone in Greece today is suffering from mass amnesia and has forgotten how Albanian the Peloponnesus and Epirus were, how Vlach Thessaly was, how Macedonian Macedonia was and how Turkish Thrace was in the beginning of the 19th century when its capital was Naphplion and its parliamentarians required translators to understand one another. Yes, Greece was indeed a multiethnic state in its humble beginnings but today that is forgotten as Greeks clamber to claim descent from the ancient City States from 2,500 years ago. Today’s Greece was created from the raw materials of the remnants of the Ottoman Empire from a people that were dominated by foreign rule since Macedonia’s rise to power in the fourth century BC. Greece was conquered by Macedonia, invaded and subjugated by Rome, the Byzantines, the Ottomans and every conqueror, invader and settler that set foot on that soil. Yet Greeks today claim that their population is homogeneous consisting of 98% pure Greeks and 2% Muslim Greeks. The truth is it doesn’t matter to me what they think of themselves. According to international law, every nation has the right to self declare and so do the Greeks. What matters to me is the hypocritical attitude some Greeks, including all Greek Governments have taken and that is “while idealizing their mythical identity” they “ostracize that of the Macedonians” calling it “fake non-existent”! Which culture is more genuine? The Macedonian or the Greek? Let’s examine some facts!

1. While the Macedonians make an ethnic distinction between the various ethnic groups living in Macedonia such as Macedonians, Albanians, Turks, Roma and others, Greece claims it has no other ethnicities outside of Greeks even though its composition at its inception consisted of Albanians, Vlachs, Macedonians, Turks, Roma and others. What happened to these people? How did they all become Greeks? 2. While the Macedonians make distinctions between traditions, songs, dances and clothing belonging to the various ethnic groups, Greece claims them all to be Greek including those belonging to the Albanians, Vlachs, Macedonians and Turks. 3. While Macedonia has toponymia that have existed for millennia, toponyms in Greece are no older than at most two centuries. Greece began renaming place names in the Macedonian territories it controls in the 1920’s. There is no Greek history for these place names prior to the 1920’s. 4. While Macedonians spoke many dialects of the Macedonian language, the vast majority of Greeks spoke Albanian, Vlach, Turkish and Macedonian as their mother tongue. Koine or Dimotiki, as the Greek language is called today, was learned in school. 5. While Macedonians created a literary language based on the most dominant Macedonian dialects Greece adopted the Koine (the ancient international language of commerce) for its people and later tried to purify it by adopting an ancient dead Attic language (Katharevousa) and failed. Comparing the Greek identity with that of the Macedonian, one can easily conclude that Macedonians are a lot closer to who they claim to be than the Greeks. So really, what justification does Greece have for claiming “Macedonia is Greek” when modern Greeks have no connection to the ancient City States or to the so called “Ancient Greeks” and their Modern Greek-ness is dubious at best? Can Greece reasonably and rationally explain why should “Macedonia belong to the Greeks” and not to the Macedonians? After all Greeks do live south of Mount Olympus, be it historically or today, and Macedonians live in Macedonia, the very same land they lived on more than a millennium ago. An answer to this question would be appreciated! If I may add, according to history the vast majority of people who we define to be “Greek” or “Macedonian” today, are indigenous to the Southern Balkans and have lived on those lands without borders from 338 BC to 1912 AD. That is from the time Macedonia conquered the

Ancient City States in 338 BC until Greece invaded, occupied and annexed Macedonian lands in 1912 AD. So why is Greece calling its citizens “pure Greeks” and the Macedonians “fake” and non existent” since it can be proven that both countries have virtually the same ethnic composition of people (in different proportions)? What is Greece’s problem with the name “Macedonia”? If Macedonia is Greek why didn’t Greece name itself Macedonia or even name its northern province that it occupied and annexed in 1912 Macedonia? Why did Greece call its northern province “New Territories” and later “Northern Greece”? Why did Greece wait until the late 1980’s to name its northern province “Macedonia” precisely when it was inevitable that a new Macedonian State was about to declare its independence from Yugoslavia? These are serious questions that Greece needs to answer. It owes this to the Macedonian people and to the world. Until Greece answers the above questions we will assume the following: Ever since Greece occupied Macedonian territories in 1912 by force and without the consent of the Macedonian people, Greece is on the hook for illegal territorial grabs. Since 1912 Greece has tortured, murdered and exiled Macedonians, including 28,000 Macedonian children, and illegally confiscated their lands. It has changed peoples’ names and toponyms and has banned the Macedonian language in an effort to “Hellenize” Macedonia and the Macedonian people. Simply put, Greece made every effort to extinguish the Macedonian identity on the Macedonian lands it occupied, including the name “Macedonia” and turn it into Greek. Seeing that it was inevitable that a Macedonian State was about to emerge from the remnants of geographical Macedonia, Greece concocted the story that there was only one Macedonia and that Macedonia belonged to Greece. Ever since the Republic of Macedonia’s emergence, Greece has made every effort to negate it. Why? Because Greece is now afraid that since the Macedonian people created their own state they will start asking for rights of their brethren Macedonians living in Greece and in the Diaspora and will start asking Greece for the return of their lands and citizenships. It has been almost 100 years since the Macedonian people witnessed their country liberated from the Muslim Ottomans only to be occupied and partitioned by its Christian neighbours the Greeks, Serbians and Bulgarians. In those 100 years Macedonians have witnessed their villages burned; their fellow Macedonians exiled and

stripped of their lands. They have witnessed settlers take over their lands and occupy their homes, their language banished and punishments handed out for speaking it. Their names, surnames, names of their villages, mountains and rivers erased and replaced with foreign names. They have seen entire villages humiliated and forced to pledge allegiance to their occupier. In 1949 a huge mass of the Macedonian population, including 28,000 children fleeing to save themselves from a war, was permanently evicted, their citizenship stripped and their lands confiscated. In 1982 Greece passed a law (106841) allowing Greeks by birth to return to Greece excluding Macedonians, even though these Macedonians were born in Macedonia after 1912 and in fact were all Greek citizens. While Greece claims there are no non-Greeks living in Greece it does make a distinction between those of its citizens who support its national myth and those who don’t. With the emergence of the Republic of Macedonia, Greece again chose the path of self-indulgence refusing the Macedonians their due recognition and right to self declare which leads to the following question: “How long do Macedonians have to wait before they get justice and experience freedom in Greece?” Where does Greece believe its actions will lead the Macedonian people? Will anyone blame the Macedonians if they start taking matters into their own hands and start looking for recognition elsewhere? Why is Greece so surprised when yet another country recognizes the Republic of Macedonia by its proper name? How long does Greece think it can push the Macedonian people around without consequences? To this date Greece has broken every international minority law in the book. Has it not occurred to Greece that it is not above the law and someday soon these violations will catch up to it? Greece had best soon start re-thinking its strategy towards its treatment of the Macedonian people because frankly, Macedonians have had enough of Greece. If Greece does not change its attitude and soon manage its Macedonian problem in a fair and equitable way, Macedonians will have no choice but to start very loudly calling for the re-unification of all of Macedonia or for the creation of a Kosovo like Macedonian state out of Greece. Will there be Justice for the Macedonians in Greece? When we speak of Macedonia most of us think of the Republic of Macedonia but what most people don’t know is that there is more to Macedonia than just the Republic of Macedonia. It’s a matter of fact

that 51% of Macedonia’s geographical territory was annexed by Greece and another 10% was annexed by Bulgaria by the August 10th, 1913 Treaty of Bucharest. So by virtue of physical size most of Macedonia today is under Greece. Also by virtue of its physical territory we can assume that more Macedonians live in Greece than in the Republic of Macedonia. The Republic of Macedonia, by the way, occupies 39% of geographical Macedonia. So when we speak of the Macedonian people it must be understood that we speak of the ethnic Macedonian people, not just of those living in the Republic of Macedonia, but of all ethnic Macedonians living in all of geographical Macedonia. Another thing most people don’t know is that most Macedonians living in the Diaspora today are from the Greek part of Macedonia. It is estimated that there are 200,000 Macedonians living in Canada or perhaps more since Macedonians have been coming to this country since the late 1800’s. More than 150,000 of these Macedonians have come from Greece. They have been coming to Canada to work and return home to invest their savings but since the failed Macedonian uprising against the Ottoman Empire in 1903 and Macedonians invasion, occupation and partition in 1912, 1913, more and more have been coming to Canada to stay for good. There are many Macedonians also living in the USA and Australia, perhaps in the hundreds of thousands, who also left Macedonia under similar circumstances as economic or political refugees. Despite what Macedonia’s neighbours the Greeks, Bulgarians and Albanians claim, the Macedonian people from the entire region of geographical Macedonia, including the regions today occupied by Greece, Bulgaria and Albania, came together as one in 1903 and fought against the Ottoman Empire for their liberty and to create a Macedonian State. Unfortunately due to the superiority of the Ottoman military and due to lack of assistance from the outside world, Macedonians failed in that task. This however did not mean that Macedonians gave up their struggle for freedom and independence. After their failed uprising many Macedonians placed their hopes for liberation on their neighbours but that too was a great mistake. The Ottomans were indeed driven out of Macedonia during the first Balkan War of 1912 by the combined actions of the Greek, Serbian, Montenegrin and Bulgarian armies but instead of liberating the Macedonian people as promised, these states (Greece, Serbia and Bulgaria) occupied Macedonia and partitioned it amongst themselves. Since then up to 1991 Macedonia remained occupied and under the control of foreign hands, more ruthless than those of the Ottoman Empire.

In 1991 the part of Macedonia that was originally occupied by Serbia, by referendum, declared its independence from the Yugoslav federation and became a free and sovereign state called the Republic of Macedonia. The parts occupied by Greece, Bulgaria and Albania remain occupied and under foreign control to this day. Besides occupying and annexing Macedonian territories without the consent of the Macedonian people, Greece, Serbia and Bulgaria over the years also committed many atrocities against the Macedonian people. The Greeks for example burned many villages and murdered and exiled their inhabitants as documented by the 1913 Carnegie Endowment Inquiry. Later Greece exiled tens of thousands of Macedonians because they refused to pledge allegiance to the Greek State. Even later they exiled still more Macedonians because they happened to be of the Muslim faith and replaced them with twice the number of Christian Turkish colonists form Asia Minor. At about the same time Greece implemented a number of policies to change the Macedonian people’s names and make them Greek sounding. Greece, in an attempt to show the world that Macedonia was Greek, changed all the Macedonian peoples’ and place names including village, town and city names as well as lake, river, road, valley and mountain names and made them Greek sounding. A little later Greece banned the Macedonian language and made it illegal to be spoken and fined people for speaking it. These were people who spoke no other language but Macedonian. During harder times Greek authorities imposed heavy fines, beat, fed castor oil to them and jailed Macedonians for speaking the Macedonian language, the only language they knew. After the Greek Civil War (1946-1949) tens of thousands of Macedonians including 28,000 children ages 2 to 14 were exiled from Greece, had their citizenship taken away and had their properties confiscated. More than half of these people are now living in Toronto, Canada. Canada’s recognition of the Republic of Macedonia by its constitutional name has given these Macedonians some comfort that there are people in the world who still care but it is not enough to repair the injustices perpetrated by the Greek State over the years. For some Macedonians it has been more than five generations of exile while patiently waiting for Greece to make things right. Judging by how Greece and the Greek people behave nowadays however it appears, at least to this observer, that Greece has no intention of making things right for the Macedonian people. If Greece does not make reparations soon and continues to abuse and torment the Macedonian people then Macedonians have no choice but to want to separate from Greece and join the free Republic of Macedonia.

It has been proven over and over and over again that there is no justice in Greece for the Macedonian people so the only option left to them is to seek justice for themselves by removing themselves from the Greek yoke. It is clear at least to me that Greece fears this will happen but does not have the courage to take proper action to make it right. Macedonians have shown for many generations that they can co-exist with other ethnicities but have refused to accept subordination. Macedonians can live in Greece as equals to the Greeks but not as their subordinates. Unfortunately after one hundred years of living under Greece, Greece has made no effort to better the condition for Macedonians living there. Greece has proven its cruelty towards the Macedonian people by its intolerance and hostile acts not only in Greece but worldwide. So I ponder, what does the future hold for the Macedonian people? One and only one thing comes to mind! If Greece does not reverse its injustices and make things right there is but one choice for the Macedonian people; struggle to separate Macedonia from Greece.

Essay 44 - After two centuries of living a myth Greece now faces reality

The thing that amazes me most about Greeks is not the lies that come out of the mouths of so many, but the honesty that comes out of a few. I have always imagined that all Greeks knew the truth and by that I mean that they know how their recent ancestors became Greek and that deep down they know they are not “real Greeks”. And by “real Greeks” I mean descendents from the so-called “ancient Greeks”. I thought every Modern Greek knew that before Greece became a country in the 19th century his or her ancestors were not Greek at all and that somewhere down the line they became “Greek” through assimilation, the same way many Macedonians became Greek. But I guess I was wrong! When Greece was created for the first time in 1829 there were no “real Greeks”. The entire region was populated mostly by Albanians, Turks, Slavs, Vlachs, Latin and a long list of other ethnicities that existed in that region at the time. The vast majority of the people living in the tiny Greek state at the time of its liberation from the Ottomans were uneducated and unfamiliar with the concepts of nationality and ethnicity. As far as they were concerned they were all Christians which distinguished them from their Muslim overlords. After their liberation all Christians in the Greek state, regardless of their ethnicity, were told they were Greek. This continued as Greece expanded its territory over the years and acquired more and more people. Some people accepted the idea that they were Greeks and moved on. Those who refused were exiled, jailed, tormented, or eventually forcibly assimilated. But in spite of pressure from the authorities, many continued to speak their language, practice their traditions and not feel Greek. Some continue these practices to this day, particularly in the villages and isolated communities. So it should be of no surprise that there are people in Modern Greece today who truly believe that they are “real Greeks”, descendents of the so-called ancient Greeks, because that is what the Greek authorities have been telling them all their lives through their early education. There should also be no surprise that there are people who don’t “feel Greek” living in Greece today because generation after generation they held onto and cherished their true identities, mostly in secret. Unfortunately this is turning out to be the skeleton in Greece’s closet. Some Greeks however, from time to time, had a need to venture outside of Greece and, mostly by accident, discovered that there is

more to Greece than they were led to believe. Some refused to believe what they found yet others found more than they bargained for. With no restriction and censorship by the Greek state, Greeks living in the Diaspora are exposed to much more information about themselves and about their country than they would otherwise have access to inside Greece. Most of this “new and never heard of before” information unfortunately comes from their own compatriots and even from their own relatives. This kind of information is not easy to accept because it collides with their belief system and, for some, undermines the entire foundation of their own identity. Given where it comes from, this kind of information is not easy to reject either. It is very difficult for Greeks, who truly believe that all Greeks are descendents of the ancient Greeks and that Greece is ethnically a homogeneous nation, to accept that people who are born in Greece and speak the Greek language do not “feel Greek” and therefore are not Greeks. For them things like that just don’t add up. No wonder so many who “do not feel Greek” are so frequently labeled “traitors”. Today’s story is about a Greek who all his life believed that he was a “real Greek” until he took a trip to Canada to visit his relatives and ran into some Greek speaking Macedonians who, as he puts it, “pointed him in the right direction”. Here is what he had to say: “When I came to Canada to visit my relatives, as a grown man I had a certain understanding what a Greek was. I expected to find Greeks like myself there. A Greek is a Greek. If a person was born in Greece, spoke Greek then they were Greek, end of story, nothing complicated to comprehend. Right? Then I ran into some people who were born in Greece, spoke Greek but said they were Macedonians. What Macedonians, I asked? You mean you are from the north part of Greece, from Macedonia? Right? ‘No!’ One of them said ‘we are Macedonians from Greece’. And he was quite hostile about it. I was blunt and told them point blank that I did not believe him: ‘vre pedia mu den iparhi tetio prama!’ (Boys there is no such thing!) But they began to make fun of me calling me ignorant and all sorts of names. Another said ‘I was living in Greece but know nothing of Greece’. He said I should take a trip one of these days and explore my own country that I live in and see things for myself. He even dared to tell me to ‘open my eyes’. How dare they call me ignorant and all those things! I was quite upset for a long time and made no mention of it to anyone until I returned to Greece. Unfortunately, I could not shake off the feeling, it kept wearing me down. The only way to shake it off, I thought, was to prove to myself that those guys were wrong. So I took that trip. I toured my country but I could not prove them wrong.

Well, that was then and this is now. It didn’t take me too long to discover that indeed things in Greece were not what I expected. I decided to keep looking and whatever I found, I was man enough to handle. Well, some things I found could be explained but others things which I could have called ‘anomalies’ could not. I could have ignored them but then who was I fooling? Unfortunately, as much as I hate to admit, those guys in Canada proved to be right. I did live in this country I knew nothing about. When I stopped fighting with myself I discovered that Greece is a multi-ethnic country like any other Balkan country, full of living cultures, ethnicities and languages. In the villages were I visited I heard people speak Arvanitika (Albanian), Vlahika (Vlach), Makedonika (Macedonian) and Turkika (Turkish). I asked people if anyone here spoke other languages, other than Greek. Most people said ‘we are all Greeks here’ but some admitted that other languages are indeed spoken. When I asked who spoke these languages I got no names just a feeling that people do speak other languages. When I asked ‘how did these language get here’ no one seemed know. Some said they didn’t speak them themselves but heard others speak them. When I asked for their opinion, most said, as far as they knew, these languages have been spoken here from a long time for as long as they can remember. Who knew that non-Greeks lived in Greece? I always thought we were all Greeks here, that’s what I was told, that’s what I believed, it’s not something one talks about every day. There were always the signs but I never paid attention to the signs. I knew from my history lessons that some of our revolutionaries spoke different languages but thought nothing of it. There was no need to ask because the idea that we were all Greeks was strong and unquestionable. But I never heard of Macedonians living in Northern Greece that’s for sure. Not in the ethnic sense as a people different from the rest of us. I always believed we were all Greeks and a Macedonian was a Greek who lived in Macedonia, you know, Northern Greece. Once I found this out I began to look for information through the internet outside of Greece and discovered all sorts of information but mostly contradictory. Most websites I found ridiculed the idea that ‘minorities’ lived in Greece. Some websites even went as far as to claim that Macedonians and Turks lived in Greece and were harassed by the Greek authorities. I didn’t know what or who to believe. But then I made the mistake of asking an academic friend of mine who told me most of this stuff on the internet is propaganda invented by our enemies to discredit Greece’s good name. When I pushed my point and asked for an explanation as to why people speak the different languages

spoken inside Greece he told me not to ask so many stupid questions and ‘questions such as those are best left unanswered’. So now I don’t know who or what to believe.” My fiend, I am sure you will find the truth for yourself if you look hard enough. And as far as knowing who you are, it will take you some doing but I am sure you will answer that question too. Good luck in your search. So, Greeks, after living your myth for two centuries what have you accomplished? You now have grown adult men and women at the crossroads of their lives looking for answers, looking to find out who and what they are. And what do they find? They find that you have lied to them all their lives! Greeks, you got rid of your dissidents by exiling them to the Diaspora and your faithful citizens are now awakening only to discover that you have lied to them. What are you planning to do with them? Exile them? Harass them? Or write them off as traitors? How far are you willing to go to protect your myth? Are you going to sacrifice every soul that uncovers the truth? These people have done nothing wrong, just as thousands of Macedonians whom you have exiled had done nothing wrong. The only thing people like that are guilty of is being honest and wanting to know the truth. Every country has a myth to explain its existence and that myth is tailored to include everyone (not exclude them) even those who seek the truth. What is wrong with telling people the truth and teaching the truth in school? This is a global world now and sooner or later people will learn the truth if not from your educational system then from someone else’s. You can’t go on propagating your myth by calling it “the truth” and then calling the truth “Scopian or Turkish propaganda”. Greeks, if you as an authority believe what you preach that “there are no Macedonians and that Macedonia is Greek” then you should feel no threat from those who you believe do not exist. You are not the first; Greek governments all along have been saying Macedonians do not exist since they acquired Macedonian lands in 1913 but this problem seems to follow you everywhere and how do you explain it? By perpetuating the perpetual lie that Macedonians still don’t exist. One hundred years are about to pass since you invaded, occupied and partitioned Macedonia with your partners Serbia and Bulgaria. How many more centuries must pass, how many more people must you exile, silence and ruin before you accept the fact that the Macedonians will not go away. So do us all a favour and put an end to the injustices. Recognize the minorities living in your country and let them be who they truly are or want to be.

Well ladies and gentlemen, welcome to my world! As much as I feel vindicated by the fact that more and more “real Greeks” are learning the truth about Greece, I feel sorry for them, not because they discovered the truth but because their innocence will put them in jeopardy of becoming the new victims of Greek justice. They are great patriots as long as they believe the lies and propaganda and propagate the “Greek myth” but as soon as they discover the truth that they are not “real Greeks” they become traitors! A warning to other Greeks who have discovered this secret, as long as you live in Greece don’t divulge it to anyone. Keep this information to yourself! It would do no one any good for you to become a target of hatred and abuse, especially in the country in which you were born, live and love!

Essay 45 - Greeks and Identity theft