CONDITIONS UNDER WHICH THE TREATY OF BUCHAREST WAS DRAFTED - Part 11

own people and on top of that I would have been a proud “pure Greek and descendent of the ancient Greeks”! Surely we were all taught to speak “atvanitika” (Albanian), “Vlahika” (Vlach), or “Makedhonika” (Macedonian) by our own mothers and we were speaking these languages on the sly because we did not want to be caught and chastised by the authorities. So surely some of us would have found it odd that as “pure Greeks, descendents of the ancient Greeks” we spoke other and forbidden languages? You would think that we would have found “something odd” about this wouldn’t you? I thought so too but then I ran into other “pure Greeks, descendents of the ancient Greeks” who spoke to me in Macedonian and told me so that they were “pure Greeks”. Hasn’t it ever occurred to them to question “how they acquired such a language” if they were “pure Greeks, descendents of the ancient Greeks”? Oddly enough it has not because they truly believe that they are “Greeks” because all their lives they were told to ignore reality and embrace the myth that they are “Greeks” without having to question it. You see you are told that Gods exists and is everywhere and it’s sacrilegious and a sin to question God’s existence especially since everyone knows God exists! How can you even think of such a thing, even in your private thoughts that God may not exist? Need I say more? Now one might think that once one leaves Greece that they are free of this. But my friends, fear has no bounds and knows no borders. Just recently a friend of mine was collecting signatures for a petition and I decided to stay with him for a while. A lot of people know me so I thought I could be of help. While most people signed the petition without question, some refused to sign it. Puzzled I asked why? Most made some excuse or another but one woman said, “I don’t want to sign anything of this nature because I don’t know in whose hands this petition will land, and God knows what the consequences would be if this lands in Greek hands.” I said it was only a harmless petition and what harm could it bring even if it fell into Greeks hands? She looked at me and said: “You had not been slapped around the face much and humiliated before have you?” I said no! So how could I possibly understand? Surprisingly, even my own father had said the same thing to me on several occasions when I told him I was not afraid to express my opinion, especially about the truth. To my surprise he said that, “Truth has nothing to do with anything! It is fear that will prevent you from telling the truth, from saying it is black when clearly you see it as white! It will then haunt you and give you pain every time you think about it!” My father spent five years of his young life in Greek prisons in the desolate Greek islands being tortured and tormented and to this day does not know why and what wrong he had done.

There is much to say about human rights abuses in Greece so I will begin with a quote from an article composed 14 years ago. Here I would like to present to you a slightly edited segment from a 1996 report entitled “Human Rights Violations Against Ethnic Macedonians” compiled by the Macedonian Human Rights Movement of Canada. I have edited the text to bring it up to date;

Ethnic Macedonian emigrants born in Greek occupied Macedonia

Background

A large number of ethnic Macedonians living in northern Greece (Greek occupied Macedonia) were forced, in the early and middle parts of this century, to abandon their native ancestral homes. This tragic occurrence, composed of several stages, took several years to achieve full realization. The first stage followed the partition of the territory of Macedonia after the Balkan Wars of 1912-13, culminating with the annexation by Greece of approximately fifty-two per cent of Macedonian territory. (1) Greece immediately embarked on a systematic campaign of ethnic cleansing in order to change the ethnic demographics of the newly acquired territory. The ferocity of this campaign (1912-13) is well documented in Carnegie's Report on the Balkan Wars, published in 1914. The result was thousands of Macedonians killed, tortured, and raped, while over 30,000 Macedonians left their homes because of the intensity and brutality of duress inflicted by the Greek government and its supporters. (2) The purpose of such indiscriminate efforts was to eradicate any sign of the Macedonian identity. (3) The First World War also falls in this stage, when another 21,000 Macedonians were forced to leave their homes and became refugees in Bulgaria. (4) The second stage of migration was signaled by the signing of the Treaty of Lausanne in 1923 ending the Greco-Turkish War of 1919-1922. Under the terms of the treaty, a "voluntary exchange of populations" (5) was established where the Greek government settled 565,143 Christian Turkish settlers from Asia Minor in Greek occupied Macedonia. Another 53,000 colonists from southern Greece (i.e. from the Greece of its pre-1913 borders) were also settled in Greek occupied Macedonia. (6) As a direct consequence of these government-orchestrated settlements, approximately 127,000 ethnic Macedonians were forced to leave their birthplaces. The third stage of migration occurred during, and soon after, the Second World War and the Greek Civil War (1946-1949). Two different groups comprised this mass exodus: first, those who were

active participants in the conflict, i.e. the anti-monarchist Partisans who together with their families numbering approximately 50,000 (7) had to flee for safety in eastern European countries; and second, approximately 28,000 child refugees (8), ages two through fourteen, who were removed with the assistance of the Red Cross in order to escape the systematic bombing and destruction of the cities and villages in Greek occupied Macedonia by Greek government forces. The vast majority of these two groups that constituted the third set of migrants from Greek occupied Macedonia are prohibited, even today, from returning to their birthplaces. (9) The reason for this is primarily due to the refusal of these migrants to identify themselves as "Greeks." (10) The fourth stage of Macedonian migration from northern Greece characterizes the period from 1950 to the present where people left for a variety of reasons. Many individuals left Greek occupied Macedonia in order to join family members who consequently were denied re-entry into Greece after previously fleeing during the third stage of migration. (11) Others left primarily for economic reasons, due in part to the lack of investment by the Greek government in the region, as well as the discriminatory hiring practices of the largest employer, the Greek government. (12) A large number of ethnic Macedonians have also migrated as a consequence of the Greek government's refusal to recognize their separate ethnic identity. Moreover, this refusal has led to gross violations of all fundamental human and national rights of Macedonians in Greek occupied Macedonia. (13)

Discriminatory Treatment of Ethnic Macedonian Emigrants

All ethnic Macedonian emigrants from Greek occupied Macedonia are subjected to discriminatory treatment by the Greek government because of their Macedonian ethnic identity. This discrimination is even directed against Macedonians who do not proclaim their Macedonian ethnicity publicly. Ethnic Macedonians and Greeks, both groups born in Greece and living abroad, are treated differently based on their ethnic identity .This treatment continues to contravene all international human rights agreements, to which Greece is a signatory. (14) Discriminatory treatment is most stringently applied to those Macedonians who left Greece, during stage three, because of their involvement in the Greek Civil War of 1946-49, in hopes of achieving complete ethnic recognition as promised by the Greek Communist Party. Even more disturbing, this treatment also applies to the approximately 28,000 Macedonian refugee children who were removed by the Red Cross for humanitarian reasons to avoid the systematic

destruction of their Macedonian villages by the Greek Army. These children were all between the ages of two through fourteen at the time of the evacuation. As children removed without full knowledge or consent at the time, they are currently denied entry or resettlement in their birthplaces by the Greek government. Such denial presupposes that these refugee children had been adults who had made a conscious choice, despite the knowledge that they may not be permitted to return. (15) Discriminatory practices pursued by the Greek government against those former refugee children and Partisans are best exemplified by the restrictive procedures required by the Greek Consulate in Skopje, Republic of Macedonia, for visits to Greece by ethnic Macedonians born in Greek occupied Macedonia. Current estimates for the number of Macedonians living in the Republic of Macedonia who were born in Greek occupied Macedonia are over two hundred thousand. (16) The main purpose of such visits is for the re-acquaintance of Macedonians with their birthplaces, friends and relatives, as well as the burial places of loved ones. The special application form, "Application for entry to Greece for ethnic Macedonians born in Greece," (17) is utilized exclusively for ethnic Macedonians and not for any other individuals born in Greece and presently living abroad. The questions on the application have been specifically designed to identify those individuals who are either born in Greece, or are children and grandchildren of individuals who originate from Greek occupied Macedonia. (18) These questions also attempt to ascertain whether the applicant in question identifies him/herself as Macedonian or speaks the Macedonian language. The aim of this process is to minimize the number of visits to Greece by ethnic Macedonians originating from Greek occupied Macedonia, and ultimately cut off relations between family members and friends. (19) The Greek government hopes that this will isolate and more easily facilitate the assimilation of the Macedonian minority presently within its borders. (20) Furthermore, the Greek government's discrimination extends to ethnic Macedonians attempting to regain their Greek citizenship. In most of these cases, their citizenship was unjustly revoked as a consequence of their emigration from Greek occupied Macedonia. Such discriminatory practices are applied mainly to those ethnic Macedonians residing in the Republic of Macedonia. Similar procedures apply to all other ethnic Macedonians who were born in Greece and are now living outside the borders of Greece. As is the case with applications for visitor’s visas, this citizenship procedure applies exclusively to ethnic Macedonians, and not to other individuals who were born in Greece and are presently living abroad. (21)

The Greek government considers all ethnic Macedonians a threat to Greece. The rationale forwarded by the Greek government for this stance reflects that they (ethnic Macedonians), "may create problems for our country, because there will be persons who shall receive Greek citizenship while, at the same time, retain the Yugoslav “Macedonian" citizenship". (22) The criteria for approval/denial of Greek citizenship includes "Approval from [the] Ministry (of Internal Affairs), which shall be given after it is ascertained that the interested individual and the members of his family are not ethnic Macedonians". (23)

Recommendations

The Macedonian Human Rights Movement of Canada recommends to the government of Greece that it: 1) Acknowledge the existence of an ethnic Macedonian minority within Greece with its own culture and language; 2) stop the policies of forced assimilation and denationalization for its ethnic Macedonian minority; 3) recognize the fundamental human and national rights of the ethnic Macedonians, as guaranteed by the United Nations Declaration, the 1976 Helsinki Agreement and the Vienna and Copenhagen documents of the CSCE; 4) enlighten public opinion about fundamental rights for the protection of individuals and minorities as guaranteed under the many international agreements to which it is a signatory; 5) end free expression restrictions on ethnic Macedonians; 6) allow the free use of the Macedonian language without fear of reprisals or persecution in private and public life; 7) allow the teaching of the Macedonian language at all levels of the educational system; 8) allow the production of radio and television programs in the Macedonian language, as well as books, newspapers, journals, etc.; 9) end the harassment of ethnic Macedonians in general, and of Macedonian rights monitors in particular; 10) recognize the right to freedom of religion by allowing worship in the Macedonian language in Macedonian Orthodox Churches; 11) recognize the Macedonian Orthodox Church, and that it encourage the ecclesiastical authorities to do likewise, and permit the restoration of old churches and the building of new churches; 12) allow the registration and establishment of ethnic Macedonian political, cultural and other associations and their participation in the political and cultural life of the country;

13) end the discriminatory economic practices against the ethnic Macedonians in the government employed public sector by allowing ethnic Macedonians to be hired in proportion to their representation in the general population in northern Greece; 14) allow ethnic Macedonian emigrants from Greece and their descendants to return for visits and resettlement by repealing Law 28-12-1982 and Law 1540 of October 4, 1985; 15) allow ethnic Macedonian emigrants and their descendants to return to Greece on the same basis as Greeks, without any bias as to ethnicity; 16) allow ethnic Macedonians emigrants born in Greece and their descendants the right of inheritance to property and goods inside Greece; 17) stop supporting campaigns of destabilization of Macedonian communities around the world, especially in Canada, the USA and Australia.

Sources and notes;

(1) Fred L. Isreal, ed., "Treaty of Bucharest, July 28 to August 10, 1913," in Major Peace Treaties of Modern History 1648-1967, Volume II (New York: Chelsea House Publishers, 1967). (2) Todor Simovski, The Inhabited Places in Aegean Macedonia, Skopje 1978, 12. (3) Andrew Rossos, Russia and the Balkans. Inter-Balkan Rivalries and Russian Foreign Policy 1908-1914 (Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1981). (4) Ibid, 14. (5) Isreal, ed., "Treaty of Lausanne, 1923," in Major Peace Treaties of Modern History 1648-1967, Volume IV. (6) Andrew Rossos, "The Macedonians of Aegean Macedonia: A British Officer's Report, 1944," The Slavonic and East European Review April (1991): 284. (7) Ibid, 27. (8) This event is formally known as The Exodus of the Children from the Aegean part of Macedonia. (9) The Greek government currently has several laws and governmental decrees in force which restrict those ethnic Macedonians born in Greece from traveling to Greece: Ministerial Decree and Approvals No.106841 December 29, 1982; and Law No.1540, April 10, 1985. (10) For ethnic Macedonians born in northern Greece and currently living abroad, the Greek government, via its consulates, intensively screens these individuals when making decisions regarding visas and

citizenship, Two discriminatory practices aimed at ethnic Macedonians are currently enforced by the Greek government: the Application for Entry into Greece for Ethnic Macedonians Born in Greece,' and the Procedure for Prohibiting Re-Acquirement of Greek Citizenship for Ethnic Macedonians Born in Greece, (11) Pavlos Voskopoulos (member of MMBP), interview by Macedonian Human Rights Movement of Canada, Toronto, Ontario, May 1995. (12) Many sources have identified the systematic discrimination of ethnic Macedonians in Greece with respect to hiring practices in the public sector: Manifesto for Macedonian Human Rights, Salonika, 1984; United States, Dept. of State Greece Human Rights Practices, 1995 (Washington: GPO, 1996); Greece, Ministry of public Order, The Conspiracy Against Macedonia, Service for National Security Memorandum No. 16/02/1982; Initiative Board for the Founding of a Macedonian Movement for Balkan Prosperity, Open Letter, September 16, 1991; Human Rights Watch Helsinki, Denying Ethnic Identity: The Macedonians of Greece, 45-8; and, Hugh Poulton, Minorities in the Balkans (London: Minority Rights Group, 1989) 31. (13) Such violations have been documented in various reports: US State Report, 1995,; Human Rights Watch World Report 1994; Amnesty International Report, 1995, ; and Minorities in the Balkans. (14) E.g., the United Nations Universal Declaration of Human Rights, the 1975 Helsinki Accord, the CSCE Vienna and Copenhagen Documents, etc... (15) The Exodus of the Children from the Aegean part of Macedonia. (16) Information gathered from numerous Associations of Macedonians from the Aegean part of Macedonia (northern Greece). (17) Application for entry to Greece for ethnic Macedonians born in Greece. (18) Ibid. (19) Hristo Sideropoulos (President of the Macedonian Human Rights Movement [Greece]), interview by Macedonian Human Rights Movement of Canada, February 1995. (20) Ministry of Public Order, Republic of Greece, The Conspiracy Against Macedonia, Service for National Security Memorandum No. 16/02/1982. (21) Human Rights Watch/Helsinki, Denying Ethnic Identity, 26-36. (22) Procedure for prohibiting re-Acquirement of Greek Citizenship for ethnic Macedonians born in Greece. (23) Ibid. (24) Danforth, 122-3.

Essay 49 - Falsity of Greece vs Reality of Macedonia

On many occasions we have looked at Greece from the outside in, the way outsiders and insiders of non-Greek origin perceive it. But we have yet to look at Greece from the inside, the way it sees itself. What makes Greece, Greece and Greeks, Greeks and what makes them claim that they are “pure” and “homogeneous”? In this essay we will examine the conditions under which Greece became or claims to have become “pure” and “homogeneous” and what it has done and is doing to protect its claims. It seems that somewhere down the line Greeks developed amnesia and forgot their real past, the true roots from which they sprung prior to the formation of their Greek state in the early 1800’s. Somewhere down the line Greeks decided to adopt a fictitious but permanent national identity with a 2,500 year old bloodline. Thus it was decided that Greeks were Greeks because they were “Greeks by birth” and because “Greek blood” flowed through their veins. But that was not all; to be fully “Greeks” and members of the so-called “Greek nation” they also needed to demonstrate their loyalty to the Greek state. Otherwise they could not be full members of the Greek nation and could not be full citizens of the Greek state. In addition to being “born Greek”, being of “Greek blood” and being loyal to the Greek state, “prospective Greeks” needed to also speak the imposed Greek language and be of the Greek Orthodox faith. If a person did not meet all of the above conditions they could not be “fully” Greek! But that was not all! Besides not being fully Greek, people who lacked even one of the above criteria posed a threat to the Greek concept of a “pure and homogeneous” Greek nation. Anyone lacking any of the above mentioned criteria was treated as a security threat to the Greek state. So to defend the integrity of the Greek nation and of the Greek state, Greece declared that such people did not exist and those not meeting all the above mentioned criteria were either “traitors”, “foreigners” or “agents” working for the interests of a foreign state and enemies of Greece! To discourage people from openly expressing sentiments other than those prescribed by the Greek state, Greek authorities encourage their loyal citizens and the Greek legal system to publicly identify and vilify such people. So instead of protecting their rights as citizens of Greece, as prescribed by European and International law, Greece, a member of the United Nations and the European Union, continues to practice authoritarian traditions violating peoples’ human rights.

Unfortunately Greek political authorities are not the only culprits involved in abusing people in Greece. Greek judiciary and the Greek Orthodox Church also take the side of the state and instead of protecting the rights and freedoms of individuals they punish those who do not fully conform. As instruments of the Greek state, Greek courts and Greek Churches have always supported repressive regimes and military dictatorships, which promoted the “purity” and “homogeneity” of Greece. Violations of human rights of various ethnic groups in Greece are justified by Greece’s need to defend its “purity”, “homogeneity” and territorial integrity. So anyone who disagrees with this “Greek myth” is automatically labeled a non-Greek and therefore a potential enemy of Greece. Such “institutionalized discrimination” can be found in Article 19 of the Greek citizenship code. Here the code is specific about who is Greek and who is not and those who are not will have their Greek citizenship stripped if they leave Greece with no intention of returning. Many Macedonians and Turks have lost their Greek citizenship and properties in this way. According to Article 25 in the 1975 amendment of the Greek constitution, Greece has the right to ask all its citizens “to fulfill the duty of social and national solidarity”. Why is this clause so important if everyone in Greece is Greek? A clause such as this implies that not only Greek citizens of non-Greek ethnicity exist in Greece but by definition they pose a threat to the “Greek myth”. Article 25 also says that “abusive exercise of rights is not permitted”. Who decides what the limit of “exercise of rights” is? Apparently this clause was put in the Greek constitution to give the courts power to significantly restrict and limit human rights of individual Greek citizens. This includes freedom of religion, freedom of expression, freedom of association and freedom of movement. While on one hand the Constitution provides for all these freedoms, at least in theory, on the other hand it takes them away by giving the courts power to act against them. As I stated earlier, the Greek Orthodox Church is an essential component of the Greek national identity. People who are not Orthodox Christians therefore cannot be fully Greek. Again, even though the Greek constitution officially supports “other religions” in Greece many non-Greek Orthodox Christians are denied their religious rights because they belong to so-called “unrecognized” by Greece churches or religions. Although Greece, in 1963, ratified the European Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms, it has ignored the convention’s provisions. When the Council of Europe reached a

resolution that Greece, while under the junta, was guilty of violating the convention, its military rulers considered the resolution “an infringement on Greece’s sovereignty”. So looking at Greece from the inside out we see that Greek political authorities, in conjunction with the Greek legal system and the Greek Orthodox Church, have done everything in their power to promulgate the “Greek myth” that only “pure Greeks” live in an ethnically and nationally “homogeneous Greece”. This inflexible and monolithic approach to Greece’s identity, unfortunately, leaves no room for diversity and therefore excludes everyone who does not fully conform. The biggest losers because of this are the Macedonian and Turkish people who live in Greece and who are still not recognized by Greece. In practical terms then, how does Greece maintain its “pure” and “homogeneous” façade? To explain the “unconformities” or what the Greek state calls “anomalies” Greek authorities have taken certain precautionary measures. For example, Greece calls the Macedonians “Slavophone Hellenes with a Greek national consciousness”. In other words, Macedonians are “Greeks” who speak a Slavic language. The Turks, Greece calls “Muslim Greeks” or Greeks who are of the Muslim religion. Neither Macedonians not Turks in Greece are allowed to call themselves Macedonians or Turks! To bring itself to an acceptable state of “pureness” and “homogeneity” Greece, over the years, “Hellenized” everything from place names to peoples’ personal and surnames! Right after the Greek state was created for the first time in 1829, Greek authorities changed all place names to correspond to ancient names and for those that it had no ancient names it invented new ones. As Greece, over the years, continued to physically grow and annex more territories it continued with its policies of “Hellenization”. After annexing Macedonian and Thracian territories in 1913, Greece continued with its well established assimilation and Hellenization policies; “Hellenizing” everything and everyone. In Macedonia for example, to remove all traces of the existence of Macedonians, it banned the Macedonian language and renamed all Macedonian personal and place names with Greek ones. After that the Greek Orthodox Church became the “Hellenizer” of the Macedonians by making sure that all Macedonian babies were baptized with Greek names. Afterwards the Greek state continued to implement repressive policies and, through strict laws, punishments and oath taking, made sure that the population conformed and Greece retained its “purity” and “homogeneity”. Those people that Greece did not trust were placed on

watch and made sure that their lives were made uncomfortable so that they would one day permanently leave Greece. Their properties and other assets would then be confiscated and awarded to “loyal Greeks”. To discourage people from feeling “non-Greek” Greece introduced even more repressive measures. The Turks of Thrace, for example, were not allowed to purchase new properties or new machinery to farm their lands. In time as families grew they would not be able to support themselves and would have no choice but to leave Greece. Also many who decided to vacation in Turkey found themselves permanently exiled. Macedonians on the other hand were equally oppressed by having their properties reduced through land re-distribution acts and through the denial of higher education and good paying jobs. Repressed economically, many Macedonians left Greece and became permanent refugees. Many civilian Macedonians, who left Greece as war refugees during the various wars, including the Greek Civil War, also became permanent refugees. After leaving Greece they were all permanently exiled and their properties were confiscated. In short, Greek political authorities, with help from the Greek judicial system and the Greek Orthodox Church, have created a very rigid climate in Greece where a person can only be Greek if they fully accept the following conditions;

1. they are born Greek, 2. are of pure Greek blood, 3. are Orthodox Christians, 4. speak the Greek language, and 5. demonstrate their loyalty to the Greek state.

In other words, anyone who fully prescribes to these conditions can be a good Greek. Looking at this another way, anyone who does not meet even one of the above conditions would not be “fully” Greek and would be open to scrutiny at the Greek state’s discretion!

So where does that leave the Macedonians in Greece?

There is no room for Macedonians or for any other ethnicity in Greece for that matter because of the rigidity of the Greece method by which the so-called “Greek identity” has been constructed. In addition to that, the existence of a Macedonian ethnic identity (or any other identity beside the Greek one) in Greece threatens Greek purity and homogeneity and therefore cannot be allowed to exist.

This however does not mean that “Macedonians do not exist” as Greece has claimed at every opportunity. Quite the opposite, unlike the fabricated Greek identity which was created by the Philhellenes and supported by the Greek state and its institutions, the Macedonian ethnic and national identity does exist. It is real and thriving. The fact that no state or institution has come to its aid or has given it its support means that the Macedonian identity is natural, supported by ordinary people at a grass roots level! How long will Greece continue its charade of pretending to be “pure” and “homogeneous”? For as long as it can! As long as Macedonians and other people around the world continue to give the Greek myth credence then the charade will continue and the “fake” Greeks will continue to pretend to be “pure” Greeks! But worse than that, because of this, the Macedonians and other people living in Greece, including the Turks, are being denied their human rights.

Essay 50 - Getting to know thy Greece

One of the obstacles I was faced with in the past was convincing people that things are not right in Greece, especially when it came to human rights. Even the people who were willing to lend an ear found it difficult to believe what I had told them. How could one people be so cruel towards another in a peace loving, democratic country such as Greece? That is impossible! People in modern democratic countries don’t behave this way in this day and age? I am certain many felt that perhaps there was something wrong with me. Although no one, besides the Greeks themselves, ever told me that they didn’t believe me, I had the feeling that it was going to be a rough road to travel. Fortunately for me I didn’t have to do a lot of convincing. Greece did all that for me, first when it went out of its way to make life difficult for the Macedonians in the Republic of Macedonia by refusing to recognize them as Macedonians and their country as Macedonia and then by the way it got itself into its current economic crisis. Just a while ago one of my readers pointed me to an eye opening article which I found both informative and enlightening regarding “Greek behaviour” but from a different angle. The twenty page article, which I sent to all my readers, was a bit lengthy but captured the essence of “Greek” very well, the way my recent ancestors had it described. Written by Michael Lewis, the article entitled “Beware of Greeks Bearing Bonds” can still be found this link: http://www.vanityfair.com/business/features/2010/10/greeks-bearing-bonds-201010?currentPage=all In short here are some of Michael Lewis’s highlights: “In addition to its roughly $400 billion (and growing) of outstanding government debt, the Greek number crunchers had just figured out that their government owed another $800 billion or more in pensions. Add it all up and you got about $1.2 trillion, or more than a quarter-million dollars for every working Greek.” “Our people went in and couldn’t believe what they found,” a senior I.M.F. official told me, not long after he’d returned from the I.M.F.’s first Greek mission. “The way they were keeping track of their finances—they knew how much they had agreed to spend, but no one was keeping track of what he had actually spent. It wasn’t even what you would call an emerging economy. It was a Third World country.” “As it turned out, what the Greeks wanted to do, once the lights went out and they were alone in the dark with a pile of borrowed money, was turn their government into a piñata stuffed with fantastic sums and give as many citizens as possible a whack at it.”

“The average government job pays almost three times the average private-sector job. The national railroad has annual revenues of 100 million euros against an annual wage bill of 400 million, plus 300 million euros in other expenses. The average state railroad employee earns 65,000 euros a year.” “The Greek public-school system is the site of breathtaking inefficiency: one of the lowest-ranked systems in Europe, it nonetheless employs four times as many teachers per pupil as the highest-ranked, Finland’s.” “There are three government-owned defense companies: together they have billions of euros in debts, and mounting losses.” “The retirement age for Greek jobs classified as “arduous” is as early as 55 for men and 50 for women. As this is also the moment when the state begins to shovel out generous pensions, more than 600 Greek professions somehow managed to get themselves classified as arduous: hairdressers, radio announcers, waiters, musicians, and on and on and on.” “The Greek public health-care system spends far more on supplies than the European average—and it is not uncommon, several Greeks tell me, to see nurses and doctors leaving the job with their arms filled with paper towels and diapers and whatever else they can plunder from the supply closets.” “The Greek people never learned to pay their taxes .... because no one is ever punished.” “Where waste ends and theft begins almost doesn’t matter; the one masks and thus enables the other. It’s simply assumed, for instance, that anyone who is working for the government is meant to be bribed.” “People who go to public health clinics assume they will need to bribe doctors to actually take care of them. Government ministers who have spent their lives in public service emerge from office able to afford multi-million-dollar mansions and two or three country homes.” “The biggest problem the banks had was that they had lent roughly 30 billion euros to the Greek government—where it was stolen or squandered. In Greece the banks didn’t sink the country. The country sank the banks.” “In 2001, Greece entered the European Monetary Union, swapped the drachma for the euro, and acquired for its debt an implicit European (read German) guarantee. Greeks could now borrow long-term funds at roughly the same rate as Germans—not 18 percent but 5 percent. To remain in the euro zone, they were meant, in theory, to maintain budget deficits below 3 percent of G.D.P.; in practice, all they had to do was cook the books to show that they were hitting the targets. Here, in 2001, entered Goldman Sachs, which engaged in a series of apparently

legal but nonetheless repellent deals designed to hide the Greek government’s true level of indebtedness. For these trades Goldman Sachs—which, in effect, handed Greece a $1 billion loan—carved out a reported $300 million in fees. The machine that enabled Greece to borrow and spend at will was analogous to the machine created to launder the credit of the American sub-prime borrower—and the role of the American investment banker in the machine was the same. The investment bankers also taught the Greek-government officials how to securitize future receipts from the national lottery, highway tolls, airport landing fees, and even funds granted to the country by the European Union. Any future stream of income that could be identified was sold for cash up front, and spent. As anyone with a brain must have known, the Greeks would be able to disguise their true financial state for only as long as (a) lenders assumed that a loan to Greece was as good as guaranteed by the European Union (read Germany), and (b) no one outside of Greece paid very much attention. Inside Greece there was no market for whistle-blowing, as basically everyone was in on the racket.” And there you have it. This not only verifies but validates the saying “Greek=Thief” as the Macedonian old timers back in Greek occupied Macedonian used to say! By the fact that some European countries were willing to lend other European countries money to build their economies and improve their peoples’ lives was a genuine gesture of goodwill on the part of the lending countries. But how did the recipient countries of this goodwill deal with this gesture? Just take a look at Greece, Europe’s favourite child! What is happening in Europe is no different from what happens to basically every person in this brave new world of ours. People borrow money from the banks to build a business, family and home knowing very well that they will have to pay it back and with interest. It is no different for countries than it is for individuals. The idea of the lending European countries was to lend the poorer countries some money for a period of say ten years where this money could be put to good use to improve the country’s ability to work in a market economy with a proper supporting structure. The idea was that now the poorer country would develop itself economically, not only to pay back the loan and interest but to be able to properly function and prosper from the ten year period forward. So where did Greece and the others go wrong? I guess the modern Euro-eggheads forgot to include the “Greek=Thief” variable into their lending formula when they handed Greece their taxpayers’ money. It seems our great grandfathers were wise to teach us “Greek=Thief” but have we really learned anything

from them? If we have we would not be negotiating, with the “Greek=Thief”, our country’s name for which many of our ancestors fought and died to protect. Even after re-learning all this about the “Greek=Thief”, are we that naïve or is there another reason for these negotiations? Allow me to let you in on a couple of rumours. There are those who believe that the 1913 Treaty of Bucharest is about to expire in 2013 and as it was decided, when the Treaty was drafted under a secret clause, if any of the three parts of divided Macedonia becomes independent before 2013, all three parts will become independent and Macedonia will become united again. And there are those who believe that the United States had had enough of Greece, as it did of Yugoslavia, and will use the so-called “name dispute” to bring Greece down. It has been foretold (since the 1970’s by Henry Kissinger) that Greece will be cut to pieces. It’s a matter of when! This may be wishful thinking on the part of those who have faith in others to solve our problems but be it as it may, I thing Greece will come apart on its own because of its own cleverness! Now that we all think we know Greece a bit better, here is something more that we can learn: AJC Calls on Greek Orthodox Church to Condemn Priest’s Anti-Semitic Libels http://www.ajc.org/site/apps/nlnet/content2.aspx?c=ijITI2PHKoG&b=2 818289&ct=8980321&notoc=1 December 22, 2010 -- New York -- AJC is calling on the head of the Greek Orthodox Church in Greece, Archbishop Ieronymos II, as well as Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew, to condemn unequivocally the blatant anti-Semitic libels expressed by Metropolitan Seraphim of Piraeus, one of the church’s highest officials. "Metropolitan Seraphim's horrendous lies on Greek TV demonstrate that anti-Semitism is alive and well within the Greek Orthodox Church,” said Rabbi David Rosen, AJC's International Director of Inter-religious Affairs. “It is the responsibility of the church leadership to condemn and uproot anti-Semitism.” Metropolitan Seraphim’s comments came during an interview on the morning show of the largest Greek TV station. “Adolf Hitler was an instrument of world Zionism and was financed from the renowned Rothschild family with the sole purpose of convincing the Jews to leave the shores of Europe and go to Israel to establish the new Empire,” said Seraphim. He also charged that Jews such as "Rockefeller, Rothschild and Soros control the international banking system that controls globalization.”

Rabbi Rosen said, “Jews worldwide had hoped that this kind of outrageous bigotry, which in the past was sustained and nurtured by the Christian world, had been consigned by the Church to the dustbin of history.” AJC, the premier global advocacy organization, has long maintained close relations with the Greek government and Jewish community, and is a pioneer worldwide in building inter-religious understanding. And this man is God’s representative on earth? And finally this:

6 in 10 Greeks don't pay income taxes By Katy Byron, CNN December 31, 2010 1:30 p.m. EST

Athens, Greece (CNN) -- More than 5 million Greeks did not pay income taxes for 2008, according to public documents released by the struggling nation's finance ministry. More than six in 10 taxpayers earn less than 12,000 euros per year and are not required to pay income taxes under the Greek tax system, the press office of the Greek Ministry of Finance said Thursday. However, there is wide speculation that many Greeks are not accurately reporting their income. To read more click on this link: http://www.cnn.com/2010/WORLD/europe/12 ... es/?hpt=T2

Essay 51 - Greece is plugged in the Matrix

By Gorazd Velkovski September 2, 2008

http://macedoniaonline.eu/content/view/3219/2/

Macedonia, as a country, is in negotiations with Greece over its name for the past 17 years. No Government Official in Skopje when asked “what is it that they are negotiating, and why” can give you a straight answer. As the years went by, the negotiations wondered off into different directions, mostly due to Greek psychosis. For the past 17 years, the Greek Government has been winning in all talks and meetings, by a long shot. Macedonia changed its constitution and the flag, only to see Athens appetite increase three fold. Sure, 124 countries recognized Macedonia as Macedonia, but this is in no way our victory simply because those countries have middle school level history knowledge and know which is which. Macedonia was caught off guard at least 5 times when countries said they would recognize the constitutional, not the UN name. Some lobbying came in place when the VMRO party came to power, less than 20 months ago. Prior to it, there was zero, none. Why is Macedonia stuck in a loosing battle? First and foremost, Macedonia is willing to negotiate their heritage with Government and people of very questionable character. People who claim Phoenician Philosophers and Mathematicians as “Greeks” and refugees claiming to be “Greeks” or “Greek Macedonians” (no such thing) who ironically arrived from various (European, Asian, African) regions to Greece 40-50 years ago. Athenian Agents (over 20 of them) in Skopje, going by the name of “Political Experts” for A1, Utrinski Vesnik, Dnevnik, Spic… constantly publish stories of Macedonia being ‘doomed’ if it doesn’t change the name! Fear is very powerful and the oldest trick on this ignorant planet. It is used to control and influence masses on many levels. (cough: war on terror, global warming, Russia, Nato….) Second, is the brainwashing. Macedonia has never been good at it, while Greece are the masters, and kudos to them for that! Why is Greece so successful? Ever since 1913, the Greek Government has plugged its citizens and new comers into the Matrix. In the Matrix movie (most of you have seen it), the Morpheus character says to Neo, "The Matrix is a system Neo, and that system is