THE ALBANIAN LANGUAGE ALMOST BECAME OFFICIAL IN GREECE - Part 01

THE ALBANIAN LANGUAGE ALMOST BECAME OFFICIAL IN GREECE

It is estimated that about 3.5 million Albanians live in Greece today (35% of the total Greek population) and like the Macedonian and Turkish minorities; they are not recognized by the Greek state. Let us not forget that there are also thousands of Albanian migrant workers who work in Northern Greece at seasonal jobs and contribute to the Greek economy. Unfortunately Greece only recognizes Muslims without specifying their ethnic background be it Turkish, Albanian, or other. According to Ljalja’s research however, the number of Albanians living in today’s Greek territory is much larger than currently estimated because during the period from 1856 to 1858 two thirds of the population (66%) living in Greece was Albanian. The Albanians even had their own representatives in the Greek parliament. It was during this period that the Greek Parliament openly debated the issue of making the Albanian language a second official language of the Greek state. But that did not happen. The first Albanian publication in Greece “Voice of Albania” appeared in 1890. It was published by Anastas Kulorioti in the Albanian language but was quickly shut down by the Greek state and Kulorioti was immediately jailed. Anastas Kulorioti died from poisoning in a Greek prison. Immediately after the Ambassadorial conference in London in 1913, even though the Chemerija (Chamurija) region was populated by an Albanian majority, it was given to Greece anyway. Greek authorities conducted massive population expulsions not only of Turks but also of Albanians and Macedonians. As a result, according to estimates compiled by Albanian organizations and historians, there were around 260,000 Albanians exiled from Greece in the subsequent 64 years. The 1923 Lausanne agreement which recognized that there was a sizable Albanian minority living in Greece and called on the Greek state to provide basic human rights, such as education and religious rights, did not help at all. Then in the period from 1913 to 1948, in place of the exiled Macedonians, Albanians and Turks, Greek authorities deposited more than 1.5 million colonist settlers from Asia Minor, Pontus and other regions because they supposedly were the descendents of Alexander the Great.

TWENTY-SEVEN GREEK PRIME MINISTERS HAVE ALBANIAN DESCENT

Things in the Balkans are very much mixed-up and so intertwined that it is normal to assume that people are very much mixed. The

Balkans is the place where one can find all kinds of people in a single region which is also the subject for Ljalja’s latest thesis. According to Ljalja’s findings, 27 out of the 57 former Greek Prime Ministers are of Albanian descent. Former Greek Foreign Affairs Minister Theodoros Pangalos, a Greek government representative, on occasion openly spoke about his Albanian background. Speaking of Albanians occupying high positions in the Greek government, Ljalja’s investigation has revealed that even the Greek President, Karolos Papulias is of Albanian descent. According to Ljalja, Papulias is a Cham (from Chamurija), born in the village Voshtina, one kilometer away from today’s Greek-Albanian border. His ancestors were Muslims with the last name Sulejmani. About 120 years ago Papulias’s ancestors converted to Christianity and changed their name. Ljalja supports this assertion with evidence which he received from a well-known Albanian actor who studied with Papulias and with whom the Greek President maintains contact to this day.

Source:

Petre Dimitrov, Forum, December 12, 2008 Translated and edited by Risto Stefov

Essay 8 - What do you really mean when you say you are “Greek”?

While Greek people struggle to keep their heads above water trying to weather their government’s self-inflicted economic crisis, Greeks propagandists worldwide are busy mounting new anti-Macedonian offensives and looking for ways to demonize the Republic of Macedonia, its leadership and the Macedonian people in general. I guess there is always money for anti-Macedonian propaganda! I know all Greek propagandists don’t get paid; some do it for free out of “patriotism”. Unfortunately they do it purely because they have been brainwashed to believe the lies their government and leaders have been feeding them over the last two centuries. Even the staunchest, most narrow minded and warped minds, however, at some point or another must realize that there are some things that can’t simply be explained by the lies of their mentors. Let’s start with me for example. No Greek to this day has ever accepted the fact that I was born and grew up in Greece. In their so-called “fantasy world” people like me do not exist. Well I am sorry to disappoint you guys but I do exist and so do hundreds of thousands of Macedonians just like me. Sorry for “polluting” your thoughts of purity but sooner or later you too will come to the realization that Macedonians do exist in Greece. I and many like me are indigenous Macedonians born in your precious “Greek Macedonia”, the very same land your so-called “Greek” predecessors invaded, occupied and annexed in 1912, 1913 illegally and by force. It is a fact that I and many like me are descendents of those indigenous Macedonians whom the Greeks found when they came to take away my (not your) Macedonia from me. No Greek to this day has accepted the fact that I am a Macedonian from Greece, from INSIDE Greece. Allow me to elaborate yet again. I am not from “Skopje”, from “FYROM”, or from “Vardaska Benovina”. I am from Aegean Macedonia, the part of Macedonia that is now occupied by Greece. Having to expose the fact that I come from Greek occupied Macedonia has always been a sore point, a thorn in the Greek propagandists’ side, a fact which they cannot accept because it deconstructs their concept of a “pure Greece” where only pure Greeks exist. Therefore it is inconceivable for them to admit that someone like me could possibly come from inside Greece. That is why they CONSTANTLY refer to me as a “Skopjan” a “Slav”, a “Bulgarian”, a Fyromian, etc., but never as a Macedonian. And I am not the only one; there are hundreds of thousands of others who fall into my category and not just Macedonians but also Turks, Albanians, Vlachs, etc.

Speaking of Vlachs, a Greek person who now writes for the American Chronicle, born of a Vlach father and a Bulgarian mother (you know who you are), married to a Macedonian from the Republic of Macedonia wrote about me recently and said that I can never be a Macedonian because to be a Macedonian I had to be a Greek first and Greek I was not. Now here is the irony for you; while being of Vlach and Bulgarian origin, he sees himself as a “pure Macedonian Greek”, (notice how the reference has changed from Greek-Macedonian to a Macedonian Greek) and he sees me as a “Slav” with Bulgarian origins. According to this guy I am not a Macedonian at all but he is; and a pure “Macedonian Greek” at that. You will need the magic of “Greek logic” to figure this one out! Knowing nothing about me, except that I have been a thorn in the Greek’s side, this man seems to know more about me than I know myself, especially since, according to him, I cannot possibly be a Macedonian. Given his own situation, I wonder what he thinks privately of himself. I know what I am trying to say here is completely childish but I am attempting to convey to you the workings of this “Modern Greek man’s mind”. Knowing full well that he himself is half Vlach and half Bulgarian he not only claims to be a pure “Macedonian Greek” but at the same time denies my identity without knowing anything about me! What is a “Macedonian Greek” anyway? Is it a new ethnicity that sprung overnight out of this overwhelming “Greek love” for Macedonia? Until yesterday people like this guy loathed the word “Macedonia” and put people like me in jail for just uttering it. Now the haters of Macedonia have become the lovers of Macedonia. Have these Greeks gone topsy-turvy? Have they forgotten how they acquired Macedonia and how they attempted to choke the life out of it? Have they forgotten to whom Macedonia belonged before their great grandfathers invaded, occupied, annexed and partitioned it with their partners the Serbians and Bulgarians? Have they forgotten that Macedonia was never Greek and in order to make it Greek they had to change it by erasing everything that was Macedonian and replace it with a fake Greek façade? Have they forgotten they had to change every person’s name and every place name in order to make it Greek sounding? Have they forgotten that they banned the Macedonian language by law from being spoken, even by those who spoke no other language? Where was the “love for Macedonia” then? Allow me to put it bluntly, there never was, is, and there never will be any “love for Macedonia” by these Greeks. The only Greek motive

for doing this is to gain advantage over the real Macedonians. Greeks such as this guy will lie and cheat in order to hang on to Macedonian lands and heritage because they know precisely how their recent ancestors acquired them. Allow me to say it again in hopes that it will finally be understood! Macedonia was never Greek; Greece however was Macedonian at one point in history. Let me elaborate; It is well known that a “Greek State” never existed before 1829. The ancient City States were conquered by Philip II, king of Macedonia, in 338 BC and were never united into a single nation until the creation of the Greek Kingdom in 1832. Was it not the Macedonians who conquered the ancient City States? How then can ancient Macedonia be Greek? While Philip II was recovering from battle wounds, the City States to the south were making alliances and amassing a great army to invade Macedonia. On hearing this, Philip decided it was time to meet this aggression head on and end the treachery once and for all. In 338 BC, in the shallow Cephisus River valley near the village of Chaeronea on the road to Thebes, the two opposing armies met face to face. On the north side stood Philip’s Macedonians with 30,000 infantry and 2,000 cavalry, the largest Macedonian army ever assembled. Among Philip’s commanding generals was his 18 year-old son, Alexander, in charge of the cavalry. On the south side, stood the allied Athenians, Thebans and Achaeans who assembled 35,000 infantry and 2,000 cavalry, the largest army ever assembled since the Persian invasion. Closely matched, the armies clashed and while the battle ensued the Macedonian right flank fell back and began to retreat. Seeing the Macedonians weakening, the allied City State general gave orders to push on and drive the Macedonians back to Macedonia. As the Macedonians retreated, the allied flanks broke rank and began the pursuit. Not realizing it was a trick, the allies found themselves surrounded and slaughtered by Alexander’s cavalry. When it was over the majority of the allied army, including the elite Theban Sacred Band, lay dead in the fields of Chaeronea. Philip erected a statue of a lion to commemorate the sacrifice of the Theban Sacred Band which upheld its tradition and fought to the last man. Ancient City State and Roman historians consider the battle of Chaeronea as the end of City State liberty, history and civilization. The entire world, except for the “want-to-be” Greeks, knows the truth of what happened on that fateful day in history from which the City States never recovered until the 18th and 19th century when a number of Philhellenes decided to conduct an experiment by artificially resurrecting this ancient world.

So I repeat, Macedonia historically was never Greek. Part of Macedonia, 51% to be more precise, became Greek when Greece, Serbia and Bulgaria invaded Macedonia under the pretense of liberating it, drove the Ottomans out with the help of the Macedonian people, then occupied it, partitioned it and annexed it for themselves. When the Greek army invaded Macedonia, Macedonia was not empty and devoid of people. There were people living there. These people were indigenous to Macedonia. The vast majority were ethnic Macedonians. So allow me to summarize. The so-called “ancient Greeks”, along with the Ancient City States, disappeared some 2,000 years ago but the idea of “Ancient Greece” was artificially resurrected by the Philhellenes and became an artificial reality after the creation of the Modern Greek State in the 1830’s. The people that lived on the lands that we today call Greece were not Greeks at all; they were ethnic Albanians, Macedonians, Vlachs, Turks, etc. who had migrated to the region over many centuries. If there is any trace of so-called “Ancient Greek” in these people it is so minute it is negligible. The so-called “Modern Greeks” (ethnic Albanians, Vlachs, Macedonians, Turks, etc.) are the inheritors of these Greek lands only because they have been living on those lands for at least four centuries (according to the history of mass migrations in the region). Their only association with the ancients is that they happened to occupy the same lands over different times. The Modern Greeks having NEVER lived in Macedonia cannot possibly be the rightful inheritors of Macedonian lands let alone of the Macedonian heritage. That privilege belongs to the Macedonian people who are indigenous to Macedonia and not to the Greeks, Serbians, or Bulgarians who acquired Macedonian lands illegally in 1912, 1913 by an act of war and against the will of the Macedonian people. When the Greeks, Serbs and Bulgarians came to Macedonia in 1912 they found people living there. These people are the ancestors of today’s ethnic Macedonians, the real Macedonians. Many of these Macedonians were exiled and assimilated but many also went underground and remained Macedonian in spite of Greek attempts to eradicate them. To make Macedonia more “Greek”, in the 1920’s the Greek State imported over one million Turkish Christian settlers from Asia Minor of whom over six-hundred thousand were settled in Macedonia on Macedonian lands. These people were ethnic Turks of the Christian Orthodox faith who spoke no Greek and felt more Turkish than Greek. But upon their arrival in Macedonia they were assimilated and told that they were now Greeks and that they could only speak Greek and no

other language. But in spite of all the Greek pressure and all odds, in a strange turn of events, many of these people indeed became assimilated, not in the Greek fold but in Macedonian society, especially in mixed marriages in the villages where they learned the Macedonian language and accepted and respected the Macedonians and their customs. In Greek occupied Macedonia these people were given confiscated Macedonian properties gained by the Greek State through expulsion of ethic Macedonians and through several land reforms where lands belonging to Macedonians were re-divided and given to these people. These settlers were also used by the Greek State and Greek authorities to keep the Macedonians in line and to even help Hellenize them. Even Greek authorities admit that in almost every case brought before the Greek courts, rulings were always in favour of the settlers over the indigenous Macedonians. Many Greeks are grateful to the settlers because they helped change the demographics of Macedonia, tilting the scale in favour of the Greeks by making the indigenous Macedonians a minority in their native land. So, why is there so much “Greek love” expressed for Macedonia nowadays? Like I said before, it is very simple; the love expressed by these Greeks is not real love but another ruse to fool the innocent onlooker. It is Greek lust and greed for Macedonian lands and the Macedonian heritage disguised as love. Their true nature towards Macedonia is evidently expressed by the way they treat Macedonians. When a Greek tells you “Macedonia is Greek”, what he or she really means is that Macedonia has been taken, stolen from the Macedonian people by force and it is now Greek. If they truly loved Macedonia then surely they would be saying “Macedonia belongs to the Macedonians” or “Macedonia for the Macedonians”. How many Macedonian loving Greeks have you heard say that? When a Greek tells you “these people are stealing our Greek history”, he or she means that “we (Greeks) have stolen their history and now they want it back”. Besides, how can one steal a memory? Isn’t that what history is all about? When a Greek tells you “that’s Greek”, like the Macedonian ancient symbols and flags, she or he means “we have expropriated those symbols and flags and made them Greek when we annexed and stole their Macedonia from under them”. Even if it was indeed “Greek” one has to distinguish between so-called “ancient Greek” or “Modern Greek” because the two are not only NOT the same but they are mutually exclusive when it comes to ancient symbols and flags. The

only true Greek flag is the Bavarian flag that the Greek State uses today as its national flag! When a Greek tells you “I am a pure Greek” he or she means that they are a “fake Greek”, probably an ethnic Albanian, Vlach, Macedonian, or Turk who has bought into the Philhellene philosophy that by some freak accident of nature they have descended directly from the so-called “ancient Greeks”, bypassing 2,500 years of evolution and ethnic erosion. When a Greek tells you “I can speak and read Greek and I can read the ancient scripts on the stones left behind” it means that he or she has learned “Greek” in school the same way an Egyptologist has learned to read hieroglyphs. However, you don’t hear many Egyptologists claiming to be Egyptian and descendents of the Ancient Egyptians just because they can read hieroglyphs do you? When a Greek tells you he or she is “Greek-Macedonian”, “Macedonian Greek” or simply “Macedonian but of the Greek kind” they mean that they are a “fake Greek”. They have abandoned their real ethnic identity and opted for the fake Greek one. They are actually here for the ride to exploit the real Macedonians and other ethnic groups and to rob them not only of their land and heritage, but of their identity. A fake Greek who pretends to be a “Macedonian of the Greek kind” is nothing more than a despicable identity thief. Allow me to clarify myself here. While we the Macedonians and perhaps other people in this world see this business of “lying”, “cheating” and “stealing” as a “bad thing”, many Greeks see it as a good thing, an opportunity to improve their own economic and social status in Greek society. These people see themselves as “cunning” and “masters” in what they do. Just like their true 19th century ancestors who earned the title “clefts” meaning “thieves”, they enjoy piracy and the benefits it brings. They see themselves as “gifted entrepreneurs” able to “pull the wool over our eyes”, steal our land and heritage from under us and lie to us about it while looking directly into our eyes. I lived among them so I know what I am talking about. To them what they do is not a bad thing as long as it benefits them, no matter how much it hurts others. No wonder the Greek state is on the verge of bankruptcy, a condition resulting from greed, neglect and nonchalance. These people not only steal from the minorities and from each other but, let me be the first to state the obvious; they also steal from government coffers. It makes one sick and to wonder why the European Union would still want to bail them out of their current economic mess?

I really feel sorry for the poor Macedonians and other minorities still living in Greece who not only do not have even the most basic human rights but now have to endure poverty on top of that. When will the Greeks ever learn? But more importantly, when will their benefactors who support them ever learn?

Essay 9 - Once a Greek Always a Greek

The following is an e-mail I received from someone who calls himself Dimitri and claims to be a Hellene-Greek. But as a typical Hellene-Greek he can’t help but put down and denigrate the entire Macedonian nation while trying to be kind and polite. Here is what he had to say;

“Dear Risto

Firstly I must commend you on your eloquence and passion. It comes across clearly. And there is no doubt that you are an extremely articulate and highly intelligent person. However I would like to ask you, if I may that is. What are your credentials? Have you researched all this as a passion or do you hold some authority in the field. It sounds like you do or you want to appear so. Your arguments are intelligently put forth and you have worded your articles with the precision of a diplomat. I would like to ask you however a few questions if I may – for I am sure you expected to get some when you wrote – what at times come across as very vitriolic writing. Risto no one in their right mind can claim ethnicity in the sense that we talk about a pure race of people. At least none of the European peoples have not been ‘adulterated’ in one way or another by the historical movements of people. I am a Hellene, Greek call it what you like and manipulate it as you will, but I have no delusions. I know, that at some time in the history of the land from which I supposedly descend, there were other people who might or might have not mixed with the local element. One would have to be very naive to assume they are a ‘true’ anything. The arguments you so cleverly advocate could be applied to your people. The people who settled in your region in the 6th century AD were certainly Slavs. True there were other peoples living in the area, like the Illyrians and Thracians, but the Slavs from whom the modern ‘Macedonian’ is descendant are relatively new-comers. You say that the Greeks ‘fabricated’ their identity and language. Ok I’ll accept your argument. So what were they speaking before they ‘adopted’ the Koine? I understand you are very passionate about your so-called identity and please don’t think I am attacking or patronizing you. I too don’t want to offend my fellow ‘Slav Macedonians’. Our identity is firmly imbedded in the legacy the ancient Hellenes have bequeathed to humankind. Sure some of the modern Greeks do not deserved to be associated with such a legacy nor do they have the right to, but that is the legacy that we as a nation see ourselves as an extension of and that

is reflected in the use of the Greek language, literature, architecture, music, etc. Whether or not we have been worthy of being ‘respectable’ custodians is debatable. But for people to come out and attempt to usurp our history because theirs is devoid of anything remarkable is petty. I took time to read your writing and I admired your arguments and lexical eloquence, but you are sadly blowing your own trumpet. You speak of the Greeks as some kind of bastardized people with a stolen, fabricated identity. That we are devoid of substance and that you are a proud Macedonian. My friend Risto. The pride that goes with being Macedonian was there one thousand years before your people come to the region. Even if I accept your argument of a bastardized Greek nation with a fabricated identity and a history of lies, there is still a connection between this nation and the ancients in terms of linguistic, cultural and topographical senses. Your people are neither linguistically or culturally related to the ancient Macedonians in any way whatsoever. And let us not touch on the race mixing argument, because I’m sure the ancient Macedonians, in the thousand years it took for you guys to arrive, must have mixed with the other Greeks with whom they shared the same language, gods, Olympics, philosophers, mythology and ancient heroes, rather than sit around waiting for you guys to arrive so they could ‘interbreed’. For arguments sake, I will accept that everything you have said is right. That the Greeks are liars and propagandists and the rest that you claim. But how on earth can you write that your people, being from a Slavic stock, completely disconnected from Alexander the Great by language, culture and historical context, are real Macedonians. At best my friend, you are ‘New Macedonians’. It is laughable that you would claim otherwise. It is simple. Your state, formed in 1947 by martial Tito, is problematic and socially schizophrenic state in search of a modern identity. You are children of communism with a brainwashed and stunted perspective of identity and your place in the world. Out of a population of about two million twenty per cent are ethnic Albanians and you have the audacity to focus on the heterogeneity of the Greek modern state. Of course it is heterogeneous. Only idiots argue it is mono ethnic. I understand your pain and frustration with your identity. If I lived on the fringes of the most glorious territory in the history of this planet I too would consider usurping it. Sure the Greeks might have no connection with the ancients for one reason or another – although that too is relative and has not been studied enough. Your people however are definitely unrelated to the ancient Macedonians.

Nor have you been the custodians of their legacy in any sense of the word except the name of your assumed identity. Check your sources again. Alexander was a pupil of Aristotle as you very well know. Alexander was taught attic Greek. The Koine is what came out of Anatolia and that which the Septuagint in the 3rd century BC and then the gospels were written in. How can you suggest that Greece adopted Koine because it was the lingua franca? Ok – so what were they speaking before that? Or are you implying that there was no such thing as a Greek element and that it was completely fabricated to somehow ‘usurp’ the glory of the ancient Hellenes? My apologies to the Slavic Macedonian people (from the 6th century AD) if they find these opinions offensive. My objective here is NOT to create tension between the Slav-Macedonian and Greek people but rather to highlight the problem that exists within the F.Y.R.O. M and its institutions. As long as F.Y.R.O.M insists on hijacking the 3000 year old Macedonian identity for their 64 year old state, previously known as southern Serbia, and home to every kind of Balkan ethnicity, then we too will continue to respond to your eloquently delivered propaganda. With respect for your views and your struggle for identity Truly, I hope that one day you are called ‘Nova Macedonia’. I believe in your rights and your right to have an identity that defines you historically and geographically, but I disagree with your subversive propaganda. Dimitri (a bastardized Hellene, with a manufactured identity who never stole anything from another nation)”

So, where do I begin? How about with the first paragraph:

“Firstly I must commend you on your eloquence and passion. It comes across clearly. And there is no doubt that you are an extremely articulate and highly intelligent person. However I would like to ask you, if I may that is. What are your credentials? Have you researched all this as a passion or do you hold some authority in the field. It sounds like you do or you want to appear so. Your arguments are intelligently put forth and you have worded your articles with the precision of a diplomat. I would like to ask you however a few questions if I may – for I am sure you expected to get some when you wrote – what at times come across as very vitriolic writing.” Thank God I don’t aspire to flattery! And what kind of credentials would you like me to show you? That I have a PhD in history? That I graduated from a Faculty of History from a University that professes that “Macedonians do not exist”? Are these the kind of credentials you

want me to show you? And what good are these “credentials” for me and for the Macedonian people? “Risto no one in their right mind can claim ethnicity in the sense that we talk about a pure race of people. At least none of the European peoples have not been ‘adulterated’ in one way or another by the historical movements of people. I am a Hellene, Greek call it what you like and manipulate it as you will, but I have no delusions. I know, that at some time in the history of the land from which I supposedly descend, there were other people who might or might have not mixed with the local element. One would have to be very naive to assume they are a ‘true’ anything.” I agree with you here that no one is pure. No one besides Greece and the Greeks claim to be pure. You don’t need to convince me of this. I already know that but you need to convince the Greek academicians and politicians who go around telling the world, and especially their own people living in Greece, that only pure Greeks live in Greece and that they are the descendents of the ancient Greeks. I myself come from Greece and I know this for a fact! “The arguments you so cleverly advocate could be applied to your people.” I have never claimed that Macedonians are pure and descendents of the ancient Macedonians. If fact I believe the Macedonians are the descendents of all people that set foot and settled in Macedonia since the melt of the last ice age. “The people who settled in your region in the 6th century AD were certainly Slavs. True there were other peoples living in the area, like the Illyrians and Thracians, but the Slavs from whom the modern ‘Macedonian’ is descendant are relatively new-comers. You say that the Greeks ‘fabricated’ their identity and language. Ok I’ll accept your argument.” First let me say that I don’t subscribe to the “Slav migration” theory! At best this is a theory that has not been proven. And second, let me say that if any Slavs settled in Macedonia they also settled in Greece. There is plenty of evidence to prove this both from the Slavic place names left behind and from the Slavic languages spoken in remote areas, which in some places in the Peloponnesus are spoken to this day. “So what were they [Greeks] speaking before they ‘adopted’ the Koine?” If you know Greek history as you appear to claim to know then you should know the answer to this question! Ask yourself this! If the so-called Greeks spoke “Greek” or “Koine” as you call it, why did the

Greek Members of Parliament need translators at Naphplion, Greece’s first capital, when the first Greek government was convened? Hint! They needed translators because the first Greek Members of Parliament spoke different languages; and they were not “Greek”. Why else would they need translators? The operative words here are “different languages”! I would have left this for you to find out but for the sake of my readers, the languages spoken in those days (1800s) in Greece were predominantly Albanian (Arvanitika), Vlach (Vlahika), Macedonian (Makedonika), Turkish (Turkika) and a few others including Italian, French, English, German and Russian. Very few from the educated class (including the Phanariots) spoke “demotic Greek”, which at the time was still the language of trade and commerce in some parts of the Ottoman Empire, before Greece adopted it as the national language of Greece. “I understand you are very passionate about your so-called identity and please don’t think I am attacking or patronizing you. I too don’t want to offend my fellow ‘Slav Macedonians’.” Here you sound like a true “hypocrite” Greek. I know you can’t help yourself because once a Greek always a Greek and there is no satisfaction in a Greek unless he or she insults the Macedonian nation. But anyway, in case you didn’t know, we are Macedonians and not “Slav Macedonians”. First, we know who we are. We don’t need a Greek to tell us who we are and who we are not. Second, we find the word “Slav” demeaning and degrading just like a black person would find a gentleman from the Southern United States calling him a “nigger”. So if you don’t want to “offend” the Macedonians please don’t call them “Slav Macedonians”. “Our identity is firmly imbedded in the legacy the ancient Hellenes have bequeathed to humankind. Sure some of the modern Greeks do not deserved to be associated with such a legacy nor do they have the right to, but that is the legacy that we as a nation see ourselves as an extension of and that is reflected in the use of the Greek language, literature, architecture, music, etc. Whether or not we have been worthy of being ‘respectable’ custodians is debatable.” Thank you, I am glad you see yourselves in this way. In fact, we Macedonians see ourselves in a similar way yet your Greeks, yourself included, are incapable of seeing us in this way! Why is that? If I understand you correctly you are Greeks because you identify yourselves as such because of your history, language, literature, music, etc.! So then why do you object to us Macedonians identifying ourselves as Macedonians for the same reasons? Are we less worthy custodians than you? What if I said, “Our Modern Macedonian identity

is firmly imbedded in the legacy that the ancient Macedonians bequeathed to humankind”! Would that be okay with you? Obviously not! Because this is what you say next: “But for people to come out and attempt to usurp our history because theirs is devoid of anything remarkable is petty.” Which of your “true” history are we usurping? Obviously you “don’t know” your true history because if you did you would know that modern Greeks are the descendents of Slav, Albanian and Vlach immigrants and refugees who migrated to the region, today called Greece, during the 6th, 11th and 13th centuries AD. There never was a country called Greece; it was created for the first time in 1829 by the Western Philhellenes. After that your Slav, Albanian and Vlach ancestors were taught how to be Greek and to how to speak Greek in school. I alone have over 300 books that will confirm this. So go ahead and believe your myth, created by the Philhellenes, that you are the descendents of the so-called “Ancient Greeks” and continue to reject and ignore the truth; that you are the descendents of Slavs, Albanians, Vlachs and Turks. Go ahead and keep believing that the Modern Greeks are “truly Greeks” and the rest of the Balkan people are trash, even though we all co-existed together without borders for over two millenniums! Again, for the sake of my readers allow me to correct you! It is you the “fake Greeks” who have stolen not only our Macedonian history but also our Macedonian land and our entire heritage. And hypocritically, as good Greeks, you not only deny this, you deny our existence! “I took time to read your writing and I admired your arguments and lexical eloquence, but you are sadly blowing your own trumpet. You speak of the Greeks as some kind of bastardized people with a stolen, fabricated identity. That we are devoid of substance and that you are a proud Macedonian. My friend Risto. The pride that goes with being Macedonian was there one thousand years before your people come to the region.” I speak the truth when I tell you “who the Modern Greeks are” but you would rather believe the myth created for you by foreigners than to actually look at reality. You say without any proof that we are Slavs who came to Macedonia and yet ignore and brush aside all the evidence that I throw at you, which clearly proves you modern Greeks are nothing more than the descendents of Slavs, Albanians and Vlachs who migrated into this region much later (6th, 11th and 13th centuries AD). “Even if I accept your argument of a bastardized Greek nation with a fabricated identity and a history of lies, there is still a connection between this nation and the ancients in terms of linguistic, cultural and topographical senses. Your people are neither linguistically or

culturally related to the ancient Macedonians in any way whatsoever. And let us not touch on the race mixing argument, because I’m sure the ancient Macedonians, in the thousand years it took for you guys to arrive, must have mixed with the other Greeks with whom they shared the same language, gods, Olympics, philosophers, mythology and ancient heroes, rather than sit around waiting for you guys to arrive so they could ‘interbreed’.” The only reason you are “linguistically”, or in any other form, connected to anything ancient is because today you happened to live in a region where once the ancients lived and your government adopted the ancient language as the official language of your state! Greek was NOT your mother tongue, your 19th and 20th century ancestors learned this language at school. I know that because I come from Greece and my grandparents did not speak Greek. As adults they were too old to learn Greek. And this is because Macedonia (the Greek occupied part) became Greek for the 1st time ever in 1913 after it was invaded, occupied, partitioned in three pieces and annexed by Greece, Serbia and Bulgaria. What is it with Greeks and ancient times? Why don’t we talk about Greeks in modern times and highlight the abuses Greeks inflicted on the Macedonian people in Greek occupied Macedonia from 1913 to date? “For arguments sake, I will accept that everything you have said is right. That the Greeks are liars and propagandists and the rest that you claim. But how on earth can you write that your people, being from a Slavic stock, completely disconnected from Alexander the Great by language, culture and historical context, are real Macedonians. At best my friend, you are ‘New Macedonians’. It is laughable that you would claim otherwise.” “Slavic stock”? What does that even mean? Is this your way of convincing yourself that you are somehow different and better than us? Keep dreaming, my “fake Greek” friend! My friend, my Macedonian ancestors were calling themselves “the children of Alexander” while speaking the same Macedonian language we speak today while your ancestors were calling themselves “Romaioi” (Romans) and spoke Arvanitika, Vlahika and Turkika. Just remember this; both the Arvanites and Vlahi, your “real” Modern Day Greek ancestors, spoke a mother language with Latin roots! So where do your “Greek roots” and continuity come from? The Turks? We will call ourselves “New Macedonians” when you start calling yourselves “Arvanito-Vlachs”. “It is simple. Your state, formed in 1947 by martial Tito, is problematic and socially schizophrenic state in search of a modern

identity. You are children of communism with a brainwashed and stunted perspective of identity and your place in the world. Out of a population of about two million twenty per cent are ethnic Albanians and you have the audacity to focus on the heterogeneity of the Greek modern state. Of course it is heterogeneous. Only idiots argue it is mono ethnic. I understand your pain and frustration with your identity. If I lived on the fringes of the most glorious territory in the history of this planet I too would consider usurping it. Sure the Greeks might have no connection with the ancients for one reason or another – although that too is relative and has not been studied enough.” My friend, I do not believe you are that naïve but because you’re a Modern Greek and you have been misled all your life, I will give you the benefit of the doubt. Here it is; “you don’t know your own true history, never mind mine, and you have been brainwashed by Greek propaganda”. Yes we are a mixed people and remained so because we are true to ourselves. We speak the language of our ancestors and pride ourselves in being a multiethnic, multicultural State with all its pains and troubles. Unfortunately, I can’t say the same about you! Yes, you truly live a “lie” believing in a myth that you are homogenous pure Greeks, descendents of the ancient Greeks! No matter how hard you try to avoid saying this; it comes out loud and clear. Ironically, however, while you boast of your “mythical” existence you continue to deny my existence. And how typical “Greek” of you is that? Allow me to elaborate; “Your people however are definitely unrelated to the ancient Macedonians. Nor have you been the custodians of their legacy in any sense of the word except the name of your assumed identity.” Are these not your words? “Check your sources again. Alexander was a pupil of Aristotle as you very well know. Alexander was taught attic Greek. The Koine is what came out of Anatolia and that which the Septuagint in the 3rd century BC and then the gospels were written in.” Please check your sources too. You are writing to me in English, therefore should I assume that you are English? Are you English? So, the modern Bible is written in English which tells me what? I don’t follow your logic! I am sure Alexander spoke Persian and some other language as well! Does that make him Persian too? Again for the sake of my readers, Alexander and most educated Macedonians were bi-lingual; they spoke Macedonian, probably the ancient version of the modern Macedonian language (which to date has not been proven but we are working on it) and Koine, the region’s common language of trade and commerce. A lot of people who are not