6. EXPANSIONIST “SELECTED PIECES”

6. EXPANSIONIST “SELECTED PIECES”

On June 17, 1990, during the founding Conference of the VMRO-DPMNE ultra-nationalist party of the Socialist Republic of Macedonia (SRM), a proclamation was made that said that the party would “fight for a free, autonomous and united Macedonia” within the context of a “European Confederation”, based on the “ideals of

Ilinden”. VMRO won legislative power in SRM, winning 37 out of the 120 seats in parliament.

The president of VMRO, Ljupco Georgievski stated that he was for “the spiritual and territorial unity of Macedonia” (“Borba” December 31, 1990) but on November 7, 1990 he said: “Pirin Macedonia, Aegean Macedonia and Vardar Macedonia do not make up Greater Macedonia, but only Macedonia. If one speaks of Greater Macedonia then they will have to include Belgrade, Sofia, Thessaly, Valore...”

Tupurkovski, the Skopje Representative of the former Yugoslav Federal Presidency, in a TV show during his tour in Canada said: “Europe has already demonstrated that it can address the question of unification of nations, as was the case of Germany. Just as it was demonstrated one time there would be no reason for Europe to distance itself in terms of the national ideal of a nation, the Macedonian nation”. Answering a question put to him by a reporter who asked “shouldn’t the Macedonians be struggling harder for cultural and intellectual unity than for territorial unity?” he replied: “I think the national ideal should not suffer from limitations and that it includes territorial unity”.

Parliamentarian K. Petrov from the SRM Party in early January 1991 submitted a proposal supported by VMRO, for the acceptance of a proclamation of independence and sovereignty of the Socialist Republic of Macedonia and for that Republic to take steps in international organizations, “with aims at returning the lands seized by Serbia, Bulgaria, Greece and Albania, which belong to them, based on the fact that Macedonians lived on them.”

In a NIN article (dated February 1, 1991) it was once and for all said: “Kiro Gligorov, Macedonia’s new president, in a statement said that soon a major battle would be initiated to tell the world and the Balkan countries the truth about the parts of the Macedonian people in Serbia, Greece and Bulgaria, who were divided and oppressed during the Balkan wars. The leading nationalist parties in Macedonia seeking a Greater Macedonia…, are not hiding their intentions to integrate such territories into a sovereign state, and do not hide their orientation: redefining, with Macedonian force, the

borders with Bulgaria, Greece and Serbia, for them it is only a question of when…”

7. THE SKOPJE PSEUDO-MACEDONIAN CHURCH

Founded in 1967 in Skopje, in the beginning it was independent, after that it became the autocephalous, “Macedonian Orthodox Church”. Its basis and “Metropolis” in the United States took a serious propaganda campaign around the so-called “Macedonian Question”. It should be noted that the Republic of Skopje is the only Yugoslav Republic where an independent church was founded.

Created outside of the Orthodox canons, that “Church” is clearly not recognized by the Ecumenical Patriarchate, the Serbian Patriarchate or by any other Orthodox Church.

For a communist state to form a (pseudo) Skopje “Macedonian Church” - especially when Christianity was persecuted, is a unique worldwide, historical phenomenon.

The creation of the “Macedonian Orthodox Church” against all autocephalous canons, by presidential decree despite the opposition of the Serbian Patriarchate, led to the suspension of spiritual ties that united the Slavs from the Republic of Skopje with the Serbian nation.

It should be noted that Tito personally accepted the official inauguration of its new ecclesiastical policy. On May 28, 1958, at the presidential palace, he accepted the hierarchy of the Serbian Church and in response to Vitentie, the Serbian Patriarch, said: “My wish is that you, as best as possible, address this problem with the Macedonian Church, according to the interests of our country.” (18)

In May 1958, despite Tito’s personal intervention, the Serbian Church refused to address the issue and the following years there was a strong struggle within the Communist Party over the issue of the creation of the “Macedonian Church”. Finally, on July 17, 1967, in a meeting attended by Skopje clergy and lay representatives, held in Ohrid, the “Macedonian autocephalous church” was declared. The Serbian Patriarch reacted immediately and, during a special session

held on September 14 and 15, 1967, it was decided that the “Macedonian Church” of Skopje, with its un-canonical actions would be forced out of the Orthodox Church and it would be labeled a “schismatic religious organization”.

It is clear, and all scholars accept this, that Tito’s government did not care to provide a better answer to meet the spiritual demands of the believers living under the Communist regime. Tito used this opportunity for political fabrications, for propaganda purposes and to highlight the Skopje theses abroad. However, and though it plays only a marginal role in the internal development, the pseudo “Macedonian Church” was effectively used to misinform and deceive migrants from the geographical area of Macedonia (Greece, Bulgaria).

8. IS THERE A “MACEDONIAN” MINORITY IN GREECE?

From looking at all previous data, which sets the logical foundations of the thesis that a “Macedonian” minority exists in Greece, we can arrive at a determination that such a minority does not exist. Of course, in the past, there were people with a Slavic consciousness, sometimes describing themselves as Bulgarians and sometimes as Slav-Macedonians. But after the Second World War and after the Greek Civil War they all left and found refuge mainly in Yugoslavia. There, in well-known conditions, they had ad-hoc education and the vast majority of them were assimilated into the local Slavic environment.

Greece rejects any claims made by Skopje for the recognition of a “Macedonian” minority in Greece for the simple reason that, from the moment the population exchanges took place in 1919 between Greece and Bulgaria, and the departure of the “Slavic Macedonians” in 1949, the Greek territory had no Slavic minority. The population with a Slavic consciousness had already emigrated overseas to Canada, Australia and the USA where it has remained to this day. As for the few individuals who speak the idiom and who have remained in Greece, they have shown, during the recent battles that were led by the nation, that they have a Greek consciousness,

particularly since they refused to join the Macedonian Slav national front organizations - the National Liberation Front.

Forty years after the events that marked the decade 1940-1950, urbanization, population mobility, a modern educational system and raising the living standards have greatly lowered bilingualism, i.e. use of other than the basic Greek language; the Slavic idiom (Bulgarian) which Skopje continues to call “Macedonian”. Some Greeks from the northern part of the country have learned the idiom for commercial and tourist reasons. (The number of references in the text differs from the number of references that follow because of the difference from the original text from 1993 and the one now available on http://www.hri.org/does/affair.htlm. - noted DM)