Part 1 - Introduction - Part 07

Forty years ago we were told that Macedonians simply did not exist; “there was no such thing as a Macedonian”. Thirty years ago we were told that a “Greek” cannot be made; he or she had to be born from Greeks to be Greek. Twenty years ago we were told that “Greek” is the most “solid” ethnic identity on this earth with 4,000 years of continuous and uninterrupted lineage. Now we are told that Macedonians do exist and there are 3,500,000 of them spread all over the world. Well for people who believe they are pure Greeks, direct descendents from the ancient Greeks, even though they are not Greeks at all, anything is possible. For people who descended from Slavs, Albanians and Vlachs and still believe they are Greeks, descendants of the ancient Greeks, anything is possible. For people who believe that Alexander the Great, the same Alexander the Great who conquered and brutally suppressed their so-called “ancient Greek ancestors”, is their national hero, then anything is possible. When I first read the story that a new political party was formed in Greece, calling itself the “Macedonian Party”, I thought “how wonderful”, for a split second. Then reality hit. How is it possible for Greece to have a political party that represents the non-existent Macedonian minority? I knew there had to be a catch. A political party is being formed that wants to elect members to the European Parliament in the June elections. The catch however is that this is NOT a “Macedonian Party” at all but rather a “fake” Macedonian party created by Greeks for the purpose of usurping the name “Macedonia”. This time the Greeks are using a different angle to approach the same old problem. They want to hold onto Macedonia and the Macedonian heritage the best way they know how; by lying and cheating. As we know the Modern Greeks are not Greeks at all. We know they were created by the Philhellenes from the Slav, Albanian and Vlach immigrants who migrated to Greece during the 11th to the 14th century AD. We also know that the Greek people living in Greek occupied Macedonia today are not Greeks at all. Of the total people living in Greek occupied Macedonia the majority are not even Macedonians. Greece has been importing people into Macedonia since it invaded, occupied, partitioned and annexed Macedonian lands in 1912, 1913. Greece has imported Albanians and Vlachs from Albania, 1,100,000 Christian Turks from Asia Minor, the Caucasus, Russia, Armenia, etc. In fact Greece is importing people from all over the world today as we speak and is still calling them Greeks. So the Modern Greeks, being neither Macedonians nor Greeks, in essence have no “real” claim to Macedonia or to the Macedonian heritage so they have no choice but to resort to lying and cheating. The new Greek Party founded by the so-called “World committee for the Protection of Macedonia” is another ploy to lay claim to the name “Macedonia”, through the European Parliament. The Party’s aim is to block the Republic of Macedonia from entering the European Union with the name “Macedonia”. “It is of great importance for Macedonian Hellenism to join the European Parliament with the name ‘Macedonia’, ‘Macedonian’, ‘Macedonians’, in order to guarantee that Macedonia belongs only to Greece, before Skopje has a chance to do this for itself. If the Greeks, who are the real Macedonians, enter the European Parliament with this name then the fake Macedonians will not be able to do so”, said Konstantinos Kalfa committee member of the “World committee for the Protection of Macedonia”, as quoted by Kanal 5. (Note how the fake Greeks refer to the real Macedonians as fakes). According to its founders, “the party will fight to protect the name, history and rights of the large Macedonian minority [of the Greek kind], estimated to number 3,500,000 and is spread all over the world”. So if I understand this correctly, the non-existent Macedonian minority that Greece has denied ever existed, now exists, suddenly overnight. It exists somewhat as “Macedonian” but not really because the Greek types of Macedonians are really “ethnic Greeks” who happened to live in Macedonia.

We know however that there is no such thing as “ethnic Greeks” because the Modern Greek identity is not real but a Philhellene artificial creation! So if ethnic Greeks don’t really exist then these Macedonians who supposedly are “ethnic Greeks” in reality don’t exist either. But wait a minute aren’t the Greeks now telling us that they do exist, and that there are 3.5 million of them all over the world? Confused? Perhaps now you can appreciate the expression “it’s all Greek to me”! In other words “it’s too complicated for us non-Greeks to understand!” Forget what the Greeks are telling you and focus on what they are trying to do. This is not about “ethnicities”, “languages”, “cultures” or histories it’s about the expropriation of Macedonian lands and robbing the Macedonian people of their heritage. Lying and cheating is a “Greek specialty”, this is how they built their fake identity and artificial country. They have lied to the world from the day the Philhellenes brought them into their artificial existence. But no matter how hard they try to suppress the truth it will eventually resurface. What I don’t understand however is why do they have to lie? Everyone knows they are lying; why not admit to the truth? Why not say that in this world “might is right” and as long we they have the “might” we will do whatever we want. They suppress the Macedonian people because they can and will hold onto their lands as long as they can. I don’t know why they have to lie about their fake identity either? They are Greeks because they want to be Greeks, it’s as simple as that. Better still why not admit that they are the descendents of Slav, Albanian and Vlach immigrants? What is wrong with that? We are all immigrants here is Canada, with the exception of the indigenous people we found here when we colonized their lands, and we are not ashamed of it and no Canadian needs to lie about it. We know Greece suffers from anxiety, we have known this for many years. The whole world knows that Greece and Greeks are artificially created entities and that they suffer from anxiety. The only cure for their anxiety is for them to accept the truth. No more lies and pretending will lead to no more anxiety! Anxiety makes Greeks panic and panic causes them to behave irrationally. Behaving irrationally towards their neighbours causes their neighbours to behave irrationally right back. The Republic of Macedonia is forced to behave this way because Greece behaves this way. Most of Europe, catering to Greece’s anxiety, also behaves this way. How else do you explain the “name game”? Is it rational for one country to “demand” of another to change its name? Is it rational for European Union countries to demand the Republic of Macedonia change its name? No! Why then are they behaving this way if not because of Greece’s anxiety? The European Union it seems will accept fake countries like Greece but will not accept the Republic of Macedonia, that is until it changes its name and it too becomes a fake country. This makes one wonder if the European Union itself is a club for fakes. Again, I will ask the reader to look at the European Union for what it does and not for what it says. The EU has many rules and regulations that support minority and human rights in its member states but at the same time it allows its member states to practice racism and discrimination against their minorities. It seems that EU rules and regulations apply to “others” and not to its own members! All those human rights laws in its books and none of them can help the Macedonians in Greece or in Bulgaria. If the European Union will allow racist organizations like the fake “Macedonian Party” in its Parliament whose only aim is to rob the Macedonian people of their lands and heritage, then what does that say about the European Union? Some people think that members of the European Parliament are ignorant of the Macedonian people’s real issues with Greece and Bulgaria. Others say they are indifferent. If that were true then those who are ignorant should by now have learned something after 17 years of playing the “name game”.

And those who are indifferent should have remained indifferent. Why have European Union countries sided with Greece demanding that Macedonia change its name? “Greece’s movement to build a national identity, however, contained a unique element not shared by others: external support and even pressure, for a specific kind of new identity. The British, French and Russians demanded that the modern Greek identity be Hellenic and respond to the Europeans’ nostalgia for the restoration of a pre-Christian Hellenic civilization that has been in eclipse for some two thousand years. Europeans confidently expected to see the characteristic of Homer in post liberation Greeks, in spite of the ebb and flow of history over such a great span of time. The neoclassicism that rose in seventeenth – and eighteenth- century Europe as an aesthetic and philosophical idea was to be physically embodied in modern-day Greece. The idealistic and hopeful attitudes of neoclassicism that would later be imposed on the Greeks was succinctly expressed in 1822 when American President James Monroe declared: ‘The mention of Greece fills the mind with the utmost exalted sentiments and arouses in our bosoms the best feelings of which our nature is susceptible’. In reality, however, just before the Greek war of independence, most Greeks still referred to themselves as Romans. Vlachavas, the priest rebel leader who rose against the Ottomans, declared, ‘A Romneos I was born, a Romneos I will die’. Some Europeans and the few Americans who came to help Greece start a new nation-state, were disappointed even indignant, to discover among Greece’s peasants there were no warrior-heroes like Achilles or Ajax, no statesmen like Pericles, no philosophers like Socrates or Plato and no poets of the caliber of Aeschylus or Sophocles. There was, in fact, little likeness between nineteenth century Greeks and the idealized Greeks from ancient history that had such hold on the imagination of European liberators.” (“Blood Lines form Ethnic Pride to Ethnic Terrorism”, by Vamik Volkan pages 121 and 122). “In Eastern Europe since 1990, the treatment of minorities seems quite contrary to the recent development in Western Europe, which reversed the earlier positions in both parts of Europe. If there have been any results from the High Commissioner’s mission in the three serious cases of the Russians (and other minorities) in the Baltic, the Roma and the Sinti throughout Europe, and the Macedonians in Greece, nothing substantial has so far emerged about them. The High Commissioner has been in existence since the beginning of 1993, and Max ven der Stoel has been exclusively active in Eastern Europe throughout the period until retirement mid-2001 when the new Commissioner Ralf Ekeus took over. After the first period of four years there was an analysis of Ven der Stoel’s efforts; due to the OSCE’s discrete policy, assuring effected states of ‘absolute’ confidentiality, the relevant information is still lacking. The age of secret diplomacy in minority matters is not over in Europe.” (“Ethnicity Nationalism and Violence”, by Christian P. Scherrer, page 253) “Because of Greece’s almost hysterical reaction, the state [Republic of Macedonia] was not admitted to the UN until the end of 1992 under the absurd appellation ‘former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia’. The successive Greek governments allegedly took offense at the symbolism of the name (the Macedonia of Philip II, the native land of Alexander the Great) and at the flag (a sun with sixteen rays on a red background) although Macedonia had born this name as a Yugoslavian Republic since 1948.” (“Ethnicity Nationalism and Violence”, by Christian P. Scherrer, page 283) “The key premise in Humboldt’s idea is that Hellenic civilization assumed a transcendental significance because it testified to a cultural and linguistic purity. This claim was historically absurd and even antithetical to the paradigm of comparative linguistics, which was the core of philological inquiry.

In practical terms, however, the historical absurdity of declaring Hellenic civilization the expression of a culture uncontaminated by foreign elements can be explained by a simple fact that usually tends to be disregarded – namely, that Hellenic civilizations as we know it was in effect the invention of the ‘Science of Antiquity’ of Classics. As such, it could have been (and was) endowed with whatever signification the discipline found useful. The invention of Hellenic civilization shows the profound power of philology as a method to cultural knowledge – indeed, as knowledge.” (“Dream Nation” by Stathis Gourgouris, pages 133 and 134) “…for more than a century, Greek schoolbooks have stressed the unbroken continuity and diachronic and homogeneity of Greek civilization and culture, with the results that Greeks tend to believe without question in this construction of Romantic nationalist historiography. According to this ideology, what is labeled with the timeless and semantically vague abstract term ‘Hellenism’ – together with its language – is a healthy organism that for 4,000 years has either resisted or assimilated foreign influences; alteration is viewed as adulteration, while outside influences are viewed as threats.” (“Hellenisms Culture, Identity and Ethnicity from Antiquity to Modernity”, edited by Katerina Zacharia, page 303) “According to the narrative of Philhellenism, after nearly two millennium of imperial rule – first under the Byzantines and then under the Ottomans – a newly defined Greek nation could reunite with its glorified ancient heritage and, lead by monarchs of German and Danish ancestry, revive the traditions that had inspired western Europe to greatness. Yet Hellenism had to be invented in Europe as the cornerstone of Western Civilization before it could be imported to Greece as a nationalist movement. A combination of the real and imagined culture of the ancient Greeks became, in various guises, a heritage to which all could lay claim. Hellenism became a pan-European endeavour that spanned the course of many centuries and found varied forms of expression in different countries. …Germans came to conflate modern Germany with the ancient Greek world. By the end of the nineteenth century for example, the archeologist Ernst Curtious could justify large scale archeological expeditions to Greece by simply explaining that ‘Germany herself has inwardly appropriated Greek culture’. Similarly, in England ancient Greece became a model for nineteenth century citizens. It stood as proof of the superiority of the West over the barbaric East; as such it presented one more reason for the civilization of the East through European colonization.” (“Possessors and Possessed” by Wendy M. K. Shaw, pages 62 to 64) After reading the above perhaps the reader will come to appreciate why Europe is so fond of Greece. Part 21 – Baiting the Trap

I am sure by now everyone has heard of Professor Miller’s infamous letter to President Obama signed by more than 200 professors and academics. http://macedonia-evidence.org/obama-letter.html#obamacosigners But what does it all mean? Does it take 200 professors to sign a letter with such bogus arguments that even a child can tear apart with its eyes closed? But then if you think about it, there maybe a hidden agenda behind the letter! Does it take 200 professors to legitimize, as the Greeks put it, the “well known facts”? If the “facts” are so well known why does one need ALL those professors to “back them up”? Isn’t it “a bit” of overkill? I know the arguments in the letter can be refuted so easily and I know there are far more capable and convincing “classical students” than Professor Miller so why not go the extra mile and attempt to produce an “iron clad” case before President Obama? There is but one reason why the Greeks have written this “private” but “purposely leaked” letter to President Obama. I received the letter four days before Obama did, do you think it was by accident? No! I believe the letter was sent to simply attract our attention! A trap to lure the Macedonians away from pursuing their human rights and to focus their energies on what the Greeks want them to focus on; nonsensical issues where there is nothing at stake for Greece. The so-called Greek “dispute” with Macedonia actually has nothing to do with ancient history, ancient names, flags, or symbols. Greece’s “dispute” with Macedonia is a ruse to cover up human rights abuses perpetrated by Greece against the Macedonian people living inside Greece. The real issue Greece is trying to avoid has a lot to do with confiscated properties and revoked citizenships than with ancient history. The real issue is about Macedonians being exiled from their homeland for just being Macedonian and Macedonians not being able to speak their language freely and practice their customs and culture without persecution. By writing this letter the Greeks are trying to divert Macedonian and world attention to non consequential and nonsensical issues like “ancient names of regions” and what they were called 2,500 years ago. Issues that nobody cares about and that have no consequences for Greece! The fact that over 200 professors have signed the letter however, if they indeed have signed it, should be of concern to the institutions where these professors teach. Do parents and students approve of their professors meddling in the politics of foreign states? It should be of greater concern to the professors as well; especially if they didn’t sign the letter and their names have been forged by the Greeks and dragged through the mud! Let me explain how Greece plays this game. Greece uses the ancient argument to justify its occupation of Macedonian territories and to claim the Macedonian heritage as its own to the exclusion of the Macedonian people. By arguing that “Macedonians do not exist” Greece is excluding the Macedonian people from their heritage and creating conditions to continue to deny them their human rights. So by helping the Greeks lay claim to the ancient heritage these professors are wittingly or unwittingly aiding and abetting Greece in its quest to deny the Macedonian people their human rights. If this is intentionally done then parents and students do have serious concerns and the right to worry and be upset with these professors. It is important that each co-signing professor think about the implications of his or her signature on this letter and the damage it will do to Macedonian peoples and their human rights! There is a rumour circulating that Professor Miller has recommended that Greece “invade and annex” the Republic of Macedonia. I am currently looking for a source on this but if it turns out to be true would these professors still support Miller in his quest? Greece and its Philhellene patrons had over 200 years to re-write history and poison the world with their “awesome” and unbelievable lies.

But why are they now resorting to using this fake “ancient history” to solve their modern problems? When it comes to “modern issues” why are Greeks focusing on the history from 2,500 years ago to solve their current problems instead of focusing on more recent history, like the history of the disintegration of the Ottoman Empire and the formation of the modern Balkans states? Modern Balkan problems, issues, disputes and arguments today stem directly from events that took place in the last 200 years. Today’s problems in the Balkans are a direct result of the formation of the new Balkan states and the conditions under which they were created. So why doesn’t Greece want to talk about or hold debates on issues from this period? Why instead talk about what happened 2,500 years ago? Since the ancient City States were conquered by the Macedonians 2,300 years ago, the people in the lower Balkans have been subjugated by many conquerors including the Romans, Byzantines and Ottomans and the people have lived without borders up until the creation of the Modern Balkan states in the 19th century. Without borders to stop invaders, whoever invaded Macedonia also invaded Greece; whoever settled in Macedonia also settled in Greece. Being in close proximity (neighbours with open borders) for 2,300 years has exposed both Macedonia and Greece to the same demographic conditions. What was there to prevent those who entered Macedonia from entering Greece? The logical answer would be “nothing”! Wouldn’t one be able to find the same kind of people in Greece as one finds in Macedonia? The logical answer would be “certainly”! So why should we believe the Greeks when they tell us that they are “pure Greeks”, descendents of the Ancient Greeks and that the Macedonians are “Slavs”? If the Modern Greeks are the descendants of the ancient Greeks then the Modern Macedonians are the descendents of the Ancient Macedonians! Conversely, if the Modern Macedonians are “Slavs” then so are the Modern Greeks! Before determining “who the ancients were and were not”, would it not be logical to ask the question “who are and who are not the moderns”? Let us start with the Modern Greeks since they came into the 19th century scene first. Who are the Modern Greeks? Here is what Edmund About has to say in his book “Greece and the Greeks of the Present day”. On page 160 we read: “The Turkish village which formerly clustered around the base of the Acropolis had not disappeared: it forms a whole quarter of the town. There are narrow alleys, huts of the height of a man, yards in which chickens, children and pigs crawl pell-mell between a dunghill and a heap of fagots. An immense of the majority of the population of this quarter is composed of Albanians.” Here is what Alexandra Halkias has to say in her book “The Empty Cradle of Democracy”. On page 59 we read: “Through the end of the revolution in 1830, Greeks, including most of the nineteenth century nationalists, seemed to have had a vague but firm sense of continuity from ancient to modern Greece, though this was not articulated in racial terms but on the basis of a common language, history, and consciousness. In effect, at this time, whoever called themselves a Greek was a Greek. It is because of this that many Greek-speaking Albanians, Slavs, Romanians, and Vlachs were easily assimilated and indeed became important players in Greek patriotism at the time. Until the beginning of the 19th century, the average inhabitant of Greece called himself or herself a Roman (Romios), and the (Greek) language Romeika. To some extent – the consciousness of the modern Greek of his classical ancestry is a product of Western Scholarship.” Here is what Michael Herzfeld has to say in his book “Anthropology”. On page 67 we read: “The example of modern Greece provides a useful key to historicizing those who Eric Wolf has ironically dubbed ‘the people without history’ (Wolf 1982). For the modern Greeks - a people arguably plagued by an excess of history, but of a kind invented for them by more powerful others.”

Here is what Appleton had to say in his 1901 “Annual Encyclopedia” third series volume VI. On page 113 we read: “The first Greek who had a plan for insurrection and for a liberated Greece was Rhigas of Valestino, a Thessalian who served in high posts in Wallachia, spent some years in Vienna, and was handed over by the Austrians to the Turks in Trieste in 1798 as a revolutionary conspirator, and hanged in Belgrade. Rhigas was the author of poems, revolutionary proclamations and a constitution, closely modeled on the French constitution of 1793 and 1795. In this document he spoke of the sovereign people of the proposed state as including ‘without distinction of religion or language – Greeks, Albanians, Vlachs, Armenians, Turks and every other race’.” Here is what we read on page 42 of the “Insight Guides Athens Greece Series”. “Because of numerous and protracted foreign occupations, true Athenians were a relatively small minority even in the age of Pericles. In later periods, the city was suffering from severe depopulation and re-stocked with Albanians. At the time of Greek independence in 1834, Athens was a miserable village with a population of only 6,000.” In the “Atlantic Monthly” of January 1882 volume XLIX we read: “It is one of a group made famous in the Greek revolution of 1821 by the bravery of its Albanian settlers, in defense of a country which they had never adopted for their own till this moment of danger came.” On page 109 of the book “Entangled Identities” edited by Atsuko Ichijo and Willfried Spohn we read: “It should be strongly emphasized, however, this image of classical Greece was constructed in Europe and was imported to the newborn Greek state. (Tsoukalas 2002)” After reading the above quotes, there is but one logical conclusion that can be reached and that is “the Modern Greeks are the direct descendants of the Slavs, Albanians and Vlachs” and have nothing to do with the so-called “ancient Greeks”. Unfortunately Greeks don’t want to talk about their “recent history” because they don’t want it to be discovered that they are frauds and charlatans. Let us not allow the Greeks to fool the world that their dispute with the Macedonian people is anything but a ruse to sidestep the real issue, the existence of the Macedonian minority in Greece. The so-called Greek dispute with Macedonia is not about “names” or “history”! How can it be when the Modern Greeks are neither Greeks nor Macedonians? Why would a people who are neither Greeks nor Macedonians care about “Macedonia’s name” or “Macedonia’s history”? The ONLY concern the so-called Modern Greeks have is “how to continue to hang on to Macedonian lands and to the Macedonian heritage” as long as they can. Part 22 – The Greek Macedonians

Several days ago I received a phone call from a stranger who opened the conversation in Macedonian and later asked me if I spoke Greek. He introduced himself as a “Grkoman” and asked me if I had ever heard of him. I said no to both questions. This person, who asked to remain anonymous, said he was sick and tired of the Greeks denying the existence of Macedonians and wanted to have a meeting with me to tell me his side of the story so that I could write about it. I don’t know the man and I don’t know if his intentions were honourable, but being the suspicious kind that I am, I couldn’t help myself but question “what is this all about?” Is this another attempt by the Greeks to muddy the waters by pretending to be Macedonians in order to diminish the real Macedonian cause? Or have the “Hellenized Greeks” (Grkomani), who for years have abandoned their true ethnicity in favour of being “Greeks”, come to their senses and now want to join the Macedonians? Is this another “Greek ploy” working at a “higher level” to usurp the Macedonian heritage at the expense of the real Macedonians in line with the Greek “Macedonian Party” I wrote about a couple of weeks ago? http://www.americanchronicle.com/articles/view/102681 Or is there a genuine desire by the Grkomani to liberate themselves from the Greek shackles? Was this person acting as a Trojan horse for the Greeks? Or was he genuinely tired of the Greeks abusing him and wanted to do something about it? Why did he introduce himself as a “Grkoman” and why ask me if I spoke “Greek” when we both communicated very well in Macedonian? There are too many questions for which I have no answers so I can’t risk brushing him off as another “agent of Greece” or as a Macedonian who is genuinely concerned for his own kind. Therefore my choice would be to define what a “Grkoman” is, according to my understanding, and leave the rest to the readers to reach their own conclusion. Plainly put, in this context, a “Grkoman” is a Hellenized Macedonian. But in the eyes of the genuine Macedonian people, a “Grkoman” is simply a traitor. The “Grkomani” are a product of Greece’s forced assimilation policy designed to Hellenize Macedonia and the Macedonian people. To truly understand the “Grkoman” or “Bulgaroman” phenomenon one has to imagine an “occupied” people in a world where the conditions for survival are “created” by the “occupier”. In order to maintain control of the occupied, the occupier needs to know when and where to act and for that he needs reliable information. This information must come from the inside and must be accurate. So, to gain such information the occupier needs to enlist the services of insiders in the occupied world. Unfortunately, the only insiders who are willing to provide such information are those who are either disgruntled individuals or individuals that can be bought in exchange for something they desire such as sums of money, social status, free education, a better job, power over others, etc. However, to prove his or her loyalty the insider or collaborator is expected to commit some act, usually a criminal act, against his own people. This way the occupier will be assured of the collaborator’s loyalty. So how will a collaborator react to a situation where the occupier is threatened? In such a situation the collaborator will fight for the occupier in order to maintain the status quo. I am not implying that all “Grkomani” are collaborators but I do question their actions. If these people have committed no harm to the Macedonian people then what are their motives for siding with the occupiers? So my hope here is that many of these “Grkomani” are ignorant of their real identity or are taking advantage of the situation for some small personal gain. Thus, no harm done and there is hope for them yet. But for those who have done serious harm, good luck to them! To be loyal to family and friends is fine but it should not stop people from thinking for themselves and finding out who they really are.

I have been told that loyalty to family comes first and I can’t say that I disagree with that. If your parents or grandparents saw themselves as other than Macedonians, for which I am sure they had a reason, that does not change the fact that they have a Macedonian ancestry which, when the time comes, will be recognized as such. So where does that leave you? You can argue with me that, that will never happen just as many in the past have argued that Macedonia will never be free of the Romans, Byzantines, or Turks or you can reconsider where you stand and make the right choice. The Republic of Macedonia’s independence has created a problem for Greece. Greece took the 19th century road but somewhere down the line forgot to take a turn when the whole world was turning. Yugoslavia was whole at one time populated by “South Slavs”. In fact Yugoslavia was touted as the Switzerland of the Balkans. But where is Yugoslavia today? Who would have thought Yugoslavia, the Switzerland of the Balkans, would disintegrate to its elemental level? Who would have thought that Yugoslavia was populated by other than “South Slavs”? Believe me; Greece is not far behind. Its belligerent behaviour towards its minorities, especially the Macedonians, will not serve it well! So if I may summarize, I see the “Grkomani” falling into three categories; 1. Those who are truly ignorant of their own ethnicity. The ones who learned to speak Macedonian from their predecessors and think it’s a “Greek dialect”. They call themselves Greek because all their lives they have been told they are Greek. 2. Those who know they are not Greek but pretend to be Greek because there are advantages to “being Greek” or because they are afraid of being harmed if it is discovered that they are not Greek. 3. The ones who in the past, in the name of Greece, have committed crimes against their own people and need the Greeks to protect them from prosecution. These types will do anything to keep themselves safe, even help the Greek cause against the Macedonians in order to maintain the status quo. If the man who called me on the telephone falls into the first two categories I would be more than glad to help him and I am sure I speak for every Macedonian when I say “welcome back”. But if the man falls into the third category I want no part of him and I will not hesitate to expose him and the crimes he has committed. It is people of the third kind who helped the Greeks make the dreaded “black lists” and sent so many innocent Macedonians to their death and to the Greek concentration camps. It is people of this kind that made so many Macedonians permanent refugees. It is these “sold out” Macedonians that today are so vocal and against the Macedonians gaining their human rights. Another thing that this man mentioned, which sounded peculiar, was the number of Macedonians living in Ontario. “Did you know,” he asked “that 600,000 Macedonian live in Toronto, or, well, I mean in Ontario and roughly 3,000,000 in Greece?” I did not know that! I didn’t bother to ask where he got his figures, but then I remembered a friend from Australia sent me the following article, part of which I would like to share with you. “Some Greek community leaders say there are 700,000 Greeks in Australia, implying that one in 25 Australians is Greek by some way or another, but are they? Another interesting perception is that outside Greece Melbourne is the second largest Greek speaking city in the world, but here again is it? Not by birthplace, or even by parental birthplace. The 2006 census recorded only 109,989. The 1991 census recorded 136,331. Not by Language. The 2006 census recorded 252,216. The 1991 census recorded 274,974 Australians who said that they spoke Greek at home. Not by Ancestry. The 2006 census recorded 365,145. The 1986 census, when this question was first asked, recorded 311,942. If there are indeed 700,000 Greek Australians then that suggests that most Greek Australians were not born in Greece, do not have Greek born parents, do not speak Greek at home and do not see themselves as people of Greek Ancestry.

According to various Greek Community sources however, which continuously convey information to the Australian authorities, there are still 700,000 Greeks in Australia. According to the Australian Bureau of Statistics the real figure for the Greek Australian population lies in the 365,000 range. Information relating to the three census questions all point to this figure. Another misconception portrayed in the Australian Greek media is that Melbourne is the third largest Greek City outside of Greece. But is it? In Canada the Greek media portrays Toronto as the third largest Greek City in the world. In the USA the Greek media portrays New York as the third largest Greek City in the world. The Australian Bureau of Statistic has shown that Victoria has a population of 5.3 million of which 3.9 million live in Melbourne and 128,164 Melbournians are of Greek ancestry. Despite the census being conducted by government bodies, the Greek media has still managed to convince various authorities in Australia, Canada and the USA that the third largest Greek city in the world is situated in Melbourne, Toronto and New York respectively! How can that be?” (Zoran C.) We know very well that “Greek” as an ethnic entity does not exist but to maintain the impression that it does, Greeks will resort to anything and everything possible from claiming that people of the Christian Orthodox religion are in reality Greeks to anyone who has a “Greek sounding name” is Greek. Just pick up a Greek community telephone book in Toronto and you will find Macedonians, Spaniards and even Latvians represented as Greeks. As long as it sounds Greek, it must be Greek! But then if you think about it, it all makes sense. If Slavs, Macedonians, Albanians, Christian Turks and Vlachs can be “instant modern Greeks” then why not other people with “Greek sounding” names? After all “Greek sounding” is almost Greek; isn’t it? How more fake is a Greek-sounding name of a Latvian than a “Hellenized” Greek sounding name of a Macedonian? I would say they are about equal! “Hellenizing” other ethnic groups, to most Greeks, is equivalent to subjecting them to a “civilizing” process! And what is wrong with that? There is nothing wrong with it except “fake Greeks” have no heritage and cannot be the descendents of the so-called ancient Greeks. Unfortunately being upright and honest has never been a Greek forte so to cover up their artificiality they resort to not only changing people’s name but erasing timeless place names and replacing them with alien ones to suit their purposes. “But how were the names changed? One method was by the direct replacement of the existing names by their ancient predecessors. The usual source was Pausanias’ description of Greece, written in the second century AD. When the names stemmed from (ancient) Greek toponyms but had been adopted to the local dialect (i.e. they had been ‘altered’), they should be reformed in accordance with the phonetic and morphological rules of Katharevousa. (Marousi, derived from the ancient Amarynthos became amarousion). Sometimes toponyms were replaced by names that really existed; other times they were changed randomly and hastily. When non-Greek toponyms were adopted, this was done in a total arbitrary fashion, sometimes on the basis of misunderstood morphology (for example, a wooded village might be called ‘tree-less’ (adendron). In other cases, the result was the unsuccessful translation of the non-Greek name. Names that had acquired a commemorative value, particularly since the Revolution of 1821, were often replaced by obscure, antiquated denominations (Tripoly in place of Tripolitza, Aigion in place of Vostitsa, Kalamai in place of Kalamata, Amphissa in place of Salona, Lamia in place of Zitouni, Agrinion in place of Vachori). Even national heroes had to change their names. For example, Rigas Valestinlis had to change to Rigas Pheraios because his village of Valestino was near the site of ancient Pherai. Still, despite apparent chaos, frequently comic results, and general incoherence, the process followed an internal logic: the creation of a ‘Hellenized’ toponymic environment.

Who decided to change the toponyms? It might have been expected that this would have been done at the initiative of the state: An instruction came from above, from the center to the region. But it did not happen exactly this way. The government used to appoint commissions composed of university professors of history, linguistics, folklore, and archeology. The 1920 commission, set up after the acquisition by Greece of Macedonia, Thrace and Epirus, was constituted by the same persons who had created the ‘scientific’ study of the Greek nation – that is, the creators of the country’s history, archives, and the Museum of National History (Spyridon Lambros), of its folklore (Nikolaos Politis), and of its linguistics (Georgios Tajiadakis).” (“Hellenism Culture, Identity, and Ethnicity from Antiquity to Modernity”, edited by Katerina Zacharia, pages 232 and 233) Part 23 – The Need for Intelligence Gathering