CONDITIONS UNDER WHICH THE TREATY OF BUCHAREST WAS DRAFTED - Part 10

Nowadays we often hear in the news of people having their identity stolen, resulting in life altering consequences for the victims. This, however, is not a new phenomenon, at least not for the Macedonians. When an identity thief steals a person’s identity, which on the surface may sound funny, they steal more than their name; they steal their history, property, dignity and life. The victims find themselves isolated, questioned and sometimes suspected of having done something wrong. Every time the identity thief steals money from the victim’s accounts and the victim complains, the victim is put in question and his or her entire existence is put under scrutiny. As Macedonians we are well aware of how it feels to be victims of identity theft. We are feeling those effects even today. Our story begins in the late 1800’s when our neighbours the Greeks, Serbians and Bulgarians decided that they wanted our Macedonia for themselves. To legitimize their claims they first declared that “Macedonians do not exist” and as potential heirs to Macedonia, they began to speak on behalf of the Macedonian people. To make their claims more believable the three began producing census and demographic reports each claiming that the vast majority of the people living in Macedonia were of their own kind with a few Vlachs and Turks here and there. Each in turn produced reports that greatly exaggerated their claims and contradicted the others. Unfortunately they could not agree as to who and how many were actually Greeks and how many were Serbians or Bulgarians, but in the absence of Macedonians in their reports they all agreed that “Macedonians did not exist”. The Greeks claimed there were more Greeks living in Macedonia than all the others combined. Serbia and Bulgaria too were making similar outrageous claims. These however were all lies. The only interest these three (Greece, Serbia and Bulgaria) had in Macedonia was to steal Macedonia away from the Macedonian people and convince the world that it actually belonged to them on account that the people living in Macedonia were part of their respective nations. Having no clout and no voice in the matter the Macedonian people kept silent. The few that spoke up were drowned out by the many voices of our enemies. Any Macedonian who attempted to “do something” was as good as dead. Being indifferent to the situation, the outside world couldn’t care less and had no desire to find out the truth about what was really going on in Macedonia. The outside world had reason to not believe the Greeks, Serbians and Bulgarians on account of their bogus

contradictory demographic statistics yet still, outside of some brows raised in the western capitals, no one took real measures to do anything. Even when France sent its own census monitors, the Greeks still managed to cheat them by having their priests tell the Macedonian people to say “ne” meaning “no” when they were asked “if they were Greek”. So when people, most of whom did not speak Greek were asked in the Greek language if they were “Greek”, they answered “ne” meaning “no” in Macedonian. “Ne” however means “yes” in Greek. So naturally they were counted as Greeks even though they said they weren’t! So in time the Greeks, Serbians and Bulgarians and to some extent the Albanians and Romanians became the spokespeople for the Macedonians, a practice which continues to this day! Greece, Serbia and Bulgaria’s wishes came true in 1912 when they invaded Macedonia without any opposition from the outside or from within. After driving out the Ottomans, ironically with help from the Macedonian people, their armies settled in for a long stay. In order to gain entry into Macedonia without opposition, the three lied to the Macedonian people for years, telling them that they would be sending their armies to Macedonia to liberate the Macedonian people from the Ottomans. However they neglected to tell them that once they drove the Ottomans out they intended to stay, occupy their country, partition it and annex it for themselves. They also neglected to tell them that they would assimilate them and turn them into Greeks, Serbians and Bulgarians whether they liked it or not. Again their wishes came true after the three partitioned and annexed Macedonia in 1913 with Great Power approval sanctioned by the signing of the 1913 Treaty of Bucharest. From that time onward, Macedonians were not allowed to call themselves Macedonians. Those annexed by Greece became instant Greeks. Those refusing to call themselves Greeks were exiled or outright executed as an example to the others. The Serbians and Bulgarians did exactly the same. But over the years the Macedonian embers kept smoldering, buried deep down in the ashes invisible to the naked eye, that is, until one day a spark flew out and restarted the Macedonian flame. Against all odds, after what happened to the Macedonian people over the years, in 1991 they declared their independence and formed a Macedonian state. With the break up of Yugoslavia, the part of Macedonia that was annexed by Serbia in 1913 finally became an independent state. The Macedonians, unlike the other people in Yugoslavia, liberated themselves and declared their independence peacefully and without bloodshed. Some

called it a miracle, but not those who were guilty of wrong doing like the Greeks and Bulgarians and their Western European patrons. They were quick to condemn the Macedonian people as frauds, the very same act of which they themselves are guilty. Greece, the very country which had illegally and by act of war annexed 51% of Macedonia in 1913, as confirmed by the 1913 Treaty of Bucharest, was the first to not only protest Macedonia’s independence but, after trying to bury the name “Macedonian” out of existence for a century, protested its use by this independent country, claiming that the name was Greek! In addition to having illegally expropriated Macedonian lands and having committed genocide against the Macedonian people over the years in 1991, Greece also became an identity thief by outrageously claiming that the Macedonian people could not call their country Macedonia because that name is Greek! Now in addition to having their country taken away from them for a century, being exiled, forcibly assimilated and abused, Macedonians are again finding themselves the victims of the same perpetrators, this time the victims of identity theft! If a person is born in Macedonia, is a descendent of many generations of Macedonians, speaks the Macedonian language, practices the Macedonian culture and traditions, has been called Macedonian and feels like a Macedonian, then one would deduce that they are Macedonian and their country is Macedonia! But not the Greeks! The Greeks now say that the name Macedonia is Greek and that they are the only Macedonians and therefore “these people” should not be allowed to call their country Macedonia! But that’s not all; Greeks also demand that “these people” not call themselves Macedonians and their language Macedonian! In other words, Greece, the identity thief, will not tolerate the real Macedonians calling their country “Macedonia” and their identity and language “Macedonian”! Over the centuries the Macedonian people lost their country, many were exiled, experienced genocide, experienced forced assimilation and countless other atrocities at the hands of the Greeks, Serbians and Bulgarians and on top of that they now have to endure the pain of having their identity stolen. They now have to justify their existence every time they dare call themselves Macedonians. And how does the world react to all this? It is telling the Macedonians to change their name and give in to the demands of their identity thieves! Ironically, despite what has happened to the Macedonian people over the years, most people in the world support the Greek side, the criminal side, which is not only sad but purely pathetic!

I however don’t blame the world for not believing the Macedonian side. How could the world believe the Macedonian side when these criminals, for a century now, have been the unopposed voices speaking for the Macedonian people and claiming that Macedonians don’t exist and that the Macedonians of today are some kind of Titovian Frankenstein creation! God only knows how far these criminals and identity thieves will go to cover their tracks! Now imagine how the Macedonian people must feel, having been robbed of everything they value, their lands, their names, their history, their culture, their heritage and on top of that, their identity. They can’t call their country Macedonia, they can’t call their ethnic identity Macedonian and they can’t call their language Macedonian, all because of these identity thieves. How can the Macedonians survive when Greece, the real identity thief, is spending every ounce of its energy to paint itself as the victim of a “Macedonian” plot designed to steal their Macedonia from them? The very same Macedonia which they themselves stole from the Macedonian people in 1912, 1913! Despite the fact that today’s modern Greeks are not who they purport to be and ethnically they are not much different than the rest of the people living in the Balkans, they maintain that they have exclusive and inherent rights not only to the name “Macedonia” but also to Macedonian lands and the Macedonian heritage. Despite the fact that both Macedonia and Greece have been borderless since Philip II’s time (338 BC up until 1913 when the modern artificially imposed border was erected after Macedonia’s partition) and despite the fact that the entire region including Macedonia and Greece, over the last two millenniums has been overrun by the same conquerors and settlers, Greece maintains that it is populated by “pure Greeks” (98% pure Greeks and 2% Muslim Greeks) and Macedonia is populated by “Slavs”, whatever that means! We all know how the borders that partitioned Macedonia in 1912 and 1913 were drawn and we all know that Greece willingly signed the 1913 Treaty of Bucharest giving half of Macedonia to its partners and worst enemies. Yet today Macedonia is Greek! How can that be? According to the Greeks “No explanation is required!” I think the problem here is not whether Macedonians exist or not or whether Macedonians have the right to call their country Macedonia and their identity and language Macedonian. The problem here is that every time we say the word “Greece” and “Greeks” we give legitimacy and credence to a bunch of pirates and identity thieves who do not deserve the attention they get.

By writing, talking and “negotiating” with them we legitimize their theft and false claims! The Greeks are no different than any of their immediate neighbours because whatever happened to their neighbours over the years has also happened to them. So if Macedonians don’t exist, then “Greeks” don’t exist! If Macedonians can’t call their country Macedonia the Greeks do not have the privilege of calling their artificially created country Greece or Hellas or whatever it is they call it! If the Macedonians can’t call their ethnic identity Macedonian then Greeks do not have the privilege of calling their artificially created identity Greek or Hellene or whatever it is they call themselves! If the Macedonians can’t call their mother tongue Macedonian then the Greeks have no right to call their artificially imposed language Greek or Hellenic or whatever it is they call it! If the Greeks like to call the Macedonian peoples’ country “Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia” (FYROM) then the Greeks should not mind if the Macedonian people call their country “Former Ottoman Republic of Greece” (FOROG). If Greece insists that the rest of the world call Macedonia FYROM then Greece should not mind if Macedonia insists that the world call Greece FOROG. If Greece was not guilty of piracy and identity theft, Greece would not care what Macedonia calls itself. But obviously its fear of being discovered has made it act irrationally! So once again, if a nation of people is born in Macedonia of Macedonian parents, grandparents, great grandparents, etc., stretching back countless generations, speaks the Macedonian language and feels Macedonian, then what else could it be other than Macedonian? Many thanks to Dedo Kire for giving me the idea for this essay.

Dedo Kire wrote:

I speak a little French and can sing a few songs but I am not French nor does France make me one. I speak a little Spanish and can sing some Spanish songs but I am not Spanish nor does Spain make me one. I speak a smattering of Portuguese, Italian, German but none of the countries try to make me one of them. I speak English rather well but England doesn’t call me or regard me as an Englishman. I speak a few words of Greek and sing one or two songs and Greece tries to lie to the world that I am Greek. I speak Macedonian, my mother tongue, and I choose to call myself ethnically Macedonian but Greece denies that no such language exists even though I speak it as millions do. Some universities teach it too.

Greece tells the world I speak a barbarian bastard language as much as to try and make me a Barbarian Bastard. Greece tries to convince the world that they are the true and only ‘Macedonians’ claiming a monopoly on the name. With audacity, they now claim everything associated with that name throughout history. Over the past 90 years Greece has practiced with increasing vigor IDENTITY THEFT and are still doing it. Their ACTIONS speak louder than words. Look, in 1923 they changed every village name, every river, every mountain from a Macedonian name to a Greek Name. Then they FORCED every Macedonian in Northern Greece to change their Macedonian name into a Greek name. The Greek Orthodox Church collaborated refusing to baptize children with a name other than Greek, refused to marry anyone or bury anyone with a Macedonian name. No one could go to any school or be employed unless they used a Greek name. They went so far as to punish anyone speaking the Macedonian language. Everyone who learns about this responds the same way, “Unbelievable”, they say. Yet, it is true. It is and was nothing less than CULTURAL GENOCIDE. With the proclaiming the ideas of Human Rights imbedded in the Charter of the United Nations it is now about time to STOP THIS CULTURAL GENOCIDE. Now is the time to STOP THE IDENTITY THEFT being practiced by Greece against the Republic of Macedonia AND Macedonians around the world. Let us gather together, take council, AND STOP THE THIEF WHO IS STEALING.

Dedo Kire

Essay 46 - Assimilation of Macedonians Continues

Many times I have written about Macedonians being assimilated by the Greeks in the past; references I made in error. Macedonians were not only assimilated in the past but are being continuously assimilated as we speak. It is happening more often than one would realize. By assimilation I mean both voluntary and involuntary absorption of ethnic Macedonians into other ethnic or national groups. My interest in this essay, however, will focus on the involuntary type where Macedonians are stripped of their rights to be Macedonians. Assimilation of Macedonians on a massive scale began right after Macedonia was invaded, occupied and partitioned in 1912, 1913 when Greece, Serbia and Bulgaria established a foothold in Macedonian territories. In Greece, for example, Macedonians were told: “as of this point forward this is Greece and you are Greeks and if you don’t like it you have 24 hours to pack your things and take whatever you can carry on your backs and get out”. Many Macedonian left and eventually ended up in the USA, Canada and Australia. The second massive wave of forced assimilation in Greek occupied Macedonia came in the 1920’s when Greece introduced a program designed to rename everything Macedonian so that it sounded Greek. Greek administrators supported by the military were sent from village to village to gather Macedonians and issue them new names. Some names were direct translations of the original Macedonian names, most however, particularly those which had strong connections to Macedonia, were completely changed. If a person could not pick a suitable Greek-sounding name, they were issued one. In addition to changing all the peoples’ names, Greek authorities also changed all place names including those of villages, towns, cities, lakes, mountains, rivers, roads, etc. In this case Macedonians were not even consulted and most names chosen were arbitrary and meaningless. While one part of the Greek administration was assimilating the Macedonians through personal, family and place name changes, another was dispatched to remove all traces of Macedonia including Macedonian writing on public buildings, churches, gravestones, etc. While the writing on stone in public buildings was chiseled out, entire cemeteries were bulldozed and turned into fields. Tombstones were used as building material and buried in foundations. While bibles, church and other Macedonian books were collected and burned, contractors were hired to paint over church icons with Macedonian writing and replace it with Greek. Even though all that was Macedonian was banned and prohibited from use, the real clampdown came in the form of strongly enforced

law in the 1930’s when the Macedonian language was banned. At this point the Greek state introduced night classes for Macedonian adults in order to force them to learn Greek. To force the people to speak Greek, the Macedonian language was banned, by law, from use in public and in private. To make sure no one spoke Macedonian, the Greek state deployed a massive police force to spy on people in all sectors of life, including the privacy of their homes. In addition to their regular pay, each policeman received a percentage of the fines imposed on those caught speaking Macedonian. The fines were hefty and most violators had to either borrow money or sell their assets to pay for them. This was devastating for the old and poor who did not speak Greek and had no choice but to speak Macedonian, particularly in the marketplace when they needed to buy groceries. Some people were even fined for uttering commands in Macedonian to their beasts of burden and dogs. Having not lived under these circumstances I cannot possibly describe how I would feel if I were deprived of speaking the only language I knew. I do not know how I would feel if I was unable to recognize the names of my best friends, not able to ask to purchase my groceries, or unable to explain myself when summoned to court to pay my fines! I cannot possibly understand how it feels to sell part of my family’s property which was owned by my family for countless generations in order to pay a fine, fined for speaking the only language I know, a fine imposed on me in my own hometown where I was born and grew up? But that was not all! Children and even adults were made to drink castor oil and other dreaded deadly potions when caught speaking what the Greeks called “that filthy Gypsy language”. Hey folks when are we going to wake up and see what has been happening to us? When are we going to awaken from the stupour and realize what these monsters from the so-called “cradle of democracy” have done to us? When are we going to stop sparing their feelings and start telling our story the way it is? And who are these people we are protecting? Are we protecting ourselves from their further abuse or are we protecting them and keeping silent so that they can continue to abuse us? Even in this day and age they violate our rights on a daily basis by denying our rights, not only in Greece but outside in our own sovereign state. How long are we going to suffer in silence? And who exactly are they and what gives them the right to do all that to us? They are not even Greeks but Macedonians just like us, Albanians, Vlachs, Turks and others who bought into the idea that they can pretend to be “Greeks” and abuse us to no end.

I am sorry to say unfortunately it is us who give them that right by keeping silent and by being willing to let others “negotiate” things with them that are clearly ours. Miraculously, like the weed no one wants, to the surprise and chagrin of our enemies and their benefactors, we continued to exist and propagate our Macedonian identity through our language, culture and customs, in secrecy if we have to. No wonder the Greeks had to introduce so many drastic measures to stop our proliferation and our polluting of their pureness. When one drastic measure did not work the Greeks were not above introducing another. The next measure they introduced was the encouragement of “Greek men” to marry Macedonian women in hopes of producing pure Greek offspring. When that didn’t work the Greek state introduced preschool kindergartens in order to Hellenize Macedonian children and teach them to speak Greek and pump them full of anti-Macedonian propaganda before they had the chance to learn their Macedonian mother tongue or experience their own culture and customs. Outside of Greece, when these menacing Greek acts drove the Macedonian population out of their homeland to the Diaspora, Macedonian sentiment did not die as expected but flourished. So the Greek state extended its policies of forcibly assimilating Macedonians to outside of its borders. If a Macedonian living in Canada for example “felt Macedonian” then his or her relatives still living in Greece were punished. Unfortunately just punishing the relatives was not enough! Greece demanded obedience of these people even outside of Greece. In addition to “stop feeling Macedonian” these people were required to be Greeks and to show their Greek-ness by joining anti-Macedonian organizations, participating in anti-Macedonian rallies and demonstrations and by regularly attending Greek Church. Family members were expected to keep their Greek name, be baptized and married in Greek churches, attend Greek school and be all round normal Greeks. For every Macedonian organization in existence in the Diaspora the Greek state made sure there was an opposing Greek one which held its events on the same day, making sure none of its flock strayed. Some organizations which began in the 1950’s exist to this day. Some like the powerful Macedonian Organization “Zhelevo brotherhood” which established most of the foundations for Macedonian culture in Canada was completely obliterated by the Greeks and replaced with their own Organization named “Andartikon” which is not only in existence to this day but proved to be one of the most anti-Macedonian organizations in Toronto after the Greek sponsored “Pan Macedonians”.

And who exactly are these Greeks or should I say “born-again Macedonians” who deny our existence and want us dead and gone? If you believe Greek claims that “everyone in Greece is Greek” then don’t take my word for it, find out for yourself. More than 75% of the Macedonians living in the Greater Toronto Area come from Greek occupied Macedonia. You all know the circumstances under which you or your predecessors left your villages and came here. So ask yourself this question; “If everyone in Greece is Greek then everyone in your village whom you know must also be Greek. Then who are the Greeks from your village?” Is it the Prosfigi or Asia Minor Turkish Christian settlers that Greece deposited in your village during the 1920’s to whom your family lost their lands? Is it your own relatives who decided to become Greek because it was better to be a “living Greek” than a “dead Macedonian”? Or is it the criminals who co-operated with the Bulgarians and Germans during the occupation and became instant Greeks after it? Who are these Greeks who deny our rights? I can’t find any in my village, can you? The only Greeks I know are those who pretend to be Greeks in order to gain advantage over us. They are the ones who call me “Slav”, “Skopjan”, “Bulgarian”, etc. and some of whom ironically are my own distant relatives. No matter how hard you try to find “genuine Greeks” anywhere in Macedonia, they simply don’t exist! Until recently the Macedonians have been losing not only their lands but their identity. Macedonia’s neighbours have stolen from us our lands, history, identity and heritage and something of which we think very little; our people. If the Macedonians in Greece are Greeks like the Greeks say they are then where did they come from? I say they were stolen from Macedonia because the Greek identity is an empty shell devoid of people. The real Greek identity died along with the so-called ancient Greeks 2,000 years ago. Anyone who claims to be Greek today belongs to the Albanian, Macedonian, Vlach, Turkish, etc., ethnic identity and is only Greek in a political but not in an ethnic sense. And by political I mean for a person to be Greek they must subscribe to the idea that they are a descendent of the ancient Greeks, speak the Greek language and act Greek. That unfortunately is still not enough, one has to also deny their true ethnic identity and claim that it does not exist in order to be a “pure Greek”! Unfortunately Greece is not the only one which has stolen and is still stealing people from Macedonia. The Bulgarians claim “Macedonians are Bulgarians”. What does that tell you? It tells me that Bulgaria too is devoid of Bulgarians and needs Macedonians to build not only its heritage but population as well. Albania too over the years has been stealing Macedonians by claiming that all Muslims in

Macedonia were Albanians and by denying the Macedonians living in Albania their human rights. The same was true in Serbia until the Republic of Macedonia asserted its independence in 1945. There are some who believe everything from the Adriatic to the Black Sea and from the Danube River to the Mediterranean Sea was one time Macedonian. Surely history supports that claim as well and some. If Greece and Bulgaria can lay claim to Macedonia on historic grounds then why doesn’t Macedonia use the same principle? As you can see history can be used as a political tool to make all kinds of absurd claims but there are some facts that cannot be denied and that is the injustices Greece and Bulgaria have perpetrated against the people in Macedonia regardless of their ethic identity. Regardless of what the Greeks and Bulgarians call us and who they think we are, the fact remains that they came to our lands under false pretences, invaded and occupied us and then took our lands, identity, history and heritage and made it their own. They abused, tormented, tortured, exiled and killed many of us in the process and that to me is a criminal act for which these people will eventually have to pay! We Macedonians have stolen nothing from anyone; in fact they are the ones who have stolen everything from us, our lands, our homes, our heritage, our history, our identity, our dignity and our people. Now we are at a stage where we want all these things back and there is nothing wrong with asking to have them back. For those who think that our situation can get worse if we speak up. You are wrong. How much worse can it get? They already own our lands, homes, history, heritage and dignity. How much worse can it get when they say to our faces that we don’t exist? How much worse can it get when they already want to exterminate us and see us all dead? The situation can only get worse if we continue to keep quiet and play their games by their rules. Why talk with them about our name when clearly that name is already ours? Why not talk with them about the “others things”; like the many things they stole from us and the abuses we endured from them? Why are we keeping silent about that? No! The time for silence is over! It’s time to speak up and demand that we stop talking about our name, something which is already ours, and start talking about giving back everything that was stolen from us; our rights, our lands, our language, our heritage our dignity and our Macedonia. All of our Macedonia! Those who deny these things from us are nothing more than pirates and identity thieves. And if we don’t stand up to them, in time they will steal all our people and worse they turn them against us the same way they have done in the past. Assimilation of Macedonians is not dead; it is alive and well and thrives each time a Macedonian school is closed in Albania or a

Macedonian organization is shut down in Bulgaria or each time someone says “we need to change our name to enter some useless institution”. Every time we allow that to happen we lose a piece of ourselves. If we are NOT Macedonians then what are we? WE ARE NOTHING! And that is exactly what our enemies want us to be, NOTHING! That is why we cannot and must not keep quiet about our plight because if we do we will bring forth our own extinction. For those who have not yet noticed, there is a life and death struggle going on between our artificially created neighbours and the Macedonians. This struggle has been waged since Roman times and has been a struggle for survival. Truth may not matter much to our enemies or to their patrons but it matters to us. It is a guiding light for us which has given us the strength to fight on. We are not weeds or “undesirables” as our enemies have labeled us; we are a righteous people with an enormously rich background; something to be proud of; something worthy of fighting for. We have roots that extend to Neolithic times, something that cannot be easily plucked out. There are some who even believe that it is the Macedonians which gave Europe its culture and civilization. So the next time you witness an injustice committed against us don’t turn away in silence, stand up and do something!

Essay 47 - Cause of Greek Fears and Paranoia

What causes Greece’s fear and paranoia? Why does Greece appear to be afraid of the Republic of Macedonia and the Macedonian people? A very interesting question! A relative of mine believes Greece is getting anxious because the year 2013 is soon approaching and like Great Britain, which gave up Hong Kong, Greece will have to give up the 51% of Macedonia it illegally acquired in 1913. Not that he doesn’t know this but I had to remind him that Hong Kong was rented out for 100 years and its lease expired. That’s why Britain had to give it up. But in Macedonia’s case the division was permanent and final, at least according to what I know from history. Besides it was I who started the rumour about the 1913 Treaty of Bucharest expiring. I did this to get some attention for the plight of the Macedonian people living in Greece, especially from the Macedonians from other parts of Macedonia. I even wrote a book about it entitled “Recovering Macedonia Expiration of the Bucharest Treaty of 1913”. But as I said the book’s title was intentional to capture peoples’ attention. The Treaty does not expire. Here is what I wrote about it on page 3 of my book; “Even though the title of this book makes reference to the 1913 Treaty of Bucharest expiring, in reality this Treaty has no expiration date. The Treaty of Bucharest is one of the most tragic and significant event in the twenty-eight centuries of Macedonian history. It is the conclusion to a number of preceding bilateral agreements between the Balkan States and an end not only to the Balkan Wars, but also to the many and continuous armed conflicts that took place in Macedonia such as the 1902 Gornodjumajsko uprising, the 1903 Ilinden uprising, the 1908 Young Turk uprising, the so called 1910 and 1911Magareshki assassinations. At the end of all these conflicts the 1913 Treaty of Bucharest was drafted as a means of partitioning the Macedonian territory with intent to eradicate the name “Macedonia” and permanently divide the Macedonian national unity. The desire to see this treaty expire is symbolic and will be used as a means to bring attention to the plight of the Macedonian people and their condition after being divided for almost a century.” (Stefou, Chris. Recovering Macedonia Expiration of the Bucharest Treaty of 1913. Toronto: Risto Stefov publications, 2007, page 3) Knowing that the 1913 Treaty of Bucharest does not expire still left us puzzled as to why Greece is behaving so anxiously lately. I have no

answers and neither did my relative but that did not stop us from speculating. We agreed that Greece’s fears must be about something we don’t know. But what? Looking at history for the last 100 years from the day Macedonia was illegally invaded, partitioned and annexed by Greece, Serbia and Bulgaria in 1912, 1913, in spite of many attempts by the international community to bring these states to accept universal human rights standards, we can see that nothing has been done to address the Macedonian question. In fact every request made of Greece and of Bulgaria to “do something” for the Macedonians living in their respective countries has been ignored. Why? What could Greece and Bulgaria possibly lose by recognizing and giving some basic human rights to a few thousand or even to a few hundred thousand Macedonians? How could these Macedonians be a threat to these large, well established countries, recognized world wide with populations numbering in the tens of millions? I believe, and my relative agrees with me, that we are missing some vital information here, perhaps some secret agreement made by the powers that divided Macedonia and by Greece, Serbia and Bulgaria. We believe some information contained in these Treaties was kept secret from the general public. We believe the powers that allowed the division and annexation of Macedonia by Greece, Serbia and Bulgaria were aware that Macedonians existed. We also know that Greece, Serbia and Bulgaria insisted that Macedonians did not exist. To prove these Greek, Serbian and Bulgarian allegations all you have to do is look at the Greek, Serbian and Bulgarian demographic statistics that these countries produced over the last 100 years about the people living in Macedonia and you will see that all three countries made claims that NO Macedonians were present in Macedonia during those times. That was no accident or coincidence, there were secret agreements made between Greece, Serbia and Bulgaria to keep the Macedonian identity secret and out of the hands of outsiders until they could permanently deal with it. The powers that allowed the division of Macedonia, fortunately for us, did not believe Greece, Serbia and Bulgaria assertion that Macedonians did not exist so a “secret compromise” was reached. The powers, we believe, agreed with Greece, Serbia and Bulgaria that “If no Macedonians surfaced after 100 years of Greek, Serbian and Bulgarian occupation of Macedonia then Macedonia would be theirs permanently. If Macedonians however did surface after 100 years, Macedonia would be given back to them.” Serbia lost Macedonia, so at this point it has nothing at stake. Greece and Bulgaria however still occupy

Macedonian territories that don’t belong to them and that is why they still insist NO Macedonians exist. Despite Greek and Bulgarian attempts to eradicate the Macedonians, the Macedonian ethnic identity has survived and is now thriving not only in the Republic of Macedonia but also in Greece, Bulgaria, Albania, the USA, Canada, Australia and the world over. No wonder the Greek and Bulgarian governments are feeling anxiety and paranoia. Knowing that Macedonians existed at the time of Macedonia’s invasion, occupation and annexation by Greece, Serbia and Bulgaria, the governments of these three countries had to “do something” to eradicate the Macedonian presence. This explains why Greece, Serbia and Bulgaria introduced radical and brutal assimilatory policies and practices that forcibly attempted to assimilate the Macedonian population into their fold. This also explains why Greece was quick to remove every trace of Macedonian presence in the Macedonian territory it occupied from renaming every person, village, town, city, lake, river, mountain, etc., to forcibly expelling, punishing, torturing and murdering those who refused to be Hellenized; not to mention the eradication of Macedonian books and the Macedonian writing on public buildings, cemetery headstones, church icons, etc. This explains why Greece has used every possible measure to remove and eradicate all traces of Macedonia from its territory, including the name “Macedonia”, which until yesterday was loathed, and today is cherished by every Greek. This is Greece for you, please get to know it. Get to know it like we the Macedonians who lived and still live there know it! Here is another question for you. If you are still not convinced that Macedonians do exist then please explain how a million or so Macedonians exist today in the Republic of Macedonia when Serbia, less that a century ago, reported that NO Macedonians existed in that very same territory? (A) Did Tito “create” the Macedonians as Greeks readily claim, or, (B) did Serbia lie about its demographics? If you said (A) you are probably a Greek or a Bulgarian with a complex, experiencing high anxiety. If you said (B) you are correct, which should lead you to the next question. If Serbia lied about its demographic what makes you think Greece and Bulgaria didn’t? Of course Greece and Bulgaria did lie! These two countries are not beyond lying when it comes to protecting their interests. And that’s all this is all about, isn’t it? If there are no Macedonians as the Greeks, with no shame, like to claim then why does the Greek government spend so much money on

anti-Macedonian propaganda? Just recently another Greek scandal was revealed with headline news that the Greek government bribed Greek journalists to promote anti-Macedonian propaganda. And if those journalists refused to accept bribes they were automatically labeled “traitors”, something that notorious nationalist Greeks are known to do. Unfortunately the scandal did not end inside Greece, it apparently “spilled over” into the Republic of Macedonia. There too Greek government money was used to bribe Macedonian journalists to promote anti-Macedonian Greek propaganda. It seems, to me at least, that the Greek government in spite of its money woes has money to spare for producing and spreading propaganda against an enemy it claims does not exist. Another interesting phenomenon about Greece is the amount of money it spent lately on purchasing military equipment; money it doesn’t really have. Did you know that Greece is the 5th biggest purchaser of military equipment in the entire world? What is Greece planning to do with all this expensive state of the art military equipment? Defend itself against the Republic of Macedonia? Or is there something else, something more sinister that Greece knows that we don’t know about? Is Greece, a NATO member and member of the European Union and of every world institution in existence, preparing for war? But with whom, who does Greece see as its enemy? No matter how you look at it Greece’s irrational behaviour defies logic. If we look at Greece from the inside, everyone is an enemy; the Slavs, the Americans, the Turks, you name it. But there is one group that stands out in its xenophobic and bigoted hatred and that is the Macedonian people, the very same people Greece claims do not exist. The sixty-four thousand dollar question here is why does Greece hate the Macedonians so much? What does Greece know that we, the general public, don’t know?

Essay 48 - Greece is one of the worst human rights violators in the world

One cannot make such a remark without having lived under the Greek thumb. For most of its existence, Greece has spawned more dictatorships than the worst countries in the world. And why exactly have these dictatorships been spawned? Most lowly Macedonians have no clue as to why these dictatorships came into being and I doubt most Greeks do either but the fact remains that they came into being, existed and were a torment to the people, particularly to the unrecognized minorities for whom life was made and is still being made a living hell. There is something about Greece that the world does not comprehend and, as I discover more and more about it, it gives me nightmares. It is unbelievable what some Greek regimes have done to their own people and I don’t mean just in war time but also during peace. There are many books written about them in Greek and I hope someday they will be translated into other languages so that the rest of the world can learn the true barbarism of Greece. What amazes me about this however is how little the world knows and how blind it has been to the true nature of Greece. But as we accept most things we are born with, good or bad, we take them for granted as part of life. Things are the way they are because we don’t know any better and because we have not experienced anything different in life. If we did, as some have done outside of Greece, then we come to the realization that “life in democratic Greece is not the best life one can have in this world”. I had an opportunity to watch a homemade film made in one of the Macedonian villages in Greece and to see and hear a toothless raggedy old man, who probably has never been out of his own village, say in Macedonian, a forbidden language, “there is no better life in the world than the life we have here in Greece”. How ironic! How could he say such a thing considering he has been downtrodden all his life by regime after regime that refuses to recognize the very same language he spoke? But then I think of when I was growing up in Greece and of having said the exact same thing to the chagrin of my parents. Most people believe what they are told and in addition to being poisoned by Greek propaganda to be xenophobic and haters of diversity, the Greek educational system also drills into young peoples’ brains that “Greece is the best place to live in the entire world”. Had I not been made aware of who I was and had I not left Greece when I did, I too would be saying exactly the same words as well as denying the existence of my