Front Matter - Part 14

The advertisement gives a lot of attention to the involvement of Tito and Yugoslavia in the Greek civil war, referring for instance to "former communist designs on sovereign Greece." It informs the reader that "In 1946, Tito and Stalin armed insurgents to trigger a bloody Civil war and unimaginable years of suffering for the Greek nation Today, Skopje’s government aims to perpetuate the nightmare." The advertisement goes on to say that the "Skopje government": - claims that Macedonians exist "under occupation" in Greece; - calls for the "liberation" of all Macedonians, even those who regard themselves as free Greeks; - issues currency depicting landmarks of sovereign Greek territory; - publishes maps incorporating fully one-third of mainland Greece; - has a constitution proclaiming Tito's expansionist goals, calling for the "unification of Greek provinces under a fabricated 'Macedonian' nation." According to this ad, recognition of an independent republic called Macedonia would encourage aggression, increase tensions, destabilize the Balkans, and validate a "shameless fraud." In this last statement we have a reference to the wider issue concerning the name Macedonia. The Greeks say that they have the sole right to use the name, for various historical reasons. The rest of the advertisement contains statements from American and world leaders (including American senators, the president of the European Parliament, the prime minister of Australia and the Greek prime minister) , opposing recognition of the state of Macedonia up to the time the ad was placed, and an open letter to President Bush appealing in particular to historic concerns about "communist expansionism" in the area, the bitter experience of the Greek civil war, and previous American support of anti-communist forces in Greece. In this latter connection it is worth considering the quoted statement by a former United States Secretary of State on December 26, 1944: "This government considers any talk of a Macedonian 'nation,' Macedonian 'Fatherland' or Macedonian 'national consciousness' to be unjustified demagoguery representing no ethnic or political reality. ..a possible cloak for aggressive intentions against Greece." The May 10 ad is much less detailed. It quotes a New York Times story (datelined May 2, 1992) on the European community's willingness to recognize the "breakaway republic of Macedonia" only if it changed its name, and once again appeals to past American concern about instability in the Balkans in general and about Macedonia in particular. "Since the break-up of Yugoslavia," reads the ad, "its people have suffered the relentless gunfire of hostilities: one tragedy after another -all stemming from ethnic violence and border disputes. The single stable border in the Balkans is provided by Greece. Now the breakaway southernmost Yugoslavian republic of Skopje insists on being recognized as 'Macedonia."' The advertisement goes on to say that in 1944, the Roosevelt administration recognized Greek ethnic, cultural and historical rights to the name and condemned any reference to a so-called Macedonian "nation." Describing the same issue today as a "dangerous ticking time bomb," the ad says that recognition of what it calls "Skopje" as the "Republic of Macedonia" would legitimize and encourage extremist and false claims upon sovereign Greek territory. Furthermore, the advertisement suggests a threat of war in the Balkans in which the United States could become involved. Here is the rest of the Greek position, expanding on the question of the "Greek ethnic, cultural and historical rights to the name." Here Shea uses quotations from pamphlets distributed from Greek orthodox churches, apparently deriving from Greek government publications available in the Greek embassy during 1992. He does this so that the Greek position is accurately presented. Here are some of the important claims that are made. 1. The New York Times advertisement of 4/26/92 says, "4000 years of Greek History, 4000 years of Greek Culture, 4000 years of Greek Heritage.

..Skopje's government seeking recognition as the 'Republic of Macedonia' perpetuates a fraud." Pamphlets distributed in churches stated, "Macedonia has been Greek for 3,000 years. In ancient times Macedonians spoke Greek, worshipped Greek gods, expressed their creativity through Greek art and maintained a refined Greek culture. ..all archaeological discoveries continue to unearth more information attesting to the indisputable Greekness of Macedonia." 2. "Out of the blue, in 1944, the Yugoslav communist leader, Tito, wishing to weaken Serbia on the one hand, and set the footing for future territorial claims against Greece on the other, schemingly gave South Serbia the Greek name 'Macedonia' and re-wrote the 'history' books to declare that ancient Macedonia was Slavic and that these people were descendants of Alexander the Great." 3. "The existence of a 'Slav' Macedonia could never be, and indeed, has never been supported either by historical data, or by ethnographic maps, or by statistics, or by some census, or by archaeological finds, or by even an obscure mention of such a nation from antiquity till today." 4. "Macedonia has been the name of Northern Greece for more than 3000 years. The Greek region...has one of the most homogeneous populations in the world (98.5% Greek). Its population speaks Greek, feels Greek, is Greek." 5. "An independent 'Macedonia' would monopolize the name at the expense of the real Macedonians who are twice the number of the Slavs. The use and abuse of the name would cause widespread confusion as is already apparent.”

6. "Macedonia is an indispensable part of Greece's historical heritage -it cannot identify, in an ethnic sense another nation." 7. "The Skopje 'language' is undeniably Slavic." 8. "The Slavs did not set foot in the Balkans until 1000 years after Alexander the Great." 9. "The name 'Macedonia' (which is etymologically Greek) was in use at least 1,500 years before the arrival of the first Slavs." 10. "Every known Macedonian town, river, and person had a Greek name -Philip (lover of horse), Alexander (protector of men), Archelaus (leader of people), Amyntas (defender), Ptolemy (warlike), Bucephalus (ox-head)." 11. "The Old Testament (Daniel Ch. 8) and the New Testament (Acts Ch. 17) confirm the Greekness of Alexander and the Macedonians." 12. "It was the Greek language that was taken to Asia (Bible written in Greek) and cities with Greek names and institutions that were founded." 13. "There are 60,000 archaeological finds that confirm that the Macedonians were Greek in language, culture and religion." 14. "The home of the Greek gods was in Macedonia. Is it feasible that a people would worship its national gods in a foreign country?" 15. " Yugoslav Macedonia is not even geographically in the territory occupied by ancient Macedonia." 16. "Independent sources in this century (Turkish Census of 1904 when the region was part of the Ottoman Empire, League of Nations Census of 1926 and declassified British Archives 1934) make no mention of any ethnic Macedonians whatsoever until the Communists came along with their preposterous concoction to dominate the Balkans." 17. "By appropriating and maintaining the name 'Macedonia' the Slavs are laying the foundations for future territorial claims against the region of the same name in Greece. They have clearly expressed this intention by:-(a) plagiarizing and blatantly falsifying history (b)... continuously using maps and emblems that include northern Greece as part of 'Macedonia' and (c) refusing to comply with the directive of the European Community in its declaration of 16th December 1991 to (i) cease hostile propaganda; (ii) commit itself to guarantees that it has no territorial claims and (iii) not use a denomination (Macedonia) which implies expansionist intentions." This set of statements was widely circulated, with minor changes made for particular locations, in different parts of the English-speaking world. Copies of the main points were distributed through Greek churches, and were frequently published in the "letters to the editor" sections of local newspapers. Clearly the Greek communities were very keen to see the message spread and went to great organizational effort and expense to see that this happened.] Pages 4 to 7, John Shea, “Macedonia and Greece, The Struggle to Define a New Balkan Nation”.

I just want to mention here that John Shea dedicated his entire book in response to these Greek claims rendering them all to be false. The reader must keep in mind that like Macedonia, Greece is a product of its past. Macedonia and Greece share a common past and history from the Ancient Macedonian period in BC up to 1912 when the artificial border was imposed. Prior to 1912, Macedonia and Greece had no border. There was no border during the Roman period, the Byzantine period or the Ottoman period so whatever took place in Macedonia also took place in Greece, that is, above and beyond the common interaction between the two people. Like Macedonia, Greece also felt the full brunt of every invasion, occupation and assimilation of people who have ventured and traversed that region. So, to claim that Greece is pure with 4,000 year old roots and at the same time to claim that Macedonia isn’t is utterly irrational and blatantly ignorant. Being unable to force Macedonia to back down on the name issue, on February 16, 1994 the then Greek Prime Minister Andrea Papandreou announced that Greece was canceling all trade links with Macedonia and was closing the consulate in Skopje. This was in response to the American offer of diplomatic recognition of Macedonia. One week after the US recognized Macedonia as “the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia” and one day before the announcement of the embargo, tens of thousands of protesters filled the streets of Solun, waving banners, Greek flags and stars of Vergina: proclaiming “Macedonia is Greek”. The crippling embargo no doubt designed to extinguish the new state, was imposed by Greece in the cold of winter. All fuel supplies were cut off including energy supplies for home heating, transportation and industrial use. The embargo was lifted with the signing of the Interim Accord on September 13, 1995. The young Macedonian state survived, in spite of Greek attempts to extinguish it.

The Future

There is no Macedonian who at one point or another did not think or ask the questions; “Will Macedonia be reunited again?” “When will Macedonia be reunited?” How will Macedonia be reunited?” Before answering these questions every Macedonian and non Macedonian must consider “Why Macedonia must be reunited.” The 1913 Treaty of Bucharest and all previously associated agreements and treaties were based on the premise that “Macedonians do not exist” and thus the 1913 Treaty of Bucharest was written and signed under the assumption that only Greeks, Serbians and Bulgarians live in Macedonia. Greece, Serbia and Bulgaria after annexing parts of Macedonia supposedly exchanged populations and cleansed their parts of Macedonia. After the exchanges each State declared that its population was pure. In other words only Greeks live in Greece, only Bulgarians live in Bulgaria and only Serbians live in Serbia. A decade or so after Macedonian’s partition and annexation, each state in turn produced and published statistics confirming its population purity. After that, each state maintained that they had no minorities living in their respective states. Today, almost a century later, we know that this is not true. Greece, Serbia and Bulgaria knew very well when they annexed Macedonian territories that the majority of the people living on Macedonian soil were not Greeks, Serbians, or Bulgarians. They used religious affiliation in place of ethnicity to convince the Powers to allow them to freely annex Macedonian territories without obligation to the ethnic Macedonian people. Even though the Greek, Serbian and Bulgarian people had no national awareness prior to the 19th century and before their liberation, they were recognized and allowed to form their own states. Yet the Macedonians who gained their national sentiments a little later and who fought for the creation of a Macedonian state were neither recognized nor allowed to form a state. If Greece, Serbia and Bulgaria were correct in their claims and indeed cleansed their respective Macedonian territories, today there would be only Greeks living in the Greek part of Macedonia, Serbians living in the Serbian part and Bulgarians living in the Bulgarian part. If Macedonians indeed did not exist, as Greece, Serbia and Bulgaria claimed almost a century ago, then today there would be absolutely no Macedonians in existence at all. Yet a census taken after the Republic of Macedonia declared its independence from Yugoslavia (Serbia’s successor), showed a hefty majority of ethnic Macedonians living where Macedonians supposedly did not exist.

So if Serbia was correct in its assumption that only Serbians lived in Serbian annexed Macedonia one hundred years ago, then where did these ethnic Macedonians come from? There is only one correct answer to this question. Ethnic Macedonians have always existed; Serbia falsified its statistics to hide that fact! One only needs to apply the same principle to Greece and Bulgaria to see the real picture. So, “Why should Macedonia be reunited?” For starters Macedonia belongs to the Macedonian people and the Macedonian people want to live together. Macedonia was illegally occupied and partitioned between Greece, Serbia and Bulgaria under false pretenses and without the Macedonian peoples’ consent. If this was done by mistake, then that mistake must be rectified. If it was done intentionally then Greece, Serbia and Bulgaria will have to answer to it. They are responsible for creating the problem and they should be responsible for correcting it. “How will Macedonia be reunited?” Macedonia cannot be reunited without the willingness of Greece and Bulgaria. Unfortunately this willingness cannot develop as long as Greece and Bulgaria deny the existence of Macedonians and refuse to accept the fact that they illegally occupied and annexed Macedonian territories. The first step in gaining this willingness is to have Greece and Bulgaria recognize the existence of ethnic Macedonians not only in the Republic of Macedonia but also in their respective territories. In other words, Greece and Bulgaria must allow its citizens to self declare their ethnic identities with their support and protection. The next step is to accept the fact that Macedonia was partitioned without the Macedonian peoples’ consent and then by referendum allow Macedonians to make the choice of separating and reuniting with other Macedonians or remaining within their respective states. Macedonians may chose to reunite Macedonia culturally and still remain administratively tied to the existing states. But until the Macedonian people are given that choice, we will not know. “When will Macedonia reunite?” Macedonia has a better chance of reuniting in some form or another after the Republic of Macedonia joins the European Union when the current borders inside geographic Macedonia are dissolved. Macedonians should strive to achieve their rights in Greece and Bulgaria first before looking for some sort of cultural independence for all of Macedonia. Greece and Bulgaria must be willing partners before any re-unification can occur. This is a long term process and must be achieved by peaceful means. Macedonia may have been powerful at one time but that is no longer the case and Macedonians must now heed the lessons of history. Since Philip V’s time Macedonians have experienced disaster after disaster. Their situation worsened with every conflict, insurrection and revolution. Macedonians have many historical examples to draw from and understand that conflicts have brought nothing but misery and suffering to the Macedonian people. Macedonians first and foremost need to learn about themselves: who they are and accept the rich culture and heritage with very deep roots to which they belong. They must also learn to rely only on themselves and to exploit the current benefits offered by international institutions. Greece and Bulgaria now belong to the European Union and as such are obligated to abide by European Union rules. They can no longer treat people with disregard especially their minorities. Following are some excerpts from the Council of Europe’s Framework Convention for the Protection of National Minorities (Strasbourg, 1.II.1995); “A pluralist and genuinely democratic society should not only respect the ethnic, cultural, linguistic and religious identity of each person belonging to a national minority, but also create appropriate conditions enabling them to express, preserve and develop this identity. Considering that the creation of a climate of tolerance and dialogue is necessary to enable cultural diversity to be a source and a factor, not of division, but of enrichment for each society.