Legislation to stop state-sponsored propaganda by FYROM (Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia), which is potentially dangerous for Greece, was introduced in the U.S. Senate today by Senators Bob Menendez (D-NJ) and Olympia Snowe (R-ME), along with Presidential candidate and Chairman of the European Affairs Subcommittee of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, Senator Barack Obama (D-IL).
More than 72 Members of Congress and climbing are sponsoring similar legislation (HR 356) in the House of Representatives.The Resolution (S.Res. 300) points to a television report showing students in a FYROM state-run school being taught that parts of Greece, including Greek Macedonia, are rightfully parts of FYROM. The legislation also points to various recently-published textbooks which contain maps of ‘Greater Macedonia’ extending many miles into Greece and Bulgaria. The Resolution points out that FYROM propaganda, contrary to the U. N. Interim Accord, instills hostility and a rationale of irredentism in portions of the population of FYROM toward Greece and the history of Greece.
The legislation urges FYROM to adhere to the U.N. brokered Interim Agreement, which directs the parties to “promptly take effective measures to prohibit hostile activities or propaganda by state-controlled agencies and to discourage acts by private entities likely to incite violence, hatred or hostility” and review the content of textbooks, maps, and teaching aids to ensure that such tools are stating accurate information. The bill also urges FYROM to work with Greece within the U.N. framework process to achieve longstanding United States and United Nations policy goals by reaching a mutually acceptable official name for FYROM.
Below you can read the legislation ...
Expressing the sense of the Senate that the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia (FYROM) should stop the utilization of materials that violate provisions of the United Nations-brokered... (Introduced in Senate)
SRES 300 IS
110th CONGRESS
1st Session
S. RES. 300
Expressing the sense of the Senate that the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia (FYROM) should stop the utilization of materials that violate provisions of the United Nations-brokered Interim Agreement between FYROM and Greece regarding `hostile activities or propaganda' and should work with the United Nations and Greece to achieve longstanding United States and United Nations policy goals of finding a mutually-acceptable official name for FYROM.
IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES
A
ugust 3, 2007
Mr. MENENDEZ (for himself, Ms. SNOWE, and Mr. OBAMA) submitted the following resolution; which was referred to the Committee on Foreign Relations
Mr. MENENDEZ (for himself, Ms. SNOWE, and Mr. OBAMA) submitted the following resolution; which was referred to the Committee on Foreign Relations
RESOLUTION
Expressing the sense of the Senate that the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia (FYROM) should stop the utilization of materials that violate provisions of the United Nations-brokered Interim Agreement between FYROM and Greece regarding `hostile activities or propaganda' and should work with the United Nations and Greece to achieve longstanding United States and United Nations policy goals of finding a mutually-acceptable official name for FYROM.
Whereas, on April 8, 1993, the United Nations General Assembly admitted as a member the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia (FYROM), under the name the `Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia';
Expressing the sense of the Senate that the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia (FYROM) should stop the utilization of materials that violate provisions of the United Nations-brokered Interim Agreement between FYROM and Greece regarding `hostile activities or propaganda' and should work with the United Nations and Greece to achieve longstanding United States and United Nations policy goals of finding a mutually-acceptable official name for FYROM.
Whereas, on April 8, 1993, the United Nations General Assembly admitted as a member the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia (FYROM), under the name the `Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia';
Whereas United Nations Security Council Resolution 817 (1993) states that the dispute over the name must be resolved to maintain peaceful relations between Greece and FYROM;
Whereas, on September 13, 1995, Greece and FYROM signed a United Nations-brokered Interim Accord that, among other things, commits them to not `support claims to any part of the territory of the other party or claims for a change of their existing frontiers';
Whereas, on September 13, 1995, Greece and FYROM signed a United Nations-brokered Interim Accord that, among other things, commits them to not `support claims to any part of the territory of the other party or claims for a change of their existing frontiers';
Whereas a pre-eminent goal of the United Nations Interim Accord was to stop FYROM from utilizing, since its admittance to the United Nations in 1993, what the Accord calls `propaganda', including in school textbooks;
Whereas a television report in recent years showed students in a state-run school in FYROM still being taught that parts of Greece, including Greek Macedonia, are rightfully part of FYROM;
Whereas some textbooks, including the Military Academy textbook published in 2004 by the Military Academy `General Mihailo Apostolski' in the FYROM capital city, contain maps showing that a `Greater Macedonia' extends many miles south into Greece to Mount Olympus and miles east to Mount Pirin in Bulgaria;
Whereas, in direct contradiction of the spirit of the United Nations Interim Accord's section `A', entitled `Friendly Relations and Confidence Building Measures', which attempts to eliminate challenges regarding `historic and cultural patrimony', the Government of FYROM recently renamed the capital city's international airport `Alexander the Great Airport';
Whereas the aforementioned acts constitute a breach of FYROM's international obligations deriving from the spirit of the United Nations Interim Accord, which provide that FYROM should abstain from any form of `propaganda' against Greece's historical or cultural heritage;
Whereas such acts are not compatible with Article 10 of the United Nations Interim Accord, which calls for `improving understanding and good neighbourly relations', as well as with European standards and values endorsed by European Union member-states; and
Whereas this information, like that exposed in the media report and elsewhere, being used contrary to the United Nations Interim Accord instills hostility and a rationale for irredentism in portions of the population of FYROM toward Greece and the history of Greece: Now, therefore, be it
Resolved, That the Senate--
(1) urges the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia (FYROM) to observe its obligations under Article 7 of the 1995 United Nations-brokered Interim Accord, which directs the parties to `promptly take effective measures to prohibit hostile activities or propaganda by state-controlled agencies and to discourage acts by private entities likely to incite violence, hatred or hostility' and review the contents of textbooks, maps, and teaching aids to ensure that such tools are stating accurate information; and
(2) urges FYROM to work with Greece within the framework of the United Nations process to achieve longstanding United States and United Nations policy goals by reaching a mutually-acceptable official name for FYROM.
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ReplyDeleteChronology of Greece's Rule in Aegean Macedonia
ReplyDeleteThe following chronicles the methods employed by Greece in its effort to eradicate the centuries old Macedonian ethnic presence in the Aegean Macedonia in the name of Greek territorial expansion. Specific laws and decrees are presented against the backdrop of relevant historical events affecting Macedonians in the Aegean Macedonia.
The chronology begins with the year 1912 when Greece, for the first time ever, comes into possession of Macedonian territory by force of arms. Almost a decade had passed since the 1903 Ilinden (St. Ilija Day) Uprising lead by the IMRO (Internal Macedonian Revolutionary Organization) in a failed effort to free Macedonia from the Ottoman yoke.
The ominous prophecy of Harilaos Trikoupis, Greek Prime Minister from 1882 to 1895, foretold what the neighboring Greek state had in mind for Macedonia and its people:
"When the great war comes, Macedonia will become Greek or Bulgarian, according to who wins. If it is taken by the Bulgarians, they will take the population Slavs. If we take it, we will make all of them Greeks".
1912 Balkan Wars
Irredentist Greece, Serbia, Bulgaria and Montenegro drive a crumbling Ottoman Empire out of the Balkans and pursue territorial expansion into Macedonia. Greek army enters Aegean Macedonia ostensibly to "liberate" Macedonia from the Ottoman.
1913
Greek, Serbian, Bulgarian alliance breaks down over competing claims for Macedonia. Bulgaria miscalculates and attacks Serbia and Greek armies. Ottoman forces rejoin war against Bulgaria. Bulgaria defeated, loses territorial gains in Macedonia.
From "liberation to tyranny", Greek army commences savage and bloody "ethnic cleansing" of the towns of Kukush, Doiran, Demir-Hisar and Serres in the Aegean Macedonia.
160 Macedonian villages burned, and atrocities committed. Mass exodus of refugees.
Treaty of Bucharest (Aug. 10, 1913). Ends War and partitions Macedonia.
Greece refers to conquered Macedonian lands as the "new territories" under "military administration". Not yet officially incorporated into the Kingdom of Greece.
Military occupation augmented by influx of administrators, educators; police brought from Greece.
Professor R.A. Reiss reports to the Greek government: "Those whom you would call Bulgarian speakers I would simply call Macedonians...Macedonian is not the language they speak in Sofia...I repeat the mass of inhabitants there (Macedonia) remain simply Macedonians."
1917
LAW 1051 Greece inaugurates new administrative jurisdictions for governing newly acquired lands in the Aegean Macedonia.
1919 Treaty of Versailles (Paris)
England and France ratify the principles of the Bucharest Treaty and endorse the partitioning of Macedonia.
Greece pursues forced expulsion and denationalization of Macedonians and begins a colonization by transplanting Greeks into the Aegean Macedonia.
Article 51 of Treaty of Versailles espouses equality of civil rights, education, language, and religion for all national minorities which Greece violates and ignores.
Neuilly Convention and forced exchange of populations. About 70,000 Macedonians expelled from the Aegean Macedonia to Bulgaria and 25,000 Greeks transplanted from Bulgaria to Aegean Macedonia.
Greek Commission On Toponyms issues instructions for choosing Hellenized names for Macedonian places in the Aegean Macedonia.
1920
Greek Ministry Of Internal Affairs publishes booklet: "Advice On The Change Of The Names Of Municipalities And Villages" in Aegean Macedonia.
1925
76 names of Macedonian villages and towns in the Aegean Macedonia Hellenized since 1918 by Greek authorities.
LEAGUE OF NATIONS pressures Greece to extend rights to Macedonian minority.
ABECEDAR Primer printed in Athens for use by Macedonian school children in the Aegean Macedonia. Written in Latin alphabet and reflect the Macedonian spoken in Lerin district in western Aegean Macedonia.
Serbs and Bulgarians protest to League of Nations. Primer undermines their claim that Macedonians are Serbs and Bulgarians respectively.
Greece counters with last minute cable to League: "the population.....knows neither the Serbian nor the Bulgarian language and speaks nothing but a Slav-Macedonian idiom."
Greece "retreats" so as to preserve Balkan alliances. Primer is destroyed after League of Nations delegates leave Solun.
Thereafter, Greece denies existence of Macedonians. Refers to Macedonians as "Slavophone Greeks", "Old Bulgarians" and many other appellations but not as Macedonians.
1926
Legislative Orders in Government Gazette #331 orders Macedonian names of towns, villages, mountains changed to Greek names.
1927
Cyrillic inscriptions destroyed or overwritten from churches, tombstones, and icons. Church services in the Macedonian language are outlawed.
Macedonians Ordered To Abandon Personal Names And Under Duress Adopt Greek Names Assigned To Them By The Greek State.
1928
1,497 Macedonian place-names in the Aegean Macedonia Hellenized since 1926.
English Journalist V. Hild reveals, "The Greeks do not only persecute living Slavs (Macedonians)..., but they even persecute dead ones. They do not leave them in peace even in the graves. They erase the Slavonic inscriptions on the headstones, remove the bones and burn them."
1929
Greek government enacts law where any demands for national rights by Macedonians are regarded as high treason.
LAW 4096 directive on renaming Macedonian place-names.
1936
Reign of terror by fascist dictator General Metaxas, 1936-40. Macedonians suffer state terrorism and pogroms.
Thousands of Macedonians jailed, sent to internal exile (EXORIA) on arid, inhospitable Greek islands, where many perish. Their crime? Being ethnic Macedonian by birth.
LAW 6429 reinforces Law 4096 on Hellenization of toponyms.
DECREE 87 accelerates denationalization of Macedonians.
Greek ministry of Education sends "Specially trained" instructors to accelerate conversion to Greek language.
1938
LAW 23666 bans the use of the Macedonian language and strives to erase every trace of the Macedonian identity.
Macedonians fined, beaten, jailed for speaking Macedonian. Adults and school children further humiliated by being forced to drink castor oil when caught speaking Macedonian.
LAW 1418 reinforces previous laws on renamings.
1940
39 more place-names Hellenized since 1929.
1945
LAW 697 more regulations on renaming toponyms in the Aegean Macedonia.
1947
LAW L-2 citizens suspected of opposing Greek government in civil War stripped of their citizenship, including relatives, arbitrarily and without due process.
1948
Kukush, Aegean MacedoniaLAW M properties confiscated from citizens who fought against government and those accused of assisting.
28,000 Child Refugees, mostly Macedonians, from areas of heavy fighting evacuated to Yugoslavia, Czechoslovakia, Poland, Hungary, Bulgaria and Romania. Greece denies their right of return to this day.
RESOLUTION 193C(III) United Nations Resolution calls for repatriation to Greece of Child Refugees.
U.N. UNIVERSAL DECLARATION OF HUMAN RIGHTS ARTICLE 19: Everyone has the right to freedom of opinion and expression; this right includes freedom to hold opinions without interference and to seek, receive an impart information and ideas through any media and regardless of frontiers.
DECREE 504 continues property confiscations of exiles and colonization of the Aegean Macedonia with people from Turkey, Egypt and other parts of Greece. Parcels of land given to colonists along with financial incentives. 1959.
LAW 3958 allows confiscation of property of those who left Greece and did not return within five years.
Several villages in the Aegean Macedonia forced to swear "LANGUAGE OATHS" to speak only Greek and renounce their mother tongue (MACEDONIAN).
1962
DECREE 4234 reinforces past laws regarding confiscated properties of political exiles and denies them right to return.
1968
EUROPEAN COMMISSION ON HUMAN RIGHTS accuses Greece of human rights abuses.
1969
COUNCIL OF EUROPE declares Greece "undemocratic, illiberal, authoritarian, and oppressive". Greece forced to resign from Council of Europe under threat of expulsion.
Military Junta continues the policy of colonizing the confiscated lands in the Aegean Macedonia. Land handled over to persons with a "proven patriotism" for Greece.
EUROPEAN CONVENTION FOR THE PROTECTION OF HUMAN RIGHTS AND FREEDOMS signed by Greece states: ARTICLE 10(1) Everyone has the right to freedom of expression. This right shall include freedom to hold opinions and to receive and impart information and ideas without interference by public authority and regardless of frontiers.
1976
DECREE 233 suspends about 150 past decrees, government decisions and laws since 1913. Regulations for the confiscation of properties belonging to Macedonian political exiles not affected.
1979
135 places renamed in the Aegean Macedonia since 1940. The Greek vigil regarding names is an indicator of the Macedonian ethnic identity in the Aegean Macedonia.
1982
Greek internal security police urges intensive campaign to wipe out remaining Macedonian language and consciousness in the Aegean Macedonia.
LAW 106841 political exiles who fled during the Civil War and were stripped of their citizenship are allowed to return providing they are "Greek by ethnic origin". The same rights are denied to Macedonian political exiles born in the Aegean Macedonia.
U.N. UNIVERSAL DECLARATION OF HUMAN RIGHTS ARTICLE 17, No one can be deprived of his own property against his will.
1985
DECREE 1540, Political exiles who fled during Civil War allowed to reclaim confiscated lands provided they are "Greeks by ethnic origin". Same rights denied to Macedonian exiles born in the Aegean Macedonia.
U.N. UNIVERSAL DECLARATION OF HUMAN RIGHTS ARTICLE 13. Everyone has the right to leave any country, including his own, as well as to return to his own country.
1986
International writers' organization, PEN, condemns Greece's denial of the existence of Macedonians and their language.
Greece escalates climate of fear in the Aegean Macedonia.
Greece officially calls the Republic of Macedonia as the Republic of "Skopje", after the name of its capital city; and Macedonians are called "Skopjeans".
The term "Skopjeans" used to label Greek citizens who declare themselves as ethnic Macedonians. "Skopeans" laced with hatred, and racism. It connotes a traitor to Hellenism.
1990
CSCE COPENHAGEN CONFERENCE ON THE HUMAN DIMENSION, to which Greece is a signatory, states in ARTICLE 32: "Persons belonging to national minorities have the right freely to express, preserve, and develop their ethnic, cultural, linguistic, or religious identity and to maintain and develop their culture in all its aspects, free of any attempts as assimilation against their will". ARTICLE 33: "Participating states will protest the ethnic, cultural, linguistic and religious identity of national minorities...and create conditions for the promotion of that identity".
GREEK HIGH COURT DECISION 19, refuses registration of "CENTER FOR MACEDONIAN CULTURE" in Florina. Appeal is turned down by High Appeals Court, in Salonika. Further appeal dismissed by Supreme Administrative Council of Greece in Athens.
1991
CSCE MEETING ON NATIONAL MINORITIES IN GENEVA, in which Greece participated states: "Issues concerning national minorities...are matters of legitimate international concern and consequently do not constitute exclusively an internal affair of the respective State...Participating States reaffirm, and will not hinder the exercise of, the right of persons belonging to national minorities to establish and maintain their own educational, cultural and religious institutions, organizations and associations".
Belligerent anti-Macedonian propaganda incites Greek population into a state of chauvinistic hysteria.
1992
Greece and Serbia conspire to overthrow and partition the Republic of Macedonia.
1993
Macedonian human rights activists Hristos Sideropoulos and Tasos Boulis were prosecuted under Greek Panel Code: Article 36, Para 191; disseminating false information; Para 192; inciting citizens to disturb the peace. Their crime? Declaring themselves as Macedonians in interview for Greek magazine ENA.
Macedonian human rights activist and priest Nikodimos Tsarknias derobed and expelled by Greek Orthodox Church because of his human rights activities. Tsarknias refused a Greek bribe which would have elevated him to bishop in 1989. Threatened with death.
1994
Extremists in Australia's Greek Community burn two Macedonian churches, after Australian recognition of Macedonia.
Greece continues to deny the existence of Macedonians in the Aegean Macedonia despite overwhelming evidence to the contrary.
Greece continues repressive and unrelenting policies against Macedonians in the Aegean Macedonia despite objections by international human rights organizations.
mocarto you put a lot of issues except of course this that the US Senate legislation urges to FYROM and these are....
ReplyDeleteto stop to provoke Greece, usurping hers history which has been Hellenic for thousands of years
and
to cease it "hostile activities or propaganda" against Greece.
Denko Maleski, Foreign Minister of FYROM from 1991 to 1993 Admits Fyromian Propaganda
ReplyDeletehttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aWIKDhhTvnU
Kiro Gligorov former President of FYROM from 91-99 admits that they are slavs and they don't have any connection with Alexander the Great
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OKVlty4FsZo&feature=related
http://staff.lib.msu.edu/sowards/balkan/lecture1.html
"The South Slav (Yugo-Slav) groups that became the Slovenes, Croatians, Serbians and Bulgarians entered the Balkans from the north between 500 and 700 AD"
"There are also 1.4 million Macedonians in the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, which achieved independence after the collapse of Yugoslavia in 1989. These South Slavs reached Macedonia in the 600s AD"
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Macedonian_language#Geographical_distribu
"is the official language of the Republic of Macedonia and is a part of the Eastern group of South Slavic languages. Macedonian is closely related to and shares a high degree of mutual intelligibility with the Bulgarian and Serbian languages."
"The modern Macedonian alphabet was developed by linguists in the period after the Second World War, who based their alphabet on the phonetic alphabet of Vuk Stefanović Karadžić, though a similar writing system was used by Krste Misirkov in the late 19th century. The Macedonian language had previously been written using the Early Cyrillic alphabet, or later using the Cyrillic alphabet with local adaptations from either the Serbian or Bulgarian alphabets"
WHAT IS MONKEYDONIAN?
Monkeydonian is a person who holds the view that by renaming a potato to apple, the potato will then taste like an apple. In other words, it is the person who thinks that by renaming a country's name from 'Vardaska' to 'Macedonia', in the mid 20th century, he can include in its identity, all Macedonian history that took place even as far as 2000 years before the name change. This is really a script for Aristofanes.. -Monkeydonian is someone, who when it comes to history and historical perspective, he can not count up to three, but at the same time will make arguments witch he will firmly support, even if all evidence would point, or even shout, against him. -Monkeydonians are all those who have been in school after 1991 in FYROM, and have fallen victim of revisionist education, Gruevskis cabinet agenda, and other nationalist propaganda. -Finally and most importantly, Monkeydonians are those who are actively involved in any sort of deliberate, organized, intentional attempt towards world history falsification, so as to achieve their own goals and interests. -Being Monkeydonian does not include all those FYROM citizens that agree with the above, have a sense of historical perspective, take pride in their real past, and are thus more honest and true to their ancestors and their history. -Also excluded are the all innocent children that have fallen victim of their educational system, and who I personally sympathize with the most. -One can not blame one, for what he does not know! So lets start from education.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_Greece
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_Greece#Ancient_Greece
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Ancient_Greek_tribes
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Macedon
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hellenistic_civilization
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Athenian_democracy
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/League_of_Corinth
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Panhellenion
http://macedonianontheweb.blogspot.com/2006/12/etymology-of-100-most-famous-ancient.html
http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/historic_figures/alexander_the_great.shtml
http://www.macedoniaontheweb.com/forum/alexander-great-forum/2545-alexander-great-bbc-documentary.html
http://historyofmacedonia.wordpress.com/2007/01/02/what-did-ancient-macedonians-say-or-think-about-themselves/
http://www.cc.ece.ntua.gr/~conster/English/PageData/ancient_coins.htm
http://historyofmacedonia.wordpress.com/