TO: Mr. Daniel P. Tompkins
May 24, 2009
Director, Intellectual Heritage Program Associate Professor, Department of Greek, Hebrew and Roman Classics
Temple University
214 Anderson Hall Philadelphia, PA 15222-6090
Via: Email pericles@temple.edu


Dear Prof. D. P. Tompkins:

We were very appalled and astonished to read your “Letter to Colleagues:” recently. We appreciate anyone’s comments, as well as your eloquent rhetoric, regarding this matter as long as they are pragmatic, honest, and based on undisputable and Historical foundation.

Greece was very lenient in allowing the term “Macedonia” in the temporary name of FYROM, for their admission to the U.N. The temporary name should have been “The Former Yugoslav Province of Vardarska”, since until 1944, the end of WWII, this part of Yugoslavia was known as “Vardarska Banovina”. At that time, as History has recorded, the Dictator Marshal Tito together with Stalin of USSR baptized this part of southern Yugoslavia as “Socialist Republic of Macedonia”. At that time a guerilla war was begun with attacks from Albania, Yugoslavia and Bulgaria in order to annex the Macedonia of Greece (part of an old plan of greater Macedonia) and in order to gain access to the Aegean Sea. It is well known that their language is clearly Slavic, mainly Bulgarian. The United States recognized the threat against Greece and invoked the Truman Doctrine to prevent the attempted Communist takeover. To demonstrate their desire for peace, the FYROM must revert to the name they had prior to 1944 or at the least to select a neutral name.

The right of Greece to veto the membership of the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia (FYROM) to NATO is trivialized as merely a name issue, casting aside and underestimating the rights of Greece through falsification of world renowned History and our identity theft. The important points of the issue are totally ignored in portraying Greece as being heavy handed and unreasonable.

One must consider that the Slavs did not appear in the region until 700 A.D. In other words, 1000 years after the period of Alexander The Great who, during Hellenistic times, spread the Greek civilization throughout the known world. In 1992, FYROM’s President Gligorov [who ever since has disappeared from public appearances after suffering an assassination attempt], during a news conference he stated;
“We are all Slavs and we have no relationship with Alexander The Great”.
Henry Kissinger also stated repeatedly in the past:
“Who ever knows History, knows the rights are with Greece. I happen to know History while many on the Hill do not.”

The Skopjians have no other choice but to study carefully the authentic World History, to stop vicious propaganda through internet media and any other way, to recognize and appreciate Greece’s tremendous support; especially financial as a major investor creating jobs for thousands of the Skopjians, even when this gesture results in Greek people losing their jobs.

The new problems created by a small Republic calling itself “Macedonia” are much different from those earlier posed by Bulgaria and Yugoslavia. This “Nationality” was created artificially and therefore it lacks legitimacy. For sure you can not simply create a Nationality or Ethnicity.

Many contemporary “anthropologically sophisticated work on ancient ethnicity” is the modern concept to extrapolate rumor to achieve imaginary conclusions. The testimony of those who were closest to the true historical facts are considered incorrect by contemporary classicists in an effort to gain notoriety by challenging documented Archaeological and Historical fact. These “modern” classicists you cite, have made their existence out of the most remotely possible ideas; creating a new mythology to replace the voracity of Historical and Archaeological evidence. The stones bear testimony to Historical fact, and stones do not lie!

In order for the International arena to comprehend the true story, how Josip Broze (aka Marshal Tito) created the Macedonian Nationality in 1944, he borrowed an idea which was circulated since 1924 within the bases of the Communist Party internationally, we are presenting two extremely interesting reports. The first comes from the London Times dated 7-3-1944, a few months before Tito’s decision to create the “Socialist Republic of Macedonia”: “A Plasmatic Autonomy In some Bulgarian circles, probably because they realize that the Bulgarian territorial claims can not be compensated, there is a trend to revive an old idea of an autonomous “Macedonia”. From all the solutions of the Balkan problem, this would be by all means the worst. A country with a separate Macedonian Ethnicity, belongs to the land of fantasy the way by which the Bulgarian “Komitatzides” were nursing it. There are not Macedonians as a particular ethnicity”

The second one comes from the Bulgarian newspaper “Ote-Cestven Vesnik” in
19-6-1991. After the fall of Communism, the Bulgarian archives opened and an important conversation came to light, which took place in Moscow, 7-6-1946 between Stalin and the leaders of the Bulgarian Communist Party; G. K. Dimitrof, B. Kolarof, and T. Kostof. Stalin said to them:
“To Macedonia of Pirin you must grant cultural autonomy within the boundaries of Bulgaria. Tito appeared to be more adjustable than you. Autonomy is the first step for the unification of the entire Macedonia. The fact that the National Consciousness within the community it has not yet been created, it is not important. Neither in
LevkoRosia (White Russia) existed separate National Conscience, when we declared it Soviet Democracy . . . .”! ! !

Another vital point is that the language which Aristotle used in Alexander’s teaching was Greek. Greek was also the language which Alexander used in his expeditions to the East. This has been proved by the numerous ancient Greek inscriptions in far away settlements like in Afghanistan which were established by Alexander The Great. Recently at an Afghanistan Exhibit “Hidden Treasures from the National Museum of Kabul” which visited several large American cities, the Greek inscriptions had an impressive large percentage. Good question; why were the inscriptions not in the so-called “Macedonian” language? Another good question is, why the Greek language became the “Lingua Franca” in Alexander The Great empire instead of the so-called “Macedonian”??

As an outcome of the above reports one can easily understand why the Hellenes can not grant the Hellenic name Macedonia neither as a compound nor as a derivative name.

Prof. Stephen Miller, is to be commended for his objective judgment, his highly Historical knowledge of authentic World History, his great respect for justice and his quest for justice to prevail!

Dear Sir; Nations cannot be created by stealing cultural identities. Neither can Democracy survive by replacing Historic vision with the revision of History. For us the Hellenes, the created problem is not Political; however, it is a matter of our Identity, our Heritage, History of Ancient Macedonia, which has been Hellenic for 3,000 years.

It is time for this minute Republic, in order to survive, to accept a neutral name, in order to have peace and stability in that region. They need to refrain from the identity theft of the Historically Greek Macedonia. Justice is asking for that; History demands it!


Very Sincerely,
Nina Peropoulos, Peter Peropoulos

Dan Tompkins letter to Prof Miller

source: panmacedonian.info