THE LOBOTOMY OF LIBERTY IN FYROM: THE CASE OF DESTRUCTION OF ANTI-GRUEVISTIC A1 TV THROUGH MASS ARREST OF ITS JOURNALISTS

by Vasko Gligorijević

Nikola Gruevski, the Prime Minister of Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia (FYROM) demonstrated, encouraged by absence of proper, tough approach from legitimate factors that represent values of European civilization, by far the most extreme form of his crackdown of opposition, exacerbating his stamina and reputation of FYROM's autocratic tyrant.

This time, this manifestation of Gruevski's totalitarianism, exercised through the FYROMian political party VMRO-DPMNE, in particular by the Special Security Agencies led by his first cousin Sašo Mijalkov, came through blitz storming of A1 Television House in Skoplje by dozens of members of “Alfa”'s (24/7 patrolling/monitoring secret, plain-clothed police strike-force constituted on basis of VMRO-DPMNE party affiliation). The event of the transition ofrom 23th to 24th of December 2010, inwhich disproportional force was used in relation to what police was technically able toknow regarding the assessment of situation, together with subsequent video presentation* by pro-VMRO channels (KANAL 5 TV and more pronouncedly, SITEL TV), constitute the gravest act of.....

Merry Christmas from Macedonia.!!!!

Hellenic Macedonia Since Liberation:General Observations and Principal Phases

The contemporary period of Macedonian history has already completed 98 years of Hellenic administration. Nonetheless, this important chapter in modem Greek history has not yet received the historiographical attention which it deserves.  To begin with, the bibliography is clearly and dishearteningly deficient in terms both of quantity and quality, and this is especially true of the literature referring solely to the more recent periods. As a result, the basic points of reference continue to be the special volumes devoted to Macedonia and published on the occasion of the various anniversaries of its liberation. However, these works inevitably suffer from the shortcomings of all circumstantial publications, and, furthermore, they focus their interest primarily on one of the most important (and easiest) of the thematic targets: the city of Thessaloniki.
It is indicative ofthe situation that contemporary Macedonia has only recently begun to appear on the agenda of specialist conferences,,and even then this has occurred in such a way as to ensure that the primacy ofthe ancient and, to a lesser extent, of the Byzantine period -goes unchallenged.
This historiographical narrowness of approach can be attributed to..

Is history of a people transferable?

There are people out there ,self-identified or self-ascribed as "Macedonians" who believe that the history of a people of a neighboring country can be shared with, taken away or transferred to themselves because their country cannot exist or function without a history and, therefore, since the South Slavonian Slavic people of that country don´t have one or think that whatever little history they have is not significant enough to feel proud and honored by it. Obviously, they feel justified to use, steal or expropriate the history of their southern neighbors, namely the Greeks and , in particular, the history of the Greek people of Macedonia because not only it makes it possible for them to acquire a foreign history for themselves but, at the same time, it allows them to indulge themselves in some sort of irredentist ambitions for foreign land speculation, namely the much coveted Macedonian Greek land.

We Greeks in general and especially the Macedonian Greek people are proud and honored to have so much history despite the fact that we are a small country. So, then, we will invest any amount of effort to defend our history against the South Slavonian Slavs who think that they...

Winemakers' suit over Macedonia PDO

 A local cooperative of winemakers in northern Greece on Wednesday announced that it will file a lawsuit in Germany against distributors and super market retailers offering wines from the neighbouring former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia (fYRoM) under the indication "Macedonia".
The president of the Association of Winemakers & Viticulturalists of Northern Greece (ENOABE), Yiannis Voyiatzis, noted that several retailers in Germany have already complied with European law and removed the wines from their shelves.

The term "Macedonia" enjoys a European Union-mandated Protected Designation of Origin (PDO) status for wines produced in the Greek province of Macedonia, which dominates northern Greece and is the land mass linked with historical and geographical Macedonia.


"This specific geographic designation is only allowed for wines emanating from the geographic province of Macedonia in Greece," Voyiatzis.

Along those lines, he noted that the...

AMAC Offended by Insulting and Racist Comments made by Dame Krcoski

December 05, 2010

In response to the article posted by the UMD (United Macedonian Diaspora) (http://umdiaspora.org/content/view/524/1) and written by a leading member of the UMD´s operations in Australia, Dame Krcoski:

The Australian Macedonian Advisory Council (AMAC) is disappointed, but not surprised at the attack on a Winthrop Professor from the Classics & Ancient History department (University of Western Australia), Professor Melville-Jones, for his honest address in our quarterly newsletter. The professor is 1 of 7 Australian classics academics to have signed the Macedonia Evidence Petition (see http://macedonia-evidence.org/). The Petition has now been signed by 367, mostly non-Greek, academics world-wide, in order to preserve and protect Macedonian history from FYROM (Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia).

Dame Krcoski (from UMD Australia) states that....

PM Gruevski´s hardline policy leaves FYROM out of NATO summit yet again

Australian Macedonian Advisory Council
November 26, 2010

FYROM Prime Minister Nikola Gruevski´s hardline policy to his country´s naming dispute with Greece has once again caused FYROM to not be invited to take part in the latest NATO summit (where new members are then invited to join the Alliance) which took place on 20 November 2010 in Lisbon.

Immediately after the summit, instead of taking responsibility for his failure once again for FYROM to be invited to join the NATO alliance (after its failure to join NATO in 2008 and a stagnant EU candidature in 2010 (http://www.ana.gr/anaweb/user/showplain?maindoc=9321518&maindocimg=9318247&service=96&showLink=true), Gruevski stated that his country "had not joined NATO, because of ´interference´ from Greece, due the name issue".

Meanwhile, the citizens of the FYROM (of whom 35% are of Albanian origin) are becoming....

Letter to Kofos by World Pan-Macedonian Associations

A Critique of Consequence

Concerns over the feasibility of special advisor to ELIAMEP Dr. E. Kofos's suggestions for a solution to the Macedonian naming dispute between Athens and Skopje

November 2010

Dear Dr. Kofos,

In regards to the Rose-Routh seminar you gave in Skopje on October 20, 2010 at NATO's Parliamentary Assembly vis-à-vis the imbroglio Greece has with its northern neighbor, and in regards to recent news reports coming out of Skopje attributed to you, we the Worldwide Pan-Macedonian Associations would like to offer you our comments. We feel that the Pan-Macedonian Associations, as the bastions of Hellenism in Macedonia, should be an important voice and an inseparable figure in the academic, political, and historical discussions on the name issue with our neighbor. We are the representatives of millions of Macedonians in Greece and the Diaspora; we are diachronic, and independent of all political parties.

We respect your efforts over the last five decades in dealing with Skopje's Macedonism however we must strongly object to the ideas that you and your colleagues in ELIAMEP have promoted to the citizens in Greece and the Diaspora, to various foreign ministers of the Hellenic Republic, and most recently to politicians and journalists in Skopje.  

Throughout your thesis you un-necessarily refer to that state as.....

Understanding the Macedonian Name Dispute and its importance to the United States

by Ioannis Fidanakis
President of Pan Thracian Union of America “Orpheus”.

It’s been 19 years since a small former republic of Yugoslavia declared independence and attempted to hijack the history, identity and name of the ancient Greek Kingdom of Macedonia. Originally known as Vardar Banovina, the region was renamed by Josip Broz Tito in the aftermath of the Second World War. The name chosen by Tito was the Socialist Republic of Macedonia, an ideal chose as it allowed him to promote the concept of an oppressed ‘Macedonian ethnicity’, in which he could develop the idea of reunification of the greater geographic region in hopes of gaining access to the Aegean Sea, through the Greek port city of Thessaloniki. With the fall of the former Yugoslavia the republic was admitted into the United Nations under the provisional name, Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia. Much has changed since this disagreement between Greece and FYROM began in 1991. The world is a much different place now, and despite a world economic crisis Athens and Skopje continue to fight over the word ‘Macedonia’.

Most Americans are ignorant of the name dispute and those that have some type of understanding find it ridiculous to fight over a name. Their inability to understand the Greek position is the failure of Greek America to properly explain their concerns to the average American. It is with this said, that a new campaign has been launched hoping to educate and bring attention to the Greek position concerning the name dispute. Focused on....

FYROM - A COUNTRY WITH A BORROWED IDENTITY

A dispute is going on between Greece and the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia (FYROM) on the name "Macedonia," which FYROM is using since 1991 when it broke away from the crumbling state of Yugoslavia. The dispute goes deeper than the use of the name. It is an attempt by FYROM to discredit the ancient Macedonians’ ethnicity, break the connection between  present-day Greek Macedonians and the Macedonians of antiquity, and establish a connection between FYROM’s Slavs and Albanians with ancient Macedonia. The historically, linguistically and archaeologically incorrect challenge is that Macedonia was never part of Greece and the Macedonians were barbarians who spoke a language incomprehensible to the other Greeks.
It is true that ancient Macedonia was not....

Open publication - Free publishing - More macedonia

Prospects for resolving the name issue -- presentation by Dr. E. Kofos at the NATO Parliamentary Assembly’s Rose-Roth Seminar (Skopje 20.10.2010)

The organizers of the seminar have asked me to discuss the “Prospects for resolving the name issue”. For someone like me, a native of Macedonia, who, for half a century, has been studying the Macedonian question or being involved with contemporary Macedonian issues, it was not an easy task. For help, I turned to the Athenian philosopher Antisthenis, a contemporary and friend of Socrates: I found his advice, «αρχή σοφίας η των ονομάτων επίσκεψις», an appropriate way to approach our problem. In English, his dictum could be rendered as, “the foundation of wisdom, is the definition of the names”

The first mistake we, the contemporaries, have made in dealing with the “name issue” was to ignore his advice. And naturally we failed.

The traditional “Macedonian Question”-- traced from the last decades of the
19th century to the mid-20th century-- was a contest mainly over territories, and as such an issue of regional and international security. During the latter part of the 20th century, up to this day, it has evolved, mainly, as an issue of identities.

Claims over territories have been dealt by wars, uprisings, persistent insecurity. On the other hand, contested identities, are hard to decipher, particularly by outsiders, who tend to underestimate, or denigrate them as “incomprehensible” or “nuisances”. Thus, our failure to decipher the different identities, hidden behind identical names, was our second error.
So let us try, today, to define the various elements of the problem.

There are three groups of identities that require clear definition before proceeding to resolve the “name issue”: .....

Hilary Clinton Defends Greece on the FYROM Name Issue

The Obama administration in Washington D.C. is pushing the  Skopian  Republic to accept the predominant name for the country which is “Vardaska Makedonija”. However the United Nations official proposal of “Northern Makedonia” remains on the table. Secretary of Foreign Affairs Hilary Clinton was very clear about the intentions of the Obama government at a recent U.S. – E.E. meetingt . During the speech from the representative of Slovenia, she intervened and strongly stated that Greece should cease negotiations with the E.U. about FYROM, and the country’s accession into NATO. Her opinion on the matter was that Prime Minister George Papandreou had stated his position, therefore it was now FYROM’s turn to respond.
She indirectly sent another message to....

AMAC: Truth must prevail in Macedonian issue

11 Oct 2010
Laura Burgoine and Fotis Kapetopoulos
neoskosmos.com

The Australian Macedonian Advisory Committee's (AMAC) annual function, last Friday, was attended by three generations of Greek Australians. Chairman Con Kouremenos welcomed guests while emphasising the changes in AMAC.

"One third of AMAC's membership comprises of third generation Greek Australians," he said.

He said AMAC is an advisory body which assists in the preservation of the truth in the face of the "falsification of history in the area of Macedonian identity".

Professor John Melville-Jones from the University of Western Australia spoke about the "importance of preserving historical truth in light of attempts to distort Macedonian history."

He relayed how he....

CSIS Recommendations as regards FYROM name issue.

The key challenge for the ROM/FYROM is to resolve its name dispute with Athens, which would help unblock the country’s path toward NATO and European Union accession. Basically, there are three stark choices: indefinite stalemate and no solution, which could destabilize the ROM/FYROM; pressing Greece to accept the current constitutional name and potentially undermine the Greek government at a time of economic and social convulsion; or convincing the authorities in Skopje to qualify the country’s name. Of the three, the name qualifier is likely to be the least destabilizing both for the ROM/FYROM and for Greece, as well as the broader region. On the basis of this premise, the United States would need to pursue the following approach:

New Macedonian books available now on-line.

The Foundation for the Museum of the Macedonian Struggle and the  www.macedonian-heritage.gr/ are  pleased to make available on line two works:

the entire two volumes of the important work "Modern and Contemporay Macedonia" edited by Ioannis Koliopoulos and Ioannis Hassiotis and published in print form by Papazisis Publishers and Paratiritis Publishing House.

The volumes consist of 32 articles written by expert scholars and provide a detailed presentation of the history, economy, society and culture of Macedonia from the Turkish occupation to the present time. The work extends to more than 1000 pages and includes more than 1000 photographs.

The link is...http://www.macedonian-heritage.gr/ContemporaryMacedonia/index.html


and

the one volume “The History of Macedonia” edited by I. Koliopoulos, which consists of 19 academic articles in pdf format written by professinal historians presenting the history of Macedonia from prehistoric times to the present.

The link is...http://www.macedonian-heritage.gr/HistoryOfMacedonia/index.html

FYROM's Foreign Policy Objectives and the Name issue.

The FYROM name issue is not simply a dispute over historical facts and symbols. It is a problem with regional and international dimensions, given that FYROM is exercising a policy of irredentism and territorial claims fuelled by the falsification of history and the usurpation of Greeces historical and national heritage. It is also a problem   of a «cultural genocide».

The first steps of the former Yugoslav "Socialist Republic of Macedonia" towards independent statehood bear the marks of nationalistic visions mixed with territorial expansionism.

It is not a coincidence that, as a result of the first democratic elections (December 1990), the party which won first place in popular votes and parliamentary seats was the "Internal Macedonian Revolutionary Organisation" (VMRO). Its platform declared specifically its intention to work for the unification of all the Macedonian lands in one state: the "Republic of Macedonia".

Similarly, VMRO's electoral poster depicted a map of a united Macedonia which included the whole of Greek Macedonia, as well as the Pirin district in Bulgaria.

In November 1993, under the influence of nationalists, the Gligorov government prepared and passed through Parliament the Constitution of the "Republic of Macedonia". In its preamble, the Constution stated that the new republic rests upon "the statehood–legal traditions" of the "Republic of Krushevo" (1903) and of ASNOM (1944). Both events are considered in Stopje as the first steps toward the establishment of an independent and united Macedonian state. It is worth quoting certain paragraphs from the ASNOM documents of August 21, 1944:

Pr. Dennis P. Hupchick as regards the Slavmacedonian nationality and language*

An interesting historical argument arose in support of an independent (Slav) Macedonian nationality that ultimately reached its maturity only after World War II and Tito's construction of a federated Communist Yugoslavia composed of six independent "historic" republics, of which one was Macedonia. The (Slav) Macedonian nationalists quite simply stole all of the Bulgarian historical argument concerning Macedonia, substituting "Macedonian" for "Bulgarian" ethnic tags in the story. Thus Kuber formed a "Macedonian" tribal alliance in the late seventh century; Kliment and Naum were "Macedonians" and not "Bulgarians"; the medieval archbishopric-patriarchate of Ohrid, which Kliment led, was a "Macedonian," not a "Bulgarian" independent church, as shown by the persistence of Glagolitic letters in the region in the face of the Cyrillic that were spawned in Bulgaria; and the renowned Samuil led a great "Macedonian," rather than a "western Bulgarian," state against Byzantium (giving Slav Macedonia its apex in the historical sun). Under control of the revived Bulgarian state, and later under the Serb Dusan, the (Slav)Macedonians had maintained their ethnic differences from their "foreign" masters, as demonstrated by their "king" VukaSin, who had died attempting to keep an independent Macedonia free from the Ottoman Turks. When ethnic-national consciousness reawakened among the Macedonian Slavs in the nineteenth century, the cultural revivalists, such as the Miladinov brothers, were consciously "Macedonian" and not "Bulgarian," in their efforts.

The obviously plagiarized historical argument of the (Slav)Macedonian nationalists for a separate (Slav)Macedonian ethnicity could be supported only by linguistic reality, and that worked against them until the 1940s. Until a modern (Slav)Macedonian literary language was mandated by the socialist-led partisan movement from Macedonia in 1944, most outside observers and linguists agreed with the Bulgarians in considering the vernacular spoken by the Macedonian Slavs as a western dialect of Bulgarian. In the interwar period (1918-39) the official language of... 

Letter from Pan Macedonian Association USA to US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton regarding US Ambassador Reeker's comments

Secretary of State Hillary R. Clinton
September 9, 2010
State Department United States of America

Dear Madame Secretary,

We, the representatives of the Pan Macedonian Association USA, one of the largest Greek-American organizations are writing this letter to you because we, along with the rest of the Greek community in the United States, are extremely appalled by recent comments made by US Ambassador to Skopje Mr. Reeker in an interview regarding the position of the United States on the name issue of the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia (the FYROM). In a TV interview (Alpha TV Skopje) the Ambassador stated that the USA government does not provide change of the constitutional name, essentially supporting a double name solution.

According to the official US website of the US Embassy in Skopje which has posted extracts from the interview promoting it as the “US position” Mr. Reeker stated "We do not believe that the solution must involve the change of the constitutional name or the Macedonian Constitution. This is your Constitution. This is your holy text. What is needed is that both sides, Greece and Macedonia, agree to an international reference that will be used in place of FYROM".

Furthermore, Ambassador Reeker calls on the public of Skopje to embrace the US position:

Victoria University conducts offensive survey ‘in partnership’ with nationalist lobby group, the ‘United Macedonian Diaspora’

PRESS RELEASE
8 September 2010

AMAC was disappointed to discover the content of a survey conducted by the Centre for Strategic Economic Studies, a research centre of Victoria University, for people of Slav-Macedonian background: http://www.cfses.com/survey-macedonia-2010.htm. According to this link, the survey was conducted “in partnership with the Macedonian Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the United Macedonian Diaspora”.

The UMD is a nationalist, US-based lobby group with its head office in Washington DC. The UMD is well-known for their supporting territorial claims by the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia against Greece and Bulgaria.

Question 1 asks for the respondent’s country of birth and gives the option “Aegean Macedonia (in Greece)”. This sort of terminology is highly inappropriate. The term “Aegean Macedonia” is a term coined by the Communist Party of Yugoslavia in order to legitimise its claims on the Greek province of Macedonia and, in particular, the port of Thessaloniki.

Question 15 then asks.....

AMAC Launches Lecture Program 2010

PRESS RELEASE 7 September, 2010

Australian Macedonian Advisory Council (AMAC) Launches Lecture Program

AMAC Organises a Series of Lectures Australia-wide for West Australian classicist professor and Chicago-based expert in Macedonian studies.

The Australian Macedonian Advisory Council (AMAC) is pleased to announce it has arranged for a series of lectures concerning Macedonian history to be given across Australia by two highly esteemed scholars.

The first of those scholars is Professor John Melville-Jones of the University of Western Australia. The professor is 1 of 7 Australian academics to have signed the Macedonia Evidence Petition (see http://macedonia-evidence.org/). The Petition has now been signed by 332 mostly non-Greek academics world-wide and was sent to President Obama, it urges the President to reverse the US’ recognition of the FYROM as the ‘Republic of Macedonia’ and to ‘help the government to Skopje to realise it cannot build a national identity at the expense of historical truth’.

Professor Melville-Jones’ lecture itinerary is as follows:

THE MASSACRE AT KRUSHEVO - The Sydney Morning Herald, Tuesday 25 August 1903

Slav-Macedonian Australian newspaper prints falsifications

The perennially racist and deceptive newspaper, the ´Australian Macedonian Weekly´, has again been caught printing fabrications.

An article in the July 20 edition of the AMW, on page 35, stated that "The Australian Greens are the only political party in Australia that openly supports Macedonia's right to self-identification under its constitutional name."

The Australian Macedonian Advisory Council (AMAC) contacted the Greens´ leadership to clarify whether it had such a policy. A letter from Brett Constable, National Manager of the Australian Greens Party, read as follows: "Thank you for your letter of 30 July referring to the Greens policy on the identification of the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia. The Greens do not have a policy on this issue."

This letter establishes that, contrary to...

The Statistical Battle for the Population of Greek Macedonia

by Iakovos D. Michailidis
from the book "Macedonian History"

Population Shifts in Contemporary Greek Macedonia by Iakovos D. Michailidis

Population Shifts in Contemporary Greek Macedonia by Iakovos D. Michailidis

Source:"The History of Macedonia" ,publ. Museum of Macedonian Struggle, 2010

The role of the Communist International in the hatching of the “Macedonian nation”.

By Spyridon Sfetas

Abstract from the article “The Birth of ‘Macedonianism’ in the Interwar Period” and the book “The History of Macedonia, Museum of the Macedonian Struggle, 2010”.

In historiography the view that the 'Macedonian nation' was a creation of Tito is widespread. This position can of course not be denied, since the Communist Party of Yugoslavia (KPJ) had particular reasons for promoting 'Macedonianism' in Yugoslav Macedonia as a counterweight ideology to Bulgarian-Serbian competition in the interwar period. The need to detach the Slavs of Macedonia from Greek, Serbian and Bulgarian influence with the creation of a collective Slav-Macedonian identity had already been underscored in the early 20th century by a number of Slav intellectuals, such as Krste Misirkov, Stefan Dedov, Diamandi Misajkov and Dimitrija Cupovski. Foreseeing that the antagonism between Serbs and Bulgarians was continuing at the expense of the local population and that it only perpetuated Turkish rule, they sought to have the Slavs of Macedonia acknowledged as a separate community (millet). Even so, the political conditions of the early 20th century did not favour the advocacy of Slav-Macedonianism as a new collective ethnic identity, and its early proponents had very little impact on the masses. The political and ideological origins of 'Macedonianism' were essentially posed by the Third Communist International (the Comintern) in the interwar period. It is documented that the Communist International saw the Macedonian question as a tactical issue, relating to the political conditions of the time.[1] The publication of important documents for the period 1923-1925 from the Comintern archive has essentially confirmed the view that there were specific reasons as to why the Communist International was promoting a United and Independent Macedonia within a Balkan Soviet Republic. These were to assist IMRO in its attempt to create a unified front between the Bulgarian Communists, the Bulgarian Farmers and Bulgarian-Macedonian organizations for the advance of the revolution in Bulgaria, the establishment of a government of workers and farmers and the destabilization of the Balkan states.[2] According to the Communist International, the Macedonian organisations in Bulgaria should not only disassociate themselves from the influence of Bulgarian 'bourgeois' political elements, but also estrange themselves from Bulgarian nationalism. Criticising the Bulgarian Communist Party (BCP) for the neutral stand it took during the coup against the agrarian government of Aleksandr Stambolijski, Karl Radek expressed himself in the following way at the plenum of the Executive Committee of the Communist International (12-13 June 1923) in Moscow:

Pan-Macedonian Association USA letter to Washington Times

June 14, 2010

Re: http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2010/jun/3/the-irresponsible-neighbor/

Dear Editor,

We do agree with Richard Rahn’s statement in his June 3, 2010 article in the Washington Times titled, The Irresponsible Neighbor: Greek Profligacy Hits Bulgaria and Macedonia: “Whether you are a homeowner or a country, it is better to have responsible rather than irresponsible neighbors”. However it is more important to have neighbors that do not steal their neighbors’ property, money, credit cards and social security numbers. With such articles as Mr. Rahn’s in the Washington Times, the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia (the FYROM) is encouraged to commit such crimes: usurp its neighbor’s history, identity and culture.

We found the article profoundly insulting to Greece and to Hellenism as a whole. It is historically unfounded, profoundly biased and misleading. Mr. Rahn should know that Macedonia is a Greek province. We consider any mention of “Macedonia and Greece” as two separate.....

The National Struggle against the Turkish Conqueror until 1830

The relative religious freedom accorded by the Turks and their toler­ance of Greek economic and social promotion were not enough to blunt the Greeks hatred for their conquerors. The Turks encountered Greek culture in Macedonia conquered it and tried to uproot it. To achieve their aim, they adopted very harsh ruling methods that made the living conditions of Greek subjects unbearable.

Most of the land in the fertile plains and valleys belonged to large pri­vate estates (ciftliks) of Moslems. Those Christian villagers who worked on these estates were serfs. In return for the right to cultivate a few acres, they surrendered a significant part of their production to the Muslim estate owner. Usually, the estate owner employed armed bands and doubled as the Ottoman state tax collector. He collected the state s share of the production, a right granted him —for a fee— by the sultan s treasury. Often, the same estate owner dictated the decisions of the local Muslim religious courts. In that case the pressure to his tenants became completely uncontrollable.

The craftsmen, professionals and merchants enjoyed better living con­ditions. However, they were.....

Where Loring Danforth failed..

«The social anthropologist Loring Danforth wrote in the early 1990s that "serious national historiography [of FYROM] rejects the iedea of any direct continuity between the ancient and modern Macedonians". [The Macedonian Conflict, page 187]
The American scientist failed, to understand  the importance of this link, which both South Slavic invalidate the current unit (and mounting from Belgrade), causing, of course, the discomfort of the old regime members, such as Kiro Gligorov, the other gave in the young Republic oldest and richest property titles of the Macedonia name.
Danforth also failed to understand that...

AHI Requests Secretary Clinton to Clarify Inflammatory Article on FYROM in State Department’s Official Publication

WASHINGTON, DC—The American Hellenic Institute (AHI) released a letter it sent today to Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton expressing the Institute’s discontent with State Magazine’s April 2010 cover story “Skopje, Ancient Macedonia builds modern democracy,” by Stephanie Rowlands. AHI’s letter identified five points of contention with Rowlands’ article.

“We respectfully request clarification of certain inflammatory and irredentist content of the article,” wrote AHI President Aleco Haralambides and Executive Director Nick Larigakis. 

The five points of contention demonstrate “serious flaws” with the article in the areas of 1) Geography, 2) “Macedonian” Identity, 3) FYROM as a “Tolerant” Player in the Region, 4) FYROM’s “Peaceful Development,” and 5) the U.S.-FYROM “Strategic Partnership.”

“As published, ‘Skopje, Ancient Macedonia builds modern democracy’ will only contribute to FYROM’s ongoing intransigence to solve an issue of vital importance to U.S. interests,” wrote Haralambides and Larigakis. “Furthermore, it leads one to question if the content of State Magazine is to be taken as official policy of the Obama Administration.”

Read the  AHI’s letter to Secretary Clinton.....

To the Germans journalists

Because of this.....

I shall remind you that your cultural monuments Auschwitz and Treblinka still have the Deutsche flag at the top...eternal.

Letter to Secretary of State Hillary R. Clinton from Macedonian organisation regarding an unacceptable from the Department of State’s official publication

Tuesday, April 13, 2010

Secretary of State Hillary R. Clinton
State Department
United States of America

Dear Madame Secretary,

We, the representatives of the Pan Macedonian Association USA, one of the largest Greek-American organizations are writing you this letter on the heels of an article published in the US Department of State’s April 2010 issue of State Magazine, whose contents we find highly offensive and provocative. The article in question was written by Stephanie Rowlands, the wife of Ryan Rowlands who is the public affairs officer at the US Embassy in Skopje. It is titled “Skopje, Ancient Macedonia builds modern democracy”, is found on page 20-25 http://www.state.gov/documents/organization/138927.pdf yet it is curiously flagged as the “Post of the Month” and is showcased on the front page of the magazine. We will focus on a few things which we consider unacceptable to be coming from the Department of State’s official publication.

We can laugh off the mention of “Ancient Macedonia” and the first line of the article that states:....

Bring Them Back - English Version

Reunite Them! BRING THEM BACK!
Thousands of pieces of Greek antiquities are hosted in the British Museum. Our campaign does not ask for the return of those.
We ask for the return of the Parthenon Marbles in Greece and the Reunification of the Monument.
We, the users of the Internet obtain power and we are able to mobilize the international public opinion. Our goal can be achieved this way.
Do you believe this is fair? If yes, help this goal come true.
Say your own BRING THEM BACK!

http://www.bringthemback.org/

Kidnapped Greek curator is freed by Taliban

By Dilawar Khan Wazir
BBC News, Peshawar

A Greek national kidnapped by the Taliban eight months ago in Pakistan has been released, officials say.

Athanassios Lerounis was abducted while based in the northern district of Chitral, where he worked as the curator of a heritage museum for several years.

He was taken across the border to the Afghan province of Nuristan.

His captors demanded the release of militants held by Pakistan in exchange for his freedom but officials say no militant exchange was made.

"He has been released by the successful efforts of Pakistani security agencies," Rahmatullah Wazir, the top administrative official in Chitral, told the BBC.

The curator was living in the Kalash valley to pursue his interest in an ancient "lost tribe" when he was kidnapped by armed men on 7 September 2009.

The Kalash tribe have European features and still practise a pagan religion resembling that of ancient Greece.

They are said to be descendants of Greek soldiers from the army of Alexander the Great, who passed through this region nearly 2,000 years ago.

Mr Lerounis had been living among the Kalash since 2001. Sponsored by the Greek government, he managed a museum which highlighted the tribe's culture and Greek connections.

Locals point out that before the kidnapping Mr Lerounis had experienced no trouble and was well liked by the locals.

The Chitral district, where he was based, is widely seen as untouched by the Taliban insurgency which has ravaged the rest of the North West Frontier Province.

Paidomazoma: the gathering of the Greek Children

In 1948, Cominform, the first official forum of the international communist movement since the dissolution of the Comintern, put into action a plan to take hostage to communist countries children from Greece during the Greek civil war. The aim was to re-educate the children as well as blackmail the populace and the Greek government towards reaching a settlement leading to a partition of Greece and the subsequent creation of an internationalist "Macedonian" Republic. This move has favoured by the Yugoslav dictator Josip Broz Tito and had been a Comitern policy aimed at destroying the national states of the Balkans through the creation of internationalist republics. Today several FYROM sources claim........

The Greek position on the FYROM naming dispute according to Georgios Koumoutsakos

The Greek position on the FYROM naming dispute, described by the Greek member of the European Parliament Georgios Koumoutsakos (Group of the European People's Party - Christian Democrats) in an interview for the FYROMacedonian A1 Television, 04.02.2010

PART1

Rabid attacks against the Greek President and Deputy MFA laced with hatred and profanities

The language used in a stream of op-eds, press releases and postings in mainstream websites of the Muslim Minority of Western (Greek) Thrace and the Makedonski (Slavomacedonian) communities in Greek Macedonia and trans-Atlantic diaspora, raises eyebrows, points --once again-- to deeply entrenched psychological pathologies and dampens enthusiasm about the prospect of a nearing solution.


Three representative examples are presented below:

The solution of the "Republic of Northern Macedonia" U.S. proposed

The package also  includes changing the language to "northmacedonian"  The intention of the U.S., where a positive response in Athens, be referred to as the FYROM as "Republic of Northern Macedonia" allegedly informed the Greek Prime Minister as the chairman of U.S. Barack Obama and Foreign Minister Hillary Clinton. Information indicates, however, that the Papandreou reserved respond after weigh all the data.

Under Step, Washington appears willing to reconsider its stance on the FYROM name, recognizing that the enlargement of NATO in Southeast Europe can not proceed if there is no solution.

In this context, the B.Obama and H. Clinton informed the Greek Prime Minister that if they accept the proposal may ......

Skopje's Award for its Racist Behavior and the Treaty of St. Germain-en Layé of 1919: EU Application of Double Standards on the Name Issue

 By Marcus A. Templar

In Business Law, the principle nemo dat quod non habet means that no one may give what one does not have; nevertheless, this principle goes a little further. This rule stays valid regarding stolen goods, even if the bona fide purchaser does not know that the seller has no right to claim ownership of the object of the transaction. Thus if goods are stolen, the buyer does not get ownership even if there was no indication that they were stolen. Accordingly, the consequence of the above principle is that a person who does not own property, that is a thief, may not confer the stolen property to another person except with the true owner's permission. The same applies in International Law.

The legal status of each country is that of an artificial person. In the case of the name dispute between Skopje and Greece, the UNSC resolutions have indicated that because Greece complained that the name Macedonia, its derivatives, and its property – historical, social, and even spiritual- belongs to Greece by inheritance, Skopje may not bear the same name without the permission of its owner. Since the owner does not allow any country to bear it, Skopje had to ........

Arrest of a Slav Macedonian far-right nationalist for anti-Hellenic reviews as regards Antonios Samaras

For more than a year the new president of Greek Centre-Right Party Antonios Samaras would be attacked through YOUTUBE. There were dozens of posts with photos and video statements, which were accompanied by anti-Hellenic mockingly comments.

Mr. Samaras had sued in order to identify the perpetrator. At the prosecuting and removing secret authorization, the Board of Electronic Crime (Greek Police) identified the electronic traces of the offender by sending relevant documents to Interpol. It was found that this is a 22 years old far right-nationalist Slav Macedonian and member of the FYROM Army, which was identified and formed the file against the prosecuting authorities in Skopje at FYROM. A few days ago it was the trial court in Skopje, but the 22 years old s not appeared in the courtroom. The case postponed and is expected in the coming days be called back for trial.

source:taxalia.blogspot.com and newsit.gr

Betrüger in der Euro-Familie

Yet another day marked by paroxysmal manifestations about the Greek financial debacle in the German media. The crisis is real and (to a large measure) the utter disappointment and resentment of Greece's European partners is fully justified. But the German wrath has gone too far.
First came the gloomy, almost humiliating, interview of Greek Prime Minister George Papandreou in der Spiegel. The arrogant, condescending and prosecutorial style of the journalist conducting the interview is obvious. http://www.spiegel.de/international/europe/0,1518,679415,00.html

And then came this week's edition of the Munich-based FOCUS weekly magazine bearing the sensationalist title "Betrüger in der Euro-Familie" ("Swindlers/defrauders in the European Family" -- "Απατεώνες/καταχραστές στην Ευρωπαϊκή οικογένεια") on its cover page along side with an appalling image depicting Aphrodite of Milos (Venus di Milo) giving "the finger" whilst being wrapped, from the waist down, in the Greek flag. In fairness, this is beyond poor taste satire. It is an insult to the Greek flag and the dignity of the Greek nation. http://www.focus.de/magazin/videos/focus-titel-betrueger-in-der-euro-familie_vid_15672.html

On a more sober note, I would like to share a quote by my esteemed colleague Dr. Marios Evriviades, Political Scientist at Panteion University of Athens:"The Greeks may be all the Germans say (and worse) but in their history they [Greeks] neither invented gas ovens nor did they put them in use 24 hrs a day for five years in the middle of the 20th century. These same Greeks, incidentally, were the first to inflict on fascists their first organized defeat when Europe lived in fear and despair."

Christos D. Katsetos, MD, PhD, FRCPath
http://www.drexelmed.edu/Home/AboutOurFaculty/ChristosKatsetos.aspx

«Macedonia is as Greek as the Acropolis» South Australia Premier Rann says

Adelaide, 10.02.2010

“I will speak of Macedonia being Hellenic and nobody will silence me, because it is something I believe in”. This was the answer of the PM of South Australia Mike Rann, to the reactions of citizens coming from FYROM.

Mr. Rann has been supporting in every possible way the Greek side on Macedonia and Cyprus, outraging the citizens of Australia who come from Turkey and FYROM.


“It is important because no one is entitled to steal another nation’s history or culture,” Mr Rann said.

Mr Koloski, president of the self proclaimed “United Macedonian Diaspora”, told The Advertiser that his people had been “slandered” and demanded an unconditional apology. He also met the Minister of Multicultural Affairs, Michael Atkinson in Adelaide and issued a letter of protest to Mr. Rann.

Mr. Rann stated in the past that “Macedonia is as Greek as the Acropolis”The newspaper of Adelaide “The Advertiser” published an article whereby reference is made to Mr. Rann’s speech during the Dimitria Greek festival in the western suburbs in November in which he stated that FYROM’s president Giorgi Ivanov is“stirring up trouble in the most dangerous way” and affirms his commitment to Adelaide’s Greek voters and promises his Government will “remain firm and unswerving in our support for your cause”.

Source: ANA – MPA

Letter to Human Rights US Department of State from Macedonian organisation.

February 1, 2010

Mr. Mike Posner President of Human Rights
C/o Ms Emily Stanfield Executive Assistant to the President
Human Rights Department
US Department of State
2201 C Street NW
Washington, DC 20520

Dear Mr. Posner,

We would like to bring to your attention the injustices and violations against the historical and cultural identity that we feel are occurring against the 2.500.000 Greeks of the Greek administrative region of Macedonia, who are ethnologically and linguistically Greek, consider themselves ethnically Greek, and are proud of their Macedonian cultural identity for millennia. Our people recently are attacked by a self-proclaimed “Macedonian” ethnic identity of the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia (the FYROM). Being ethnically Greeks from the Greek administrative region of Macedonia, we would like to express grave concern about attempts to appropriate our cultural and historical Macedonian identity in this region, emanating from a newly independent state that occupies only a small part of the ancient geographical region of Macedonia.

With this letter we state that the Macedonian identity belongs exclusively to Greece on cultural and historical terms and it is extremely inappropriate and threatening to Greece to allow an ethnic self-proclaimed “Macedonian” identity at the northern borders of Greece. Under no circumstances should......

A response to “The Shame of Modern Greece”

On January 20, 2010 Andrew Apostolou published an op ed piece in the Wall Street Journal titled “The Shame of Modern Greece“; the points so obliviously forced or ignored the facts (both as to the burning of the synagogue and the historical context) and maliciously facile that I felt compelled to respond.

My letter to the editor was sent on January 22 but it has so far not been published, probably because it exceeds the ten-second soundbite. I reproduce it below for those who may be interested and for the record (scripta manent, if only on the internet).

A. Caratzas

To the Editor [of the Wall Street Journal]:.....

FYROM suit issue

by a Reader

FYROM press has stated already its disinformation.  They have published that the ICJ decisions are binding.  The truth is that they are not.  The reason behind it is disinformation to the people in the FYROM, but also all over the world as Greece does not abide by the ruling.  The lawsuit in its entirety has as goal a favorable impressions for poor " Macedonia !"

 

Please take a look what BalkanInSight states and then see what the MIA states.  Both relevant statements are in bold.  Cases before the ICJ are legally binding ONLY when two parties seeking in essence binding arbitration mutually bring a dispute before it.  These cases are on continental shelves, border disputes, etc. Sometimes even that is not enforceable, point in case the border dispute between Eritrea and Ethiopia .   

 

The case between the FYROM and Greece is a unilateral lawsuit on whether one party violated the terms of a treaty.  Essentially in this case, the " Republic of Macedonia " has filed a complaint before the ICJ because Greece "obstructed" the aforementioned country to join NATO.  The problem with this thinking is that the " Republic of Macedonia " applied to join NATO,  not The FYROM.  Even the complaint to the ICJ was filed under the name " Republic of Macedonia ," not The FYROM.  As we say in the United States , the Interim Agreement is not Burger King to have it "your" way; it is take it or leave it! 

 

How could it be that Skopje can lobby ....

The political ethno-myth of the Slav Macedonians

The political ethno-myth of the Slav Macedonians[1] can be divided in two opinions. Namely, the issues are two ethno-myths, which are produced and dictated by opposed opinions of certain political power centers in FYROM and her diasporas. The first view or the first ethno-myth is when the Slav Macedonians declare themselves as direct descendents of the Ancient Macedonians and 7.000 B.C Balkan peoples and the second one is when they connect their own genesis with the history of the amalgamation of the Slavs with the 6th cent A.D Balkan people. This kind of divergency, which appears in the Slav Macedonian ethnos, started to be illustrated at a larger extent after the independence of Macedonia that is in the period when the era of totalitarianism finished.

The first view promoted from the Gruevski regime and his ultra-nationalist political partie, nationalists parties, Institute of National History (INI, Institut za natsionalna istorija), World Macedonian Congress and the second from the Socialists political parties, Macedonian Academy of Sciences and Arts (MANU, Makedonska Akademija na Naukite i Umetnostite)

Both of them characterizing from theirs.....

Greek Citizenship Code reform

The newly elected socialist government of George Papandreou is planning a drastic reform to the Greek Citizenship Code, the law governing the modes of acquisition of Greek citizenship.

The planned proposals would give Greek citizenship to:

• children born in the country, as soon as one of their parents manages to stay legally in the country for five years, by declaration of their parents
  
• children who attend the first three grades of grammar school, by their own declaration on their majority (18 years)
  
• children who attend any six grades of school, by declaration of their parents
  
• children born in Greece of one parent who was also born in Greece, ipso jure

The reform would also far simplify the requirements for Greek citizenship by adults, abolishing the need to be "of good morals and personality", and to have "knowledge of Greek history and culture", and requiring only that the applicant be in Greece during any 5 of the last 10 years rather than the requirement for 10 years in effect now.

While Greece currently ranks as one of the countries with one of the strictest nationality laws, the planned reforms have no parallel in Europe and will result in its adopting the.......

Athens response to fYRoM suit

(ANA-MPA) -- Greece on Tuesday filed its obligatory counter-memorial at the Hague-based International Court of Justice (ICJ) in relation to a suit brought by the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia (fYRoM) over the 1995 "interim agreement" between Athens and the one-time Yugoslav province.

The counter-memorial was filed by Greece's agents at the proceedings, Amb. Georgios Savvaidis, foreign ministry legal counsel Maria Telalian and a team of ministry diplomats and legal experts assigned the case.

The counter-memorial lists, in detail and with accompanying documentation, Greece's legal arguments vis-?-vis the case, according to a foreign ministry press release on Tuesday. The ministry added that Greece's written response categorically rejects all of fYRoM's arguments, presenting legal, political and historical counter-arguments and points of reference.

Athens had been given a Jan. 20 deadline to file its counter-memorial, whereas fYRoM had filed its memorial by last July.