to:
Palais des Nations
CH-1211 Geneva 10, Switzerland
Edessa 24-1-2011
Macedonia, Greece
The Office of the United Nations
High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) Palais des Nations
CH-1211 Geneva 10, Switzerland
Edessa 24-1-2011
Macedonia, Greece
We, the Macedonians
Defending our dignity
and respecting our Hellenic ancestry and our Hellenic cultural heritage
We declare that
1. We are indigenous residents of the geographical area between Prespes Lakes and the Nestos river, east of Pindos mountain range, and between Olympus and Orvilos mountains, and we are Hellenes (Greeks) due to common blood, common religion, common language and common ways of living as it is mentioned by all ancient writers.
· Document 1: «The geographical boundaries of historical Macedonia
· Document 2: «The identity of Macedonians in the ancient texts»
2. We have identified ourselves as Macedonians, since thousands of years, from the name of Macedon (who was the son of the greatest ancient Hellene God Zeus and Thyia, brother of Magnes and nephew of Hellen) and we call Macedonia
the Hellenic word “makos” which means long or tall.
the Hellenic word “makos” which means long or tall.
· Document 3: «Mythological tradition of ancient Hellenes»
3. Since then, we live in the geographical area of Macedonia and, maintaining our specific Macedonian identity, we participate in any phase of the Hellenic history along with the Thracians (Residents of Thrace), Epirotes (Residents of Epirus), Cretans (Residents of the island of Crete) and along with other Hellenes.
· Document 4: «The continuous presence of Macedonians in the Hellenic history»
4. As indigenous people in the geographical area of historical Macedonia, as indigenous Macedonians, according to our free will and the United Nations’ Declaration of the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (Article 3, 6, 8, 9, 11, 12, 13, 15, 19, 26, 33, 42), our ancestry and our ethnicity is Hellenic. A smole part of us, speak, in parallel with the Hellenic language, and a quasi-Slavic local idiom, which we call “Endopika”. (the word “Endopika” means “local” in the Hellenic language). They speak this local idiom due to some specific historical conditions in their geographical area, and this does not mean that they have lost their Hellenic identity.
· Document 5: «The quasi-Slavic local idiom “Endopika “»
5. We do not accept to give up our ancestral name “Macedonian” and our historical and cultural identity to the multinational population of Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia
· Document 6: «Official censuses in the region of Skopje
· Document 7: «The identity of Slavs in the area of F.Y.R.O.M.»
6. We do not accept that the area of Skopje will be called “Macedonia ” in order to facilitate the expansionist plans of the government of F.Y.R.O.M. against Hellas . The area of Skopje was never included in the historical boundaries of Macedonia
· Document 1: «The geographical boundaries of historical Macedonia
· Document 8: «Photographs of F.Y.R.O.M.’s government members in front of the map of the “Great Macedonia
7. We do not authorize any politician of Hellas to give up our name “Macedonian” to the Slavic population of the F.Y.R.O.M. by accepting a compound name or a geographical complement containing the term “Macedonia” or any of its derivatives to be included in the permanent name of F.Y.R.O.M. The politicians of Hellas are bind by the summit of the political leaders which took place on 04/13/1992 in Athens , under the President of the Hellenic Republic which decided to not accept the inclusion of the term “Macedonia
· Document 7: «The identity of Slavs in the area of F.Y.R.O.M.»
We request
1. To respect our self-identification as Macedonians, which has been existing for thousands of years.
2. To respect our Macedonian historical and cultural identity, within the Hellenic civilization.
3. To prevent our historical and cultural plundering which exist, as indigenous Macedonian Hellenes, from the state propaganda of F.Y.R.O.M. This propaganda is aiming at the appropriation of our name, our historical and cultural heritage in order to present a big part of our Hellenic history as Slavic so as to claim land from Hellas .
· Document 8: «Photographs of F.Y.R.O.M.’s government members in front of the maps of the “Great Macedonia
4. To protect the human rights of indigenous Macedonian Hellenes, who have been living up to now in the southern part of the territory of the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia
· Document 6: «Official censuses in the region of F.Y.R.O.M.»
· Document.9: «Ecclesiastic problems in F.Y.R.O.M.»
5. Do not allow the change of the geographical term “Macedonian” to an ethnic terminology, for the Slav population of F.Y.R.O.M. This population, is the majority in F.Y.R.O.M., speaks Slavic (they can be easily understood by other Slavic people such as Bulgarians, Serbs, Croats, Russians and others), and write with the Cyrillic alphabet, which is the specific characteristic of Slavic languages. They should be proud to be Slavs and live in an area which was called Vardaria (Vardarska) until 1944. The department of History in the University of Skopje Macedonia
6. Do not put a pressure on the politicians of Hellas to accept the term “Macedonia Vardar flows through of this area. This area, in 1944, completely arbitrarily and against the historical truth, was renamed from Vardaria (Vardarska) to Macedonia Republic of Central Balkan ” or “Republic of Vardaria
7. To remind to all the states in the world that this new multinational state has been temporarily recognized by the United Nations as «Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia» (F.Y.R.O.M.) and urge them to respect this decision in order to maintain the prestige and credibility of the United Nations as the supreme international organization. Anyone who uses the name “Macedonia
· Document 11: «Letter from Stephen Miller, Professor of Archaeology, University of California , Berkeley (USA ) to the magazine “Archaeology” in USA
· Document 12: «Letter from 370 University Professors, all over the world, to the President of USA
We do invite
The Honorable Secretary General of the United Nations, Mr. Ban Ki Moun, the special negotiator Mr. Matthew Nimitz, the High Commissioner for Human Rights and any other of your official representative, to host and guide them in the following archaeological sites, in order to ascertain the Hellenic identity and the continuity of ancient and contemporary real Macedonians:
· In the archaeological site of Aiges (the first capital of the Macedonian Kingdom
· In the archaeological site of Pella (the second and last capital of the Macedonian Kingdom
· In the archaeological site of Dion (the sacred town of Macedonians at the foot of Mount Olympus
· In the archaeological site of Aiani Kozani in the upper Macedonia
· In the ancient Macedonian tombs which were found in the municipalities of Pella, Naοussa, Verroia and in other places of the Region of Central Macedonia in Hellas,
· In the archaeological museum of Thessaloniki
"We have identified ourselves as Macedonians, since thousands of years, from the name of Macedon"
ReplyDeleteI have a question for you dear "ancients", how come Byron, the greatest Hellenist and the creator of the modern Greek national identity, did not recognize you as Greeks when he visited Greece:
LXXIII.
Fair Greece! sad relic of departed worth!
Immortal, though no more; though fallen, great!
Who now shall lead thy scattered children forth,
And long accustomed bondage uncreate?
Not such thy sons who whilome did await,
The hopeless warriors of a willing doom,
In bleak Thermopylae's sepulchral strait -
Oh, who that gallant spirit shall resume,
Leap from Eurotas' banks, and call thee from the tomb?
(Child Harold, Lord Byron)
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ReplyDeleteCheck out what your own scientists say about the ancient Macedonians:
ReplyDeleteExcerpt from "The Hellenism of the Ancient Macedonians"
Apostolos Dascalakis, Professor, University of Athens
(Institute for Balkan Studies, Thessalonike, 1965)
"...It can be considered certain that the kings of Macedonia did not shape these traditions of their descent from the Heracleids of Argos, drawing them from Greek literature of classical times, nor made them up to imitate the myths current in Greek cities about the divine descent of their most illustrious regal families, but had cherished them, handed down from one generation to another since time immemorial..."
http://www.macedonia.com/english/history/royal/
The quote from Childe (not "Child" as the confused post above says) Harold's Pilgrimage by Byron above affirms Byron's belief in the continuity of the ancient culture to the one that he gave his fortune and life for in revolutionary Greece ("Oh, who that gallant spirit shall resume.." etc).
ReplyDeleteThe ancient Macedonians were indivisibly part of the Greek world. If Alexander had not established the Greek language and culture throughout the Eastern Mediterranean, the weak city states of the Greek peninsula would have collapsed and their culture would have disappeared before the rise of Imperial Rome. As it was, in the eastern Mediterranean, the Romans found an expansive and dominant culture and language, the remnants of the "Hellenistic Age" which both enthralled them and resisted their dominance. Macedonian Alexander's conquests led to the Greek-speaking and Greek-cultured world which evolved into the so-called "Byzantine" Empire, which, after its collapse and takeover by the Ottomans, led directly to the creation of the modern Greek state. Without Alexander and the Macedonians there would be, for better or worse, no modern Greek state today. No wonder then that Greeks recently voted Macedonian Alexander as |"The Greatest Greek of All Time."