tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-38098280.post4457026088586382167..comments2023-07-18T18:25:48.399+03:00Comments on Akritas Macedonian blog: The role of the Communist International in the hatching of the “Macedonian nation”.Akritashttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05564034383394082659noreply@blogger.comBlogger4125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-38098280.post-70732844464530739372010-07-16T10:41:50.662+03:002010-07-16T10:41:50.662+03:00Established (as opposed to fairy-tale) scholarship...Established (as opposed to fairy-tale) scholarship affirms in many ways that the ancient Macedonians were part of the Greek-speaking world. Whether they were "barbarians" or "vegetarians" their, and Alexander's, critical importance is the spreading of Greek culture and the enhancement of its power to an extent that it survived the new age of empire (specifically Roman) that the disparate and weak city states could not have survived. Ironically, had Demosthenes won the day with his Phillipics and the "barbarian" Macedonians had been successfully resisted, Greek culture and language would have ended. The ancient Macedonians were the keystone that arched the Greek world of the city states, to the "Hellenistic" period, to the "Byzantine" and to a modern Greece that simply would never have come into being (for better or worse) without them. <br /><br />I am a little embarrassed to respond to ahistorical rubbish like that from the "neutral" poster above. It's a little like trying to correct someone who insists that the earth is flat. There's no point in it really.Alfred di Genishttps://www.blogger.com/profile/10749751984852302959noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-38098280.post-74172022707375215132010-07-08T20:22:19.996+03:002010-07-08T20:22:19.996+03:00"I am an American living in Skopje; I have no..."I am an American living in Skopje; I have no dog in this Macedonian identity fight"<br /><br />-We don't care about your credentials. By proclaiming your neutrality right from the start, you've made me even more suspicious of your motives.<br /><br />"The Ancient Macedonians were barbarians; which literally means non-Greek, non-Greek speaking."<br /><br />-Incorrect, they're frequently described as Greeks as well.<br /><br />"It is a bit ironic that a non-Greek barbarian, Alexander the Great, is responsible for spreading Hellenistic culture all over the world. But revising history to make this man Greek is historically false and the author should know better. Yes, I know Alexander was tutored by Aristotle, but Greek was a second language for him."<br /><br />-The Argeads, so also Alexander III, were even more strictly Greek than the common Macedonians since they claimed --and their claim was accepted by the southern Greeks with the exception of Demosthenes etc. in a politically-charged atmosphere-- that they had origins in Peloponnesian Argos.<br /><br />"Additionally, his Macedonian generals needed interpreters to speak with Greek troops."<br /><br />-You got it backwards, you meant "his Greek general(s) needed interpreters to speak with Macedonian troops" and you're probably referring to Eumenes. But it's also wrong, since Eumenes could speak the Macedonian dialect as the sources show.<br /><br />"Macedonians participating in the Olympics is probably the weakest historical claim that Macedonians were Greek, but that is the historical fact that Greek nationalists are "hanging their hats on"."<br /><br />-Not only that.<br /><br />"However, Greeks living in Northern Greece claiming the Macedonian identity (something they never did until recently) and now referring to Northern Greece as Macedonia, is answering a false claim with another false claim."<br /><br />-Inaccurate. If I bring you Greeks from the 18th and 19th (and even earlier) centuries "claiming the Macedonian identity", will you eat our hats? Or is that "too recent" for you? Also, "Northern Greece" is Macedonia AND Thrace and "Macedonia" has been referred to as such from the incorporation of the area into the modern Greek state (not to mention, even earlier).<br /><br />-In other words, you've fed us nonsense frequently propagated by Slav Macedonians while pretending to be "neutral".Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-38098280.post-81078822679440936782010-06-27T17:51:28.851+03:002010-06-27T17:51:28.851+03:00Anonymous you put a lot of issues but none of them...Anonymous you put a lot of issues but none of them focus in the content of the article.<br />Antony D. Smith remarks that there are two main kinds of ethnic extinction in the full sense: genocide and ethnocide, which is sometimes - at times misleadingly — called «cultural genocide». In one sense genocide is a rare and probably modern phenomenon. It includes those cases where we know that mass death of a cultural group was premeditated and the basis of that targeting was exclusively the existence and membership of that cultural group.<br /><br />I am a Macedonian, however I am in no way identified with or related to the newly formed independent state referred to as “the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia”; I am instead insulted by the fact that I cannot be known as a Macedonian without being identified by others as related to FYROM. This is a rape of my identity and a continuing cultural genocide.<br /><br />My cultural identity has been usurped.<br /><br />Regarding now the origin of the ancient Macedonians these <a href="http://ancient-medieval-macedonian-history.blogspot.com/search/label/Macedonian%20background" rel="nofollow">series of articles</a> might help you.Akritashttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05564034383394082659noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-38098280.post-38624744985596412052010-06-27T15:46:40.070+03:002010-06-27T15:46:40.070+03:00I am an American living in Skopje; I have no dog i...I am an American living in Skopje; I have no dog in this Macedonian identity fight, other than I am an amateur historian and enjoy the search for historical truth. I find this site very interesting and it concurs with much of what I have read about the Slavic Macedonian identity. <br /> However, there is a big error on this site that hurts the credibility of the well researched, factual accounts contained within it:<br /> The Ancient Macedonians were barbarians; which literally means non-Greek, non-Greek speaking. It is a bit ironic that a non-Greek barbarian, Alexander the Great, is responsible for spreading Hellenistic culture all over the world. But revising history to make this man Greek is historically false and the author should know better. Yes, I know Alexander was tutored by Aristotle, but Greek was a second language for him. Additionally, his Macedonian generals needed interpreters to speak with Greek troops. Macedonians participating in the Olympics is probably the weakest historical claim that Macedonians were Greek, but that is the historical fact that Greek nationalists are "hanging their hats on". No serious Greek historian thinks that the ancient Macedonians were Greek.<br /> I will be the first to agree that the Slavs claiming to be ethnic Macedonian have no connection to the ancient tribe and are the victims of political propaganda. However, Greeks living in Northern Greece claiming the Macedonian identity (something they never did until recently) and now referring to Northern Greece as Macedonia, is answering a false claim with another false claim. Alexander the Great is prominent in Greek history just as William the Orange is prominent in British history. However, both were foreign conquerors.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com