FYROM lobby irked by Bill introduced by U.S House Committee on Foreign Affairs

July 26, 2011
The FYROM (Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia) lobby in the US been irked by the content of a Bill which was introduced to the U.S House of Representatives by the House Committee on Foreign Affairs.

The Foreign Relations Authorization Act, Fiscal Year 2012 (H.R. 2583) has proposed a limitation on U.S foreign aid to the FYROM. Further irritating the FYROM lobby, the Bill referred to the FYROM under that name, rather than under the name 'Republic of Macedonia´, as official documents have done since the Bush Administration unilaterally recognised the FYROM as the ´Republic of Macedonia´ name in 2004. The relevant sections of the Bill are as follows:

Letter to US Vice President & Secretary of State by Pan-Macedonian Association USA.

February 14, 2011

To: Vice-President Joe Biden

The White House & Secretary of State Hillary Clinton State Department of USA

Dear Mr. Vice-President,

Dear Madam Secretary of State,

We are writing to you on behalf of all members of the Pan-Macedonian  Association USA, one of the largest Greek-American associations in the  United States in anticipation to the Prime Minister of the Former Yugoslav  Republic of Macedonia (FYROM) Mr. Gruevski's visit to the United States. We  have also read the letter of the nineteen Representatives urging President  Obama to encourage our allies to offer the FYROM a formal invitation to  become a member of the NATO alliance at the November 2010 NATO Summit in  Lisbon. This letter, dated October 1, 2010 stressed that "Macedonia has met  all the criteria for membership in NATO." and "Although Macedonia is not a  member of NATO, its contributions to peace, democracy, stability and  security in Southeast Europe and elsewhere make it clear that Macedonia is a  close US ally and has been acting as a de facto NATO member for some time."  [1]

The attempt to encourage the President was not successful, but keeping this  attempt in mind and in advance of Nikola Gruevski's visit to Washington  D.C. , we would like to highlight why Skopje is not ready to be a serious  NATO member yet. The FYROM has not been capable to...

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....

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:

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:

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.....

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:....

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 ......

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......

Alexander the Great: how Slavic was he?

27 January 2009

The real question is not whether Alexandre trhe Great was Greek or not. He has. The real question is whether the Slavic invaders to the Balkans during the 7th century AD, more than one thousand years after Alexandre, can claim today any other nationality than Slavic and have the right to hold any other passport than Bulgarian. And the answer is simply NO.

by Prof. Paul Cartledge, Cambridge University

Nation-state building in its most urgent form was a particularly prominent 19th-century phenomenon. Small proto-states then were seeking to get out from under the stifling embrace of the big empires of the day - whether British, Turkish, French or Russian. But that process of political emancipation was not confined by any means to the 19th century; indeed, it continues, in places very strongly or even violently, to this day. And new nation-states that choose to base their essential identity on ethnicity, in order to determine who ‘the people’ are, tend to need heroes. Not least, they feel the need for founding-father type heroes from the past who can be seamlessly re-appropriated (and of course made over) as the nation’s living ancestors.

The Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia - or just plain ‘Macedonia’, as it is known officially to its inhabitants and, more surprisingly, to George Bush’s United States of America - is exactly one such emergent ethnic nation-state of today in search of retrospective founding-father ancestors. Unfortunately, one of its ‘ancestors’ of choice, Alexander the Great, is already very well spoken for - in fact, most vigorously claimed and appropriated - by the neighbouring state of Greece. Though Greece began the process of independent nation-state building as early as the 1820s, it did not achieve its present geopolitical configuration until the 1940s, well within the living memory of its oldest generations. Hence it too is still not a little sensitive about its founding-father ancestors; and though it has a far huger pool to choose from than does FYROM, it too chooses to make a song and dance about Alexander as a true-blue Hellene, because the area of northern Greece centred on Greek Macedonia with its capital at Thessaloniki is the most ethnically diverse and the most ethnically contested in all the present-day Greek state. Therein lie the source, and the cause of its intensity, of the conflict between Greece and FYROM over the question of Alexander’s true ethnicity - a fundamentally historical question, but one that has become twisted out of all recognition by politics: just how Greek or Hellenic was he, really?

It’s very difficult today to classify precisely the language of the ancient Macedonians, because so few examples of it have been preserved. But two things about it are reasonably certain, or at least agreed among the experts. It was basically a dialect of Greek, but so interlarded with words of non-Greek, mainly Thracian origin that not just because of accent but also because of vocabulary it could be incomprehensible to speakers of ’standard’ Greek dialects. For example, Alexander himself when under the stress of huge emotion is recorded as speaking ‘in Macedonian’. The issue of difference of customs is also complex, but two features may be salient. Unlike Greeks elsewhere, both in mainland Greece and in the diaspora, the Macedonians had not developed a civilisation based on cities (poleis), and correspondingly they had not developed a strong political notion of citizenship. To try to convey an idea of this difference, scholars speak - however misleadingly - of Macedonian tribalism, even feudalism. That traditional way of doing politics was not significantly altered until only a couple of generations before Alexander the Great, in the late 5th century BCE.

Apart from the lack of citification, what would have astonished all other Greeks - except the Spartans perhaps - was the practice of royal polygamy. King Philip II, Alexander the Great’s father, amassed a collection of seven wives in all, only two of whom were Macedonian Greeks. Alexander’s own mother Olympias was a Greek Greek, as it were, a royal princess from Epirus. Elsewhere, monogamy was not just required for all Greeks - but also regarded as a defining feature of Greek as opposed to barbarian culture.

These linguistic and cultural differences could be exploited politically, then as now. Demosthenes of Athens complained you used not even to be able to buy a decent slave from Macedonia (implying it was a barbarian territory) whereas now Macedonia under Philip II lorded it over the rest of mainland Greece including Athens as if its subjects were barbarian slaves themselves. At the battle of Issus in Asia Minor in 333, Alexander’s difficulties in fighting the forces of the Persian king Darius III were compounded by the fact that many Greeks had enlisted as mercenaries on the side of Darius precisely because they hated Macedonians so.

My point in reminding readers of these ancient contentions over the ethnicity and meaning of ‘Macedonian’ is to emphasise how far the disputes were manufactured and exploited for political reasons, rather than based on scientific historical knowledge and understanding of the facts (such as they are and were). The same seems to me true today. On October the 28th 2007 the United Macedonian Diaspora organised a protest outside Parliament House in Canberra against FYROM’s assertion that Alexander was a (non-Greek) Macedonian. It is vital, I believe, that the Greek-Australian community’s response is measured, well articulated and clear. It is my view that neo-nationalist perspectives on ancient history do little to generate cohesion or cross-cultural harmony - particularly in immigrant nations such as Australia. I am also of the view that it is somewhat irrelevant whether Alexander was Greek or Macedonian according to any modern, retrospective, reappropriating notion of those terms. What matters is that he was a hugely significant leader, imbued with Hellenic values, but blessed also with a global and no less importantly multicultural perspective on the world.

I say ‘Greek or Hellenic’, because in English the very term ‘Greek’ is itself the result of ethnocentrism, a very ancient ethnocentrism admittedly, since it goes back to the ancient Romans, the Americans of their day. The Graikoi were indeed Greek - or Hellenic, as the Greeks themselves would have put it. They lived in Thessaly, the region immediately adjoining Greek Macedonia on the south. But they were small fry, bit-part players in the major ancient dramas. The ancient Greeks as a whole, who called themselves collectively ‘Hellenes’, would no more have considered calling themselves all ‘Graikoi’ than all Australians would today consider calling themselves Darwinites. Perhaps that’s another, historically conditioned reason why Greeks today or people of Greek descent, when speaking Greek insist so strongly that Macedonia is, was and always has been Greek, I mean Hellenic.

Yet, thereby hangs another irony, and another ancient one. Because even in ancient times there was a debate in Greece over the ethnicity of the Macedonians, that is over whether they were - or all of them were, and had always been - Greek (Hellenic Greek). This debate surfaces in Herodotus, at a critical moment in his account of the Graeco-Persian Wars. Ancient Macedonia, including a part of what is today FYROM, was then a subject province of the Persian empire, that empire’s European toehold or bridgehead. That was embarrassing enough for patriotic Greeks - but perhaps their consciences could be salved by saying that the Macedonians weren’t ‘really’ Hellenes? Herodotus was on the case, though only in retrospect of course. His enquiries led him to confirm the report he was given by the Macedonians themselves - that they were indeed Greek.

However - and it is a big ‘however’ - honesty compelled Herodotus to add that, when the Macedonian king of the day, another Alexander (Alexander the First), had applied to compete in the all-Greek and only-Greek Olympic Games, his fellow- competitors had objected that he was a ‘barbarian’ (non-Greek). But the judges of the Games, who were known as Hellenodikai or ‘Judges of the Hellenes’, had decided in his favour - on grounds of descent, as follows. The royal family to which Alexander belonged called themselves Argeadai, descendants of Argeas, and their family tradition held that Argeas, the ultimate founding father of their family line, took his name from Argos in the Peloponnese - indeed that he had originally emigrated from Argos to Macedonia to found the line. The Olympic Judges accepted that tradition as true. But - and again, it is a big ‘but’ - they did not then go on to declare that henceforth all Macedonians were entitled, as Hellenes, to compete in the Olympics. Entitlement was extended only to the royal Aegead family, not to all other Macedonians as well ….

Why so? Put it another way, why was there such dispute and discord, even among ancient Greeks, over the Hellenic identity and authenticity of the Macedonians? Even though, it has to be added, this dispute and discord flew in the face of very ancient Hellenic mythic genealogy, according to which Makedon, the eponymous forefather of all Macedonians, occupied an exalted position high up in the family-tree agreed on by all Hellenes. There were I think two main reasons. First, language, and second, customs - remembering that Herodotus, when he placed a definition of Greekness in the mouths of the Athenians, singled out precisely those two factors as crucially definitional.

Paul Cartledge is a Professor of Greek History at Cambridge University, and a fellow of Clare College. A world expert on Athens and Sparta in the Classical Age he has been described as a Laconophile. He was chief historical consultant for the BBC TV series The Greeks and the Channel 4 series The Spartans, presented by Bettany Hughes.
He has published The Greeks: A Portrait of Self and Others (2nd ed, 2002), the product of research into Greek self-definition; Kosmos: essays in Order, Conflict and Community in Classical Athens (coauthor Millet, Paul.) (2002) Cambridge University Press; The Spartans: An Epic History (2nd ed, 2003); Alexander the Great: The Hunt for a New Past (2004) Helots and Their Masters in Laconia and Messenia: Histories, Ideologies, Structures (2004) Center for Hellenic Studies.; Thermopylae: The Battle That Changed the World (2006). The Overlook Press.

source: hellenesonline.com

New resolution from the USA House of Representatives as regards FYROM irredentist and aggressive behavior.

111th CONGRESS 1st Session

H. RES. 486

Expressing the sense of the House of Representatives that the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia should work within the framework of the United Nations process with Greece to achieve longstanding United States and United Nations policy goals of finding a mutually acceptable composite name, with a geographical qualifier and for all international uses for the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia.

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IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

May 21, 2009

Mrs. Maloney (for herself, Mr. Bilirakis, Ms. Berkley, Mr. Space, Ms. Ros-Lehtinen, Ms. Tsongas, Mr. Brown of South Carolina, Mr. Sarbanes, Mr. Kennedy, Mr. Van Hollen, Mr. Carnahan, Mr. Lincoln Diaz-Balart of Florida, Mr. Pallone, Ms. Lee of California, Mr. Sires, Ms. Titus, Mr. Poe of Texas, Mr. McMahon, and Mr. Jackson of Illinois) submitted the following resolution; which was referred to the Committee on Foreign Affairs

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RESOLUTION

Expressing the sense of the House of Representatives that the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia should work within the framework of the United Nations process with Greece to achieve longstanding United States and United Nations policy goals of finding a mutually acceptable composite name, with a geographical qualifier and for all international uses for the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia.

Whereas, on April 8, 1993, the United Nations General Assembly admitted as a member the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, under the name the “former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia”;

Whereas United Nations Security Council Resolution 817 (1993) states that the international dispute over the name must be resolved to maintain peaceful relations between Greece and the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia and regional stability;

Whereas Greece is a strategic partner and ally of the United States in bringing political stability and economic development to the Balkan region, having invested over $20 billion in the countries of the region, thereby creating over 200,000 new jobs, and having contributed over $750 million in development aid for the region;

Whereas Greece has invested over $1 billion in the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, thereby creating more than 10,000 new jobs and having contributed $110 million in development aid;

Whereas H. Res. 356 of 110th Congress, urged the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia to abstain from hostile activities and stop the utilization of materials that violate provisions of the United Nations-brokered Interim Agreement between the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia and Greece regarding “hostile activities or propaganda”;

Whereas NATO’s Heads of State and Government unanimously agreed in Bucharest (April 3, 2008) that “… within the framework of the UN, many actors have worked hard to resolve the name issue, but the Alliance has noted with regret that these talks have not produced a successful outcome. Therefore we agreed that an invitation to the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia will be extended as soon as a mutually acceptable solution to the name issue has been reached. We encourage the negotiations to be resumed without delay and expect them to be concluded as soon as possible”;

Whereas the Heads of State and Government participating in the meeting of the North Atlantic Council in Strasbourg/Kehl (April 4, 2009), reiterated their unanimous support for the agreement at the Bucharest Summit “to extend an invitation to the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia as soon as a mutually acceptable solution to the name issue has been reached within the framework of the UN, and urge intensified efforts towards that goal.”;

Whereas the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia has consistently engaged in anti-Greek rhetoric, thus creating hostile feeling among its citizens, which violates the principle of good neighborly relations; and

Whereas authorities in the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia urged their citizens to boycott Greek investments in the country and not to travel to Greece: Now, therefore, be it

Resolved, That the House of Representatives—

(1) urges the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia to work within the framework of the United Nations process with Greece to achieve longstanding United States and United Nations policy goals by finding a mutually acceptable composite name, with a geographical qualifier and for all international uses for the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia; and

(2) urges the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia to abstain from hostile activities and stop violating provisions of the United Nations-brokered Interim Agreement between the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia and Greece regarding “hostile activities or propaganda”.

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Classical Scholars from around the world sent a Letter to President Barack Obama as regards the Macedonian History and FYROM irredentism

On May 18th, 201 Classical Scholars from around the world, sent a letter to the President of the United States of America, Barak Obama.
Since then, the list of cosigners has grown to 254, see Addenda

Here is the Documentation that accompanies the letter.

===============================================================

ancient-scholars@macedonia-evidence.org

May 18, 2009

The Honorable Barack Obama

President, United States of America

White House

1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, NW

Washington, DC 20500

Dear President Obama,

We, the undersigned scholars of Graeco-Roman antiquity, respectfully request that you intervene to clean up some of the historical debris left in southeast Europe by the previous U.S. administration.

On November 4, 2004, two days after the re-election of President George W. Bush, his administration unilaterally recognized the “Republic of Macedonia.” This action not only abrogated geographic and historic fact, but it also has unleashed a dangerous epidemic of historical revisionism, of which the most obvious symptom is the misappropriation by the government in Skopje of the most famous of Macedonians, Alexander the Great.

We believe that this silliness has gone too far, and that the U.S.A. has no business in supporting the subversion of history. Let us review facts. (The documentation for these facts [here in boldface] can be found attached and at: http://macedonia-evidence.org/documentation.html)

The land in question, with its modern capital at Skopje, was called Paionia in antiquity. Mts. Barnous and Orbelos (which form today the northern limits of Greece) provide a natural barrier that separated, and separates, Macedonia from its northern neighbor. The only real connection is along the Axios/Vardar River and even this valley “does not form a line of communication because it is divided by gorges.”

While it is true that the Paionians were subdued by Philip II, father of Alexander, in 358 B.C. they were not Macedonians and did not live in Macedonia. Likewise, for example, the Egyptians, who were subdued by Alexander, may have been ruled by Macedonians, including the famous Cleopatra, but they were never Macedonians themselves, and Egypt was never called Macedonia.

Rather, Macedonia and Macedonian Greeks have been located for at least 2,500 years just where the modern Greek province of Macedonia is. Exactly this same relationship is true for Attica and Athenian Greeks, Argos and Argive Greeks, Corinth and Corinthian Greeks, etc.

We do not understand how the modern inhabitants of ancient Paionia, who speak Slavic – a language introduced into the Balkans about a millennium after the death of Alexander – can claim him as their national hero. Alexander the Great was thoroughly and indisputably Greek. His great-great-great grandfather, Alexander I, competed in the Olympic Games where participation was limited to Greeks.

Even before Alexander I, the Macedonians traced their ancestry to Argos, and many of their kings used the head of Herakles - the quintessential Greek hero - on their coins.

Euripides – who died and was buried in Macedonia– wrote his play Archelaos in honor of the great-uncle of Alexander, and in Greek. While in Macedonia, Euripides also wrote the Bacchai, again in Greek. Presumably the Macedonian audience could understand what he wrote and what they heard.

Alexander’s father, Philip, won several equestrian victories at Olympia and Delphi, the two most Hellenic of all the sanctuaries in ancient Greece where non-Greeks were not allowed to compete. Even more significantly, Philip was appointed to conduct the Pythian Games at Delphi in 346 B.C. In other words, Alexander the Great’s father and his ancestors were thoroughly Greek. Greek was the language used by Demosthenes and his delegation from Athens when they paid visits to Philip, also in 346 B.C. Another northern Greek, Aristotle, went off to study for nearly 20 years in the Academy of Plato. Aristotle subsequently returned to Macedonia and became the tutor of Alexander III. They used Greek in their classroom which can still be seen near Naoussa in Macedonia.

Alexander carried with him throughout his conquests Aristotle’s edition of Homer’s Iliad. Alexander also spread Greek language and culture throughout his empire, founding cities and establishing centers of learning. Hence inscriptions concerning such typical Greek institutions as the gymnasium are found as far away as Afghanistan. They are all written in Greek.

The questions follow: Why was Greek the lingua franca all over Alexander’s empire if he was a “Macedonian”? Why was the New Testament, for example, written in Greek?

The answers are clear: Alexander the Great was Greek, not Slavic, and Slavs and their language were nowhere near Alexander or his homeland until 1000 years later. This brings us back to the geographic area known in antiquity as Paionia. Why would the people who live there now call themselves Macedonians and their land Macedonia? Why would they abduct a completely Greek figure and make him their national hero?

The ancient Paionians may or may not have been Greek, but they certainly became Greekish, and they were never Slavs. They were also not Macedonians. Ancient Paionia was a part of the Macedonian Empire. So were Ionia and Syria and Palestine and Egypt and Mesopotamia and Babylonia and Bactria and many more. They may thus have become “Macedonian” temporarily, but none was ever “Macedonia”. The theft of Philip and Alexander by a land that was never Macedonia cannot be justified.

The traditions of ancient Paionia could be adopted by the current residents of that geographical area with considerable justification. But the extension of the geographic term “Macedonia” to cover southern Yugoslavia cannot. Even in the late 19th century, this misuse implied unhealthy territorial aspirations.

The same motivation is to be seen in school maps that show the pseudo-greater Macedonia, stretching from Skopje to Mt. Olympus and labeled in Slavic. The same map and its claims are in calendars, bumper stickers, bank notes, etc., that have been circulating in the new state ever since it declared its independence from Yugoslavia in 1991. Why would a poor land-locked new state attempt such historical nonsense? Why would it brazenly mock and provoke its neighbor?

However one might like to characterize such behavior, it is clearly not a force for historical accuracy, nor for stability in the Balkans. It is sad that the United States of America has abetted and encouraged such behavior.

We call upon you, Mr. President, to help - in whatever ways you deem appropriate - the government in Skopje to understand that it cannot build a national identity at the expense of historic truth. Our common international society cannot survive when history is ignored, much less when history is fabricated.

Sincerely,

NAME

TITLE

INSTITUTION

Harry C. Avery, Professor of Classics, University of Pittsburgh (USA)
Dr. Dirk Backendorf. Akademie der Wissenschaften und der Literatur Mainz (Germany)
Elizabeth C. Banks, Associate Professor of Classics (ret.), University of Kansas (USA)
Luigi Beschi, professore emerito di Archeologia Classica, Università di Firenze (Italy)
Josine H. Blok, professor of Ancient History and Classical Civilization, Utrecht University (The Netherlands)
Alan Boegehold, Emeritus Professor of Classics, Brown University (USA)
Efrosyni Boutsikas, Lecturer of Classical Archaeology, University of Kent (UK)
Keith Bradley, Eli J. and Helen Shaheen Professor of Classics, Concurrent Professor of History, University of Notre Dame (USA)
Stanley M. Burstein, Professor Emeritus, California State University, Los Angeles (USA)
Francis Cairns, Professor of Classical Languages, The Florida State University (USA)
John McK. Camp II, Agora Excavations and Professor of Archaeology, ASCSA, Athens (Greece)
Paul Cartledge, A.G. Leventis Professor of Greek Culture, University of Cambridge (UK)
Paavo Castrén, Professor of Classical Philology Emeritus, University of Helsinki (Finland)
William Cavanagh, Professor of Aegean Prehistory, University of Nottingham (UK)
Angelos Chaniotis, Professor, Senior Research Fellow, All Souls College, Oxford (UK)
Paul Christesen, Professor of Ancient Greek History, Dartmouth College (USA)
Ada Cohen, Associate Professor of Art History, Dartmouth College (USA)
Randall M. Colaizzi, Lecturer in Classical Studies, University of Massachusetts-Boston (USA)
Kathleen M. Coleman, Professor of Latin, Harvard University (USA)
Michael B. Cosmopoulos, Ph.D., Professor and Endowed Chair in Greek Archaeology, University of Missouri-St. Louis (USA)
Kevin F. Daly, Assistant Professor of Classics, Bucknell University (USA)
Wolfgang Decker, Professor emeritus of sport history, Deutsche Sporthochschule, Köln (Germany)
Luc Deitz, Ausserplanmässiger Professor of Mediaeval and Renaissance Latin, University of Trier (Germany), and Curator of manuscripts and rare books, National Library of Luxembourg (Luxembourg)
Michael Dewar, Professor of Classics, University of Toronto (Canada)
John D. Dillery, Associate Professor of Classics, University of Virginia (USA)
Sheila Dillon, Associate Professor, Depts. of Art, Art History & Visual Studies and Classical Studies, Duke University (USA)
Douglas Domingo-Forasté, Professor of Classics, California State University, Long Beach (USA)
Pierre Ducrey, professeur honoraire, Université de Lausanne (Switzerland)
Roger Dunkle, Professor of Classics Emeritus, Brooklyn College, City University of New York (USA)
Michael M. Eisman, Associate Professor Ancient History and Classical Archaeology, Department of History, Temple University (USA)
Mostafa El-Abbadi, Professor Emeritus, University of Alexandria (Egypt)
R. Malcolm Errington, Professor für Alte Geschichte (Emeritus) Philipps-Universität, Marburg (Germany)
Panagiotis Faklaris, Assistant Professor of Classical Archaeology, Aristotle University of Thessaloniki (Greece)
Denis Feeney, Giger Professor of Latin, Princeton University (USA)
Elizabeth A. Fisher, Professor of Classics and Art History, Randolph-Macon College (USA)
Nick Fisher, Professor of Ancient History, Cardiff University (UK)
R. Leon Fitts, Asbury J Clarke Professor of Classical Studies, Emeritus, FSA, Scot., Dickinson Colllege (USA)
John M. Fossey FRSC, FSA, Emeritus Professor of Art History (and Archaeology), McGill Univertsity, Montreal, and Curator of Archaeology, Montreal Museum of Fine Arts (Canada)
Robin Lane Fox, University Reader in Ancient History, New College, Oxford (UK)
Rainer Friedrich, Professor of Classics Emeritus, Dalhousie University, Halifax, N.S. (Canada)
Heide Froning, Professor of Classical Archaeology, University of Marburg (Germany)
Peter Funke, Professor of Ancient History, University of Muenster (Germany)
Traianos Gagos, Professor of Greek and Papyrology, University of Michigan (USA)
Robert Garland, Roy D. and Margaret B. Wooster Professor of the Classics, Colgate University, Hamilton NY (USA)
Douglas E. Gerber, Professor Emeritus of Classical Studies, University of Western Ontario (Canada)
Hans R. Goette, Professor of Classical Archaeology, University of Giessen (Germany); German Archaeological Institute, Berlin (Germany)
Sander M. Goldberg, Professor of Classics, UCLA (USA)
Erich S. Gruen, Gladys Rehard Wood Professor of History and Classics, Emeritus, University of California, Berkeley (USA)
Christian Habicht, Professor of Ancient History, Emeritus, Institute for Advanced Study, Princeton (USA)
Donald C. Haggis, Nicholas A. Cassas Term Professor of Greek Studies, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill (USA)
Judith P. Hallett, Professor of Classics, University of Maryland, College Park, MD (USA)
Prof. Paul B. Harvey, Jr. Head, Department of Classics and Ancient Mediterranean Studies, The Pennsylvania State University (USA)
Eleni Hasaki, Associate Professor of Classical Archaeology, University of Arizona (USA)
Miltiades B. Hatzopoulos, Director, Research Centre for Greek and Roman Antiquity, National Research Foundation, Athens (Greece)
Wolf-Dieter Heilmeyer, Prof. Dr., Freie Universität Berlin und Antikensammlung der Staatlichen Museen zu Berlin (Germany)
Steven W. Hirsch, Associate Professor of Classics and History, Tufts University (USA)
Karl-J. Hölkeskamp, Professor of Ancient History, University of Cologne (Germany)
Frank L. Holt, Professor of Ancient History, University of Houston (USA)
Dan Hooley, Professor of Classics, University of Missouri (USA)
Meredith C. Hoppin, Gagliardi Professor of Classical Languages, Williams College, Williamstown, MA (USA)
Caroline M. Houser, Professor of Art History Emerita, Smith College (USA) and Affiliated Professor, University of Washington (USA)
Georgia Kafka, Visiting Professor of Modern Greek Language, Literature and History, University of New Brunswick (Canada)
Anthony Kaldellis, Professor of Greek and Latin, The Ohio State University (USA)
Andromache Karanika, Assistant Professor of Classics, University of California, Irvine (USA)
Robert A. Kaster, Professor of Classics and Kennedy Foundation Professor of Latin, Princeton University (USA)
Vassiliki Kekela, Adjunct Professor of Greek Studies, Classics Department, Hunter College, City University of New York (USA)
Dietmar Kienast, Professor Emeritus of Ancient History, University of Duesseldorf (Germany)
Karl Kilinski II, University Distinguished Teaching Professor, Southern Methodist University (USA)
Dr. Florian Knauss, associate director, Staatliche Antikensammlungen und Glyptothek Muenchen (Germany)
Denis Knoepfler, Professor of Greek Epigraphy and History, Collège de France (Paris)
Ortwin Knorr, Associate Professor of Classics, Willamette University (USA)
Robert B. Koehl, Professor of Archaeology, Department of Classical and Oriental Studies Hunter College, City University of New York (USA)
Georgia Kokkorou-Alevras, Professor of Classical Archaeology, University of Athens (Greece)
Ann Olga Koloski-Ostrow, Associate Professor and Chair, Department of Classical Studies, Brandeis University (USA)
Eric J. Kondratieff, Assistant Professor of Classics and Ancient History, Department of Greek & Roman Classics, Temple University
Haritini Kotsidu, Apl. Prof. Dr. für Klassische Archäologie, Goethe-Universität, Frankfurt/M. (Germany)
Lambrini Koutoussaki, Dr., Lecturer of Classical Archaeology, University of Zürich (Switzerland)
David Kovacs, Hugh H. Obear Professor of Classics, University of Virginia (USA)
Peter Krentz, W. R. Grey Professor of Classics and History, Davidson College (USA)
Friedrich Krinzinger, Professor of Classical Archaeology Emeritus, University of Vienna (Austria)
Michael Kumpf, Professor of Classics, Valparaiso University (USA)
Donald G. Kyle, Professor of History, University of Texas at Arlington (USA)
Prof. Dr. Dr. h.c. Helmut Kyrieleis, former president of the German Archaeological Institute, Berlin (Germany)
Gerald V. Lalonde, Benedict Professor of Classics, Grinnell College (USA)
Steven Lattimore, Professor Emeritus of Classics, University of California, Los Angeles (USA)
Francis M. Lazarus, President, University of Dallas (USA)
Mary R. Lefkowitz, Andrew W. Mellon Professor in the Humanities, Emerita, Wellesley College (USA)
Iphigeneia Leventi, Assistant Professor of Classical Archaeology, University of Thessaly (Greece)
Daniel B. Levine, Professor of Classical Studies, University of Arkansas (USA)
Christina Leypold, Dr. phil., Archaeological Institute, University of Zurich (Switzerland)
Vayos Liapis, Associate Professor of Greek, Centre d’Études Classiques & Département de Philosophie, Université de Montréal (Canada)
Hugh Lloyd-Jones, Professor of Greek Emeritus, University of Oxford (UK)
Yannis Lolos, Assistant Professor, History, Archaeology, and Anthropology, University of Thessaly (Greece)
Stanley Lombardo, Professor of Classics, University of Kansas, USA
Anthony Long, Professor of Classics and Irving G. Stone Professor of Literature, University of California, Berkeley (USA)
Julia Lougovaya, Assistant Professor, Department of Classics, Columbia University (USA)
A.D. Macro, Hobart Professor of Classical Languages emeritus, Trinity College (USA)
John Magee, Professor, Department of Classics, Director, Centre for Medieval Studies, University of Toronto (Canada)
Dr. Christofilis Maggidis, Associate Professor of Archaeology, Dickinson College (USA)
Jeannette Marchand, Assistant Professor of Classics, Wright State University, Dayton, Ohio (USA)
Richard P. Martin, Antony and Isabelle Raubitschek Professor in Classics, Stanford University
Maria Mavroudi, Professor of Byzantine History, University of California, Berkeley (USA)
Alexander Mazarakis Ainian, Professor of Classical Archaeology, University of Thessaly (Greece)
James R. McCredie, Sherman Fairchild Professor emeritus; Director, Excavations in Samothrace Institute of Fine Arts, New York University (USA)
James C. McKeown, Professor of Classics, University of Wisconsin-Madison (USA)
Robert A. Mechikoff, Professor and Life Member of the International Society of Olympic Historians, San Diego State University (USA)
Andreas Mehl, Professor of Ancient History, Universitaet Halle-Wittenberg (Germany)
Harald Mielsch, Professor of Classical Archeology, University of Bonn (Germany)
Stephen G. Miller, Professor of Classical Archaeology Emeritus, University of California, Berkeley (USA)
Phillip Mitsis, A.S. Onassis Professor of Classics and Philosophy, New York University (USA)
Peter Franz Mittag, Professor für Alte Geschichte, Universität zu Köln (Germany)
David Gordon Mitten, James Loeb Professor of Classical Art and Archaeology, Harvard University (USA)
Margaret S. Mook, Associate Professor of Classical Studies, Iowa State University (USA)
Anatole Mori, Associate Professor of Classical Studies, University of Missouri- Columbia (USA)
Jennifer Sheridan Moss, Associate Professor, Wayne State University (USA)
Ioannis Mylonopoulos, Assistant Professor of Greek Art History and Archaeology, Columbia University, New York (USA).
Richard Neudecker, PD of Classical Archaeology, Deutsches Archäologisches Institut Rom (Italy)
James M.L. Newhard, Associate Professor of Classics, College of Charleston (USA)
Carole E. Newlands, Professor of Classics, University of Wisconsin, Madison (USA)
John Maxwell O'Brien, Professor of History, Queens College, City University of New York (USA)
James J. O'Hara, Paddison Professor of Latin, The University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill (USA)
Martin Ostwald, Professor of Classics (ret.), Swarthmore College and Professor of Classical Studies (ret.), University of Pennsylvania (USA)
Olga Palagia, Professor of Classical Archaeology, University of Athens (Greece)
Vassiliki Panoussi, Associate Professor of Classical Studies, The College of William and Mary (USA)
Maria C. Pantelia, Professor of Classics, University of California, Irvine (USA)
Pantos A.Pantos, Adjunct Faculty, Department of History, Archaeology and Social Anthropology, University of Thessaly (Greece)
Anthony J. Papalas, Professor of Ancient History, East Carolina University (USA)
Nassos Papalexandrou, Associate Professor, The University of Texas at Austin (USA)
Polyvia Parara, Visiting Assistant Professor of Greek Language and Civilization, Department of Classics, Georgetown University (USA)
Richard W. Parker, Associate Professor of Classics, Brock University (Canada)
Robert Parker, Wykeham Professor of Ancient History, New College, Oxford (UK)
Anastasia-Erasmia Peponi, Associate Professor of Classics, Stanford University (USA)
Jacques Perreault, Professor of Greek archaeology, Université de Montréal, Québec (Canada)
Yanis Pikoulas, Associate Professor of Ancient Greek History, University of Thessaly (Greece)
John Pollini, Professor of Classical Art & Archaeology, University of Southern California (USA)
David Potter, Arthur F. Thurnau Professor of Greek and Latin. The University of Michigan (USA)
Robert L. Pounder, Professor Emeritus of Classics, Vassar College (USA)
Nikolaos Poulopoulos, Assistant Professor in History and Chair in Modern Greek Studies, McGill University (Canada)
William H. Race, George L. Paddison Professor of Classics, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill (USA)
John T. Ramsey, Professor of Classics, University of Illinois at Chicago (USA)
Karl Reber, Professor of Classical Archaeology, University of Lausanne (Switzerland)
Rush Rehm, Professor of Classics and Drama, Stanford University (USA)
Werner Riess, Associate Professor of Classics, The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill (USA)
Robert H. Rivkin, Ancient Studies Department, University of Maryland Baltimore County (USA)
Barbara Saylor Rodgers, Professor of Classics, The University of Vermont (USA)
Robert H. Rodgers. Lyman-Roberts Professor of Classical Languages and Literature, University of Vermont (USA)
Nathan Rosenstein, Professor of Ancient History, The Ohio State University (USA)
John C. Rouman, Professor Emeritus of Classics, University of New Hampshire, (USA)
Dr. James Roy, Reader in Greek History (retired), University of Nottingham (UK)
Steven H. Rutledge, Associate Professor of Classics, Department of Classics, University of Maryland, College Park (USA)
Christina A. Salowey, Associate Professor of Classics, Hollins University (USA)
Guy D. R. Sanders, Resident Director of Corinth Excavations, The American School of Classical Studies at Athens (Greece)
Theodore Scaltsas, Professor of Ancient Greek Philosophy, University of Edinburgh (UK)
Thomas F. Scanlon, Professor of Classics, University of California, Riverside (USA)
Bernhard Schmaltz, Prof. Dr. Archäologisches Institut der CAU, Kiel (Germany)
Rolf M. Schneider, Professor of Classical Archaeology, Ludwig-Maximilians- Universität München (Germany)
Peter Scholz, Professor of Ancient History and Culture, University of Stuttgart (Germany)
Christof Schuler, director, Commission for Ancient History and Epigraphy of the German Archaeological Institute, Munich (Germany)
Paul D. Scotton, Assoociate Professor Classical Archaeology and Classics, California State University Long Beach (USA)
Danuta Shanzer, Professor of Classics and Medieval Studies, The University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and Fellow of the Medieval Academy of America (USA)
James P. Sickinger, Associate Professor of Classics, Florida State University (USA)
Marilyn B. Skinner 
Professor of Classics, 
University of Arizona (USA)
Niall W. Slater, Samuel Candler Dobbs Professor of Latin and Greek, Emory University (USA)
Peter M. Smith, Associate Professor of Classics, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill (USA)
Dr. Philip J. Smith, Research Associate in Classical Studies, McGill University (Canada)
Susan Kirkpatrick Smith Assistant Professor of Anthropology Kennesaw State University (USA)
Antony Snodgrass, Professor Emeritus of Classical Archaeology, University of Cambridge (UK)
Theodosia Stefanidou-Tiveriou, Professor of Classical Archaeology, Aristotle University of Thessaloniki (Greece).
Andrew Stewart, Nicholas C. Petris Professor of Greek Studies, University of California, Berkeley (USA)
Oliver Stoll, Univ.-Prof. Dr., Alte Geschichte/ Ancient History,Universität Passau (Germany)
Richard Stoneman, Honorary Fellow, University of Exeter (England)
Ronald Stroud, Klio Distinguished Professor of Classical Languages and Literature Emeritus, University of California, Berkeley (USA)
Sarah Culpepper Stroup, Associate Professor of Classics, University of Washington (USA)
Nancy Sultan, Professor and Director, Greek & Roman Studies, Illinois Wesleyan University (USA)
David W. Tandy, Professor of Classics, University of Tennessee (USA)
James Tatum, Aaron Lawrence Professor of Classics, Dartmouth College
Martha C. Taylor, Associate Professor of Classics, Loyola College in Maryland
Petros Themelis, Professor Emeritus of Classical Archaeology, Athens (Greece)
Eberhard Thomas, Priv.-Doz. Dr.,Archäologisches Institut der Universität zu Köln (Germany)
Michalis Tiverios, Professor of Classical Archaeology, Aristotle University of Thessaloniki (Greece)
Michael K. Toumazou, Professor of Classics, Davidson College (USA)
Stephen V. Tracy, Professor of Greek and Latin Emeritus, Ohio State University (USA)
Prof. Dr. Erich Trapp, Austrian Academy of Sciences/Vienna resp. University of Bonn (Germany)
Stephen M. Trzaskoma, Associate Professor of Classics, University of New Hampshire (USA)
Vasiliki Tsamakda, Professor of Christian Archaeology and Byzantine History of Art, University of Mainz (Germany)
Christopher Tuplin, Professor of Ancient History, University of Liverpool (UK)
Gretchen Umholtz, Lecturer, Classics and Art History, University of Massachusetts, Boston (USA)
Panos Valavanis, Professor of Classical Archaeology, University of Athens (Greece)
Athanassios Vergados, Visiting Assistant Professor of Classics, Franklin & Marshall College, Lancaster, PA
Christina Vester, Assistant Professor of Classics, University of Waterloo (Canada)
Emmanuel Voutiras, Professor of Classical Archaeology, Aristotle University of Thessaloniki (Greece)
Speros Vryonis, Jr., Alexander S. Onassis Professor (Emeritus) of Hellenic Civilization and Culture, New York University (USA)
Michael B. Walbank, Professor Emeritus of Greek, Latin & Ancient History, The University of Calgary (Canada)
Bonna D. Wescoat, Associate Professor, Art History and Ancient Mediterranean Studies, Emory University (USA)
E. Hector Williams, Professor of Classical Archaeology, University of British Columbia (Canada)
Roger J. A. Wilson, Professor of the Archaeology of the Roman Empire, and Director, Centre for the Study of Ancient Sicily, University of British Columbia, Vancouver (Canada)
Engelbert Winter, Professor for Ancient History, University of Münster (Germany)
Timothy F. Winters, Ph.D. Alumni Assn. Distinguished Professor of Classics, Austin Peay State University (USA)
Ian Worthington, Frederick A. Middlebush Professor of History, University of Missouri-Columbia (USA)
Michael Zahrnt, Professor für Alte Geschichte, Universität zu Köln (Germany)
Paul Zanker, Professor Emeritus of Classical Studies, University of Munich (Germany)

201 signatures as of May 18th 2009.

For the growing list of scholars, please go to the Addenda.

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cc: J. Biden, Vice President, USA

H. Clinton, Secretary of State USA

P. Gordon, Asst. Secretary-designate, European and Eurasian Affairs

H.L Berman, Chair, House Committee on Foreign Affairs

I. Ros-Lehtinen, Ranking Member, House Committee on Foreign Affairs

J. Kerry, Chair, Senate Committee on Foreign Relations

R.G. Lugar, Ranking Member, Senate Committee on Foreign Relations

R. Mendenez, United States Senator from New Jersey.

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Addenda

12 Scholars added on May 19th 2009:
Mariana Anagnostopoulos, Assistant Professor of Philosophy, California State University, Fresno (USA)
John P. Anton, Distinguished Professor of Greek Philosophy and Culture University of South Florida (USA)
Effie F. Athanassopoulos, Associate Professor 
Anthropology and Classics, University of Nebraska-Lincoln (USA)
Leonidas Bargeliotes, Emeritus Professor of Philosophy, University of Athens, President of the Olympic Center for Philosophy and Culture (Greece)
Joseph W. Day, Professor of Classics, Wabash College (USA)
Christos C. Evangeliou, Professor of Ancient Hellenic Philosophy, Towson University, Maryland, Honorary President of International Association for Greek Philosophy (USA)
Eleni Kalokairinou, Assistant Professor of Philosophy, Secretary of the Olympic Center of Philosophy and Culture (Cyprus)
Lilian Karali, Professor of Prehistoric and Environmental Archaeology, University of Athens (Greece)
Anna Marmodoro, Faculty of Philosophy, University of Oxford (UK)
Marion Meyer, Professor of Classical Archaeology, University of Vienna (Austria)
Jessica L. Nitschke, Assistant Professor of Classics, Georgetown University (USA)
David C.Young, Professor of Classics Emeritus, University of Florida (USA)

10 Scholars added on May 20th 2009:
Maria Ypsilanti, Assistant Professor of Ancient Greek Literature, University of Cyprus
Christos Panayides, Associate Professor of Philosophy, University of Nicosia (Cyprus)
Anagnostis P. Agelarakis, Professor of Anthropology, Adelphi University (USA)
Dr. Irma Wehgartner, Curator of the Martin von Wagner Museum der Universität Würzburg (Germany)
Dr. Ioannis Georganas, Researcher, Department of History and Archaeology, Foundation of the Hellenic World (Greece)
Maria Papaioannou, Assistant Professor in Classical Archaeology, University of New Brunswick (Canada)
Chryssa Maltezou, Professor emeritus, University of Athens, Director of the Hellenic Institute of Byzantine and Postbyzantine Studies in Venice (Italy)
Myrto Dragona-Monachou, Professor emerita of Philosophy, University of Athens (Greece)
David L. Berkey, Assistant Professor of History, California State University, Fresno (USA)
Stephan Heilen, Associate Professor of Classics, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign (USA)

3 Scholars added on May 21st 2009:
Rosalia Hatzilambrou, Researcher, Academy of Athens (Greece)
Athanasios Sideris, Ph.D., Head of the History and Archaeology Department, Foundation of the Hellenic World, Athens (Greece)
Rev. Dr. Demetrios J Constantelos, Charles Cooper Townsend Professor of Ancient and Byzantine history, Emeritus; Distinguished Research Scholar in Residence at the Richard Stockton College of New Jersey (USA)

3 Scholars added on May 22nd 2009:
Ioannis M. Akamatis, Professor of Classical Archaeology, University of Thessaloniki (Greece)
Lefteris Platon, Assistant Professor of Archaeology, University of Athens (Greece)
Lucia Athanassaki, Associate Professor of Classical Philology, University of Crete (Greece)

5 Scholars added on May 23rd 2009:
Georgios Anagnostopoulos, Professor of Philosophy, University of California-San Diego (USA)
Ioannes G. Leontiades, Assistant Professor of Byzantine History, Aristotle University of Thessalonike (Greece)
Ewen Bowie, Emeritus Fellow, Corpus Christi College, Oxford (UK)
Mika Kajava, Professor of Greek Language and Literature; Head of the Department of Classical Studies, University of Helsinki (Finland)
Christian R. Raschle, Assistant Professor of Roman History, Centre d’Études Classiques & Département d'Histoire, Université de Montréal (Canada)

4 Scholars added on May 25th 2009:
Selene Psoma, Senior Lecturer of Ancient History, University of Athens (Greece)
G. M. Sifakis, Professor Emeritus of Classics, Aristotle University of Thessaloniki & New York University (Greece & USA)
Kostas Buraselis, Professor of Ancient History, University of Athens (Greece)
Michael Ferejohn, Associate Professor of Ancient Philosophy, Duke University (USA)

5 Scholars added on May 26th 2009:
Ioannis Xydopoulos, Assistant Professor in Ancient History, Aristotle University of Thessaloniki (Greece)
Stella Drougou, Professor of Classical Archaeology, Aristotle University of Thessaloniki (Greece)
Heather L. Reid, Professor of Philosophy, Morningside College (USA)
Thomas A. Suits, Emeritus Professor of Classical Languages, University of Connecticut (USA)
Dr Thomas Johansen, Reader in Ancient Philosophy, University of Oxford (UK)

6 Scholars added on May 27th 2009:
Frösén Jaakko, Professor of Greek philology, University of Helsinki (Finland)
John F. Kenfield, Associate Professor, Department of Art History, Rutgers University (USA)
Dr. Aristotle Michopoulos, Professor & Chair, Greek Studies Dept., Hellenic College (Brookline, MA, USA)
Guy MacLean Rogers, Kemper Professor of Classics and History, Wellesley College (USA)
Stavros Frangoulidis, Associate Professor of Latin. Aristotelian University of Thessaloniki (Greece)
Yannis Tzifopoulos, Associate Professor of Ancient Greek and Epigraphy, Aristotle University of Thessaloniki (Greece)

1 Scholar added on May 29th 2009:
Christos Simelidis, British Academy Postdoctoral Fellow, Lincoln College, University of Oxford (UK)

3 Scholars added on June 2nd 2009:
Dr. Peter Grossmann, Member emeritus, German Archaeological Institute, Cairo (Egypt)
Eleni Papaefthymiou, Curator of the Numismatic Collection of the Foundation of the Hellenic World (Greece)
Evangeline Markou, Adjunct Lecturer in Greek History, Open University of Cyprus (Cyprus)

2 Scholars added on June 3rd 2009:
Aliki Moustaka, Professor of Classical Archaeology, Aristotelian University of Thessaloniki (Greece)
François de Callataÿ, Professor of Monetary and Financial history of the Greek world, Ecole Pratique des Hautes Etudes (Paris/Sorbonne) and Professor of Financial history of the Greco-Roman world, Université libre de Bruxelles (France and Brussels)

THE RECONSTITUTION OF THE EMPIRE... (letter to Obama that rewarded Turkish barbarism in the name of his democracy)

"At the end of World War I, Turkey could have succumbed to the foreign powers that were trying to claim its territory, or sought to restore an ancient empire. But Turkey chose a different future. You freed yourself from foreign control. And you founded a Republic that commands the respect of the United States and the wider world. There is a simple truth to this story: Turkey’s democracy is your ownachievement. It was not forced upon you by any outside power, nor did it come without struggle and sacrifice" Barack Hussein Obama President of USA at the Turkish national assembly in Ankara.

The fore mentioned statement of the President of USA,besides being ignorant of history, is an insult to the memory of hundreds of thousands slaughtered Greeks, Armenian and other nationalities by the swarm of Attila's descendants, which the USA's consul general in Smyrna, described as "The Blight of Asia" and devastated stated "I sick of being human",watching the horrible and barbaric crimes of Mustafa Kemal...

On the blood of thousands of innocent martyrs the self-proclaimed "Turkish Republic" was founded.

The President of the USA molested upon our ancestors martyrs honored remains...

"Turkey’s democracy is your own achievement"...said, with pompous language, filling the Turks with pride!

A "democracy" built on the remains and the blood of thousands of innocent people.

On the ashes of "infidel" Smyrna...

On the genocides of Greek of Pontus and Armenians...of the Syrian-Chaldaeans and Assyrians..the Greeks of Imvros and Tenedos...of Constantinople...of Cyprus...

On the bodies of penurious Kurds and the ashes of their 4000 villages...

A "democracy" that continues to live on the blood of Alevites, the Kurds and the last Greeks of Pontus...

A "democracy" of ERGENEKON and the GREY WOLVES...

This is Turkey mister Blessed (Hussein)...

It is this state that slaughters are customary tradition and yourancestors described as "The Blight of Asia" you state your respect, adding "and the wider world"...

Our respect mister Obama, you are not entitled to nor deserve to refer to. It is our inalienable right, to pay our respect where we think we owe it to...

You have bowed the knee of your heart, and attributed honor to the disrespectful Turkey...

You rewarded barbarism and tyranny, triggering the Turkish aggressiveness against us...

We were, are and will be HERE...

History has taught us to withstand the slaughters, tortures, ousting, impalements, cremations, refugees, poverty, starvation and destructions, for thousand of years...

We know how to sacrifice ourselves, self willing, and we turn to death for our beloved Motherland... Our Motherland and the mother of Beauty and Civilization...

This is mister Obama the "ancient empire" that you pointed as the enemy of Turkey. You have awakened the primeval and primitive instincts of Turks...But you have also awakened our sentiments... Contemporary history gives all the answers.

Quotes by Nikolaos Plastiras to the Ambassador of Great Britain Lindley.

-"Greece was an honest Ally of England. You have abandoned her but she continued the alone. She witnessed her populations being slaughtered, parts of her land being cut off. She may live on her one. And if she falls we will raise a sing on cape Maleas stating that, once a civilization flourished here, that was destroyed by the Western Forces, with England being the leader. Convey this to your Government. That's all sir. We have nothing else to say. Go!"

http://strategy-geopolitics.blogspot.com/2009/04/reconstitution-of-empire.html

As the blog mention, the above text mail to

-US President
-US Vice President
-US Secretary of State
-US Congress
-Many others US Secretaeries and officials.

In my letter that I sent to Obama mention:

Mr President we like to see from you Presidential actions that based in your words as Senator and Presidential Candidate.

The only that I see from Mr Hussein, is a Bush policy as regards the Greek issues and democratic values (Armenian genocide and Orthodoc Ecumenical Patriarch) and many forgotten past views.

A strong call to Obama Administration from the Greek-Americans as regards the illegal entity in Cyprus’ militarily occupied area.

Posted: March 21, 2009 at 23:15 PM EST (28:15 AM GMT)

Washington.- By Apostolos Zoupaniotis

Greek American Community reacted strongly on reports for a possible meeting between Turkish Cypriot leader Mehmet Ali Talat and the Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, in Washington. Eleven leaders of the National Coordinated Effort of Hellenes (CEH) in a letter sent to President Barack Obama and Vice President Joe Biden issued a strong warning, pointing out that “that certain officials in your Administration are considering actions that are on the verge of extending the Bush Administration doctrine even further by establishing a Cyprus policy that contradicts both of your clearly articulated views on the issue.”.

The Greek American leaders call President Obama and Vice President Biden to “intervene before they cause America problems that will take years to correct”.

Expressing the feelings of the Greek American Community, the ask Obama and Biden to “overturn these misguided actions by people in your Administration. The Greek-American community that has been so committed to your Presidency and Vice Presidency, and the hope that they believed it would bring to the militarily occupied nation of Cyprus, will be devastated.”

The strong warning comes just days before the meeting of the Greek American leadership with President Barack Obama, during the White House celebration of the Greek Independence Day. Archbishop Demetrios who is going to be leading the Greek American delegation is having a meeting on Monday with Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, at the Department of State. In addition to the issues of the religious freedoms and human rights of the Ecumenical Patriarchate that are violated by Turkey, Archbishop Demetrios is expected to raise the objections of the community to a meeting between Hilary Clinton and Mr Talat.

According to Hasan Ercakica, spokesman of Mr Talat, the Turkish Cypriot leader is going to meet Hillary Clinton on March 30. While in Washington, Mr Talat will have meeting with Barack Obama’s National Security Advisor James Jones and leading members of U.S. Congress.

According to Mr Ercakica the meetings were confirmed on Thursday, although State Department spokesman Robert Wood avoided any answers at the briefing.

“I don't have anything for you at this point, whether there will be a meeting or not. I just don't know”, was Mr Wood’s reply to a question by Greek News Washington correspondent Lambros Papandoniou.

Cyprus Government spokesman Stephanos Stephanou said that “we are monitoring the issue and those who must act are acting. As always, he continued, we examine and analyze any developments which in one way or another affect Cyprus”.

Stephanou noted that “it is too early to come to any conclusions, bearing in mind that we have not seen anything yet as regards the crux of the matter.”

On Friday Secretary of State Hillary Clinton held a telephone conversation with Greek Foreign Minister Dora Bakoyannis. According to diplomatic sources Secretary Clinton explained the reason behind her intention to meet with Talat and reassured that there is no change of the U.S. Cyprus policy. According to unconfirmed information a similar call was made to Cypriot Foreign Minister Markos Kyprianou.

“Too little too late”, was the reaction of a Greek American leader asked by Greek News.

According wll informed sources the meeting was suggested by U.S. Embassy in Nicosia as an American helping hand to Mehmet Ali Talt whose Turkish Republican Party trails by some distance the resurging National Unity Party (UBP), headed by hardliner Dervis Eroglu, in the upcoming “elections”.

Turkish Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan was also pushing for a meeting between Talat and Clinton in an effort to boost his ratings, convincing Hillary to receive him in Washington.

Talat was invited to Washington just after the Greek Cypriot rejection of the Annan Plan in 2004, where the then Secretary of State Colin Powell did his best to make him feel welcome, addressing Talat as “Mr Prime Minister”.

THE LETTER

March 20, 2009
The Honorable Barack Obama
President of the United States
The Honorable Joseph Biden
Vice President of the United States
The White House
Washington, D.C. 20500

Dear President Obama and Vice President Biden:

It has come to our attention that certain officials in your Administration are considering actions that are on the verge of extending the Bush Administration doctrine even further by establishing a Cyprus policy that contradicts both of your clearly articulated views on the issue. Please intervene before they cause America problems that will take years to correct.

Your Administration has not yet held high level contacts with either the President or the Foreign Minister of Cyprus. Thus, we are shocked to learn from a statement by the Turkish-Cypriot spokesman in Cyprus that they are now on the verge of establishing this Administration’s de facto recognition of an illegal entity in Cyprus’ militarily occupied area, while ignoring the internationally recognized Cyprus government. We understand that they plan to do this through high level Administration meetings with the leader of the pseudo-state before meetings with the President or Foreign Minister of the Republic of Cyprus.

You said to us in 2007, Mr. President, that America was “able to rely on Cyprus in the War on Terror and we were able to rely on Cyprus during the Lebanon Crisis.” Cyprus again demonstrated its support for U.S. security efforts by recently stopping an arms shipment from Iran to Hamas at U.S. urging. The last time Cyprus took such an action, Syria retaliated by taking a step toward de facto recognition of the occupied area of Cyprus by establishing ferry boat service to the north. If the people in your Administration follow through with these meetings, particularly before meeting with the government of Cyprus, our country will have punished Cyprus in the same way Syria did, by taking a step toward de facto recognition of the occupied area.

We know that you want, as you said to us, a “solution to the situation in Cyprus…based on the rule of law, not on force, one that is based on UN resolutions passed on the Cyprus issue, and on the very principles and standards of the EU….” Yet, the occupied area of Cyprus, with which your people are aligning you, is an anathema to those principles -- forced into place by more Turkish troops on that little island than America has in Afghanistan. Such de facto recognition will further solidify Turkish insistence on unreasonable Cyprus settlement provisions that virtually all Democrats on the Senate European Affairs Subcommittee objected to and which even a majority of the Republicans on that Subcommittee called “unacceptable to western democracies” in a letter to President Bush.

We understand that the Administration supports Turkey’s eventual accession into the European Union, as does the Republic of Cyprus. Pursuing anything that suggests de facto recognition of the occupation regime would not only be contrary to countless UN Security Council resolutions, but it would perhaps force the Republic of Cyprus to reconsider its stance with regard to Turkey and the EU.

Please overturn these misguided actions by people in your Administration. The Greek-American community that has been so committed to your Presidency and Vice Presidency, and the hope that they believed it would bring to the militarily occupied nation of Cyprus, will be devastated.

Sincerely,

Andrew
A. Athens
Philip Christopher
Andy Manatos
Peter Papanicolaou
Nikos Mouyiaris
George Tsunis
Tasos Zambas
Endy Zemenides
Zenon Christodoulou
George Dovellos
Michael Galanakis


♠
Courtesy of Greek News, a Greek-American weekly newspaper

A letter with the position of the Pan-Macedonian Association USA was sent to Hilary Clinton

PRESS RELEASE
Boston, February 25, 2009

A letter with the position of the Pan-Macedonian Association USA, also co-signed by the Hellenic American National Council, as well as the International Coordinating Committee Justice for Cyprus (PSEKA) and the Cypriot Federation was sent yesterday, February 23, 2009 to Secretary of State, Hillary Clinton in view of meeting with her Greek counterpart Dora Bakoyianni. The Greek/American community expressed its intense concern regarding the escalated irredentist and aggressive behavior of the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia (FYROM) and they asked the new US administration to retract the decision of the previous administration to recognize the FYROM as the Republic of “Macedonia.” I addition they expect the new administration condemns the irredentist behavior of the aforementioned state.

The ill-conceived decision by the previous administration to recognize FYROM as the Republic of “Macedonia,” clearly became the catalyst of a more aggressive stance by FYROM that can presently be perceived as hostile towards Greece, a NATO ally of the US for many years. We feel that the new administration should reverse its decision, recognize them again as FYROM, and actually block their NATO integration until a new name is found. In addition the US should condemn in the strongest terms their irredentist and aggressive behavior,” is mentioned in the letter. “It is imperative that a negotiated mutually acceptable solution also includes change of the FYROM constitutional name to the new agreed name, i.e. change in their passports and use of that name erga omnes. Also all countries, including those that already have recognized the FYROM as Republic of “Macedonia,” convert to the new name for all uses.”

Please note that these positions represent the overwhelming majority of the Greek/American community. In addition, during the recent Regional Assembly of S.A.E. USA and the Network of SAE Youth these positions were unanimously endorsed.

The letter is co-signed by the Pan-Macedonian President Mrs. Nina Gatzoulis, Mr.Emmanuel Velivasakis co-signed on behalf of the American Hellenic Council (HANC), Mr. Philip Christopher co-signed on behalf of International Coordinating Committee Justice for Cyprus (PSEKA) and Mr. Peter Papanicolaou co-signed on behalf of the Cyprus Federation of US.

The letter in its entirety follows:

February 23, 2009

To: Secretary of State Hillary Clinton
U.S. Department of State

2201 C Street NW

Washington, DC 20520

Dear Madame Secretary:

On behalf of the nation-wide membership of the undersigned Greek/American organizations which represent the majority of the American citizens of Hellenic descend in USA, we write to you to express our strong concerns regarding the name issue of Greece’s neighboring country, the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia (the FYROM).

As you prepare to meet with Greece’s Foreign Minister, Dora Bakoyianni, we know that a main topic on the agenda will be the FYROM name issue and the consequences it would have in the stability of the Balkans. Since this issue first arose back in the year 1991-1992 the Greek American community, through several resolutions of the undersigned Greek/American organizations, has been against a permanent name for the neighboring state which would include the name Macedonia/Macedonian.

According to the most recent census, not all of the FYROM population consider themselves “Macedonians.” Who gives them the right to impede the Euro-Atlantic integration of the remaining minorities of the country’s population for a name dispute which does not even concern them, as there might be quite a few among the so-called “Macedonians” who would look forward to a resolution, regardless of how they identify themselves?

As far as the Greek/American community is concerned, as well as Greeks all over the world, the term Macedonian encompasses a Hellenic historical and cultural identity for thousands of years. We strongly oppose any use of our cultural Macedonian identity by the FYROM inhabitants in any ethnological concept. A similar example in Europe would be for the Austrians and Swiss to ethnologically identify themselves as Bavarians, a term which historically and culturally belongs to Germany.

Madam Secretary,
It is imperative that a negotiated mutually acceptable solution also includes change of the FYROM constitutional name to the new agreed name, i.e. change in their passports and use of that name erga omnes. Also all countries, including those that already have recognized the FYROM as Republic of “Macedonia,” convert to the new name for all uses.

FYROM continues to provoke Greece, usurping its history which has been Hellenic for thousands of years, while FYROM refuses to negotiate in good faith over the name issue. Unfortunately, actions over the years such as distortion of geographic maps, naming its airport “Alexander the Great,” revisionist textbooks in schools, advertisements on international television media (CNN), usurping the Hellenic history, and inflammatory comments by top government officials, encourage new generations in FYROM to cultivate hostile sentiments against Greece.

As American citizens of Macedonian/Hellenic descent we condemn the decision published by the Official Gazette of the Government of the FYROM, to name part of the Pan-European Corridor X that runs through its territory, after Alexander the Great, who is universally acknowledged as a prominent Greek historical figure; therefore he is part of our cultural heritage.

It was recently self-exposed when FYROM promoted through National TV channels an approximately nine minute video, entitled “Macedonian Prayer.” In the video God Himself[!] appeared, telling the people of the FYROM that He “had populated the earth with three races of people, the white race or Macedonoids, the yellow race or Mongoloids and the black race or Negroids, while all other people in the world are mulattos” (please see attached literature of the “Prayer”). These extreme racial beliefs, which underlie a virulent ethnocentric narrative, are especially troubling to Greek/Americans. Not one official of the FYROM government condemned the contents of the video, not even the Church.

The ill-conceived decision by the previous administration to recognize FYROM as the Republic of “Macedonia,” clearly became the catalyst of a more aggressive stance by FYROM that can presently be perceived as hostile towards Greece, a NATO ally of the US for many years. We feel that the new administration should reverse its decision, recognize them again as FYROM, and actually block their NATO integration until a new name is found. In addition the US should condemn in the strongest terms their irredentist and aggressive behavior.

We wish the FYROM well and we hope they find a name for their country that does not include the word “Macedonia,” in order to be consistent with their Slavo/Albanian identity, acting as a unifying force for its entire population.

Respectfully,

Nina Gatzoulis President
Pan-Macedonian Association US

Emmanuel Velivasakis President
Hellenic American National Council

Philip Christopher President
International Coordinating Committee Justice for
Cyprus(PSEKA)

Peter Papanicolaou President
Cyprus Federation of America, Inc

cc:
Assistant Secretary of State for Europe and Eurasia Daniel Fried

Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for Europe and Eurasia Matthew Bryza

Director of Southern European Affairs Kathy Fitzpatrick

Senior Greek Desk Officer Adam Scarlatelli

“Republic of Macedonia” Desk Officer Anna Stinchcomb

The Congress