A response to “The Shame of Modern Greece”

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

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

A. Caratzas

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

FYROM suit issue

by a Reader

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

The political ethno-myth of the Slav Macedonians

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

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

Both of them characterizing from theirs.....

Greek Citizenship Code reform

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

The planned proposals would give Greek citizenship to:

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

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

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

Athens response to fYRoM suit

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

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

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

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

Recent Real Historical Tragedy - The Albanian Encyclopedia

January 14, 2010

Recently, Mr. Nijazi Muhamedi (President of the editorial board of the new 'fictional' Albanian Encyclopedia) stated: "The ancient warrior king Alexander the Great, was neither Greek, nor Macedonian, but Albanian" (http://www.balkaninsight.com/en/main/news/24745/). His book 'Albanian Macedonia', was launched in Tetovo, in the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia (FYROM) this week. Mr. Muhamedi said that he was not motivated nor supported by politicians, and that his approach was strictly scientific. How can such an approach be scientific, when historical evidence is well-known and clearly states otherwise?

The 'myth' stated by Mr. Muhamedi has been systemically produced from known Albanian centres that promote historical revisionism and extreme nationalism in the Balkans. Albanians are not universally acknowledged as the descendants of the Illyrians, as their origins are disputed by historians worldwide. This is confirmed from several studies and works such as ´Illyrians´ by John Wilkes; several works from an expert in Albanian history, Miranda Vickers; 'Albanian identities: myth and history' by Stephanie Schwandner-Sievers and Bernd Jürgen Fischer, and collective works from around the world such as the ancient, modern and medieval history from Cambridge and Oxford Universities.

Muhamedi's arguments are quite similar to the arguments raised in the similarly 'fictional' FYROM encyclopedia. Both encyclopedias lack historical merit, and attempt to change the reality that Alexander the Great was of Greek origin. This fact is supported by ......

Macedonians from Xino Nero-FLORINA

by Makedonas82

Slav Macedonian autonomists in the Greek civil war

By John Koliopoulos and Thanos Veremis

Another aspect ofthe civil conflict, underestimated m left-wing revisionist studies, was the role of the Greek Slav Macedonian autonomists in  both the outbreak and general direction ofthat war. The KKE and EAM journals referred to them as 'persecuted Slav Macedonian ELAS fighters', while Greek Slav Macedonians called themselves 'Makedontsi'  the name used at the time in the People's Republic of Macedonia to identify those belonging to the new nation. As already seen they had served, in quick succession and even simultaneously, more than one master and cause until the time when Tito gave them a new Identity and a new cause to fight for. These Makedontsi began intruding in the sprmg of 1945 into the Greek frontier highlands in small bands to avenge past or current wrongs. Their numbers increased as more and more Slav Macedonians were prosecuted in Greece, nominally for collaboration with the Axis occupying forces but in essence for having eventually opted for the KKE or the People's Republic of Macedonia. Of some 8,000 Slav Macedonians estimated to have crossed between 1944 and 1945 Into the Republic The Makedontsi raiders perhaps did not exceed 1,000. Later, in 1947 the Yugoslav government maintained that as many as 24.000 Slav Macedomans from Greece had sought refuge in Yugoslavia in the post-Varkiza period. but this number almost certainly included Slav Macedonians who had fled before the December 1944 rebellion.

Of these initial Makedontsi raiders, whom the KKE party journals represented as being 'persecuted ELAS fighters', perhaps not more than one-third had really served with ELAS. They had generally led a precarious existence in refugee camps which the government of the People's Republic of Macedonia had set up for the purpose. Their leaders men like Paschalls Mitropoulos, Mlichael Keramitzis and Naum Peios  were doing odd jobs for the government of the Republic, and most of them were members of the KKE and at the same time of the Republic's ruling Communist Party. These refugee raiders projected Macedonianism among Greece's Slav Macedoians and heralded the imprudent 'liberation' of 'Egqska Makedonza' (Macedonia of the Aegean), I.e. Greek Macedonia. It soon became clear that avenging past or current wrongs was not their ...

Happy New Year.!!!

Merry Christmas

YOUNG TURK REVOLT*

by  LS. Stavrianos**

Abdul Hamid became the autocratic ruler of the Ottoman Empire following his dismissal of the first Turkish parliament in 1877. At first he was generally praised for being industrious and sober in contrast to many of his predecessors. This favorable attitude gradually changed with the Armenian massacres of the 1890's and the chronic anarchy and bloodshed in Macedonia. By the turn of the century Abdul Hamid had become "Abdul the Damned" and the "Great Assassin." Whether villain or hero, Abdul Hamid was the master of the Ottoman Empire for three decades.

In his relations with the great powers Abdul Hamid's policy was simply divide and rule, or more accurately, divide and survive. He acquired a reputa tion as a consummate diplomat in pursuing this policy, though it is doubtful that much skill was required to persuade the British to oppose Russian ambitions in the Near East. In domestic affairs Abdul Hamid strove to safeguard his absolutist rule against the disruptive forces of nationalism and constitutionalism. To this end he discouraged travel and study abroad, maintained a great army of informers, and enforced a strict censorship of the press.

Three trouble spots in the empire gave Abdul Hamid the most trouble. One was Armenia, where a nationalist awakening similar to that of the Balkan peoples manifested itself in the second half of the nineteenth century. Another was the island of Crete, where the predominantly Christian Greek population took up arms on every promising occasion in order to attain their cherished enosis, or union with Mother Greece. The third area of trouble was Macedonia, the.......

Macedonian identity is part of the identity of every single Greek citizen and we will not negotiate on that

.......Greek Deputy Foreign Minister Dimitris Droutsas said in an interview at "Proto Thema" newspaper.

Also Mr Droutsas points out that official Athens insists on negotiations only on the name and thinks that it is a mistake to add issues connected only to the language and identity in the negotiations as the Macedonian identity belongs to every single Greek citizen.

Greece will require amendments to the Constitution of formeR Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia(FYROM) so as to realize the formula for a common name for international use. This is the position expressed by Droutsas, who as if covered the Greek red line with concrete.

UN mediator Matthew Nimetz shouldn’t have added the rest of the issues in this proposal in 2005 but the worse thing was that the previous Greek government of PM Kostas Karamanlis agreed to discuss them, Droutsas remarked.

Whole interview in this link.

FYROM President insults EU's vision

Australian Macedonian Advisory Council
December 9

The Australian Macedonian Advisory Council (AMAC) is appalled by the latest statements made from FYROM´s President Gjorge Ivanov. According to MINA news, President Ivanov controversially stated "We will not cave under any pressure to change our name or identity just to be a part of the European Union. We've lived this (hi)story many times before, not again. Whatever the outcome of the talks in Brussels, Macedonia (FYROM) will stay right here" threatening to remain outside the EU as the ´Republic of Macedonia´.

Ivanov continues: "Europe unfortunately still has leaders who allow to be carried away by someone's petty interests and hidden agenda.. We see the absence of vision at the EU". These statements have revealed FYROM´s ongoing disregard for reaching a compromise to the name dispute with Greece, that has disallowed it entry into the EU and NATO.

AMAC hopes FYROM will change its current hardline policy, and not continue to insult the European Union and its member states, but instead to tackle the real issue at hand.

Australian Macedonian Advisory Council (AMAC)

Greece Blocks EU Bid to Set Date for FYROM Entry Talks

Greece blocked a proposal to set a date for the formet Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia to start talks to join the European Union, saying the country’s name implies a territorial claim on a Greek province of the same name. EU governments “will return to the matter” in the first half of 2010, foreign ministers said in a statement in Brussels today.

naftemporiki.gr

Handbooks from the archives of the British Foreign Office-1920

---

"Makedontsi" not included in the list of Macedonian ethnicities:










Look who introduced the moto "Macedonia for the Macedonians" and for what purpose.Also notice why the Bulgarian government was forced to persecute VMRO and arrest its prominent members.The British Foreign Office is certainly a more reliable source than any Scopian dedo.




Compare this article of the London Times from April 14,1901 which confirms what the British Foreign Office wrote:
When Sarafov and other members of VMRO were arrested in Sofia,the Commitee placarded in the streets the following appeal: "Fellow citizens,the Bulgarian national cause has been attacked"

by Kapetan Doukas

Intimidating Greek bloggers, covering insults against Greek politicians

May 11, 2009. “Forum” magazine publishes online an open letter to the then Prime Minister of Greece, Mr. Costas Karamanlis, authored by Mr. Milan Adzievski. The next day, an english translation is provided by “MINA” news agency.

Hello Black Manlis,
This is how your last name in the Macedonian language translates.
Let me ask You, even though I know my questions wont reach your ears: With what right do you insist of being Macedonian, when in your Turko-Greek language you are Karamanlis?
If you start digging a little bit in your roots, there is a great possibility of meeting a Turk who perhaps out of love, though more likely forced himself on your grandma or great-grandma, as it is usually done by occupational armies.
Have you ever wondered why you have KARA as your starting prefix?
Say hello to your Turkish compatriot Karajaferis, and ask him the very same question I asked You.
How do you ask for monopoly on history? No one is allowed to look back in history, apart from You, and your “Greeks”.
Will you ever be able to find some strength and dignity and admit that the prehistoric citizens of Athens, Sparta … referred to the Macedonians as barbarians?
With your quenching thirst today to all of a sudden become Macedonian, aren’t you jumping in your own deathtrap: that you are barbarian.
How else to describe, or explain the efforts of the Greek Government to destroy the Macedonians, their villages, cities, language, rivers, homes, names, graves… unless it is a barbaric move?
In the history books, only the barbarians committed such heinous crimes and unpunished (yet) methods of genocide.
But that was then when civilian criterias weren’t at satisfactory levels, or maybe I am wrong, I am awaiting your answer.
Are today’s barbarians wearing white shirts and ties instead of skins from killed animals?
If you know the answer, write to Milan.adzievski@forum.com.mk
PS: Do you know who was Arhimed? He ran naked through out Athens yelling “Eureka” because he found out that every body submerged in water, pushes out as much water as the volume of the body.
In your greek case, this law would be: Every fascist move submerged in nationalism, pushes out as much stupidity as the volume of the fascist.
What is your weight, Black Manlis?

May 13, 2009. “Ta xalia” (pronounced “ta halia”, meaning “the mess”), a greek blog from Thessaloniki, Macedonia, addresses the matter. “Costas Karamanlis, you’re a barbarian Turk, because a Turk soldier raped your grandmother”, says the post title. “Who says these bullshit?”, protests the angered editor.

An hour later, the blog returns with a new post, titled.......

Krste Crvenkovski : we were Bulgarians until 1940

Krste Crvenkovski (President of the Central Committee of the Union of Communists in the Socialist Republic of Macedonia) to Todor Zhivkov (First Secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Bulgaria) – May 19, 1967 said:

“And whether bulgarian consciousness exists in Macedonia, this is a historical legacy. We’re now writing our history. We can’t write that until 1940 we were Bulgarians and after 1940 Macedonians.”

Pr Loring Danforth: Macedonians(of the FYROM) are not descendants of the ancient Macedonians; they are Slavs.

An intresting comment took place from Pr. Loring Danforth regarding the ethicity of the Slavmacedonians  at the history-of-macedonia.com
Here is the abstract:

I have always stated, and I repeat here, that modern Macedonians (people who have a Macedonian and not a Greek national identity) are not descendants of the ancient Macedonians; they are Slavs. This means that they speak a Slavic language. Similarly Greeks are Indo-Europeans, since they speak an Indo-European language. This does not mean that Macedonians should be called Slav Macedonians, any more than Russians should be called Slav Russians or Greeks should be called Indo-European Greeks. In my opinion, Macedonian nationalists who deny they are Slavs and claim they are direct descendants of Alexander the Great and the ancient Macedonians are extremists. They are making inaccurate statements that are bad scholarship and bad politics. Building a statue of Alexander the Great in Skopje and naming the Skopje airport after Alexander the Great are in my opinion irresponsible acts that are not in the best interests of the Republic of Macedonia.


I have also consistently stated that people who have a Greek national identity and a Macedonian ethnic or regional identity as Macedonians also have every right to identify themselves as Macedonians. In my opinion no one has the right to monopolize the term “Macedonians” and deny others the right to identify themselves as Macedonians. References to “occupied” portions of Macedonia are also extremely irresponsible and inappropriate. I support the human rights of the Macedonian minority in Greece, as I do the rights of the Greek minority in Turkey, and the Albanian minority in the Republic of Macedonia.

My remark goes to the...regional identity as Pr Danforth quoted. There is not any kind of regional identity. There are two kinds of identity: .......

Encyclopedia Britannica Blunders (Greece – Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia)

Australian Macedonian Advisory Council

November 27, 2009

Dear Editor,

We (The Australian Macedonian Advisory Council) are writing to you regarding two pages of your online encyclopedia, under the section “Countries of the world”. As an Australian-Greek organization we are extremely disappointed with the sections aforementioned, as in the first article “Countries of the world – Greece” you incorrectly refer to the ethnic composition (under Demography) of 1.8% “Macedonian”. Greece does not recognize any such minority in its borders, as there are already 2.2 million Greek Macedonians who already refer to themselves as Greeks firstly and Macedonians secondly – just like people from Athens refer to themselves as Greeks firstly and Athenians secondly. This is a huge blunder on your behalf, as you have quoted your source as a year 2000 unofficial source. An OFFICIAL source is already available for your use (provided by the Hellenic Republic), and shown in the CIA Factbook – Greece (https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/geos/gr.html) and throughout many other sources.

The second page in question is the page titled “Countries of the world – Macedonia”, in which you incorrectly use a blurb which states: “DId you know? – In Plutarch’s classic history of Alexander The Great, he claims that the famous Macedonian general was tutored as a youth by none other than Aristotle.” The fact that you present is indeed correct (i.e. Alexander The Great was tutored by Aristotle), but this fact has nothing in common with the country that you are associating it with i.e. The Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia (FYROM). The region of ancient Macedonia (the land of Alexander the Great) is in Greece, as confirmed by many classical scholars, including the 356 scholars involved with the “Macedonia Evidence Initiative” (www. macedonia-evidence.org). Alexander The Great was born in Pella (coordinates 40°45′36″N 22°31′09″E / 40.76°N 22.51917°E) and his father was born in Aegai (coordiantes 40°28′42″N 22°19′19″E). The Australian Macedonian Advisory Council (AMAC) demands an explaination as to why an unofficial source was quoted in the “Countries of the world – Greece” page, and why a blurb as such has been associated with the FYROM. A correction to both of these pages is quite necessary on your behalf. We patiently await your reply.

Please refer to:
(http://www.history-of-macedonia.com/coppermine/albums/userpics/10001/britanicaalmanac2010.jpg) and
(http://img402.imageshack.us/img402/2069/pagesfrombritannica2010.jpg) for clarification.

Thanking you,
Australian Macedonian Advisory Council
info@macedonian.com.au
http://www.macedonian.com.au/
www.macedonian.com.au/forum

The creation of UNSCOB and its investigation into the question of the "paidomazoma "(Greek Abducted Children)

The Greek question was brought before the Security Council of the United Nations three times during 1946. The first two debates, which were occasioned by complaints from the Soviet Union and the Ukraine respectively, ended inconclusively.[1] The third debate followed an appeal by the Greek Government, made on 3rd December 1946 after detailed consultations with the United States, that the Secretary-General "give early consideration to a situation which was leading to friction between Greece and her neighbours". [2]

On 19th December 1946 the Security Council established a commission of investigation, but the report which was presented by this body on 23rd May 1947 was not unanimous, the western members supporting the views of the Greek Government, while the representatives of the Soviet Union and Poland rejected the findings of the majority. During the following debates in the Security Council, resolutions from both sides were defeated by vetoes, and the matter again ended in stalemate.[3]

The question was then brought by the United States before the General Assembly where there ....