Friday, May 22, 2009

The fake "evidence" regarding Dr. Mittag e-mail.

A few internet forums, namely topix.com and macedoniantruth.org, posted an e-mail, supposedly from the "Oxford Classicists Discussion Group" mailing list. Such a group is nowhere to be found online.

The e-mail showing as...

=?UTF-8?B?0Jw=?=
From: Peter F. Mittag peter.franz.mittag@uni-koeln.de

To: Oxford Classicists Discussion Group oxford.ssac.clarence.uk@barebones.usenetnext.co m
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=UTF-8
Content-Transfer-Encoding: base64
I was surprised to find my name on Miller's list. I would think of that as a typo, since most likely this was not an automated process (or it was an anomalous one!). But I haveto distance myself from the list. I am not its signatory and it isa farce if Miller could not get its instruments straight on the matter.I will contact him, likely via ESOP's email list and challenge him.I dislike the general tone of the letter, I think its a political no-win game.

peter.franz.mittag@uni-koeln.de



The supposed e-mail address of the group is "oxford.ssac.clarence.uk@ barebones.usenetnext.com".

In other words, the format is "mail@subdomain.domain.com".
The domain is "usenetnext.com" and it's non-existent, as a whois search shows.
http://www.who.is/whois/usenetnext.com/

In this universe, there is absolutely no way that a mailing list will function with an imaginary domain.

This is another shameless propaganda attempt, in order to discredit dozens of scholars supporting the historical truth about Macedonia and its greek character.

People spreading and supporting unsubstantiated accusations, based on falsified data, face the danger of being publicly humiliated

A mailing list can only function with a domain that exists.

Concluding, this e-mail is fake.

by PetrosM



UPDATE(23:10)

Vasko sent me the following information as regards the issue:



In this video, by FYROMian Sitel TV it is claimed that P. F. Mittag actually stated:

"I am surprised to find my name on the list....I have to distance myself from the list. I am not its signatory and it is a farce if Miller does not correct that. I don't like the tone of the letter. I think it is a political game without winner."

This is a screenshot of his statement:







This is the video-clip:

http://www.sitel.com.mk/?ItemID=1DC67A0D96DAEF45B7A28AC7E140FA0A

From the above is obvious that the FYROM is under falsification racing in order to discredit Mr Miller letter. Is not first time that Slavmacedonists produce propaganda in order to discredit scholars. No credible and objective historian in the world supports therts historical far fetched claims. Unfortunately for the nationalists from FYROM and her diaspora the ancestors of the Slavs of FYROM were almost universally regarded as Bulgarians up until the early 20th century .

Slavmacedonians do you still believe Gruevski administration as regards the supposing Greek veto?

The outgoing NATO Secretary General Jaap De Hoop Scheffer said as regards the Greek veto at the NATO summit in Bucharest last year.

«there has never been a veto»

«There is no veto. NATO doesn’t know the word veto. NATO does know the word consensus. And although people might have disappointed, there was a consensus in Bucharest last year, and there was a consensus again in Strasbourg and Kehl. NATO doesn’t know the word veto, and no nation has ever vetoed anything in NATO»


Source :makfax

Wednesday, May 20, 2009

PANEL DISCUSSION AT YALE REGARDING THE MACEDONIAN ISSUE

By Nina Gatzoulis Supreme President of the Pan-Macedonian Association USA

The special UN mediator, Matthew Nimetz, during the panel discussion that took place on April 14, 2009 at Yale University, expressed the conviction that the new President of USA Barack Obama, according to the public statements he occasionally has made, appears to have a more philhellenic attitude towards the name issue of the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia (FYROM) than former President George Bush. The discussion bared the title: “What’s in a Name: the Macedonian Name Dispute in the Balkans.” He however added that with all the world problems that President Obama faces surely the name issue of the FYROM is not one of his priorities.

Panel participants included Dr. Robert Greenberg, a Linguist of Yale’s department of Slavic Studies, and Dr. Harris Mylonas, Assistant Professor of Political Science and International Relations at George Washington University, while Dr. Keith Darden, Associate Professor of Political Science at Yale, was the coordinator of the discussion. The event was organized by the Yale European Undergraduates.

Mr. Nimetz during his presentation he described his work as UN special mediator and referred to the difficulties encountered during the negotiations. He stated that he understands both sides and recognizes the risk of entanglement, on the one hand he respects the Greek people’s feelings of a threat to their territorial integrity, but on the other hand he understands that the name issue is essential to the government in Skopje and the country’s population. He advised that in such cases there is a need of maturity on behalf of both countries’ political leadership to overcome the obstacles. If the governments do not have the necessary maturity to face such problems then they should consider changing their leadership, most probably referring to Gruevski’s government.

During the discussion, members of the leadership of the Pan-Macedonian Association noted: “more than two generations of citizens in FYROM have learned to hate Hellenism and have been taught that their borders stretch down to Mount Olympus. At the same time, only 62% of FYROM’s population insist on the state’s “Makedonism,” while the Albanians and other minorities in the country are rather indifferent to this issue.” The Pan-Macedonian Association also raised the following question: “Indeed a great effort has been made, at least by the Greek side, to find a compound name that contains the term 'Macedonia'. In the provisional name of Greece’s neighboring state, the word 'Macedonia' already exists. If yet another composite name is found that contains the word ‘Macedonia’ will FYROM stop its irredentist propaganda against Greece?”

Mr. Nimetz suggested that FYROM should stop its propaganda, but the answer did not satisfy most of the Greek origin audience, who pointed out that the real issue is maintaining peace in the Balkans.

Dr. Robert Greenberg highlighted in his presentation the Slavic identity of the 'Macedonians' and stressed that their ‘Makedonism’ began almost one hundred years ago. Dr. Greenberg did not connect the roots of the Slavs to the ancient Macedonians, but argued that largely as a result of Tito’s policies “the 'Macedonian' language, 'Macedonian' consciousness and the 'Macedonian' Orthodox Church were constructed, elements which,” he said, “are necessary for state building. In the case of 'Macedonia' these materials are available, since the Ilinden uprising on 20 July 1903, was a 'Macedonian' revolt against the Ottoman Empire.

A remark by the Pan-Macedonian Association is that the 'Macedonian' language had no alphabet until 1945. The communist dictator Josip Broz Tito commissioned the linguist Blagoj Konev who changed his name to Blaže Koneski, to prepare an alphabet. Konev or Koneski took the Serbian Cyrillic alphabet, amended it and called it the "Macedonian alphabet." The base of this 'Macedonian' language is Bulgarian. Moreover, as a matter of policy and political agenda of successive governments in Skopje, vocabulary from other Slavic languages has been imposed, through education, especially from the Serbian language, in order to create a completely different language than the one used by the population of the FYROM up to 1945.

Dr. Harris Mylonas presented his positions with academic objectivity and sound arguments. Dr. Mylonas, giving a summary of the history of the issue, referred to the Modern Greek History and noted “that even though the Greek revolution against the Ottoman Empire began in 1821, all Greek regions were not incorporated simultaneously [...] The term Macedonia was not used during the Ottoman time, and the area was administratively divided into vilayets [Ottoman administrative units] with various names. Particularly geographical Macedonia was enclosed in parts of the vilayets of Monastiri and Thessaloniki. The city of Skopje however was in the vilayet of Kosovo, of which only a small portion was part of geographical Macedonia.”

Dr. Mylonas, also stated that the “Ilinden uprising in 1903 was an uprising inspired by the Bulgarian policy in the Balkans.” “Geographical Macedonia” continued Dr. Mylonas, “was divided in 1912 and in 1913 by the Treaty of Bucharest. The three players in the division of geographical Macedonia were Greece, Serbia and Bulgaria. Greece incorporated most of this area.” Dr. Mylonas also made brief reference to the successive names of the region of contemporary FYROM, reminding everyone that the area was originally called South Serbia, in 1929 was renamed Vardarska Banovina, while in 1944 Tito named the region the People’s Republic of Macedonia and in 1963 Socialist Republic of Macedonia. Tito, according to Dr. Mylonas, wanted on one hand to leave open the possibility of a future claim on Greek territories and an outlet in the Aegean Sea and on the other hand to limit the Bulgarian influence and undermine Serbian power within his state. Dr. Mylonas also referred to the events during 1990-1991, when the FYROM declared its independence from Yugoslavia and he reviewed the issue of the Interim Agreement between FYROM and Greece under the auspices of the UN concluding with the current developments. He expressed hope that the Prime Minister of the neighboring state will stop his irredentist policy towards Greece and will compromise.

During the question-and-answer period, Dr. Mylonas responded primarily to representatives of the United ‘Macedonian’ Diaspora (U.M.D.), with strong historical evidence.

The Vice-President of the U.M.D., Aleksandar Mitreski, stated that 'Macedonia' has filed a case against Greece at The Hague, because Greece violated the Interim Agreement by vetoing FYROM’s accession to NATO in Bucharest in the spring of 2008. Dr. Mylonas responded by referring to the fact that Greece did not technically veto FYROM’s accession in NATO, but managed to persuade her NATO allies that the neighboring state has not meet all the qualifications for inclusion at the time. Furthermore, the NATO member-states did not use the term ‘veto’ and did not preclude the accession of FYROM in the future. “Additionally” said Dr. Mylonas “the Interim Accord does not only include Article 11 but also Article 6 and 7 which have been violated by the FYROM. A recent example is the letter sent by the Prime Minister of FYROM to the Greek Prime Minister to recognize a “Macedonian” minority in the area of Macedonia, the northern province of Greece, which is a violation of Article 6 paragraph 2 of the Interim Agreement, under which one country cannot intervene in the internal affairs of another country. Moreover, the appropriation of Greek historical symbols by the FYROM as well as other provocations such as renaming the Pan-European corridor in the neighboring country and the renaming of the Skopje Airport into Alexander the Great and irredentist references in school textbooks, etc. are violations of Article 7, paragraph 1 of the Interim Accord.”

A final remark by the Pan-Macedonian Association is the fact that there are other cases similar to the one that Greece currently faces with FYROM. The Agreement of Saint-Germain-en-Laye, which was signed on September 10, 1919, is a similar case. After the First World War, when Austrian-Hungary was dissolved, Austria filed a petition to the League of Nations (later United Nations) to be recognized as “The Republic of German Austria.” The application was rejected because the adjective ‘German’ was used by Germany. Ultimately the country was recognized as Austria. The agreement was imposed on Austria in order to avoid future claims and troubles in the region.

The Pan-Macedonian Association of the US expresses its sincere thanks to the students of the Yale European Undergraduates for their initiative and congratulates Dr. Mylonas for his presentation and responses.

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,

NAMETITLEINSTITUTION

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.



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.



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)

Sunday, May 03, 2009

Krste Petkov Misirkov: The Founder of Pseudomacedonism Demystified

This video presents a collection of statements by Krste Petkov Misirkov (1874-1926), considered among Pseudomacedonians a pioneer of their modern national idea, which reveal his true ethnicity and his true view on Slavs of present-day FYROM.




by Vasko

Thursday, April 30, 2009

The Evolution of FYROM Historiography

The following excerpts are taken from a propaganda booklet published by the self described "Macedonian Acadamy of Sciences and Arts". The book is full of unsubstantiated claims, exaggerations and even falsifications.

The authors do concede a couple of interesting points:

1. The descriptor "Macedonian" took on an ethnic significance only in the 19th century when a certain demographic of the population diverged from a populace that was regarded as BULGARIAN. This statement contradicts the mythical historiography being promoted by the extremist Gruevski administration and the Maknuts lunatics in the diaspora who claim that "Macedonians" have resided in the region, while forming the vast majority, for centuries!

2. The geographic definition of "Macedonia" that the nationalists from FYROM espoused was only established during the 19th century. This is a far cry from the notion that "Macedonia" has existed as they would define it since ancient times.

This is a group of their scholars telling us this. It is important to note how FYROM's historiography has evolved. During the communist era the original doctors of FYROM's historiography were not so bold as to link the Slavic populace of FYROM with ancient Macedonia. Their communist forefathers and the authors of this book, which was published less than 20 years ago, conceded that their population diverged from a population that was regarded as Bulgarian.

Please rub this in their faces at every opportunity. This is their scholar's version of their history from less than 20 years ago. The nutcases of today would call these scholars traitors for making such claims!





Note: This excerpt states that they took on the name "Macedonian" in the 19th century with the implication that their population was UNDIFFERENTIATED from the Bulgarians up until that point:



Note: This excerpt clearly states that their definition of "Macedonia" was only established in the 19th century. Prior to the 19th century, as many of us know, most of the geography of FYROM was not even included in depictions of Macedonia!



My friends, this is their scholars telling us this! This state sponsored book was authored during a period in which the lunatics had not taken power yet.

Make no mistake: the theories in this book are far fetched . Some theories are even based on falsifications. The point is that less than 20 years ago their own scholars were conceding that their population was undifferentiated from the Bulgarians prior to the middle of the 19th century. In reality, no significant population affiliated with their ethnic/national identity until the 20th century.


by Xiotis

Saturday, April 18, 2009

FYROM Travel advise: Don't go to Macedonia and other Greek places

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs of FYROM has advised FYROM citizens to refrain from travelling or stay for longer periods in larger Greek cities.If the journey or stay are necessary, MoFa advises careful behavior, safe parking space if travelling by own vehicle, avoiding city centers and locations used for protests and unrest, as well as avoiding facilities and institutions, which have been the most common targets of violent attacks.MoFA says that Greece has been hit by a wave of internal unrest, violent protests and armed incidents in the past few months, resulting in endangerment to private property and personal safety of many people."

Such incidents, which unfortunately have still not been put under control, occur especially in larger cities (Athens, Thessaloniki etc), demonstrated by attacks with Molotov cocktails at car dealerships and banks, attacks of police patrols and foreign offices, taking over university centers by anarchist groups, bomb threats to churches, as well as protests at main streets and squares that often obtain violent dimensions.

Moreover, dozens of FYROM citizens, especially transporters, have notified competent FYROM authorities in the past few months on problems related to damage to vehicles during their stay or transit in Greece", reads the recommendation.

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs urges FYROM citizens to follow regularly the situation in Greece, as well as contact the Ministry and the country's diplomatic offices in Athens and Thessaloniki (Macedonia).

The Greek foreign ministry spokesman on Wednesday said fYRoM Foreign Minister Antonio Milososki is "obviously confused", when asked about "travel advice" for citizens of the landlocked neighbouring country interested in visiting Greece over during the Orthodox Easter season, advice posted on the fYRoM foreign ministry's website.The foreign ministry in Skopje urged fYRoM citizens to avoid extended stays EU and NATO member-state Greece as well as visits to large urban areas in the country. "

On April 10, Mr. Milososki released a letter toward the (Greek) Foreign Minister [Dora Bakoyannis], in which he requested that we strengthen communication between the two peoples and bilateral tourist cooperation. Five days later, for reasons known only to himself, he deliberately misinforms the citizens of his country and urges them not to visit Greece. Mr. Milososki is obviously confused," Koumoutsakos stated in response to press questions.

"The only serious conclusion that could be drawn from this action was that those governing the neighbouring country had not yet tired of showing their worst selves and had once again damaged relations with Greece," the spokesman added. In a recent announcement, the FYROM foreign ministry warns its citizens to avoid visits to Greece unless this was unavoidable, citing domestic upheavals last December, among others.

It also advised those having to travel to Greece to avoid urban centres and areas where demonstrations might take place and to park their cars in safe places, while claiming that transporters have also had vehicles vandalised.The only verifiable instance of violence directed at tourists occurred in early March 2009 in the lakeside town of Ohrid, in south-western fYRoM, when three tourist coaches carrying Greek tourists had nationalist graffiti written on them, while a handful of local youths also confronted the group of mostly elderly tourists.Athens responded with a verbal protest by its liaison office head in Skopje and issued a travel advisory.

http://www.ana-mpa.gr/anaweb/user/showplain?maindoc=7508521&maindocimg=5313525&service=98

Sunday, April 12, 2009

Antifascist, Anti-VMRO Demonstrations by Liberal Youth in Skoplje [11-IV-2009]

A display of opposition by antifascist youth composed of moderate, centrist, liberal and libertarian intellectuals in defiance of Pseudomacedonian fascist policies of the regime of VMRO-DPMNE.



by Vasko
Словенска Филхеленска Мрежа - Σλαβικό Φιλελληνικό Δίκτυο - Slavic Philhellenic Network

Friday, April 10, 2009

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.

Thursday, April 09, 2009

Bernal's "Black Athena" published in the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia(FYROM)


Anthony Davis, quoted in Lock that” If somebody uses tradition as a way of limiting your choices in away that's as racist as saying you have to sit at the back of the bus.” This quote is suit to Slav Macedonians of the FYROM that adopted Macedonism [1] as ideology and now promote the book of Martin Bernal known as “Black Athena”, a work that contribute the Afrocentrism.[2][3]

Volume 1 from Bernal series has been translated in the Slav Macedonian language and an official presentation take place today in the “Book Affair” at Skopje (FYROM) which will be attended by Slav Macedonians politicians, academics and media personalities and academics. Bernal in his books proposed a radical reinterpretation of the roots of classical civilization, contending that ancient Greek culture derived from Egypt and Phoenicia and that European scholars have been biased against the notion of Egyptian and Phoenician influence on Western Civilization.[4]

In 1990, an issue of the American Journal of Archaeology comprised a number of articles on the book and the questions it raises. The most extended, so far has been the collection of responses and reactions in the book Lefkowitz/Rogers [5]. Several authors and experts in a variety of disciplines, including archaeology and linguistics as well as history and classics, with 20 articles criticize Bernal's views. In the conclusion to the volume, the editors propose an entirely new scholarly framework for understanding the relationship between the cultures of the ancient Near East and Greece and the origins of Western civilization. Also the contributors to this volume argue that Bernal's claims are exaggerated and in many cases unjustified.

Below is a abstract of Von Thomas Shmitz paper with the title “Ex Africa lux? Black Athena and the debate about Afrocentrism in the US” that present the whole history as regards Martin Bernal views and the objections that raised from US academic community. The overwhelming majority of academic responses to Bernal's book, while acknowledging its importance as a catalyst of renewed interest in the questions it raises, pointed out that its main theses were deeply flawed. As Smitz point out what follows is just a selection of the most serious critical objections raised against Black Athena.[6]


— The part of Bernal's arguments that has met with almost unanimous disapproval was his linguistic evidence, especially his Egyptian etymologies for numerous Greek nouns and names. Critics pointed out that his supposed derivations are most often based on nothing but vague resemblances. Even if we admit that (conscious or unconscious) prejudice has led earlier scholars to underestimate the real number of Semitic borrowings and that conclusive proof cannot be attained in the slippery field of etymology, it remains true that Bernal disregards the most elementary rules of linguistic developments. Accordingly, the judgment of trained linguists is harsh: "No effort is made to go beyond the realm of appearances; known and inferable facts about the history of individual forms are systematically ignored, misrepresented, orsuppressed." Bernal's linguistic evidence, which he himself says is a keystone of his argument (Bernal [1987] 62), is thus void.

— Bernal's use of ancient documents, especially of Greek mythological narratives, is deeply flawed. On the one hand, his construction of an "ancient model" of Egyptian colonization and influence in which "the Greeks" are said to have believed, is simplifying to the point of misleading readers unacquainted with the sources. Greek beliefs about the origin of their own culture were various and contradictory, and different authors or groups constructed versions that fit their individual argumentative needs. Bernal's method consists in arbitrarily taking into account only versions that seem to support his thesis and disregarding conflicting ones. This becomes particularly clear in the case of Danaus, whose myth is fundamental to Bernal's argument. Bernal often mentions that "the Greeks" told stories about Danaus's flight from Egypt, his arrival in Argos and his accession to the throne (Bernal [1987] 75-98; 2.137-8, 502-4 and passim). He interprets this myth as preserving memories of a Hyksos colonization of Greece. However, he fails to mention that in these narratives, Danaus is of Greek descent: he is a great-great-grandson of Io, daughter of the Argive king Inachus. In Aeschylus's tragedy The Suppliants, Danaus and his daughters emphasize this Greek origin to support their claim for protection from the king of Argos (274-326, see especially 274-5 "To cut a long story short: we claim to be of Argive extraction"). Bernal's partial summary of the myth is thus deceptive.

— This selective use of ancient documents demonstrates the absurdity of Bernal's polemic against nineteenth-century source criticism, which he often (e.g., Bernal [1987] 118, 377; 2.200, 237, 308, 309) disparages as Besserwissen. Bernal goes so far as to assert that "the cultural, racial and temporal arrogance or Besserwissen of the critical method [.] has been a bane to the writing of history ever since" the early nineteenth century (Bernal [1987] 306). Yet Bernal himself obviously cannot accept the totality of the ancient documents; he has to differentiate between what he deems more or less credible, or, as he would probably say, more orless useful to his argument. He lays strong emphasis on the myth of Danaus, which he interprets as pointing to an Egyptian origin of Greek culture, yet he virtually ignores the myth of Pelops, who was described as coming from Asia minor and would thus symbolize "that Greece was colonized from the northwest corner of the Asiatic seabord." When ancient sources do not fit his argument, Bernal is ready to criticize them in the spirit of Besserwisserei that he usually decries. For instance, the Egyptian historian Manetho is said to have "garbled" and "confused" several pharaohs (Bernal [1991] 196); his account is said to be "internally inconsistent and of only very limited value for this period" (Bernal [1991] 325); the Greek historian Diodorus Siculus is said to have misunderstood Herodotus's account because of its linguistic ambiguity (Bernal [1991] 202)—thus Bernal believes he knows Greek better than a native speaker of the language. Hence, Bernal's critics are indubitably right when they denounce his repudiation of source criticism and historical methodologies as self-contradictory. What his strategy amounts to is a return to the uncritical antiquarianism of earlier historians and a collection of fragments which suit the present purpose while everything else is neglected.

— These flaws are especially prominent in Bernal's treatment of myths as historical sources. In general, he seems entirely convinced that myths can be read as reliable traditions of historical events and social structures, and he is inclined to accept even late sources: e.g., Bernal [1991] 173 a passage in the Greek writer Aelian (second century CE) is said to preserve correct information about a cult of the fourth millennium BCE, an "instructive example of the strength and durability of traditions over this huge expanse of time." When it is more convenient for his argument, however, Bernal dismisses Greek traditions because "the Greeks had no long-term cultural memory" (Bernal [1991] 319). Again, the absence of any historical methodology makes for an ahistorical eclecticism that has only rhetorical value.]

— Bernal's treatment of modern scholarship is as indiscriminate as his use of ancient documents. His sweeping generalizations ignore the discussions, controversies and doubts of historians, philologists, archeologists and philosophers about the origin and originality of Greek culture that had existed at almost every period of European scholarship. Neither was the "Ancient Model" as undisputed before the nineteenth century as Bernal implies, nor did all Europeans after 1800 accept the claims of "racial science" or believe in the inferiority of non-whites. It is certainly true that Bernal's "failure to recognize this variety" is a serious flaw of Black Athena. His own first-hand knowledge of the most important texts of eighteenth- and nineteenth-century European historiography, philosophy and political theory is so meager that his generalizations rest on very shaky ground. Hence, Marchand/Grafton are justified in their harsh judgment about his contribution to the history of scholarship: "Bernal simply has not done enough work to deserve respect or attention as a historian of European thought about the ancient world. The ability to make noise entitles no one to a hearing, and up to now, Bernal has made noise, not historical argument." This is especially true in the field of classical studies. It is simply not true that scholars have been as stubborn in their refusal to acknowledge Oriental influences on Greek culture as Bernal thinks they have been. Suffice it to mention just a few: F. Dornseiff in Germany, W. Burkert in Switzerland and M. L. West in Great Britain have been publishing well-known works about the interrelations between Middle¬and Near-Eastern cultures and Greece for a long time. If these scholars do not see Egypt as a decisive influence on Greece, this is certainly not due to any kind of prejudice, let alone racism, but reflects the evidence of our archeological, historical, and literary documents.

— Lastly, Bernal never states clearly whether his "Aryan Model" is due to a vast, worldwide conspiracy of classicists with the aim of suppressing the truth about the origin of ancient Greek culture or whether earlier scholars were merely influenced by the prejudices and beliefs of their times without actively manipulating the evidence. We will see shortly that Bernal's failure to make this crucial distinction is not coincidental—rather, it amounts to a demagogic manipulation of his readers.
Bernal book was voted one of the worst top 50 books of the 20th century.
Notes
[1]- Macedonism is an attempt by the Slav Macedonians (FYROM and diaspora) to discredit the ancient Macedonians ethnicity, break the connection between present-day Greek Macedonians and the Macedonians of antiquity, and establish a connection between FYROM’s Slavs with ancient Macedonia. The historically, linguistically and archaeologically incorrect challenge is that the historical Macedonia was never part of Greece and the Macedonians were Slavs who spoke a language in comprehensible to the other Greeks and similar to modern Slav Macedonian.
[2]- Symposium by SMK/WMC, 7-9 April 2009, Skopje, FYROM.
[3]- Afrocentrism, is a extreme diffusionist ideology who argue that black Egypt—and sometimes black Africa—was the sole intellec­tual catalyst for the development of most subsequent civilizations, no matter how geographically remote the latter may have been.
[4]- Martin Bernal, Black Athena, The Afroasiatic Roots of Classical Civilization, 4 Volumes.
[5]- Lefkowitz/Rogers, Black Athena Revisited, 1996. Also read the “White Athena” by Walter Slack.
[6]- Bibliography and notes that support these objections located in the paper.

Monday, April 06, 2009

The Cultural Genocide of the Greek Macedonian Identity

The systematic counterfeiting of the history of Macedonia by the Slav Macedonians of the FYROM since 1944 and their attempt to monopolize the "Macedonia" name were considered by the Hellenic people as absurd and unworthy of their attention.

Yugoslav "Macedonia", formed in 1946, consisted of the area previously called "Southern Serbia" or Vardaska Banovina". FYROM's Slav Macedonians began to claim their "Macedonian" ethnicity as a result of the role Tito and communism played in their acquiring a "Macedonian" language, a "Macedonian" nationality, and a "Macedonian" country, ethnic characteristics acquired from 1941 to 1945, an ethnicity built in a remarkably short time. The recycled and indiscriminate usage of the term 'Macedonian' bearing a distinctly non-Greek connotation is liable to hasten the acceptance of the term in the academy, and hence be exploited politically by Slavmacedonian irredentist circles for whom the territories of "Aegean Macedonia" remain unredeemed.[1] The distress and resentment of Greek Macedonians in this regard stems from the fact that this arbitrary nomenclature, which takes into account only the Slav Macedonian nationalist narrative is clearly lopsided and amounts to an unacceptable monopoly of key terms. It is also offensive to 2,5 million Greek Macedonians cultural identity, including the other "ndopioi" such as individuals speaking Vlach- Arvanite- and Slavonic-based idioms residing in the prefectures of Greek Macedonia, who declare resolutely and unambiguously a Greek national identity.

And the question is how you segregate a Greek Macedonian identity with a Slav Macedonian one?

I will begin my analysis with the term "Macedonian" and its meaning: A Macedonian according to several sources [2][3] is a native or inhabitant of the (Ancient or Modern) Macedonian region.

In the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia (FYROM) the noun Macedonians (Makedonci = Makedontsi- in the local Slavic language) identifies, (a) in the legal and civic sense, all citizens of the Republic (including Albanians, Greeks, Roma etc), and (b) in the ethnic/national/cultural sense, a million and a quarter local Slav-speaking population. The Slavic people of this Republic have no connection with the people of ancient Macedonia or their descendants or Cultural Identity. They have Slavic origins — not Greek or ancient Macedonian.

In Greece the noun Macedonians (Μακεδόνες = Makedhones in the Greek language) identifies, in the regional/cultural sense, almost two and a half million ethnic Greeks of the region of Greek Macedonia.

In Bulgaria the same name Macedonians (Makedonci = Makedontsi- in Bulgarian) identifies, in the regional sense, hundreds of thousands of ethnic Bulgarians.

These three variants of the noun ‘Macedonians’ are also in use in diaspora by persons who have emigrated from the three Macedonian regions, namely, Greek Macedonia, FYROM, and the Bulgarian region of Pirin.

To complicate matters further, there is a fourth, historical dimension of the name Macedonians, which refers to the first ‘owners’ of the name, who actually gave their name to the region. They were Greek-speaking people who inhabited roughly the region of present-day Greek Macedonia in classical antiquity identifying themselves as Μακεδόνες (Makedones) in their Greek language.

Peter Mackridge and Eleni Yannakakis define cultural identity as a community's sense of belonging to a group that shares a specific set of values, attitudes and emotions based on a particular view of the local historical past and on a number of assumptions concerning the ethnic and cultural characteristics of the community itself and of the region which it inhabits. [4] Such a cultural identity tends to be constructed partly in opposition to the cultural identities of neighbouring communities or of other communities that share the same space.

Antony D. Smith remarks that there are two main kinds of ethnic extinction in the full sense: genocide and ethnocide, which is sometimes - at times misleadingly — called «cultural genocide». In one sense genocide is a rare and probably modern phenomenon. It includes those cases where we know that mass death of a cultural group was premeditated and the basis of that targeting was exclusively the existence and membership of that cultural group. [5]

The difference over the name ‘Macedonia’, as a state appellation, has been resolved temporarily since 1993 by the adoption of the provisional name ‘the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia’. Nevertheless, there is considerable confusion and ambiguity over the derivatives of that name; more specifically, the noun Macedonians and the adjective Macedonian in their ethnic, regional, cultural, historical and legal (citizenship) variants.

Recent events have shown how strong a sense of Macedonian identity there is among the Greeks, particularly in Greek Macedonia itself, and how vigorously Greeks react to any suspicions of rival claims to what they perceive to be their exclusive historic rights to the territory and the name of Macedonia.

The Macedonian name rooted from the Greek word Makedones, that mean "highlanders" or "the tall ones," related to makednos "long, tall," makros "long, large" [6]. Irredentist leaders are forced to reconcile their nationalist policies with pressures from the international plane. At the same time, irredentist leaders exploit perceived "windows of opportunity" in pursuit of their nationalist goals. So we must examine in depth the past, to understand the present, in order to eliminate possible irredentist projects of tomorrow. Slav Macedonians of the FYROM need to realize that their newly conceived ethnogenetic dogma, extending to classical antiquity, encroaches upon the Hellenic cultural heritage and the identity of their Greek neighbours to the south. As such, it threatens to ignite a clash of identities in the region as a whole.

The use of the Macedonian name as a state appellation in no way confers the right to appropriate everything and anything derived from or pertained to the entire region of Macedonia. This needs to be legally clarified and remain binding erga omnes. The state name needs specifically to refer to and describe the present region of FYROM. It should apply erga omnes in multilateral and bilateral international relations and transactions and should be observed by all organizations, states, and other non-governmental international organizations, including the government and the agencies of FYROM. As Kofos said [7] Greek and FYROM parties should accept the name used by the inhabitants of FYROM for their region of geographical Macedonia, i.e. Vardar Macedonia, or preferably Vardar Makedonija.

It is therefore clear that the appropriation of the name Macedonia by the FYROM, on which they have based all their propaganda and even their national existence, does not even correspond to their own false national identity since their artificially created state does not have any national homogeneity. This appropriation of the Macedonian name goes against every principle of justice and conceals other expediencies which directly insult Greek national and Macedonian Cultural Identities as shows the unchanging nature of their continuous propaganda.

I am a Macedonian, however I am in no way identified with or related to the newly formed independent state referred to as “the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia” ; I am instead insulted by the fact that I cannot be known as a Macedonian without being identified by others as related to FYROM. This is a rape of my identity and a continuing cultural genocide.

My cultural identity has been usurped.
Where is the justice ?

References
[1]-'Aegean Macedonia' is a Slav Macedonian irredentist term used to refer to the region of Macedonia in Greece, in the context of a 'United Macedonia'. The origins of the term seem to be rooted in the 1940s but its modern usage is widely considered ambiguous and irredentist. The term has occasionally appeared on maps circulated in the former Yugolsav Republic of Macedonia (FYROM), which envisioned Greek Macedonia (referred to as "Aegean Macedonia") as part of a "Greater Macedonia", and is regarded as a challenge of of the legitimacy of Greek sovereignity over the area. Further reading in http://modern-macedonian-history.blogspot.com/2007/05/aegean-macedoniaa-nationalist-term.html
[2]-http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/Macedonian
[3]- http://www.thefreedictionary.com/macedonian
[4]- Peter Mackridge and Eleni Yannakakis, Ourselves and Others The Development of a Greek Macedonian Cultural Identity, page 2
[5]-Anthony D. Smith, NationaL Identity, Oxford,1991
[6]- http://www.etymonline.com/
[7]-Evagelos Kofos, ELIAMEP, April 2009, The Current Macedonian Issue between Athens and Skopje:Is there an Option for a Breakthrough?

Sunday, April 05, 2009

The Current Macedonian Issue between Athens and Skopje:Is there an Option for a Breakthrough?

by Dr. Evangelos Kofos
Former Consultant on Balkan Affairs at the Greek Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Athens, and Visiting Fellow, Brasenose College, Oxford University (1995-96); currently Senior Advisor – Balkan Area, ELIAMEP, Athens
ekofos@hotmail.com

Summary

The present paper
  • analyses the 16-year old Balkan diplomatic imbroglio over the name issue of "the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia" (FYROM), from the UN Security Council resolution 817/1993 calling for the resolution of the issue "in the interest of maintaining peaceful and good-neighbourly relations in the region", to the communiqué of the April 2008 Bucharest NATO Summit specifying that FYROM would be admitted to the Alliance "as soon as a mutually acceptable solution to the name issue has been reached";
  • initiates a discourse with the assessments and proposals of a recent report of the International Crisis Group, Macedonia's Name: Breaking the Deadlock;
  • attempts to clarify current Greek positions and concerns vis-à-vis the various proposals on the state name submitted by UN mediator Matthew Nimetz;
  • submits a comprehensive proposal for dealing, in an international environment, with such sensitive issues as those affecting personal, state, regional and cultural identities.
The diplomatic imbroglio

The diplomatic controversy between Athens and Skopje over the appellation "Macedonia" has entered its 18th year. Back in April 1993 the UN Security Council had issued ....

Thursday, April 02, 2009

Twisting the words of Finlay

Nationalists from the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia (F.Y.R.O.M) and her diaspora frequently promote the following excerpt from George Finlay's "A History of the Greek Revolution" published in 1861:

According to G. Finlay in his 'History of the Greek Revolution volume 1 - 1861: "The Albanian population occupies most of ancient Greece. Albanians now occupy all Attica and Megaris, Boetia and Locris. They occupy the whole of Corinthia and Argolis, extending themselves into the northern part of Ardadia and eastern Achaia..."

Their intent on using the above quote is to imply that the Greek ethno/national identity was manufactured in the 19th century in a region that was dominated by Albanians. In other words they use the above quote to support their theory that most Greeks have Albanian ancestors. Anyone who has read Finlay's book surely knows that:

a) Finlay recorded significant Greek populations and

b) Finlay made absolutely no mention of any "Macedonian" ethnicity or nation even though he spent a significant amount of time in the region of "Macedonia". Is it not amusing that the same nationalists who quote from Finlay and present him as a reliable source completely overlook the fact that Finlay did not record any "Macedonians" in the region where nationalists from F.Y.R.O.M claim that"ethnic Macedonians" dominated the demographics for centuries?


Lets examine Finlay's passages in their context. If no significant Greek populations existed in the geographic region of modern Greece why would Finlay describe 6 Ottoman administrative regions, or Pashaliks, where Greeks formed the majority of the population?

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Notice that Finlay, who documented his observations during the early-mid 19th century, made no mention of "Macedonians" in his population descriptions of Turkey's European dominions! Also notice that Finlay states that Greeks formed the majority of the population in the Pashalik of Thessalonica, a region that nationalists from F.Y.R.O.M and her diaspora claim was populated in the majority by "ethnic Macedonians"! As a matter of fact, Finlay is quite explicit in his description of Greeks dominating the population of the Pashalik of Thessalonica:

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Finally, in order to clarify Finlay's position regarding the demographics of Albanians vs Greeks we have the following excerpt:

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Hence Finlay estimated the number of Albanians in the Greek kingdom to be about 200,000. Recall, from the quote above, that Finlay estimated the number of Greeks in the region to be about 1 million!

This surely puts a pitchfork through the far fetched theory being promoted by radical nationalists from F.Y.R.O.M and her diaspora who use Finlay as supporting evdience to claim that:

a) hardly any Greeks existed during the early-mid 19th century and
b) Albanians formed the vast majority of the population in the region and as a result most modern Greeks have Albanian ancestors!

The excerpts from Finlay demolish these theories! To top it all off: George Finlay's first hand accounts made no mention of any "Macedonian" nation or ethnicity! We might as well add Finlay to the vast number of sources that failed to record any "ethnic Macedonians" prior to the 20th century! Of course this is due to the fact that the "Macedonian" ethno/national identity is a late 19th century construct that was not affiliated to by any significant population until the 20th century!

Wednesday, April 01, 2009

Press Release from Macedonian organizations as regards "Blatant FYROM Propaganda on Greek TV"

Press Release of the Macedonian Studies Center and the Pan-Macedonian Association of USA & Canada

Author: Christos Karatzios M.D.
Communication: Nina Gatzoulis: ninagatz@comcast.net

New York-March 26, 2009

RE: Blatant propaganda on Greek TV
Encouraging message by P. Voskopoulos for “Macedonian” minority action in Greece


“Do not fear! Lift your heads high, we can do this very well!”, is the message that the representative of the so-called “Macedonian” minority, Pavlos Voskopoulos, promoted in a sly manner to the inconspicuous participants of the televised program “Atheatos Kosmos”, on March 10, 2009 on the Greek television station ALTER. During the program representatives of the political party “Rainbow”, Greek politicians, historians, and journalists discussed the recent United Nations report by Ms. Gay McDougall, on the “minority” issue in Greece.

In particular, towards the end of the broadcast, Mr. Voskopoulos, openly addressing the supposedly oppressed “Macedonian minority”, which he calls “Makedonski”, said: “Dosta veќe da se plašete, gorno glavata, možno e, mnogu dobro.” When asked to translate into Greek what he had said, he replied falsely: “this is a matter of pride for us.” Mr. Voskopoulos virtually called for an uprising by members of his political faction in Greece.

We welcome the initiative of ALTER channel to address the critical Macedonian issue. However, expressing the historical concerns of the Diaspora, the Macedonian Studies Center and the Pan-Macedonian Associations of U.S. and Canada, we wish to inform the Greek public about certain inaccuracies during the broadcast.

First, the amiable journalist Mr. Hardavelas, referred to Nicodemus Tsarknias of the sectarian and self-called “Macedonian” Church in Aridaia, Greece saying that the building is incomplete, “as if no one wants to see it.” This statement was unfortunate. The Tsarknias church building was not built back then because it lacked sufficient funds for its completion (and virtually no support from the alleged minority that it was allegedly serving!). Mr. Tsarknias is the one who sent an inflammatory letter to the legitimate Bishops of Kastoria, Florina and Thessaloniki, demanding the keys to their churches, because he believes Greece has occupied “Macedonia” since 1912! During the program it was said that people who make frequent visits are from the FYROM and its Diaspora (Toronto and Australia). Where are the “ethnic Macedonians” from Greece? Unfortunately there was no mention about it during the broadcast.

The “deported Aegean Macedonians” declared to the young journalists, who were sent to FYROM to interview them that they have been grouped into an organization that lists 50,000 people! What kind of organization has 50,000 as members and why is this organization not known throughout the world? The repeated question of the journalists: “Do you feel Greek?” prompted them to declare: “No, I am Macedonian”. Then, they claimed that their ancestors were the owners of properties that were left behind when they fled Greece. They proclaim that the Greek government does not permit them entry to Greece after the Greek Civil War.

During the broadcast a member of the Greek Communist Party (KKE) during the 1940s and then a NOF fighter, who took arms against the Greek government during the Greek Civil War, made certain statements. She concluded that the Greek authorities did not allow her to return to Greece! Her statement was interesting in that her only wish is “to come back in Greece,” in order to see the grave of her mother. A few seconds later, negating her own words, she said that she has already visited Edessa and Florina!

The vast majority of NOF “fighters” initially took weapons against Greece and served Bulgarian interests, under the command of Axis Bulgarian army officers, such as Anton Kaltseff. In the summer of 1944, when the Germans were preparing to retreat from Greece, they were transformed from Bulgarians to “Macedonians”, enlisted in SNOF (Slavomacedonian EAM, or Slavomacedonian National Liberation Front), and fought along side ELAS (Greek People’s Liberation Army) hoping to avoid punishment for their treason against Greece during the Axis occupation of Nazi Germany, Italy, and Bulgaria. In October 1944, after they broke away from ELAS, they left Greek territory and went to Yugoslavia, where they joined Tito’s partisans, bearing the name “The Aegean Shock Brigade.” In the summer of 1946 they returned to the mountains of Greece as NOF (Slavomacedonian National Liberation Front) to fight alongside the communist “Democratic Army of Greece” (DSE), and to exploit Greek divisions during the Greek Civil War. In the summer of 1949, some before and others after the final defeat of the DSE again left Greek territory and eventually settled in Skopje and adopted Slavic names. Many among them including the leaders of the KKE (Communist Party of Greece) returned to Greece. Others did not return, or chose to return only on condition that Greece will accept their changed names, recognizing them as “Macedonians.” Still others did not return, or chose to return only on condition that Greece will recognize them as “fighters of the “Macedonian” Iliden Revolution”.

We should all know about the 28,000 Greek children who were sent to Iron Curtain countries by the communists for “education”, the majority of whom are now middle aged and have been taught that they were expelled. Also, we must have in mind the numerous UN resolutions calling for the return of these children from the Communist countries, especially from former Yugoslavia (UN Resolutions 382 (1950), 517 (1952) and 618 (1952)).


Furthermore, in another interview with a representative of the “ethnic Macedonian minority” from the village of Meliti, Greece there was again an unfortunate mention that “the only wish all these people have is to find work” and one father even claimed that he is “forced” to take care of his adult children (one of his children is 31 years old) because they can not find work in Greece, simply because they are “Macedonian”! In an era where many immigrants (legal and illegal) can find jobs and make a living in Greece, this claim is ludicrous.

It is crucial that Greek TV invites historians and politicians who are knowledgeable in this issue, so that they can rebut the historical inaccuracies, distortions and propaganda. It is also important that individuals who know the language spoken in the FYROM, and the Slavonic idiom used in some Greek border areas (the two are different), be present during such broadcasts, so that Greek television does not promote messages against our national interests.

We also understand the progressive and humanitarian ideas of some of the guests. In addition, we, the Macedonians of the Diaspora, want friendly relations with Greece’s neighbour and wish for an equitable solution to the issue. However, friendship and progressiveness cannot be promoted by ignorance and misrepresentation of historical facts, especially at a time when negotiations for the name of Greece’s northern neighbour are ongoing. This is especially true when intolerant and irredentist behaviour of the FYROM against Greece is ever escalating.