HERITAGE HISTORY RELIGION CULTURE

8/12/2019 HERITAGE HISTORY RELIGION CULTURE

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MACEDONIA

HERITAGE, HISTORY, RELIGION AND CULTURE

Macedonian regional integrity as well as territorial and political continuity is very hard to dispute.

Its natural consistency and connectivity thru the Vardar valley, its regional influence as a central and

transit point for trade and commerce as well as maritime access to the sea ports of the Aegean Sea

have always made it the heart of the Balkan Peninsula.

The favourable weather patterns, the naturally rich soil, the water access thru the river and the Sea,

have made it an enormously attractive region for settlement thru the ages.

No other region could boast of such a competitive location, but as well, the country has always been

naturally resourceful and could always offer much to a farmer and shepherd.

Macedonia has always been an extremely attractive region for settlement.

Not only that, its landscape, its stiff hills and tall mountains, the many places very hard to access

and reach, the forests that could equally be as much hospitable as hostile, the extreme weather

patterns that could deliver scorching hot summers and extremely cold icy winters, have made

Macedonia historically a region where many could settle.

The tall mountains have always been highly strategic and a good place to withdraw from the hostile

invader, providing natural protection for the natives.

These isolated an unapproachable parts of the region have contributed to the establishment of self-

sufficient communities, who reinforced their identity by strengthening their own culture.

And many have done exactly that thru history, from the Dorians, who were naturally introvert and

distinct among all other Greeks, the Illyrian tribes who were scattered thru the continental parts of

the region, the Thracians, who were among the first generation of settlers, only form a part of the

First wave of settlement.

This early Macedonians lived in tribal communities run by family Elders; they were very simple and

unsophisticated farmers and workers of the land.

They were pagans and worshipped many Gods, following each their own tribal cults and rituals,

tradition forming among their own clan.

One could hardly talk about society and civilisation back then, as the social model between them

was one of tribal and family orientated character.

Religion was not standardised, and each tribe followed their own cults and worshipped in their own

style, not even holding onto much of a set tradition.

Statehood and consolidation into one political entity came along with the Kingdom of Macedonia.


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Over time as a class structure was developed and hierarchy was established, members of the

aristocracy formed the social elite.

Society was more structured and hierarchy formed along the lines of social and class distinction.

Monarchy was the preferred social and political model to administer the region, which evolved intoa kingdom, in contrast of the mainstream political trends further south where most of the

intellectual and scientific knowledge came from.

The fact that Greece during this entire period was the intellectual and scientific role model is beyond

dispute; however, Hellenization in Macedonia was a gradual process that evolved over time.

Besides, Macedonian politics were dominated with much more important regional issues of

consolidation of statehood and centralisation of power around a single monarch.

These mainstream trends were distinct for each of the two regions.

Macedonia as it united formed a local regional military power, in contrast with the Greek city states

that were enormously independent minded and orientated towards implementation of democracy.

Regional power struggle for domination in Greece left an enormous power vacuum that was easily

exploited by not only the Macedonians, but just as well by the more distant Persians, who developed

a position of intimidating strength by growing as the dominant Asian Empire conquering all along the

way.

It is a fact beyond dispute that despite of enormous Hellenic influence, Macedonia was a political

and regional entity, being distinct in its social and political model.

Macedonia explored another route of regional consolidation and a coalition of local tribes united in

a political alliance thru the institution of royal family.

Power marriages were deliberately forged, and the king himself set the standard and married many

women from all the tribes that participated in the kingdom union.

Phillip II was known to have had many wives, the most famous of them all being the mother of

Alexander, Olympia, and local Illyrian princess.

This example would form the bedrock and it is how the Macedonian identity would be formed.

All these mixed marriages would create a nation distinctly Macedonian, a rich cosmopolitan mix of

all local regional tribes encouraged to mix and assimilate into one unified kingdom.

Macedonia was in fact a confederation of tribes, where more than one language was spoken.

Greece developed a whole different tradition in its own right; however, Hellenization brought the

two neighbouring regions together and closer.

Having said all this, Hellenization and being Greek are two different issues.

Much of the world today is heavily influenced by the American culture, but that does not all make usAmericans.


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Macedonian regional authenticity and integrity remained distinct and original.

This is in no way to suggest that Hellenism was not adopted as a colonial culture export and

dominated Macedonian society, still the differences on regional level always remained distinct.

Regional competition developed early on in the history of the region.

As Philip II conquered entire Greece, it was their culture that overwhelmingly spread far and wide

thru the entire known world.

We observed just earlier the natural hostility of the region as well as its inaccessibility, creating a

contradictory situation.

In times of peace and prosperity, when the people lived together side by side and were encouraged

to mix and integrate, the regional borders were easily crossed from one end to another allowing the

many various tribes to create a thriving and vibrant society.

However, when intolerance and war prevailed, and superstition, discrimination and prejudice filled

the air, the natives took advantage of the natural hostility of the region to remain distinctly isolated

and excluded from one other.

This has always been the dual nature of Macedonia, naturally hostile to outsiders and mesmerizingly

attractive and invigorating to its natives, a jewel in the Balkan crown.

Over time, distinct patterns in periodic history would emerge and develop in the region, making it

pre-emptive and predictable to anticipate future developments.

Having always been enormously proud of its own independence and sovereignty, Macedonia has

been a world conqueror, but it has just as well been conquered and occupied over time and again.

Each and every major European power has been present in the region at some point and has left its

cultural and imperial impact on the rich national heritage.

All these are a part of the distinct collective national treasure and experience.

Every empire will create its own distinct period, and would in turn create a movement of people and

mass migration to and from the land.

The arrival of the Romans and their rise to power swallowed up the eroded Macedonian mainland,as after the death of Alexander and his sudden departure without leaving a competent heir to

inherit the empire created such power vacuum that was easily filled by dividing it among his generals

who obtained regional control and most of the time fought a war against each other regarding land

and border disputes, as well as regional domination.

The first Jewish communities in Macedonia arrived during this time, adding to the rich tapestry of

ethnicities, and contributing to the cosmopolitan mix, adding further to the Macedonian Melting

Pot.

Following imperial growth, the Jews scattered around the Mediterranean and established a thrivingdiaspora of merchants and traders predominantly involved in the movement and shipping of goods.


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Much has been speculated about the extent of assimilation and the level of interaction between the

natives and the new arriving tribes, however, theres absolutely no evidence of expulsion or perhaps

wars of extermination and ethnic cleansing.

Whatever happened was peaceful and spontaneous and contributed to the cosmopolitan mix of the

land.

With time the Slavs would become the second big element in Macedonia besides Orthodox

Christianity, and when they finally merge would contribute more to the cultural and religious

identity than any other confession or ethnicity, creating distinct Slav Macedonian Heritage.

Byzantine influence in Macedonia would spread thru conquest and war, but just as well thru the

Church, that at least in the Empire was becoming increasingly Greek and the main promoter of

Greek nationalism.

This role of the Greek Orthodox Church would dominate regional politics, and would influence much

of the events for centuries.

Greek nationalism would evolve and form very early on in European History, much earlier even than

the one that would spread thru Western Europe.

Most of the regional struggles in Macedonia would be a result to curb and eradicate infiltration and

penetration of the Greek Orthodox Church.

Contrary to popular belief, Christianity was the main cause in Europe of Xenophobia, intolerance,

superstition and prejudice for centuries, particularly among the Catholic world.

Prosecution and expulsions were the natural way to deal with minorities particularly against the

Jews.

Segregation and the most awful discrimination and inferior subject status were all prophesised by

the Catholic Church including the Inquisition and the Crusades.

Much to everyones surprise its the arrival of the Ottomans that would provide relief for the

prosecuted Jews and minorities of Europe.

The Ottoman expansion into the Balkans would in turn provide the third big wave of settlement and

migrations into Macedonia with the arrival of the Sephardic Jews from Spain.

However it has always been a traditional tendency in Macedonia to extend hospitality and to

provide freedom of warship for the new comers instead of insisting on assimilating the arrived into

the existing population.

Mixing has always been encouraged but not at the expense of ones roots and heritage as well as a

compromise between ones old and new identity.

Despite of all the contemporary criticism, the Millet system that was introduced to administer and

manage the various communities across the Ottoman Empire was revolutionary in many ways,

particularly given the fact that the only offered alternative available to remain to live in Western

Europe was to be totally assimilated and converted.


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Having said this, event those who made severe decisions to convert were a subject of prosecution,

hence the establishment of the Spanish Inquisition.

I will not go any further into Catholic Middle Age Xenophobia and paranoia, but some of the biggest

crimes against humanity and abuse of human rights were done in the name of the Pope in Rome.

Aldo the second class subject status was formally established; the Millet system offered whole

religious autonomy and right to warship, religious observance was never an issue of prosecution in

itself, and each Millet had its own right to administer itself with a great degree of autonomy,

extended to the right to educate its constituents in their own language.

On the other hand, Western Europe back at the same time saw the introduction of the Ghetto, the

prosecution of many Renaissance scientists for trying to break away from religious superstition on

more obvious issues of neglect and ignorance towards their subjects to keep them in place.

Anyway, for much of the period Muslim Spain provided edge and pushed the scientific envelope and

was the heart of science and education providing a blueprint for the Italian renaissance.

Toledo and Cordoba were the European cultural and University centres, and to one of the greatest

blunders in European history, much of this intellectual wisdom and superior knowledge was

transferred to Ottoman Macedonia and the then already fallen Constantinople, that became

Istanbul.

Given that much of the intelligentsia in Spain was Jewish as well as Arabic, the intellectual heart of

Spain was expelled and shifted in one of the most controversial exchanges of brain power in known

history, being done purely out of religious indoctrination.

Such deliberate and nave loss of intellectual power base, to an almost nave extent has not been

known to have happened elsewhere.

This giveaway of scientists would much improve the Ottoman position and would increase its

competitive advantage against all other contenders for the Mediterranean and Eastern Europe.

Of course, the financial advantages as well as the contribution to the Ottoman economy by the

arrival of the Sephardim make their expulsion even more detrimental from Spain.

This would greatly improve the overall balance of power; it would create a greater cash flow and

much better money supply in the Ottoman Empire and it would harden the colonial grip on Eastern

Europe.

The Sephardim would in time re-establish in Macedonia, mostly in the city of Salonika, which would

become known as the Jerusalem of the Balkans.

Speaking three different languages on average, they will form once again the intellectual core and

would easily integrate among the Ottoman Elite, becoming or resuming their old businesses

enterprises.

The arrival of the Jews in Salonika would greatly improve its financial position in the Empire.


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The city would experience a substantial population growth, not only credited to the Sephardim, but

as well as a result of the improved opportunities for trade and commerce.

Salonika would become the biggest Ottoman maritime port and would engage in shipping and

shipbuilding.

Its character and appearance would be a true reflection of the many ethnicities and confessions that

have found a place in it.

Sephardic Jews, Bulgarians from a variety of social backgrounds whod dominate the hinterland as

well as Serbs, Montenegrins, Vlachs, Turks, Armenians, and many more people from both the

Ottoman as well as the Balkan lands would mix freely in the larger society, working together for the

common good of all.

Ottoman Macedonia could offer many incentives and basic freedoms opposed in West Europe for

the most part.

Criticism of the Millet system is only approved from the perspective of contemporary world affairs,

as well as some kind of retrospective opinion, but fact of the matter is, after the Holocaust, one

could hardly argue that things were better anywhere in Europe.

Of course, the Ottomans participated in their own colonial endeavours of ethnic cleansing and mass

prosecutions.

The Armenian genocide is a milestone of inhumanity and unfortunately tells much about our animal

nature despite of several millennia of civilisation.

Having said this; it is the events in Macedonia that would determine the future Ottoman foreign

policy as well as their overall course in inter-ethnic relations.

Much of the contemporary political Map in Macedonia and the Balkans would be drawn up between

the end of the 19th

and the beginning of the 20th

century.

Ottoman decline is a totally separate subject matter, however, imperial withdrawal generally always

leaves huge power vacuum, open to opportune manoeuvring.

The great powers obsessed to preserve the fragile balance of power made all the wrong decisions,

besides the only people who were not consulted were the natives and the people who lived therethemselves.

The partition of Macedonia is the greatest blunder that happened as consequence of the departure

of the Ottomans and it never achieved its objective, it only added to more human suffering, war and

displacement of people.

The Aegean part of Macedonia had for centuries been populated with Vlachs, Bulgarians, and Turks,

as well as a substantial amount of Sephardic Jews who lived for the most part in Salonika, as well as

all the other denominations and confessions of the Ottoman Empire and the Balkans.


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Until the partition Greeks have only been a small minority equalling those of the Macedonian born

Turks, scattered mostly around the big towns and Salonika, but hardly any of them lived in the

countryside.

One can only focus on the fluctuations between ethnicities in Salonika to get an idea of the

deliberate and state sponsored campaigns to change the social structure in Macedonia, particularly

after it had been divided among superficial and totally artificial lines.

Not one single border reflected and took into account the historic and traditional integrity of the

region, let alone the fact that it would only lead to more war and displacement followed by ethnic

cleansing and exiles.

For Greece this was only a colonial expansion into a land they could hardly make any heritage claims

to, given that it would concern not recent but historic claims from Antiquity.

It is a fact beyond any dispute that an overwhelming majority of the Aegean countryside had for

more than a millennia and a half been predominantly Bulgarian, with every other ethnicity, from

Vlachs to Serbs and to Spanish Jews living for centuries all established in their own communities and

in the social life of the country.

The historic consistency and continuum of Greek presence are only forged; even the Greeks who

replaced the expelled population had been from Anatolia having no historic connection to

Macedonia at all.

Unfortunately, official mainstream world history provides a view that has been deliberately

fabricated to insinuate a claim to a land in the same way the Jews made their argument to the right

of return to Palestine.

It is appalling that people like me have to be branded revisionists to get any attention and an

opportunity to be heard, concerning the only truth that has been side lined and marginalised to such

aggressive Greek propaganda, with abuse of their world lobby and diaspora as well as their

connections in the EU.

The Macedonian Exodus is no less appalling than what happened to the Armenians or the

Palestinians.

The biggest irony of all is the denial of the Greek government the right of the Macedonians to their

self-determination and the use of the name, on a false pretence of identity theft.

Stereotype patterns of colonial style land confiscation to later deny it to its own inhabitants, has

repeated thru history, in fact Ben Gurion and Herzl as well as the other Zionists leaders of the

movement were heavily influenced by the developments in Macedonia.

Aegean Macedonia was a gift of territory out of fear for the Slav regional expansion.

At the same time, a German noble blood line of aristocrats infiltrated into the Greek Royal family,

influencing the newly established kingdom in the Balkans thru its Monarchy.


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What better other way is there than to penetrate the highest levels of society thru a power marriage

into the family that rules the country?

As the process of Hellenization took place to reinvent the Greek history in order to create

consistency of land ownership and Greek right to a claim, the German royal family indoctrinated the

elite with Arian philosophy of Ubermensch ideology and the Superior Race fascist doctrine that

would dominate German politics for time to come.

And it was mutual, the cultural exchange working both ways to forge history to a noble past and just

as well to give the Germans the most obnoxious continuum and connection between Germany and

Classical Greece from Antiquity.

Both campaigns being public relations success, they both succeeded to create history, not with facts

but by aggressive marketing.

This is the only way to explain the horrendous influence on German art and architecture from the

period from distant Classical Greece.

In Greece it was even easier to forge history to reinvent two thousand years of national history, and

deny its own rich byzantine and Ottoman Heritage to produce a distinct and strict national heritage

based on antiquity.

Hellenization even marginalized the power of the Orthodox Church in Greece.

As far as the relentless effort to assimilate all the other ethnicities within the borders of Greece and

how Greece from one of the most cosmopolitan regions on Earth became ethnically clean, we

dedicate a whole new essay.

The creation of a one nation Greek state was a gradual process of ethnic cleansing and assimilation,

state sponsored expulsions and prosecution enforced thru an official policy implemented thru their

institutions that would see massive removal and displacement of people from whole regions, and

would span over several decades.

For those who made the hard decision to stay on and resume living in the newly emerged Kingdom

of Greece, total assimilation was the only available option left.

Never mind that, the Greeks were a small minority as big as the native Greek born Turks who have

lived in the region since it has been integrated into the Ottoman Empire.

The lowest and most underestimated figures state that 650.000 ethnic Bulgarians were forcefully

removed from Aegean Macedonia and displaced from their homes, property and personal assets.

Just as the Palestinians, no right of return applies to them, despite of the fact that some of them still

have the keys to their own houses they were removed from; however, it is the Greeks who settled

into their homes from Anatolia who claim consistency and continuity of land ownership and

presence in the land.


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These arguments have been presented in the long standing Name dispute, but as far as the EU is

concerned for the hypocrisy to only grow bigger, it is the Republic of Macedonia that has to make

further concessions.

Despite of all the compromises offered, the Greeks would never resume negotiations, their

acquisition of Aegean Macedonia has always been an occupying colonial effort and the country has

been stolen in the same way Palestine was from the Zionists.

The Greeks will never recognise the assimilation of the Arnaut Orthodox Albanians into their

population by force, the massacre at Kukus, the hundreds and hundreds of schools burned to the

ground, the removal by genocide and mass murder of all the ethnic Turks who have been a part of

the rich Ottoman heritage of the region, the denial of no other but ethnic Orthodox Greeks to be the

only part of the population even today, the destruction of churches and synagogues, and so on

Revisionists are poring over misinterpreted documents to revive a part of European history that was

totally counterfeited to swipe the facts under the carpet, in order to recognise the true extent towhich human rights were abused and to get credit for all the crimes against humanity.

Today finally, revisionists question the real cause for the great Fire of Salonika from 1917, as it was

surgically accurate in its deliberate destruction of the Jewish district, and it coincided with the same

being done in Smyrna after the withdrawal of the Greeks from the town.

Despite of popular thinking that Venizelos and Ataturk were ingenious in their negotiations and

saved many lives with the population swap agreement, they both indoctrinated two traditionally

cosmopolitan regions with extreme nationalism and enforced the creation of two separate ethnically

clean nation states.

We must be very cautious when we criticise the Ottoman system of government in retrospect,

however, we must just as well bear in mind that those were the days of imperial rule, forced labour,

legal slavery as well as slave trade, and the reminder of Europe was filled with ghettos, the Russian

Empire was starved under a totalitarian autocrat who encouraged pogrom against minorities, and

despite of all shortcomings the overall situation for minorities of other confession and ethnicities

was much better under Turkish rule.

Fact of the matter is Britain did not do any better at all at the time, it was an Empire ravaged with

extreme social injustice, and a minority white elite ruled by fear and force.

As far as for Ataturks status in modern Turkey, I hope that the overall level of education would

improve over time for the nation to become more informed of the real extent of the damage done

to Anatolia with the arrival of the Young Turks as well as their xenophobic ethnic cleansing and

genocides committed against the Armenians, as well as all other minorities.

Today we live in a time with a totally distorted view of what really happened a hundred years ago,

not only because of the fact that history is very interpretative but just as well because whole

countries forged their national past to avoid responsibility of past crimes against humanity.

I must reiterate that the only country in the region that is truly transparent of its past cosmopolitan

and multi-ethnic character is the Republic of Macedonia.


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To put it in a blunt and very shallow way, Aegean Macedonia is as much Greek as Anatolia is Turkish,

both of them being a political product of superficial human engineering to reinvent the traditional

social fabric of inherently two cosmopolitan regions.

Contemporary view of modern mainstream history is nothing more than an opportune way to

describe that countries and entire regions are traditionally occupied by a single nation, in other

words an explanation for the superficial borders that established even more totally artificial states.

For Aegean Macedonia to be true to its real multi-ethnic heritage and this rich tapestry of faith, and

many nations that lived there for centuries, it would have to be no less cosmopolitan than the

Republic of Macedonia, that today is a home of an established Turkish and Vlach, Albanian and

Jewish, Serb, Bulgarian and Bosnian communities, who have all been there consistently thru time.


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HERITAGE HISTORY RELIGION CULTURE

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