The Macedonian Digest“From the readers for the readers”

Edition 62 – February 2011

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Editor’s Notes AMHRC Census Campaign 2011 – Australia Only!

As with Australia's two previous censuses, the Australian Macedonian Human Rights Committee (AMHRC) has prepared instructional leaflets in both English and Macedonian, for the benefit of the Macedonian community. We request that all Macedonian media outlets and Macedonian organizations reproduce and distribute this leaflet at regular intervals, right up to the census date in August.

Click the following links to download the leaflet:

English version (PDF - 256KB)

Macedonian version (PDF - 3.5MB)

About the AMHRCEstablished in 1984, the Australian Macedonian Human Rights Committee (AMHRC) is a non governmental organization that informs and advocates to governments, international institutions and broader communities about combating discrimination and promoting basic human rights. Our aspiration is to ensure that Macedonian communities and other excluded groups throughout the world are recognized, respected and afforded equitable treatment. For more information please visit www.macedonianhr.org.au, or contact AMHRC at info@macedonianhr.org.au or via +61 3 9329 8960.

Our Name is Macedonia

www.mhrmi.org/our_name_is_macedonia

Feature Stories

Greeks Debate about Macedonia dispute, hope the country Ceases to Existhttp://macedoniaonline.eu/content/view/17367/46/

Greece and Macedonia are both buying time and avoid any sort of solution. Athens hopes Macedonia would cease to exist, while Skopje is expecting recognition only under its constitutional name - say Greek experts.

- Andreas Papandreou with the Interim Agreement and all steps taken during the Karamanlis and even the present Government, in reality are steps to buy time. Our neighbor to the north, we believe, we hope, naturally, that at some point will cease to exist - says Petros Tatsopoulos, a writer.

"When Macedonia in the 90's agreed to a complicated name, the Greek side was against it, now when Athens is with a changed and softer stance, the other side led by nationalist Gruevski doesn't accept it", this was the consensus of the sides involved in the Athens debate.

Gligorov agreed to "New Macedonia", claimed Greek professor Tanos Veremis, "we agreed, let’s close

the problem, but of course one day we received that fatal phone call. Not to ignite the flames, I won't tell you who was on the phone, well, I will tell you today he is a leader of a major party... Samaras!

Greek analysts, writers and professors involved in the debate did not deviate at all from the well known stance by official Athens , however, the audience at the debate did not share the same opinions…

"Today 130 or 140 countries and counting have recognized our neighbor as Macedonia . It's only a matter of time when we say "Well, we are forced to accept Macedonia " said one audience member.

- I only want to say we are wrong...- No, I won't explain anything to you, you should already know this...- We'll never recognize them...- Lower your voice lady, you don't scare me...

These were some of the things overheard among audience members as the debate got heated.

Surprisingly, the microphone ended up in the hands of an ethnic Macedonian from Lerin who was allowed to speak.

- All of my childhood, we were forbidden to say that we're Macedonians. I had a very tough time growing up because I didn't speak Greek, only Macedonian. I knew my language as Macedonian, but was told that was wrong, never got an explanation what was wrong about it? The word Macedonian was strictly forbidden in Greece , and just few years ago, all of Greece adopted the word as its own?!!!

The Macedonian question - the good the bad and the ugly, was part of the debate where the Athens debate had to decide which is which.

- The Balkans has a tendency that one is good, and that's usually us, the others are bad and the rest are boring. In our case, the ugly can be Nimetz, the mediator in this dispute - says Elina Makri, a coordinator of Athens CafeBabel.

The debate was organized by CafeBabel in Athens , with the hope of educating Europe 's youth about the dispute with Macedonia . The debate will be translated into numerous languages and sent to all Cafebabel members.

Not another BIG Greek Lie? THE FOLLOWING ARTICLE IS IMPORTANT FOR ALL MACEDONIANS TO READ, ESPECIALLY FOR THE MACEDONIAN REFUGEE CHILDREN AND THOSE WHO ACCOMPANIED THEM AND WITNESSED THIS “TRAGIC EVENT” FIRST HAND. IT IS IMPORTANT TO READ IN ORDER TO UNDERSTAND THE GREEK MENTALITY AND GREEK HYPOCRICY AND HOW FAR THESE GREEKS WILL GO TO TORMENT INNOCENT MACEDONIANS WITH THEIR POISONOUS LIES AND DECEIT! ARE THEY TALKING ABOUT THE SAME 28,000 MACEDONIAN REFUGEE CHILDREN HERE, WHO GREECE EXILED FROM 1948 TO THIS DAY AND WILL NOT ALLOW TO RETURN, NOT EVEN FOR A VISIT? YES THEY ARE!

THIS IS YET ONE MORE PIECE OF EVIDENCE THAT BELONGS IN “THE LITTLE BOOK OF BIG GREEK LIES” FOR THE WORLD TO SEE! FOR SHAME! Risto…

From the article “Innocent’s Day” by Time Magazine on January 9, 1950http://www.time.com/time/magazine/ar...1653-1,00.html

Peace had come to battered, impoverished Greece ; the Communist guerrillas had been driven out, perhaps for good. But last week, on Innocents’ Day (the Church calendar’s anniversary of Herod’s Slaughter of the Innocents in Judea ), Greece had a day of mourning—for 28,000 children abducted by the bandits and now living on foreign, Communist soil.

A two-gun salute from Mount Lycabettus woke Athenians at dawn. Church bells tolled and flags drooped at half-mast. Newspapers appeared with black-framed front pages. Places of amusement were closed all day, and for half an hour all traffic stopped, streets emptied, doors were closed and blinds drawn.

Queens Do Not Beg. Earnest young Queen Frederika, mother of three, broadcast a poignant message from the royal palace. She begged for the return of the 28,000 children living in exile “as a mother—because queens are not supposed to beg.” Added Frederika: “The civilized world has remained silent too long.”

The civilized world had made some well-meaning but ineffective protests. UNSCOB (the U.N.’s Special Committee on the Balkans) had verified the mass deportation of Greek children. The U.N. General Assembly had called on Yugoslavia , Bulgaria , Poland , Czechoslovakia , Hungary , and Rumania for the return of the children. These governments had finally agreed to return any children called for by petition of their parents. Up to last week the Greek Red Cross had forwarded 8,000 petitions, but not one child had been sent back.

Not Even Goodbye. In the palace with Frederika was a group of black-clad peasant women huddled at her side. Kaliroe Gouloumi, from Gorgopotamos, in Epirus , remembered how the Communists took her children: “They were in our village for a year. First they took our animals, then our food, then our children. I had three.” Kaliroe wiped her eyes with her black shawl. “They did not even let me say goodbye. They said they were no longer my children but their children.”

Said Kleoniki Kiprou from Monopilo Kastoria: “First they hanged the priest, then they cut off his mother’s hands, and then they ordered us to follow them. What could we do?” In Albania her eight-year-old girl and five-year-old boy were taken from her and a rifle was thrust into her hands. Tapping the weapon, the rebel capetdnias said: “This is your husband, this is your child.” Kleoniki was forced into the battle of Vitsi. She deserted and got back to her village—without her children. In Fourka Konitsa, the villagers learned in advance of the guerrillas’ abduction plans. They hid the children in ditches. The guerrillas, frustrated, took Sofia Makri and 20 other mothers to the mountains and tortured them. Said Sofia last week: “They hung us from pine trees. They burned our feet with coals. They beat us. When we fainted they revived us with cold water from the spring. Fourteen of us died up there but

we did not tell. When the Greek army entered our village they found the dead living, for out of the earth came our children.”

There is no evidence that the Greek children living in Communist countries are physically abused. International Red Cross investigators have seen some of the children and reported that they are well fed. They are being schooled as young Communists and they are expected to feel and show enthusiasm. Said a U.N. delegate in despair: “In ten years there will be NO abducted Greek children; they will have been absorbed.”

EXCERPT FROM: I FONI TIS IRINIS (THE VOICE OF IRENE)

I Martyria tis Irinis Damopoulou apo to Paidomazoma (The Testimony of Irene Damopoulou from the Child-gathering)

By Ioannis BougasErodios Publishing House

Thessaloniki , 2006

Part II (Chapter 19), pages 124 – 127

The KKE (Communist Party of Greece) Constructs SlavomacedoniansIt was decided by KKE officials in our community in Florika [ Romania ] to divide the inmates of the base into Greeks and Slavomacedonians. This division into Greeks and Slavomacedonians started in school. The primary person responsible for the classification of children into one or the other group was the teacher Kostas Triantafyllides from Kalohori, Kastoria [ Greece ]. Although he had studied to become a teacher in Greece , he had become a fanatical communist, Slavomacedonian, and a persecutor of Greeks. He had personally thrown my brother Ilia and me out of the Greek school [in Florika]. He told us that we were Slavomacedonians and not Greek because we were from St. Demetrios [ Greece ], which according to him was a village solely of Slavomacedonians.

Since my brother and I refused to declare that we were Slavomacedonians and refused to take courses in Slavomacedonci, we were also thrown out of the Romanian school for three days. Our dismissal from school above all created a problem of survival as we had no more right to food from the school mess hall. When my mother complained to the community leaders because we were not given food, she was told that there was nothing that they could do and that we should think of the consequences of our denial to identify as Slavomacedonians.

Then my mother went to the school to complain. She found one of the teachers, a man named Mr. Nikos from Kilkis [ Greece ]. Unfortunately, I cannot remember his family name.

“Comrade Niko, why have you thrown my children out of school?” she asked.

“Because you are Slavomacedonians from St. Demetrios!” he answered. “Your children need to change schools and attend the Slavomacedonian school.”

My mother retorted, “Comrade Niko, you are making a big mistake! My children and me are Greeks! We are descendants of Alexander the Great! We have nothing to do with Slavomacedonians. Just because we lived in St. Demetrios, doesn’t mean that we are Slavomacedonians! My father was a Greek priest and fought against the [Bulgarian] komitadjis so that Macedonia could remain Greek. I

heard that you, comrade, originate from Pontus [ Asia Minor ]. With your logic, you should be Turkish then!”

My mother’s fervent complaints had a positive effect, I suppose. My brother and I returned to the Romanian school and continued to take Greek and not Slavomacedonian classes.

The Greek communists on the Florika base also tried to divide the adults into Greeks and Slavomacedonians. They created a committee of communist members that visited the inhabitants of the base one by one so that they can classify them into one or the other group. It was evident however that for many people, the committee members had already decided the result before the visits. Perhaps these visits were a means to inform the inhabitants of their classification, or a means to convince them of it.

Many inhabitants were greatly shocked when they learned that from one day to the next they had become Slavomacedonians. Some actually dared to complain. Others on the other hand accepted the committee’s decision without a word. This should not come as a surprise to anyone today as we lived under such oppressive conditions that all decisions depended on the communist leadership of the community.

When the committee members came to our room to classify my mother, she was naturally informed that she was Slavomacedonian. My mother however, did not accept this. My brother and I cried and pleaded with her to accept so as to avoid seeming oppositional because we were afraid that the community leaders would take her away from us into exile again. My mother however did not hold back her tongue and did not display any fear as she harshly criticized the Greek Communist Party’s plan.

“Comrade Elpida, I had heard of you but I never imagined that you would be so difficult,” said one of the committee members who had visited our room that evening.

After visiting our family, the members went to see an old lady who lived in the next room. Like us, she was from Macedonia [ Greece ] and had also been brought as a hostage by the KKE to Romania . Unlike us though, she had originally been a refugee from Asia Minor but had immigrated to Greece after the Asian Minor [Ottoman Turkish ethnic cleansing] Catastrophe. My brother and I were listening behind her door:

“How should we classify you granny? Greek or Slavomacedonian?” they asked.

“Greek! How else, my children? I am from Asia Minor , poor old me! What business do I have with Slavomacedonians?” she replied.

The Olympian false Gods

By Samson Stanislavsky, Phd Greeks of today and their paid “Hellenistic” supporters and French creators of “Hellenism” insist that Macedonians and Greeks are one and the same race and ethnos, because they worshiped the same Gods and spoke the same language. This view is nowhere near the truth.

First of all, all the Olympic Gods were Egyptian deities imported to Athens by merchants. The ancients only changed their names from Egyptian to Athenian. Macedonians did not worship any of the Olympic gods; actually they did not worship any gods.We have to look at none other than Aristotle himself, the greatest philosopher ever to live on this planet. Aristotle expressed doubts on the value to worship those immoral notions living on the mountain Olympus and ridiculed them. For his disrespect he was sentenced to death by the Athenian elders for insulting their false religion. Aristotle, the Macedonian philosopher and teacher of Alexander the Great, escaped his execution by fleeing Athens and returning to his native Macedonian city Staggira. In this instance he made his famous statement about the Athenians and their criminal behaviour.“I don’t want to give opportunity to the Athenians to commit a third crime against philosophy” he uttered.First they poisoned Socrates the Athenian philosopher for telling them the truth. Socrates was famous for saying: “Man know thyself”.The second crime against philosophy by the Athenians was the condemnation of Protagoras, the Macedonian philosopher from Abdera for expressing doubts about the morality of the Olympian gods. He was condemned to death but fled in his boat and died in the sea during a storm.Aristotle also fled but died of natural causes at age 62. Now here is what Protagoras had to say about the Olympian gods, according to the book: “The Greek Philosophers, from Thales to Aristotle”, by W.K.C. Guthrie; Doubts have been cast upon the Olympian deities of the Greek polis, however, long before the time of Alexander the Great. In the world of fifth-century Greece , philosophers and playwrights already questioned the virtues and implicitly, the existence of gods and goddesses who were portrayed, with anthropomorphic vividness, as lustful, jealous, malevolent immortals. The cities demanded to know how one could worship a god like Zeus who according to Greek myths, dethroned his titanic father Kronos, pursued and ravished, often while in bestial disguise, many a beautiful woman, and resorted to countless stratagems in order to evade his suspicious wife Hera. Such behaviour on the part of the Olympians raised serious theological doubts in the minds of the more reflective people. Amongst the philosophers and professional thinkers of the fifth century BC, a number of free thinkers offered rationalistic interpretations of religion and the gods to explain the existence and nature of the tarnished Olympians. Some philosophers, like Protagoras of Abdera embraced agnosticism. In his work On Gods, Peri Theon, Protagoras declares that he is unable to say whether the gods actually exist, and if they do, of what sort they might be. For this statement the Athenians brought him to trial and condemned him to death. While Protagoras escaped the Athenians, he could not evade the power of mighty Poseidon, and died in a ship wreck.

Ioannis Kapodistria (1776 -183l)Background and early career

Ioannis Kapodistrias was born in Corfu , then the property of Venice , and studied in Padua , Italy .

An ancestor of his was made conte, Count, by Charles Emanuel II, Duke of Savoy, the title originated: CAPODISTRIA, from a city of the Eastern shore of the golf of Venice , now Koper in Slovenia . So, all the Capodistrias were Italian born and educated citizens who went to Russia studied there and one of them became minister for foreign affairs, later Prime Minister of Greko-Rumely in the Peloponnesus . This type of distinguished scholars and western diplomats were attached to the Ottoman Empire to strengthen its stand in Europe . They were settled in the “Phanar” (Light house) district in Istanbul and became known as Phanariots. After the unsuccessful invasion of the Balkans by Austrian-Polish Christian armies, in 1688, all the native leaders were declared undesirable persons, servants of the Russo-Austrian empires. The Phanariots, distinguished diplomats of various Balkan ethnicities, armed with a new artificial Greek language were installed as Turkish governors in former vassal to the Sultan Christian provinces. Supported by the Turkish army the Phanariots became tax collectors for the Sultan executing Turkish law in Macedonia, Bulgaria, Romania, Georgia in the Caucasus, Armenia, Crimea, Syria, Lebanon, Egypt and others. Local ethnic teachers throughout the Empire were expelled and imprisoned as anti-Turkish elements and replaced with Phanariot teachers and priests who became the new “Quisling”class in the Ottoman Empire . Then in the early part of the 19th century when uprisings began to flare up in the Balkans, the Phanariots began to change sides and tried to take control of the new movement. Helped by France and Britain , they executed the leaders who disobeyed their orders among whom were Tudor Vladimirescu, Karagiorgevich, Hristo Botev and Vasil Letsski. The uprisings unfortunately failed, but the West kept pushing but instead of fighting to form a Balkan free Christian confederation, the West redirected the struggle towards forming a new modern Greek state. Submitted by Manoli

Opinions It is fashionable today for academicians and plebeians to speak of Greek “civilization” as if it was some monolithic expression of a monolithic state (country) Greece . But whether this is so and whether this could be established, is a matter altogether different—but what it does do is give us some pause of thought.

In examining these matters, we must first throw off the yoke of Western scholarship, Western bias, and Western humdrum oration. Let us take apart, piece by piece, the mythos surrounding the nonexistent ancient state of “ Greece ,” and let us reveal the truth of these matters.

So notwithstanding “My Big Fat Greek Wedding,” and the father’s proclamation of “pick any word, and I will show it to be of Greek origin,” and “the Greeks invented pottery,” let us press ahead and document the errors of Western scholarship and Greek propaganda.

The ancient writer Tatian, writing over 1500 years ago, understood this all too well when he stated “Cease, then, to miscall these imitations inventions of your own.” So in other words, the Greeks steal, without admission or recognition, other cultures ideas as their own. If they do this for ideas, imagine

what they might do with “persons”; wait, they already do that too!

The alphabet, itself composed of the Greek letter alpha and beta, originated with the Phoenicians.

Astronomy (Greek word) originated with the Babylonians.

Geometry, another Greek word, originated with the Egyptians.

Imagine if English and other European countries used the original words for alphabet, astronomy, geometry, and so forth, they wouldn't sound so Greek! But when you Hellenize the name, they become Greek! By Aristotle posted at http://www.macedoniantruth.org/forum/showthread.php?t=5050

Concerns

Examples of Human Rights Abuses in Greece - 1913 to 1993 In 1913 following its victory in the First and Second Balkan Wars, Greece officially annexed 51 per cent of Macedonia . This was against the desire of the population of Macedonia for an independent and autonomous country.

In 1916 the author John Reed in his book “The War in Eastern Europe ” wrote about the aftermath of the First Balkan War and how the Greeks and Serbians tried to legitimize their takeover of the territory while also trying to wipe out the Bulgarian influence.

He wrote “A thousand Greek and Serbian publicists began to fill the world with their shouting about the essentially Greek or Serbian character of the populations of their different spheres. The Serbs gave the unhappy Macedonians twenty four hours to renounce their nationality and proclaim themselves Serbs, and the Greeks did the same. Refusal meant murder or expulsion. Greek and Serbian colonists were poured into the occupied country...The Greek newspapers began to talk about a Macedonia peopled entirely with Greeks - and they explained the fact that no one spoke Greek by calling the people "Bulgarophone" Greeks...the Greek army entered villages where no one spoke their language. "What do you mean by speaking Bulgarian?" cried the officers. "This is Greece and you must speak Greek".”

The Carnegie Commission Report on the Balkan Wars indicated that 161 villages were burned down and more than 16,000 houses were destroyed in the Greek occupied part of Macedonia .

On August 10th, 1920 at Serves, Paris , Britain , France , Italy and Japan concluded an agreement with Greece on the protection of non Greek people. Greece pledged full protection for the Macedonians living in Greece , their language and culture and the opening of Macedonian schools.

In Section 2 of the agreement Greece pledged to extend full care over the life and freedom of all citizens irrespective of their origin, nationality, language or faith.

Clause 7 reads: "All Greek citizens will avail themselves of the same civic and political rights

irrespective of nationality, language and faith... and to legally guarantee the freedom of use by each citizen of any language in personal, trade and religious contacts, in print and publications or meetings..."

Clause 8 states: "Greek citizens belonging to national, religious or language minorities will be treated on par with native Greeks."

Clause 9 reads: As regards education, the Greek government will create appropriate facilitations and will safeguard the possibility of learning one's own language in schools of towns and areas inhabited by citizens speaking a language different than Greek."

On September 4, 1925 , the office of High Commissioner for National Minorities was established in Solun, northern Greece , for the observance of international agreements concerning national minorities.

However, none of these assurances were put into practice. Instead the Greek government adopted a policy of denationalization and assimilation while simultaneously denying the existence of Macedonians in Greece .

In 1925 the ABECEDAR, a primer in the Macedonian language was published in Athens . This was an elementary book for teaching the Macedonian language and was written in the Latin alphabet. It was designed for Macedonian children. However, it was never distributed to them. After the departure of representatives of the League of Nations , the booklets were destroyed.

This booklet was republished in Perth in 1993 by the Macedonian Information Centre to prove the booklet's existence and the fact that Greece was once accountable to the world for its Macedonian people living in Greece .

In the 1920s Macedonian schools were closed, not opened. Kindergartens were established in Macedonian localities so children could be inculcated in a Greek spirit and to limit the influence of parents. This was despite a November 11, 1930 press conference in Athens at which prime minister Elefterios Venizelos said, "The problem of a Macedonian national minority will be solved and I will be the first one to commit myself to the opening of Macedonian schools if the nation so wishes."

On March 30, 1927 the Greek newspaper Rizospastis wrote that 500,000 Macedonians were resettled to Bulgaria .

On the basis of a Greek thesis: "the faith determines the nation", hundreds of thousands of Turks and Macedonians of Muslim faith were resettled to Asia Minor . They were replaced by 638,253 Christian Turk colonists brought in from Asia Minor .

November 1926: a legal Act was issued to change Macedonian geographic names into the Greek version. The news of the Act was published in the Greek government daily “Efimeris tis Kiverniseos” No. 322 of November 21, 1926 . The same newspaper in its No. 346 published the new, official, Greek names. The names of the people were changed too. First names as well as family names were changed to Greek versions. These are still officially binding to this day.

In 1929 a legal Act was issued On the Protection of Public Order, whereby each demand for “national rights” was regarded as high treason. This law is still in force.

On December 18, 1936 the Metaxas dictatorship issued a legal Act On the Activity Against State Security. On the basis of this Act, thousands of Macedonians were arrested, imprisoned or expelled from Greece .

On September 7, 1938 the legal Act 2366 was issued. This banned the use of the Macedonian language. All Macedonian localities were flooded with posters that read "Speak Greek". Evening schools were opened in which adult Macedonians were taught Greek. There was not a single Macedonian school at the time. It is estimated that nearly 5,000 Macedonians were imprisoned or sent to prison camps for having used the Macedonian language.

During the Greek Civil War, the Headquarters of the Democratic Army of Greece reported that from mid-1945 to May 20, 1947 in Western Macedonia alone 13,529 Macedonians were tortured, 3,215 were imprisoned and 268 were executed without trial. In addition, 1,891 houses were burnt down and 1,553 were looted and 13,808 Macedonians were resettled by force.

During the war years, Greek-run prison camps where Macedonians were imprisoned, tortured and murdered included: the island of Ikaria near Turkey , the island of Makronisos near Athens , the jail Averov near Athens , the jail at Larica near the Volos Peninsula , and the jail in Solun. Among other places, there were mass killings on Vicho, Gramos, Kaymakchalan, and at Mala Prespa in Albania .

In 1947, during the Greek Civil War, the legal Act L-2 was issued. This meant that all who left Greece without the consent of the Greek government were stripped of Greek citizenship and banned from returning to the country. The law applied to Greeks and Macedonians, but in its modernized version the Act is binding only on Macedonians. It prevents Macedonians but not Greeks who fought against the winning side to return to Greece and reclaim property. Among those not allowed to return to Greece are the 28,000 child refugees who have not renounced their Macedonian ethnicity.

On January 20, 1948 legal Act M was issued. This allowed the Greek government to confiscate the property of those who were stripped of their citizenship. The law was updated in 1985 to exclude Greeks but it is still binding on Macedonians. On November 27, 1948 the United Nations issued resolution 193C (III) which called for the repatriation of all child refugees back to Greece . However, discriminatory laws introduced by the Greek government have prevented the free return of many thousands of the Macedonian child refugees. This is still the case in 2011.

On August 23, 1953 legal Act 2536 was issued. This meant that all those who left Greece and who did not return within three years' time could be deprived of their property. This facilitated the confiscation of Macedonian property.

Around the same time a decision was taken to resettle Macedonians. A wide ranging media campaign was launched to induce the Macedonians to leave their native areas voluntarily and to settle in the south of Greece and on the islands. The Greek intention was to separate Macedonians living in Greece from their relatives, living in the Republic of Macedonia, and to create a 60 kilometer-wide belt along the border with the then Yugoslavia where "the faithful sons of the Greek nation" could be settled.

A firm reaction from Yugoslavia saw the cancellation of the plan.

In 1959 legal Act 3958 was issued. This allowed for the confiscation of the land of those (Macedonians) who left Greece and did not return within five years' time. The law was amended in 1985, but it is still binding on Macedonians.

In 1960 the first secretary of the Greek Communist Party, H. Florakis, was brought to court and charged with high treason for supporting the existence of Macedonians in Greece.

In September 1988 at the press conference in Solun, the same Florakis said that the Greek Communist Party had changed its views and that it now recognized neither the existence of Macedonians nor the existence of a Macedonian national minority.

On August 30, 1989 , the same H. Florakis demanded from the Greek parliament the eradication from the currently legally binding Acts the term "Greek by origin" which made it impossible for the Macedonians to return to their homeland and to recover their property. He branded this term “racist”. The Greek press charged him with treason.

In 1961 Michal Gramatnikowski was not allowed to get close to his mother. Michal saw his mother on the Greek frontier from a distance of 100 meters. The Greek border guards would not permit them to come closer.

Filip Wasilew Dimitris from Pozdivista (official Greek name: Halara) of Moscow made repeated attempts to obtain a Greek visa in the Greek embassy in Moscow . The last application he put in was in August 1989 but to no avail.

Georgios Nicolaos Cocos, a Macedonian political refugee who fought against a German armored division in the defense of Greece , was living in Tashkent (former Soviet Union ) and wished to return to Greece . But, despite his repeated attempts to enter Greece the Greek authorities would not give him a visa. He even made a direct request to Prime Minister Andrea Papandreou from his death bed and that too did not help him. He died without seeing his family, his home or his homeland.

Sandra Cinika twice tried to go to her village of birth in Greece on an excursion for aged and disabled pensioners. Each time the Greek embassy in Warsaw would not give her a visa because she was not a Greeks by origin. Cinika as well as other Macedonians, including mixed Greek-Macedonian couples, were refused visas.

In 1962 legal Act 4234 was issued. Persons who were stripped of their Greek citizenship were banned from returning to Greece . A ban on crossing the Greek border also extended to spouses and children. This law is still in force for Macedonians, including those who left Greece as children.

Macedonians abroad believe Greek diplomatic posts worldwide are not allowed to issue visas to Macedonians. They have lists of Macedonian refugees from Greece who do not qualify for visas.

In 1969 a legal Act was issued to allow Greeks to occupy and confiscate abandoned Macedonian farms belonging to exiled Macedonians.

The Greek government has continued its ethnic restocking program with the colonization of Greek occupied Macedonia with over one hundred thousand colonists originating from the ex-Soviet Union . These are termed Pontian Greeks.

In 1978 the consul of the Greek embassy in Warsaw , Poland stomped over a travel document issued by Polish authorities which had the Polish national emblem. The reason: the name of the applicant was in Macedonian/Polish and not in Greek. The Macedonian name Mito Aleksowski was written on the document and not the Greek Dimitris Alexiou.

In 1980 Michal Gramatnikowski, a Macedonian, sent a letter to the Greek prime minister asking him to grant him a visa so that he could visit his ill mother in Greece. He received neither a reply nor a visa.

In early 1982 a confidential report by the security branch of the Greek police in Solun came to light. Dated March 8, 1982 , the report contained highly controversial and inhumane recommendations and strategies on how to deal with the "Macedonian problem".

On December 29, 1982 legal Act 106841 was issued by the government of Andreas Papandreou. This allowed Greeks by origin that had fled during the Greek Civil War to return to Greece and reclaim their Greek citizenship. Macedonians born in Greece and their families were excluded and remain in exile. Heads of various State administration departments were given the right to use the abandoned properties left by Macedonian refugees.

Greek authorities frequently reject requests from Macedonians for the recovery of their Greek citizenship. This is done despite the Universal Declaration of Human Rights which says that "Everyone has the right to leave every country, including one's own and to return to his own country," that "Each person has the right to have a citizenship," and that "No one can be freely dispossessed of his citizenship."

In 1983 the Greek government decided that it would no longer recognize university degrees from the Republic of Macedonia . Its stated reason was that "the Macedonian language is not internationally recognized." This is incorrect and hides the real motive.

On October 17, 1983 Lazo Jovanovski wrote a letter to the Greek Minister of Internal Affairs asking for the restoration of his citizenship. He has never received a reply.

The same happened to Spiro Steriovski and Kosta Wlakantchovski in 1983.

In 1983 Toli Radovski, living in Gdynia , Poland , wrote a letter to the Greek Ministry of Internal Affairs in Athens asking for the restoration of his citizenship. He did not receive a reply. The lack of reply forced him to ask the Centre for Human Rights in Geneva for help. Thanks to the intervention of the Centre, after four years a reply from Athens arrived. Quoting the relevant legal Acts, the Ministry of Internal Affairs rejected his demand for the recovery of citizenship.

In 1984 Toli Radovski wrote a letter to the Ministry of Internal Affairs asking for a visa. He did not receive the visa or a reply.

In 1984 the Movement for Human and National Rights for the Macedonians of Aegean Macedonia, operating in Greece illegally, issued a Manifest for Macedonian Human Rights. This states "In Greece human rights are openly disregarded and our human existence is cursed. We, in Aegean Macedonia, are determined to carry our struggle on various levels, employing all legal means until our rights are guaranteed."

On April 10, 1985 legal Act 1540/ 85 was issued. This amended the previously issued Acts regulating

property relations so as to make it impossible for Macedonians to return. This discriminatory Act limits the definition of political refugees to ethnic Greeks and permits the recovery of illegally seized property to "Greeks by origin" only. Once again, the Macedonian refugees from Greece are denied the same rights.

In 1986 former Minister for Northern Greece , N. Martis, addressed a letter to the Australian Prime Minister, Bob Hawke, entitled Falsification of the History of Macedonia, in which he denied the existence of a Macedonian nation.

Several times during the 1980s Greek officials have admonished overseas officials for recognizing a Macedonian nationality. Minister for Macedonia and Thrace (previously for Northern Greece) Stelios Papatamelis sent a letter to Pope John Paul II admonishing him for having uttered his Christmas and New Year greetings in the "non-existent Macedonian language." Greek authorities protested to the US ambassador in the then Yugoslavia for having uttered a few sentences in the "non-existent Macedonian language" while visiting the Republic of Macedonia .

In June, 1986 at its 49th Congress, the international writers' organization, PEN, condemned the denial of the Macedonian language by Greece and sent letters to the Greek PEN Centre and the Greek Minister for Culture. The Greek response was a denial of the existence of a Macedonian minority.

In 1987 the Encyclopedia Britannica put the number of Macedonians in Greece at 180,000. This is considerably more than the Greek government will admit to, which is around 80,000, but considerably less than what the Macedonians themselves believe, which varies between 300,000 and one million.

In 1987 Macedonian parents in Aegean Macedonia were forced to send their 2 and 3 year old children to "integrated kindergartens" to prevent them from learning the Macedonian language at home. The ruling was not implemented elsewhere in Greece .

The far right Greek newspaper Stohos has written: "Everyone who will openly manifest his views concerning the Macedonian minority will curse the hour of their birth."

In February 1988, the Athenian newspaper Ergatiki Alilengii criticized the discriminatory policy of Greek authorities towards Macedonians. It also criticized the anti-Macedonian hysteria in certain mass media.

In June 1988, Gona and Tome Miovski of Perth were on their way to Yugoslavia and wished to visit Greece . They were arrested in Athens airport, beaten up and locked in separate underground rooms. They were beaten up again the next day. They were released 24 hours later, after the intervention of the representative of Yugoslav Airlines and were expelled from Greece .

On July 5 and 6, 1988 two groups of Macedonian refugees who had come from Australia and Canada wanted to visit their homeland in Greece . Both coaches were stopped on the Greek frontier. Surrounded by armed policemen the coaches stood in the open air at 42 degrees Centigrade: one for two hours and the other for four hours. Opening of the windows was prohibited. The passengers had a seal stamped in their passports which forbade them to cross the Greek frontier. The vehicles and their passengers had to return. There are photographs and video-film of this incident.

During late June and early July 1988 a large demonstration of Macedonians who had left Greece as children in 1948 took place in Skopje , capital of the Republic of Macedonia . The demonstration was

attended by several thousand Macedonians from all over the world. A petition to the United Nations and many national governments was addressed.

On August 10, 1988 , on the 75th anniversary of the occupation and partition of Macedonia , a large demonstration by Macedonians was held outside the UN building in New York .

On September 4, 1988 Mito Aleksovski addressed an open letter to the Greek embassy in Warsaw asking for a visa. He received no reply.

In the northern autumn of 1988, the Alagi newspaper in Lerin (Greek name Florina) wrote that the Macedonians do exist and that they should have the full rights of a national minority. The newspaper pledged to fight for those rights until victory.

In November 1988 the same newspaper published the statement by one of the leaders of the Greek Communist Party, Mr Kostopulos, who said that it was a fact that the Macedonian minority existed in Greece .

In its issue No 1/89 the Athens monthly Sholiastis published an article by Mrs Elewteria Panagiopoulou entitled “Nationalists and the Inhabitants of Skopje”, in which she demands a halt to the discriminatory policy of authorities and abolition of the inhuman legal acts aimed against the Macedonians. In another article the same author calls Macedonians "the Palestinians of Europe".

In the spring of 1989, 90 Greek intellectuals addressed a note of protest to the Greek government in connection with the common violation of human rights in Greece .

In 1989 during the Bicentenary of Australia, Greece organized an exhibition in Sydney entitled Ancient Macedonia: the Wealth of Greece. The Greek President Sardzetakis toured various Australian cities and disseminated anti-Macedonian propaganda. After a sharp reaction from Macedonians in Australia , the Greek government protested to the Australian government for letting the Macedonian protests to occur.

On May 11, 1989 a Macedonian folk ensemble was expelled from Greece without reason. The ensemble had come to the locality of Komotini for a "Festival of Friendship" at the invitation of its organizers. A similar occurrence took place in 1988.

On May 20, 1989 Minister for Macedonia and Thrace ( Northern Greece ) Stelios Papatemelis appealed to the Greeks to wage a sacred war against Macedonians.

On May 28, 1989 the Association of Macedonians in Poland sent to the Greek embassy an invitation for its first congress. There was no representative from the embassy and there was no answer to the invitation. On June 10, 1989 the participants of the First Congress of the Association of Macedonians in Poland addressed a petition to the Greek government concerning the situation of Macedonians. There was no reply. On June 26, 1989 the Association of Macedonians in Poland sent a letter to the Greek embassy in Warsaw concerning visas for Macedonians. The embassy informed the Polish Post Office about the receipt of the letter. Despite this there was no reply.

In May 1989 an international delegation of Macedonians from Australia , Canada and Greece presented the problem of the Macedonian national minority in Greece to the Centre for Human Rights in Geneva . They also met with representatives of the European Parliament in Strasbourg .

On June 22, 1989 the Helsinki Committee in Poland addressed an appeal to the state cosignatories to the CSCE Final Act concerning the situation of Macedonians in Greece .

In summer 1989 the New York Times printed an article entitled Macedonians are not Greeks.

Between June 26 and 30, 1989 at Columbia University in New York , Greeks held a symposium entitled History, Culture and the Art of Macedonia. The purpose of the symposium was to convince American society that Macedonia is Greek. The symposium occasioned strong protests from Macedonians in the United States and Canada .

In the summer of 1989 the Atika, the Munich-Athens-Munich express train serviced by Greeks would not take, despite available seats, passengers from Skopje , capital of the Republic of Macedonia .

In June 1989, Greek Prime Minister A. Papandreou at a pre-election meeting in the Macedonian locality of Lerin (Florina in Greek) said that if he won the election he would build a factory in which only the locals (that is how he described the Macedonians) would be employed.

He also said that he would abolish law 1540. This law was issued during his rule and of his own initiative in 1985 and deprived the Macedonian refugees of the right to the property they had left behind in Greece .

In July 1989 the Athens Information Agency issued a leaflet in English entitled “The So Called Macedonian Problem”. This leaflet denies the existence of a Macedonian minority in Greece .

At a rally in Solun on July 29, 1989 President Sardzetakis said " Macedonia was, is and will always be Greek."

After parliamentary elections in 1989 thousands of leaflets were found in the ballot boxes in the area of Macedonia in Northern Greece which contained protests against the disregard for human rights in Greece .

On August 30, 1989 a legal Act rehabilitating the participants in the Greek Civil War of 1946-49 was issued. The Act granted damages and disability pensions to fighters in the civil war who now have Greek citizenship. By this measure the Macedonian fighters living in exile who earlier had been stripped of their citizenship were rendered ineligible.

In September 1989 the Athenian newspaper Avriani wrote that the demands of some members of parliament for the abolition in Greek law of the term "Greek by origin" creates a serious threat to the national unity and territorial sovereignty of Greece .

The newspaper also wrote that the "second group" of refugees i.e. Macedonian refugees as opposed to refugees of Greek origin, could return to Greece under the condition that they unambiguously declare their Greek origin, i.e. deny their Macedonian ethnicity.

In September 1989 the Ta Maglena newspaper asked "Why are the Macedonians discriminated against?" The newspaper also asked "Why does Greece not observe international legal acts?" At the same time it warned Macedonians against the agents of the Greek Security Service whose number in Macedonian localities is unimaginable.

In November 1989 the Sholiastis monthly published an interview with several members of the illegal Movement for Human and National Rights for Macedonians of Aegean Macedonia.

In December 1989, during a period when there was public discussion about the Macedonian problem, the Greek press warned "The enemy is at the door."

On January 29, 1990 The Times newspaper published an ethnographic map of Europe which shows that Macedonians are living in Greece , Bulgaria , Albania and the Republic of Macedonia .

In February 1990 The Guardian newspaper wrote "the Macedonian problem is knocking on the door of Europe . It must be solved before the Balkans joins the united Europe ."

In 1990 a feature film entitled Macedonia was made in Sweden . It is a six part TV series which correctly presents Macedonian refugees as homeless and wandering.

On February 21, 1990 Constantinos Mitsotakis, then leader of the New Democracy party, said at a press conference in the town of Janina that he is increasingly convinced that the Greek policy in relation to national minorities should be more aggressive. He said "We have nothing to fear. We are clean because Greece is the only Balkan country without the problem of national minorities." He added "The Macedonian minority does not exist and is not recognized by international agreements."

On March 7, 1990 Nikolaos Martis, former Minister for Northern Greece , declared that the Macedonian nation is an invention of the Communist party of Yugoslavia .

On March 25, 1990 in a television address, President Sardzetakis said "Only native Greeks live in Greece ."

The Greek government warned the former Yugoslavia that should it not stop discussing the problem of the "so-called Macedonian national minority" Greece will not render it support in cooperating with and eventually joining the EEC.

In 1990 the High Court of Florina under decision 19/33/3/1990 refused to register a Centre for Macedonian Culture. An appeal on August 9 the same year against the decision was also refused. In May 1991 a second appeal was refused by the High Court of Appeals in Solun. In June 1991 the Supreme Administrative Council of Greece in Athens dismissed a further appeal.

In June 1990 at the Copenhagen Conference on Human Rights (CHD), the Greek delegation requested that the executive secretary of the conference remove the Macedonian Human Rights delegation's literature from the non-government organization's desk. The request was refused.

Later, two Macedonian human rights campaigners from Aegean Macedonia who participated in the CHD experienced official State harassment upon their return to Greece .

One, Hristo Sideropoulos, was transferred through his work to Kefalonia, several hundred kilometres from his home place. The other participant, Stavros Anastasiadis, was given discriminatory tax penalties and dismissed from his job.

On July 20, 1990 at the village of Meliti near Lerin (Florina) a Macedonian folk festival was broken up by force by Greek authorities and police.

In its June, 1991 edition the Atlantic Monthly magazine ran an extensive story detailing many of the atrocities committed in Macedonia during the Balkan Wars and following the partition of Macedonia .

The author, Robert Kaplan, also said "Greece, for its part, according to a Greek consular official whom I visited in Skopje, does not permit anyone with a "Slavic" name who was born in northern Greece and now lives in Yugoslav Macedonia to visit Greece, even if he or she has relatives there. This means that many families have been separated for ever."

On December 10, 1991 the Greek Central Committee of the Australian Labor Party in Victoria sent a letter addressed to all Victorian Labor Federal parliamentarians and all State Labor parliamentarians. The letter explicitly denies the existence of a Macedonian minority in Greece . Point 4 refers to "Misinformation claiming that an ethnic "minority" of Macedonians in Greece is being denied its cultural rights. Greece has no ethnic minority other than a Moslem religious minority."

In January, 1992, six members of the OAKKE anti-nationalist group were condemned to 6 and a half months imprisonment for putting up posters for the recognition of Macedonia .

In February, 1992 the Guardian newspaper published an article about the town of Florina in Greece and the struggle of its Macedonian inhabitants to maintain their identity in the face of Greek repression.

On March 12, 1992 the Canberra Times ran an article, What's in a Name? For Greeks a Great Deal, by Peter Hill, the author of the section Macedonians in the official Australian Bicentenary encyclopedia the Australian People. The article affirmed the existence of a large Macedonian minority in Greece and the existence of official discrimination and the denial of human rights.

Mr. Hill said "The claim by the Greek Republic that their part of Macedonia has "one of the most homogenous populations in the world (98.5 per cent Greek)" is quite absurd. In fact, some parts of it, such as the county of Florina (Lerin), do not have any indigenous Greek inhabitants at all."

In March, 1992 the organizers of the Moomba Festival in Melbourne asked the Macedonian community participants not to use the name Macedonia on their float after representations were made to the Moomba organizers by the Greek lobby in Australia and by the Victorian Minister for Ethnic Affairs. The Macedonians refused. The ministry later said that threats to the Macedonians' safety had been received.

On April 2, 1992 the Ambassador of Greece to Australia , VS Zafiropoulos, wrote a letter to the Canberra Times newspaper in which he said " Macedonia , Greece 's most northerly province, does not contain a significant minority who are ethnically related to the Slavs across the border".

"In fact, Greece is the most homogenous country in Europe and if a small number of Greeks on the border speak, beside Greek, a Slavic idiom, this bilingualism does not constitute a minority."

In May, 1992 Australian journalist Richard Farmer visited Aegean Macedonia and published an article in the Sunday Telegraph, Sydney entitled Freedom Fragile in Macedonia . The article described numerous examples of human rights abuses witnessed by Farmer, including the jamming by Greek authorities of Easter services broadcast in the Macedonian language from the Republic of Macedonia and listened to by Macedonians in Greece .

The Greek lobby in Australia subsequently took Farmer to the Press Council but were unable to deny him his right to publish.

In July, 1992 Archimandrite Nikodemos Tsarknias, a priest with the Greek Orthodox Church and a well known Macedonian human rights campaigner, and a parishioner, Photios Tzelepis, were issued with a Writ of Summons to appear in the Magistrate's Court of Solun. The priest was charged with insulting his Archbishop. He is also accused of being a homosexual and a Skopjan ( Republic of Macedonia ) spy.

However, a KYP (Greek Secret Service) report published in a Greek newspaper revealed that the minor charge in the Summons was a pretext to harass the priest for his human rights activism. The report says the authorities "did not find the courage to say that they kicked him out of the church for his anti-Hellenic stance and to ask for his committal to trial for high treason but instead they removed him with the lukewarm "justification" which we reveal today so that it will stain with shame all those who contributed to it."

In July 1992 the Macedonian Human Rights Association of Newcastle ( Australia ) published the book “The Real Macedonians” by Dr. John Shea, an Irish academic at Newcastle University . The book gives a great number of reference sources about the ethnicity of the Macedonian people, the partition of Macedonia , the ethnic cleansing and repopulation of Aegean Macedonia, and the Greek Civil War. Chapter 13 is titled “Denial Of Human Rights For Macedonian Minorities”.

On August 15, 1992 The Spectator magazine published an article, The New Bully of the Balkans, by Noel Malcolm. The article discusses the plight of the main ethnic minorities in Greece including the Macedonians, the Vlachs, and the Turks.

On the Macedonians, Mr. Malcolm asks "How many of these Slavs still live in Greece is not known. The 1940 census registered 85,000 'Slav-speakers'. The 1951 census (the last to record any figures for speakers of other languages) put it at 41,000; many who had fought on the losing side in the civil war had fled, but other evidence shows that all the censuses heavily underestimate the Slav's numbers. The lack of a question on the census-form is not, however, the only reason for their obscurity."

Mr. Malcolm says "One group of these Slavs has started a small monthly newsletter, with an estimated readership of 10,000. But they have great difficulty finding a printer (even though it is in Greek), and they say that if copies are sent through the post they tend to 'disappear'. ‘Even if we find a sympathetic printer,’ one told me, ‘he's usually too scared to take the work: he's afraid of losing his other contracts, or perhaps of getting bricks through his window."

In 1992 a spokesman for the Pan Macedonian Association of Victoria, a Greek racist organization, was interviewed on SBS television. The spokesman said that there are no Macedonians in Florina. This was a direct lie as Florina (formerly Lerin in Macedonian) is well known to have an almost exclusively Macedonian population. In fact a large number of Macedonian immigrants now living in Melbourne and Perth are from Florina. This organization has on other occasions made similar claims on SBS television.

In November, 1992 Amnesty International published a report entitled “ Greece : Violations of the Right to Freedom of Expression”. This gave details on a number of human rights abuses by Greece including the repression of the Macedonian human rights campaigners, Hristos Sideropoulos and Tasos Boulis.

In November, 1992 Pollitecon Publications of Sydney published the book “What Europe Has Forgotten: The Struggle Of The Aegean Macedonians”. The book was written by the Association of Macedonians in Poland and was one of the first English language books to detail human rights abuses against the Macedonians in Greece .

On December 5, 1992 The Sydney Morning Herald published an article titled “The Balkan Dance of Death” by Bob Beale. Mr Beale says " Greece 's record of dealing with its Greek Macedonian minority is poor. A specialist in Balkan ethnic minorities, Hugh Poulton, has noted that in the wake of the bitter civil war - during and after World War II - Greece actively sought to remove Slav Macedonians from its north as ‘undesirable aliens’."

"At various times since, it has forbidden Macedonians in Greece from using the Macedonian forms of their names, removed them from official posts in Greek held Macedonia and suppressed their language - measures that led many to emigrate to places like Australia."

In January, 1993 Amnesty International published another report – “ Greece : Violations of the Right to Freedom of Expression: Further Cases of Concern”. This report detailed the case of Michail Papadakis, a 17 year old school boy who had been arrested on December 10, 1992 for handing out a leaflet that said "Don't be consumed by nationalism. Alexander the Great: war criminal. Macedonia belongs to its people. There are no races; we are all of mixed descent."

In January, 1993 the Macedonian Movement for Prosperity in the Balkans held its first congress, in Sobotsko , Greece . The MMPB issued a statement highlighting Greece 's discriminatory policy towards its Macedonian minority and in particular the denial of basic human rights.

The MMPB said ethnic Macedonians in Greece and Macedonians in the Diaspora should cooperate closely to further ethnic, religious, linguistic and social freedoms for all minorities in Greece . The organization urged the Greek government to allow Macedonian political and economic refugees to return to Greece if they desired.

In February 1993 a meeting was held between the Macedonian Forum for Human Rights and the Greek Balkan Citizens' Movement to open up dialog to help solve existing problems between the two countries.

In February, 1993, president of the Republic of Macedonia , Kiro Gligorov, speaking at the United Nations on the possible admission of Macedonia to the body, criticized Greece for its treatment of its Macedonian minority.

Mr. Gligorov said "It is surprising that the Republic of Greece disputes article 49 of our Constitution which refers to the care of the Republic of Macedonia for our minority in the neighbouring countries. It should be pointed out that there is a similar provision in the Greek constitution. It is a well known fact that the Republic of Greece does not admit the existence of a Macedonian minority there. From this we derive the following logical questions."

"A. If such a minority does not exist in the Republic of Greece , then this article does not refer to this country and their reactions are surprising."

"B. If such a minority does exist, which is indisputable, why does Greece not fulfill at least the basic

rights of this minority provided in the UN Charter, the Helsinki Document, the Charter of Paris, etc., of which it is a signatory party."

"C. "Most important of all, is this the reason that the Republic of Greece opposes the recognition of the Republic of Macedonia under its constitutional name?"

In March 1993, the Archimandite Nikodemos Tsarknias was defrocked and expelled from the Greek Orthodox Church for his human rights activism.

On March 26, 1993 , five members of the OSE organization were put on trial for publishing and distributing a pamphlet entitled Crisis in the Balkans: the Macedonian Question and the Working Class. They were charged with exposing the friendly relations of Greece with foreign countries to risk of disturbance; spreading false information and rumours that might cause anxiety and fear to citizens; and inciting citizens to rivalry and division leading to disturbance of the peace.

On April 1, 1993 Macedonian human rights campaigners Hristos Sideropoulos and Tasos Boulis were put on trial after their comments about the existence of the Macedonian minority were published in ENA magazine in March 1992. They were charged with spreading false information and rumours that might cause anxiety and fear to the citizens. They were sentenced to five months imprisonment.

The World Macedonian Congress said that the defense counsel was not allowed to present its views. An appeal was launched to the higher court in Athens .

In April, 1993 the Macedonian Information Centre in Perth republished the booklet the ABECEDAR, originally published by the Greek government in 1925 as a teaching aid for Macedonian children, but which was never distributed.

In April, 1993 the Belgian press was quoted as saying that Greece was quickly losing its democratic reputation. The press was quoted as saying that " Greece , undermining the European principles of respecting basic human rights, is placing itself at the margins of Europe ."

In May, 1993 the Macedonian Movement for Balkan Prosperity, based in Arideja , Greece , said that it wanted to participate in the Macedonian-Greek dialog underway under the auspices of the United Nations to settle the issue of the name of the Republic of Macedonia . The Movement said the participation of the Macedonians in Greece was imperative and that it was time to determine the status of the Macedonians in Greece as well as those forced to leave during the Greek Civil War.

Choices

AMHRC Spring Review 2010 - Bulgarian National Myths

By Ivan Hristovski and George Vlahovhttp://macedonianhr.org.au/06AHMRCReview/

The negative attitude the government in Sofia manifests towards its minorities, especially the Macedonians, appears to be symptomatic of a xenophobia permeating Bulgarian society in general: from the average citizen to the highest official state levels. Bulgaria has persistently refused to recognize the existence of Macedonians within its borders. This is in line with a popular view held by all segments of Bulgarian society; namely that there is no such thing as a Macedonian nation, and that those who call themselves Macedonians (in an ethnic sense, including the Macedonians in the Republic of Macedonian) are nothing other than ‘lost’ members of the Bulgarian nation, inhabiting a territory that was unlawfully taken from Bulgaria in 1878, via the Treaty of Berlin (Engstrom, 2009: 80). In order to begin to develop an understanding of why Bulgaria has a chauvinist policy towards Macedonians and the Macedonian state, it would be useful to examine aspects of the cultural history of what became Bulgaria in 1878, prior to its independence. Myths, Terminologies and Interpretations Bulgarians pride themselves on the idea that their national “revival” began not with a gun but with a book. The book that is seen in Bulgarian nationalist mythology as the fountainhead of that process, is a medieval Bulgarian history written in 1762 by Father Paisii (Slavo-Bulgarian History of the Bulgarian Peoples), a monk in the Hilendar monastery in Mount Athos, one of the centers of Eastern Orthodoxy (Dimitrov, 2001: 8). But Father Paisii’s work only began to be disseminated in the mid 19th century and it should also be noted that illiteracy, at this time, was extremely high in the regions of the Ottoman Empire that were eventually to constitute Bulgaria . Thus, to describe Father Paisii as “the father of Bulgarian nationalism” is to engage in myth-making (Karpat, 2002: 467).

It could be argued that this is hardly a malevolent myth; however there are more serious problems connected to the Father Paisii myth as presented by the modern Bulgarian nationalist interpretation of his writing. Bulgarian academics and numerous others seem to accept without question that Paisii wrote an ethno- nationalistic Bulgarian history book to counter the supposed denationalizing of Bulgaria , via Hellenistic nationalism. But as Detrez explains, it is actually not possible to accept this claim at face value:

“According to Paissi the Greeks are ‘wise and sophisticated’ but also ‘sly and proud’, they ‘take away from the simple people and appropriate unfairly’. Moreover they treat the Bulgarians with contempt considering them ‘simple and stupid’….. Paissi characterizes the Bulgarians as ‘hospitable and charitable’; they are ‘simple diggers, ploughmen, shepherds, and simple artisans’. To substantiate this claim, he refers to God who “loves the simple and harmless ploughman and shepherds more’. The two groups Paissi opposes to each other are not necessarily ethnic communities, but seem to be social classes and even professional groups in the first place: the Greeks were merchants and city-dwellers (both categories were often called ‘Greek’ in Bulgarian popular speech), while the Bulgarians are peasants.” (Detrez, 2008: 41-42) In the light of Detrez’s observations, one must acknowledge that the social phenomena in question had more to do with socio-economic status, rather than the modern ethnic/national realm.

Another aspect of the national mythology propagated in Bulgaria today is the belief that throughout the Ottoman era there was a systematic process of “ethnic Greek” clerics converting “ethnic Bulgarians” into “ethnic Greeks”. However, these attempts made by the Orthodox Greek speaking Patriarchate church to spread Greek literacy to the illiterate masses, were not generally about creating ethnic Greeks

– rather, they were about attempting to advance Orthodoxy via a semi-Westernized education (Detrez, 2008: 42).

Moreover, many people make the assumption that the terms “Bulgarian”, “Greek”, “Turk”, “Vlach” etc. possessed the same meaning during the time of the Ottoman Empire as they do today. However, at the time in question, these present day ethno-national labels were socio-economic/cultural categories, that numerous anthropologists and sociologists like Loring Danforth have described as a “cultural division of labour” (Danforth, 1995: 59). Many scholars agree that during much of the Ottoman Era a “Greek” was a merchant, a city-dweller, or someone well to do (Roudometof, 2001: 48). A “Turk” was someone who may have been a government official (Brown, 2003: 59). A “Vlach” might denote someone who is a shepherd (Detrez, 2003: 43) and a “Bulgarian” might be someone who is a peasant or labourer (Mackridge, 2009: 56), or a villager (Detrez, 2003: 43). This is how Paisii perceived people in his time.

Even more revealing is the substantial incidence of “Bulgarian” peasants actually pursuing “Greekness”, because this would signify an advance in their class status and wealth. If a “Bulgarian” managed to rise above his occupational peasant-farmer class status and become a wealthy city dweller, it was not unusual for him to then begin referring to himself as a “Greek” and to send his children to a Greek speaking school for the purpose of giving them the literacy/education he never possessed. What took place was not a change of ethno-national status, but of class (see for example, Amfiteatrov, 1990: 51-52).

Sociologically grounded etymological investigations like these outline a picture of life in the Balkans, very different to the one presented by ultra-nationalistic Balkan historians. For our present purposes, it is worth singling out Bulgarian historians for utilizing centuries old traveler’s chronicles with references to inhabitants of various parts of the Balkans, including Macedonia , as “Bulgarians”; in a manner that deliberately ignores the socio-economic contextual meaning of the usage of the term “Bulgarian” and instead, reprehensibly ascribes to it, modern ethno-national connotations. Such misinterpretations serve to provide support in Bulgaria , for the fictional notion that Bulgarians possess unbroken ethno-national identity continuity, extending back from the present to early medieval times. Moreover, these distortions are also enlisted in aid of the myth that Macedonians have consistently been an integral part of the Bulgarian ethnos (Balikci, 2008: 178). This helps to illustrate that “historiography in Bulgaria is constituted within the context of a broad national agenda.” (Elenkov & Koleva, 2003-4: 183) Or in our words, Bulgarian historiography has been imbued with a serious dose of fiction in the service of sinister political ambitions and at the expense of genuine scholarship.

The complexity of the terminological issues we have been discussing is increased when we note that the terms under investigation were also to become entangled with rival religious denominations later in the 19th century, with the formation in 1870 of the Bulgarian speaking/literate Orthodox Exarchate church as an opponent within the Ottoman empire, to the long standing Greek speaking/literate Orthodox Patriarchate church. Furthermore religion was often used to identify people in a manner differently from and in some contradiction to the socio-economic/cultural categories we have been outlining. Throughout the Ottoman period a “Turk”, in the context of a discussion with someone possessing a religious outlook on life (and such were very numerous within the Ottoman Empire, for reasons soon to

be given), referred to anyone who was a Muslim (Detrez, 2003: 43) and a “Greek” or “Rum” could mean someone who was an Orthodox Christian regardless of their language or class (Danforth, 1995: 59). The historian R.W. Seton-Watson wrote of “the ignorant Bulgar peasant, when questioned as to his nationality, would answer with the misleading confession that he was a "Greek." (Seton-Watson, 1918: 78) Again, the deceptive nature of the “confession” is understood only when it is pointed out that the ethno-national meaning that is today associated with the label “Greek”, did not generally apply for much of the duration of the Ottoman Empire. As we have been arguing, generalized primary identity markers appear to have been mostly underpinned by class and religion. It is not surprising that the “Bulgarian” peasant (Bulgarian in a socio-economic occupational/class sense or perhaps one could describe him as a Bulgarian speaking peasant, but not as an ethnic Bulgarian in the modern sense – it seems clear enough that such a notion was not present in his mind and that is what matters) replied that he was “Greek” - for, by this he meant that he was an Orthodox Christian and it is a perfectly understandable attitude for a resident of an empire that placed Muslims above Christians in numerous practical ways. In addition, the Ottoman authorities usually officially referred to all Christians as “Rum” or “Greeks”. Moreover, it is this attitude which explains the failure of some uninformed 19th century travel writers to detect the presence of “Bulgarians” in regions that later became an integral part of the Bulgarian state. Thus the writings of western tourist authors need to be used with a considerable amount of care – something that Bulgarian and Balkan historians in general, appear to consistently lack (Seton-Watson, 1918: 78). Notably, Seton-Watson also condemns the fact that “In the West there grew up the highly inaccurate habit of referring to all branches of the Orthodox or Eastern Church as "the Greek Church," and more than one distinguished historian and traveler was guilty of the most ludicrous errors.” (Seton-Watson, 1918: 22)

We are now in a position to better understand that it is not really possible to speak of the Hellenization of Bulgarians in an ethnic/national sense. During much of the Ottoman period, the labels in question were mostly underpinned by class and religion. The modern ethno-national project, among other things, has in the Balkans, generally been about taking some of these pre-Modern identity markers and converting them into ethno-national markers – which entails the creation of a state inhabited by an entire population that is unified in a manner that more or less transcends the limits of class and religion; a mass social grouping which feels it possesses a very strong identity, in spite of its very high division of labour. These are disturbing revelations for ultra-nationalistic Bulgarian (see Pilbrow, 2005: 129) and other proponents of myths asserting an ancient to modern essentialised ethno-cultural identity continuity. Conclusion At this point, some would no doubt like to assert that all social groups possess, need and maintain foundation myths. There appears to be some truth to this claim and be that as it may, it is not acceptable to maintain narratives with aspects which breed arrogance, hatred and the negation of others – especially minorities. Of the themes specifically mentioned in Bulgarian history textbooks today, the [I]“national unification of the Bulgarian areas”[/I] (meaning Macedonia and adjacent land) remains a dominant theme. For example, in the 1992 textbooks it was mentioned seventy times versus only thirty for the 1991 textbooks. Other themes include “ Greece 's denationalization policy,” mentioned twenty-four times in 1991 and twenty times in 1992 etc. (Roudometof, 2002: 14). All of this is directly linked to the often intentional misinterpretation of the pre-Modern identity marker, “Bulgarian”.

The result is a perpetuation of Bulgarian chauvinism towards Macedonians which manifests itself by constant declarations asserting the Macedonian language to be a “Bulgarian dialect”; by consistent references to Macedonian history as “Bulgarian history” and to Macedonia as chiefly a “Bulgarian land”. Moreover, Bulgaria , an EU member country (and this tells us much about the EU!), does not recognize the existence of its Macedonian minority and inflicts upon it, a variety of other human rights abuses. Members and supporters of OMO "Ilinden" - PIRIN (a Macedonian political party and human rights organization operating in Bulgaria – which the Bulgarian state unlawfully refuses to register) have been harassed, beaten, fined and even imprisoned simply for asserting their Macedonian identity. This has to stop and ultimately, only an educational/cultural ‘sea-change’, facilitated by the Bulgarian state and academics, is going to ensure a relatively prompt end to the ethnic chauvinism and the development of a lasting reconciliation.　Bibliography Amfiteatrov, A. Land of Discord, Makedonska Kniga, Skopje , 1990 (Macedonian translation of the Russian original published in 1903).Balikci, Asen. The ‘Bulgarian Ethnography’ of the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences: Some Critical Comments, in Vintilă Mihăilescu, Ilia Iliev, Slobodan Naumović(eds.) Studying Peoples in the People’s Democracies II, Lit Verlag, 2008. Brown, Keith. The Past in Question, Princeton University Press, 2003. Danforth, Loring. The Macedonian Conflict, Princeton University Press, 1995. Detrez, Raymond. Relations between Greeks and Bulgarians in the Pre-Nationalist Era: The Gudilas in Plovdiv , in Dimitris Tziovas (ed.) Greece and the Balkans, Ashgate, 2003. - Between the Ottoman Legacy and the Temptation of the West: Bulgarians coming to terms with the Greeks. In Raymond Detrez, Barbara Segaert (eds.)Europe and the historical legacies in the Balkans, P.I.E. Peter Lang, Brussels , 2008. Dimitrov, Vesselin. Bulgaria : the uneven transition, Routledge, 2001. Elenkov, Ivan & Koleva, Daniela. Historiography in Bulgaria After the Fall of Communism: Did “The Change” Happen?, Historein Volume 4, 2003-4.[url]http://www.nnet.gr/historein/historeinfiles/histvolumes/hist04/historein4-elenkov.pdf[/url], Engstrom, Jenny. Democratisation and the Prevention of Violent Conflict, Ashgate, 2009. Karpat, Kemal. Studies on Ottoman social and political history: selected articles and essays, Brill , Netherlands , 2002. Livanios, Dimitris. The Quest For Hellenism, The Historical Review, Vol.3, 2006. Mackridge, Peter. Language and national identity in Greece , 1766-1976, Oxford University Press, 2009. Pilbrow, Tim. “Europe” in Bulgarian Conceptions of Nationhood, in Hanna Schissler, Yasemin

Nuhoğlu Soysal (eds.) The Nation, Europe, and the World: textbooks and curricula in transition, Berghahn Books, 2005. Roudometof, Victor. Nationalism, Globalization, and Orthodoxy, Greenwood press, 2001. - Collective memory, national identity, and ethnic conflict, Praeger Publishing, 2002. Seton-Watson, R.W. The rise of nationality in the Balkans, E.P. Dutton, New York , 1918.

Free Advice The history of the Greek Revolution would often be obscure unless the importance of the Albanian element, which pervaded military society in the Ottoman Empire , be fully appreciated. A trifling but striking mark of the high position which the Albanians had gained was exhibited by the general adoption of their dress. Though a strong antipathy to the Muslim Albanians had been always felt by the Ottoman Turks, towards the end of the last century they began to pay an involuntary homage to the warlike reputation of the Albanian mercenaries. It became then not uncommon, in Greece and Macedonia , to see the children of the proudest Osmanlis dressed in the fustanella, or white kilt of the Albanian Tosks. Subsequently, when Veli Pasha, the second son of Ali Pasha of Joannina, governed the Morea, even young Greeks of rank ventured to assume this dress, particularly when traveling, as it afforded them an opportunity of wearing arms. The Greek armatoli and the Christians employed as police-guards, even in the Morea, also wore this dress; but it was the fame of the Albanians—for the military reputation of the armatoli was then on the decline and that of the Suliots on the ascendant—which induced the modern Greeks to adopt the Albanian kilt as their national costume. It is in consequence of this admiration of Albanian-ism that the court of king Otho of Greece assumes its melodramatic aspect, and glitters in tawdry tinsel mimicry of the rich and splendid garb which arrested the attention of Childe Harold in the galleries of the palace of Tepelen; but the calico fustanella hangs round the legs of the Greeks like a paper petticoat, while the white kilt of the Tosk, formed of a strong product of native looms, fell in the graceful folds of antique drapery.

A History of Greece : The Greek revolution, pt. 1, A.D. 1821-1827 By George Finlay pages 39-40

I thought "Hellenism" was the thing in modern “ Greece ” not " Albania ". Posted by TrueMacedonian

History

THE MACEDONIANS IN USA AND CANADA

(HISTORICAL VIEW)

By Slave Nikolovski - Katinslavekatin@gmail.com

3. MACEDONIAN ORTHODOX CHURCH

AND ITS RELATIONS WITH THE NEIGHBORING COUNTRIES

The Macedonian Orthodox Church has been and probably will continue to be the target of discussions, arguments, and even attacks of the church institutions in the neighboring countries and wider, who are trying to prevent, or postpone its joining the family of the equal Orthodox Church organizations. In so doing an entire propaganda and media mechanism has been engaged to conduct pressure, isolation, and negation of the Macedonian Orthodox Church and its legitimate existence. Its aim is to distort and hide historical facts from the past and the present. The purpose of this write-up is to bring into question the essential characteristics of the Macedonian Orthodox people, its church organism and its truth as a people that possesses its own independent and sovereign state – the Republic of Macedonia .

In the name of the truth we need say that certain circles and individuals of the sister Orthodox churches in the neighboring countries seem to have forgotten their own way to their independence and right to their own national church. In doing so they hide the fact that the Ohrid Archiepiscopate has existed for eight centuries and that its basic nucleus, from its establishment till its illegal closure, had represented the Macedonian Christians from every part of ethnic Macedonia . At the same time they fail to mention the centuries old movements of the Macedonians (during the XIX and XX centuries) for restoration of the Ohrid Archiepiscopate, which disputes the continuity of this institution in the face of the Macedonian Orthodox Church as a legitimate representative of every Macedonian believer in Macedonia and the entire Macedonian people in the Diaspora.

The fact that at present, even after international recognition of the Republic of Macedonia and its membership in the UN, there is continuing negation of the autocephaly of the Macedonian Orthodox Church, this can be regarded as an attack on the Christianity of the Macedonian people. Therefore, together with the historical truths of the Macedonian people it is also necessary to point out the historical and canonical foundations of the Macedonian Orthodox Church, its continuity as part of the world cultural heritage; to lighten the unprincipled efforts of previous rulers – conquerors of Macedonia, to impose foreign spiritual hierarchy and to usurp its cultural and church wealth, all created throughout its millennium old spiritual living.

For more than a millennium the Macedonian Orthodox church, in the face of the Ohrid Archiepiscopate, has lived spiritually with its protector Saint Clement of Ohrid. In the ninth century he opened the ways to the cultural renaissance of the Macedonians who had migrated to Macedonia toward the end of the sixth century where they met with the already Christianized native Macedonians whose Christian beginnings are linked to missionary work of St. Apostol Pavle (Apostle Paul) and his followers.

When the holy deed of the Solun brothers, Saints Cyril and Methodius, failed in Velika Moravia , what it had achieved was saved, strengthened, and many times multiplied by their most distinguished disciples, St. Clement and St. Naum, in Macedonia , in their churches, shrines, and schools alongside the shores of Lake Ohrid . Thus, this literacy, created on the basis of the South Macedonian tongue and the books translated to the first Slavic speaking literary tongue, were the saviors of the entire Slavic speaking people, and even the European culture as a whole. St. Clement of Ohrid had been chosen first Slavic speaking bishop about 1,100 years ago. His Great Eparchy in Macedonia is a spiritual Christian foundation on which the Macedonians could build their church hierarchy. Thus, with 3,500 students at the Ohrid spiritual school, St. Clement of Ohrid educated the people in Macedonia and further, while

the holy books written in Cyrillic were used to Christianize even the Russians toward the end of the X century.

Czar Samoil founded his state on Macedonian soil with the Capital in Prespa and Ohrid, depending on the Macedonian ethos above all to organize his spiritual and autocephalous church organization. The very fact that after the defeat of Samoil’s descendents in 1018 the Byzantine Emperor recognized and set the rights of the autocephalous Ohrid Archiepiscopate, shows the respect that this church institution had, with a jurisdiction covering the most part of the Balkans and within the borders of Samoil’s state. For almost two centuries the great diocese of the Ohrid Archiepiscopate, inherited from Samoil’s age, was maintained within the borders of the Byzantine Empire .

During the Byzantine Empire , as well as under the authorities of the Bulgarian and Serbian states during the XIII and XIV centuries, the Ohrid Archiepiscopate enjoyed respect as one of the leading and oldest church institutions in the Orthodox ecumenical order. Even the most educated Ohrid archbishops, who were Greek (Hellen), treated the missionary activities of St. Clement and St. Naum, their teachers St. Cyril and St. Methodius, and the seven martyrs, with greatest respect. Their monasteries along the shores of Lake Ohrid were considered to be the greatest shrines in the archiepiscopal city because they were the resting places of the relics of these saints and teachers, and here they nurtured the traditions of the founders of the Ohrid church. Thus, the Ohrid archbishops had left behind them inspirational pages devoted to St. Clement of Ohrid, praising him as their spiritual father.

This attitude was confirmed at the time when the Serbian Orthodox church was rejected by the Tsarigrad patriarchate in 1346as a result of the acceptance of a patriarchate title. The Ohrid Archiepiscopate then mediated investing efforts in Tsarigrad to resolve the dispute and to regulate relations between Tsarigrad and Serbia , thus succeeding in the resolution. This confirmed the good and correct relations between the Serbian Orthodox Church and the Ohrid Archiepiscopate.

At the same time, during the Middle Ages and the Ottoman Empire , the Macedonians expressed their spiritual and intellectual potentials through the activities of the Ohrid Archiepiscopate. The nurturing of church literature, architecture, and every kind of fine and applied arts linked to iconography and liturgy is ranked very high in world science. It has been assessed that masterpieces for their time were created in Macedonia , and these works of art enrich not only Macedonian but the world treasury of art and culture in general.

During the Ottoman domination the Ohrid Archiepiscopate legalized its activities and expanded its diocese significantly during the XV and XVI century, not only throughout Macedonia but abroad as well. At this time the Serbian and Bulgarian Orthodox Churches were abolished, and the Ohrid jurisdiction was expanded over a number of their eparchies. However, many Ohrid leaders made efforts to organize a union for liberation from the Ottoman rule, which led to some archbishops finding themselves in exile, jails, and emigration.

The Pek Patriarchate was restored in 1557 and it included the Northern Macedonian territories and Western Bulgaria . For this reason the Serbian rulers adapted their title to the new situation. Because of the jurisdiction over parts of Macedonia and Bulgaria they showed that the Pek Patriarchate was not just a church of the Serbian people. The Ohrid leaders did the same thing previously, during the XVI century, authorizing that they were authorized for Serbia and the other parts of the Balkans. During the Austro – Turkish wars, following the Karposh Uprising joint alliances were formed among the Balkan Christian leaders for joint action in the liberation from Ottoman slavery between the Macedonians, Greeks, orthodox Albanians, Vlahs, and other Christians, on which mutual negotiations had been held.

A movement for the restoration and liberation from Turkish rule appeared in the Ohrid Archiepiscopate during the XVIII century. This rise was met with resistance in the fanariotic circles in Tsarigrad who had a great influence over the activities of the Celestial Patriarchate, while a strong feeling of closeness to their spiritual throne grew within the Ohrid Church . The people wished to retain the historical continuity and greatness of Ohrid calling upon the annexations of the fanariotis, who on

the other hand wished to abolish the autocephaly and Archiepiscopate, and to have it join the Tsarigrad Patriarchate. In 1767 Arsenij, the last Archbishop of Ohrid had to withdraw before the influential circles. Hence, the abolishment of the Ohrid Archiepiscopate one year after the abolishment of the Pek Patriarchate was explained by its financial difficulties and material weakness.

The centuries old Christian living of the Macedonians from the time of St. Clement through the long history of the Ohrid Archiepiscopate till the time of the renaissance in XIX century, all contributed to the creation of masterpieces of universal significance, with exceptional esthetic value and deep humanistic message. Thus, in the churches and monasteries of Macedonia significant works of art were created with which humanity can be proud of. The icons in Ohrid, the frescos of St. Sophia, Nerezi, Nagoricani and Kurbinovo, the architecture, constructors, and the works of applied arts, all enter the anthology of significant achievements of their time. These works contain original characteristics and features connected to Macedonian cultural tradition and they represent a major contribution to Macedonian and Byzantine cultural and spiritual relations.

Macedonia is the cradle of iconography of the All Slavic speaking teachers and the presence of several hundred portraits of St. Clement and his contemporaries. This is sufficient evidence of the cultural continuity of the traditions of the Macedonians from most ancient times till the present day. The question is why is the presence of these apostles of Slavic speaking literacy not so strongly emphasized with the other peoples as it is in Macedonia ? This would be because their activities took place among the Macedonians and because their work became part of their living and beliefs throughout the centuries.

Macedonian spiritual space was never closed. Instead, Orthodox spiritualists, writers and artists, were always involved in the noble humanistic currents based on Christ’s learning and the traditions of St. Clement’s Church. Ornamental decorations as well as Glagolic and Cyrillic transcripts from the Ohrid school and created in Kratovo and Slepce during the period from X to XVI centuries are also specific occurrences in the history of Macedonian culture.

Many Macedonian artists also made their contribution to the neighboring Balkan peoples. Thus, many Macedonians took part in the development of art in Serbia and Bulgaria during the XVIII century and were involved in every Balkan environment to build the most complicated church structures. At the same time the Mijachki carvers enjoyed the respect of leading masters in the Balkans for a long time.

A specific construction and arts culture developed in Macedonia even after the abolishment of the Ohrid Archiepiscopate, especially in the struggle of the church and school communities for performing church services in the Macedonian tongue. Thus, hundreds of churches were built throughout Macedonia , made of Macedonian stone, with Macedonian wood, Macedonian brick; with Macedonian soul and heart….All of these churches most often have monumental dimensions and a basilical shape in order to remind one of the greatness of the ancient church glory. The renaissance period in Macedonia brought with it a specific iconography within orthodoxy, with a special emphasis on the native Macedonian saints, their hagiographies, and on All Slavic speaking literacy.

All of this confirms that Macedonians made a huge contribution to the cultural and spiritual being of orthodoxy in the global arts treasure. For this reason the Macedonian Orthodox Church and the Macedonian people are shocked by the alleged special rights of certain orthodox churches to the ancient Christian Macedonian churches. It is incomprehensible that the works of the builders, carvers, icon painters, and writers of church books, all created for centuries throughout the past on Macedonian soil, could all be declared as non – Macedonian. It is a surprising fact that throughout the long presence of the feudal rulers throughout the XVI century, the gifts of the church founders and individuals at the time given for renovation or reconstruction of the older churches of the Early Christian and Byzantine period, are all being declared as foreign. In so doing they forget the ancient church founder’s principles that these gifts signify deep respect and prayer of the gift givers toward the ancient Macedonian churches and admiration of the holy traditions of the Ohrid Archiepiscopate. We need emphasize that the donation to a church does not represent a possession of the church, but instead, a prayer for

salvation of the donator. The church founder’s gift within the Ohrid Archiepiscopate, as in the other churches, represents admiration and not feudal possession of the amateur rulers of the Middle Ages. Christian monuments in Macedonia are the works of its builders and carvers, they were owned by every citizen of Macedonia , while their spiritual and artistic value was admired by every well intentional person, everyone who believed in the human values of love and peace among people. Church monuments truly were holy places for coming together among the Christians from every Balkan country and the world. For this reason the Macedonian people continue to protect these using the most modern methods, maintains them and cares for these buildings which are constantly open and accessible to every well intentioned believer and analyst from throughout the world, while the masters and donators communicated through these structures according to their spiritual virtues.

Macedonians have never treated the works of their creators in other countries as their own possession, but instead as a natural circulation of the cultural values and religious relations. The Macedonian people built spiritual and cultural shrines with a strong desire, love, and faith toward orthodoxy. In order to survive in these Balkan regions the orthodox people in Macedonia, throughout a period of about ten centuries, helped each other with the other nations, lent each other a Christian hand, and so survived slavery and assimilation, persecution, and injustice. He survived and will survive for as long as time runs and the world turns, for the Macedonian nation is Biblical, with a huge Christian soul, with faith, hope, and love of God and himself.

All Orthodox churches should finally face the truth in the eye and accept the objective reality that since 1958 the Macedonian Orthodox Church has lived and created independently according to the learning of the holy fathers and teachers of the Church, based on its Constitution and in the spirit of the Celestial and other assemblies and the pure Orthodox faith. The inconsistent attitude of the Orthodox churches toward the Macedonian Orthodox Church and their ignoring its church reality, all inflicts great damage not only within the Macedonian Orthodox Church, but to the holy orthodoxy in general.

It is a fact that the Macedonian people now live in their own sovereign, independent state – the Republic of Macedonia , which is internationally recognized. This was requested by the Macedonian people and citizens of the Republic of Macedonia and they voted for total sovereignty including independence of the church. The Macedonian Orthodox Church has lived an active independent life as a true domestic church, satisfying the spiritual needs of its believers in the country and abroad. Therefore, the Macedonian Orthodox Church and the Macedonian people must not be left alone in the winds of the Balkans, the crossroads of many faiths, nations, and religions.

Unlike the relations of the Macedonian Orthodox Church with its neighboring sister Orthodox churches, it nurtures good relations and collaboration with the Catholic, Anglican, Evangelist, Methodist, Lutheran, Adventist’s, and other churches, as well as with the Jewish, Islamic and other religious communities in the world. In the last forty years it has nurtured particularly good relations with Vatican and the Catholic Church in Rome . This collaboration was especially intensified in 1969 at the 1,100th Anniversary of the death of the Macedonian and all Slavonic educator, Saint Cyril of Solun. An idea was born then that on the 24th May every year in Rome in the name of the Macedonian people respect would be paid to St. Cyril and his epochal deed. A ceremony takes place at the famous basilica of San Klemente, the place of the modest grave of Saint Cyril of Solun. The ceremony takes place in the presence of a state delegation of the Republic of Macedonia, of the Macedonian Orthodox Church, representatives of the Holy See of the Italian state and religious institutions, organizations and associations, journalists and other public and cultural workers, friends of Macedonia, foreign tourists, church choirs, and believers from Macedonia who come to attend or to participate in this rare and significant event. In 1970 this was permanently inscribed in Macedonian and Latin on a copper commemorative plaque, expressing the veil of time past.

A similar manifestation is held every year in honor of St. Methodius in Elvangen , Germany . These manifestations are now known as “ Macedonia in honor of St. Cyril and Methodius.”

These ecumenical relations with the Macedonian Orthodox Church caused the Vatican certain difficulties in their relations with the Serbian, Bulgarian, and Greek Orthodox Churches . Some circles among these churches condemn the Vatican because of its good relations with the Macedonian Orthodox Church especially since Pope John Paul II has had the custom for a number of years to express his Christmas and Easter greetings in Macedonian as well as the other languages. They interpret these relations and meetings in Rome as breaking away of the Macedonian Orthodox Church from orthodoxy, forgetting that Vatican cannot but accept ecumenical dialogue with those Orthodox churches which wish to have such dialogue.

It is true that arguments between the Macedonian Orthodox Church and the neighboring sister churches will continue, which is nothing new in the history of the Orthodox Church. This is a “normal” step in recognizing the autocephaly of another church. Thus, in their solidarity to the Serbian church other Orthodox churches refrain from acknowledging autocephaly of the Macedonian Orthodox Church even though they know quite well that many of them, including the Serbian Orthodox Church itself had to survive the same experiences and expectations before they were acknowledged their independence. At the same time, there is no Orthodox Church that negates the existence and truth about the Macedonian Orthodox Church. However, there are Orthodox churches who continue to postpone official recognition of the Macedonian Orthodox Church because of obvious and understandable political reasons, submitting to the interests of their countries and governments. The Greek and Bulgarian churches do not recognize existence of the Macedonian nation so that they would not have to, as a consequence of this, recognize the existence of a Macedonian minority on their territory. Other Orthodox churches do not wish to enter a formal conflict with the Serbian Orthodox Church because this issue does not touch them directly.

The historical problem of the Macedonian Orthodox Church is extremely clear. It is one of the ancient local churches in the Balkans, headed by the Ohrid archbishop. It was founded and created by St. Clement of Ohrid, one of the disciples of St. Cyril and Methodius. At the same time all of these churches know that there is no returning once the autocephaly process has begun. Unfortunately, such is the history of the Orthodox churches not only in the Balkans but throughout the world.

Stories The Prehistoric Zets (Son-In-Laws) Risto, I read and understood the inscriptions of the names and surnames of some ancient Zets which were found in Macedonia. The link is http://www.unet.com.mk/ancient-macedonians-part2/voved-e.htm Zeting (Son-In-Lawing) is said to be the oldest prehistoric form of ruling. The following Zets lived in a period from 7000 BC to 1385 BC! ZET KUZO HERUZI (7000-6000 BC) ZET STOLE N'D'MSEJ (7000-5000 BC) Z'T T'RPE OD ORESHT (5000 - 4500 BC)

Z'T T'GIL T'FIL (Z'T TEGIL TEFIL) (2100-1500 BC) IG'L AL (1385 BC) UTIK (1385 BC) The "BIG" Question is: When are the bastardized Koine speaking Arvanitovlachs going to show us the inscriptions of the names and surnames of the prehistoric Zets which they have no doubt found on the territory of the Peloponnesus?!!! By Dusko L

DANNANS, NOT GREEKS!The bastardized Koine speaking ArvanitoVlachs are in denial. If we took a ride in Tito's time-machine and went back in time to approximately 1330 BC we would find that the "real" Dannans were the Hebrew conquered proto-Slavic Pelasgians of Morea (modern day Peloponnesus). Aye laid down the law and said that all people called Pelasgians were now to be called Dannans. Troy fell in 1250 BC. In the 8th century BC Homer in the Iliad mentions Macedonian tribes (Paeonian, Brygian or Phrygian, Pelasgian, Venets or Enets, etc). They fight on the side of the proto-Slavic Trojans against the Hebrew controlled Dannans! *In the 8th century BC, I believe the Romans got it wrong when they called a Eur-African Boeotian tribe who migrated to Sicily "Grecos". Much the same wayColumbus got it wrong by calling the American natives "Indians".”Grecos” is a Slavic word! In fact, G-re-cos means S-la-v (if people have been reading the Digest!)How can the Boeotians be G-re-kos/S-la-v when they are in fact hybrids? (ie. part Hebrew, part Nubian, part Pelasgian, part Phoenician, etc).

The indigenous tribes which constituted the ancient Macedonian state were purely S-la-v!(It would perhaps have been better for all if indeed the Romans had vaguely used the name Danaoi instead!)

Homer was a Pelasgian. Herodotus was hybrid. The Ancient Macedonians conquered the Ancient City States from 338 BC after they were provoked. Not surprisingly, the ancient Macedonians called the citizens of the ancient City States "Danajtsi" (Dannans), not Greeks (Grecos). By Dusko L

THE MYTHOLOGY OF OSIRISThe king Demi-god

By Samson Stanislavski, Phd,

University Parhon Bucharest , Romania European civilization and religion originate from Egypt , especially from the story of Osiris. Osiris has many explanations where the west Hellenised his name from :As-Ar.

Europeans changed the original, Egyptian name from “As Ari” to “OSIRIS”. During long history, scribes read the script from left to right, top to bottom and that’s why many of the names changed form, pronunciation and meaning. Osiris in its original form means Ka-Ra, the all powerful Ra, the sun’s spirit and power. Some historians claim that Osiris is synonymous with Ocharis, all seeing god. That is closer to the Macedonian word, ochi, ochari many eyes or all seeing eyes. Since Osiris is equated with omniscience, here we give the story, how he wanted to civilize the world and export his knowledge and technology to less advanced people. And so begins the story which also includes Macedonia in this plan and the origin of the word Macedonia . This text is taken from the book “Osiris And The Egyptian Resurrection” by E. A. Wallis Budge, in two volumes, Vol I, pages 10-11. First time published 1973, Dover publications, New York , USA . “Osiris was greatly devoted to agriculture. He was brought up in Nysa, a town of Arabia Felix , where he discovered the use of the wine. He was the first to drink wine. He held Hermes, in Egyptian Thoth in high honour, because of his ingenuity and power of quick intention. Hermes taught men to speak distinctly, he gave names to things that had none before, he invented letters, and instituted the worship of the gods, he invented arithmetic, music, and sculpture, and formulated a system of astronomy. He was the confidential scribe of Osiris, who invariably accepted his advice on all mattersOsiris’s Missions “Osiris raised a large army ,and determined to go about the world teaching mankind to plant vines and to sow wheat and committed the government of his whole kingdom to Isis , and gave her as an assistant Hermes, his trusted scribe who excelled all others in wisdom and prudence. Osiris took with him Apollo, in Egyptian Horus, Anubis who wore a dog’s skin, Macedon who wore a wolf’s skin, Pan, in Egyptian Menu, and various other skilful husbandmen. As he marched through Ethiopia , a company of satyrs was presented to him; he was fond of music and dancing and therefore added them to the body of musicians and singers, both male and female, who were in his train. Having taught the Ethiopians the arts of tillage and husbandry, he built several cities in their country and appointed governors over them, and then continued his journey. On the borders of Ethiopia he raised the river banks, and took precautions to prevent the river Nile from overflowing the neighbouring country and turning it into a marsh, and he built canals with flood gates and regulators. He then traveled by way of the coast of Arabia into India , where he built many cities, including Nysa, in which he planted the ivy plant. He took part in several elephant hunts, and journeying westwards he brought his army through the Hellespont to Europe . In Thrace he killed Lycurgos, a barbarian king, who refused to adopt his system of government. Osiris became a benefactor of the whole world by finding out food which was suitable for mankind and after Osiris’s death, he gained the reward of immortality, and was honoured as god.” The entire story above was taught to Alexander the Great by Aristotle, and there is nothing Greek in all this narration. Alexander The Great in his intention to conquer the then civilized world was to establish a universal kingdom like Osiris, whom he thought was his father at least spiritually.

The above story deserves some comments from the Macedonian point of view, as Macedonia was on the radar of Osiris’s plans, likewise St. Paul of the Bible of the Christian New Testament where he began the work of establishing a world Christian kingdom and Macedonia became one of this foundation’s stones. Macedon, one of Osiris’s apostles was appointed as governor of the land called Macedonia and in Macedonia was established the first monotheistic kingdom whose ruler was the Egyptian king Akhnaton, the worshipper of the single god Aton. The cult of Aton is still alive in the holy mountain Aton, in Aegean Macedonia, which became the holy Mountain of the Christians similar to Mecca of the Muslim world.

Book and other Reviews Dragi Risto,

I would like to inform you that this month has been published "Zbornik osme konference Izvor Evropejcev" (Proceedings of the Eighth International Topical Conference Origin of Europeans), Založništvo Jutro, Ljubljana 2010, and two books by Vinko Vodopivec: - "Starejša slovenska etnogeneza" (Ancient Ethno-Genesis of Slovenes), 407 pp. - "Jezikovni temelji starejše slovenske etnogeneze" (Fundamentals of Ethno-Genesis of Slovenes), 407 pp. Založništvo Jutro, Ljubljana 2010

These can be ordered at: jutro@siol.net or at vinko.vodopivec@uau.si

In the Zbornik there are the contributions by O. Belchevsky, which you helped redacting, A. Škokljev, S. Nikolovski, etc, a total of 15 contributions.

For Macedonians, in my opinion, should be interesting especially the book "Fundamentals ...", where on pp. 288-402 are collected all known Old Phrygian inscriptions and given their understanding using the Slovene language. It would be advisable that a Macedonian, knowledgeable in Macedonian dialects, would give the Macedonian-based interpretations of those inscriptions.

I wish you a successful next year!Tone

About the Hellenization of Southern (Aegean) MacedoniaA Review of 'Fields of Wheat, Hills of Blood'

"Elsewhere in Greek Macedonia, the term [en-] dopyi ("local") is used to refer to Slavic-speakers who had inhabited the region prior its incorporation into Greece in 1913; in the Edessa and Florina prefectures, for example, the phrase dopyos Makedhonas ("local Macedonian") is used by many to signify a Slavic-speaker, and his descendants." Perhaps this quotation from the book of Dr Anastasia Karakasidou was the reason why the same passed through various troubles before it was published. Or, maybe this was the main motivation for certain Greek extremists to accuse Dr Karakasidou of "high treason". When in 1993 she published one part of her research in the periodical "Journal of Modern Greek Studies (vol.11, 1993)", she received several death threats from US-based Greek right-wing

organizations, even before her colleagues had a chance to congratulate her. At the same time, the Greek newspaper "Stohos", describing her as a state-enemy, published both her address in Solun and her car registration number.

But she didn't give up, she continued with her research, and when the book was finished she made a publishing contract with Cambridge University Press. The surprise came when at the last moment Cambridge Press decided not to publish the book - allegedly because of the intelligence coming from the UK Embassy in Athens saying that such a step might endanger the security of British citizens who resided in Greece . The case has now gathered a great deal of world-academic attention. There were stories in the Washington Post and The New York Times. Three academic editorial board members resigned from the publishing house in protest at the decision. The "Karakasidou case" became known worldwide. Generating interest even before its publishing, the book was finally printed in 1997 by Chicago University Press. Today Dr Karakasidou is Professor at Wellesley College in the US , and her book "Fields of Wheat, Hills of Blood" is one of the most circulated among the students of anthropology and Balkan history.

This book, which is very readable and comprehensive, is an outcome of her fact-finding mission in the region of Assiros (originally Guvezna), a small town located twenty miles northwest from Solun. In the research that covers the time period from 1870-1990, Dr Karakasidou describes the life of the region's inhabitants, their migration, their customs, professions, languages, as well as the impact of the numerous wars on the population. Particularly emphasized is the role of the local notables in the processes of shaping or rather reshaping the national identities of the inhabitants. The local notables, known as tsorbadjihi (local Christian elite), merchants, priests, teachers and state administrators, consisted of the lowest but obviously the most effective tool in the process of national assimilation. According to Dr Karakasidou, the key factor in this process, until 1913, were the local tsorbadjihi and the Greek Church - Patriarchate. The Patriarchate had cleverly used its privileged position in the Ottoman Empire in opposition to the recently re-established (1870) Bulgarian Church (Exarchate), even though the later had noticeably enjoyed stronger support among the "Slav-speaking" population all over Macedonia . After the partition of Macedonia, beside the Patriarchate, state-sponsored schools and the Army (through the army-obligation for adult males) undertook the leading role in the process of nation-building of the Greek national consciousness among the non-Greek inhabitants, which at that time consisted of the majority of the population in Southern (Aegean) Macedonia. Those were the main assimilation-levers for the realisation of the state-sponsored project for the Hellenization of that part of Greece . In that respect, speaking about the situation in Assiros in the war-periods (Balkan Wars, Word Wars, and the Civil War), the author, using both oral memory and written history, brings the destiny of the "ordinary people" closer to the eyes of the reader.

Where in the region trade, agriculture, religion, common customs and mixed marriages had connected its inhabitants, it is easy to notice how, under the pressure of the neighbouring propagandas, year by year the differences (particularly in the language) became far more important than the similarities. For example, many "Slavic-speaking" women from the surrounding villages who had married into the Greek-speaking families in Assiros found themselves forbidden by their husbands or in-laws to speak their "native Bulgarian dialect" in their new households. At the same time, the author underlines that the labels "Macedonian" and "Bulgarian" represent synonyms, which, particularly today, are used in Greece interchangeably in reference to "Slavic-speakers", in respect both of their language and ethnicity.

Further on, one can understand the significance of the refugees (prosfighas) and their immense importance in the process of "national homogenization" of the young Greek state. Actually, Anastasia's

father was a Turkish-speaking prosfighas himself, compulsory evacuated to Greece in the wake of the Asia Minor War in 1922. His life had been deeply affected by the Greek nation-building process. And, although after his settling in the region of Macedonia he had acquired some sense of belonging to the Greek collectivity, yet every evening he would tune his short-wave radio to an Istanbul station and sing along with the slow Turkish songs, explaining to his little daughter their verses. From the comprehensive analysis about the colonization of this part of the country it becomes clear that the Greek nation, particularly in the regions of Southern Macedonia and Thrace , has derived from profoundly diverse ethnic and cultural backgrounds. The next method that had accelerated this process of state sponsored assimilation was the so called "voluntary resettlement" of the native population, mainly to Turkey and Bulgaria , but also to the East-European countries during and after the Greek Civil War.

All in all, the book represents a well-founded publication about the Hellenization of one small part of Southern (Aegean) Macedonia . Nonetheless, it gives us more than enough evidence to draw the conclusion that Macedonia has never been exclusively Greek. Moreover, at the beginning of the twenty-century, Southern Macedonia was a multiethnic region with an overwhelmingly non-Greek majority. As the Bishop of Florina (Lerin) Augostinos Kandiotis once said "If the hundreds of thousands of refugees had not come to Greece , Greek Macedonia would not exist today". The book is well worth reading. Unraveling the complex social, political and economic processes through which these desperate people become amalgamated within the expansionistic Greek identity, this book provides an important corrective to the developments of the "Macedonian Question".

Poetry

THIS MACEDONIAN SUN[The National flag]

By Spero Thompson

Patriots rose and fell in the llinden uprisingTurks holocaust villages, hope flees the land

Greeks, Serbs, and Bulgars drive out the OttomansPartitioning of Macedonia , their Balkan war prize demand

Europe ’s power struggles bring a darkness of night

Ilinden, Balkan, World wars; repeatedly Macedonia is overrunSunrise overcomes night, announcing a new day

In 1991 history records the rising of the Macedonian Sun

Macedonia ’s twentieth century featured bloodshed and hopeBegan in bloodshed, ending in independence, hope realized

A standard is raised to represent and identify themselvesBy symbol and colour, their nationhood is visualized

For so long a people oppressed and suppressed

Now masters of their own house and land

A century of, sultanate, monarchy, communism then autonomyToday under their own flag they stand

The Macedonian Sun, a boldly emblazoned flag

On a field of red, a golden risen sunThe sun signifies a new day of self –rule

Red, for a history written in blood, a memorandum

A banner derived from their ancient heraldic emblemEyes see… 'we are a people' its proclamationProud emigrant sons and daughters see it fly

World acknowledged, flag of their mother nation

Historically, countries play leading or supportive rolesNow Macedonia is cast in a modern part

Ally to all who pursue peace and democracyThe Macedonian Sun, their pledge of national heart

Reader, listener, understand the meaning of this flag

With both prospect and retrospect you will seeThe sun looks ahead, to a new era begun

Red, looks back on blood, sacrificed for country

This century, as nations strive, ideology against ideologyFly in honour and freedom, oh Macedonian Sun

Until all flags are lowered, required no moreWhen His kingdom come, Gods will be done

From the Archives

Ex German ambassador - What the European archives speak about Macedonia

German Ambassador: “Never yield to Greece ” http://macedoniaonline.eu/content/view/3315/1/Former German Ambassador to Macedonia , Hans Lottar Stepan in an interview with Mia, Mina, A1, says Macedonia should not under any circumstances yield to Greece . He also calls Macedonia a “victim of Europe ’s 20th century conspiracies”.

- Your Excellency, for your book “The Macedonian knot”, you have received numerous awards. Most recently the “Krste Petkov Misirkov” award, but also award from Macedonian Academy of Sciences. How much these awards mean to you, as a satisfaction for your 15 years of research on Macedonia .

I became a spiritual warrior for Macedonia . I have received awards from the County of Kisela Voda , from MANU, and the latest from the Ramkovski Foundation. It’s an honor for me to receive any, and all of them, I am very happy.

- Arguments you have put forward in your book, “The Macedonian knot” have helped many people

here and abroad to learn about Macedonia , its history.

I am convinced that if any politician wishes to understand today’s political conflict between Macedonia and Greece , must look deep into the history. This history proved what I believed, for example, Greece prior to 1913 had never had Aegean Macedonia in its possession. Not in Antic, not in Roman, not during Ottoman, not at any point of time did Greece had anything to do with Macedonia .

Only after an outrageous breach of international law in 1912-1913 during the Balkan Wars, together with Bulgaria and Serbia & Montenegro . They all occupied and took Macedonia , Thrace , and Epirus .

The main basis here is, Greece has illegally stolen Macedonian territory, which is against international law.

This historical connection is independent from the right of Macedonia to self determination. Everyone on earth has the right to self determination, so does Macedonia , and no one can change this.

-Your public speaking on Macedonia , as well as your positions in your book are somewhat different from Official German Politics.

When I returned home, after I had spent three years as a German Ambassador to Macedonia , I had few speeches in Germany , regarding Macedonia , the Balkans, Southern Europe , Yugoslavia etc. I began to understand I am missing information on the origins, on the identities of the Balkan peoples. I spent several months in Bonn , looking at the vast Archives of the German Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Then spent several months in Berlin .

It is then and there that I realized what Macedonia ’s neighboring countries are asking from you is completely unjustified and quite simply ridiculous.

- You had sent letters to members of the European Union, NATO, to Scheffer and Barroso. Can we expect that a German diplomat not receive a response from EU and NATO?

The EU and NATO are aware that Greece is very ’skillful’. The EU and NATO are completely aware that Greece is lying to them and to Macedonia and are even more aware that they should put a stop to it.

All this is coming from a country that calls itself a “cradle of democracy”. Greece must have responsibility for truth and justice.

The European Commission also saw through Greece ’s lies. If they continue to show their fake solidarity to Greece , then we are talking about bigger interests behind the curtains. I believe the background is the Balkan Wars and the relations between the Balkan League and the Entente*.

Editor Notes:

* The Entente is a French word for a diplomatic “Understanding”. The ‘entente’ was struck in 1904, by the two founding members: France , UK to expand their influence and governing of other countries. This entente is responsible for France 's and UK colonies in Africa , Europe , Asia . The “Entente” existed since the early 1800’s however was put in writing much later.

UK , France and Russia decided to expend their influence at the expense of the Turks. Both countries contemplated, and decided it was better to have a country called “ Greece ” than the Ottoman continuing dominance in Southern Europe . The Russians agreed.

Since 1829, the French, UK and Russian Army battled the Ottomans with great losses on both sides.

In 1832 the Ottomans gave up, hence the creation of Greece commenced.

The first ruler of the new country hand picked by UK and France was Prince Otto of Bavaria . It was the German prince who thought of introducing the “Latin” but later decided to introduce the long lost “Koine” language to a Turkish, Albanian speaking population. The “Koine” language today is known as “Greek”.

Macedonia remained under Ottoman rule, even though in 1903 the Macedonians became the first people on the Balkans to defeat the Ottomans without outside help. The UK and France decided not to help Macedonia even though the people there were holding off a 400,000 Ottoman Army for 10 days. The Macedonians were considered not subservient and extremely difficult to rule, in comparison to the Greeks.

In 1912-1913, the UK and France expanded their influence in the Balkans through Greece by occupying parts of Macedonia . UK and France viewed this as their territory, not as Greek. In 1944-45, the Greek Army (DAG) promised the Macedonians a “self governing” Aegean Macedonia if they would join their war to overthrow French and UK ownership of Greece . Ethnic Macedonians , around 80,000 of them entered the DAG. The UK and French ruled Greek Army suffered major losses. Reinforcements of about 250,000 British and French soldiers were brought in, under the excuse “The Communist are coming”.

What DAG and the Macedonians tried to do is overthrow the foreign French and British rulers. Eventually, the Macedonians and DAG gave up and fled, were not helped nor equipped by anyone and could not sustain fighting for a long time against the constant fresh reinforcements of British and French soldiers.

Today, UK has still major influence and control over Greece , and Greek politics, even though officially are out of it. Officially, the UK is also "out of" South Africa .

Interestingly enough, France has also asserted its influence in Greece after a brief hiatus. Macedonia is negotiating with UK and France , not with Greece . Greece doesn't have control of Greece since 1832. The Macedonian leadership may have realized this, which is perhaps why they are still 'negotiating' with " Greece ". Macedonia has said "No" to UK and France before, can do it again.

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