Tweet
MANY MODERN GREEKS TODAY BELIEVE NO MACEDONIANS EXIST IN MACEDONIA
Risto Stefov, [email protected]
American Chronicle
October 20, 2008
CA
Forgive me if I sound like a broken record but believe me I am trying
very hard to comprehend this Greek identity phenomenon which, like
a chameleon, changes to mask itself in its current environment.
Greece it seems is evolving but it is a sort of sideways evolution. If
you have been paying attention to the Greeks you would have
heard their claims that first there were no Macedonians living
in Greece, then after the 1980s Greek-Macedonians lived in Greece
but nowadays all kinds of Macedonians live in Greece, except for
Macedonian-Macedonians. Even the Greek Prime Minister Karamanlis
publicly announced this "fact" and called himself a Macedonian
too. I should also remind the reader that when Greece first acquired
Macedonian territories by force of war in 1913, it called its 51%
of Macedonia "New Territories" then "Northern Greece" and after the
1980's, just as the Republic of Macedonia was getting ready to declare
its independence from Yugoslavia, it renamed the region to "Makedonia".
Today however, according to some Greeks, there are
all kinds of Macedonians living in Greece except for
Macedonian-Macedonians. Macedonian-Macedonians? What is that? Isn't
that a bit confusing?
That is exactly the whole point! That is precisely how Greece likes
people to be, CONFUSED!
If you ask some nationalistic Greeks they will tell you that
there are all kinds of Macedonians, there are "Greek-Macedonians",
"Bulgarian-Mac edonians", Serbian-Macedonians", "Albanian-Macedonians",
"Romanian-M acedonians", "Russian-Macedonians", "Slavo-Macedonians",
"Armenian-Mace donians", "Jewish-Macedonians", "Muslim-Macedonians",
"Christian-Ma cedonians", "Vlach-Macedonians", "Turkish-Macedonians",
"Roma-Macedo nians" and a whole slew of other types of Macedonians
living in Greece today EXCEPT FOR "Macedonian-Macedonians". They
will also tell you that "Skopjans" and "FYROMians", among others,
live in the Republic of Macedonia but NO MACEDONIANS.
While the Macedonians (and by Macedonians I mean the real Macedonians,
you know the ones who according to Greece don't exist) and the rest
of the world are expecting Greece to move forward and recognize the
Macedonian minority in Greece, Greeks are going off on a tangent
fabricating "Macedonian ethnicities" while refusing to recognize the
existence of the real genuine Macedonians. Why?
Why will Greece not admit to the existence of Macedonians in
Macedonia? What is Greece afraid of?
Obviously, by fabricating a variety of "type of Macedonian" let's
call them X-Macedonians, Greece is trying to confuse the uninformed
into believing that Macedonia is a land of immigrants who are only
geographically associated with Macedonia. According to Greece,
there are no real Macedonians in Macedonia; they vanished a long
time ago. The idea here is to give you the impression that Macedonia
has no indigenous people living on its soil which is ironic because
Greeks refer to the real Macedonians living in Greece as "endopyi"
which in Greek means indigenous.
Yesterday there were no Macedonians at all but today there is a full
range, a full spectrum of Macedonians. Why is Greece doing this? Why
are some Greeks risking being ridiculed around the world and I mean
literally being ridiculed around the world, to cover up the existence
of Macedonians by inventing the X-Macedonians?
Perhaps they feel that no-one will notice the "bland Macedonian"
if they are surrounded by an array of "flavourful and colourful
X-Macedonians", right? Sort of camouflaging the real with made up ones
or cloaking the truth among a dozen lies. What better way to minimize
the worth of the real Macedonian with a variety of X-Macedonians.
Well only the Greek architects of this fiasco know for sure why they
are doing it, we on the other hand can only speculate!
It has always been my belief that Greece will do anything to hold
onto Macedonian lands and to the Macedonian heritage. Blinded by the
glory of the ancients, modern Greeks committed acts of violence to
recapture something dead and long gone. In the process they hurt a
lot of people, not only Macedonians but also some of their own. Most
Greeks are aware of these realities, especially those in power,
but refuse to face up to them.
The price for achieving Hellenism, which in modern terms is nothing
more than a myth, was the destruction and death of a number of real
and vibrant cultures. There are many Greeks even today who still
buy into the idea that the cultures their state destroyed were not
worthy of saving. It seems that modern Greeks prefer living the myth
of Hellenism over the reality of being Albanians, Vlachs, Turks,
Macedonians, Roma and a number of other ethnicities that make up
their multi-ethnic Greek nation-state today.
What is unfortunate about this is that Greece never bothered to ask
people what they preferred. They simply bulldozed the old and real
for the sake of creating the new and artificial.
There are Greeks today who refuse to accept the fact that they are
descendents not of the ancient Greeks and ancient Macedonians but of
the modern Albanians, Vlachs, Turks, Roma, Macedonians and others;
the very same ethnicities they so loathe and despise.
So why are Greeks afraid to admit that Macedonians exist? Allow me
to state the reasons!
If they admit to Macedonians living among them, then they will also
have to admit to the horrible things they did to them like lying to
them about their existence, forcing them to become Greeks and imposing
on them their Hellenic artificial values.
They will have to admit that it was wrong to invade Macedonia and
take Macedonian lands illegally and by force of war.
They would have to admit that they were wrong in expelling people
from their homes and native lands during those massive population
expulsions they perpetrated against an innocent people whose only
fault was to be born Macedonian.
They would have to admit to being wrong in punishing people and
sending them to prison for speaking their native mother language,
the only language they knew.
They would have to admit to being wrong for changing all the toponyms,
hydronyms, people's names and giving them alien names which they
truly despised.
Greeks instinctively fear the loss of Macedonia, their breadbasket,
because they know exactly how they acquired it. But let me tell
you of an old Macedonian saying which goes something like this;
"that which you fear, you can not escape".
The truth is there is no harm in calling yourselves whatever you want
but as far as being X-Macedonians you are not! Political motivation,
fashion and desire to please your state are not prerequisites for
belonging to an ethnicity, especially to the Macedonian ethnicity. Only
Macedonians can be ethnically Macedonians. "Greek-Macedonians"
cannot be ethic Macedonians or ethnic Greeks (if there is
such a thing) because they belong to a third category called
"Greek-Macedonians". Also in order to belong to an ethnicity,
that ethnicity must have its own existence, its own history and its
own natural place in the world. "Greek-Macedonian" is a politically
motivated idea, a belief in something that has no physical existence,
which in actual fact is more like a cult than an ethnicity.
The only reason that there is even a mention of X-Macedonians is to
serve anti-Macedonian interests, mainly those of Greece and Bulgaria
which both deny the existence of Macedonians.
So do X-Macedonians really exist or are they another modern Greek
fabrication? You be the judge!
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress
Risto Stefov, [email protected]
American Chronicle
October 20, 2008
CA
Forgive me if I sound like a broken record but believe me I am trying
very hard to comprehend this Greek identity phenomenon which, like
a chameleon, changes to mask itself in its current environment.
Greece it seems is evolving but it is a sort of sideways evolution. If
you have been paying attention to the Greeks you would have
heard their claims that first there were no Macedonians living
in Greece, then after the 1980s Greek-Macedonians lived in Greece
but nowadays all kinds of Macedonians live in Greece, except for
Macedonian-Macedonians. Even the Greek Prime Minister Karamanlis
publicly announced this "fact" and called himself a Macedonian
too. I should also remind the reader that when Greece first acquired
Macedonian territories by force of war in 1913, it called its 51%
of Macedonia "New Territories" then "Northern Greece" and after the
1980's, just as the Republic of Macedonia was getting ready to declare
its independence from Yugoslavia, it renamed the region to "Makedonia".
Today however, according to some Greeks, there are
all kinds of Macedonians living in Greece except for
Macedonian-Macedonians. Macedonian-Macedonians? What is that? Isn't
that a bit confusing?
That is exactly the whole point! That is precisely how Greece likes
people to be, CONFUSED!
If you ask some nationalistic Greeks they will tell you that
there are all kinds of Macedonians, there are "Greek-Macedonians",
"Bulgarian-Mac edonians", Serbian-Macedonians", "Albanian-Macedonians",
"Romanian-M acedonians", "Russian-Macedonians", "Slavo-Macedonians",
"Armenian-Mace donians", "Jewish-Macedonians", "Muslim-Macedonians",
"Christian-Ma cedonians", "Vlach-Macedonians", "Turkish-Macedonians",
"Roma-Macedo nians" and a whole slew of other types of Macedonians
living in Greece today EXCEPT FOR "Macedonian-Macedonians". They
will also tell you that "Skopjans" and "FYROMians", among others,
live in the Republic of Macedonia but NO MACEDONIANS.
While the Macedonians (and by Macedonians I mean the real Macedonians,
you know the ones who according to Greece don't exist) and the rest
of the world are expecting Greece to move forward and recognize the
Macedonian minority in Greece, Greeks are going off on a tangent
fabricating "Macedonian ethnicities" while refusing to recognize the
existence of the real genuine Macedonians. Why?
Why will Greece not admit to the existence of Macedonians in
Macedonia? What is Greece afraid of?
Obviously, by fabricating a variety of "type of Macedonian" let's
call them X-Macedonians, Greece is trying to confuse the uninformed
into believing that Macedonia is a land of immigrants who are only
geographically associated with Macedonia. According to Greece,
there are no real Macedonians in Macedonia; they vanished a long
time ago. The idea here is to give you the impression that Macedonia
has no indigenous people living on its soil which is ironic because
Greeks refer to the real Macedonians living in Greece as "endopyi"
which in Greek means indigenous.
Yesterday there were no Macedonians at all but today there is a full
range, a full spectrum of Macedonians. Why is Greece doing this? Why
are some Greeks risking being ridiculed around the world and I mean
literally being ridiculed around the world, to cover up the existence
of Macedonians by inventing the X-Macedonians?
Perhaps they feel that no-one will notice the "bland Macedonian"
if they are surrounded by an array of "flavourful and colourful
X-Macedonians", right? Sort of camouflaging the real with made up ones
or cloaking the truth among a dozen lies. What better way to minimize
the worth of the real Macedonian with a variety of X-Macedonians.
Well only the Greek architects of this fiasco know for sure why they
are doing it, we on the other hand can only speculate!
It has always been my belief that Greece will do anything to hold
onto Macedonian lands and to the Macedonian heritage. Blinded by the
glory of the ancients, modern Greeks committed acts of violence to
recapture something dead and long gone. In the process they hurt a
lot of people, not only Macedonians but also some of their own. Most
Greeks are aware of these realities, especially those in power,
but refuse to face up to them.
The price for achieving Hellenism, which in modern terms is nothing
more than a myth, was the destruction and death of a number of real
and vibrant cultures. There are many Greeks even today who still
buy into the idea that the cultures their state destroyed were not
worthy of saving. It seems that modern Greeks prefer living the myth
of Hellenism over the reality of being Albanians, Vlachs, Turks,
Macedonians, Roma and a number of other ethnicities that make up
their multi-ethnic Greek nation-state today.
What is unfortunate about this is that Greece never bothered to ask
people what they preferred. They simply bulldozed the old and real
for the sake of creating the new and artificial.
There are Greeks today who refuse to accept the fact that they are
descendents not of the ancient Greeks and ancient Macedonians but of
the modern Albanians, Vlachs, Turks, Roma, Macedonians and others;
the very same ethnicities they so loathe and despise.
So why are Greeks afraid to admit that Macedonians exist? Allow me
to state the reasons!
If they admit to Macedonians living among them, then they will also
have to admit to the horrible things they did to them like lying to
them about their existence, forcing them to become Greeks and imposing
on them their Hellenic artificial values.
They will have to admit that it was wrong to invade Macedonia and
take Macedonian lands illegally and by force of war.
They would have to admit that they were wrong in expelling people
from their homes and native lands during those massive population
expulsions they perpetrated against an innocent people whose only
fault was to be born Macedonian.
They would have to admit to being wrong in punishing people and
sending them to prison for speaking their native mother language,
the only language they knew.
They would have to admit to being wrong for changing all the toponyms,
hydronyms, people's names and giving them alien names which they
truly despised.
Greeks instinctively fear the loss of Macedonia, their breadbasket,
because they know exactly how they acquired it. But let me tell
you of an old Macedonian saying which goes something like this;
"that which you fear, you can not escape".
The truth is there is no harm in calling yourselves whatever you want
but as far as being X-Macedonians you are not! Political motivation,
fashion and desire to please your state are not prerequisites for
belonging to an ethnicity, especially to the Macedonian ethnicity. Only
Macedonians can be ethnically Macedonians. "Greek-Macedonians"
cannot be ethic Macedonians or ethnic Greeks (if there is
such a thing) because they belong to a third category called
"Greek-Macedonians". Also in order to belong to an ethnicity,
that ethnicity must have its own existence, its own history and its
own natural place in the world. "Greek-Macedonian" is a politically
motivated idea, a belief in something that has no physical existence,
which in actual fact is more like a cult than an ethnicity.
The only reason that there is even a mention of X-Macedonians is to
serve anti-Macedonian interests, mainly those of Greece and Bulgaria
which both deny the existence of Macedonians.
So do X-Macedonians really exist or are they another modern Greek
fabrication? You be the judge!
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress