the history debates have not changed since i joined the forum, and the name issue has got nothing to do with history its about human rights. but it seems that as far as greeks are concerned we as a people do not deserve the most basic human right of all self identification.

findlay tells it as he saw it writing in the mid 19 century, most of the territory of ancient hellas was occupied by albanians who spoke albanian and thessaly was overwhelmingly vlach, but this historical reality is apparently not an issue. albanian was spoken in villages in attica in the 1950s i personally witnessed it and the peloponese still according to one of the few honest greeks i have met in australia.

in macedonia most christians were "slav" speaking at the turn of the century , but our greek posters dont use language and kin as an ethnic identifier they use the patriarchist and exarchist church affiliations instead.
my fathers village was a patriarchist village therefor we would be considered by our greek posters here as greeks, despite the fact that no one from that village spoke greek or felt greek. if the border was 500 meters to the north of where it is now, i would either have been a pure greek a bi lingual greek or at the worst a deluded slavophone who didnt realise he was greek but clung to a macedonian identity.

we will never convince the modern greeks about their or our historical reality, because their opinions are not based on facts but on the emotional attachment to the idea that being greek makes them some how better than what they would have been had they kept their real cultures, its the typical grkoman mindset i have seen it with macedonian grkomani.

its based on fear, a sense of inferiority and shame. most greeks know deep down who and what their immediate ancestors were. i am confronted by it at nearly every disscusion about family histories. they will admit to their grandparents or parents speaking another language at some time in their life, a language such as macedonian albanian vlach or turkish but then glibly dismiss it as if it is of no relevance.

in greece i met 4th generation greeks of german decent and we have on our board a greek with some spanish heritage, but they have no problems being greek after a hundred years or so. while i cannot be a macedonian after countless generations, unless of course i admit to being greek then hey presto i can be macedonian.

its absurd nonsense all of it.

I don't give a shit how deluded today's Greek speakers are, we have a right to protect our people there -- in their native homeland.

Osiris I've been backtracking to older topics lately and this one is still one of my fav's