The Macedonian Digest

“From the readers for the readers”

Edition 12 – December 2006

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Editor’s Notes

Dear readers,

      The next Macedonian Digest will be our 1^st anniversary edition. Please let us know if you like the format or not, the content and give us your ideas to improve it. Your comments will be appreciated.

Happy Holidays to you and yours,

Regards, Risto Stefov

Feature Stories

USA calls upon Greece to respect Macedonian minority

Skopje/Athens /12/10/ 17:05

      United States of America (USA) called upon Greece to respect the rights of Macedonian, Albanian and Turk minority.

      This was reported on Friday by Greek newspaper Eleftherotypia, stating that this stance has provoked severe reaction of the Greek Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

      The US call was addressed from Wednesday's OSCE meeting in Warsaw. US ambassador to Bosnia and Herzegovina, Clifford Bond, said that "The attitude in Greece towards people who belong to national minorities of Turks, Albanians and Macedonians continues to raise upset."

      According to the US diplomat, the strict abiding of the Lausanne Agreement prevents Albanians and Macedonians in Greece to be recognized as minorities.

      Bond also mentioned racist incidents towards certain Roma communities, the newspaper reports.

EFA says Bulgaria hampers registration of OMO Ilinden-Pirin

http://www.makfax.com.mk/look/novina/article.tpl?IdLanguage=1&IdPublication=2&NrArticle=41226&NrIssue=176&NrSection=20

Brussels /25/10/ 19:35

Bulgaria continues with putting obstacles to OMO Ilinden Pirin in its efforts to obtain a proper registration.
          
This is said in the letter sent recently by the European Parliament's grouping "European Free Alliance" (EFA) to the President of the European Commission, Jose Manuel Barroso, European Enlargement Commissioner, Olli Rehn, Council of EU Ministers and the highest Bulgarian authorities.
           
"Even a year after the European Court of Human Rights came up with a ruling ordering Bulgaria to accept the registration of OMO Ilinden Pirin, this country continues with increasing vigor to impede organization's activities, with an aim to prevent it from acquiring a legitimacy as a participant in the Bulgarian democracy", EFA's President, Mrs Nelly Maes, says in her letter.
           
"A Sofia's Court is due to respond to the request submitted by OMO Ilinden, however, the preliminary hearing that took place on 18 October 2006 turned out into a farce", Maes says in the letter, stating a number of facts related to ridiculous behavior of the Bulgarian authorities in their efforts to dodge registration of the party.
           
EFA raises numerous objections against the Bulgarian media as well, accusing them of partial reporting and lack of presentation of OMO Ilinden Pirin's arguments.
           
The letter ends with a conclusion that "an attempt for indirect evasion of the Strasbourg Court's ruling is in place, which qualified Bulgarian authorities' behavior as clear violation of the fundamental human rights".

Not another BIG Greek Lie?

GREEK LOGIC?

How can "they" [Greek media] make this:

"Mr. Lambros, it means we recognize Macedonia, the country, by its constitutional name. The United States Government does not recognize languages or other sort of sub-national groups like that as far as I know"

Into this:

“…from what I know the American government does not recognize a Macedonian language or other kind of sub-national groups such as this one (Macedonian)”.

Is beyond me!

Poor knowledge of the English language?

By Pzrinski

Dear Pzrinski, I don’t think so! This is “Greek Logic” at its best!

Risto Stefov

From the Slovenian “Zbornik”

VENETI: SLAV'S ANCESTORS

By Pavel V. Toulaev

      The core of the discussion around Veneti (Enetoi, Venethi, Vendi) is in the answer of the question whether they had been Slavs or not. Western scholars, Germans and Italians in particular, believe that Veneti having ancient roots, had not been Slavs, since the latter stepped on the historic stage only in the VI-th century A.D. when they took part in the destruction of the Roman Empire and got onto the pages of the Byzantine chronicles. The majority of the Slavic authors tend to regard Veneti as their ancient ancestors, although this point of view is not always well grounded and is not shared by all scholars.

      On the basis of historic facts and conclusions in scientific literature we can reconstruct in more detail the picture of the Venetic world starting from ancient times. Chronologically it may be divided into the following major stages.

      Before 1200B.C., the period of the Trojan War, the Enetoi, mentioned by Homerus and later by Strabo and other ancient authors, lived in Troas and Paphlagonia. They descend to Dardanus, Ilus and Pilemen, which manifested itself in the contacts of the western regions of Asia Minor with Thracia and Illyria.

      1200-VII century B.C. After the collapse of.Troy and Hittite Empire the Enetoi headed by Antenor first moved to Thracia and then to the northern coast of the Adriatic. The fellow-tribesmen of Enei (Aineias), the main hero of the "Eneide" by Vergilius and the legendary founder of Rome, colonized the western part of the Apennine peninsula. The civilization of Ethruscs also appeared in that area. At the same time there was migration of Paphlagonian Enetoi to Urartu, which comprised the Kingdom of Van.

      VI-I centuries B.C. After the collapse of the Tarquinius Dynasty the Etruscan centre shifted to the region of Etruria. In that period the Adriatic Venice, described by many authors including Herodotos and Tacitus, witnessed a formation of the union of towns with developed trade and culture. The Adriatic Veneti set out to follow the Amber Route alongside with many others. The Route led from the Mediterranean to the Baltic Sea via the Alps and Noricum in particular.

      I- IV A.D. the Veneti occupied a vast territory: from central Europe (evidenced by Plinius, Ptolemaeus, Julius Caesar) to the northwestern coast of the Baltic Sea, which was called Venetian by the contemporaries. To the east of the Danube in that period of time there came the tribe of Antes (Anti), which was related to western Veneti according to the Goths historian Jordan. The Antes moved from the South Bug to the mid-stream of the Dniepr. .

      V-VI century. Involved in the total movement of the Barbarians (Alans and Huns) and in the union with the related Slavic tribes (Sclavens) they intruded into the Roman Empire. They subjugated Illyricum, Northern Italy and conquered Rome. These events are described in detail by Procopius and other Byzantine historians. The tribe of the Vandals (Vandali) related to Antes and Vendi and headed by Slavic and Germanic chiefs, moved further to the West, passed in military action through Spain and founded the Kingdom of Vandals in Northern Africa.

      VII-IX c. The Slavs, called Veneti, Vendi or simply Veni by Germans and Finns, set up their own towns and princedoms on the vast plains of Europe: from the Alpine meadows along the Danube to the forests and steppes of the East-European Plain. The state alliance of Karantanians, Checks, Moraves and Sorbs (the middle of VII century) headed by the leader Samo was Slavic in its nature and disintegrated under the onslaught of Germans. The Baltic Slavs headed by Varangian Rurik imposed their authority in Novgorod and Kiev Russia inhabited by Slovens, Polens, Krivichi, Vyatichi and other related tribes.

      X-XII c. The Venetic civilization also developed on the southern coast of the Baltic inhabited by Pomors (Pomerans), Varii and Rugi. There appeared large religious centres (Arkona, Rhetra) and flourishing trade towns such as Volin (Vinetta) Stargrad, Szczecin. The whole region became known as Vindland, later Wandalia. The Pomorian Veneti had constant wars with Germans and the latter won the victory over them and destroyed Slavic towns.

XIII-XV c. The Germanic princes in alliance with the Catholic Rome established their supremacy in Central Europe. While militant monastic orders attacked Poland, Prussia and Lithuania from the west, Tatars and nomads ravaged Russian princedoms from the east. After the collapse of the Golden Horde and the conquering of the Orthodox Constantinople (Tzargrad) by Muslim Turks there started a fight for the hegemony in the Slavic world.

      From the methodological point of view the following issues of vital importance have been cleared up. The Veneti lived originally in Europe. In the course of centuries they repeatedly moved from different places of settlements to others, retaining the principle of the tribal system. The Veneti were ancestors of some ancient civilization, presumably Vincha, Aratta or legendary Hiperborea with its cults of the Olympic gods Zeus, Leto, Appolo, Artemide and also the ancestors of Etrusc-Pelasgs. In the Bronze Age they already had developed religion, culture and economy. In the process of expansion the Veneti founded city-colonies (Troy, Rome, Venice, Vinetta) at the periphery of the Proto-Slavic world. The colonizer possessed a developed culture traceable by its artistic reflection in the images of such heroes as Enei, Orpheus, Sadko, and Veinemeinen.

      Veneti are not modern Slavs but our ancient ancestors. And they are the ones from whom the genealogical line of the Slavs stems in its metahistorical aspect. The Veneti are not Germans, Scandinavians, Goths, Celts, Scythes, or any other but an independent historic community. This statement is of vital importance since we infer the ancestors Slavs were not "Arians", "Indo-Europeans" or "Eurasians" in the exact meaning of these modern terms. From the anthropological point of view they were Europeids, subjects of the White Race and bearers of its civilization. A more ancient "Indo-Europeans" ("Arians") community could have existed V-VI thousand years B.C. or even earlier, and Protoslavs had their own identity then as well.

      It is only natural that in the course of centuries our ancestors mixed with neighbouring tribes and were exposed to influence. Dynastic marriages also presupposed mixing of different blood strains. The name of Veneti implied most likely different ethnoses in different historic epochs. This does not mean that they were not related or had no continuity. The name of Veneti has survived up to now alongside with many features of the given community. We cannot deny that the processes of degradation and degeneration did take place but that doesn't mean that we should neglect our Venetic inheritance.

      Slavic Renascence calls for assimilation of all its spiritual and cultural wealth. Further studies of the Veneti will be more accurate. We are going to research every fact differentially applying new methods of comparative culture study, semiotics, linguistics, anthropology and genetics. We will differentiate between the name of the ethnos and its bearer, the ethnos and the language, the language and anthropology, one epoch and another. We will pursue our road of lovingly learning our deep-rooted ancestry.

      Finally I propose some practical ideas. We should think how to promote the new findings about Veneti in Slovenija and other countries of modern Europe. For this we must overcome ideological regionalism ("mestocentrism") and political myths. We should study carefully the existing documentary base and the literature on item. Many facts were well known before in previous centuries, but they are ignored now, they are just forgotten. We should organize International Scientific Council on Veneti which aim should be the improving the investigations, publishing papers and coordinating conferences.

      The treasures of the Veneti will have their say.

Source: The Sovenian Zbornik (Proceedings of the first International Topical Conference “The Veneti within the Ethnogenesis of the Central-European Population”, Ljubljana, September 17-18, 2001. Pages 35 to 37)

Issues

EU Fails National Minorities in Bulgaria and Greece

Macedonian Human Rights Movement International

Press Release - October 30, 2006

http://www.mhrmi.org/press/06/eu.html

      "Macedonians should be shot dead when walking the streets". Apparently the EU finds statements like this acceptable when they come from politicians from EU, or soon-to-be EU, countries. Bulgarian municipal councillor, Veselin Danov, recently made this statement when referring to Macedonian minority party OMO Ilinden PIRIN. (For background information please see MHRMI's press release of September 19, 2006, appended below.)

      The EU has a chance to effect positive change in Bulgaria's repressive political system but chooses instead to turn a blind eye. Human rights groups should not have to implore the EU to stand up for basic European values that the EU itself claims to uphold. According to Article 21 of the Charter of Fundamental Rights of the European Union:

 1.    Any discrimination based on any ground such as sex, race, colour, ethnic or social origin, genetic features, language, religion or belief, political or any other opinion, membership of a national minority, property, birth, disability, age or sexual orientation shall be prohibited.

2.      Within the scope of application of the Treaty establishing the European Community and of the Treaty on European Union, and without prejudice to the special provisions of those Treaties, any discrimination on grounds of nationality shall be prohibited.

      Long-time EU member-states also oppress their minorities without fear of repercussions. In an interview for the Macedonian daily newspaper Dnevnik, Greek Foreign Minister Dora Bakoyannis stated “I am proud of the capacity of Greek democracy. All citizens of Greece have equal rights. I am sure that you already know that in Greece there is only one minority in Western Thrace and those are the Muslims. There is no such thing as ‘a Macedonian minority.’” Greece's human rights violations against its Macedonian minority have been well-documented since Greece's entry into the EU in 1981. (Background information at www.mhrmi.org/reports/06/annual_greece.html)

      Bulgarian courts are set to rule on the registration of OMO Ilinden PIRIN on Wednesday, November 1, 2006. MHRMI calls on the European Union to enforce the European Court of Human Rights October 20, 2005 decision in favour of OMO Ilinden PIRIN's immediate registration and to make Bulgaria's accession to the EU explicitly conditional on its recognition of its Macedonian minority. Furthermore, MHRMI appeals to concerned human rights organizations and NGOs to issue statements in support of the Macedonian minority in Greece and Bulgaria, and specifically, the immediate registration of OMO Ilinden PIRIN.

Bill Nicholov, President
Macedonian Human Rights Movement International
Address: 157 Adelaide St. West, Suite 434, Toronto, Canada M5H 4E7
Tel: 416-850-7125 Fax: 416-850-7127
e-mail: info@mhrmi.org website: www.mhrmi.org

ALBANIANS ARE VLACHS?

      According to 12th century historians, the Albanian tribes were ''Vlach speaking''.

      According to N.G.L Hammond, Wace and Thompson and T. Winnifrith, the original Albanians were “Vlachs”.

      YOU my friend and all your Gheg brotherhood, are IMPOSTERS.

      Long live the Vlachs [and Macedonians].

      Well, what I am saying is that historians in the 12th century were calling Albanians ''Vlachs'', and ''Vlach speaking''.

      They should know, because in the 11th and 12th centuries, there was a large Vlach empire in Epirus and Albania - again, Epirus and Albania are 'geographies', actual physical landscapes - not an 'ethnic group' of its own..

      So an Albanian in the year 1280 was an ethnic Vlach. An 'Albanian' in the year 2006 is not. That is the first distinction I draw.

      And the key Illyrian tribes that ruled Albania [again, the geography], which modern ''Ottoman Albanians'' claim descent to, were ethnic Vlachs, according to the same historians.

      Vlachs have their own names for places. Albanians use Slavic names for most of their places. To me this means that Albanians don't have long roots in the Balkans.

      And the “linguistic” link for Ottoman Albanians to ancient Balkan lands is very weak. Modern Albanians have some words that appear in ancient Illyrian [but so do the Russians], and they have other words that appear in Baltic languages [but so do the Romanians], and they have words that appear in ancient Thracian [but so do the Macedonians and Bulgarians], BUT what separates the Albanians from the others are key words that compares their language to the more established language of areas of the east.

      Ottoman imports for the most part - with a language admixture that confuses people.

By Paul

OH, THE LIFE OF THE AMATEUR HISTORIAN

      Unfortunately too many people pretend to know history but in reality do not understand it at all. The name Macedonia is one of the most famous and well known in ancient Europe, so famous that Bulgarians, Serbs and Greeks have all tried to appropriate it.

      As Europe expands modern 19th and 20 century formed nations such as Greece will lose their significance as regions once again begin to reassert themselves.

      Greece has been able to fool most of the world so far but the day will come when the nation forged out of the union of Vlachs, Tosk Albanians and whatever else, will begin to lose its homogeneity and raison d’etre.

      I am afraid that many of today’s inhabitants of Aegean Macedonia who have no links whatsoever to us true Macedonians will one day also become proud Macedonians, without the need to preface it as Greek-Macedonian.

Greek-Macedonians you are one of a long line of lost souls trying to convince yourselves that history is static and does not change, you are in for a rude shock.

      Now that there is a de facto Macedonia the name will become once again a separate and distinct name denoting an ethnicity, culture and language, you cannot stop it nor can the rest of your neo Hellenic buddies.

      Just do me a favour and make sure your children or their children don’t want to become Macedonians that would be so disappointing because we don’t need them we are enough.

      If 20,000 were enough to destroy Greece and Persia then our few million today are enough to help destroy your bizarre Hellene and false identity.

By Osiris

WHAT’S AT STAKE FOR MODERN GREEKS?

      Well, they have only their identity and written history to lose!

      Racial prejudice came to Greece from Western Europe. You know that whole idea of racial superiority. It didn't happen immediately, but the subsequent expropriation of lands from various ethnic groups, without compensation, provides the economic base for Greece then, as it does now. Justification for this process of expropriation involved the denial of various ethnic identities and their claims to justice, and this prejudice is becoming a part of the written history of modern Greece.

      The Greek State eventually completely rejected any responsibility for its ethnic groups. But the assumed ''homogeneity'' of the new Greece [based on a wish rather than reality] was soon being contrasted with the “dangerous diversity” and a fear that Greece will not survive as a State went with the myth of ''homogeneity'' is exposed and this has been a commonly held fear ever since.

      This commonly held belief regarding the fragility of the Greek State, stems from its inherent diversity.

      Officially, the Greek State contends that the recognition and encouragement of cultural and racial diversity, reflected ostensibly in the numbers of ethnic groups that still reside in Greece, threatens social cohesion and national unity. Subsequently, ethnic groups are severely censored and criticized for speaking out. Support for restrictive laws has been reinforced against ethnic expression or diversity. There is official opposition to action such as this because the Greek State believes it threatens to change the existing social order, whether economic loss is feared, or as it the case, a loss of status, where a despised and ostracized person gains their rightful heritage, and/or exposes the others State sponsored belief in themselves as a 'myth'.

      This racism in Greece comes from its uniqueness, and is the product of that country’s historical and social context; its frailty, its vast diversity, its denial.

By Paul

Opinions

GENES, GENES, GENES!

      When we talk about the genes one thing comes to mind!

      Why has nobody compared the DNA from the Vergina tomb (and it can’t be only one) or other Macedonian tomb with contemporary Macedonian DNA? Of course I have no problem if the Greek DNA is also compared. But my feeling is that the Greeks would not wait a second to show these results to the world. Still after so many years nothing happened!!

      On one website with genetic markers the Kalash people were closest to Yugoslav population, but I'm sure it’s the Macedonian population who is actually the closest. Still no new research is done.

      Isn't it all a "little" suspicious?

By Antioch

MACEDONIANS FIGHTING BACK!

RE: Comments made by the Bulgarian President Georgi Parvanov in an interview for "Euronews" on 24-09-06 where he stated:

.."Bulgaria was the first country to recognize Macedonia under its constitutional name."

.."When it comes to history, and we have a common history, I think there is a line to be drawn beyond which our own history cannot be stolen by anyone else."

.."However, I would say that these issues are best left to historians."

Reply: PART I

WHAT BULLCRAP!

This is typical BULLCRAP Bulgarian rhetoric!

      How can this bloke claim that both countries have a common (joint) history whilst maintaining a separate "History" for his own country, which he doesn't want stolen by anyone else?!

      There is no common (joint) history between Macedonia and Bulgaria. Macedonia has its own history. It is Bulgaria which is trying to steal Macedonian history.

      To start with, the word "History" is of Ancient Macedonian origin (proto-Slavic/Venetic). In the past tense "Stori" in Macedonian means "What Happened". The Ancient Macedonians were Indo-Europeans. The word is not of Bulgarian (Turko-Tartar-Mongolian) origin!

FIRST THERE WAS MACEDONIA IN THE BALKANS BEFORE THERE WAS A BULGARIA!

      To the east of the Ancient Macedonian Kingdom were the proto-Slavic Thracian tribes. THERE WAS NO BULGARIA!

      By 100 AD the Latin language of the Romans began its decline in the "eastern" part of the Roman Empire. The Koine language was the language of administration and commerce, far from the reach of the common Macedonian. The ordinary Macedonian citizens spoke in their native "oral" proto-Slavic language. (Through the absence of education and other factors during these long periods of Roman occupation the Macedonian language would be left without a script).

      In 313 AD Constantine (a Slav speaker from what is now Serbia) emerged victorious as co-Emperor with Licinius. Though, Constantine not long afterwards would be the sole ruler of the Roman Empire and would earn the title: "THE GREAT".

      Constantine opted for the city of Byzantium for a suitable location for his capital. (After all, Byzantium withstood the siege from King Philip II of Macedon and survived.) Constantinople would become the capital city of the Eastern Roman Empire known as the Byzantine Empire. The Macedonian territory and people would be incorporated within this empire. A truly multi-cultural Empire (NOT GREEK).

      By 500 AD Christianity had become the standard religion in Macedonia (and that of the Slav speaking people whom inhabited Thracian territory). The Macedonian language and culture re-emerged with it.

      By 670 AD the Bulgars were the next barbarian menace to enter Byzantine affairs. The Bulgars were a pagan people (a Turko-Tartar, Mongoloid race) the Khazars had forced down toward the Danube delta.

      From around the 830's AD the Bulgars who occupied Thracian territory (to the east of Macedonia) frequently raided and temporarily occupied Macedonian lands to the east and south (seldom the north). They never managed to obtain a "strangle-hold" on Macedonia permanently.

      The Bulgars were free to raid Byzantine territory in Europe because the Byzantine Army was busy fighting the Muslims in Asia. Eventually the Byzantines intervened, but instead of pushing the Bulgars out they settled for peace. Due to heavy casualties the Byzantine Emperor agreed to a Bulgar treaty. The Bulgars were recognized as an independent Kingdom, occupying lands south of the Danube into the Thracian plain. According to the terms of the treaty the Bulgar Khan was obliged to accept Christianity as his states religion.

      The numerically inferior Bulgars became assimilated into the larger indigenous Slav speaking population of Thrace. They adopted the Slav language and culture. The Macedonian brothers Kiril & Metodi from Solun enlightened the Bulgarians. (More correctly, the Bulgarians speak a dialect of the Macedonian language and not the other way around) It is paradoxical that the Bulgarians, a Turkic people who adopted the Slavic language and customs took a significant role in standardizing Slavic writing.

      In 893 AD Khan Simeon invited Kliment to the Bulgar capital Preslav. Simeon had some reservations about making the Slav language official and requested that Kliment modify it. Kliment refused wanting the work of Kiril to stay as it was.

      The relative peace in the Balkans was again disrupted in 969 when the Russian Sviatoslav decided to invade Bulgaria. The Russians had been active in the region for a while and were slowly encroaching on Bulgarian territory. The outright invasion was prompted by Khan Petars death. The Russians captured Petar's sons and heirs to the Bulgarian throne.

      With the collapse of Bulgar rule (and the absence of a Bulgar heir) and the absence of Byzantine forces the Comitopoloi brothers, David, Moses, Aaron and Samoil exploited the situation and organized an uprising. The uprising was successful. Taking full advantage, they formed a Macedonian State (which was eventually headed by Samoil).

      Tsar Samoil's kingdom lasted 42 years (976-1018 AD) He was firmly seated in the west with Ohrid being his capital. When Samoil died in 1014 AD his Kingdom/Empire was vast and included the whole of Macedonia (except for Solun) Thessaly, Epirus, Coastal sclavenes, Neretva region -as far as Serbia, Bosnia and a considerable part of Bulgaria. For the most part, the majority of the population living in Samoil's Empire was Macedonian with large Slav pockets south of Olympus down to the Peleponnesus. To a lesser extent their lived Bulgars, Serbs, Croats, Romani, Albanians and Vlachs. There were also migrants such as Vardariot Turks and Armenians.

      Samoil could have taken the Bulgar Crown. He didn't because he and his people weren't Bulgarians. After the death of Samoil the Macedonian State weakened and its lands soon came again under Byzantine sovereignty. The Archbishopric of Ohrid (the Macedonian church which was built during Samoil's reign) became subordinate to Byzantine authority and was incorporated into the Patriarchate of Constantinople. Macedonia was organized into 32 eparchies. The Bulgarian, Serbian and Albanian eparchies were also incorporated into the Ohrid Archbishopric.

      After the 1205 defeat of the Latin Emperor Baldwin and the Adrianople Crusaders, thereafter, the Bulgarian army once again began raiding and laying siege to Macedonian territory predominantly to the east and south-east of the country. As an occupier (once again temporary only before they were evicted) the Byzantine bishops were replaced by archpriests of the Trnovo church, which in 1235 became a Patriarchate. The power of the Archbishopric of Ohrid, which was somewhat eroded by the Serbian Church becoming autocephalous in 1219 was now further eroded with the formation of the new Bulgarian Patriarchate.

      By slowly stretching its frontiers into Europe the Nicaean Empire had gained much strength, especially since it took the greater part of Eastern Macedonia and Solun in 1246. After the eviction of the Latins in 1261, the seat of the Nicaean government was moved from Nicaea to Constantinople.

      This regime change in Constantinople was good for Macedonia. During its initial rule the Macedonian people experienced two decades of life without external harassment.

      The Byzantine Empire's downslide began in 1302 when a band of Turkish warriors under the leadership of Osman I defeated the Byzantine army near Nicomedia in north-western Anatolia and for the first time penetrated Europe. Osman I was the founder of the Osmanli, or Ottomans as they would later be known by westerners.

      After the Byzantine collapse in 1453, Ottoman triumph followed swiftly. The Ottoman Empire would supersede the Byzantine Empire, engulfing south-eastern Europe including Bulgaria (Thracian territory) Macedonia, Serbia, Albania and the region south of Olympus to the Peloponnesian peninsula for many centuries to come...

by A Digest Reader from Sydney, Australia

Reply: PART II

RE: Comments made by the Bulgarian President.

      As mentioned previously, the Macedonian Church, the powerful Ohrid archbishopric was active right up to the year 1767 when it was abolished by the Ottoman Sultan Mustafa III (on orders of the corrupt Koine speaking Phanariot Patriarch of Constantinople).

In the Russian - Turkish War of 1769 - 1744 Russian (Slav) forces badly defeated the Ottomans. By then there were already signs of cracks in the Ottoman Empire. The Treaty signed gave Russian ships access to the Black Sea / Dardanelles region.

      However, by then there were "other" Great Powers in western Europe who had their own political agendas. Almost all of them were "stake holders" in the (European part) of the Ottoman Empire.

      Russia saw the Balkans as a way to extend its shipping and naval might beyond the Black Sea and into the Mediterranean Sea. Thus, encroaching on the interests of the other Great Powers namely England/Great Britain and France.

      In the early 1800's Serbia was the first to emerge as an autonomous state, followed by Greece in 1832 (which was half its present size and created by England/Great Britain and France to "offset" Slav Russia).

      By 1870 Russia had chosen Bulgaria as her best avenue for expansion of her influence in the Balkans. This was by way of the strategic positioning of Bulgaria which had the Black Sea coast to its east and the Dardanelles canal was not far away either and hence the Aegean and Mediterranean Seas.

      Meanwhile many of the "Slav" people in the Ottoman Empire (in Macedonia and Bulgaria) were not happy with being ruled by the Koine (Greek) speaking Patriarch, and after Russian solidarity with the Greeks and the Patriarch they threatened to convert to Catholicism.

      In 1870 Russia convinced the Sultan to allow a new millet to be formed, thus creating the (Bulgarian) Exarchate Church which soon also established itself in Macedonia.

      Now, in addition to the Ottoman and Greek a "third" government was created that would rule the people in three conflicting ways (Macedonia included). Many Macedonians joined the Bulgarian church because it appeared to be the lesser of the two evils. (Even the jealous Serbians tried to get into the act)

      In early 1878 the Turkish armies were (once again) decimated by the Russians who penetrated deep into the European part of the Ottoman Empire. Turkey was forced to talk peace. Peace was negotiated between Russia and Turkey on March 3rd 1878 and the San Stefano Treaty was signed (without Western Power consent).

      The San Stefano Treaty (with the support of Russia) had created a "Greater Bulgaria" in the Balkans, including nearly all of Macedonia (except for Solun). This was Russian policy on how to obtain a strong position by making use of an enlarged Bulgaria in the Balkans.

      Macedonia was a major issue in European politics at this point in time because it was located at the convergence of Great Power spheres of influence.

      Disturbed and fearing the increase of Russian influence in the Balkans the Western Powers re-convened, revised and annulled the decisions of the San Stefano Treaty at the Congress of Berlin on July 13th 1878. Bulgaria was created at the stroke of a pen and Macedonia was given back to the Ottomans. Bulgaria then became obsessed with Macedonia. Obtaining Macedonian lands became a major objective of Bulgarian foreign policy. The Macedonian dispute had begun (as we can see nothing to do with history but more to do with territorial greed).

      Macedonia "sandwiched" between "three" wolves, Serbia, Greece and Bulgaria (unfortunately as it turned out placed there by nature) was the Ottoman Empire’s last "foot hold" in Europe.

      Without the Macedonian people's knowledge high level discussions and negotiations were taking place between the Great Western Powers (including Russia) and the "new" Balkan states on how to solve the Macedonian territorial question. Taking a look at the map, anyone can clearly see that Macedonia, a Slav nation (like Russia) would not be allowed to become an independent state because of its strategic position (that is, once the Ottoman Empire was no more).

      The consensus reached was that:

..Macedonia would be partitioned and annexed by Greece, Serbia and Bulgaria
..Macedonia would be divided along national lines

      Since there were no Greeks, Bulgarians or Serbians in Macedonia "these" nationalities had to be literally manufactured!

      This was done through religion via the national churches that were established there and through education by the schools founded and the teachers who were sent there. (These were the only legal authorities recognized by the Ottomans, in the legal absence of a Macedonian church)

      Thus began the "three" sided contest for Macedonia. The three competing sides began to divide (fool) the Macedonian people by affiliation to their respective churches. For example, Macedonians affiliated with the Bulgarian Exarchate Church would be counted as Bulgarians, etc, etc. Since there was no official or legal Macedonian church in Macedonia there were no Macedonians to be counted as Macedonians inside Macedonia!

      Unfortunately the Macedonian leadership did not see this as a threat to the Macedonian national consciousness and continued to organize the struggle against the occupying Ottomans. (The Internal Macedonian Revolutionary Organization or IMRO was formed in Solun in 1893)

      The foreign churches began to employ bands of armed brigands to terrorize the population and accelerate the process of making Greeks, Serbians and Bulgarians out of Macedonians. The Churches and armed bands co-operated with the Ottoman authorities which brought great harm to the Macedonian Revolutionary Movement. Many Macedonian Revolutionary Leaders were captured and assassinated as a result.

      The Macedonian Revolution against the Ottomans was one of the most organized but unfortunately most poorly executed revolutions that Europe had ever witnessed, poorly executed mainly due to foreign, mostly Bulgarian intervention.

      The Bulgarians were in the thick of things. They were so certain that they would annex Macedonia they made every effort to stifle the rebellion and turn the tide to their advantage. They did this through sabotage and outright assassinations of Macedonian Leaders.

      Even the 1903 Illinden rebellion itself was instigated by Bulgarian agents to start early so that it would fail. AND BULGARIA WANTS TO CELEBRATE THE MACEDONIAN NATIONAL DAY "ILLINDEN" AUGUST 2 1903 TOGETHER! ARE YOU SERIOUS!!!

      The failed rebellion and loss of leadership literally left the Macedonian population unprotected. The people turned to the Greek Patriarchate and the Bulgarian Exarchate Churches for solace only to be filled with false hope and to again to be betrayed.

      The final solution came down to Church affiliation.

      To avoid conflict with each other Greece, Serbia and Bulgaria began to negotiate with each other regarding the division of Macedonia by means of non-aggression agreements. But, to no avail...

By A Digest Reader from Sydney, Australia

Reply: PART III

RE: The comments made by the Bulgarian President

      The First Balkan War broke out in 1912 when Montenegro declared war on Turkey. Greece, Serbia and Bulgaria then followed suit. (There was a Macedonian contribution as well) The battles fought were almost entirely on Macedonian soil, with the League winning decisively in only six weeks.

      Yane Sandanski, a Macedonian Revolutionary leader called for Macedonian autonomy in view of the Macedonian contribution to the League's success. However, the occupying armies refused to budge and pursued Sandanski and his men. Sandanski resisted and stayed active in the Pirin region until his assassination by Bulgarian agents in 1915.

      Not happy with its share of Macedonian territory the Bulgarian army attacked its former allies in 1913 and started the Second Balkan War, again on Macedonian soil. The war was short lived as Romania, Montenegro and Turkey joined Greece and Serbia in dealing Bulgaria a catastrophic blow!

      Bulgaria was forced to sign the Treaty of Bucharest on August 10 1913. This is the agreement which has divided Macedonia among Greece (50%) Serbia (40%) and Bulgaria (10%).

      Macedonia was partitioned and its people became subject to the pressures of assimilation by all three countries. The neighbouring states were determined to turn the Macedonians into Greeks, Serbians and Bulgarians by any means possible even extreme violence if necessary.

      Bulgaria joined the Central Powers during World War I and fought against the allies. Bulgaria did this hoping to gain more territory from Greece and Serbia and in retribution for Greece and Serbia's part in the Second Balkan War. The Central Powers and Bulgaria were defeated. However, the Neuilly Treaty of 1919 preserved the Bucharest Division of Macedonia.

      After the Treaty of Neuilly some 46,000 Macedonians were deported from Bulgarian occupied Macedonia (under the pretext of being Greeks) for their past affiliation with the Greek church and sent to Greek occupied Macedonia. Likewise some 92,000 Macedonians were deported from Greek occupied Macedonia (under the pretext of being Bulgarians) for their past affiliation with the Bulgarian church and sent to Bulgarian occupied Macedonia.

      During World War II Bulgaria joined the Axis partners and occupied Vardar Macedonia. Following the defeat of Nazi Germany and the surrender of the pro-Nazi regime in Sofia, the Yugoslav National Liberation Army occupied Vardar Macedonia at the end of the war. The Treaty of Paris signed in 1947 respected the boundaries of the Neuilly Treaty of 1919, and so the Treaty of Bucharest in 1913.

      Meanwhile, on August 2nd 1944 Yugoslav Macedonia (formerly Serbian occupied) officially became a state within Federal Yugoslavia. The Macedonian people did their share of the fighting for the liberation of Yugoslavia from the fascists and earned their place as equals among the Yugoslav people.

      Towards the end of 1944, Bulgaria had accepted that the Macedonians (in Bulgarian occupied Macedonia) were a distinct nationality and should be given substantial administrative and cultural autonomy. Macedonian schools were established in Pirin Macedonia and Macedonian teachers arrived from the Socialist Republic of Macedonia (Yugoslavia)

      Bulgaria recognized a distinct Macedonian nationality in the Census of 1946 which recorded that 70% of the people in Pirin Macedonia were Macedonians.

      The Bulgarian Communist Party had decided that Pirin Macedonia would be tied to Vardar Macedonia in a Balkan Socialist Federal Scheme, and the Macedonian language, literature and history be taught in Pirin Macedonia. Even the development of the Macedonian consciousness in the people living in that region had been encouraged for almost a decade. The Yugoslav - Bulgarian initiative was tried but failed.

      The Tito - Stalin dispute was another turning point in the developments affecting Macedonia. Tito broke away from the Soviet sphere of influence in June 1948 and the Bulgarian Communist Party Leader Dimitrov died in 1949.

      The Bulgarian Census of 1956 recorded that there were 187,789 Macedonians who constituted 63.7% of the population of Pirin Macedonia.

      The Bulgarian policy towards Macedonia and the Macedonians was to soon completely change! Not long after, all the recently opened Macedonian schools were to be closed and the teachers sent packing back to Yugoslavia.

      In 1959 Bulgaria officially declared that it did not recognize a distinct Macedonian identity, also claiming that the Socialist Republic of Macedonia was not the republic of the Macedonians but an artificial, politically manufactured creation structured by Tito and the Communist Party of Yugoslavia! (This of course suited Greece just fine! Greece also applied this rhetoric when it suited their political needs!)

      The Bulgarian Census of 1965 officially declared that there were only 9,632 Macedonians in Bulgaria! (Was this rigged or What!)

      Bulgarian policy is aimed at slowly assimilating its Macedonian minority. Greece at times labeled the Macedonians in (the then) Socialist Republic of Macedonia as Bulgarians! This, in the hope that some day Bulgaria would lay a claim to that republic!

      In the Bulgarian Census of 1985 the Macedonians, Turks and other minorities in Bulgaria were recorded as "Bulgarians"!

      Although in January 1992 Bulgaria was the first country to recognize the independence of the Republic of Macedonia under its constitutional name, it did not recognize the Macedonian nation! This could only mean Bulgaria has territorial ambitions on the Republic of Macedonia!

      It is not at all surprising, therefore, that the Bulgarian government to this day refuses to recognize its ethnic Macedonian minority, thus infringing on the Macedonian people's basic human rights. (This in itself is a blatant violation of International Human Rights Conventions) Macedonian celebrations on historical dates are regularly blocked by government authorities, if need be with security and military forces. Macedonian organizations, the likes of OMO-ILINDEN continue to be the subject of oppression.

      EU membership for Bulgaria should be made conditional on the Bulgarian governments unconditional recognition of its Macedonian minority and the granting of their basic Human Rights.

      The original Bulgars were of Turko-Tartar-Mongoloid stock. The Modern Bulgarians are mere "hybrids" and/or "mongrels" who also have part Slav genes!

      Macedonian genes are ancient (proto-Slavic) with no Turko-Tartar-Mongoloid yoke!

      Macedonian stories and folk songs praise and embrace the likes of Philip II, Alexander The Great, Tsar Samoil, etc. They don't praise and embrace the likes of Khan's Presian, Boris, Simeon, Petar, Kaloyan, Shishman and others!!!

      The Holy Bible mentions Macedonia. There is no mention of Bulgaria!!!

By A Digest Reader from Sydney, Australia

Concerns

TITO’S CLEVERNESS WORRIES ME!

      That clever Tito, he was inventing Macedonians in Pennsylvania in 1906 when he was only 14 years old. Do you think this kind of information is in the Greek textbooks about the "Slavs Speakers"?

      The author seems clueless. He had no idea there were Macedonians until one of his students tripped over some local Macedonian headstones in Pennsylvania. Who is he to be teaching anything about Macedonians? Is this what passes for academics in the US?

      If he really wants to see some Macedonian headstones, he should go to Greece. There may be one or two left of the hundreds of thousands that the Greeks bulldozed in efforts to fabricate their artificial Hellenism in the New Territories.

      And he mentions Bulgarians but not Macedonians or Slavonic peoples. Where the hell does he think the Bulgarians came from? They originally came from the East speaking a Tartar tongue. Yet today they speak a Slavonic tongue. How does he explain that magic?

Colour me unimpressed.

By Maknews

Choices

My dear Greek-Macedonian friends,

      Greeks don't need YOU to defend THEIR country.

      They are armed up to their teeth. Even much bigger Turkey does not dare to attack them, and not to mention the small Macedonia.

      Not only that they don’t NEED you. They don’t even WANT you.

      Why?

      Because you are a living proof that their elaborate and expensive assimilation and homogenization program FAILED. Ninety six years have passed since they occupied Aegean Macedonia, and you are still there, you still talk your native Macedonian language, you still sing your native Macedonian songs and dance your native Macedonian dances [while you pretend to be Greek].

      For them, you are nothing but “hondokefalo vulgares”. You are the few who escaped the ethnic cleansings in 1913, 1924 and 1948.

For them, you are bilinguals, slavophone, dopii which means that even they see you as Macedonians. Oh, I know. After 1992 they did let you use “that name”. They even let you speak Macedonian in public. They even let you sing while you dance. Sing in Macedonian. They let you do these things but until when? You know and I know that they let you do all these things until they say so.

      For them you are a constant reminder that they didn’t break the spirit of our nation. Yes, they killed, imprisoned, and forced into exile many of us. But they didn’t break us.

Why?

      Because this land of ours, this Macedonia, is our native land. Our parents, grandparents and great grandparents were born here. We are not some transplants shipped from who knows where. Our roots are deep. They have TRIED but COULD NOT uproot us.

By Philip M

Free Advice

ZAC TO VASSILAKIS

Mr. Adamantios Vassilakis: Greek Ambassador to the UN.

(Note: VASSILakis. Basil > B > V > Va > Vo > In, and Sil > Power. "Vo Sil" means "In Power" in Macedonian! Sil > Il > iliy > "The Sun God". Sila > As in the "Power" of the Sun God Iliy.)

      The Ancient, Indigenous, proto-Slavic Macedonians revered/worshiped the Sun God Iliy. So too did other neighbouring indigenous proto-Slavic peoples such as the Illyrians, and the "southern" Aegean Pelasgians.

      The word "Vasileos" according to Modern Greeks means "King". However, as mentioned "Vo Sila e" in Macedonian means "he/she is in power". Vo > in, Sila > power. E > is.

Vasileos > Va-sil-e-os > Vo-sila-e

      The Ancient Sub-Saharan Afro/Asiatic Mycenaean Colonists adopted this word (Basil) from the indigenous millennium’s older "southern Aegean proto-Slav Pelasgians (who like the Macedonians were a group of Venets) after they settled Morea (modern day Peleponnesus) and the Aegean islands around 1, 600 BC.

      They jumped on the band-wagon and adopted Iliy for themselves, calling him Helios!

      Around 800 years later, around about 800 BC when the Ancient City-States were formed the dominant Sub-Saharan Afro/Asiatic Mycenaeans had assimilated with the indigenous "southern" Aegean proto-Slav Pelasgians when Egyptian and Phoenician (proto-Slavic) Colonists arrived who also eventually became assimilated in the new cultural melting pot.

      The word "Basil" >Vo-Sil proves that the Ancient Macedonians to the north were of Proto-Slavic origin. The Modern Macedonians too speak a Slavic language. They have "NO" Sub-Saharan Afro-Asiatic yoke in their genetic make-up!

      Queen Cleopatra (69 BC – 31 BC) was the last monarch of the ruling Macedonian Ptolemaic Dynasty in Egypt. *On an ancient coin which can be verified an inscription reads: "BACILICCAKLEOPATRA"!  VASILICCA > VASILITSA KLEOPATRA. Queen Cleopatra, female gender.

      So, if the Modern Greeks claim that the Fyromians (the term they use for the Modern Macedonians) are descendants of Slav invaders who came to the Balkans from the 6th century AD (this by the way is a Western concocted politically motivated invention) THEN WHAT IS THIS "SLAVIC" WORD (BASIL > VO-SIL > IN POWER) DOING IN THE VOCABULARY OF THE CITIZENS OF THE ANCIENT CITY-STATES???!!!

      As we can see the proto-Slavic word Basil > Vasil > meaning “In Power” was also applied to, for example, Queen Cleopatra before Jesus’ time! There were the Byzantine Emperors Basil I and Basil II from the ruling Macedonian Dynasty around about 1000 AD.

      Before these facts, even the gods are silent.

      Modern Greeks are merely hybrids and/or mongrels with no blood connection to the people of the Ancient City-States. However, this word proves the existence of a Slav component in the Modern Greek genetic make-up! The very same people they so loathe and despise!

By ZAC I -THE FIRST (Australia)

History

MACEDONIA: from the 15th – 18th century

      I remember the great subordination under which the Turk holds the emperor in Constantinople and all the Greeks, Macedonians and Bulgarians....As I said earlier, there are many Christians who are forced to serve the Turk, such as Greeks, Bulgarians, Macedonians, Albanians, Esclavinians, Rasians and Serbians……..(15th century, Bertrand de la Brocuiere)

      Nationalism as we know it today did not exist prior to the 19th century, therefore terms of people and places can be misleading and are deliberately manipulated by certain Balkan peoples in order to achieve their own personal gains. However, in the context of the above, where people are claimed by this or that nation due to how they were referred to in the past, where do all the instances fit which specifically make mention of Macedonia and the Macedonians? Can the term “Macedonian” be viewed as a geographic description even though it is placed side by side in the same sentence with Bulgarian, Greek and Serb, especially considering that those three peoples would use the very same source to claim their own existence as a “nation” during those times? Would it be right to consider the present-day Serbian people as “Bulgarians” because Turkish travelers such as Evliya Celebi speaks of Bulgarians in Belgrade? Or should we take these terms for what they meant at the time and not what they mean today?

      The name “Macedonian” never had a religious or social character unlike the terms “Bulgar”, “Greek” or “Romaioi”, which would be used in later years by modern-day Greeks and Bulgarians as “proof” of their existence throughout the ages. Below is a short chronological story of Macedonia and the Macedonians during the abovementioned era, which proves the continuity of the Macedonian name and the Macedonian people despite the other labels that may have become attached to them over the centuries of subjugation.

      During the year 1470, in a text written by a traveler titled Gio Mario degli Angiolelo, Macedonia is spoken of as being the home of certain nations, part of the text reads as follows;

       “The River Vardar is nearby, which flows through Macedonia...of which some are Greeks, others Macedonians, Wallachs and even Italians, as well as other nations....Greeks and Macedonians live there...”. Where are the Bulgarians? Why are Greeks and Italians mentioned as nations alongside the Macedonians if the name Macedonian, according to Greek scholars, never had a national or ethnic connotation? It is no secret that the Slavic-speakers of Macedonia are by far the most numerous, are we to assume that, if Macedonians are not Slavic, then they are not mentioned at all by this author as populating Macedonia? Hardly, the author here simply identified the majority population of Macedonia as simply Macedonians, and the majority population here were Slavic-speaking, naturally, if the Macedonians were Greeks there would be no need to differentiate between the two in such a passage. Such instances of distinction are even more numerous when the reference is geographical, such as the correspondence between Gavril, Archbishop of Ohrid to Archduke Ferdinand of Habsburg in 1589 which writes: “...the Turk, who from day to day has pursued and blackmailed us and our ancestors ....in the whole of Macedonia, Greece and the nearby countries...then among our countries we have Bulgaria, Serbia, Macedonia…”. Once again this is another clear distinction between Macedonia and the “three wolves” of the future. A couple of centuries after the Ottoman conquest of Macedonia and the Balkans, a certain letter from Pope Urban VIII to the Archbishop of Ohrid, Porphyrius Palaelogus, was written whereby the Ohrid Church of Macedonia is mentioned as the leader of the other churches in the region. Important to consider is the fact that Bulgaria and Serbia are cited as being individual regions and Archbishoprics distinct but subordinate to the head Archbishopric of Ohrid, which also includes other archbishops in Macedonia and even Albania under its wing. The text, written in 1624, reads as follows;

      “To the respected brothers Porphyrius Paleologus, Patriarch of Justiniana Prima of Ohrid and the other subordinate archbishops, bishops of Bulgaria, Serbia, Albania and of the other side of Macedonia.” What’s important in this text is the fact that it is obviously in reference to the Slavic-speaking churches, the same one’s which were forcibly closed and ‘Hellenized’ a little over a century later due to pressures on the Ottomans stirred up by the Greek-speaking Patriarch of Constantinople. Also, given the regions and text mentioned, there is no doubt that the Ohrid Archbishopric was viewed in the context of it being descended from Justinia Prima and the Slavic heritage of Cyril & Methodius, Clement & Naum, and Czar Samuel, hence described by right as the head of the Slavic Churches.

      The Ottoman millet system re-affirmed the notion within the empire that religion was identity, which was common practice during Byzantine times. Towards the end of the century conflict boiled over between the Austrian and Ottoman Empires which saw Vienna threaten Ottoman territory and advocate freedom to the Balkan Christians under Hapsburg protection, being also encouraged by a recent uprising in the region. The areas involved in this situation were those which are chiefly inhabited by Slavs, as mentioned in the Manifesto issued by the Emperor Leopold, where he calls upon “all the people who live throughout Albania, Servia, Mysia, Bulgaria, Silistria, Illyria, Macedonia and Rashka”. This uprising was known as the “Karposh Uprising” in the Kumanovo district of north-eastern Macedonia. In a letter shortly afterwards, this same Leopold calls upon the “Macedonian people” and offers them his protection and issues directives for his generals not to attack but to work with the Macedonians, which demonstrates that there was indeed a people who self-identified and were identified as Macedonians during this time, and that these people were Slavs. In any case this short-lived dream ended with the withdrawal of Austrian troops, and the result remained as was prior, with the Ottomans retaining their hold on the Balkan Slavic lands.

      Such instances although unsuccessful, contributed to the awakening of the Balkan peasants and their desire for a better life, hence the emigration of many Balkan peoples to various corners of Europe, mostly within the Russian or Austrian Empires. A little over half a century later, a group of these emigrants of various nationalities who had crossed the Ottoman-Austrian border into Vojvodina, put forth a request to the Russian imperial house that they be allowed to settle in Russia, whereby the Russians agreed. The importance of these documents is immense for, although before the founding of any nation-state in the Balkans, explicit mention is made of the Macedonians as a separate people alongside the Vlachs, Serbs and Bulgarians. Permission being thus granted, a year later in 1752 these Balkan peoples were allowed to form military brigades within the army in the hope and anticipation that one day soon they would be able to liberate their Balkan homelands and drive the Turk out once and for all.

      Encouraged by Russia as a Slavic Great power, the Balkan Slavs increasingly looked towards her as their saviour, while at the same time Slavic solidarity and unity played a key role in maintaining Russian influence. Not long after, during 1757 we have a letter addressed to the Russian Count Shuvalov written by an important Montenegrin identity who went by the name of Vasilije Petrovic, in which the Macedonian people are again spoken of as a separate people distinct from both Serbs and Bulgars. The content of the letter deals primarily with the protection of the Christian people in the Balkans, much would soon become complicated with the increased co-operation between the Greek-speaking clergy of the Orthodox Church and Christian millet, and the Turkish authorities. These instances occurred during the mid-18th century, a decade or so later the Slavic clergy was abolished in the Ottoman Empire, a concerted effort on the part of the Greek-speakers to quell the awakening national and separatist tendencies of the Slavs. With this move came a kind of de-nationalization of the Slavs before they could fully begin their construction, an incident which would have far-reaching complications within Macedonia during the struggles of the Macedonians to achieve nationhood.

      In 1773 the Macedonian regiment along with the others were disbanded, which resulted in the assimilation of these peoples into the mainstream Russian society, however links to the motherland and organizations were created and maintained, such as the Macedonian colony of St. Petersburg amongst others.

      Brothers, if we could form some kind of compilation for these few centuries it would be helpful in solidifying links between early Ottoman Macedonia and the road towards Balkan nationhood. Records are scarce for many during these first and mid centuries of Turkish rule. The instances I cited above all have their own sources, most of you already possess these, if there is anybody that doesn’t, feel free to ask. The more information we can get during this era the better.

By Soldier of Macedon from Maknews.com/forum

Stories

Excerpt from the book "The Macedonian conflict" by Loring M. Danforth

http://cache.zoominfo.com/cachedpage/?archive_id=0&page_id=278853565&page_url=%2f%2fwww.florina.org%2fhtml%2fbooks%2fdanforth%2fdanforth_excerpt.html&page_last_updated=4%2f4%2f2004+4%3a41%3a44+PM&firstName=Ted&lastName=Yannas

Ted Yannas: A Macedonian in Australia

      Ted Yannas is a short, heavy-set man with a shaggy black beard that almost hides the rugged features of his square face.' Whether he is speaking Macedonian, Greek, or English, his words emerge slowly and precisely with an intensity that suggests a troubled, at times bitter man. He drives heavy equipment for a living and owns his own construction company: Ted Yannas Excavations Pty. Ltd. of Melbourne, Australia.

      In his wallet Ted carries a small black-and-white photograph taken one night in 1959 in Thessaloniki. In the photograph Ted, a ten-year old boy at the time, stands with his parents and his younger brother and sister on a dark street in front of a huge neon sign advertising a local newspaper. The name of the newspaper, and the word spelled out in large capital letters across the top of the photograph, was MAKEDONIA.

      Ted's family was from Kladorabi (Kladhorrahi in Greek) a small village in the district of Florina just a few miles from the border between Greece and Yugoslavia. This was the third time they had made the long trip to Thessaloniki to take the medical examinations that were required for emigration to Australia. Ted's father had made the decision to emigrate in 1954 for several reasons. A few years earlier the Greek government had confiscated his family's land because a relative of his had fled to Yugoslavia at the end of the Civil War in 1949. More recently someone had told him not to waste his money sending Ted to high school. Ted would never get a job even if he did graduate. That's when Ted's father knew it was time to leave Greece.

      When he applied for a passport, Ted's father was told that he would have to go to the local police station and sign a statement renouncing the Communist Party. He didn't know what they were talking about; he'd never been a member of the Communist Party. He'd only been in trouble once in his life. During the Metaxas dictatorship, when he was eighteen years old, he'd been jailed for acting in a Macedonian performance of The Bloody Wedding, a popular play, which was also performed in Greek, about a Turkish pasha who kills a beautiful Christian woman because she refused to join his harem. By 1967, when Ted's family was finally given permission to leave Greece, it was too late for Ted to get a good education in Australia. Thinking back on all this, Ted says, "I left Greece with a knife in my back."

      When Ted's family came to Australia, they came as Greeks, as Greek-Macedonians. They went to the Greek church, not the Macedonian church, and they tried to avoid what they called "the partisan, the Yugoslav, side of the Macedonians." Ted's mother always used to say, "There's no Macedonia; only Yugoslavia and Greece." One day in school Ted's teacher introduced him to another new boy from Greece. Ted started speaking Greek to him, but the boy didn't speak Greek, so they tried to communicate in broken English. When the boy learned that Ted was from Florina, he asked if Ted knew Macedonian. From then on they spoke Macedonian, and they became good friends.

      During their first few years in Melbourne Ted and his family lived with an uncle, Nikos Karelis, who had come to Australia in 1954. Nikos' father had been arrested before World War II on the grounds that he was a Communist and that he was pro-Bulgarian. But he was a royalist; he supported King George. What kind of Communist could he have been? He fled to Yugoslavia in 1945. Nikos himself was put in jail and tortured in Florina during the Civil War. Then he spent six months in a prison camp on Makronisos, an island in the Aegean. Nikos says he suffered a lot at the hands of the Greeks. After he was released, his mother and his brothers went to Bitola to be with his father. As the oldest son, Nikos stayed in the village, but when the Greek government confiscated his family's property, he left for Australia. Nikos' wife remembers the day when her grandfather was driven away in a jeep by the Greek military police. "We never saw him again," she says. "No one knows where he was buried; there were bodies everywhere. They did a lot of bad things. They think we'll forget."

      Nikos was the first Macedonian in Melbourne to own a bulldozer. He hired Ted as a driver and got him started in the construction business. Once, several years later, Nikos recommended Ted for the job of digging the foundation for the new Macedonian Community Center in Epping, but the people in charge there refused to hire him when they found out he was a member of Heidelberg Alexander, the soccer team founded by people from Florina who were "pro-Greek." At work Ted would tell Nikos what he'd learned about Greek history in school in Greece. Nikos would say, "No. It wasn't like that. I lived it."

      When their financial situation improved, Ted's family moved into their own home, first in Northcote and then in Lalor, two working-class suburbs that spread across the flat plains to the north of Melbourne. One weekend Ted's father heard that The Bloody Wedding was being shown in Macedonian at a movie theater in Preston, a nearby suburb with a large Macedonian community. Ted's father hired a taxi-something he never did-to take the family to the theater. "As much as he was trying to be Greek here in Australia," Ted says now, "he just couldn't wait to see that movie." When they returned home afterward, Ted's father just sat with his head in his hands for hours. He didn't say a word; he just cried.

      In the early 1970s Ted was engaged to a woman whose family was originally from a village near Kladorabi. Vera's father had fought with the Communists during the Civil War. When the war was over, he settled in Yugoslavia, where Vera grew up. Vera was a Macedonian. Ted spoke English with Vera and Macedonian with her parents. Ted's parents wanted a Greek wedding-in the Greek church ' with Greek music at the reception; they wanted their grandchildren baptized in the Greek church as well. Vera's father agreed. At first Vera thought that Ted's parents were the same kind of people as her parents, but then she realized they were different. Ted's parents idealized everything that was Greek. Vera thought that attitude was disgusting. Ted had been brought up to believe that the Macedonian language was something inferior and useless, but Vera knew that wasn't true. She'd been to school in the Republic of Macedonia, where Macedonian was the official language. Sometimes they had dinner at a Greek restaurant run by one of Ted's aunts.

      Vera thought people there danced like Zorba the Greek. When Vera's father wanted to tease Ted, he called him "Grshto"-the Greek boy.

      After his father died in 1976, Ted decided to visit one of his father's closest friends in Adelaide. Ted had many things he needed to talk to him about, many questions he needed to ask. "I always thought I was Greek," Ted says now, "but there were things I couldn't explain. My brother and sister just accepted things; they believed what they learned in school. But not me. I always had questions. Why do we have two last names, Yannas in Greek and Yovanov in Macedonian? Why do we speak Macedonian? Why do they call us Bulgarians? My parents would say, 'Don't ask questions. Forget about it. Just leave it alone."' It was from his father's old friend in Adelaide that Ted finally got some answers. It was then that he learned for the first time about his relatives who had fled to Yugoslavia, about The Bloody Wedding, and about his father's renunciation of the Communist Party. Ted's parents had raised him as a Greek, but he was beginning to have doubts. Now he didn't know what he really was. A year later Ted and Vera took a trip around the world. First they stopped in Toronto to visit some relatives there. Then they went to Athens, where Ted had some cousins. Vera remembers being shocked by how completely Greek they were. When Ted and Vera finally arrived in Kladorabi after a long trip from Athens, a policeman told them they needed a military permit to visit the village because it was located in a sensitive border area. Ted simply replied, "I didn't need a permit to be born here, so I don't need a permit to visit here," and he walked away. During their stay in Kladorabi, Ted went to a bank in Florina to make the final payment on his family's land, which had been confiscated after the Civil War. All the years Ted's father had been in Australia, he had been gradually buying back his own land from the Greek government. The last stop on their trip was Bitola, across the border in Yugoslavia, where Vera's relatives lived. At a dance held to welcome their overseas guests Vera's relatives announced that they had a visitor from Greece and asked the band to play a Greek song in Ted's honor.

Alexander Versus Makedonia

      Ever since he came to Melbourne, Ted had been a loyal fan of the Heidelberg Alexander Soccer Club. Ted and his friends called it "our club," because it had been founded by "our people," local Macedonians from Florina. One of Alexander's biggest rivals was Preston Makedonia, a team which had also been founded by people from Florina, but people who identified themselves as Macedonians, not as Greeks. Alexander's other big rival was South Melbourne Hellas, the Greek team, or as some people put it, "the real Greek team." When these teams played each other, Hellas fans called Alexander fans "Bulgarians," Alexander fans called Makedonia fans "Yugoslavs," and Makedonia fans called Alexander fans "Greek-lovers" or "traitors."

      Some people went to these games for the politics, but back then, Ted said, he and his friends just went for the soccer. In 1979 Ted was invited to become an official member of the Heidelberg Alexander Soccer Club.

      Three months later he was elected to the executive committee. Alexander had just bought a new ground and needed to build a clubhouse and some stands. The club was short of money and couldn't afford to hire anyone to do the job, so Ted did all the earth moving for free. Two years later something happened that changed Ted's life forever. Alexander was scheduled to play a preseason game against Makedonia. This would be the first meeting of the two teams since Makedonia had joined the National Soccer League. Two days before the game a meeting of the executive committee of Heidelberg Alexander was called. Tommy Strikos, a member of the committee who worked in the Greek consulate, opened the meeting.

      "Gentlemen," he said, "I bring you a message from the consul. We can't play this game. This game has to stop." The consul was afraid that playing the game against Preston would give the Macedonians recognition. The stronger Preston grew, the more people would realize that it was a Macedonian club and the more people would realize who the Macedonians were. Strikos said that the consul was even willing to pay Alexander the ten thousand dollars it would lose by canceling the game. They would just tell Preston that some of their players were injured.

      At this point Ted stood up and said, "I don't like this. We're a sporting club, and you want us to get involved in politics."

      Strikos jumped out of his chair; he was furious.
      "Do you know why you're sitting in that chair?" he shouted at Ted.
      "I'm here to help the club," said Ted.

      "No you're not!" screamed Strikos. "You're here to help me destroy that race! As good Greeks we have to drown those people in the Yarra River!"

      Looking back on that incident years later, Ted says, "At that moment I realized he was talking about my people. He was asking me to destroy myself. That's when I understood that I was truly a Macedonian. Whatever part of me felt Greek died; it disappeared. My whole life passed in front of me, and I realized I was false. I felt like an adopted child who had just discovered his real parents. All my life had been a lie. I'd been a janissary; I'd betrayed my own people."'

      After every National Soccer League game the home team buys the visiting team two slabs of beer and one of soft drinks. When Heidelberg Alexander played Preston Makedonia during the 1981 season, no one on the Alexander committee would go into the Makedonia dressing room. Finally someone said to Ted: "You're one of them. You go." A few years later Ted quit Heidelberg Alexander and joined Preston Makedonia. But that's not the end of the story.

      After he left the club, Ted learned that John Topalis, Alexander's president, had removed Ted's name from the big mahogany board on the clubhouse wall that listed the names of all the committee members who had served the club since its founding in 1958. "They can't do that," Ted protests. "They can't write me out of the club's history. They can't change my history either. I was part of that club.

      I built the field myself, and now Topalis erases my name because I'm a Macedonian. What does he think he is? He's a Macedonian too; he just pretends to be Greek. His father was shot by the police in the Civil War because he played in a band that sang Macedonian songs. When I joined Alexander, we spoke Macedonian all the time. No problem. Now they say, 'What's that Bulgarian you're speaking?' So our people leave. Now you have to be 100 percent Greek to be in the club."

      Needless to say, officials of Heidelberg Alexander see things differently. One well- educated committee member talks about Ted in very sarcastic terms. "That ethnogenetic process is like Pentecost. The Holy Spirit descends on you and enlightens you, and you become a Macedonian. It's all Slav propaganda."

      Another club member, who had been a good friend of Ted's, speaks about him more sympathetically. "I lost my best friend. How can he say he's a Macedonian now? Until a few years ago he said he was Greek. We were the same; we were Greeks from Macedonia. Ted used to have a pile of records a foot high, and a stack of cassettes twice that high-all Greek music. When he stopped listening to them, he gave them all to me. I saw him changing ... wavering, and I said to him, 'Ted, I don't care. We're friends; let's stay friends. My house is always open to you, but don't talk politics with me. Don't insult me; don't call me stupid and backward.'

"But it didn't work. Whether he got smarter, whether he got stupider, or whether he got paid, I don't know. But it didn't work."

A Real Macedonian Patriot

      Now Ted is what many Macedonians call "a real Macedonian patriot." He contributes hundreds of dollars every year to organizations like the Ilinden Foundation, the Macedonian Action Group, and the Australian Macedonian Human Rights Committee. He attends all the demonstrations, rallies, and protests held by the Macedonian community of Melbourne for the international recognition of Macedonia and for the protection of the human rights of Macedonians in northern Greece. He often wears a "Macedonia '91 Folk Festival" hat and a T- shirt with a portrait of Gotse Delchev, or on more formal occasions a red lapel pin in the shape of a map of "United Macedonia."

      Ted recently held a surprise birthday party for a friend of his from Florina. Some men came dressed up as nineteenth-century Macedonian bandits, with wooden rifles and cartridge belts crossed over their chests. Their wives wore traditional Macedonian folk costumes. The birthday cake was decorated with a big red map of Macedonia, all of Macedonia. When it came time to cut the cake, the band sang the following verses from "Pearl of the Balkans," a popular new patriotic song:

      There is only one truth.
      There is only one Macedonia.
      Divide her! Tear her to pieces!
      She will still be our most dearly beloved land.

      But no one could bear to cut through the center of the cake and divide up Macedonia, so they just took small pieces from around the edge leaving Macedonia united and whole. A Macedonian driving by the hall where the party was taking place stopped his car in the middle of the road to see what was happening. He thought they were celebrating the recognition of the independence of Macedonia and that he had somehow missed the news.

      Wherever Ted goes, the conversation inevitably turns to the subject of Macedonia. One Friday night at the bar of the Epping Hotel on High Street in the northern suburbs of Melbourne, Ted was talking with Thanos, a Greek from Katerini. Thanos, unlike most Greeks, was willing to accept the fact that Macedonians existed who were not Greeks, but he was strongly opposed to the creation of a Macedonian state that would include any Greek territory. This wasn't good enough for Ted, though. Ted argued that Korea, Cyprus, and Macedonia were the only three countries in the world that were still divided.

      "If I've rented my house to someone for a year," he asked Thanos, "and I want to move back in when the year is over, what do I do? Don't I have the right to take it back?"

      Once Ted was talking with a man who had been born in Florina, but whose father had come to Greece in 1922 as a refugee from Pontos in Asia Minor near the Black Sea.

      "What am I?" the man asked Ted.
      "You tell me what you are," said Ted. "I can't tell you. What are you?"
      "I'm Pontian because my father was Pontian. But I'm also Macedonian because I was born in Macedonia. And I'm Greek too because Macedonia is part of Greece."

      "You want three identities, and you won't even let me have one!" said Ted. "You're not a Greek. You're a refugee, an Asian. You were made a Greek. You're not a Macedonian either. You were brought to Macedonia. You don't even speak Macedonian. Our people are the real Macedonians. Just because you were born in Macedonia, that doesn't mean you're a Macedonian. You can't choose what you are. Blood is passed down from father to son. You can choose what you want to be, but you can't choose what you are.

      "I'm a Macedonian, but I'm an Australian citizen too," Ted continued. "That's my choice. I didn't choose to be a Macedonian. I am a Macedonian. If I was born with black skin, I can't change that. I can choose my nationality, my citizenship, but that doesn't mean I can change the color of my skin. Your national consciousness can change. Fine. But the real essence of who you are can't change. Can the consciousness of a black make him white just because whites raised him and he lives like a white? No. His skin will still be black. You can choose to be a Greek the way I can choose to be an Australian, but you're not. I'm a Macedonian, and if you tell me I'm not, you can get stuffed."

      On another occasion Ted said, "We become what people tell us, but that's brainwashing. We don't change in natural fact. When we left Greece, we believed we were Greek. But we were made Greeks. When people ask me now, 'How did you change?' I tell them, 'My grandmother didn't speak Greek. Do real Greeks have grandparents who didn't speak Greek?' All the years I spent in Greek schools were useless. I got older and thought about who I was. Now I'm proud of who I am. I'm a Macedonian. Lots of people say that they're Greek-Macedonians. But you can't be Greek and Macedonian at the same time. You can only brainwash a Macedonian and make him a Greek."

      Ted says that ever since he realized he was a Macedonian, his relationships with his fellow villagers have been strained. Most of the other members of the Kladorabi Family Association in Melbourne are Greek. Ted doesn't go to the association meetings anymore. People don't even tell him when they're scheduled to take place; they say he's a troublemaker. Once someone asked Ted to sponsor the calendar put out by the association every year, but there's a Greek flag on it, so he refused. Ted still goes to the village dances, though, in spite of the fact that the master of ceremonies speaks Greek at the microphone and that people there dance mostly Greek dances. Ted is quick to point out that the Greek they speak is very broken and that "they'd break their legs if they ever tried to do the tsamiko." "Anyway," he adds, "the tsamiko isn't really a Greek dance. It's Turkish; it's from Asia Minor." But what bothers Ted most about these dances is the fact that the president of the Greek Community of Thomastown and Lalor is often invited as guest of honor.

      Vera does not enjoy going to the Kladorabi dances because she's afraid there will be trouble, the way there was a few years ago when Ted asked the leader of the band to play a Macedonian song. The leader of the band said that the organizers of the dance had instructed him to play only Greek songs. So Ted went up to a member of the village committee and asked, "Is this function to keep our culture alive in this country or what?" The committee member couldn't say anything, because he knew that back in their village they used to sing songs in that language. After a great deal of discussion the band was finally allowed to play a Macedonian song. But the song Ted requested was a really patriotic song they never sang back in the village. Ted's favorite verses were:

      Come, let us gather
      From all our villages and towns
      To shout together loudly:
      "Get out Greeks! We don't want you."

      People were furious with Ted for requesting a song that was insulting to Greeks. Ted's response was, "Why are you so upset? I don't see any Greeks here anyway. Besides, I didn't write the words. It's just a traditional Macedonian song." Ted says that even the Macedonians who are pro-Greek don't like to dance Greek dances all the time.

Words

The origins of the Slavic word “Srdtse”

      As explained in my previous analysis of this word, it is related to Thracian Serdica, stemming from Slavic “Srede” which means middle, and hence “Serdtse” for heart which is located at the middle of the upper torso. Check;

http://maknews.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=1566&postdays=0&postorder=asc&start=0


      The word “heart” is of European origin and has cognates in most indo-European languages, meaning ultimately they are of the same indo-European origin. Examples of these are as follows;

Cor; Latin
Cardia; Greek
Herz; Germanic
Croi; Celtic
Serdtse; Slavic

      As for the words meaning “middle” in the other languages, they are as follows;

Medius; Latin
Mesi; Greek
Mittel; Germanic
Lar; Celtic
Srede; Slavic


      The conclusion to this can only be one, the origin for this word is Proto-Slavic, Proto-European, and was adopted by others over the eras via various channels.

By Soldier of Macedon

Book Reviews

The Sun and the Beauty

      My name is Maria Makeski and I am proud to announce my first book publication. My book of poetry, essays and photos is called "The Sun and the Beauty" and I encourage every reader to check it out at my website www.lulu.com/makssmart . The book is devoted to my native Macedonia and will be an awesome Christmas/New Years gift to a friend or family member who loves to read or enjoys collecting books.

Here is something about me, the Author;

      I am a Wayne State University student majoring in theatre and film. I wrote poetry from early childhood, and as a young teenager won the Struga Poetry Night Award for Children. Besides poetry, I have written and produced a tragicomedy entitled "Vortex of Shadows." In 2006 my essay "The Global Agreement" was published by Elder and Leemaur publishers. I have also written poetry such as "Homesickness," "Blow, My Wind of Love" and others, some of which appeared in earlier editions of the Macedonian Digest. I have also received special recognition by the International Library of Poetry in the United States for my poem "Tomorrow".

      I am currently working on plays, network with local productions and plan to be involved in the theatre in the near future.

Always faithful,

Maria Makeski

THANK YOU FOR ADVERTISING MY BOOK!

      My 2003 book "The Ethnogenetical Difference between Macedonians and Bulgarians" has recently received some unexpected publicity on Wikipedia, by having had an image of the cover posted in an article about "racism": (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Racism#Scientific_racism).

      Thanks to the anonymous Bulgar chauvinist(s) responsible for the posting, many more readers now have the opportunity to learn that Macedonians were never of Turkic-Mongolian Bulgar origin (as modern Bulgarian propaganda claims), and I have the opportunity to set the record straight for a new audience.

      I would like to say thank you for the responsible persons who are in this way advertising my book.

      Concerning the front cover (in order this advertisment to be complete) I would like to explain the following. On the left side of the cover are three famous Macedonians: Alexander the Great; Gotse Delchev, who was a 19th- and 20th - century Macedonian revolutionary; and Metodija Andonov Chento, a Macedonian fighter against the German and Bulgarian fascist occupation of Macedonia in WWII, who was imprisoned by the Bulgars.

      On the right side of the cover are three famous Bulgars. The Bulgarian general Mostich who lived in the 10th century. Mostich's face was reconstructed by Bulgarian scientists based on the remains of his head found in his grave, and the illustration I used has appeared numerous times in Bulgaria . In fact, I took it from a book by the well-known contemporary Tatar historian A. Halikov (What Are We: Bulgars or Tatars? Kazan, Tatarstan, 1992, p. 10). The second picture is of the Bulgar khan Asparuh, who lived in the 7th century. In 1997, the Bulgarian authorities in Sofia pronounced him the "most popular Bulgar of all times." The image on my book cover comes from another contemporary Bulgarian history, Bulgarian Emperors by M. Atanasov ( Sofia : Vratsa ). The third face pictured is of the long-time Bulgarian communist dictator Todor Zhivkov, again taken from Bulgarian newspapers. So I didn’t “draw” these Bulgar faces by myself, but I took them from Bulgarian publications.

      The reason for posting the front cover of my book as "proof" for racism is obvious. The aim is to discredit my book as well Macedonian history in general. Today’s Macedonians, of whom I am one, are mostly descendants of the ancient Macedonians, and there is extensive evidence of this fact. Large parts of Macedonia and many Macedonians are included within present-day Bulgaria and Greece (which occupied these parts of Macedonia in 1913). Greek and Bulgarian authorities do not recognize the existence of the Macedonians as a separate nation, however, and want to prevent others from doing so as well, to avoid questions about the parts of Macedonia within their borders.

      In support of these policies, Greek and Bulgarian chauvinists often publish propaganda concerning Macedonian history, trying to present it as a part of their histories. Lacking solid arguments, they propound falsifications or use other methods to try to discredit Macedonian authors who are presenting the truth about Macedonian history. In my book, I present numerous historical sources for the separate histories of the Macedonians and the Bulgars. So, thank you once again for advertising it!

      Finally, I like to stress that I respect the Bulgarian people and want to make a modest contribution to the better understanding between our two nations; I have translated/published some Bulgarian writers in Macedonia. At the same time, I will continue publishing facts about Macedonians' history, and will thus continue the struggle against any chauvinistic and yes, racist, denigrations of my people.

Sincerely,
Aleksandar Donski

Poetry

The Imposter: A Shadow's Grave

From the depths of the ocean to the limits of the sky, one Earth survived under one man’s pry. Its beginnings unknown and its end still unclear, it gave birth to the shadow in the 356th year. Prior to this, as mentioned before, its beginning unknown and was sought but not more. The Myth arose, through the culture “advanced,” that its origin was god and was found but at last. It was believed that from god all cultures become, that like Helen and Troy, Makedon was son. Although validity lacked from the time it was sprung, it was the Myth of the day, the Myth of one’s custom. The Myth of the mountain, the Myth of the one, the Myth misinterpreted, the Myth of the sun.

The day was near, the 356th year, the son of the feared, the son would appear. The son of the second, the second of the sun, the sun, the symbol, the power to come. Some time would pass, the son would grow up, understanding the world and what had become. Ahead of his time, he would rise to the sky, upon a broken thrown he leapt, his duty disguised. Until death he rise, to many demise, success based upon his imposter disguise. From culture to culture, through all of the lands, the imposter would mold the world with his hands. From Egypt to Syria, from India to Thrace, the Macedonian would rule even the superior race. Blending cultures, the people the dance, itself was the culture, the Macedonian stance.

The ending was near, too many to fear, to large of a land, foreign people unclear. The imposter unknown to the people so close, the people alone would overthrow their own yoke. Not understanding the leadership of the fallen sun, even 2000 years later, not close to being one. From molding the world to falling to last, the yoke of the leader misunderstood as time passed. The Myth has revived, with a new agenda in mind, keeping us in divide, can’t you see it in their eyes. Beating us with our own disguise is not the worse but seeing your kin being pulled in a hurst. Understand the Myth with all of your might, defend your own culture, defend it through the night. The Shadow will rise from the grave in our time - again the Shadow will rise in the Imposter disguise.

By Mak Master

From the Archives

“MACEDONIA FOR THE MACEDONIANS”

William Gladstone

      The British Labour Party's Opinion on the Solution of the Macedonian Question After the First World War (1914-1918) the National Executive of the Labour Party in Great Britain adopted a special memorandum on the Macedonian Peace Treaty.

      In the memorandum is expressed the opinion of the Labour Party on the solution of the Macedonian Question.

      The memorandum, among other things states the following:

      "The declared policy of the Labour Party is no less flagrantly violated by the Peace terms presented. The principle of self determination has been completely abandoned, and the only apparent principle underlying the terms is that of encouraging the imperialism of our allies. These terms, unless revised, hold out no hope of permanent peace in the Balkans.

      "In Central and Southern Macedonia, the great majority of the population is Macedonian. Under the Peace Treaty these people are again to be handed over, as they were by the Treaty of Bucharest, 1913, to the hated rule of the Serbian, Greek and Bulgarian Governments by whom they were relentlessly persecuted during and after the Balkan wars; and Serbian territory is even to be increased by the annexation of Strumitza district, which admittedly contains no Serbian population whatever.

      "If the Macedonian character of Macedonia is contested, a plebiscite should be held under neutral auspices, and the inhabitants should be allowed to vote for autonomy, under the protection of the League of Nations, which the majority would probably prefer"…

Page 75, "The Truth about Macedonia". An American Missionary's Testimony

(The above was taken from pages 54-55 of the Booklet “Macedonians How Many are we World Wide?” Published by SOSMO A world wide Research Bureau Macedonian Statistical Census on Population) (SOSMO – Society for Oneness and Salvation of the Macedonian – Organization)

Feedback

REPLY TO STILIYANIDIS’S COMMENTS

RE: The recent comments made by Mr. Evripidis Stiliyanidis, an official of the Greek Foreign Ministry at a press conference for Deutche Welle (German) Television where he stated:

..The final solution to Fyrom's name has to be satisfactory to both sides (Greece and Fyrom).

.. In regards to finding a name there needs to be a combination that will define, on one side, the geographical reality on the ground, whilst on the other side, differentiating and respecting cultural and historical facts.

..Thus if we consider the first name proposal by the UN Special Envoy "Republika Makedonija - Skpoje" we can work towards finding a solution acceptable to both sides.

      These slimy, cunning, "greasy" comments are official Greek policy designed to rob the Macedonians of their proud heritage and culture, that if enforced, will enable Greece to continue to oppress and ultimately eradicate its ethnic Macedonian minority.

      For what the people of the Ancient City-States may once have been (even if they were heterogeneous to begin with! Assimilated Sub-Saharan Afro/Asiatic Colonists, Assimilated Indigenous "southern" Aegean proto-Slav Pelasgians, Egyptian Colonists, Phoenician Colonists, etc) the people of the Modern Greek State can hardly have much blood-relationship with them. Ancient Macedonians, Romans, Slaves (including Blacks from Africa), Goths, Huns (and other Barbarian invaders), "Other Slavs" (from North of the Danube), Franks and Venetians, Turks, Albanians, Roma, Vlachs, Jews, Egyptians, Armenians, Turkish Christian Prosfigs, etc........, in one invasion/settlement after another have made the people of the Modern Greek State a decidedly mongrel race!

      When Greece was born for the first time in 1832 it was unclear what her national character was? (Obviously, going by the above!)

      The Greek nation state was a product of western political intervention, a non-Slav "buffer state" designed to block Russian (Slav) access to the Mediterranean Sea! The name "Greece" was imposed on the Modern Greek Kingdom by the Great Powers Britain, France, Russia, etc (Britain and France by the way have still failed to recognize The Republic of Macedonia under its constitutional name today, whilst Russia has!) Modern Greeks call themselves "Hellenes" and their state "Hellas", which as we can see is also a deliberate fabrication!

      While Germany tried to establish Otto, the young Bavarian prince, as King of Greece, the French and especially the British were hard at work creating a history for this new "Greek identity". It was to be "modeled" after the Ancient City-States about whom the west had learned centuries ago from the Muslim Arabs in Spain.

      By using the name "Greece" to refer to both the ancient and modern people, the Greek state falsely implies descent for the modern Greeks from the ancients!

      The words "Greece" and "Greek" were popularized by modern 19th century writers. In fact the word "Greek" at the time [19^th century] was a reference to a "Class" of people and not an ethnicity.

      There were NO ancient maps or references with the words "Greece".

      The Romans may have made some references to the ancient people living in Sicily as "Grecos" but they referred to the region south of Olympus as Achaia. During the Ottoman era the people living south of Olympus called themselves Romeos (Romans).

      Greece is a newly created state which never existed before the 19th century. The Kingdom of Greece, occupying the region of Morea (present day Peloponnesus) was created for the first time in 1829. Between 1829 and 1912 the Greeks enlarged their territory to present day Greece by conquering Epirus, Thessaly and 51% of Macedonia.

      The Western Powers decided to re-engineer Ancient History to model the Modern Greek State after the Ancient City-States. Ancient Macedonia, however, extinguished all the Ancient City-States when she annexed them. Only through a "Hellenized" Ancient Macedonia could modern writers claim continuity for the Greeks!

      Falsifying Classical History to say that the Ancient Macedonians were Greeks does not explain how and why there are "Slavs" all over the Balkans (including Macedonia). Never Scientifically proven, the so-called 6th century AD "Slav invasions" of the Balkans were concocted to cover up thousands of years of Macedonian culture and influence in the Balkans (and beyond).

      The Slavs were always in the way of Greek Nationhood and for that reason the "real Macedonians" became and still are Greece's worst enemy.

      By the late 19th century Macedonia, a Slav speaking nation (like Russia) under Turkish occupation, would not be allowed to become an independent state by the Great Powers (Britain, France, etc) due to its strategic position in the Balkans.

      When the Greek northern border was extended illegally by force in 1913, a section of the Slav speaking indigenous Macedonian population (formerly Ottoman occupied) fell within the borders of Modern Greece (51% of the Macedonian territory). Ever since the Modern Greeks (following in their tradition) have tried to convert this particular group of Macedonians into Greeks (remembering the Greeks are hybrids and/or mongrels themselves) using illegal means. They even replaced the St Kiril & Metodi -Solun church icons and Cyrillic inscriptions on grave stones with Greek characters as "finishing touches" to their falsification of Aegean Macedonia calling it the "New Territories" and later "Northern Greece" until 1988.

      On August 2nd 1944 the Socialist Republic of Macedonia was proclaimed within the frame-work of Federal Yugoslavia. (This was the 38% of Macedonian territory which was previously annexed by Serbia in 1913 and under Serbian occupation) It’s important to note that the Socialist Republic of Macedonia was the FIRST to use the name "MACEDONIA" whilst Greece was calling its newly annexed northern province "Northern Greece"!!!

      Approximately three years before the Yugoslav Federation began to disintegrate in 1991 Greece cleverly changed the name of its northern province to Macedonia!? There are two words to describe this politically motivated move: "ABSOLUTE STUPIDITY"!!!

      In other words, at the start of 1988 (just before Greece changed the name) there was the Socialist Republic of Macedonia within Federal Yugoslavia and across the border there was the province of "Northern Greece" within the Republic of Greece.

      As of 8th September 1991 there was The Republic of Macedonia and across the border the northern Greek Province of Macedonia!!!???

      The Greek (Godfather) initiated name proposal "Republika Makedonija - Skopje" is unacceptable. This proposal will give Greeks the green light to call the Macedonians "Skopjani" and/or "Skopjans"! A highly offensive and derogatory term.

      The only acceptable solution is "The Republic of Macedonia" which defines the Macedonian ethnicity (as recognized by the US, Russia, China and many others). Anything but this name will allow Modern Greece to maintain its "FAKE" Macedonian history, which would be detrimental to the Macedonians in the Republic of Macedonia (not to mention the Macedonians in Greece, and for that matter the Macedonians in Bulgaria, Albania, not to mention the Macedonians throughout the entire world).

      Greece should turn back the clock to 1988 and change the name of their illegally annexed northern province back to "Northern Greece". (Technically Greece could call "this" province "New Macedonia" which would imply a geographical concept. This would be similar to the arrangement between the nation of Mexico and the US state of New Mexico)

      Greece has to recognize its large ethnic Macedonian minority and grant them their basic Human Rights (This is in accordance with International Human Rights Conventions of which Greece is a signatory party)

      Greece should do away with their false Macedonian history and give up their Macedonia dream.

      Greece should change and/or re-write its own false history...

By Dimitria, Melbourne, Australia

ZAC’S REPLY TO GEORGE P.’S E-MAIL ON DNA

RE: George P's article "DNA" which appeared in the "E-Mail (s) of the month" section in the Macedonian Digest # 10.

Dear George,

      As a matter of fact recent independent DNA and Genetic experiments have been conducted on Southern Balkan and Mediterranean peoples! (Wake up you people!)

      The results conclude that the INDIGENOUS Macedonians are one of the most ANCIENT peoples existing in the Balkans (before 7,000 BC!), long before the arrival of the Sub-Saharan / Afro-Asiatic Mycenaean Colonists (about 1,600 BC)!

      Macedonians were in the Balkans BEFORE and are NOT related to the geographically close "Modern Greeks"!

      "Modern Greeks" have a relationship with the Sub-Saharan ethnic groups now residing in Ethiopia, Sudan and West Africa (Burkina Fasso)!

      The period when this relationship occurred was in Ancient times and would be related to the displacement of Egyptian - Ethiopian people living in Pharaonic Egypt!

      Macedonians, however, have a close relationship to the Cretans!

      The Pelasgians were a proto-Slavic people/tribe who formed part of the Make-Don (Mother's Domain) union.

      The "Southern" Aegean proto-Slav Pelasgians who lived south of Mt Olymp(us), stretching to the Morea peninsula (modern day Peloponnesus) and inhabiting the AEGEAN ISLANDS were the CREATORS of the culture of Mycenae! (The Sub-Saharan / Afro-Asiatic Colonists).

      The name GEORGE doesn't sound like, and therefore is not a Sub-Saharan / Afro-Asiatic name either!?

      The Pelasgians and "other" Macedonian tribes were "Venetes". The Veneti were the ancestors of the Slavs.

      My dear friend George, my DNA (ZAC I -THE FIRST) will match Alexander III -THE GREAT'S DNA! (NOT YOURS BUDDY!) So too will the overwhelming majority of the Macedonian population!

      Aleksandar/Alexander and Filip/Philip/Phillip are NOT Sub-Saharan / Afro-Asiatic names my friend!

      Alexander and Philip are proto-Slavic, Indo-European (Ancient Macedonian) names. They have reference to the Sun God Iliy (as seen in the Ancient Macedonian sixteen pointed Sunburst symbol). US scientists today do not consider the people of the Ancient City-States to be entirely Indo-European because the Ancient City-State language (the international Mediterranean Koine) has too many Arabisms!

      Aleksandar > Ale/ile/Iliy > San/Sun/ > Dar/gift (Gift of Iliy, the Sun God)

      Philip> Ph-ili-p (Friend of Iliy. As in Philhellene)

      The neighbouring proto-Slav Illyrians (to the north-west) of the Ancient Macedonians also worshiped Iliy. The "Southern" Aegean proto-Slav Pelasgians to the south of Mt Olymp(us), as mentioned previously, also worshiped Iliy.

Aleksandar and Philip are very common names in the Republic of Macedonia. "Aleksandar" is "Slavic" and has also applied to monarchs of "other" Slav nations such as Russia and Serbia. Serbia currently has two young princes called Aleksandar and Philip.

      The Sub-Saharan / Afro-Asitaic Mycenaean Colonists simply jumped on the band-wagon and ADOPTED ILIY (from the Indigenous "Southern" Aegean proto-Slav Pelasgians) FOR THEMSELVES CALLING HIM HELLIOS! This is where the Modern Greek "male" name "Ilias" comes from!

      Pella > Capital city of Ancient Macedonia. Pella >P-ell-a > iliy. Most likely named after the proto-Slavic Pelasgian tribe, whom constituted part of the Make-Don union. (as already mentioned) Pela-sgians > P-el-asgians > Iliy.

Hellene > Hellenism > Hellen > Ellena > (a proto-Slavic name?) Elle > ile > iliy!

George P states: "Alexandros Stefov ????".......Nahhhhhh, I don't think so.

      The proper pronunciation, my friend is "Aleksandar". "Alexandros" is merely a "Hellenized" version of that name! "Aleksandar Stefov!!!" YES, I DO THINK SO!

      As soon as the DISPLACED Sub-Saharan / Afro-Asiatic Myceanaean Colonists crossed the Mediterranean and set foot on European soil at the Morea peninsula (modern day Peloponnesus) and the Aegean islands around 1,600 BC, they began to be assimilated (ultimately to extinction).

      "Modern Greeks" (which they conveniently forgot) are the progeny of thousands of years of invasions, assimilations and conquests and are a mixture of the following races (and others): The Ancient Sub-Saharan / Afro-Asiatic Mycenaean Colonists (from 1,600 bc), The indigenous (Ancient) "Southern" Aegean proto-Slav Pelasgians, Venets/Enets etc, (who were living on these lands before 7,000 BC!), Egyptian Colonists, Phoenician (proto-Slavic) Colonists, Ancient Macedonians (who conquered them from 338 BC), Romans, Slaves (including Blacks from Africa), Goths, Huns (and "other" Barbarian invaders), "Other Slavs" (from north of the Danube), Franks, Venetians, Turks, Albanians, Roma, Vlachs, Jews, Egyptians, Armenians, *some Macedonians from 1913 onwards, Turkish Christian Prosfigs, and so on, and so on!!!

      The name GEORGE would have been adopted from one of these "later" races.

      As we can see, the people of the Modern Greek State (founded in 1829) are mere hybrids and/or mongrels! (Mind you, there's nothing wrong with that). I suppose one can understand why the Greek government persists with the fascist nonsense that Greece is the most homogenous country in Europe which is comprised of 98.5% Orthodox Greeks and 1.5% Muslim Greeks (thus using religious affiliation to define their demographics! Further, no wonder they won't conduct a national census! What are the people going to declare themselves as???!!! The Macedonians in Greece, though, WILL DECLARE THEMSELVES AS MACEDONIANS!!!

      Due to what has been mentioned above, I don't and can't recognize the term "Greek" as an "ethnic" description. The term "Greek" should be defined as someone who holds "Greek Citizenship"....

By ZAC I -THE FIRST (Australia)

E-mail(s) of the Month

FROM: Paris DeAngelo parisdeangelo@hotmail.com

Go f*ck yourself you Slavic piece of trash! Macedonia IS, WAS AND ALWAYS WILL BE GREEK!!!! You are nothing but a Slav with a severe inferiority complex in regards to Greek's. In reality your people are Slavs that moved into the area of Ancient Greek Macedonia and familiarized themselves with the name Macedonia. Your people have NOTHING to do with Macedonia and belong to a different nationality because Macedonian's are Greek's. JUST GET OVER IT NOBODY BELIEVES YOUR PROPAGANDA. You will never take our land and if you people don't stop with this crap Greece will end up taking what is rightfully her's.

Ante Gia

Quotable Quotes

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By Antioch

Question/Answers for the Readers

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Humour

A night out with the boys Maco Style

http://www.macedonians.co.uk/index1.html

Anonymous
27/10/2002

It's Sunday afternoon and you're getting all excited because it's another long weekend...Maco Easter! The fact that you got a splitting headache from all the scotch and coke that you had at Rob's 21st the night before doesn't bother you, coz you're gonna have another big one tonight! Spy Lounge is gonna rock!

You take out your nokia 8250 and scroll through the numbers and locate Stevce! you ring him up coz you know he hasn't driven the last 3 weeks and it's his turn to drive. while you are on the phone convincing him to drive, your mum yells from the laundry "koja koshula da ti e ispeglam za vecer?" embarrassed you yell back "shut uuuup muuuuuum!" and deal with it later! in the mean time Stevce has agreed to drive but he can't drive his brand new xr8 (the garage will miss it!) so he will drive his mum's nissan pintara, which uncomfortably fits 5 people! you start thinking "where the f..k is all the grog gonna fit...? but then you remember that your Uncle Roxy is sure to stock you up with drink cards tonight! after all you are his nephew and from the same selo!...so everything is cool!

it's 7.00 and after a few panadols and all the krstena voda that your mum wiped your forehead with (coz she thinks that someone had pocudi you....not aware of her "angel's" drinking habits) you are feeling a little better and decide to head to Safeway coz you need some wella hard rock gel for tonight. Whilst you are there your phone starts ringing to the sounds of cocaine and you look at your screen and you see that it's Trajce! you answer the call with "what's up bro?" and a massive smile on your face coz Diana just walked past you and you are rapt that she heard the 'sickest' ring tone out! you have wanted her for ages and know that she thinks you are a mad dog you might have a chance with her! Trajce on the other end of the line is letting you know how Stevce just called him and told him he is not going out tonight....the smile quickly fades! Jovanka from two houses down heard about Stevce's drinking and paraletic dance moves at Rob's 21st last night and was quick to visit Dobrinka (Stevce's mum) and let her know what her son is like'! Stevce is grounded for the night! his day is somewhat better when he tells his mum about Jovanka's innocent Suzi and her tonsil hockey tactics with Pece, Chris and Sash!!! Suzi wont be at Spy Lounge either!

You start freaking out coz now there is only you, Tom, Jim and Danny and none of you will drive....you are all hanging to get smashed......as you walk out of Safeway, with your gel you get a phone call from Jacqui the girl you picked up at the last diamonds function....thinking ahead you start sweet talking her and ask her if she is going to diamonds tonight....she says yes....jackpot! you continue to sweet talk her and ask her if she is driving....yes!....you promise to burn the sickest tunes for her and you have scored yourself and the guys a lift to diamonds!!!

Doing 100ks down High Street you hurry to get home....you hair is gonna take a while to do! but you have just enough time to stop at Quix for some smokes and say hi to the boys...Elvis, Zlat and John! you congratulate them on their win last week ...the play soccer for Sloga!

It's 8.00....you walk into your bedroom and on your bed is your koshula laid out for you as well as the pantoloni from the kostum you wore to your cousin's engagement 3 months ago! your outfit is ready all you have to do now, before getting ready, is locate some passes for tonight. you then realise that you are on Dimche's guest list and you have VIP entry and get in for free without a pass! sick!!! money for an extra drink!

It's now 9.30pm and you have just finished styling your hair! you inspect yourself and are quite proud with what you have achieved appearance wise. Jacqui is picking you up at 10pm ( a little earlier to avoid the massive line). you have just enough time to put on some Jovan musk that your mum bought for you from priceline (it was on special), scam $30 off your old man and spray another ton of extra strong hold hair spray! you SMS Tom, Jim and Danny to find out if everything is cool and you make a pact that you are all scoring tonight!

Jacqui rocks up right on time in her Excel with the boys waiting in the car for you, bopping away to the sounds of J-Lo! you run down the 25 stairs of you double story house with the bottle of jim beam neatly tucked under your arms so your parents don't see! You get in the car, kiss Jacqui, shake the guys' hands and say "tonight's gonna be sick maaann!" you are now off to Diamonds! :)

Finally you make it to the line....cursing that it took so long to find parking....cursing even harder when you hear cocaine coz you're not in there to go off! From a distance you see Dimche and start flapping your arms everywhere to get his attention....you get his attention alright...as well as the attention of the all of Thomastown and St Albans! Dimche walks over to where you are, pulls your group out of the VIP line and you make it inside in a nick of time to hear the last 30 seconds of cocaine!

You and the boys head straight to the bar, forgetting all about Jacqui...and smiling to anything that has a bit of cleavage. you continue walking to the bar only to stop short when you see a few of the westerners....Zoran, Nick and Dave! last diamonds night Zoran picked up your ex and you tried to be 'tough' and decided to punch him....you caused more damage to yourself then to Zoran! ever since that day you have kept low when they are around. lucky for you they don't see you and head upstairs....you now relax and order 4 scotch and cokes for you and your mates!

After saying hello to all your cousins (from Bitola) and everyone else that you think knows you....you and the guys head to the dance floor! you can't get over the mad tunes that Tom C is spinning! its 1.30am and by this stage you have drank more than your dad would at your sister's wedding and you can barely see what's in front of you....and a balancing act is definitely out of the question! you and tom decide to take your tops off in an attempt to impress Daniela, Mary and Anita....with your top off and those rocking dance moves that your pulling you are confident that you are gonna pick up Anita tonight.

You try to get a little closer to her ...interpreting her greezie as a smile and her f##k off as "give me your number"....getting all excited now you try and pull some kind of swift dance move that will send a shiver down her spine.....but it's not the dance move that does this...it's the vodka and raspberry that you spilled all over her that does it.....and she runs to the rest room, crying, that her new white top from Deborah K has been ruined!

It's 3.30 and Jacqui finally manages to find you...she is telling you that she has to be home by 4am so she can wake up in time for her cousin's wedding...they are invited...od sabajle! you don't pay any attention to her and try to find your Uncle Roxy with those drink cards! you find him, hug him and say kako si chich? and he looks at you like he has no clue who you are! he smiles and walks off...the truth of the matter being that he gave you one drink card before but in your current state you just don't remember!

It's now 4am and jacqui is cracking it big time! apart from being smashed your night hasn't been that great...you didn't pick up Anita or anyone else for that matter, you almost got hit by Zoran when your slurred speech to Zlatko (about your done up VR) resulted in you spitting all over Zoran's face ... and you are pretty much out of cash....so you tell Jacqui that you are ready to go home and you both head off to look for the rest of the guys! you find Jim and Beti in one corner going for it, and Danny and Tom in the toilets both o.d'ing! after half an hour you make it to the car and your own your way home!

You're almost home when you decide that you are hungry and beg Jacqui to stop at Preston Maccas! She really wants that sick CD that you promised her so she agrees to take you and another 45 mins is wasted at maccas while you are eating your upsized Big Mac meal and talking to Bob and the gang about how sick Spy Lounge was and about all the chicks you grabbed!

By the time you get home the sun is shining and you walk in the door, barely managing to get to your room...you hear your old man yelling "pickata majcina ...pijanica eden! ke ti go skinam vratot! drug pat nema da izlezis!" but you don't care coz its just an empty threat as usual...and all that matters now is getting under all those wog kebina and the doona and falling asleep....you have only 1 hour to sleep coz you have to wake up and go to Goodyear...your old man managed to score you some work there along side him since you decided to 'defer' from tafe!

p.s.-For those of you who don't know what krstena voda is it's holy water! the next best lek to rakija! and 'pocudi' means...well I'm not sure of the exact definition but something along the lines of the a jinx or evil eye. If someone stares at you for ages coz they think you are good looking that can result in them to 'pocudi' you! That leads to you having a headache or a cold, etc

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