Modern Greece and the Macedonian Heritage - Part 14 - My personal Opinion

[Harold Schiffman]

Modern Greece and the Macedonian Heritage - Part 14 - My personal Opinion

Apr 11th, 2009 | von: Chris | Kategorie: English
Risto Stefov, April 04, 2009.

Recently one of my readers wrote to me asking for my personal opinion
of what I think is Greece´s dispute with the Macedonian people. More
precisely as a Macedonian from Greece what do I think is the core
issue that troubles Greece with regards to the Macedonians? Let me
start by saying that, in my opinion, there is one core issue that
troubles Greece and that is the Macedonian lands. Greece in 1912, 1913
occupied 51% of Macedonia´s territory and since then has turned it
into Greek lands at the cost and exclusion of their real owners, the
Macedonian people.

Irrespective of what one calls them and how they identify themselves,
I see the Macedonians as the indigenous people that have lived in
Macedonia for millennia. Macedonians have no collective memory of ever
arriving in these lands or having lived anywhere else except in
Macedonia. So naturally I support the fact that those lands belong to
the Macedonians. On the other hand the Greeks in 1912, 1913 invaded,
occupied and annexed Macedonia, which never belonged to them and makes
their annexation illegal under international law.

But worse than that, after annexing Macedonian lands the Greeks were
not satisfied with having the Macedonians living on them so they
implemented assimilation policies to turn Macedonians into Greeks.
Naturally many Macedonians resisted and over the years were punished
by Greece. Many were tortured, exiled, jailed and even murdered. It is
difficult for people to believe that Greece would want to assimilate
alien ethnic groups and turn them into Greeks. What would be their
motive?

There is plenty of evidence that suggests that the Greeks did this to
expand their manufactured Hellenic Empire and bring back the glory of
the mythical Hellas of ancient times, a type of Hellas that never
existed before. Given that Modern Greeks themselves are a manufactured
entity and having nothing to do with the so-called Ancient Greeks,
these modern charlatans felt it was their duty to convert every
Macedonian into a Greek, even if it meant doing it against their will.
The Greeks did this in order to create a false idea that Macedonia
somehow was once part of Greece and that the Macedonian lands,
heritage and people belonged to Greece.

Today however we know that the Macedonians are a unique ethnic entity
entirely different from the Greeks and that the Modern Greeks are in
reality the descendants of the Slav, Albanian and Vlach immigrants who
came to Greece during the 11th to the 14th centuries AD. So through
its assimilation policies Greece turned the 51% of Macedonia it
occupied into a type of Borg-hive (like in the fictional Star Trek
movie series) where people were not allowed to have real names, speak
a real language, or express themselves in their own familiar culture.
Real things like personal names, place names, mother language and
familiar writing were forbidden from being used and were replaced with
alien names, an alien language and an alien writing system all in the
name of Hellenism and all for the glory of modern artificial Hellas.

The Macedonian peoples´ lives in Greece are full of tragedy. Not only
was one occupier (the Ottomans) replaced with another (the Greeks) in
1912, but many Macedonians lost their lands and all of them lost their
identity, language, culture and continuity. But their tragedy doesn´t
end there. Outside of the Macedonians who were forced out of their
homes and lands and outside of the ones who submitted to Hellenism
because of fear or for personal gains, there are also the majority of
Macedonians who felt oppressed with no opportunity to improve their
lives and political situation. These Macedonian are left in limbo
waiting for an opportunity to bounce back. Unfortunately the Greeks
know this and have made sure such an opportunity never presents
itself. That is why consecutive Greek governments since 1912 have made
it their mission to suppress and torment the Macedonian people so that
such opportunities are avoided at all cost.

Besides losing their lands, freedom and identity and being treated
like second class citizens in their own lands, the Macedonians in
Greece who feel Macedonian, even without publicly expressing it, have
been unjustly persecuted. Greece continues to this day to close the
border to Macedonians and to confiscate Macedonian lands. Greek
authorities look away when Macedonians are harmed and Greek courts
often side with the perpetrators in such cases. Putting it more
bluntly, Greece not only discourages people from expressing their
ethnic sentiments but will legally prosecute those who do. Given the
current situation and Greece´s attitude towards the Macedonians what
can be done to help bring positive change?

A valid question indeed, a question I have struggled with for many
years but to this day I have found no answer. Since Macedonia´s
occupation in 1912 Greece has maintained a singular policy;
exterminate the Macedonian people and permanently annex their lands
and heritage. This policy has not changed since it was implemented in
1912 which leaves the Macedonian people with little room to maneuver.
In fact the only options left for the Macedonians in Greece are to
disappear all together or fight back for their survival! In my opinion
there is but one option for the Macedonians and that is to “liberate
Macedonia from the Greeks”!

To do that, however, Macedonians must first stop responding to Greek
engagements in nonsensical issues and start focusing their effort in
highlighting the truth about their status in Greece. Macedonians must
let the world know what Greece has done and is still doing to them.
All Macedonians originating from Greek occupied Macedonia who care
about their inheritance, who care about their family´s lands,
properties and homes which their fathers, grandfathers and great
grandfathers poured sweat and spilled blood to build and protect, must
stand up and demand their human rights from Greece. Failing that, they
must then demand that the Greeks leave Macedonia.

It doesn´t matter what the world thinks and what the Greeks will do;
Macedonians have a duty to express their own feeling, their own
desires and their own needs. By any definition, the 51% of Macedonia
that was occupied by Greece in 1912 is still occupied by Greece to
this day. Greece had all the time in the world and plenty of
opportunity to voluntarily stop its persecution of the Macedonians and
award them their human rights as prescribed by International law.
Unfortunately Greece to this day has ignored every call from every
International institution to voluntarily comply.

Perhaps what the Macedonians need to do, to give Greece a wakeup call,
is amass in every major city in the world and hold human rights
demonstrations with huge placards held high with slogans like
“Macedonia is Macedonian”, “Greeks get out of Macedonia” and “Greece
stop the ethnic cleansing of Macedonians”. It´s about time the Greeks
are given reciprocal treatment by challenging their identity as they
have challenged ours for the last one-hundred years. It´s time we
raise placards with slogans like, “There is no such thing as a Greek”,
“a Modern Greek is nothing but a Slav, an Albanian and a Vlach”,
“Hellenism is Barbarism” and “I am a Macedonian from Greece and I
exist”.

Greece has proven it will not yield on human rights on its own unless
it is extremely pressured from the outside. Greece has a long record
of abuse against all people who are not committed to Hellenism and
fear they are a threat to its integrity. Greece feels that if it
recognizes any of its ethnic groups living on its soil it will have to
justify to them the violence and criminal conduct it perpetrated
against them over the years. In other words, what Metaxas and others
like him did to the Macedonian people in pursuit of Hellenism, will no
longer be viewed as an act of “glory for Hellas” but a criminal act of
“cultural genocide” against an innocent population.

If the Greek government recognizes a single minority it will have to
explain to the people why in the past it committed cultural genocide
against that minority. It will also have to punish all those involved
in perpetrating the “cultural genocide”. And how can it do that when
everyone in the entire Greek government today is a devout Hellene who
believes in the glory of Hellas and that no “minorities” exist in
Greece? How can it do that when Greeks who today hold high positions
in Greek society are the pillars of Hellenism and claim to be the
descendants of Plato and Pericles? What are the chances of the Greek
government ever doing that?

Greece will not become a democratic state and will not allow its
ethnicities to self declare until racism and intolerance are
completely eradicated in that country. Greece cannot and will not free
itself from its prejudices until it deals with its past and corrects
the injustices perpetrated against its innocent population. There can
be no closure for any of the ethnic groups living in Greece until
Greece gives up its Hellenism and its imperial plans for glory and the
pursuit of its expansionist Megali Idea, an Idea that today lays
dormant.

Given that Greece will not yield on its own, what can be done to
improve the Macedonian situation in Greece?

First and foremost we need to fight for our human rights as a people
protected by international law. As people we have certain rights that
need to be exploited. We can´t continue to dismiss what Greece is
doing to us thinking of it as “an act of fate” when in fact it´s “an
act of crime”.

Second we need to learn to voice our concerns and no longer be silent
and put up with abuse. After all the harm Greece has done to us, how
much more harm can it do? Keeping silent only prolongs our agony and
allows Greece to further rob us of our lands, heritage and dignity.
The Greeks today live warm and comfortable lives in our homes, the
very same homes our Macedonian ancestors slaved to build and died to
protect. And while the Greeks live comfortably consuming “our
inheritance” we roam the Diaspora.

It is time to speak up and tell Greece to recognize us and accept us
for who we are, Macedonians, or to speak up and tell the Greeks to
“get the hell out of our Macedonia”!

“The relationship between the Modern Greeks and the Macedonians is a
relationship marked by bloodshed, murder, unimaginable atrocities that
have yet to be accounted for - and it all started with An Invasion in
1912 that broke every international law, and treaty of its time. This
is what needs to be addressed - if the Macedonians raise this one
point, it will be a massive blow to Modern Greece, and significantly
Europe too, which has unofficially sanctioned Greece’s state sponsored
genocide of the Macedonians. If the Macedonians, anywhere in the
world, can get this point (and only this point), there is hope some
wrongs of the past, might be addressed.” Paul from
www.maknews.com/forum

http://www.pelagon.de/?p=1660

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