Forgeries in Modern Greek History

[George S.]

The greeks will just about do anything to forge history & forge coins etc.There has been a question asked before how come when the greeks find stuff there's only greek writing on it & when stuff is found in Rom territory it's allways in macedonian.Could it be that the greeks are doctoring stuff for example in vergina there were greek writings in the tomb.So the extent of forging goes ahead full speed.In another case in ROM was found a macedonian helmet of which the greeks offeed to buy for $1 million euros so that they can say it was found on greek territory,lucky the finders didn't sell it to them.I remember reading an article years ago that one archaelogist in greece was killed when he said that all those finds in vergina were not greek at all but were ellada the opposite & did not belong to the greeks.

[The LION will ROAR]

GREEKS BUSTED AGAIN

[George S.]

good find lwr .It proves the greeks are desperate & will do anything to make it all greek.

[Trajkovski]

what do the words mean?

[Carlin]

http://www.ndimou.gr/anti_en.asp

Know Thyself

Greeks' contemporary self-image is built upon a series of myths. The myth of continuity. The myth of the racial and cultural superiority of our ancestors (and, thanks to continuity, our own). The myth of being special. The myth of racial and religious purity. The myth of the genius of the Greek race.

The existence of these myths provokes certain predictable reactions. Thus, my typical compatriot, while proud to be Greek (95 percent, according to polls) will abuse and censure his countrymen at the slightest provocation. And this, naturally, because they fail to live up to the expectations and the demands created by the myths.

This explains why we're simultaneously the greatest eulogizers and the worst critics of ourselves. Depending on our point of view (and on the moment), we either denigrate Greeks or sing their praises. (In the former case we usually refer to them as "Romious"). Naturally, both attitudes are wrong. Instead of applauding or cursing, it would be better to stop, and think. Calmly, and rationally. (But I forget myself. Rationality is also a Western, imported Evil for our Helleno-centric intelligentsia. So much for Aristotle!)

The "Evil" West

Manichaism (i.e. the contrast between black and white) is one of the ills that corrupts us. There is no such thing as pure evil or pure good, and what's called for isn't antithesis, setting one against the other, but synthesis. Yet we've become so used to this game of tug-of-war, that when we don't have enemies, we invent them. Thus, for example, we have the "evil" West, or our "bad" neighbors.

It's amazing how much we oversimplify and distort certain things, in order to transform them into enemies. We have a distorted image of Europe. But Europe contains everything, including us. It contains rationalists as well as anti-rationalists, nationalists, cosmopolitans, and romantics. There is no tendency in Greek thought today that doesn't have its European counterpart-maybe even its progenitor. The West today includes the East, which has had such a profound influence on the art and thought of this century. It encompasses the whole range of schools of thought, from rationalism to non-rationalism, from Descartes to Derrida. Even Dostoyevsky-the anti-Westerner, the slavophile-is a fundamental part of the Western tradition.

Actually, its a mistake to speak of Western culture. What the West represents now is a world culture, one that has integrated all the cultures that came before it. It's the first culture in history that has kept and still cultivates all tendencies and traditions. Older cultures, on the other hand, always began by uprooting those that came before them, or those that were different (as the Christians, for example, destroyed the monuments and writings of the ancients).

Of course, as soon as we hear talk of a world culture, we're gripped by the anxiety of integration, of losing our identity. It's an understandable reaction for a small nation. But there really isn't anything to fear. Centuries of coexistence within the same national bounds didn't turn the Sicilians into Milanese, the Bavarians into Prussians, the Welsh into English, the Proven?ales into Normans. So why will our culture be swamped? The spread of Coca-Cola and blue jeans doesn't necessarily go hand in hand with the spread of cultural values. (Most anti-Americans I know wear jeans). Concurrent with the internationalization of culture is the opposite tendency, an obsession with difference, which, as witnessed in the former Yugoslavia, can be defended with far too much zeal. At no other time in history has humanity been so sensitive to the rights of minorities-and at no other time have local traditions been so respected and nurtured. The new international culture can ensure both unity and difference.

I don't know how bad the West is for us. I do know that we owe it a lot. From our independence (no one ever mentions Navarino in 1827, when Western navies helped salvage our battle for independence) to our love of ourselves.

If any Western import has harmed Greece, it's been neither rationalism, nor the political system, nor technology. It's been the idea of the continuity of Hellenic civilization.

Oddly, this idea, which today is waved about like a banner by anti-Westerners, is an entirely Western notion. Foreign "Philhellenes" uncovered our ancient monuments, and it was they who taught us to believe that we were the immediate successors to the ancients, responsible for the continuation of their traditions. The Romioi of the 18th century didn't feel Greek-much less of the ancient variety. They were a Balkan nation, originating from the admixture of many races and cultural traditions, with their own attitudes and ways of thinking. Out of the blue, the Western "Philhellenes" (and their mimics, our own "scholars") stuck a helmet on their head, dubbed them keepers of the ancient flame, and injected them with a passion for purity.

Pure race, ergo, pure language. How this nation has suffered in the name of purity! It was a first in the history of linguistics: the creation of an artificial language, a retro-dialect. All impurities were rooted out, place names were changed, history was distorted-for the sake of proving...what? That Greece was not a Balkan nation like the others, but a racially pure aristocracy, not only of the region but of the whole world. Like certain pseudo-bluebloods who fake their family trees to prove their superiority.

But you don't become worthy on the strength of your lineage, but on the basis of your achievements. The son of a Nobel prizewinner has no birthright to a Nobel prize. The ancient Greeks belong to the whole world, especially to those who study them. An English classicist at Oxford is nearer to the ancients than an ignorant Greek.

Yet even today our intellectuals call the Greeks "the aristocracy of nations." Even today many (most) Greeks believe in their hearts that we are a chosen people. This is why we're always complaining about the way we're treated. Like spoiled children, we demand of everyone their unconditional support-even when we're wrong. And we insist on believing that we're always being cheated, ignoring the fact that we happen to be the only country in the region to have doubled its size in the last 150 years. We've woven endless conspiracy theories so as to absolve ourselves of responsibility, and to cast the blame on others instead. Our belief in our superiority shows up clearly in our racist attitudes. What Greek doesn't consider himself better than the Turk, the Albanian, or the "Gypsy-Skopjan"? Go ask an Greek educated audience about Turkish civilization-they're certain to chuckle.

Well, this Greek, this Greek who asks the world "Do you know who I am?", who shouts at demonstrations, who denies the Other his basic human rights, who has conducted pogroms against his Jewish (in the past) and Muslim (today) compatriots, who ends up shooting (by mistake) the Albanian and the gypsy; this Greek, I don't like. And on this point I remain, incurably, an anti-Hellene.

History as a Western

Not a day goes by without the papers ranting about some anti-Hellenic threat. The Turk coughed, the American scratched himself-woe to us! Since my childhood, Greece's history has seemed like a (cheap) Western movie, one in which the Greeks were, always and unequivocally, the Good Guys. The Bad Guys were always changing. There was "the threat from the North," then from the East, then it was the North again, and back to the East. When I was a child, the word "Bulgarian" was a curse, more so than "Turk." It was forbidden for Greeks in northern Greece to design themselves as "Macedonian." "Albanian" then had a neutral tone; today it's become a threat.

Sooner or later we need to free ourselves from this Balkan mindset. That in which, in the words of the writer Fred Reed, "one man's national martyr is another's war criminal, where one country's founding myth is another's tale of woe and usurpation." Here, the ideological exploitation of history has become state-of-the-art. I was amazed to realize, on reading the history books of West European nations, that there are histories that aren't based on competition and enmity, that don't indulge in nationalism and hate. Where neighbors are even regarded with sympathy.

But do you dare compare Greeks with other nations? Well, yes, I do, and we would do well to forget our uniqueness in misfortune as well. History isn't a comforting mother who you can run to when things go badly-who will pet you and show you special favor. All the nations on earth have been through bad times-there's no sense in competing to see who can feel the most sorry for themselves. It's time we grew up!

And above all we have to stop living history as Western. Every morning the papers scream (like the little kid in the movies), "Look out! He's right behind you!" Every day the same fear: What are the Bad Guys up to? (As if they do nothing else from morning till night but conspire against us.) When will we realize that in history, as in life, people can't be divided up into the purely good and the purely bad. That the greatness of nations isn't measured in myths or fears, but primarily by their capacity to overcome problems of the present (and of the past, when it becomes present). Consider what it took for the French and the Germans to reconcile their differences-differences reinforced by centuries of bloody warfare. Each time I read about the European Community's French-German axis, I remember my first French teacher, and how she used to curse the "Boches" with rabid fury.

The One & Only "National" Issue

I don't consider the Aegean or the Macedonian issues "national issues." Nor even the economy and public administration problems.

For me, the one and only national issue is the one posited by poet Dionysios Solomos: The nation must equate the national with the true. If this isn't done (and it can't be achieved from one day to the next-it requires years of effort, mainly in education) then we won't be able to stand up in today's world. We'll always be in a limbo between whining and belligerence. We'll spend billions-in blood and sweat-on useless armaments. We'll continually be quarreling with our neighbors, and with the whole world. We'll see paranoid schemes and conspiracies everywhere. Like a sick, maladjusted person, we'll spend our lives wavering between hysteria and depression.

Who will dare to teach Greeks the truth about their history? (Including, for example, the aforementioned pogroms...). About the history, and culture, of their neighbors? Who will dare to teach them the truth about certain "national issues" (like the FIR Athinon, our irrational airspace)? When will Greeks succeed in seeing themselves as they really are: a nation like all the others, with abilities and weaknesses, with talent (often more than this land can hold), and insecurities, capable of both generosity and meanspiritedness.

Beyond the overhaul of the economy, I preach the revamping of our attitudes. Am I really an anti-Hellene? Or do I love Greece? The future will decide.

[MKD Hockey]

The Greek sources, in order to buttress the Patriarchate’s figures, give as evidence, the
figures by ethnic division from “Turkish Official Statistics 1910” which closely follows the
Patriarchate’s in province totals. Such a statistic never existed. The Ottomans issued total population figures by vilayets which were subsequently used by Almanach de Gotha until 1923, but no document was issued for 1910 having the ethnic distribution of population and naturally no original copy has ever been found. The alleged “ Turkish official Statistics 1910” was a complete forgery
(McCarthy, 1998a, p. 94)

http://www.hips.hacettepe.edu.tr/nbd_cilt25/mutlu.pdf

[George S.]

greeks will do anything ,they probably invented fakery.There are examples galore in history.Also Thoroughout history they have paid of jounalists & uni professors they paid them off to write whatever they want.To change history & to rewrite it their way.

[maco2envy]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ziJJBsZTt4Y

Flag and dislike this video for spreading racist disinformation, while appearing to present itself as a neutral source. I'm getting this shit at the top of suggestions when watching videos associated with Macedonia.

[Karposh]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ziJJBsZTt4Y

Flag and dislike this video for spreading racist disinformation, while appearing to present itself as a neutral source. I'm getting this shit at the top of suggestions when watching videos associated with Macedonia.

Yeah, I know what you mean. I came across that annoying video too which starts off with, what is apparently, a little old girl asking the question: Is “Ma-ch-edonia” really Greek? Which she then promptly goes on to answers herself: “Yes”...And then the usual shit...Tito is featured heavily...etc.

I wouldn't get worked up over it mate. I bet my left testicle that annoying voice alone will stop people watching a moment past the opening Q & A sequence.

[Amphipolis]

what do the words mean?

They are 4 names (Philip, Pherecra[tes], Ippomahas and Pyros). The video is really stupid as the Greek reading of the inscription is totally correct as far as I can say.