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  • TrueMacedonian
    Senior Member
    • Jan 2009
    • 3810

    Akis Gavriilidis on

    Блог за промоција на македонското име, идентитет, култура и традиции и јазик


    Gavriilidis the Greek
    Akis Gavriilidis (Άκης Γαβριηλίδης) is Greek, born in Thessaloniki, in 1964. He studied law at Aristotle University and completed a PhD in Law Philosophy, on Spinoza.

    Since 1995 he is living mostly in Brussels, Belgium, where he work as a translator and as an amateur DJ at a radio station.

    All these years he has written extensively, including 5 books (in Greek), on such diverse subjects as a psychoanalytically based approach of Greek nationalism, trauma, the memory of the civil war, and film director Billy Wilder, as well as many articles on more direct and current political issues.

    1. Have you ever visited Republic of Macedonia?


    I have never been in Republic of Macedonia. To be honest, I do not know much about the country itself and its inhabitants. My only knowledge is through readings and (limited) oral exchange with people from there whom I have met in Greece, Belgium or other third countries.

    2. So you do have Macedonian friends?


    I have met a few people from Republic of Macedonia, all of which are academicians. I am hesitating to use the word “friends”, not because I do not appreciate them, but only because unfortunately I don’t have a regular contact with these people (unless through Facebook sometimes).

    3. What do you think of them?


    My impression was that they are very generous, open-minded and motivated people. I cannot generalize, but this was my impression. Apart from that, I had the impression that, in spite of the different language and background, we share a lot of things, which are immaterial, almost hidden, on a second level, like gestures, body language, similar metaphors … things still surviving from a period when nation states and their boundaries were not so strictly imposed.

    4. Do you personally mind the name of the Republic of Macedonia?


    Not only I do not mind, but I think it is the only suitable and possible name. And apart from that, I find almost obscene the fact that any country or other actor objects the way another country and/ or a people call themselves. It is not up to us, or to anybody, to dictate this.

    Of course, this puts me among a very small minority in the Greek society

    5. What are the things that connects Republic of Greece and the Republic of Macedonia and the both nations?


    My feeling is that all over the Balkans there is an underground current, a “tank” of common “biopolitical” memories, related to language, cooking, music, attitudes … from the period before nation states; a current that links (all those later constructed as) “pure” Greeks, Macedonians, Serbs etc.

    Until recently, all modern nation states, including Turkey, tended to disregard these common elements as they thought they were remnants from a “pre-modern”, authoritarian, almost shameful period that we should soon forget and leave behind –the Ottoman Empire. But I think –and I hope- that now this rejection starts getting less absolute...

    6. How every one of us can help Greeks and Macedonians to be friends instead of enemies? What should we change or made?


    The hatred and mistrust produced for 20 years now, is a very complex and heavy load, and I don’t have easy solutions or recommendations. Of course it is essential, and valuable, to keep –or create- horizontal links between non-state actors from the two (or more?) sides, between individuals, groups, artists, academicians etc. But it will take also an internal work to be carried within each side, because, as often happens, when we hate somebody, we usually hate in him what we find unbearable within ourselves. A practical recommendation I would have, though, is that it would be better to disengage the identity issue from questions about antiquity, archaeology, inscriptions, Alexander and Philip etc. These questions are impossible to answer definitively, so insisting on them will only perpetuate disagreements. But even if they were 100% clarified, they could not provide the solution for a current political issue. What happened 2000 years ago cannot determine what we should do today. I believe the Macedonian people and state should be recognized the right to call themselves like that, not because of some essence they have kept intact in them for centuries, but because of a political desire they have now. This narrative about an “ancient nation being at the same place and speaking the same language for 2500 years” was a construction of Greek nationalism of the 19th century, and I think the Greek society is still “paying the bill” for this obsession. There is nothing to be envied and imitated in that, believe me … I understand that the pressure of comparison is strong and contaminating, but if the Macedonian society resists it and avoids reproducing a similar folly, the better for them.

    7. Do you like to say something to the Macedonian readers?

    The only thing I would like to add is that these are very complicated issues, it is impossible to exhaust them in a few sentences, so if your readers are interested to read more, I refer them to a longer article I have written in English and will soon appear, along with the articles of several other scholars, in a collective volume to be published this year at Skopje by the Macedonian Information Centre, under the title “The name issue revisited”.
    Slayer Of The Modern "greek" Myth!!!
  • Risto the Great
    Senior Member
    • Sep 2008
    • 15658

    #2
    He is normal. Which is abnormal in Greece.
    Risto the Great
    MACEDONIA:ANHEDONIA
    "Holding my breath for the revolution."

    Hey, I wrote a bestseller. Check it out: www.ren-shen.com

    Comment

    • TrueMacedonian
      Senior Member
      • Jan 2009
      • 3810

      #3
      Originally posted by Risto the Great View Post
      He is normal. Which is abnormal in Greece.
      Yes indeed. He will also contribute to the AMHRC's international conference on the passing of 100 years since the partition of Macedonia http://www.macedonianhr.org.au/wip/i...ccat&Itemid=50

      According to the email I got from the AMHRC Dr. Gavrillidis' presentation is entitled "Who was liberated in 1912?" I am looking forward to seeing what this Greek scholar has to say.
      Slayer Of The Modern "greek" Myth!!!

      Comment

      • Daskalot
        Senior Member
        • Sep 2008
        • 4345

        #4
        He needs to propagate his thinking to the vast majority of the Greeks.
        Good to hear that he will contribute to AMHRC's international conference.
        Macedonian Truth Organisation

        Comment

        • Coolski
          Member
          • Sep 2008
          • 747

          #5
          Originally posted by Risto the Great View Post
          He is normal. Which is abnormal in Greece.
          That makes him a Greek hipster. Normal before it was cool.
          - Секој чоек и нација има можност да успеат колку шо си дозволуваат. Нема изговор.
          - Every human and nation has the ability to be as great or as weak as they allow themselves to be. No excuses.

          Comment

          • George S.
            Senior Member
            • Aug 2009
            • 10116

            #6
            the greeks liberated the macedonian lands for themselves.They stole the lands as they never had them before in history.That's why they called them the occupied lands.
            Akis seems to be level headed we need more people like that who are pragmatic & they recognize our eistence.Godd to see our human rights people are on the ball.
            "Ido not want an uprising of people that would leave me at the first failure, I want revolution with citizens able to bear all the temptations to a prolonged struggle, what, because of the fierce political conditions, will be our guide or cattle to the slaughterhouse"
            GOTSE DELCEV

            Comment

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