aegean macedonians?

[mila]

Hi, first off I wanna say that I don't know heaps about the macedonian vs greek dispute (other than the name dispute) so forgive me if I say anything politically incorrect.

I'm of half macedonian background through my mum, our family is from a village in Lerin (Florina) and for the ~7 generations we can trace back, they've all been from the village too. My family speaks macedonian mostly although my grandparents can speak greek because of the hellenization of everyone in the villages. Mum speaks only a little greek because when she came to Australia as a child she forgot it all and just spoke Macedonian instead. Obviously we have a Macedonian identity, though my our surnames were changed in the 30s I think to Greek surnames, I guess that was part of the hellenization attempt?

We're in Australia in Sydney, but there aren't many other Aegean macedonians in our suburb who aren't family, I think there's like one other family. All our family friends are from the country macedonia. So I was wondering if any of you guys out there are from the same background as me and is "aegean macedonian" the correct term? Do greeks hate us? Who else hates us? lol everyone seems to hate eachother. And why did they change our surnames to greek ones? Is it true that they think we are bulgarian? lol wtf.

Funny, I have a Greek friend and when he first asked my nationality he couldn't seem to comprehend the fact that my family through mum's side is from Florina (always has been for generations) yet we are Macedonian. I've had other greeks call me a liar when I've explained my background to them, probably didn't want to accept the fact that actual macedonians come from the florina area LOL.

[makedonche]

mila
Hi and welcome!
Yes there are plenty of us Aegean Macedonians here!
I'm from a village called dolno kotori!
As for the Greeks, they are just wannabe Macedonians, took our land in 1913 and have claimed it ever since and tried to hellenize us all since then. There is some great stuff in the history section here and also in the lies and propoganda section, have a read through it will surprise you how much knowledge/evidence there is and just how big liars the Greeks are!

[George S.]

welcome aboard mila.It doesn't matter where you are from as long as you got that blood flowing through the macedonian veins.You will be treated the same.

[mila]

mila
Hi and welcome!
Yes there are plenty of us Aegean Macedonians here!
I'm from a village called dolno kotori!
As for the Greeks, they are just wannabe Macedonians, took our land in 1913 and have claimed it ever since and tried to hellenize us all since then. There is some great stuff in the history section here and also in the lies and propoganda section, have a read through it will surprise you how much knowledge/evidence there is and just how big liars the Greeks are!

hey my family is from kotori too! Does this mean our families probably know eachother? haha. Not sure if its dolno kotori but yeah from kotori. I will ask my baba later did the greeks change your surname too?

[makedonche]

hey my family is from kotori too! Does this mean our families probably know eachother? haha. Not sure if its dolno kotori but yeah from kotori. I will ask my baba later did the greeks change your surname too?

Mila
Yes, changed the first & surname, Iv'e fixed the first name up, now time for a change of surname as well!

[Dejan]

I think there are quite a few Egejci that live in Richmond, west of Sydney. I remember going to many igranki there as a kid. I'm pretty sure they have a community hall out there also. You might want to look there for some answers

[Stojacanec]

HI Mila

Welcome to the forum.

The Greeks won't like what you have just explained to us because it goes against their myth.

Enjoy what the forum has to offer!

[EgejskaMakedonia]

Hey Mila,
I'm pretty much in the same boat in regards to your Macedonian background from the Aegean part of Macedonia, and a lot of other people here are too. My family is also from the Lerin region, yet we are from villages slightly north-west of Dolno Kotori and Kotori. Just like you, my Baba and Dedo can speak Greek, but use Macedonian as their main language. Similarly, my Dad barely knows a word of Greek, if any now, even though he spent his early childhood in the village.

The Greeks practically changed the surnames of every Macedonian family in the Aegean, and suppressed the Macedonian culture beyond belief. Some decided to change their surname back to the Macedonian version, however others left it. We considered changing the name back recently, however due to complications and various other reasons, we will probably leave it as it is.

From what I know, a large majority of Aegean Macedonians emigrated to Victoria and even Western Australia. Although, as others have mentioned, I'm sure there would be a community in Sydney too.
One thing you must understand, is that the Greeks are a sly bunch. Not too long ago they completely denied the existence of Macedonia and Macedonians, suppressing everything associated with the name and identity. The story has changed in recent times, with the Greek Government attempting to monopolise the Macedonian identity and culture, most likely as a justification of the Macedonian land that they annexed in 1913. They hate us because they are good at it. It is much easier to continue hating us, than to apologise and recognise the atrocities against Macedonians throughout history. That said, there are Greeks who are perfectly understanding and have the ability to see past the smoke screen the Greek Government has continually placed on its people, but these people are definitely a rare minority.

Generally, Greeks are the same as anybody else...it is when politics becomes the topic of discussion that the tension can be seen in the friendship. People often have difficulty in comprehending facts, and falling for the cheap and old tricks. A few Greeks I know usually raise the point of 'but where is your village located?' and it is all in good humour, but I can't help but see that they have no idea what happened. I have more Greek friends than Macedonian (mainly due to geographic reasons), and most don't really care about the whole Macedonia vs Greece thing, despite their 'inner' opinions being quite clear.
All in all, there are heaps of others in Australia who can closely relate to your family's history and origins, so it's always encouraging to know that you're not alone.

Welcome to the MTO.

[Daskalot]

Welcome to the MTO Mila!
Enjoy!

[mila]

I think there are quite a few Egejci that live in Richmond, west of Sydney.

funny that you should mention this... :P

[Soldier of Macedon]

We considered changing the name back recently, however due to complications and various other reasons, we will probably leave it as it is.

I know a number of Macedonians from the Aegean that have changed it back, such as Risto the Great, for example. If I was in the same shoes I too would have dropped the slave name. In fact, there was a discussion about this some time ago:

http://www.macedoniantruth.org/forum/showthread.php?t=2756&highlight=slave+change

[mila]

@ makedonche: we didnt change back our surname, but when my family came to australia they changed their hellenized surname to a shortened version of it.. also hellenized. weird lol, not sure why they didn't just change it back to the macedonian surname.

also i just checked with my baba- our family is from dolno kotori as well! wouldn't be surprised if our families knew eachother somewhere down the line.

Hey Mila,
I'm pretty much in the same boat in regards to your Macedonian background from the Aegean part of Macedonia, and a lot of other people here are too. My family is also from the Lerin region, yet we are from villages slightly north-west of Dolno Kotori and Kotori. Just like you, my Baba and Dedo can speak Greek, but use Macedonian as their main language. Similarly, my Dad barely knows a word of Greek, if any now, even though he spent his early childhood in the village.

The Greeks practically changed the surnames of every Macedonian family in the Aegean, and suppressed the Macedonian culture beyond belief. Some decided to change their surname back to the Macedonian version, however others left it. We considered changing the name back recently, however due to complications and various other reasons, we will probably leave it as it is.

From what I know, a large majority of Aegean Macedonians emigrated to Victoria and even Western Australia. Although, as others have mentioned, I'm sure there would be a community in Sydney too.
One thing you must understand, is that the Greeks are a sly bunch. Not too long ago they completely denied the existence of Macedonia and Macedonians, suppressing everything associated with the name and identity. The story has changed in recent times, with the Greek Government attempting to monopolise the Macedonian identity and culture, most likely as a justification of the Macedonian land that they annexed in 1913. They hate us because they are good at it. It is much easier to continue hating us, than to apologise and recognise the atrocities against Macedonians throughout history. That said, there are Greeks who are perfectly understanding and have the ability to see past the smoke screen the Greek Government has continually placed on its people, but these people are definitely a rare minority.

Generally, Greeks are the same as anybody else...it is when politics becomes the topic of discussion that the tension can be seen in the friendship. People often have difficulty in comprehending facts, and falling for the cheap and old tricks. A few Greeks I know usually raise the point of 'but where is your village located?' and it is all in good humour, but I can't help but see that they have no idea what happened. I have more Greek friends than Macedonian (mainly due to geographic reasons), and most don't really care about the whole Macedonia vs Greece thing, despite their 'inner' opinions being quite clear.
All in all, there are heaps of others in Australia who can closely relate to your family's history and origins, so it's always encouraging to know that you're not alone.

Welcome to the MTO.

Yeah my baba told me about how the greeks banned them from even speaking macedonian, and call us "bulgarian". But she also said something about the partizan terrorising the villagers, and I asked her if they were greek and she said they werent, they were macedonian... so I don't get why they were terrorizing their own people? Her sister got taken away to then-Yugoslavia in WWII as a child for a few years, not sure why though. Baba really doesn't like the greeks lol.

Also, when my mum was a little kid going to school in greece, maybe 5 years old, she got the cane because she called out to her friend across the playground in macedonian, not greek. How ridiculous.

[mila]

So I found out why we changed our long greek surname to a short greek surname instead of our macedonian name. Its because we still own property in the village. Changed it because nobody could pronounce the long surname :P

And in regards to the partizan, baba reckons it was a mix of greek and macedonian partizan. Her sister-in-law was forced to put hot boiled eggs under her arms as a punishment by the greek partizan.

[mila]

Mila
Yes, changed the first & surname, Iv'e fixed the first name up, now time for a change of surname as well!

If you don't mind me asking, what's your current last name? I'm curious because you're from the exact same village as my family.

[Voltron]

Mila, to answer your first question, I dont necessarily think the term Aegean Macedonia is a correct term. Lerin is closer to the Ionian sea than Aegean. Its a term that only feeds suspicion if you ask me. Anybody here have family from Xalkidiki ?