Risto Stefov - Articles, Translations & Collaborations

[Venom]

the greeks are political poutanas, and they always have been, they deride and belittle us as slavs while enthusiatically enembracing their slavic brethren the serbs and fawning over and cosying up to the great slavic bear russia. what astounds me is the acceptance of this hypocracy by serbia and russia.

i dont expect truth or ethics in politics or culture from modern greeks given their whole modern identity is based on bullshit.

Pure poetry osiris. It seems beyond logic.

No Serb can ever tell me about why the greeks are such great allies of Serbia or how the greeks have helped Serbia which has been dismantled piece by piece for twenty years now and still counting.

[Dimko-piperkata]

Part 11 - The curse of Hellenism

Modern Greece and the Macedonian Heritage – Part 11 - The curse of Hellenism

Risto Stefov, March 15, 2009


Hellenism is not a religion, it is not an ethnic entity and is not even a national identity; it is an idea, an idea designed to mold an entire country into believing and behaving the way Modern 19th century Europeans wanted. Hellenism began in a small part of Modern Greece, in fact to be more precise the Philhellenes created that small part of Modern Greece because they needed a cultural basis to model their idea after. The Modern Europeans found what they needed in a society that lived in that very small region of Modern Greece 2,400 years ago.

Once upon a time during the late 18th and early 19th century there were some Western Europeans who considered themselves "forward looking" and believed they could improve the world if only they could teach it how to behave in a manner to their liking. To do that they needed a model which they found in the people of 2,400 years ago who lived in the southern part of today´s Modern Greece. The ideas and actions of these Western Europeans came to be known as "Hellenism" and they themselves became known as "Philhellenes" or friends of the Hellenes. The people that accepted the ideals of Hellenism thus became known as the "Hellenes".

Modern Greece was not named "Greece" by accident and neither was Ancient "Greece". We all know that there is not a single ancient map showing "Greece" because there was no "Greece" back then. The names "Greece", "Greeks", "Ancient Greece" and "Ancient Greeks" came into use and prominence in the late 18th, early 19th centuries. One of the reasons for giving "Greece" a Latin name is because the Philhellenes needed "Greece" to have a Western name in order to be part of the Western World. Another reason for coming up with this name was to, for the first time ever, group together all the ancient worlds including the City States, Achaea, Thessaly, Epirus and Greek occupied Macedonia under one "Western sounding" name, "Greece".

Modern Hellenism was expected to begin in the southern part of Modern Greece with the toppling of the Ottoman Empire and from there expand outwards. Not everyone however bought into the idea of Hellenism, not if it had to be at the expense of traditional values.

The idea was that in order to be a Hellene one had to not only embrace the ideals of Hellenism but had to forsake ones own culture, traditions, language and even religion. To many people Hellenism was synonymous with paganism. It is funny nowadays to hear Greek Orthodox Priests bursting with pride about being such great Hellenes unknowingly or intentionally forsaking Christianity, the very same faith they have sworn to serve. But that is not all; a Hellene is obligated to keep his or her real identity a secret not only from society but also from its offspring. The children must not know the truth, which would ensure that they would remain good Hellenes!

Surprisingly Hellenism was embraced by many people but not as many as expected. People with strong traditional values and long family roots refused to give up that which they held dear and near to their hearts. Many fought against Hellenism and many more even lost their lives. The ones who embraced Hellenism were either ignorant of their own history or wanted more out of life than what it had to offer even if it meant trading their real history, language and ethnic identity for it.

The new Hellenic identity required the Hellene to have a Hellenic name so every non-Greek personal and family name had to be changed to sound Greek. Unfortunately, as is with people receiving alias names in witness protection programs, real identities cease to exist. And since the new identities have no history, phantom histories have to be fabricated and lies propagated in order for the individuals to fit in. The "changed" individuals then have to be instilled with pride to not only convince their neighbours of who they are but eventually to convince themselves and their children. This is why today, after 200 years of Hellenization we have so many Slavs, Albanians, Vlachs and even Christian Turks from Asia Minor bursting with pride about being "pure Greeks, direct descendants from the Ancient Greeks".

I hope now you understand why the "real" history of these people cannot be allowed to surface. If it does it will shatter the illusion of Hellenism and not only expose the perpetrated Philhellene conspiracy but will also alienate its willing and unwitting participants who now number in the tens of millions. If the conspiracy to create Hellenism is exposed then every Greek will have no choice but to question his or her "Greek" identity; are they Slav, Albanian, Vlach or some other unheard of ethnicity from Asia Minor, the Caucasus or somewhere else? The Republic of Macedonia´s coming into existence has threatened to expose this Hellenic conspiracy which explains why so many paranoid Greeks negate its existence and act so suspiciously.

For many, including the vast majority of Macedonians, who valued their culture, language and traditions, the fight against Hellenism has become a relentless and never ending struggle. For them Hellenism is a curse.

Following are excerpts from the book "Blood Lines form Ethnic Pride to Ethnic Terrorism", by Vamik Volkan.

On pages 121 and 122 we read "Greece´s movement to build a national identity, however, contained a unique element not shared by others: external support and even pressure, for a specific kind of new identity. The British, French and Russians demanded that the modern Greek identity be Hellenic and respond to the Europeans´ nostalgia for the restoration of a pre-Christian Hellenic civilization that has been in eclipse for some two thousand years. Europeans confidently expected to see the characteristic of Homer in post liberation Greeks, in spite of the ebb and flow of history over such a great span of time. The neoclassicism that rose in seventeenth – and eighteenth-century Europe as an aesthetic and philosophical idea was to be physically embodied in modern-day Greece. The idealistic and hopeful attitudes of neoclassicism that would later be imposed on the Greeks was succinctly expressed in 1822 when American President James Monroe declared: ´The mention of Greece fills the mind with the utmost exalted sentiments and arouses in our bosoms the best feelings of which our nature is susceptible´.



In reality, however, just before the Greek war of independence, most Greeks still referred to themselves as Romans. Vlachavas, the priest rebel leader who rose against the Ottomans, declared, ´A Romneos I was born, a Romneos I will die´.

Some Europeans and the few Americans who came to help Greece start a new nation-state, were disappointed even indignant, to discover among Greece´s peasants there were no warrior-heroes like Achilles or Ajax, no statesmen like Pericles, no philosophers like Socrates or Plato and no poets of the caliber of Aeschylus or Sophocles. There was, in fact, little likeness between nineteenth century Greeks and the idealized Greeks from ancient history that had such hold on the imagination of European liberators."

Further down on page 122 we read "The folklore scholar Michael Herzfeld has identified three major obstacles to the project of re-Hellenizing Greece. First, the people in the new nation-state found it difficult to accept that they should resemble the long-lost inhabitants of their land; most of the common people had no idea what they were supposed to be. Second, they could not be "Hellenic", in the old pagan sense of the word, since they strongly adhered to the Christian faith in their Orthodox church. Finally, it was hard to be Hellenic while using a Romaic language mixed with Turkish, Arabic and Persian origin."

Even further down on page 122 we read "Hellenism was embraced, but under the three obstacles listed above, under a special way. It was made ´intimately personal´, identified as a mystical sensibility that could not be understood by even Western supporters. George Evlambios in 1843 declared that foreigners should not attempt the impossible by trying to fathom the mysteries of Greekness. It was ironic that the Hellenism thesis, although initially externally directed, would in practice ultimately lead Greeks to differentiate themselves from the very others who had helped to define them. Absorbing Hellenism made modern Greeks proud of their uniqueness."

At this point I usually make my commentary about the Modern Greek hypocritical stance against the Macedonian ethnic identity and how while ignoring the fact that there is no real Greek identity, only a manufactured one, Greeks continue to be an obstacle to Macedonia´s entry into the world. But instead of making my own commentary, this time I will use quotes from the book "The Emerging Strategic Environment Challenges of the twenty-first century" edited by Williamson Murray.

On page 17 of this book we read "Considering, for example, the contemporary notions promulgated by the Ministry of Education in Athens regarding Macedonia. Greek textbooks portray Philip of Macedon and Alexander the Great as exemplars of Greek civilization and their kingdom as thoroughly Hellenized. Therefore, according to this logic, the modern inhabitants of Macedonia are a product of an unbroken cultural influence stretching back to the Greece of the fourth century BC. As a result, the present Slav-inhabited Republic of Macedonia supposedly has no right to its name nor to use the sixteen-pointed Star of Vergina, the symbol of the ancient Kingdom of Macedonia, as its national emblem. Left out of this fairy tale is the absence of any proof that the ancient Macedonians spoke Greek or formed part of Greek culture.

Furthermore the undisputed fact that Philip and Alexander admired Greek culture and that Greek was spoken at their court hardly made their subjects Greek, any more than the fact that the court of Catherine the Great and Alexander I spoke French made the Russian serfs of the late eighteenth and early nineteenth century part of French culture. Ignored, too, is the influence of successive waves of invasions that smashed into the Balkans between the fourth and fourteenth centuries AD."

Then on page 18 we read "What was left of ancient Greek culture in medieval Macedonia after one thousand years of rapine, enslavement and slaughter at the hands of outsiders? Today the Greek government insists that its country has no minorities. But a traveler to Greek Macedonia or Thrace will discover that many (perhaps 250,000 or more) Albanians, Slavs, and Muslims - what precisely to call them is completely a matter of opinion – live near the Greek border with Albania, Macedonia, Bulgaria and European Turkey. All that these contradictions really prove is that after two centuries of independence, Greek nationalists remain insecure and self-doubting behind their boastful and touchy facades."

And now a word to my critics;

When I first started writing these articles, you accused me of "making up stories" and of "telling lies", demanding to see proof and quotes from reliable sources. Now that I have produced quotes, many, many quotes from over thirty different reliable and unbiased authors, who by the way all support the Greek side while telling "your" story, you accuse me of using "other peoples´ words" and of "not having a mind of my own".

Please make up your minds!!!

Please, instead of putting blame on me for telling you the truth, admit to yourselves that you are a fake nation with a manufactured identity and instead of trying so hard to prove that "Macedonians don´t exist" try harder and prove that "Greeks do exist".

For those who are still not convinced that the Modern Greek identity is an artificial creation, please continue to read this series of articles.

Author´s note:

Dear Macedonians, one way to defend ourselves from the Greek onslaught and gain back our identity and dignity is to fight back to the level to which the Greeks have reduced us; that is to attack their identity as they have attacked ours. We need prove nothing to them except to expose them as the artificial identity they truly are and to uncover their design to wipe us out in order to usurp our Macedonian heritage.

To be Continued....

Many thanks to TrueMacedonian from www.maknews.com for his contribution to this article.

You can contact the author at [email protected]

http://www.americanchronicle.com/articles/view/94497

[Risto the Great]

Excellent effort from Risto and the Slayer of Greek myths ... True Macedonian.

[TrueMacedonian]

Thanks RTG

[Pelister]

Modern Hellenism is the curse of the ages.

It exterminates everything that is natural about the landscape, about its demographic; it forfeits everything that is rich, unique and individual about the people of this region, and it appropriates or passes off elements of these natives cultures, as its own. It kills the truth.

[Pelister]

Hellenism comes from Europe; it wasn't a grass roots or native movement. It came from Europe, it was imposed from above, and the consequence of it was that the demographic needed to change radically, if the idea that "ancient Greece lives" was to be sustained in any way.

Here is what one historian, E.H Carr has to say about taking some kind of ideal.

Nothing is more radically false than to set up some supposedly abstract standard of the desirable (i.e., European Hellenism) and condemn the past in the light of it

Source, Carr, E.H., What is History? p.128

O.K so what is wrong with applying the values of Modern Hellenism, historically? What does it mean for historians? What does it mean for various ethnic groups in Modern Greece, because this instrument is essentially targetted at them? Well, for the native people of Modern Greece it means they lose their identity now (it may take several generations), but they also lose their identity historically.(Just as Risto Stefov pointed out in the above article). If the Greek States' representation of history is deceptive and false, and if that history is being used as a basis to deny human rights presently (the rights of ethnic Macedoinans, Vlachs, Turks and Albanians), don't historians (and politicians) have a moral obligation to address it? To address the State, its colonizing practices, its historical record, and in this context shouldn't Greece's political opinions about its neighbours identity, i.e., Macedonians, be taken to be highly suspect?

It is probably impossible for Europe to accept that Greece should change, from its current form, regardless of how abusive it is toward its minorities. The idea of Modern Hellenism, is a European idea. Europeans attribute the “triumphs” of civilization, progress and the like to the ancient Greeks. Constructing a Modern Greek State with this ideal in mind – and then changing its historical demographics radically, is a European enterprise. So Greece is unlikely to change form, unless Europe can accept its civilization has a lot less to do with ancient Greece, than it has to do with other things. The origins of Protestantism, are found in the Bogomil movement of Macedonia, not Greece. Protestantism, was acknowledged in Germany, because of the threatening presence of the Ottoman Turks at the gates of Western Europe. they need to acknowledge that Greece (ancient), has less to do with European civilization, or indeed the enlightenment than believed. Rennassaince Art found its form in the early Macedonian Christian School of the middle ages. For a thousand years the language of Christianity in South East Europe, was in Macedonian, not Greek. Some of the rarist and earliest liturgical manuscripts found on Sveta Gora (Mt.Athos) are in Macedonian, not Greek. The policy of denying the ethnic Macedonian, is also mirrored in the denial of the traditional presence of Macedonian cultural infrastructure, on Mt. Athos and elsewhere in Eastern Europe. Many of the Monasteries there were converted from Macedonian, to Greek, post 1913. Others were “handed over” by the Sultan to the Greek Patriarch in earlier times.

Europe can't accept that European Christianity, has a strong Macedonian tradition, not a Greek one.

[TrueMacedonian]

Modern Greece and the Macedonian Heritage – Part 15

http://www.americanchronicle.com/articles/view/98095

Modern Greece and the Macedonian Heritage – Part 15 – More questions
Risto Stefov
April 11, 2009

As much as I don´t want to turn this series into a "Dear Risto" column, a couple of you have asked some very important, worthwhile and valid questions that I would like to answer.

1. As Macedonians should we be abandoning our "Slavic" culture in favour of the Ancient Macedonian one?

2. What is your personal, and not a dictionary quote, definition of a Hellene? In your opinion who and what is a Hellene?

I will begin answering the first question by saying that the Macedonians of today are a product of all that has happened in Macedonia. We are the descendents of all the people who set foot on those lands and therefore are the inheritors of everything that was left for us. Since man set foot on Macedonian soil our culture has been evolving, growing and adding to our being; culminating in what it is today.

We are Macedonians because we have lived in Macedonia for many generations and have experienced what is Macedonian and that which we have experienced has made us into who and what we are, Macedonians. If we seek the truth about who we are then we have no choice but to accept and embrace everything that makes us who we are. We are Macedonians, one of the deepest rooted people in the world and inheritors of everything that was Macedonian since before history was recorded.

In an ethnic sense we are Macedonians but linguistically we speak a Slavic language, a language that today is described as belonging to the family of Slavic languages. Ethnically we are not Slavs, we can´t all be Slavs from the Balkans to Siberia. We are Slavic speakers who over the years have evolved into a unique entity which can only be described as Macedonian. We have, however, contributed immensely to what we today call "Slav culture" more than any other ethnic nation in the Slavic speaking world. We know for a fact that Slav culture, particularly the written form of the language, was spread from Macedonia by the Solun brothers Kiril and Metodi and that is undeniably part of our Macedonian heritage.

Are the modern Macedonians the descendants of the ancient Macedonians?

My answer to that question is why stop with the ancient Macedonians? Why not go even further back and ask "are we the descendants of all the people that occupied Macedonian lands since the melt of the last ice age"? We cannot say with certainty that we are and neither can we say that we are not. All we can say is that Macedonia, the land and all that has taken place on it over the ages has made us into who we are today, Macedonians. One thing we need to refrain from is allowing others, particularly our enemies to define us.

Our neighbours to the south, the Greeks, have made the mistake of defining themselves as the "descendants of the ancient Greeks" ignoring many years of evolution, population movements, invasions, conquests and so on. The Greeks followed the "Western European" blueprint for nation building and falsely linked themselves to the ancients and only the ancients, leaving a wide gap in their culture. However they only did this to make political gains and take advantage of their neighbours, particularly the Macedonians. In fact most of Western Europe has used mythical historiography to build its modern nations. Macedonia does not need to resort to myths because Macedonians have historically existed since pre-history.

If there is the question of who the Modern Macedonians are then there must also be a question of "who the Ancient Macedonians were".

As far as we know the Ancient Macedonians began as a small tribal nation somewhere in today´s Kostur Region sometime in the 9th century BC. They only occupied today´s geographical Macedonia in the 4th century BC after Philip II became king. From what we know, Philip II defeated the various tribal kingdoms in the vicinity of today´s geographic Macedonia and incorporated the people and their lands into his Macedonian kingdom. These tribes were not all Macedonian before Philip conquered them. So what were they?

From what we know from history, Ancient Macedonia, before it became a nation state, was the land of the Pelasgians, Illyrians, Thracians, Phrygians, Paeonians and others. Hardly anything is known about these great ancient and prehistoric tribes except that they were very numerous "like leaves in a forest". So what happened to these people? Naturally modern mainstream history would have us believe that they all disappeared, but did they? Or could these people be the ancestors of today´s modern Slav speakers?

There are some well educated and prominent scientists today who believe that large groups of people who moved into the Balkans and Europe after the last ice age are still living there to this day. Could one of those large groups be the modern day Slav speakers? There are some who believe they are! How else does one explain the Slav language being spoken over such a large expanse and by so many different people in Eastern Europe?

Now if we put two and two together we come to the realization that there is a high probability that today´s Slav speaking Eastern Europeans are the descendents of any or all of the prehistoric Illyrians, Thracians, Phrygians, Dardanians, etc.; the very same groups of people mainstream history claims have disappeared.

If the people incorporated in Ancient Macedonia by Philip II indeed came from these same tribes, and we know they did, then they too must have been the ancestors of the modern day Slav speakers. This raises the possibility that the Ancient Macedonians may also have been "Slav speakers". We know that the most prominent Ancient Macedonians including Alexander the Great were bilingual and we have many historic examples to prove it. We also know Alexander´s Macedonian soldiers spoke an "unknown" language unique to the Macedonians. The only thing, as of yet, is that we don´t know if that language was Slavic. But with time, that problem too will be solved.

So, without knowing all the facts, why would we opt for "accepting" the Ancient Macedonian heritage while rejecting our "Slav" culture when there is a possibility that one is a progression of the other?

If I had to guess, I would guess that the "Slav culture" of the 9th century AD is the revival of the Ancient Macedonian Culture of the 4th century BC but with a Christian twist.

And now to answer the second question, "my definition" of what is a Hellene?

I believe I answered this question before but I guess not to the satisfaction of at least one reader. A Hellene is a 19th century mythological being that encompasses all the desired qualities that the 19th century Western European culture craved.

Trying to define what a Hellene is is like trying to define who Santa Claus is. The word "Santa Claus" conjures up an image of a white bearded man dressed up in a red suit who gives away presents; an image of happiness. But is Santa Claus real? It depends who you ask? Most children will say that he is! But does Santa Clause exist? Yes he does, you can find him in practically every mall around Christmas time.


A Hellene is like Santa Claus in many ways. Conditioned over the years many people believe he or she exists. Any ordinary person properly dressed in red and white attire can unmistakably be Santa Claus, similarly any person who speaks and feels Greek can qualify to be a Hellene. The story of the Hellene is something like the story of Santa Claus. They both started somewhere back in Ancient times and borrowed something from this culture and something from that. The case of Santa Claus, evolved into what we know today as "the white bearded man in the red suit, living in the North Pole, making toys for little girls and boys and delivering them to all the children in the world on Christmas Eve on his sled pulled by his flying reindeer". The case of the Hellene also evolved in a similar fashion borrowing from the ancients what was attractive then mixing it with Christianity and what was desirable we then have "a Hellene who is a Christian Orthodox, speaks a bastardized ancient Language and claims to be a descendent of a race of people that died 2,000 years ago".

Will the "Santa Claus" of modern times survive the scrutiny of science if so examined? Will we find that he is real, exists and flies a sled pulled by reindeer? No! We believe in Santa Claus because he is a powerful symbol of our traditional values which today is exploited and utilized by merchants to sell their wares and make money. Similarly Hellenism (for some) is a symbol of a "perfect culture". It does not really exist and will not survive scientific scrutiny but is tolerated by people because it benefits a certain and powerful segment of our society.

Like ordinary people who put on cheap red suits and fake white beards, pretending to be Santa Claus in order to sell merchandise, ordinary people who speak Greek can also be Hellenes in order to improve their social status in society.

Does a Hellene exist? Does Santa Claus exist? It all depends on who you ask! Is a Hellene real? Is Santa Claus real? No, because they both exist only in the imagination of those who believe in them!

"To be a Modern "Hellene" one must be a liar. One has to lie about their ethnic heritage. One has to lie about their mother tongue. And one has to lie about their history. And so it goes, a Hellene is a person who is faking their ethnicity, mother tongue and history." (Maknews from www.maknews.com )

"The British, French and Russians demanded that the modern Greek identity be Hellenic and respond to the Europeans´ nostalgia…" ("Blood Lines from Ethnic Pride to Ethnic Terrorism", by Vamik Volkan, page 121)

"Thus, the recourse to the new image of Hellas (both as cultural construct and as social system) began immediately upon the brief rule of governor Kapodistrias and became efficiently implemented with the takeover of the Bavarian monarchy and its explicit desire for centralization and Hellenization. In fact, the cultural image of Greece was put into production with much greater urgency than was a political-economic infrastructure, despite the obvious importance of the latter in a newly constructed state." ("Dream Nation Enlightenment, Colonization and the institution of Modern Greece", Stathis Gourgouris, page 87)

"It should be strongly emphasized, however, that this image of classical Greece was constructed in Europe and was imported to the newborn Greek state (Tsoukalas, 2002)." ("Entangled Identities Nations and Europe", edited by Atsuko Ichijo and Willfried Spohn, page 109)

"The adjective ´Hellenistic´ not, significantly, existing in any Greek original – was first coined in its French form ´hellenistiques´ by J.B. Bossuer, in 1681 as a term for the Greek of the Septuagint, the ´Hellenized´ version of the old Testament." ("The Hellenic Age a Short History", Peter Green, page xvi introduction)

And now I leave you with this;

"And thus, I call upon the western intellectuals in general and the western philhellenes in particular to separate their personal sentimental attachments to Greek history, to do the only honorary thing left and treat Macedonia and Macedonian history as a separate and comprehensive study that it is, and that it certainly deserves to be. The conflicting statements left strewn in the literature in the past hundred or so years—are the result of biased and subjective influences—and have not only caused political discourse and confusion, but bring about contradictions, fuel tensions and cause unnecessary hateful speculations.

For instance, when some nineteenth century unsuspecting authors depict events in antiquity and describe the ancient Macedonians as Greeks, it was done not because the evidence left from the ancient biographers would support such an act but because the western media and the western academia in particular, would allow dissemination of historically inaccurate information. Such supposedly "harmless" omissions—read desirable proliferation of myths—would seep easily into the readers´ consciousness for whom the built up historiography of the artificially created Greek nation, lay in tandem with the envisioned fundamental grand scheme of things in the regional geography designed for Balkans.

It is morally wrong, ethically inadmissible and scientifically incorrect to lump the ancient Macedonians under Greek umbrella, simply, because today´s Greece—the creation of the western powers—enjoys sentimental support of many western intellectuals. Truth does not need lobbyists. Truth is not a tradable commodity and cannot be conditionally used and selectively applied. Appropriation of Macedonian history is not an acceptable act; portraying ancient Macedonians as Greeks is an outright fabrication." (Gandeto - http://www.americanchronicle.com/articles/view/97381)

For those who are still not convinced that the Modern Greek identity is an artificial creation, please continue to read this series of articles.

Author´s note:

Dear Macedonians, one way to defend ourselves from the Greek onslaught and gain back our identity and dignity is to fight back to the level to which the Greeks have reduced us; that is to attack their identity as they have attacked ours. We need prove nothing to them except to expose them as the artificial identity they truly are and to uncover their design to wipe us out in order to usurp our Macedonian heritage.

To be Continued.

Many thanks to TrueMacedonian from www.maknews.com for his contribution to this article.

You can contact the author at [email protected]

[Daskalot]

this is a very well written article by Risto, I think we should add all of his articles to this section.

[Pelister]

Risto has the courage to communicate and preserve our history, culture and heritage - but I think it is a burden more of us should help him with.

I can only think of my poor ancestors, illiterate for the most part, who were witnessing, but had no power to communicate, their extinction, as I said somewhere else.

I love this paragraph he wrote:

My answer to that question is why stop with the ancient Macedonians? Why not go even further back and ask "are we the descendants of all the people that occupied Macedonian lands since the melt of the last ice age"? We cannot say with certainty that we are and neither can we say that we are not. All we can say is that Macedonia, the land and all that has taken place on it over the ages has made us into who we are today, Macedonians. One thing we need to refrain from is allowing others, particularly our enemies to define us.

Thanks Risto.

[Pelister]

This is absolutely brilliant.

There needs to be more historians supporting J.S Gandeto; no historian has given such a logical, and erudite exposition of Greek historiography. Its a damning indictment, not only of the New Greeks, but of Western intellectuals as well, who support this bullshit.

It is morally wrong, ethically inadmissible and scientifically incorrect to lump the ancient Macedonians under Greek umbrella, simply, because today´s Greece—the creation of the western powers—enjoys sentimental support of many western intellectuals. Truth does not need lobbyists. Truth is not a tradable commodity and cannot be conditionally used and selectively applied. Appropriation of Macedonian history is not an acceptable act; portraying ancient Macedonians as Greeks is an outright fabrication."

I'm writing an introductory paper on false impressions of Macedonia (and Greece) in the British parliament, and how the misinformation and misrepresentations of Macedonia, 100 years ago, found its way into popular attitudes, and popular culture in Europe, and more generally the West. How, these modern myths, despite their distortions, continue today, and continue to be entertained, despite all the evidence to the contrary. For as long as there has been modern myths of the Macedonians (and, Greece), pushed by Europe, there have been people there to debunk them, and tell it like it really is. The disrepenency between European attitudes, and what was "on the ground" will be brought to light through the observations of travellers, soliders, politicians ...etc, who brought these prejudices and misrpresentations with them, and left with an entirely different impression.

[Dimko-piperkata]

Modern Greece and the Macedonian Heritage – Part 16

Modern Greeks, who were educated through the Greek educational system, seem to think that Macedonians did not exist prior to the 1940´s. In fact some are so sure that they are willing to stake their own reputation on it, so they say.

One Greek, who claimed to be a Professor of History, not long ago wrote and told me that there is absolutely no evidence to support the existence of Macedonians prior to Tito´s "alleged" creation of Macedonia. In fact, he said that he was so sure that Macedonians did not exist he was willing to accept everything I said at face value if I could only show him a single piece of evidence that proved Macedonians existed before 1940.

Believing he was sincere, I had no reason to doubt him, I took up his challenge and put together a document which can be found at this link; http://www.oshchima.com/Historical%2...ents/hdoc1.pdf

After reviewing the document the good professor was kind enough to write back to me but it wasn´t what I expected. The only thing he wrote was "Macedonia is Greek"! Nothing else! I never heard from him again.

I used to believe that Greeks were sincere in their quest for the truth but experience has taught me differently. I used to believe if one laid the facts on the table all arguments could be resolved through reasoning and logic but unfortunately I was wrong! As I have found out over the years, Modern Greeks, at least the ones I have dealt with, are not interested in finding "the truth" unless the truth serves their purpose. The only thing these Greeks are interested in, as I have found, is covering up all evidence that might challenge their claims on Macedonia and expose their lies. Facts, evidence, or logic do not matter and no Greek can be convinced of the truth unless it serves his or her purpose or supports his or her claims on Macedonia. Therefore it would be a waste of time to try and prove anything to a Greek who is convinced that his or her truth is the only truth.

If I were to classify the Greeks into categories I would classify them into three types. The first type which includes the vast majority of Greeks is the silent type which steers away from "anomalies" or information that is not explained by their indoctrination. These Greeks have found that curiosity can be painful, as Anastasia Karakasidou discovered when she wrote her book "Fields of Wheat, Hills of Blood".

The second type of Greek is a patriotic and devoted type who believes that everything the Greek government tells him or her, particularly about Macedonia, is true. This Greek is taught to believe the indigenous Macedonians, the ones who lived in Macedonia for many generations, the ones whose lands Greece stole, are his or her enemies. They are convinced that these Macedonians are preoccupied with "stealing" their Macedonia from them and therefore should not be trusted and should be punished at every opportunity.

The third and most dangerous type of Greek is the one who knows the truth but is entrusted with protecting Greek interests at any cost. This is the Greek that seeks out evidence in order to destroy it.

So the next time a Greek asks you to produce evidence that proves Macedonians exist remember that by providing this evidence you are helping him or her to cover it up.

The problem these Greeks have is not only with evidence but with the people who are bent on digging it up. Remember Karakasidou´s case? The Greeks threatened to "blow up" the publishing house in London if it published her book. Greeks often use this kind of "intimidation" to prevent what they deem "damaging" information from coming out. But more often than not, they publish "their own" versions of "the facts" to create confusion and bury the truth. For example Greeks, for years, maintained that Macedonians did not exist. But when stories started surfacing that Macedonians do indeed exist, they invented the idea that these people were not really "ethnic Macedonians" but "geographic Macedonians". In other words they are called "Macedonians" not because they are ethnic Macedonians but because they are "Greeks" who just happened to live in Macedonia!

Until a couple of decades ago, according to these Greeks, Macedonians did not exist; today, according to the same Greeks, we have all kinds of Macedonians. In fact the Greek Prime Minister himself just announced to the Greek Parliament that he too is a "Macedonian"! This is how Greeks logic works. If you can´t outright eradicate "the information" then you bury it in a huge tangle of lies. Greeks are experts at this!

Fortunately Macedonians and even foreigners are slowly coming on to these "Greek tricks" and the Greek lies are gradually being exposed.

Today there is an overwhelming amount of evidence uncovered all over the world not just from books but also from newspapers and journals. Greeks however are trying very hard to bury it by side tracking the reader with personal attacks on the messenger instead of dealing with the message. In place of responding to the questions posed, Greeks tend to attack the credibility of the messenger calling him or her "anti-Greek" having an "axe to grind" or not possessing "the right credentials" to be an authority. It seems that when facts are presented that contradict the "Greek view", Greeks tend to dismiss them by accusing the presenter of not having the "right credentials".

Recently old newspaper stories from the late 1800´s and early 1900´s have also been surfacing from various library archives. These newspapers, it appears, have been carrying all sorts of stories from the Balkan conflicts, including many from the Macedonian 1903 Uprising against the Ottoman Empire. These stories exist and are real and can be found in the archives of practically every major library in the world. Some of these documents are now being digitized and will soon be available online everywhere on the internet. Here are some examples;

http://www.maknews.com/forum/archive/here-are-som-articles-from-the-new-york-times-t5689.html

http://www.maknews.com/forum/archive/newspaper-articles-about-the-macedonians-in-the-1800-s-t5734.html

http://www.maknews.com/forum/general-discussions/reference-list-1-newspaper-articles-t14740.html

http://www.macedoniantruth.org/forum/showthread.php?t=1139

These stories talk about Macedonians fighting for their freedom, Macedonians who according to the Greeks did not exist prior to the 1940´s. With stories like these coming out no one in the world is going to believe the Greeks and their false claims. No one is going to believe that the references "Macedonian" and "Macedonians" are "geographic" and not "ethnic". Who in the world, except Greeks, uses "geographic" references when referring to people´s "ethnic" or "national" identities?

"Since the declaration of the Republic of Macedonia the Greek government has asserted that it has exclusive copyright to the use of the Star of Vergina. But is has been argued that since modern day Greeks are not descended from the ancient Greeks: ´The Star of Vergina is not a Greek symbol, except in the sense that it happens to have been found in the territory of the present-day Greek state. The modern day Greeks appropriate ancient Greek cultural symbols because they happen to live in more or less the same part of the world as the ancient Greeks did" ("Experimenting with Democracy Regime Change in the Balkans", Edited by Geoffrey Pridham and Tom Gallagher, page 271)



"It is widely recognized that national symbols are often a modern creation which do not reflect the reality of the circumstances they purport to represent. Tradition can be invented. Modern Greece, for example, is a relatively new creation and bears little resemblance to the ancient Greece which is the source of much of its symbolism." ("Experimenting with Democracy Regime Change in the Balkans", Edited by Geoffrey Pridham and Tom Gallagher, page 271)

So let us dispense with the niceties and tell it the way it is. Greeks who know the truth know very well that Macedonians have as much right to the Macedonian heritage as Greeks do to the Greek heritage. Even though the Modern Greeks are not the descendents of the so-called ancient Greeks they consciously laid claim to the ancient Greek heritage. Why are they then protesting against the Macedonians laying claim to the Macedonian heritage, even though the Macedonians have been living in Macedonia a lot longer then the Modern Greeks have lived in Greece? Looking at the problem another way, why is the world not challenging these imposters for usurping the Greek heritage? If Macedonians have no right to the Macedonian heritage then surely the Modern Greeks have no right to the Greek heritage?

We know that the Greeks acquired Greece and Greek occupied Macedonia under false pretences so why are we not putting all this on the table and making it part of the so-called "name negotiations" with Greece?

"And, once again, we came to this often visited intersection; there are some very progressive Greeks who do not subscribe to this middle-age Greek thinking and who see the people in the Balkans living in peace and harmony—these are the true Greeks and then, there are newly created Greeks, those whose heritage has been wiped out and replaced with the newly "morphed" ethnicity "Greek-Macedonian". Since they—in this Greek created problem—stand to lose the most, they are the "true" Greek soldiers in the forefront fighting the battle. I am sure they wouldn´t dare dig deeper into their past because they will inevitably find "skeletons" which have another story to tell: their grandfathers did not even speak Greek nor did they share in these "megali" Greek dream. What they dreamed the most and with a heavy heart longed for, were their abandoned homes, forsaken culture and their way of life in their Asia Minor communities.

Sooner than later all these Greek lies and fabrications will run their course and Europe will have no choice but to put an end to this Greek farce." (Gandeto, http://www.americanchronicle.com/articles/view/98213

"Those who espouse extreme nationalist positions, claiming (as they invoke Alexander, Philip, and Aristotle) that the name of Macedonia is exclusively Greek and that there is no such thing as a Macedonian minority, are reacting to the exigencies of a perhaps genuine dangerous local situation in which their country faces potentially hostile neighbours on several fronts; but they are also resuscitating the very logic that has always compromised their supposed independence to begin with – the logic according to which all the country´s modern claims must be evaluated by the yardstick of ancient history." (Michael Herzfeld, "Anthropology - Theoretical Practice in Culture and Society", pages 67 and 68).

"It is a myth that the population exchange ensured an uncontested and harmonious national homogeneity or that the refugees became integrated into Greek society in an unproblematic way. The criterion used for the population exchange was that of religion, in line with the tradition of the millet system. In many instances the refugees could hardly speak Greek and many had been reluctant to leave their lands and home where they had lived for generations.

Although the refugees from Asia Minor are collectively referred to as a single group, in fact they came from various cultural, linguistic, social and regional backgrounds." ("Mediating the Nation - News, Audiences and the Politics of Identity" by Mirca Madianou, page 31)

And now I leave you with this;

THIS MACEDONIAN SUN

The National flag]

By Spero Thompson

Patriots rose and fell in the Ilinden uprising

Turks holocaust villages, hope flees the land

Greeks, Serbs, and Bulgars drive out the Ottomans

Partitioning of Macedonia, their Balkan war prize demand

Europe´s power struggles bring a darkness of night

Ilinden, Balkan, World wars; repeatedly Macedonia is overrun

Sunrise overcomes night, announcing a new day

In 1991 history records the rising of the Macedonian Sun

Macedonia´s twentieth century featured bloodshed and hope

Began in bloodshed, ending in independence, hope realized

A standard is raised to represent and identify themselves

By symbol and colour, their nationhood is visualized

For so long a people oppressed and suppressed

Now masters of their own house and land

A century of, sultanate, monarchy, communism then autonomy

Today under their own flag they stand

The Macedonian Sun, a boldly emblazoned flag

On a field of red, a golden risen sun

The sun signifies a new day of self-rule

Red, for a history written in blood, a memorandum

A banner derived from their ancient heraldic emblem

Eyes see… 'we are a people' its proclamation

Proud emigrant sons and daughters see it fly

World acknowledged, flag of their mother nation

Historically, countries play leading or supportive roles

Now Macedonia is cast in a modern part

Ally to all who pursue peace and democracy

The Macedonian Sun, their pledge of national heart

Reader, listener, understand the meaning of this flag

With both prospect and retrospect you will see

The sun looks ahead, to a new era begun

Red, looks back on blood, sacrificed for country

This century, as nations strive, ideology against ideology

Fly in honour and freedom, oh Macedonian Sun

Until all flags are lowered, required no more

When His kingdom come, Gods will be done

For those who are still not convinced that the Modern Greek identity is an artificial creation, please continue to read this series of articles.

Author´s note:

Dear Macedonians, one way to defend ourselves from the Greek onslaught and gain back our identity and dignity is to fight back to the level to which the Greeks have reduced us; that is to attack their identity as they have attacked ours. We need prove nothing to them except to expose them as the artificial identity they truly are and to uncover their design to wipe us out in order to usurp our Macedonian heritage.

To be Continued.

Many thanks to TrueMacedonian from www.maknews.com for his contribution to this article.

You can contact the author at [email protected]

http://www.americanchronicle.com/articles/view/98986

[Daskalot]

Risto Stefov does it again, this is as clear as daylight but somehow or Greeks friends will not see anything at all........ the ostrich maneuver is commencing......

Thank you Risto for noticing our little hamlet on the internet.

[TrueMacedonian]

Evidence of the existence of Macedonians throughout the ages

http://www.oshchima.com/Historical%20Documents/hdoc1.pdf

Apparently some "greek" professor challenged Risto Stefov on the bologny theory that Macedonians did not exist before the 1940's. The link above is his answer to him.

[Daskalot]

That is a good compendium, Risto has transcribed it from this book "Documents on the Struggle of the Macedonian People for Independence and a Nation-State, Volume I", there is also a volume II of this very eminent collection of documents, these two volumes refute everything that is "Greek" in Macedonia.

[Pelister]

This is excellent.

I would Orbini's observations in this from 1601, which is very relevent. Orbini makes three points

1. Macedonians in 1601 are not Greeks
2. The Macedonians speak a Slavic language
3. The Slavic language they speak is the same language used by the ancient Macedonians