Homogeneity of the Greek Nation Turned
into Myth; the "Abecedar"
By Dimitar Chulev
November 27, 2006
A group of Greek nationalists unsuccessfully attempted to block the promotion of the Macedonian primer which took place in the center of Athens. http://www.utrinskivesnik.com.mk...
(Translated from Macedonian to English and edited by Risto Stefov)
[email protected]
Website: www.Oshchima.com
Athens - The Macedonian primer known as the "Abecedar" designed for educating Macedonian children in Greece in the Macedonian language in the 1920's, after 81 years, was yesterday (November 7, 2006) promoted in Athens.
"This is a big step for the Macedonian minority in Greece towards gaining freedom to use the Macedonian language in the Greek educational system" said Panagiotis Dimitras, president of the Greek Helsinki Committee, during the Abecedar's promotion in a meeting with the Athens based journalists in the center of the Greek capital.
More than a hundred journalists and intellectuals took part in this event during which Pavlos Voskopoulos, one of the leaders of the political Party Vinozhito, said that twenty or even ten years ago one could not even think of such a promotion, let alone holding it in Athens.
To counter the event, a group of about fifty Greek ultranationalists from the illegal organization "Hrisi Avgi" held a violent protest in front of the building where the event was taking place, threatening to blow it up to prevent the promotion.
The promotion took place about a hundred meters away from the Greek Parliament and was surrounded by one hundred or so policemen in riot gear who pushed the ultranationalists back and held their position until the promotion was over and the journalists safely left the premises.
The Abecedar's promotion was jointly organized by Vinozhito and the Greek Committee from the European Bureau of Lesser Used Languages (EBLUL).
The situation in Athens resembled the one in Solun two years ago during which the Greek nationalists attempted to stop the Vinozhito congress. In both occurrences the police exercised its duty and protected the meeting and its participants.
"The reappearance of the primer is of exceptional significance and we hope it will be viewed as a signal for the Greek Government to change its rigid position towards the diverse languages in Greece" says Athanasios Parisis, President of the Greek Committee of EBLUL, who invited the skeptics present to go to places where Macedonians live and discover for themselves that Macedonians really do exist in Greece.
About ten days ago, the Greek Minister Dora Bakoianis reported that there is no ethnic Macedonian minority living in Greece. In response to her comments, Panaiotis Dimitras replied that the climate is not right in Greece to officially admit to the existence of ethnic or national diversities and called on the journalists to verify this for themselves not only about the Macedonians but also about the "Vlachs, the Albanians, the Roma and see if and how the Government responds".
Pressured by the League of Nations Greece was ordered to print the Abecedar in 1925 in order to safeguard and protect the rights of the evident Macedonian minority in Greece.
[As a result of the Treaty of Serves which Greece signed on August 10, 1920 under Article's 7, 8 and 9, the Greek government was to undertake certain obligations regarding "the protection of the non-Greek national minorities in Greece". These Articles specifically stated free use of language and education.]
The primer was printed in the Latin script and was then defended by the representative of the Greek Government Vasilis Dendramis in front of the League of Nations. Among other things Dendramis retorted that "the Macedonian language as being 'neither Bulgarian, nor Serbian but an independent language.'" [He listed various linguists and linguistic maps as evidence to support his claim of the independence of the Macedonian language. This high ranking Greek official representing the Greek state not only recognized the existence of the Macedonian identity, but openly defended and supported it.] Unfortunately, Greece never fulfilled its obligation. The entire printed batch of the Abecedar was destroyed in a staged train accident and never reached the Macedonian population.
Two thousand copies of the primer have now been reprinted with funds from the Greek Government's budget. More precisely, the booklet was printed using the 35,000 Euros which the Strasburg Court forced the Greek State to pay Vinozhito for human rights infractions. The high court ordered Greece to pay for damages caused to the by-lingual sign (Greek and Macedonian) and to the Home of Macedonian Culture in Lerin.
"We are far from achieving our goal in teaching the Macedonian language with the Abecedar" said Voskopoulos "our purpose is political aimed at bringing attention to an unresolved problem. What better place than to do it here in Athens in the center of Greek nationalism. Ideological reforms must begin here in the center of our country".
The intellectual and former president of the Greek branch of "Amnesty International" Dionisis Dusetis agrees that the Macedonian language must be recognized and implemented in the educational system. According to Dusetis, interpreting extreme nationalism as support of Hellenism is a mistake. "What the nationalists really aspire to is to negate the name of their northern neighbour" said Dusetis.
"Even if there are two hundred individuals who wish to speak a different language, we should not be allowed to prevent them" retorted former journalist Rihardo Someritis during a heated provocative discussion, "if you don't understand that, you and we as a society have a problem" he said.
Journalist Teta Papadopoulou who works for "Elefterotipia" said that the Macedonian language must be recognized as a language and not as a dialect, and no one has the right to prohibit Greek citizens from speaking Macedonian or any other language for that matter.
Georgios Nakratsas, whose family came from Asia Minor in the 1920's during the Greek-Turkish population exchanges and is now political advisor to the political party European Free Alliance to which Vinozhito belongs, suspects that Greek Society is close to being ready to accept the existence of different ethnicities and languages inside Greece. "If you say one does not exist that is fascism" said Nakratsas. In the road of evolution, which is slowly taking place in Greece, "stand the Church, the military and the Educational system."
"My resolve as a Macedonian is political and I believe that respecting differences in people is essential in breaking the myth that Greece is a homogeneous nation. This myth is holding Greece back." said Pavle Voskopoulos. Greek society knows very little about the part of democracy which respects one's right to be different. "Our task is to educate our society" said Voskopoulos.
----------
Risto Stefov - Articles, Translations & Collaborations
Collapse
X
-
About the Macedonian Language Primer the "Abecedar"
November, 2006
[email protected]
Website: www.Oshchima.com
A book of great importance to Macedonian linguistics and historiography was published in Athens 81 years ago; a primer known as the 'ABECEDAR' (the A B Cs), printed in the Latin alphabet, and intended for the children of the Macedonian ethnic minority in Greece - the "Slav speaking minority" as Sir Austin Chamberlain, British diplomat and delegate to the League of Nations, and Sir James Erick Drummond, General Secretary to the League of Nations, referred to the Macedonians in Greece.
In 1920 Greece signed a treaty before the League of Nations obliging it to grant certain rights to the minorities of non-Greek origin in Greece. Four years later, in 1924, at the suggestion of the League of Nations, Greece and Bulgaria signed the Kalfov-Politis Protocol under which Bulgaria was obliged to grant the Greek minority in Bulgaria their minority rights while Greece, recognizing the Macedonians from the Aegean part of Macedonia as a "Bulgarian" minority, was to grant them their minority rights. This agreement was seemingly very much in favour of Bulgaria, but when in 1925 the Greek government undertook certain concrete steps towards the publication of the first primer made for the specific needs of that minority, it made it clear that there were no grounds on which Bulgaria could be officially interested in any "Bulgarian minority" or expect the primer to be in Bulgarian, for that minority - though speaking a Slav language - was neither Bulgarian nor Serbian.
The very fact that official Greece did not, either de jure or de facto see the Macedonians as a Bulgarian minority, but rather as a separate Slav speaking group, is of particular significance. The primer, published in the Latin alphabet, was based on the Lerin - Bilola dialect. After Gianelli's Dictionary dating from the 16th Century, and the Daniloviot Chetirijazichnik written in the 19th century (yet another book written in the Macedonian vernacular). The primer was mailed to the Kostur, Lerin and Voden regions in Western Aegean-Macedonia where school authorities were preparing to give lessons to Macedonian children from the first to the fourth grade in their mother tongue.
Greek governments have never made a sincere attempt to solve the question of the Macedonians and their ethnic rights in Greece. Thus, while measures were being undertaken for the opening of Macedonian schools, a clash between the Greek and Bulgarian armies at Petrich was concocted, which was then followed by a massacre of the innocent Macedonian population in the village of Trlis near Serres. All this was aimed at creating an attitude of insecurity within the Macedonians so that they themselves would give up the recognition of their minority rights and eventually seek safety by moving to Bulgaria. Greek governments also skillfully used the Yugoslav-Bulgarian disagreements on the question of the Macedonians in Greece, and with organized pressure on the Macedonian population, as was the case in the village of Trlis, tried to dismiss the Macedonian ethnic question from the agenda through forced resettlement of the Macedonian population outside of Greece.
The ABECEDAR, which actually never reached the Macedonian children, is in itself a powerful testimony not only to the existence of the large Macedonian ethnic minority in Greece, but also to the fact that Greece was under an obligation before the League of Nations to undertake certain measures in order to grant this particular minority their rights. (Source Hristo Andonovski).
The Macedonian question, it seems, remained stagnant for almost a century until 1991 when the Republic of Macedonia broke away from the Yugoslav Federation and became a sovereign and independent State. Even so, not all Macedonians, especially those living on Macedonian occupied territories inside Greece and Bulgaria, have been recognized as Macedonians, a distinct ethnic group with its own unique language and culture. Even though both Greece and Bulgaria acquired fully populated Macedonian territories just like Serbia did through the 1912, 1913 Balkan Wars, they still refuse to recognize the majority of those populations as belonging to the indigenous ethnic Macedonian group. Greece, Bulgaria and Serbia (later Yugoslavia), throughout the early 20th century, all produced demographic statistics proving no Macedonians existed, yet in 1991 when the Republic became independent from Yugoslavia its demographics painted a different picture. Nearly 75% of the population declared itself ethnic Macedonian. Macedonians have always existed and have always been the majority in the Macedonian occupied territories as they are today.
In spite of all evidence to the contrary, official Greece and Bulgaria still deny the existence of Macedonians.
This is one reason why our Macedonian compatriots and their Greek friends in Greece have brought light to the existence of the Abecedar, the unique Macedonian language primer invented by the Greek government exclusively for the Macedonian people in Greece. Resurrecting the Abecedar is a way of bringing attention to an old issue that for Greece and Bulgaria, refuses to go away.
Macedonians worldwide, including those living in Greece and Bulgaria, have made it clear that they want to be recognized by the world as ethnic Macedonians, as equals with full rights and privileges and will not stop until they do.
The reprinting of the Abecedar is a way of bringing world attention to an unresolved issue that urgently needs to be resolved. My role in this will be to keep you informed.
----------
Leave a comment:
-
-
Fire Did Not Burn the Truth
The Original "Abecedar" is in Skopje
By Branko Gorgevski
Translated from Macedonian to English
and Edited by Risto Stefov
November 27, 2006
[email protected]
Website: www.Oshchima.com
Some thirty years ago Vangel Ajanovski-Oche, a well known Macedonian revolutionary from Aegean Macedonia, donated a copy of the original primer to the Macedonian archives. The primer known as the "Abecedar" was printed by the Greek Government eighty-one years ago to serve the linguistic needs of the Macedonian children living in Greece. Unfortunately, in 1925 the entire batch was destroyed before it reached its destination.
This surviving one of three copies, thanks to Vangel Ajanovski-Oche, is now safe and secure in the Macedonian archives in Skopje.
Just before the conclusion of World War II, Ajanovski, during a meeting, was approached by a Macedonian teacher from Aegean Macedonia who had managed to obtain and save a copy of the primer, which he then gave to Ajanovski.
Then towards the late 1970's, after keeping it safe for almost forty years, Ajanovski decided to donate his entire collection of books and documents including the Abecedar, to relevant Macedonian Government institutions.
Ajanovski was one of the founders of the "Macedonian Antifascist Organization" and of the "Secret Macedonian Liberation Organization" in Voden Region in which he served during and after the Second World War.
As far as we know the other two original copies of the Abecedar are found; one in the City Library in Vienna, Austria and the other in the National Library in Athens, Greece. The most recent reprint of the Abecedar, which was promoted in the Greek capital, was made possible by use of the original primer from Athens.
The primer, especially prepared for Macedonian children to learn their native Macedonian language, represents one of the most significant testimonies of the existence of ethnic Macedonians in Greece, which every Greek government has adamantly denied.
The booklet was printed in Athens in 1925 as a result of a League of Nations' request to protect the rights of the Macedonian minority in Greece. On August 10, 1920 Greece signed a League of Nations agreement for the provision of rights to all its citizens of non-Greek ethnicities. The agreement, signed in Sevres, France, states that there are minorities belonging to a number of ethnicities living in Greece. It also states that the Greek government agreed to provide basic human and national rights to all its minorities.
Unfortunately, the fate of the Abecedar was tragic - the entire batch was destroyed in a staged train accident. On its way to deliver the booklet to the various destinations, the train caught fire burning the entire batch, thus never reaching the Macedonian population.
According to Vangel's son and well known journalist Georgi Ajanovski, his father obtained the Abecedar entirely by accident. By giving Vangel the Abecedar, the teacher's wish was to make use of it in other parts of Macedonia (Vardar and Pirin). It is well known that in those days there was nothing available in the Macedonian language to teach the young Macedonian children their mother tongue. According to Ajanovski, this particular copy of the primer must have been saved by the people who first arrived at the site of the burning train.
----------
Leave a comment:
-
-
The Future of the Macedonian Nation
A Strategy
By Risto Stefov
June, 2005
[email protected]
I have said it before and I will say it again, the Greek dispute with the Republic of Macedonia over the name "Macedonia" is nothing more than a ploy, a con, a ruse, to sidestep the real issues; the status of the Macedonian minority in Greece.
Like a crooked politician, Greece is doing everything it can to take attention away from its dismal human rights record and focus on something intangible like the name dispute.
The name dispute for Greece is another excuse to avoid coming clean with the Macedonian people.
What will Greece gain if Macedonia is not called Macedonia?
NOTHING!
Greece already has everything that is Macedonian, the Macedonian heritage, Macedonia's history and 51% of Macedonia's territory.
So, why is Greece complaining?
Greece is cleverly down playing the Greek-Macedonian name dispute and making it look like it is about ancient history.
"Macedonia is Greek from ancient times" is a way of making an issue out of a non-issue. Why should anyone care about such a ridiculous claim?
By doing so Greece is achieving the following objectives;
1. In the eyes of the world, they are down playing the dispute and making it appear trivial,
2. They are drawing our attention away from the real issues,
3. They are putting us on the defensive and forcing a fight for what appears to be a non-issue.
What in fact we should really be doing is asking the following questions;
1. How did Macedonia REALLY become Greek?
2. How did Greece get the Macedonian heritage?
3. How did Greece get Macedonia's history?
4. How did Greece get 51% of Macedonia's territory"?
Greece is afraid that if the answers to these questions become known, then the truth will come out and there will be hell to pay.
So, what can we do to bring our issues with Greece on track?
It is very important to first recognize Greece's tactics and simply not play their game.
We must also bring attention to the following issues and make them our goals. Before we negotiate the name, we must insist that Greece;
1. Recognize the Macedonian minority inside Greece,
2. Grant human rights with full privileges to all minorities living inside Greece,
3. Allow the exiled Macedonian refugee children to return to Greece,
4. Compensate the families whose properties the Greek State confiscated,
5. Allow all Macedonian who were forcibly evicted by the Greek State to return and reclaim their homes and properties,
6. Take responsibility for the atrocities it committed against the Macedonian people during the Balkan Wars and the Greek Civil War.
It is every Macedonian's responsibility to disassociate himself or herself from debating with the Greeks on non-issues and bring the dispute where it really belongs, to the human rights arena.
Everyone concerned, including the international negotiators and mediators, MUST become familiar with the history of how Macedonia became Greek?
1. It is a well documented fact that Greece, in 1912, 1913 during the two Balkan wars, entered and forcibly occupied Macedonian territory illegally without the consent of the Macedonian people. It then, along with its partners Bulgaria and Serbia, went on a rampage bombing Macedonian villages and indiscriminately killing and murdering entire populations.
2. It is a well documented fact that as soon as Greece consolidated its hold on Greek Occupied Macedonia, it murdered or forcible exiled all Macedonians who refused to accept its conditions.
3. It is a well documented fact that after ethnically cleansing the Macedonian population, Greece brought Greek settlers from Asia Minor, Epirus and other regions and settled them on Macedonian territory, mostly on the lands of the exiled Macedonians, without their consent.
4. It is a well documented fact that during the early 1920's Greece began a campaign of denationalization by banning the Macedonian language and making it illegal to speak Macedonian in Macedonia. It then proceeded to forcibly change all peoples' names and toponyms.
5. It is also a well documented fact that during the Greek Civil War, Greece exiled a large part of the Macedonian population, including the refugee children, illegally expropriated properties and issued them to new settlers.
The territory which Greece today calls "Greek Macedonia" is in fact "Greek Occupied Macedonia" and has been occupied since 1912. The so-called "Greek Macedonians" are not really Macedonians at all, in fact they are the "Greek Settlers" who Greece has been depositing on Macedonian lands since the Balkan wars (1912, 1913).
So, what else can we do to progress to the next step?
1. The Macedonian people cannot and must not be content with the status quo. We need to work towards a common strategy that will involve the entire Macedonian nation regardless of where we live, be it in the Republic of Macedonia, Bulgaria, Greece, Albania, Canada, Australia, the USA or the world over. We must recognize that we are one and the same people and we must not allow those who benefit from our misfortunes to divide us. We must promote ourselves vigorously as one nation, one people irrespective of religious, political, or ideological interests.
2. We must work within the laws of the states in which we live in order to achieve our goals. We must also use those laws designed to help us by being diligent and not accepting the status quo.
3. Our strategy is to join world institutions, like NATO and the European Union (EU) because they offer security and human rights. The EU constitution contains human rights provisions which will help the minorities in Greece and Bulgaria when implemented. It is up to us, however, to ensure that those provisions are implemented.
4. When it comes to our interests, we must take action ourselves and not allow Greece, Bulgaria, or any other foreign power to lead us or to interfere in our affairs.
5. We must help the Republic of Macedonia choose its foreign policies wisely so that all Macedonians benefit from them.
I envision a borderless Macedonia as part of the European Union where the Macedonian people will once again have the freedom to call themselves Macedonian, speak their Macedonian language, enjoy their Macedonian culture and have the freedom to travel all throughout Macedonia without fear or repercussions.
For comments regarding this article contact the author at [email protected]
Other Articles by the Same Author
Leave a comment:
-
-
f Time – Chapter 3 - Part 1
Risto StefovJuly 09, 2012
Kostur, compared to ten years ago, has become unrecognizable. The old, timeless market by the lakeshore has been turned into a city park. The only thing that has not changed is the fish market. The stores selling fish have remained as they were a long time ago. They were and still are operated by the fishermen from the village Mavrovo. The city stadium is gone and in its place is a new, recently built square. Part of the square substitutes as a market a couple of times a week. The place is clean and neat and a city government building has been added to it. Thanks to the European Union no doubt.
The winding road along the coast has been widened, paved and crammed with café´s, taverns, restaurants and small shops. There are seventy Orthodox churches in the city, most of which are older that five hundred years and built Byzantine style. This makes the city an exquisite tourist attraction. At the end there is a small square and in front of it, standing high up on a monument, is a statue of Bishop Karavangelis. Painted on the chest of the statue in black paint is the word "executioner". Beside Karavangelis´s statue is a headless statue of General Van Fleet, the Unites States general who commanded the Greek government generals during the Greek Civil War. But that´s not all; there are also other surprises and skeletons in Kostur.
We ordered coffee at the café (built of wood and decorated with many items made of plastic) next to the lake.
"Two Turkish coffees please," I said to the waiter.
"If you want Turkish coffee, go to Turkey," he replied angrily; a pale looking young man possibly suffering from insomnia. "We only serve Greek coffee here," he added strongly as he swatted a fly on the table with a towel.
After we drank our "Greek" coffee and the free water offered at this café, we left and went to the City Centre.
There were many stores side by side at the Kostur Centre, exhibiting mostly fur in their display windows. The fur trade was the oldest trade in the region and only the people of Kostur had the right to practice it by decree from the Sultan. But in the last thirty years or so the fur trade was taken over by the surrounding villages and towns, mostly by Russians. After the fall of the Soviet Union, Russians with big money (only they know where they got it) came to Kostur and the surrounding region and built shops and on them they hung billboards with the inscription "SHUBЫ" (sheaths, furs) and since then the famous and renowned Kostur fur traders have become Russian employees and wage earners.
Out of curiosity we entered one of the stores. We looked at the fur coats and admired them without touching but were surprised and astonished at their very high prices. The talkative clerk, a middle-aged man, followed us around explaining and praising the merchandise in an attempt to make a sale and when we stepped further away from the door, in an almost whispering voice, he asked in Macedonian: "Are you from Serbia?"
"No," I said. "Serbia is further up, to the north of where we come from."
"Oh…" he said.
"And you?" I asked
"I am from here, from Macedonia… Greece is further south…" he said quietly and with his hand pointed to the south.
When we exited the store he asked: "From which city are you…"
"We live in a city but we were born in a village here," I replied.
"Which one?" he asked.
I said, "Polianemon."
"I know it," he boasted. "Its old name is Krchishta. Am I right?"
"Yes you are right. And that´s where we are going," I replied.
"What will you be doing there? There is nothing there except wind after which the village got its new name!" he yelled out loud, stunned. "Nothing, believe me, there is nothing…"
"That´s okay Sir, then we will see nothing…" I answered.
"Χρηστε και Παναγια!..." (Jesus Christ and the Virgin Mary) he said in Greek and crossed himself.
The once terrible, potholed and narrow road leading from Dolno Papratsko to Krchishta has now been widened and paved with asphalt. The road ended where the threshing fields once used to be. On our way we made a stop at a place called Vishomo. Close to there, where the land rises and widens, is a church and all around the church there is nothing, only emptiness. The village Krchishta used to occupy that emptiness. As I stared at the desolate space where my village used to be, I was overwhelmed with a certain sickness and chills ran down my spine. The village was here but now it´s gone, only its name remains, a name given to it a long time ago, a name that means the "crackle" of chestnuts. I remember the old people saying that the name Krchishta was given to the village a very long time ago.
As I recall, a story was told that went something like this: During the Ottoman War against the Poles, which took place in 1689, a Beg (Ottoman officer) distinguished himself as a good fighter during the attack and capture of the city Hochim, so the Sultan rewarded him by giving him five villages and their residents, houses and land. So this Beg, in order to enlarge his fields, ordered the villagers to destroy the chestnut groves and their homes and relocate to a sandy, barren and less productive place. There he ordered them to build new houses for themselves, a house for himself and a mosque. The villagers did as ordered and, in respect of God, would not destroy the village churches. So the only buildings left standing, as markers of where the villages once used to be, were the five churches: Sveta Petka, Sveti Atanas, Sveti Giorgi, Sveti Jovan and Sveti Ilia. These church buildings survived the test of time, rebellions and wars.
There was a grove of tall oak trees to the left of the road from where we were standing. "There," I said to my wife pointing at the oak trees, "is where the village Dolno Vishomo used to be and under the oaks was the church, Sveta Petka. We walked across the road to the oak grove and stood under its magnificent shade. Unfortunately there was nothing left of the old church, not even its foundation. The only things we found were a couple of rocks, some broken ceramic tiles, remnants of the old church and part of a burned candle stuck in the ground amongst the tiles. It was quiet in the grove except for the sounds made by the rustling leaves of the oak trees in a gentle breeze. A flock of ravens flew over us and disappeared beyond the forest. The sight gave me pain and chills. With a heavy breath we crossed ourselves and silently walked away and headed for my village.
The wide road ended where the village threshing yards used to be. To the left there was a wide metal door and behind it was a wide yard divided by a fence, behind which calves were mooing. There were many calves. On the opposite side was a house. A dog, tied to a post, was barking. A young man came out of the house. He greeted us in Greek and asked, "Are you looking for someone?"
"Yes…" I said, with tearing eyes as I looked over the entire yard…
"For who?" he asked.
I got a lump in my throat, my knees got weak and my chin began to tremble.
"My name is Lefteris. Please come in," he said inviting us inside the small house.
"First we will walk over to the elms," I said, "and then we will return…"
We left the car outside the farm (for fattening calves) and at a slow pace we walked on the street so that I could show my wife the village. After taking a few steps I closed my eyes to the emptiness, overgrown grass and weeds and in my imagination replaced them with the homes of the Nanovtsi, Damovtsi, Purdovtsi, Laskini, Popovtsi, Donovtsi, Liapovtsi, Pindzovtsi, Penovtsi, Shkoklovtsi, Trajkovci, Nakovtsi, Pandovtsi, Filiovtsi, Guliovtsi and other families. I imagined the fifty-four houses that existed here, in several rows, under whose roofs once lived over four hundred souls. I tried to imagine the feeling of the fifty or so other souls, who at the time were pechalbars (migrant workers) overseas, gone beyond the great waters, who never got a chance to return to see their homes and to visit with their families.
I spoke at great length, telling my wife about each house and the people who had lived in it, about the streets, about the time of the Greek Civil War during which forty-three people were mobilized from whom twenty-nine were killed. I told her about the fifty-four children that were taken to Eastern European countries and about the seven families who fled to Kostur and Rupishta and all the other families that were exiled and scattered around the world.
"Well," I said to her, "this emptiness was once a village and this void was once filled with life ..." "And here," I said, "where we now stand was the house where I was born…" "Here," I said, "was the large wooden door that was locked from the inside with a thick wooden lever. And there was the garden and behind it was the outdoor oven. Here is where the steps that led to the second floor used to be." "Here," I said, "is where my mother Fimka brought eight children into this world of whom three were given rifles, four were collected and sent to the Eastern European countries and one, the youngest, died in Albania. My brother, her third born son, left his soul in Gramos just before reaching his eighteenth birthday. So Fimka was left alone and, abroad where she lived, every night she dreamt the same dream - that some day soon all her children would again be together and have a meal at the same dinner table..."
My thoughts had taken me back to a time gone by, but then, for a moment I returned to reality, to the emptiness which again reawakened more memories, seeming like they were tied together by a chain, flooding back, pushing, scratching, pounding, squeezing, burning and creating sorrow. To calm my spirit I kicked some soil with my foot and out came a broken ceramic tile and underneath it, in the ashes, was a broken stone. I picked it up and blew away the ashes with my warm breath and then placed it near my heart but I could not feel my heart beating, it felt as if it too had turned to stone....
I took my photo album out of my backpack; a photo-album to which I had been adding old photographs year after year and from the photographs life began to sprout. Who were those people in the old photographs? What had dhappened to them? Who went where and who returned from where? Where are they today and what happened to them in the past?
Where!
The images of the people in the photographs seem to float, to come alive, to reflect on the life which now appears to me only in spirit and in shadows. Through the photographs I was able to see the people with their joy, sorrow and pain of what once was. What once was, is now gone. The families are gone. The houses are gone. Everything is gone. Only the ghosts and the shadows of the ghosts remain...
I look at the images in the photographs and imagine the people leaving, taking the road to banishment.
To what country did they go?
To what unknown latitudes of the world did time take them?
When did they leave?
Under what circumstances did they leave?
Did they travel one behind the other?
Did they leave quickly, en masse?
Time…
What is time and what are people in time?
Time kills.
Time wounds.
Time heals.
Time forgets.
Time leaves no footprints.
Time destroys.
Time is a killer.
Is time a witness?
Time passes.
Time brings concerns.
Time remembers.
Time tells.
Time verifies.
Time accepts and rejects.
It is said at this and this time.
During the time of great upheaval.
During the time of war.
During the time of so and so plagues.
We are here. At the empty, naked, scarred place.
Time has passed, it has expired.
And here, now, at this time, today, at this moment of time, we are in a moment of time.
We are at the time divided between now and yesterday.
Time…
Whose and what kind of time?...
We are here in time past, time without people and without homes; we are here in time present without life, only empty fields and flocks of crows.
Time.
Whose time?
What kind of time?
Time for what?
Time measured with what?
Time marked with what and how?
Time lost.
Time brings.
Time brings what?
Time of happiness.
Time of hunger.
Time of fear.
For victims, lies and curses.
Time for cursing, lies and betrayals.
Time for cursing and waiting.
Time compressed between times.
What kind?
Time for remembering.
Remembering what?
Time for existence, time for endurance, time for safeguarding time.
Here time was measured with time for digging foundations, for carving stones, for building walls, for laying roof tiles, for plowing and sowing, for living, for reaping crops, for celebrations, for holidays, for growing and aging, for happiness and sadness, for life…
After that time came time for war. It was a time of bad times, a time of great promises and many lies. It was time to separate the children from their mothers, it was time for eradication. It was a time of silence of the church bells. It was a time without faith in God.
Where did time stop?
Now there is only time for recollection of time past so that time past is not forgotten. Here now there is only now.
Will it last only that much, as long as we remain bowed over the burned out places and foundation remains of our homes?
Time remains in us forever preserved and baked in our memory.
Time over which the fog and dust of forgetfulness whirls and glides.
It is time for the fog to lift.
It is time for the dust that rests in time to be blown off.
It is time for ripening.
It is time to change time.
By Petre Nakovski
Translated and edited by Risto Stefov
Other articles by Risto Stefov:
Free electronic books by Risto Stefov available at:
Our Name is Macedonia
You can contact the author at [email protected]
Print Email
Risto Stefov
Author's Profile
Author's Other Articles
Author's RSS Feed
Leave a comment:
-
-
f Time – Chapter 3 - Part 1
Risto StefovJuly 09, 2012
Kostur, compared to ten years ago, has become unrecognizable. The old, timeless market by the lakeshore has been turned into a city park. The only thing that has not changed is the fish market. The stores selling fish have remained as they were a long time ago. They were and still are operated by the fishermen from the village Mavrovo. The city stadium is gone and in its place is a new, recently built square. Part of the square substitutes as a market a couple of times a week. The place is clean and neat and a city government building has been added to it. Thanks to the European Union no doubt.
The winding road along the coast has been widened, paved and crammed with café´s, taverns, restaurants and small shops. There are seventy Orthodox churches in the city, most of which are older that five hundred years and built Byzantine style. This makes the city an exquisite tourist attraction. At the end there is a small square and in front of it, standing high up on a monument, is a statue of Bishop Karavangelis. Painted on the chest of the statue in black paint is the word "executioner". Beside Karavangelis´s statue is a headless statue of General Van Fleet, the Unites States general who commanded the Greek government generals during the Greek Civil War. But that´s not all; there are also other surprises and skeletons in Kostur.
We ordered coffee at the café (built of wood and decorated with many items made of plastic) next to the lake.
"Two Turkish coffees please," I said to the waiter.
"If you want Turkish coffee, go to Turkey," he replied angrily; a pale looking young man possibly suffering from insomnia. "We only serve Greek coffee here," he added strongly as he swatted a fly on the table with a towel.
After we drank our "Greek" coffee and the free water offered at this café, we left and went to the City Centre.
There were many stores side by side at the Kostur Centre, exhibiting mostly fur in their display windows. The fur trade was the oldest trade in the region and only the people of Kostur had the right to practice it by decree from the Sultan. But in the last thirty years or so the fur trade was taken over by the surrounding villages and towns, mostly by Russians. After the fall of the Soviet Union, Russians with big money (only they know where they got it) came to Kostur and the surrounding region and built shops and on them they hung billboards with the inscription "SHUBЫ" (sheaths, furs) and since then the famous and renowned Kostur fur traders have become Russian employees and wage earners.
Out of curiosity we entered one of the stores. We looked at the fur coats and admired them without touching but were surprised and astonished at their very high prices. The talkative clerk, a middle-aged man, followed us around explaining and praising the merchandise in an attempt to make a sale and when we stepped further away from the door, in an almost whispering voice, he asked in Macedonian: "Are you from Serbia?"
"No," I said. "Serbia is further up, to the north of where we come from."
"Oh…" he said.
"And you?" I asked
"I am from here, from Macedonia… Greece is further south…" he said quietly and with his hand pointed to the south.
When we exited the store he asked: "From which city are you…"
"We live in a city but we were born in a village here," I replied.
"Which one?" he asked.
I said, "Polianemon."
"I know it," he boasted. "Its old name is Krchishta. Am I right?"
"Yes you are right. And that´s where we are going," I replied.
"What will you be doing there? There is nothing there except wind after which the village got its new name!" he yelled out loud, stunned. "Nothing, believe me, there is nothing…"
"That´s okay Sir, then we will see nothing…" I answered.
"Χρηστε και Παναγια!..." (Jesus Christ and the Virgin Mary) he said in Greek and crossed himself.
The once terrible, potholed and narrow road leading from Dolno Papratsko to Krchishta has now been widened and paved with asphalt. The road ended where the threshing fields once used to be. On our way we made a stop at a place called Vishomo. Close to there, where the land rises and widens, is a church and all around the church there is nothing, only emptiness. The village Krchishta used to occupy that emptiness. As I stared at the desolate space where my village used to be, I was overwhelmed with a certain sickness and chills ran down my spine. The village was here but now it´s gone, only its name remains, a name given to it a long time ago, a name that means the "crackle" of chestnuts. I remember the old people saying that the name Krchishta was given to the village a very long time ago.
As I recall, a story was told that went something like this: During the Ottoman War against the Poles, which took place in 1689, a Beg (Ottoman officer) distinguished himself as a good fighter during the attack and capture of the city Hochim, so the Sultan rewarded him by giving him five villages and their residents, houses and land. So this Beg, in order to enlarge his fields, ordered the villagers to destroy the chestnut groves and their homes and relocate to a sandy, barren and less productive place. There he ordered them to build new houses for themselves, a house for himself and a mosque. The villagers did as ordered and, in respect of God, would not destroy the village churches. So the only buildings left standing, as markers of where the villages once used to be, were the five churches: Sveta Petka, Sveti Atanas, Sveti Giorgi, Sveti Jovan and Sveti Ilia. These church buildings survived the test of time, rebellions and wars.
There was a grove of tall oak trees to the left of the road from where we were standing. "There," I said to my wife pointing at the oak trees, "is where the village Dolno Vishomo used to be and under the oaks was the church, Sveta Petka. We walked across the road to the oak grove and stood under its magnificent shade. Unfortunately there was nothing left of the old church, not even its foundation. The only things we found were a couple of rocks, some broken ceramic tiles, remnants of the old church and part of a burned candle stuck in the ground amongst the tiles. It was quiet in the grove except for the sounds made by the rustling leaves of the oak trees in a gentle breeze. A flock of ravens flew over us and disappeared beyond the forest. The sight gave me pain and chills. With a heavy breath we crossed ourselves and silently walked away and headed for my village.
The wide road ended where the village threshing yards used to be. To the left there was a wide metal door and behind it was a wide yard divided by a fence, behind which calves were mooing. There were many calves. On the opposite side was a house. A dog, tied to a post, was barking. A young man came out of the house. He greeted us in Greek and asked, "Are you looking for someone?"
"Yes…" I said, with tearing eyes as I looked over the entire yard…
"For who?" he asked.
I got a lump in my throat, my knees got weak and my chin began to tremble.
"My name is Lefteris. Please come in," he said inviting us inside the small house.
"First we will walk over to the elms," I said, "and then we will return…"
We left the car outside the farm (for fattening calves) and at a slow pace we walked on the street so that I could show my wife the village. After taking a few steps I closed my eyes to the emptiness, overgrown grass and weeds and in my imagination replaced them with the homes of the Nanovtsi, Damovtsi, Purdovtsi, Laskini, Popovtsi, Donovtsi, Liapovtsi, Pindzovtsi, Penovtsi, Shkoklovtsi, Trajkovci, Nakovtsi, Pandovtsi, Filiovtsi, Guliovtsi and other families. I imagined the fifty-four houses that existed here, in several rows, under whose roofs once lived over four hundred souls. I tried to imagine the feeling of the fifty or so other souls, who at the time were pechalbars (migrant workers) overseas, gone beyond the great waters, who never got a chance to return to see their homes and to visit with their families.
I spoke at great length, telling my wife about each house and the people who had lived in it, about the streets, about the time of the Greek Civil War during which forty-three people were mobilized from whom twenty-nine were killed. I told her about the fifty-four children that were taken to Eastern European countries and about the seven families who fled to Kostur and Rupishta and all the other families that were exiled and scattered around the world.
"Well," I said to her, "this emptiness was once a village and this void was once filled with life ..." "And here," I said, "where we now stand was the house where I was born…" "Here," I said, "was the large wooden door that was locked from the inside with a thick wooden lever. And there was the garden and behind it was the outdoor oven. Here is where the steps that led to the second floor used to be." "Here," I said, "is where my mother Fimka brought eight children into this world of whom three were given rifles, four were collected and sent to the Eastern European countries and one, the youngest, died in Albania. My brother, her third born son, left his soul in Gramos just before reaching his eighteenth birthday. So Fimka was left alone and, abroad where she lived, every night she dreamt the same dream - that some day soon all her children would again be together and have a meal at the same dinner table..."
My thoughts had taken me back to a time gone by, but then, for a moment I returned to reality, to the emptiness which again reawakened more memories, seeming like they were tied together by a chain, flooding back, pushing, scratching, pounding, squeezing, burning and creating sorrow. To calm my spirit I kicked some soil with my foot and out came a broken ceramic tile and underneath it, in the ashes, was a broken stone. I picked it up and blew away the ashes with my warm breath and then placed it near my heart but I could not feel my heart beating, it felt as if it too had turned to stone....
I took my photo album out of my backpack; a photo-album to which I had been adding old photographs year after year and from the photographs life began to sprout. Who were those people in the old photographs? What had dhappened to them? Who went where and who returned from where? Where are they today and what happened to them in the past?
Where!
The images of the people in the photographs seem to float, to come alive, to reflect on the life which now appears to me only in spirit and in shadows. Through the photographs I was able to see the people with their joy, sorrow and pain of what once was. What once was, is now gone. The families are gone. The houses are gone. Everything is gone. Only the ghosts and the shadows of the ghosts remain...
I look at the images in the photographs and imagine the people leaving, taking the road to banishment.
To what country did they go?
To what unknown latitudes of the world did time take them?
When did they leave?
Under what circumstances did they leave?
Did they travel one behind the other?
Did they leave quickly, en masse?
Time…
What is time and what are people in time?
Time kills.
Time wounds.
Time heals.
Time forgets.
Time leaves no footprints.
Time destroys.
Time is a killer.
Is time a witness?
Time passes.
Time brings concerns.
Time remembers.
Time tells.
Time verifies.
Time accepts and rejects.
It is said at this and this time.
During the time of great upheaval.
During the time of war.
During the time of so and so plagues.
We are here. At the empty, naked, scarred place.
Time has passed, it has expired.
And here, now, at this time, today, at this moment of time, we are in a moment of time.
We are at the time divided between now and yesterday.
Time…
Whose and what kind of time?...
We are here in time past, time without people and without homes; we are here in time present without life, only empty fields and flocks of crows.
Time.
Whose time?
What kind of time?
Time for what?
Time measured with what?
Time marked with what and how?
Time lost.
Time brings.
Time brings what?
Time of happiness.
Time of hunger.
Time of fear.
For victims, lies and curses.
Time for cursing, lies and betrayals.
Time for cursing and waiting.
Time compressed between times.
What kind?
Time for remembering.
Remembering what?
Time for existence, time for endurance, time for safeguarding time.
Here time was measured with time for digging foundations, for carving stones, for building walls, for laying roof tiles, for plowing and sowing, for living, for reaping crops, for celebrations, for holidays, for growing and aging, for happiness and sadness, for life…
After that time came time for war. It was a time of bad times, a time of great promises and many lies. It was time to separate the children from their mothers, it was time for eradication. It was a time of silence of the church bells. It was a time without faith in God.
Where did time stop?
Now there is only time for recollection of time past so that time past is not forgotten. Here now there is only now.
Will it last only that much, as long as we remain bowed over the burned out places and foundation remains of our homes?
Time remains in us forever preserved and baked in our memory.
Time over which the fog and dust of forgetfulness whirls and glides.
It is time for the fog to lift.
It is time for the dust that rests in time to be blown off.
It is time for ripening.
It is time to change time.
By Petre Nakovski
Translated and edited by Risto Stefov
Other articles by Risto Stefov:
Free electronic books by Risto Stefov available at:
Our Name is Macedonia
You can contact the author at [email protected]
Print Email
Risto Stefov
Author's Profile
Author's Other Articles
Author's RSS Feed
Leave a comment:
-
-
On the Road of Time – Chapter 3 - Part 2
By Petre Nakovski
Translated and edited by Risto Stefov
[email protected]
July 15, 2012
In the middle of the emptiness, a remnant of the bad times, the only building preserved was the Church of Sveta Bogoroditsa (Holy Virgin), which survived the Greek Civil War with only its roof, bell tower and altar demolished. The church was built in 1875 about which my grandfather spoke:
“Then, in Ottoman times, when our village was a chiflik (feudal estate), priests from Bulgaria and from Greece began to arrive. To us, the Christians from time immemorial, some said that we were Bulgarians and others told us that we were Greeks. We did understand some Bulgarian, but Greek not a single word. Both groups promised us many things, they even promised to liberate us from the Ottomans if we agreed to attend their sermons given in the Bulgarian or Greek language.
So the moment they mentioned “liberation”, the village was divided in two. Some wanted to be liberated by the Bulgarians and others by the Greeks. Half the village was received by the Bulgarian priest and the other half by the Greek. The families that were accepted by the Bulgarian priest, to the others, became known as “Bugaromani” and those accepted by the Greek priest, to the others, became known as “Grkomani”. Kostur, very early had fallen under the auspices of the Greek bishop, what was his name? Oh, I remember it was Karavangelis, right? No, no, at that time it was not him. I guess. Now who was it? He had comings and goings with the Ottoman authorities, and our Beg was a close relative of the Kaimakam that’s why he did not allow the “Bugaromani” to build a church in the middle of the village. They were kicked out of the village and were told they could go and pray in the old church of Sveti Atanas outside of the village. Their justification for not allowing the church to be built; Russia was about to declare war on the Ottomans, apparently to liberate Bulgaria…
Then a man was sent, carrying the symbol of the bishop from Kostur, asking the village to send someone so the bishop could speak with him. Such a man was sent and after offering him coffee and a lokum (Turkish delight) the Bishop got right down to business:
“You are saying that there should be a church built in the village centre, but not higher than the Mosque?”
“That is exactly right Father Bishop!” the man answered.
“And that’s the way it’s going to be, my son,” said the bishop, “that’s the way it’s going to be! Here kiss the cross and cross yourself…” replied the bishop, leaning over and taking a sip of coffee and leaning towards the man asked: “Money? I say money because you need money to build a church and not just wishes and prayers. Do you have money or are you expecting the Bulgarians to give it to you?”
“The Beg, Father Bishop, does not want the Bulgarians in the village – in the Chiflik…” replied the man.
“And that’s the way it is, it’s God’s will. Let Him be the glory of heaven. And money, my child, you are telling me you have no money? But if you turn our way, perhaps money could be found. That’s the way it is. Turn our way and maybe with God’s help money could be found in my treasury…” said the bishop.
“And in what language will liturgy be conducted?” asked the man.
“Well my child, in the language of who provides the money,” answered the bishop.
“We will think about it Father Bishop. It is not that easy. I am saying that the “word” and the “voice” are important things, Father Bishop. Our grandfathers left us a sign that in older times liturgy was conducted in the Slavonic language, the language of Kiril and Metodi, that is the way it has always been…” said the man.
“Well, if that’s the way it is my child then go beg the Bulgarians. They swear by Kiril and Metodi… Now go and think about it with your fellow villagers and come back in a few days…” replied the bishop.”
The Beg was in close contact with his people who were in collusion with the bishop and found out about the conversation. Then one day the Beg called my grandfather to his estate and told him the following:
“Be careful, both the Bulgarians and Greeks want your souls and not your faith. They give money to buy souls. We Turks are what we are. My great great great grandfather came here nearly three hundred years ago. He did not and neither did any of my later ancestors attempt to change your religion against your will. You have remained “kauri” (Christians) but you have not raised your hand against the empire. The Greeks and Bulgarians have raised their hand against the empire and what did they gain? They gained mutual hatred and foreign kings. Russia wanted to help them but the Port in Tsari Grad (Constantinople) sent its own people to the European kingdoms and there the Europeans whispered in their ears about “the meaning of Russia”. Those Europeans evaluated the situation from every angle and after measuring the benefits, they sent the Bulgarians and Greeks German kings.
May you live long and may the Supreme Being extend your years and safeguard your memory so that you can mention me for many years. The Greeks and Bulgarians and those Serbians further to the north, in time, will take your language and your souls. And if they don’t succeed in that, they will do everything in their power to diminish you so that even your shadows are not visible… You will disappear. Remember my words – bad people will overpower you and the time will come when you plead with us Turks to be your friends.
I am an educated man and I am giving you the benefit of my wisdom. I can see far and wide. I spent many years at school in Paris and now my sons are being educated there. My sons have written to me that the European kingdoms are spreading information that the Sultan is sick. You understand? The Sultan is sick, meaning the Empire is sick. You understand? You are building a church, build one but be smart about it. But on whose advice will you build it? On the advice of the Exarchates or on the advice of the Patriarchates? All they want to do is to purchase your souls. But your souls are Macedonian. Stay with us, with the Ottomans. The Ottoman Empire will give you autonomy, if you can understand me, and after that, if you are smart, maybe you can create your own country. I am saying if you are smart because you will need to be smart to create a country. The time has come for the large, old empires to collapse and for new small and large countries to be born. Today everyone is working against our empire. The Ottoman Empire will be gone and you will be gone as well…”
This is what the Beg told my grandfather who often used to say:
“Since the Pope came into existence his view has always been to the east, because that’s where the world expands and prospers… The Western kingdoms think the same way…”
In October 1912, the Greek army entered Kostur when it found out that the city had been abandoned by the Ottoman army. It was about the same time that the Beg and my grandfather had another discussion sitting by the fireplace until early morning. In the meantime the women were packing suitcases and crates and loading them on wagons. Then, after shaking the ashes out of his tobacco pipe, Asan Beg said the following parting words to my grandfather:
“The time has come for me to go. The vine which my great ancestor began, receiving this place for showing bravery against the Poles, ends here. I was born here, I grew up here, I was married here and I went to war from here for the glory of Allah and the Sultan. For three hundred years the Raya (Christians) have remained under the shadow of my ancestors and myself. And you have remained Christians for those three hundred years with your own language, faith and name… thirty years ago with my permission, but with Greek money, you built a church in the middle of the village. Since then you have been divided into Patriarchates and Exarchates. You have created a great divide between yourselves and you have done that with their help, with the help of those who pretend to be your friends. How many times have I told you – to be smart about it, to use your good judgment. Under my authority you have not been slaves with regards to your language, faith and souls. Under the authority of your new masters you will be a slave with both your soul and language, even if you become a collaborator and a spy for them. In this fake world, outside of God, nothing is permanent…”
Asan Beg got on his white horse and before leaving he said the following to my grandfather:
“Goodbye Christian, goodbye and remember not to be a slave anymore…”
Asan Beg, riding his horse, took the lead of the ten loaded wagons and took to the road for Kapeshtitsa and from there to Bilishta in Albania. After that we heard that he left for France where his sons were studying at the time. He left and after that he was never heard of again, as if he had drowned.
The church bells were ringing in Kostur, the Grkomani got out their Greek flags and hung them in their windows and on balconies. Without firing a single bullet, the Greek army entered the city and celebrated its great victory. A few days later Greek officials, escorted by the gendarmes, arrived in the city. They carried great big ledgers and in them they entered Turkish and Macedonian names as Greek adding to the old ancestral names: “os”, “is”, “u”. So that Damovski became Damopoulos, Petrovski became Petridis, Filiovski became Filipou…
Did Asan Beg predict all this?
They say that the church Sveta Bogoroditsa has been renovated; it was not the same as I remembered it when I was a child. The wide enclosure of the porch in the yard, under which two sides had been lined with stones, was now gone. The belfry above the two wide halls where the faithful sat after service and where the women served food and drink from baskets for soul, health and prosperity was also gone. The church bell now hung from a beam in the ceiling. The icon of Christ with open arms hanging from the ceiling, protecting the parishioners was also gone. The throne was gone and so were the faithful, all gone… On the altar, tossed in the corner and laden with dust was the christening vessel and beside it were icons, neglected, left there for the worms to make a meal…
I stood in front of the large icon of Sveta Bogoroditsa, lit a candle and crossed myself three times and while staring into her eyes, I whispered: “Bogoroditse you did not protect the living in the past but please do not forsake their souls…”
Lefteris was waiting for us in front of the large metal door leading to the farm that fattens calves. With a warm smile on his face he invited us inside the house. His home was poorly built with clay bricks and covered with sheet metal. An old woman greeted us at the front door. She wore slippers and a wide colourful dress and had a kerchief on her head, tied at the back.
“This is my mother,” said Lefteris and after the introduction, led us to a room. There was a hand-woven carpet on the floor, but all around the room, looking stubby, were the clay walls. In the middle of the room was a sofra (low table) and at the sides were cushioned wall benches. There was a door to the left leading to the kitchen. The woman greeted us one more time, seeming like it was a tradition to greet and shake hands with guests twice and after her second “καλος ηλθατε” (welcome) she sat us down on the benches. She continued to speak to us in Greek but I could detect she did not speak Greek with the proper accent. It seemed like she detected my surprise and said: “We are Prosfigi (refugees [Asia Minor settlers])” and then began to lead us along the road which led her parents with two daughters and four sons, from Turkey to Revani, now called Dipotamia. She said and repeated that she was born eighty years ago and that she had lived in great poverty, but for the last ten years, since they came here and opened the farm for fattening calves they are doing better. Also they now have access to the majority of the fields here, which year after year, through state auctions, they have been able to acquire through bids. She says that the fields are not hers; they belong to those who had to leave because of the war, which she remembers well. She also thanked God for the soil being fertile and for the state purchasing their crops. She said they were not poor now as she pointed to the yard where two tractors, a combine, a passenger car and two trucks were parked. I got the impression that she saw my surprise and hastened to explain why they had not built a new house. She said that the land did not belong to them and then asked: “How can you build a house on land that does not belong to you?”
The hostess suddenly interrupted our conversation, tapped her forehead with her palm and said: “I am sorry I got caught up in the conversation and forgot to be hospitable.”
She went into the kitchen and returned with a dish full of lokumi (Turkish delight) and a tray of glasses full of water.
“Welcome and help yourselves. And will you have some coffee?” she asked.
“Yes,” I replied “And please make it Turkish…”
“Turkish, of course,” she said, “but the coffee you are used to drinking is not real Turkish. I don’t know if you know or not, but if you don’t know I will tell you that real Turkish coffee is not boiled on an open fire or by flames and certainly not by an electric element. Real Turkish coffee is made when you allow the coffee to simmer slowly, to roast and develop a froth on top and the entire room is filled with its aroma, you then set it aside to rest from simmering and slowly pour it in a cup. This is real Turkish coffee, not the kind served in restaurants and cafés.”
“A relative of ours once ordered coffee in town,” she said,” and when he saw that there was no froth on top he complained to the waiter. The waiter took the coffee back to the kitchen and spat in the cup several times. And when he returned he said here is your coffee thick with froth. This is the king of coffee they serve in restaurants, boiled coffee. Real Turkish coffee is slowly roasted and you slurp it slowly when you drink it, inhaling each sip and then exhaling out loud with a long sigh. You then rinse your mouth with water to remove the coffee from your teeth and swallow the water so that the coffee will rest well in your stomach. Real Turkish coffee is very hot and sweet like a kiss...” concluded our hostess, laughing aloud when she went to light the fire.
And while the coffee was roasting on top of the wood stove, I looked into Lefteris’s eyes and asked:
“Lefteris, what happened to the stones of the walls and foundations of our houses?”
There was silence. So I asked again:
“Lefteris, where are the stones of the walls and foundations of our Sveta Petka, Sveti Atanas, Sveti Giorgi, Sveti Jovan and Sveti Ilia Churches?”
Again there was silence. So I asked:
“Lefteris, what happened to the tombstones and slabs that were in the village cemeteries?”
Then after a long and deep silence, torn by a painful sigh, he said:
“They took them away with military trucks...”
“Who took them?” I asked.
“They, who wanted to build new houses…” he replied.
I did not ask who “they” were who took our stones to build new houses for themselves but I did ask myself this: “Who gave them permission to do that?” And my answer was: “They who did not want anything to remain here; to remind people that foundations and churches once existed here because if they existed then someone else might ask to whom did these churches and foundations belong? Who were these people, what happened to them and where did they go?”
We drank our Turkish coffee in silence and after thanking our hosts we bid them farewell and then left the void that was once my village. With us we carried our memories of the warm sunshine and blue sky, the green forest and the swishing sound of the wind, the aroma of chembritsa (thyme), the narcotic taste of mature forest strawberries and the wish that here, under the open sky and in the shade of the almonds, I failed to fulfil a wish to fall asleep and to dream of my childhood memories and of my most secret desires and sorrows.
The bitterness of wormwood, burned like mistletoe, stuck to my lips.
The church bell rang in the village. Was it sending us a prayer or calling us to prayer?
Dolno Papratsko. Two houses and, a little higher, a renovated church. The land looked like it was tilled and the stones crushed. At one spot it looked like someone had torn down the walls of a house looking for its foundation. With heavy hearts we stared at the desolation and remnants of this old village as we passed through and after a few minutes of driving around we took the road to Osheni, now called Inoi.
Inoi was the name of the village from which the newcomers were expelled. I remember Osheni to be a very poor village with houses built of clay brick and roofs covered with dried stalks of rye. The newcomers, the Prosfigi then, knew how to cultivate tobacco, corn and pumpkins. They brought these skills with them from their old Inoi in Turkey. Everything else they needed they bought at the markets in Kostur and Rupishta where they mixed with the locals, the Macedonian population and learned to speak the Macedonian language and not Greek.
The new Inoi, in the past known as Osheni, now looks like a small city. Two and three story houses were built with carved stones and white façade walls and equipped with hydro electric power and telephone lines. The village has a gas station, a café, a pharmacy, streets paved with asphalt, a kindergarten, an elementary and high school and many passenger cars, tractors and combines. There is not a piece of land that is not plowed and if it is not sown with tobacco, corn, or pumpkins then it is sown with wheat.
Moving on to the next village…
In the middle of the village Aia Kiriaki (Sveta Nedela in Macedonian) there is a water spout with three faucets that runs non-stop with pure spring water. Above the faucets is a marble slab with the writing: “Για να ποτιζοντε η ριζες της ποντιακης ιστοριας” (For watering the roots of Pontian history).
There is not a person who would not ask themselves: “What are the roots connected to the shores of the Black Sea doing here?” This metaphoric message is a burning reminder and an untamed memory of the longing for the homeland left for their descendents by the first Prosfigi brought to this village by force, which they never accepted with their hearts.
The new generations born and grown here are only present in body but not in soul, heart and thought. Their souls, hearts and thoughts belong to their ancestral home, a far away place located on the shores of the Black Sea which official Greece calls “χαμενες πατρηδες” (lost homeland). Even though it is a lost homeland, the Prosfigi still keep it alive with their jealously guarded memories and traditions passed on from generation to generation.
The spring flows non-stop as the inscription on the slab above is a constant reminder of a lost homeland. The Greeks call these people “prosvigi (refugees) a constant reminder that they are outsiders and not like the Greeks themselves, subjecting them to ridicule and daily abuse with derogatory and demeaning words and anecdotes. The Prosfigi on the other hand continue to speak the language of their ancestors, a language Greeks don’t understand, not only at home but also in public places, restaurants and cafés.
Here in Sveta Nedela the old memories of the Prosfigi have not faded, they are kept alive with the Macedonian spring that constantly pours water...
Leave a comment:
-
-
On the Road of Time – Chapter 3 - Part 2
By Petre Nakovski
Translated and edited by Risto Stefov
[email protected]
July 15, 2012
In the middle of the emptiness, a remnant of the bad times, the only building preserved was the Church of Sveta Bogoroditsa (Holy Virgin), which survived the Greek Civil War with only its roof, bell tower and altar demolished. The church was built in 1875 about which my grandfather spoke:
“Then, in Ottoman times, when our village was a chiflik (feudal estate), priests from Bulgaria and from Greece began to arrive. To us, the Christians from time immemorial, some said that we were Bulgarians and others told us that we were Greeks. We did understand some Bulgarian, but Greek not a single word. Both groups promised us many things, they even promised to liberate us from the Ottomans if we agreed to attend their sermons given in the Bulgarian or Greek language.
So the moment they mentioned “liberation”, the village was divided in two. Some wanted to be liberated by the Bulgarians and others by the Greeks. Half the village was received by the Bulgarian priest and the other half by the Greek. The families that were accepted by the Bulgarian priest, to the others, became known as “Bugaromani” and those accepted by the Greek priest, to the others, became known as “Grkomani”. Kostur, very early had fallen under the auspices of the Greek bishop, what was his name? Oh, I remember it was Karavangelis, right? No, no, at that time it was not him. I guess. Now who was it? He had comings and goings with the Ottoman authorities, and our Beg was a close relative of the Kaimakam that’s why he did not allow the “Bugaromani” to build a church in the middle of the village. They were kicked out of the village and were told they could go and pray in the old church of Sveti Atanas outside of the village. Their justification for not allowing the church to be built; Russia was about to declare war on the Ottomans, apparently to liberate Bulgaria…
Then a man was sent, carrying the symbol of the bishop from Kostur, asking the village to send someone so the bishop could speak with him. Such a man was sent and after offering him coffee and a lokum (Turkish delight) the Bishop got right down to business:
“You are saying that there should be a church built in the village centre, but not higher than the Mosque?”
“That is exactly right Father Bishop!” the man answered.
“And that’s the way it’s going to be, my son,” said the bishop, “that’s the way it’s going to be! Here kiss the cross and cross yourself…” replied the bishop, leaning over and taking a sip of coffee and leaning towards the man asked: “Money? I say money because you need money to build a church and not just wishes and prayers. Do you have money or are you expecting the Bulgarians to give it to you?”
“The Beg, Father Bishop, does not want the Bulgarians in the village – in the Chiflik…” replied the man.
“And that’s the way it is, it’s God’s will. Let Him be the glory of heaven. And money, my child, you are telling me you have no money? But if you turn our way, perhaps money could be found. That’s the way it is. Turn our way and maybe with God’s help money could be found in my treasury…” said the bishop.
“And in what language will liturgy be conducted?” asked the man.
“Well my child, in the language of who provides the money,” answered the bishop.
“We will think about it Father Bishop. It is not that easy. I am saying that the “word” and the “voice” are important things, Father Bishop. Our grandfathers left us a sign that in older times liturgy was conducted in the Slavonic language, the language of Kiril and Metodi, that is the way it has always been…” said the man.
“Well, if that’s the way it is my child then go beg the Bulgarians. They swear by Kiril and Metodi… Now go and think about it with your fellow villagers and come back in a few days…” replied the bishop.”
The Beg was in close contact with his people who were in collusion with the bishop and found out about the conversation. Then one day the Beg called my grandfather to his estate and told him the following:
“Be careful, both the Bulgarians and Greeks want your souls and not your faith. They give money to buy souls. We Turks are what we are. My great great great grandfather came here nearly three hundred years ago. He did not and neither did any of my later ancestors attempt to change your religion against your will. You have remained “kauri” (Christians) but you have not raised your hand against the empire. The Greeks and Bulgarians have raised their hand against the empire and what did they gain? They gained mutual hatred and foreign kings. Russia wanted to help them but the Port in Tsari Grad (Constantinople) sent its own people to the European kingdoms and there the Europeans whispered in their ears about “the meaning of Russia”. Those Europeans evaluated the situation from every angle and after measuring the benefits, they sent the Bulgarians and Greeks German kings.
May you live long and may the Supreme Being extend your years and safeguard your memory so that you can mention me for many years. The Greeks and Bulgarians and those Serbians further to the north, in time, will take your language and your souls. And if they don’t succeed in that, they will do everything in their power to diminish you so that even your shadows are not visible… You will disappear. Remember my words – bad people will overpower you and the time will come when you plead with us Turks to be your friends.
I am an educated man and I am giving you the benefit of my wisdom. I can see far and wide. I spent many years at school in Paris and now my sons are being educated there. My sons have written to me that the European kingdoms are spreading information that the Sultan is sick. You understand? The Sultan is sick, meaning the Empire is sick. You understand? You are building a church, build one but be smart about it. But on whose advice will you build it? On the advice of the Exarchates or on the advice of the Patriarchates? All they want to do is to purchase your souls. But your souls are Macedonian. Stay with us, with the Ottomans. The Ottoman Empire will give you autonomy, if you can understand me, and after that, if you are smart, maybe you can create your own country. I am saying if you are smart because you will need to be smart to create a country. The time has come for the large, old empires to collapse and for new small and large countries to be born. Today everyone is working against our empire. The Ottoman Empire will be gone and you will be gone as well…”
This is what the Beg told my grandfather who often used to say:
“Since the Pope came into existence his view has always been to the east, because that’s where the world expands and prospers… The Western kingdoms think the same way…”
In October 1912, the Greek army entered Kostur when it found out that the city had been abandoned by the Ottoman army. It was about the same time that the Beg and my grandfather had another discussion sitting by the fireplace until early morning. In the meantime the women were packing suitcases and crates and loading them on wagons. Then, after shaking the ashes out of his tobacco pipe, Asan Beg said the following parting words to my grandfather:
“The time has come for me to go. The vine which my great ancestor began, receiving this place for showing bravery against the Poles, ends here. I was born here, I grew up here, I was married here and I went to war from here for the glory of Allah and the Sultan. For three hundred years the Raya (Christians) have remained under the shadow of my ancestors and myself. And you have remained Christians for those three hundred years with your own language, faith and name… thirty years ago with my permission, but with Greek money, you built a church in the middle of the village. Since then you have been divided into Patriarchates and Exarchates. You have created a great divide between yourselves and you have done that with their help, with the help of those who pretend to be your friends. How many times have I told you – to be smart about it, to use your good judgment. Under my authority you have not been slaves with regards to your language, faith and souls. Under the authority of your new masters you will be a slave with both your soul and language, even if you become a collaborator and a spy for them. In this fake world, outside of God, nothing is permanent…”
Asan Beg got on his white horse and before leaving he said the following to my grandfather:
“Goodbye Christian, goodbye and remember not to be a slave anymore…”
Asan Beg, riding his horse, took the lead of the ten loaded wagons and took to the road for Kapeshtitsa and from there to Bilishta in Albania. After that we heard that he left for France where his sons were studying at the time. He left and after that he was never heard of again, as if he had drowned.
The church bells were ringing in Kostur, the Grkomani got out their Greek flags and hung them in their windows and on balconies. Without firing a single bullet, the Greek army entered the city and celebrated its great victory. A few days later Greek officials, escorted by the gendarmes, arrived in the city. They carried great big ledgers and in them they entered Turkish and Macedonian names as Greek adding to the old ancestral names: “os”, “is”, “u”. So that Damovski became Damopoulos, Petrovski became Petridis, Filiovski became Filipou…
Did Asan Beg predict all this?
They say that the church Sveta Bogoroditsa has been renovated; it was not the same as I remembered it when I was a child. The wide enclosure of the porch in the yard, under which two sides had been lined with stones, was now gone. The belfry above the two wide halls where the faithful sat after service and where the women served food and drink from baskets for soul, health and prosperity was also gone. The church bell now hung from a beam in the ceiling. The icon of Christ with open arms hanging from the ceiling, protecting the parishioners was also gone. The throne was gone and so were the faithful, all gone… On the altar, tossed in the corner and laden with dust was the christening vessel and beside it were icons, neglected, left there for the worms to make a meal…
I stood in front of the large icon of Sveta Bogoroditsa, lit a candle and crossed myself three times and while staring into her eyes, I whispered: “Bogoroditse you did not protect the living in the past but please do not forsake their souls…”
Lefteris was waiting for us in front of the large metal door leading to the farm that fattens calves. With a warm smile on his face he invited us inside the house. His home was poorly built with clay bricks and covered with sheet metal. An old woman greeted us at the front door. She wore slippers and a wide colourful dress and had a kerchief on her head, tied at the back.
“This is my mother,” said Lefteris and after the introduction, led us to a room. There was a hand-woven carpet on the floor, but all around the room, looking stubby, were the clay walls. In the middle of the room was a sofra (low table) and at the sides were cushioned wall benches. There was a door to the left leading to the kitchen. The woman greeted us one more time, seeming like it was a tradition to greet and shake hands with guests twice and after her second “καλος ηλθατε” (welcome) she sat us down on the benches. She continued to speak to us in Greek but I could detect she did not speak Greek with the proper accent. It seemed like she detected my surprise and said: “We are Prosfigi (refugees [Asia Minor settlers])” and then began to lead us along the road which led her parents with two daughters and four sons, from Turkey to Revani, now called Dipotamia. She said and repeated that she was born eighty years ago and that she had lived in great poverty, but for the last ten years, since they came here and opened the farm for fattening calves they are doing better. Also they now have access to the majority of the fields here, which year after year, through state auctions, they have been able to acquire through bids. She says that the fields are not hers; they belong to those who had to leave because of the war, which she remembers well. She also thanked God for the soil being fertile and for the state purchasing their crops. She said they were not poor now as she pointed to the yard where two tractors, a combine, a passenger car and two trucks were parked. I got the impression that she saw my surprise and hastened to explain why they had not built a new house. She said that the land did not belong to them and then asked: “How can you build a house on land that does not belong to you?”
The hostess suddenly interrupted our conversation, tapped her forehead with her palm and said: “I am sorry I got caught up in the conversation and forgot to be hospitable.”
She went into the kitchen and returned with a dish full of lokumi (Turkish delight) and a tray of glasses full of water.
“Welcome and help yourselves. And will you have some coffee?” she asked.
“Yes,” I replied “And please make it Turkish…”
“Turkish, of course,” she said, “but the coffee you are used to drinking is not real Turkish. I don’t know if you know or not, but if you don’t know I will tell you that real Turkish coffee is not boiled on an open fire or by flames and certainly not by an electric element. Real Turkish coffee is made when you allow the coffee to simmer slowly, to roast and develop a froth on top and the entire room is filled with its aroma, you then set it aside to rest from simmering and slowly pour it in a cup. This is real Turkish coffee, not the kind served in restaurants and cafés.”
“A relative of ours once ordered coffee in town,” she said,” and when he saw that there was no froth on top he complained to the waiter. The waiter took the coffee back to the kitchen and spat in the cup several times. And when he returned he said here is your coffee thick with froth. This is the king of coffee they serve in restaurants, boiled coffee. Real Turkish coffee is slowly roasted and you slurp it slowly when you drink it, inhaling each sip and then exhaling out loud with a long sigh. You then rinse your mouth with water to remove the coffee from your teeth and swallow the water so that the coffee will rest well in your stomach. Real Turkish coffee is very hot and sweet like a kiss...” concluded our hostess, laughing aloud when she went to light the fire.
And while the coffee was roasting on top of the wood stove, I looked into Lefteris’s eyes and asked:
“Lefteris, what happened to the stones of the walls and foundations of our houses?”
There was silence. So I asked again:
“Lefteris, where are the stones of the walls and foundations of our Sveta Petka, Sveti Atanas, Sveti Giorgi, Sveti Jovan and Sveti Ilia Churches?”
Again there was silence. So I asked:
“Lefteris, what happened to the tombstones and slabs that were in the village cemeteries?”
Then after a long and deep silence, torn by a painful sigh, he said:
“They took them away with military trucks...”
“Who took them?” I asked.
“They, who wanted to build new houses…” he replied.
I did not ask who “they” were who took our stones to build new houses for themselves but I did ask myself this: “Who gave them permission to do that?” And my answer was: “They who did not want anything to remain here; to remind people that foundations and churches once existed here because if they existed then someone else might ask to whom did these churches and foundations belong? Who were these people, what happened to them and where did they go?”
We drank our Turkish coffee in silence and after thanking our hosts we bid them farewell and then left the void that was once my village. With us we carried our memories of the warm sunshine and blue sky, the green forest and the swishing sound of the wind, the aroma of chembritsa (thyme), the narcotic taste of mature forest strawberries and the wish that here, under the open sky and in the shade of the almonds, I failed to fulfil a wish to fall asleep and to dream of my childhood memories and of my most secret desires and sorrows.
The bitterness of wormwood, burned like mistletoe, stuck to my lips.
The church bell rang in the village. Was it sending us a prayer or calling us to prayer?
Dolno Papratsko. Two houses and, a little higher, a renovated church. The land looked like it was tilled and the stones crushed. At one spot it looked like someone had torn down the walls of a house looking for its foundation. With heavy hearts we stared at the desolation and remnants of this old village as we passed through and after a few minutes of driving around we took the road to Osheni, now called Inoi.
Inoi was the name of the village from which the newcomers were expelled. I remember Osheni to be a very poor village with houses built of clay brick and roofs covered with dried stalks of rye. The newcomers, the Prosfigi then, knew how to cultivate tobacco, corn and pumpkins. They brought these skills with them from their old Inoi in Turkey. Everything else they needed they bought at the markets in Kostur and Rupishta where they mixed with the locals, the Macedonian population and learned to speak the Macedonian language and not Greek.
The new Inoi, in the past known as Osheni, now looks like a small city. Two and three story houses were built with carved stones and white façade walls and equipped with hydro electric power and telephone lines. The village has a gas station, a café, a pharmacy, streets paved with asphalt, a kindergarten, an elementary and high school and many passenger cars, tractors and combines. There is not a piece of land that is not plowed and if it is not sown with tobacco, corn, or pumpkins then it is sown with wheat.
Moving on to the next village…
In the middle of the village Aia Kiriaki (Sveta Nedela in Macedonian) there is a water spout with three faucets that runs non-stop with pure spring water. Above the faucets is a marble slab with the writing: “Για να ποτιζοντε η ριζες της ποντιακης ιστοριας” (For watering the roots of Pontian history).
There is not a person who would not ask themselves: “What are the roots connected to the shores of the Black Sea doing here?” This metaphoric message is a burning reminder and an untamed memory of the longing for the homeland left for their descendents by the first Prosfigi brought to this village by force, which they never accepted with their hearts.
The new generations born and grown here are only present in body but not in soul, heart and thought. Their souls, hearts and thoughts belong to their ancestral home, a far away place located on the shores of the Black Sea which official Greece calls “χαμενες πατρηδες” (lost homeland). Even though it is a lost homeland, the Prosfigi still keep it alive with their jealously guarded memories and traditions passed on from generation to generation.
The spring flows non-stop as the inscription on the slab above is a constant reminder of a lost homeland. The Greeks call these people “prosvigi (refugees) a constant reminder that they are outsiders and not like the Greeks themselves, subjecting them to ridicule and daily abuse with derogatory and demeaning words and anecdotes. The Prosfigi on the other hand continue to speak the language of their ancestors, a language Greeks don’t understand, not only at home but also in public places, restaurants and cafés.
Here in Sveta Nedela the old memories of the Prosfigi have not faded, they are kept alive with the Macedonian spring that constantly pours water...
Leave a comment:
-
-
Greece, Bulgaria and the Macedonian Question
Cutting through the Rhetoric
By Risto Stefov
January 28, 2007
[email protected]
Website: www.Oshchima.com
I have often heard references to the Macedonian question without understanding what it really means. Why is the Macedonian question so elusive and mysterious and why has it been thrown around for so long?
The Macedonian question was not a question that Macedonians have asked but rather a question the Great Powers were asking during late nineteenth century when Macedonia was still occupied by the last remnants of the Ottoman Empire. Simply put the Macedonian question was, "What will happen to the Macedonian territories and the people living on those territories when the Ottoman Empire ceases to exist?"
Obviously the Macedonian question was answered in 1912, 1913 when Macedonia was occupied, partitioned and annexed by Greece, Serbia and Bulgaria. Or was it?
If the Macedonian question was answered then, why does it still linger on? And better still, why has it evolved? In view of what is happening today with regards to the Greek-Macedonian name dispute and the Bulgarian refusal to recognize the Macedonian ethnicity and language, it's time once again to ask, "What is the Macedonian question of today?"
If the Macedonian question was satisfactorily answered by the division of Macedonia and by declaring that only Greeks, Serbs and Bulgarians live in the geographic territories of Macedonia, why then do we today have a sovereign and independent Macedonian State with no less than 1.8 million people declaring themselves to be ethnic Macedonians? Likewise if all those people living in the Macedonian territories that Greece annexed in 1913 were Greeks then why do we today have Macedonians living in Greece? Similarly, if everyone in Bulgarian annexed Macedonia were Bulgarians, why then today do we have Macedonians living in Bulgaria?
We can all bury our heads in the sand and keep on believing "no Macedonians exist" to the satisfaction of Greece and Bulgaria, or we can wake up to the reality that ethnic Macedonians do exist not only in the Republic of Macedonia but in all of geographic Macedonia, including the Greek and Bulgarian annexed territories.
Being made aware of that reality, then what will the "new Macedonian question" be that the new Great Powers should be asking?
Before answering this question, we should take a look at what was done to "answer" the original "Macedonian question" and what has changed to lead to the "new Macedonian question".
Before the breakup of the Ottoman Empire the Great Powers were preoccupied with how to maintain political stability in the region. Being itself a Great Power, as the Ottoman Empire began to break up, the other Great Powers struggled to maintain a balance of power without themselves losing influence and at the same time looking for ways to expand their own influence. There was agreement between the Powers that should the Ottoman Empire collapse they would not allow its replacement to be a single state or another Great Power. Thus the "Eastern Question" was born which simply put stated, "What will happen to the lands and people when the Ottoman Empire ceases to exist?" The only acceptable solution was to replace the Ottoman lands with smaller states that could not possibly unite. In other words "create a number of smaller, equal sized, politically diverse" states that would oppose one another and remain loyal to the Great Powers that created them.
As the Ottoman Empire began to wear down at its fringes, Greece and Serbia were born. As it continued to collapse greater Bulgaria was born but it was a short lived birth. The Powers could not agree on San Stefano Bulgaria because for one, it was much larger than the other two newly created states and being created by Russia, Bulgaria would show loyalty to Russia and would allow Russia, a rival Great Power, greater influence in the Balkans as well as access to the Mediterranean waters, something the Western Powers did not want. Instead, a smaller Bulgaria was created and the Ottoman collapse was somewhat stabilized and its territory in the Balkans reduced to present day geographical Macedonia, Albania, Thrace and European Turkey (the Dardanelles).
By now no one had any doubts that the remainder of the Ottoman Empire was going to collapse, it was a matter of time. This created new worries for the Great Powers, "What to do with the remainder of the lands, especially with Macedonia." This gave birth to the "Macedonian Question". Simply put "what will happen to Macedonia and the Macedonian people" when the Ottoman Empire disappears? Of course, as I mention earlier, the problem was solved by allowing Greece, Serbia and Bulgaria to annex parts of Macedonia and its people. Since Macedonia was an existing entity with defined borders, a long and illustrious history, and with ethnic Macedonians living on it, it was difficult to find dividing lines. So Macedonia's eventuality was decided by conflict. The three states were allowed to simultaneously invade Macedonia and whichever parts they liberated by evicting the Turks they would get to keep for themselves. The invasion took place in 1912 and resulted in the successful eviction of the last remnants of the Ottoman Empire. Unfortunately none of the three states were happy with the territories they gained so once again they renewed the conflict in 1913 resulting in the current partition and annexation of Macedonia which exists to this day.
No matter what Greece and Bulgaria claim today about how they acquired their part of Macedonia, it is a well known fact that Macedonian territories were a prize from the spoils of war. The 1913 Treaty of Bucharest, and how it was achieved, is a living testament that Greece, Serbia and Bulgaria fought over Macedonia and gained its lands by conflict. No historical claims were ever made prior to or during the signing of the 1913 Treaty of Bucharest.
It is a well known fact that neither Greece, Serbia, nor Bulgaria ever existed before as sovereign states. Bulgaria and Serbia existed as empires encompassing parts of Macedonian territories but it is well understood that these territories were occupied by force and never belonged to them. Greece on the other hand had never before occupied or owned Macedonian lands. That is why Greece has resorted to using the ancient Macedonians from 2,300 years ago to claim "historic rights" to Macedonian territories. Greece it seems can only claim legitimacy to Macedonian territories and to the Macedonian heritage if it can prove to the world that the "Ancient Macedonians were Greek". While ignoring the reality of how it obtained Macedonian territories, Greece has taken the argument back 2,300 years and is fighting a war of words, semantics, as to who is the real heir to the Macedonian heritage. Greece is ignoring the facts that Macedonians lived in Macedonia for countless generations or at least 1,500 years by its own accounts. Greece knows very well that no one cares about what happened 2,300 years ago. And why does it matter? Why argue semantics while ignoring reality? Arguing semantics suits Greece and Bulgaria perfectly because while the Macedonians are arguing over semantics Greece and Bulgaria (1) continue to make them look like fools and (2) continue to benefit from Macedonia's occupation to the detriment of its true owners the Macedonian people.
Let's clarify some things. First and foremost Macedonians are people with legal rights and privileges no matter what Greece and Bulgaria call them. Second, these people indisputably lived in Macedonia for at least 1,500 years which is more than enough to qualify them as the indigenous people of Macedonia. These people, according to international law, have the right to self identify in whatever way or means they see fit. So what is the problem with Greece and Bulgaria?
The real problem here is not whether Macedonians qualify to be called Macedonians but rather, whether Greece has the right and can prove it has the right to the Macedonian heritage. Does Greece truly have a case by claiming "Macedonia is Greek" on account that the "Ancient Macedonians may or may not have been Greek in 400 BC"? Greece only has a case as long as Macedonians believe it has a case and continue to argue with Greece over frivolous issues! Do the Macedonian people have a case against Greece for losing their lands to Greece because Greece chose to illegally occupy Macedonia by force in 1912, 1913? Yes they do! If Macedonians stop fighting with Greece about 2,400 year old issues and begin to focus their efforts on today's real issues then they can expect to gain international attention and achieve their rights as Macedonians living on this planet!
Even though Macedonia was served on a platter to Greece, Serbia and Bulgaria by the Great Powers in 1913 by the Treaty of Bucharest and again in 1919 by the Treaty of Versailles, does not change the fact that Greece, Serbia and Bulgaria gained Macedonian lands illegally by force and without the consent of the Macedonian people.
Do the Macedonian people have a strong case against Greece and Bulgaria? The answer is yes! Macedonians can prove that Macedonians have been evicted from their lands and their lands have been confiscated only because they are Macedonians. Macedonians can prove that both Greece and Bulgaria have broken treaties which Greece and Bulgaria have signed to provide Macedonians minority rights. Macedonians can prove that Greece and Bulgaria continue to disobey international law by not recognizing the ethnic Macedonians in their respective states. Case and point, the Greek State passed a law in 1988 allowing all Greeks by birth to return to Greece but not the 28,000 Macedonia refugee children, refugees from the Greek Civil War. These were children between the ages of 2 and 14. They are not criminals or agents of foreign states. Greece has yet to explain why these children, who now are all over 60 years old, are not allowed to return. Why is Greece on one hand claiming that everyone who lived in Greece since 1928 is Greek and on the other hand it passes a law that discriminates against non-Greeks who supposedly do not exist? Greece will not allow Macedonians to return to Greece because Greece has confiscated and sold or given away their lands to the colonists it imported from Asia Minor in the 1920s and is still importing to this day.
The name dispute between Macedonia and Greece is a fabricated issue, fabricated by Greece to take attention away from its dismal human rights record towards its minorities, especially its Macedonian minority which Greece has robbed of its heritage. Greece has created this issue to keep Macedonians on the defensive and away from seeking compensation for their lands or to fight for their human rights as ethnic Macedonians and as citizens of that state. There is no international law or precedence that would allow legally or morally for a state to evict people from their lands and rob them of their property and ethnic rights based on 2,400 year old "ambiguous claims". Besides, how do we know for certain and how can we prove that the modern Greeks truly have legitimate rights to the Macedonian lands and heritage? How do we know that the Macedonians themselves who lived in Macedonia for at least 1,500 years have no rights to Macedonian lands and the Macedonian heritage? Are we to take the word of a state who denies the Macedonian peoples' existence? Are we to believe Greece, a state that has robbed the ethnic Macedonians of their ethnic rights? Who has evicted Macedonians from their own homes? Who has changed all the Macedonian names? Who has tried to make Macedonians into Greeks by force? I think not!
Since Macedonians are placed in a position where they have to justify their identity wouldn't you say it is only fair that Greeks be put through the same scrutiny? How can a person by simply saying that they are "Greek" own the right to both the Greek and Macedonian heritage yet a person who says they are Macedonian has no rights at all, not even the right to call him or herself Macedonian?
How did all this start and what has changed since?
As mentioned earlier, Greece is a product of Great Power intervention. It was artificially created for the first time in 1829 from the ashes of the crumbling Ottoman Empire. I am saying "artificially created" because most states when created are modeled after something vibrant and living, like a living culture or a practicing tradition. The language a newly created state adopts for its people is usually a living language or the mother language of the people. If more than one language exists, it's usually the language of the majority that is adopted. Some states to be fair to all people are bi-lingual or even multi-lingual. Greece, on the other hand, was modeled after a dead culture which existed 2,400 years ago. The language the Greek state adopted for its people was also a dead language which was only preserved by the Ottoman administration and the Orthodox Church. The name "Greece" itself is also a non-Greek word. It is a Latin word.
When Greece was created for the first time there was no Greek ethnicity. The 19th century ethnicities that comprised the raw material for the modern Greek state were Albanians, Vlachs, Turks, Macedonians and other Slav speakers, Christians from Asia Minor, Gypsies and other ethnic minorities. Each ethnicity that comprised the so-called "Greek ethnos" was not Greek and each spoke a unique language different from the others.
It is understandable that in order to unify these various people under one nation the Greek state had to undertake some measures in order to keep a balance between the needs of the individual against those of the state. Unfortunately, in its zeal to create a mythical nation modeled after a dead culture which only could be viewed as ideal, Greece went too far. It not only literally destroyed what was real but it also attempted to erase the peoples' collective memory about their current culture, language and history and replace it with an ideal and fictitious one. For example in Macedonia, after Greece consolidated its control over the people, it initiated a denationalization process by eliminating the spoken and written form of the Macedonian language and replaced it with the dead language it adopted for its own people. It destroyed all records, books, monuments, religious icons, even tombstones with Macedonian writing. It changed peoples' names and gave the people new and Greek sounding names. It changed all the names of the cities, towns, villages, lakes, rivers, mountains and roads to make them look "ancient Greek". The prohibition of the Macedonian language and identity as well as the name changes were enforced by the passing of laws which exist and are enforced to this day.
In other words, Greece is Greek today not by birthright or any legal means but simply by enforcing an idea, the idea that everyone who lives in Greece is Greek.
Unlike Greece which created its "ethnos" by destroying the true ethnicities of its people, Macedonia has a living and vibrant Macedonian ethnicity. Ethnic Macedonians in the entire region of geographic Macedonia have a mother tongue comprising of at least 26 dialects. Macedonians have a living language which is at least 1,500 years old. In spite of Greek attempts to eradicate it, the Macedonian language has survived and is widely spoken today. The publication of the Abecedar, a Macedonian language primer, published by the Greek state itself in 1925 is a testament that Macedonians and their Macedonian language existed in Greece.
Macedonians in Greece and Bulgaria have refused to join the newly created "ethnos" for various reasons. The primary reason is because they are not Bulgarians or Greeks. Remember Macedonia was occupied and partitioned by foreign forces without Macedonian consent. In other words, no one asked the Macedonians if they wanted their country to be occupied and partitioned. There are no treaties signed by Macedonians giving Greece and Bulgaria permission to annex Macedonian territories. On top of that, no one asked the Macedonians if they wanted to become Greeks or Bulgarians voluntarily. Macedonians were forced into declaring themselves what they were not under duress. They were forced to give up their own ethnic identity for the sake of joining the cult of their occupiers. Yes, "occupiers"!
Let's face reality here. What the Greeks and Bulgarians did was not exactly pleasant for the Macedonian people. Upon their occupation of Macedonian territories, both the Greek and Bulgarian state executed Macedonians on masse, evicted Macedonians from their homes and both states forcibly attempted to denationalize, Hellenize and Bulgarize the Macedonian population. Greece went further and changed the names of people and places and gave away Macedonian lands to foreign colonists. How can Macedonians forget that? Even those Macedonians who chose the "Greek way" were not above been systemically discriminated. Greece has a file on everyone and if a person has Macedonian roots he or she is viewed with suspicion and prohibited from achieving higher education or high positions in the military or in government. So really where is the incentive for Macedonians to turn into Greeks? The 1914 Carnegie report is a testament of what Greece and Bulgaria did upon the occupation and annexation of Macedonia. When war broke out in the Balkans in 1912 and 1913, the Carnegie Endowment dispatched a commission on a fact finding mission. The mission consisted of seven prominent members from the United States, Britain, France, Germany, Austria-Hungary and Russia. Among them was the distinguished journalist Henry N. Brailsford, author of the book "Macedonia its Races and their Future". A report was written and testifies to the atrocities committed by these states against the Macedonian people!
What has changed since then?
Since Macedonia's occupation and partition, Serbian occupied Macedonia saw a resurgence of the Macedonian language and culture as Serbia slowly softened its stronghold on Macedonia. With the advent of the Yugoslav federation, Macedonia took its rightful place as a republic inside Yugoslavia. The people chose to call their republic "The Peoples' Republic of Macedonia" and their language "Macedonian" to which Greece had no objection. There are schoolbooks in Greece that attest to the fact that Greece had no objection with Macedonia calling itself Macedonia. Greek children were taught in school that one of the republics in Yugoslavia was called "Macedonia" and the people living in it spoke "Macedonian". When Yugoslavia disintegrated, the Serbian occupied part of Macedonia became the sovereign and independent state the Republic of Macedonia.
Greece and Bulgaria in the meantime continue to illegally occupy Macedonian territories and refuse to acknowledge the existence of ethnic Macedonians.
Sadly for Greece and Bulgaria, Macedonians do exist and are re-opening the Macedonian question. The days of imperialism and treating people like raw material for Nation Building are over. Macedonians don't want to be Greeks or Bulgarians or any other names Greece and Bulgaria feels like calling them. The Macedonians want to be called Macedonians. They want to be recognized for who they are. The new Macedonian questions should be about recognizing Macedonians as a separate ethnic identity with rights and privileges in accordance with international norms. The new Macedonian question should be about restitution and correcting past wrongs. It should be about long overdue repatriation of long forgotten citizens.
I believe it is time to re-examine the facts, re-open the 1913 Treaty of Bucharest and all associated treaties that have to do with human and minority rights as well as with land claim rights that Greece and Bulgaria have violated. It's time to stop the pursuit of fantasy like the name dispute and face reality like how and under what conditions Macedonia was occupied, partitioned and annexed. It's time to review the atrocities the Greek and Bulgarian states have committed against the Macedonian population in 1912 and 1913 and from 1940 to 1949. It's time for Greece to start making plans to repatriate the Macedonian citizens it evicted for no good reason. It's time for Greece and Bulgaria to recognize those Macedonians living in their states as Macedonians with full rights and privileges in accordance with international law.
Mr. Karamanlis, its time to stop stalling and muddying the waters by one day pretending there are no Macedonians in your country and another day saying everyone who lives in your country is Macedonian and Greek. Mr. Karamanlis it's time for you and your Government to start facing real issues like providing human and national rights to the minorities that live in your country today not 2,400 years ago.
Since Macedonians are refusing to "go away" it's time for you Mr. Karamanlis to deal with them in a civilized and equitable manner.
Mr. Karamanlis, the next time you feel like making statements about how the Macedonians are stealing your "Greek heritage", please take a good look at your own Greek nation and how it was created and decide for yourself who is stealing whose heritage!
----------
Leave a comment:
-
-
Greece, Bulgaria and the Macedonian Question
Cutting through the Rhetoric
By Risto Stefov
January 28, 2007
[email protected]
Website: www.Oshchima.com
I have often heard references to the Macedonian question without understanding what it really means. Why is the Macedonian question so elusive and mysterious and why has it been thrown around for so long?
The Macedonian question was not a question that Macedonians have asked but rather a question the Great Powers were asking during late nineteenth century when Macedonia was still occupied by the last remnants of the Ottoman Empire. Simply put the Macedonian question was, "What will happen to the Macedonian territories and the people living on those territories when the Ottoman Empire ceases to exist?"
Obviously the Macedonian question was answered in 1912, 1913 when Macedonia was occupied, partitioned and annexed by Greece, Serbia and Bulgaria. Or was it?
If the Macedonian question was answered then, why does it still linger on? And better still, why has it evolved? In view of what is happening today with regards to the Greek-Macedonian name dispute and the Bulgarian refusal to recognize the Macedonian ethnicity and language, it's time once again to ask, "What is the Macedonian question of today?"
If the Macedonian question was satisfactorily answered by the division of Macedonia and by declaring that only Greeks, Serbs and Bulgarians live in the geographic territories of Macedonia, why then do we today have a sovereign and independent Macedonian State with no less than 1.8 million people declaring themselves to be ethnic Macedonians? Likewise if all those people living in the Macedonian territories that Greece annexed in 1913 were Greeks then why do we today have Macedonians living in Greece? Similarly, if everyone in Bulgarian annexed Macedonia were Bulgarians, why then today do we have Macedonians living in Bulgaria?
We can all bury our heads in the sand and keep on believing "no Macedonians exist" to the satisfaction of Greece and Bulgaria, or we can wake up to the reality that ethnic Macedonians do exist not only in the Republic of Macedonia but in all of geographic Macedonia, including the Greek and Bulgarian annexed territories.
Being made aware of that reality, then what will the "new Macedonian question" be that the new Great Powers should be asking?
Before answering this question, we should take a look at what was done to "answer" the original "Macedonian question" and what has changed to lead to the "new Macedonian question".
Before the breakup of the Ottoman Empire the Great Powers were preoccupied with how to maintain political stability in the region. Being itself a Great Power, as the Ottoman Empire began to break up, the other Great Powers struggled to maintain a balance of power without themselves losing influence and at the same time looking for ways to expand their own influence. There was agreement between the Powers that should the Ottoman Empire collapse they would not allow its replacement to be a single state or another Great Power. Thus the "Eastern Question" was born which simply put stated, "What will happen to the lands and people when the Ottoman Empire ceases to exist?" The only acceptable solution was to replace the Ottoman lands with smaller states that could not possibly unite. In other words "create a number of smaller, equal sized, politically diverse" states that would oppose one another and remain loyal to the Great Powers that created them.
As the Ottoman Empire began to wear down at its fringes, Greece and Serbia were born. As it continued to collapse greater Bulgaria was born but it was a short lived birth. The Powers could not agree on San Stefano Bulgaria because for one, it was much larger than the other two newly created states and being created by Russia, Bulgaria would show loyalty to Russia and would allow Russia, a rival Great Power, greater influence in the Balkans as well as access to the Mediterranean waters, something the Western Powers did not want. Instead, a smaller Bulgaria was created and the Ottoman collapse was somewhat stabilized and its territory in the Balkans reduced to present day geographical Macedonia, Albania, Thrace and European Turkey (the Dardanelles).
By now no one had any doubts that the remainder of the Ottoman Empire was going to collapse, it was a matter of time. This created new worries for the Great Powers, "What to do with the remainder of the lands, especially with Macedonia." This gave birth to the "Macedonian Question". Simply put "what will happen to Macedonia and the Macedonian people" when the Ottoman Empire disappears? Of course, as I mention earlier, the problem was solved by allowing Greece, Serbia and Bulgaria to annex parts of Macedonia and its people. Since Macedonia was an existing entity with defined borders, a long and illustrious history, and with ethnic Macedonians living on it, it was difficult to find dividing lines. So Macedonia's eventuality was decided by conflict. The three states were allowed to simultaneously invade Macedonia and whichever parts they liberated by evicting the Turks they would get to keep for themselves. The invasion took place in 1912 and resulted in the successful eviction of the last remnants of the Ottoman Empire. Unfortunately none of the three states were happy with the territories they gained so once again they renewed the conflict in 1913 resulting in the current partition and annexation of Macedonia which exists to this day.
No matter what Greece and Bulgaria claim today about how they acquired their part of Macedonia, it is a well known fact that Macedonian territories were a prize from the spoils of war. The 1913 Treaty of Bucharest, and how it was achieved, is a living testament that Greece, Serbia and Bulgaria fought over Macedonia and gained its lands by conflict. No historical claims were ever made prior to or during the signing of the 1913 Treaty of Bucharest.
It is a well known fact that neither Greece, Serbia, nor Bulgaria ever existed before as sovereign states. Bulgaria and Serbia existed as empires encompassing parts of Macedonian territories but it is well understood that these territories were occupied by force and never belonged to them. Greece on the other hand had never before occupied or owned Macedonian lands. That is why Greece has resorted to using the ancient Macedonians from 2,300 years ago to claim "historic rights" to Macedonian territories. Greece it seems can only claim legitimacy to Macedonian territories and to the Macedonian heritage if it can prove to the world that the "Ancient Macedonians were Greek". While ignoring the reality of how it obtained Macedonian territories, Greece has taken the argument back 2,300 years and is fighting a war of words, semantics, as to who is the real heir to the Macedonian heritage. Greece is ignoring the facts that Macedonians lived in Macedonia for countless generations or at least 1,500 years by its own accounts. Greece knows very well that no one cares about what happened 2,300 years ago. And why does it matter? Why argue semantics while ignoring reality? Arguing semantics suits Greece and Bulgaria perfectly because while the Macedonians are arguing over semantics Greece and Bulgaria (1) continue to make them look like fools and (2) continue to benefit from Macedonia's occupation to the detriment of its true owners the Macedonian people.
Let's clarify some things. First and foremost Macedonians are people with legal rights and privileges no matter what Greece and Bulgaria call them. Second, these people indisputably lived in Macedonia for at least 1,500 years which is more than enough to qualify them as the indigenous people of Macedonia. These people, according to international law, have the right to self identify in whatever way or means they see fit. So what is the problem with Greece and Bulgaria?
The real problem here is not whether Macedonians qualify to be called Macedonians but rather, whether Greece has the right and can prove it has the right to the Macedonian heritage. Does Greece truly have a case by claiming "Macedonia is Greek" on account that the "Ancient Macedonians may or may not have been Greek in 400 BC"? Greece only has a case as long as Macedonians believe it has a case and continue to argue with Greece over frivolous issues! Do the Macedonian people have a case against Greece for losing their lands to Greece because Greece chose to illegally occupy Macedonia by force in 1912, 1913? Yes they do! If Macedonians stop fighting with Greece about 2,400 year old issues and begin to focus their efforts on today's real issues then they can expect to gain international attention and achieve their rights as Macedonians living on this planet!
Even though Macedonia was served on a platter to Greece, Serbia and Bulgaria by the Great Powers in 1913 by the Treaty of Bucharest and again in 1919 by the Treaty of Versailles, does not change the fact that Greece, Serbia and Bulgaria gained Macedonian lands illegally by force and without the consent of the Macedonian people.
Do the Macedonian people have a strong case against Greece and Bulgaria? The answer is yes! Macedonians can prove that Macedonians have been evicted from their lands and their lands have been confiscated only because they are Macedonians. Macedonians can prove that both Greece and Bulgaria have broken treaties which Greece and Bulgaria have signed to provide Macedonians minority rights. Macedonians can prove that Greece and Bulgaria continue to disobey international law by not recognizing the ethnic Macedonians in their respective states. Case and point, the Greek State passed a law in 1988 allowing all Greeks by birth to return to Greece but not the 28,000 Macedonia refugee children, refugees from the Greek Civil War. These were children between the ages of 2 and 14. They are not criminals or agents of foreign states. Greece has yet to explain why these children, who now are all over 60 years old, are not allowed to return. Why is Greece on one hand claiming that everyone who lived in Greece since 1928 is Greek and on the other hand it passes a law that discriminates against non-Greeks who supposedly do not exist? Greece will not allow Macedonians to return to Greece because Greece has confiscated and sold or given away their lands to the colonists it imported from Asia Minor in the 1920s and is still importing to this day.
The name dispute between Macedonia and Greece is a fabricated issue, fabricated by Greece to take attention away from its dismal human rights record towards its minorities, especially its Macedonian minority which Greece has robbed of its heritage. Greece has created this issue to keep Macedonians on the defensive and away from seeking compensation for their lands or to fight for their human rights as ethnic Macedonians and as citizens of that state. There is no international law or precedence that would allow legally or morally for a state to evict people from their lands and rob them of their property and ethnic rights based on 2,400 year old "ambiguous claims". Besides, how do we know for certain and how can we prove that the modern Greeks truly have legitimate rights to the Macedonian lands and heritage? How do we know that the Macedonians themselves who lived in Macedonia for at least 1,500 years have no rights to Macedonian lands and the Macedonian heritage? Are we to take the word of a state who denies the Macedonian peoples' existence? Are we to believe Greece, a state that has robbed the ethnic Macedonians of their ethnic rights? Who has evicted Macedonians from their own homes? Who has changed all the Macedonian names? Who has tried to make Macedonians into Greeks by force? I think not!
Since Macedonians are placed in a position where they have to justify their identity wouldn't you say it is only fair that Greeks be put through the same scrutiny? How can a person by simply saying that they are "Greek" own the right to both the Greek and Macedonian heritage yet a person who says they are Macedonian has no rights at all, not even the right to call him or herself Macedonian?
How did all this start and what has changed since?
As mentioned earlier, Greece is a product of Great Power intervention. It was artificially created for the first time in 1829 from the ashes of the crumbling Ottoman Empire. I am saying "artificially created" because most states when created are modeled after something vibrant and living, like a living culture or a practicing tradition. The language a newly created state adopts for its people is usually a living language or the mother language of the people. If more than one language exists, it's usually the language of the majority that is adopted. Some states to be fair to all people are bi-lingual or even multi-lingual. Greece, on the other hand, was modeled after a dead culture which existed 2,400 years ago. The language the Greek state adopted for its people was also a dead language which was only preserved by the Ottoman administration and the Orthodox Church. The name "Greece" itself is also a non-Greek word. It is a Latin word.
When Greece was created for the first time there was no Greek ethnicity. The 19th century ethnicities that comprised the raw material for the modern Greek state were Albanians, Vlachs, Turks, Macedonians and other Slav speakers, Christians from Asia Minor, Gypsies and other ethnic minorities. Each ethnicity that comprised the so-called "Greek ethnos" was not Greek and each spoke a unique language different from the others.
It is understandable that in order to unify these various people under one nation the Greek state had to undertake some measures in order to keep a balance between the needs of the individual against those of the state. Unfortunately, in its zeal to create a mythical nation modeled after a dead culture which only could be viewed as ideal, Greece went too far. It not only literally destroyed what was real but it also attempted to erase the peoples' collective memory about their current culture, language and history and replace it with an ideal and fictitious one. For example in Macedonia, after Greece consolidated its control over the people, it initiated a denationalization process by eliminating the spoken and written form of the Macedonian language and replaced it with the dead language it adopted for its own people. It destroyed all records, books, monuments, religious icons, even tombstones with Macedonian writing. It changed peoples' names and gave the people new and Greek sounding names. It changed all the names of the cities, towns, villages, lakes, rivers, mountains and roads to make them look "ancient Greek". The prohibition of the Macedonian language and identity as well as the name changes were enforced by the passing of laws which exist and are enforced to this day.
In other words, Greece is Greek today not by birthright or any legal means but simply by enforcing an idea, the idea that everyone who lives in Greece is Greek.
Unlike Greece which created its "ethnos" by destroying the true ethnicities of its people, Macedonia has a living and vibrant Macedonian ethnicity. Ethnic Macedonians in the entire region of geographic Macedonia have a mother tongue comprising of at least 26 dialects. Macedonians have a living language which is at least 1,500 years old. In spite of Greek attempts to eradicate it, the Macedonian language has survived and is widely spoken today. The publication of the Abecedar, a Macedonian language primer, published by the Greek state itself in 1925 is a testament that Macedonians and their Macedonian language existed in Greece.
Macedonians in Greece and Bulgaria have refused to join the newly created "ethnos" for various reasons. The primary reason is because they are not Bulgarians or Greeks. Remember Macedonia was occupied and partitioned by foreign forces without Macedonian consent. In other words, no one asked the Macedonians if they wanted their country to be occupied and partitioned. There are no treaties signed by Macedonians giving Greece and Bulgaria permission to annex Macedonian territories. On top of that, no one asked the Macedonians if they wanted to become Greeks or Bulgarians voluntarily. Macedonians were forced into declaring themselves what they were not under duress. They were forced to give up their own ethnic identity for the sake of joining the cult of their occupiers. Yes, "occupiers"!
Let's face reality here. What the Greeks and Bulgarians did was not exactly pleasant for the Macedonian people. Upon their occupation of Macedonian territories, both the Greek and Bulgarian state executed Macedonians on masse, evicted Macedonians from their homes and both states forcibly attempted to denationalize, Hellenize and Bulgarize the Macedonian population. Greece went further and changed the names of people and places and gave away Macedonian lands to foreign colonists. How can Macedonians forget that? Even those Macedonians who chose the "Greek way" were not above been systemically discriminated. Greece has a file on everyone and if a person has Macedonian roots he or she is viewed with suspicion and prohibited from achieving higher education or high positions in the military or in government. So really where is the incentive for Macedonians to turn into Greeks? The 1914 Carnegie report is a testament of what Greece and Bulgaria did upon the occupation and annexation of Macedonia. When war broke out in the Balkans in 1912 and 1913, the Carnegie Endowment dispatched a commission on a fact finding mission. The mission consisted of seven prominent members from the United States, Britain, France, Germany, Austria-Hungary and Russia. Among them was the distinguished journalist Henry N. Brailsford, author of the book "Macedonia its Races and their Future". A report was written and testifies to the atrocities committed by these states against the Macedonian people!
What has changed since then?
Since Macedonia's occupation and partition, Serbian occupied Macedonia saw a resurgence of the Macedonian language and culture as Serbia slowly softened its stronghold on Macedonia. With the advent of the Yugoslav federation, Macedonia took its rightful place as a republic inside Yugoslavia. The people chose to call their republic "The Peoples' Republic of Macedonia" and their language "Macedonian" to which Greece had no objection. There are schoolbooks in Greece that attest to the fact that Greece had no objection with Macedonia calling itself Macedonia. Greek children were taught in school that one of the republics in Yugoslavia was called "Macedonia" and the people living in it spoke "Macedonian". When Yugoslavia disintegrated, the Serbian occupied part of Macedonia became the sovereign and independent state the Republic of Macedonia.
Greece and Bulgaria in the meantime continue to illegally occupy Macedonian territories and refuse to acknowledge the existence of ethnic Macedonians.
Sadly for Greece and Bulgaria, Macedonians do exist and are re-opening the Macedonian question. The days of imperialism and treating people like raw material for Nation Building are over. Macedonians don't want to be Greeks or Bulgarians or any other names Greece and Bulgaria feels like calling them. The Macedonians want to be called Macedonians. They want to be recognized for who they are. The new Macedonian questions should be about recognizing Macedonians as a separate ethnic identity with rights and privileges in accordance with international norms. The new Macedonian question should be about restitution and correcting past wrongs. It should be about long overdue repatriation of long forgotten citizens.
I believe it is time to re-examine the facts, re-open the 1913 Treaty of Bucharest and all associated treaties that have to do with human and minority rights as well as with land claim rights that Greece and Bulgaria have violated. It's time to stop the pursuit of fantasy like the name dispute and face reality like how and under what conditions Macedonia was occupied, partitioned and annexed. It's time to review the atrocities the Greek and Bulgarian states have committed against the Macedonian population in 1912 and 1913 and from 1940 to 1949. It's time for Greece to start making plans to repatriate the Macedonian citizens it evicted for no good reason. It's time for Greece and Bulgaria to recognize those Macedonians living in their states as Macedonians with full rights and privileges in accordance with international law.
Mr. Karamanlis, its time to stop stalling and muddying the waters by one day pretending there are no Macedonians in your country and another day saying everyone who lives in your country is Macedonian and Greek. Mr. Karamanlis it's time for you and your Government to start facing real issues like providing human and national rights to the minorities that live in your country today not 2,400 years ago.
Since Macedonians are refusing to "go away" it's time for you Mr. Karamanlis to deal with them in a civilized and equitable manner.
Mr. Karamanlis, the next time you feel like making statements about how the Macedonians are stealing your "Greek heritage", please take a good look at your own Greek nation and how it was created and decide for yourself who is stealing whose heritage!
----------
Leave a comment:
-
-
Only in Greece is a Lie the Truth and the Truth a Lie
By Risto Stefov
July 7, 2005
[email protected]
Yes Mr. Giorgos Koumoutsakos it's time to fess-up to the truth about Macedonia!
Why is Greece so afraid of the truth?
Greece has been peddling lies for so long that it has forgotten the truth. I am referring to the most recent Greek attacks on the Republic of Macedonia regarding a map on someone's private website and some high school textbooks used in the Republic of Macedonia. See articles in Kathimerini and ANA.
"Reacting to questions about a story in Tuesday's Kathimerini revealing that the textbooks implied that part of FYROM's territory was under Greek and Bulgarian control, Foreign Ministry spokesman Giorgos Koumoutsakos slammed Skopje. "The time has come for answers to the question of irredentist and dangerous propaganda. Not only does Greece want these answers, it is also a key demand of European political reality," he said. Koumoutsakos said the books were published in 1998 but remain in circulation."
Mr. Koumoutsakos, have you and your state contracted amnesia over 19th and 20th century historic developments in the Balkans? Allow me to refresh your memory;
1. Were there not Greek, Bulgarian and Serbian mercenaries paid by the Greek, Bulgarian and Serbian Churches in Macedonia to turn Macedonians into Greeks, Bulgarians and Serbians prior to the 1912-1913 Balkan Wars?
2. Were there not Greek, Bulgarian and Serbian teachers and priests in Macedonia, peddling Greek, Bulgarian and Serbian propaganda prior to the 1912-1913 Balkan Wars?
3. Did the Greek, Bulgarian and Serbian armies not enter Macedonia in 1912 and occupy Macedonian territory?
4. Did Greece, Bulgaria and Serbia not fight over Macedonian territory in 1913 and partition Macedonia?
Since when does the truth have to be explained?
Would you rather the Republic of Macedonia teach lies in its schools? What exactly is Greece teaching its students?
"The latest instance of an irredentist map and text was apparently detected within the pages of a textbook used by junior high school pupils in FYROM. Specifically, a map showing the Balkans and prominently depicting a region identified as "Macedonia", with the latter including significant portions of modern-day Greece and Bulgaria. Three hands, meanwhile, extending from the south (Greece), east (Bulgaria) and north (Serbia) are seen on the illustration as encroaching on this "greater Macedonia's" territory. Moreover, Albania isn't even demarcated on the notorious map."
Mr. Koumoutsakos, since when has telling the truth become a sin?
1. It is well known how Greece, Bulgaria and Serbia became states during the 19th century. It is also well known that Greece became a state for the first time in 1829.
2. It is well known that geographical Macedonia and the name Macedonia have roots well into ancient times. Macedonia is the oldest name in European history.
3. It is also well known that Greece, Bulgaria and Serbia occupied and partitioned Macedonia in 1913 during the Second Balkan War.
These are well know facts taught everywhere in the free thinking world.
You should know that today's Republic of Macedonia is the part of Macedonia that was occupied by Serbia. You should also know that the so-called "Province of Macedonia" or "Northern Greece" or "New Territories" or "Greek Macedonia", as you like to call it, was part of geographical Macedonia prior to 1912.
The question that begs to be asked is, "Why is Greece so afraid of such a map?" Even if the Republic of Macedonia did have "irredentist" ideas, what could a small state five times smaller than Greece and with a poor economy do?
Not only will the Republic of Macedonia do nothing but it has already amended its constitution, removed certain symbols and now removed the link to the website with the offensive map to satisfy Greece. So what more, Mr. Koumoutsakos, does Greece want from the Republic of Macedonia?
"The time has come for answers to the question of irredentist and dangerous propaganda. Not only does Greece want these answers, it is also a key demand of European political reality,"
What answers are you looking for Mr. Koumoutsakos?
I have an idea for you Mr. Koumoutsakos, why don't you read the following and answer to that!
It is an extract from the Carnegie Inquiry.
Note: Following the Balkan Wars, during the summer of 1913, the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace set up a committee to investigate the situation in the Balkans in general and in Macedonia in particular. The results drawn from this investigation were printed in Washington DC in 1914 under the title Report of the International Commission to Inquire into the Cause and the Conduct of the Balkan Wars.
"ANASTASIA PAVLOVA, a widow of Ghevgheli.
Shortly before the outbreak of the second [Balkan] war I was staying with my daughter, a school teacher, in the village of Boinitsa. A Greek lady came from Salonica and distributed money and uniforms to the Turks of the place some six or eight days before the outbreak of the second [Balkan] war. She also called the Bulgarians [Macedonian parishioners of the Exarchate Church] of the village together, and told them that they must not imagine that this village would belong to Bulgaria. She summoned the Bulgarian priest [Exarchate priest], and asked him if he would become a Greek. He replied "we are all Bulgarians [Macedonians belonging to the Exarchate Church] and Bulgarians [Macedonians belonging to the Exarchate Church] we will remain." There were some Greek officers with this lady who caught the priest by the beard. Then the men who were standing by, to the number of about fifty, had their hands bound behind their backs, and were beaten by the soldiers. They were told that they must sign a written statement that they would become Greeks. When they refused to do this they were all taken to Salonica. When the men were gone, the soldiers began to violate the women of the place, three soldiers usually to one girl. [She named several cases which she witnessed.] The soldiers came in due course to my house and asked where my daughter was. I said she was ill and had to gone to Ghevgheli. They insisted that I should bring her to them. The Greek teacher of the village, Christo Poparov, who was with the soldiers, was the most offensive of them all.
They threatened to kill me if I would not produce her. The soldiers then came into the room and beat me with the butts of their rifles and I fell. "Now," they said, "you belong to the Greeks, your house and everything in it," and they sacked the house. Then sixteen soldiers came and again called for my daughter, and since they could not find her they used me instead. I was imprisoned in my own house and never left alone. Four days before the war I was allowed to go to Ghevgheli by rail with two soldiers to fetch my daughter. She was really in the village of Djavato. At Ghevgheli, the soldiers gave me permission to go alone to the village to fetch her. Outside the village I met five Greek soldiers, who greeted me civilly and asked for the news. Suddenly they fired a rifle and called out, "Stop, old woman." They then fired six shots to frighten me. I hurried on and got into the village just before the soldiers. They bound my hands, began to beat me, undressed me, and flung me down on the ground. Some Servian soldiers were in the village and interfered with the Greeks and saved my life. My daughter was hidden in the village and she saw what was happening to me and came running out to give herself up, in order to save her mother. She made a speech to the soldiers and said, "Brothers, when we have worked so long together as allies, why do you kill my mother?" The soldiers only answered, that they would kill her too. I then showed them the passport which had been given to me at Boinitsa. I can not read Greek and did not know what was on it. It seems that what was written there was "This is a mother who is to go and find her daughter and bring her back to us." The Greek soldiers then saw that it was my daughter, and not I, who was wanted and my daughter cried, "Now I am lost." The soldiers offered me the choice of staying in the village or going with my daughter to Ghevgheli. I begged that they would leave us alone together where we were until the morning, and to this they agreed. In the night I fled with my daughter, who disguised herself in boy's clothes, to a place two hours away which was occupied by Bulgarian soldiers. I then went myself to Ghevgheli and immediately afterwards, the second war broke out.
The Bulgarians took the town and then retired from it, and the Greeks entered it. The moment they came in they began killing people indiscriminately in the street. One man named Anton Bakharji was killed before my eyes. I also saw a Greek woman named Helena kill a rich Bulgarian [Macedonian belonging to the Exarchate Church] named Hadji Tano, with her revolver. Another, whose name I do not know, was wounded by a soldier. A panic followed in the town and a general flight. Outside the town I met a number of Greek soldiers who had with them sixteen Bulgarian [Macedonian belonging to the Exarchate Church] girls as their prisoners. All of them were crying, several of them were undressed, and some were covered in blood. The soldiers were so much occupied with these girls that they did not interfere with us, and allowed us to flee past them. As we crossed the bridge over the Vardar, we saw little children who had been abandoned and one girl lying as if dead on the ground. The cavalry were coming up behind us. There was no time to help. A long way off a battle was going on and we could hear the cannon, but nobody fired upon us. For eight days we fled to Bulgaria and many died on the way. The Bulgarian soldiers gave us bread. I found my daughter at Samakov. My one consolation is that I saved her honor". (Page 304, 305) George F. Kennan. "The Other Balkan Wars" A 1913 Carnegie Endowment Inquiry in Retrospect with a New Introduction and Reflections on the Present Conflict. Washington, DC: Carnegie Endowment For International Peace, 1993.
It is time Mr. Koumoutsakos, to come clean and start telling the truth. The Republic of Macedonia is yet another of your victims just like Anastasia Pavlova and all those other women your State has raped.
For comments regarding this article contact the author at [email protected]
Leave a comment:
-
-
Only in Greece is a Lie the Truth and the Truth a Lie
By Risto Stefov
July 7, 2005
[email protected]
Yes Mr. Giorgos Koumoutsakos it's time to fess-up to the truth about Macedonia!
Why is Greece so afraid of the truth?
Greece has been peddling lies for so long that it has forgotten the truth. I am referring to the most recent Greek attacks on the Republic of Macedonia regarding a map on someone's private website and some high school textbooks used in the Republic of Macedonia. See articles in Kathimerini and ANA.
"Reacting to questions about a story in Tuesday's Kathimerini revealing that the textbooks implied that part of FYROM's territory was under Greek and Bulgarian control, Foreign Ministry spokesman Giorgos Koumoutsakos slammed Skopje. "The time has come for answers to the question of irredentist and dangerous propaganda. Not only does Greece want these answers, it is also a key demand of European political reality," he said. Koumoutsakos said the books were published in 1998 but remain in circulation."
Mr. Koumoutsakos, have you and your state contracted amnesia over 19th and 20th century historic developments in the Balkans? Allow me to refresh your memory;
1. Were there not Greek, Bulgarian and Serbian mercenaries paid by the Greek, Bulgarian and Serbian Churches in Macedonia to turn Macedonians into Greeks, Bulgarians and Serbians prior to the 1912-1913 Balkan Wars?
2. Were there not Greek, Bulgarian and Serbian teachers and priests in Macedonia, peddling Greek, Bulgarian and Serbian propaganda prior to the 1912-1913 Balkan Wars?
3. Did the Greek, Bulgarian and Serbian armies not enter Macedonia in 1912 and occupy Macedonian territory?
4. Did Greece, Bulgaria and Serbia not fight over Macedonian territory in 1913 and partition Macedonia?
Since when does the truth have to be explained?
Would you rather the Republic of Macedonia teach lies in its schools? What exactly is Greece teaching its students?
"The latest instance of an irredentist map and text was apparently detected within the pages of a textbook used by junior high school pupils in FYROM. Specifically, a map showing the Balkans and prominently depicting a region identified as "Macedonia", with the latter including significant portions of modern-day Greece and Bulgaria. Three hands, meanwhile, extending from the south (Greece), east (Bulgaria) and north (Serbia) are seen on the illustration as encroaching on this "greater Macedonia's" territory. Moreover, Albania isn't even demarcated on the notorious map."
Mr. Koumoutsakos, since when has telling the truth become a sin?
1. It is well known how Greece, Bulgaria and Serbia became states during the 19th century. It is also well known that Greece became a state for the first time in 1829.
2. It is well known that geographical Macedonia and the name Macedonia have roots well into ancient times. Macedonia is the oldest name in European history.
3. It is also well known that Greece, Bulgaria and Serbia occupied and partitioned Macedonia in 1913 during the Second Balkan War.
These are well know facts taught everywhere in the free thinking world.
You should know that today's Republic of Macedonia is the part of Macedonia that was occupied by Serbia. You should also know that the so-called "Province of Macedonia" or "Northern Greece" or "New Territories" or "Greek Macedonia", as you like to call it, was part of geographical Macedonia prior to 1912.
The question that begs to be asked is, "Why is Greece so afraid of such a map?" Even if the Republic of Macedonia did have "irredentist" ideas, what could a small state five times smaller than Greece and with a poor economy do?
Not only will the Republic of Macedonia do nothing but it has already amended its constitution, removed certain symbols and now removed the link to the website with the offensive map to satisfy Greece. So what more, Mr. Koumoutsakos, does Greece want from the Republic of Macedonia?
"The time has come for answers to the question of irredentist and dangerous propaganda. Not only does Greece want these answers, it is also a key demand of European political reality,"
What answers are you looking for Mr. Koumoutsakos?
I have an idea for you Mr. Koumoutsakos, why don't you read the following and answer to that!
It is an extract from the Carnegie Inquiry.
Note: Following the Balkan Wars, during the summer of 1913, the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace set up a committee to investigate the situation in the Balkans in general and in Macedonia in particular. The results drawn from this investigation were printed in Washington DC in 1914 under the title Report of the International Commission to Inquire into the Cause and the Conduct of the Balkan Wars.
"ANASTASIA PAVLOVA, a widow of Ghevgheli.
Shortly before the outbreak of the second [Balkan] war I was staying with my daughter, a school teacher, in the village of Boinitsa. A Greek lady came from Salonica and distributed money and uniforms to the Turks of the place some six or eight days before the outbreak of the second [Balkan] war. She also called the Bulgarians [Macedonian parishioners of the Exarchate Church] of the village together, and told them that they must not imagine that this village would belong to Bulgaria. She summoned the Bulgarian priest [Exarchate priest], and asked him if he would become a Greek. He replied "we are all Bulgarians [Macedonians belonging to the Exarchate Church] and Bulgarians [Macedonians belonging to the Exarchate Church] we will remain." There were some Greek officers with this lady who caught the priest by the beard. Then the men who were standing by, to the number of about fifty, had their hands bound behind their backs, and were beaten by the soldiers. They were told that they must sign a written statement that they would become Greeks. When they refused to do this they were all taken to Salonica. When the men were gone, the soldiers began to violate the women of the place, three soldiers usually to one girl. [She named several cases which she witnessed.] The soldiers came in due course to my house and asked where my daughter was. I said she was ill and had to gone to Ghevgheli. They insisted that I should bring her to them. The Greek teacher of the village, Christo Poparov, who was with the soldiers, was the most offensive of them all.
They threatened to kill me if I would not produce her. The soldiers then came into the room and beat me with the butts of their rifles and I fell. "Now," they said, "you belong to the Greeks, your house and everything in it," and they sacked the house. Then sixteen soldiers came and again called for my daughter, and since they could not find her they used me instead. I was imprisoned in my own house and never left alone. Four days before the war I was allowed to go to Ghevgheli by rail with two soldiers to fetch my daughter. She was really in the village of Djavato. At Ghevgheli, the soldiers gave me permission to go alone to the village to fetch her. Outside the village I met five Greek soldiers, who greeted me civilly and asked for the news. Suddenly they fired a rifle and called out, "Stop, old woman." They then fired six shots to frighten me. I hurried on and got into the village just before the soldiers. They bound my hands, began to beat me, undressed me, and flung me down on the ground. Some Servian soldiers were in the village and interfered with the Greeks and saved my life. My daughter was hidden in the village and she saw what was happening to me and came running out to give herself up, in order to save her mother. She made a speech to the soldiers and said, "Brothers, when we have worked so long together as allies, why do you kill my mother?" The soldiers only answered, that they would kill her too. I then showed them the passport which had been given to me at Boinitsa. I can not read Greek and did not know what was on it. It seems that what was written there was "This is a mother who is to go and find her daughter and bring her back to us." The Greek soldiers then saw that it was my daughter, and not I, who was wanted and my daughter cried, "Now I am lost." The soldiers offered me the choice of staying in the village or going with my daughter to Ghevgheli. I begged that they would leave us alone together where we were until the morning, and to this they agreed. In the night I fled with my daughter, who disguised herself in boy's clothes, to a place two hours away which was occupied by Bulgarian soldiers. I then went myself to Ghevgheli and immediately afterwards, the second war broke out.
The Bulgarians took the town and then retired from it, and the Greeks entered it. The moment they came in they began killing people indiscriminately in the street. One man named Anton Bakharji was killed before my eyes. I also saw a Greek woman named Helena kill a rich Bulgarian [Macedonian belonging to the Exarchate Church] named Hadji Tano, with her revolver. Another, whose name I do not know, was wounded by a soldier. A panic followed in the town and a general flight. Outside the town I met a number of Greek soldiers who had with them sixteen Bulgarian [Macedonian belonging to the Exarchate Church] girls as their prisoners. All of them were crying, several of them were undressed, and some were covered in blood. The soldiers were so much occupied with these girls that they did not interfere with us, and allowed us to flee past them. As we crossed the bridge over the Vardar, we saw little children who had been abandoned and one girl lying as if dead on the ground. The cavalry were coming up behind us. There was no time to help. A long way off a battle was going on and we could hear the cannon, but nobody fired upon us. For eight days we fled to Bulgaria and many died on the way. The Bulgarian soldiers gave us bread. I found my daughter at Samakov. My one consolation is that I saved her honor". (Page 304, 305) George F. Kennan. "The Other Balkan Wars" A 1913 Carnegie Endowment Inquiry in Retrospect with a New Introduction and Reflections on the Present Conflict. Washington, DC: Carnegie Endowment For International Peace, 1993.
It is time Mr. Koumoutsakos, to come clean and start telling the truth. The Republic of Macedonia is yet another of your victims just like Anastasia Pavlova and all those other women your State has raped.
For comments regarding this article contact the author at [email protected]
Leave a comment:
-
-
Address by Athanasios Parisis
to the first International EBLUL Conference
November 15, 2002
See Related Articles:
• Minority Languages, Plea For More Recognition
• Minutes on Linguistic Diversity in Greece
• Macedonians of Greece (MSWord .doc)
Welcoming Address by the President of the Greek branch of the European Bureau for Lesser Used Languages (EBLUL), Mr. Athanasios Parisis to the first International EBLUL Conference Thessaloniki, 15 November, 2002
Subject of conference: Promotion of the lesser used languages in Greece
Mr. President, Bojan Brezigar, Honoured guests,
On behalf of the Greek EBLUL Committee I take great pleasure in welcoming you to the first EBLUL international conference dedicated to the various linguistic groups in Greece.
Across the European Union, no fewer than forty million people speak languages in their everyday lives, which are different from the official language of the state in which they are living. At present this figure represents 10% of the total European population, but shortly, with the expansion of the Union, the number of people speaking a different language from the official language of their state will be much, much greater. Greece, too, is no exception; however vigorously the state may deny it, the facts tell their own story. A by no means negligible section of the Greek population is bilingual. It is not possible to provide precise figures, since none of the censuses carried out to date has included a question on language. The one exception was the census of 1920, yet the figures it yielded for the northern regions of the country were never published.
Moreover, the long-standing policy of marginalisation and suppression has succeeded, naturally enough, in reducing the actual number of those speaking the non-official languages. This hostile treatment of heteroglossy in Greece had its beginnings in the early days of the modern Greek state, 170 years ago. In those areas of the country where Arvanitika was prevalent, every effort was made to discourage its use. There was perhaps some justification for this in the desperate efforts being made to unite the regional populations into a single Greek state, using as a means to this end a policy of homogenisation of the various populations.
At the beginning of the 20th century, when new territories were annexed by the Greek state, the process of displacing alternative languages and forcing their speakers to assimilate the Greek language and Greek national ideology - one state, one nation, one language, one religion - assumed new dimensions. The state resorted to violence, persecution, exchanges of populations and the mass 'cleansing' of villages, which refused to submit. Later, in the course of the Civil War, many tens of thousands of individuals, among them whole villages, were forced to flee as political refugees to eastern Europe. Some of the children of these refugees are still living in exile, a situation almost incomprehensible in the context of the modern Europe.
Those of us who remained in Greece were subjected to special schooling, kept in the classroom all day to minimise our contact with our family environment - the environment where our native tongue was spoken. It is worth mentioning that the 1961 census lists just ten child day care centres for the region of Messenia, whereas in the area of Florina no fewer than 48 such centres were in operation. The numbers are, of course, inversely proportional to the size of population in each region actually in need of these centres. The selective policy of the Queen Frederika Foundation, which was accompanied by the movement of 'poor children' - the actual phrase used - to isolated schools in southern Greece, was intended to encourage the children to change their language and thereby further the process of national integration.
In the years which followed the tactics of psychological violence, the undermining of the dignity of the child and the intimidation of the parent - all produced the results the state desired, the 'persuasion' of individuals to deny their own identity, their tradition, their language. And this in a Europe, which claims to respect the ideal, among others, of respect for human rights and the linguistic and cultural disparity of its peoples.
As President of the Greek branch of EBLUL I should like to stress the need to introduce our languages into the Greek educational system. We also seek access for the linguistic communities of our country to the mass media, radio and television.
We very much hope that in this endeavour we shall enjoy the support of the Brussels office, the European Parliament, the European Commission, the Council of Europe and all the other agencies of the European Union with an interest in these issues.
Athanasios Parisis
In English
Daily
MakFax
Idividi
MIA
MINA
Skopje Diem
SE Times
Balkanalysis
MILS News
Resources
Google News
Other
Begaltsi (Refugees)
Macedonians in Greece
Macedonians in Bulgaria
Macedonians in Albania
Leave a comment:
-
-
On the Road of Time – Chapter 3 - Part 1
By Petre Nakovski
Translated and edited by Risto Stefov
[email protected]
July 8, 2012
Kostur, compared to ten years ago, has become unrecognizable. The old, timeless market by the lakeshore has been turned into a city park. The only thing that has not changed is the fish market. The stores selling fish have remained as they were a long time ago. They were and still are operated by the fishermen from the village Mavrovo. The city stadium is gone and in its place is a new, recently built square. Part of the square substitutes as a market a couple of times a week. The place is clean and neat and a city government building has been added to it. Thanks to the European Union no doubt.
The winding road along the coast has been widened, paved and crammed with café’s, taverns, restaurants and small shops. There are seventy Orthodox churches in the city, most of which are older that five hundred years and built Byzantine style. This makes the city an exquisite tourist attraction. At the end there is a small square and in front of it, standing high up on a monument, is a statue of Bishop Karavangelis. Painted on the chest of the statue in black paint is the word “executioner”. Beside Karavangelis’s statue is a headless statue of General Van Fleet, the Unites States general who commanded the Greek government generals during the Greek Civil War. But that’s not all; there are also other surprises and skeletons in Kostur.
We ordered coffee at the café (built of wood and decorated with many items made of plastic) next to the lake.
“Two Turkish coffees please,” I said to the waiter.
“If you want Turkish coffee, go to Turkey,” he replied angrily; a pale looking young man possibly suffering from insomnia. “We only serve Greek coffee here,” he added strongly as he swatted a fly on the table with a towel.
After we drank our “Greek” coffee and the free water offered at this café, we left and went to the City Centre.
There were many stores side by side at the Kostur Centre, exhibiting mostly fur in their display windows. The fur trade was the oldest trade in the region and only the people of Kostur had the right to practice it by decree from the Sultan. But in the last thirty years or so the fur trade was taken over by the surrounding villages and towns, mostly by Russians. After the fall of the Soviet Union, Russians with big money (only they know where they got it) came to Kostur and the surrounding region and built shops and on them they hung billboards with the inscription “SHUBЫ” (sheaths, furs) and since then the famous and renowned Kostur fur traders have become Russian employees and wage earners.
Out of curiosity we entered one of the stores. We looked at the fur coats and admired them without touching but were surprised and astonished at their very high prices. The talkative clerk, a middle-aged man, followed us around explaining and praising the merchandise in an attempt to make a sale and when we stepped further away from the door, in an almost whispering voice, he asked in Macedonian: “Are you from Serbia?”
“No,” I said. “Serbia is further up, to the north of where we come from.”
“Oh…” he said.
“And you?” I asked
“I am from here, from Macedonia… Greece is further south…” he said quietly and with his hand pointed to the south.
When we exited the store he asked: “From which city are you…”
“We live in a city but we were born in a village here,” I replied.
“Which one?” he asked.
I said, “Polianemon.”
“I know it,” he boasted. “Its old name is Krchishta. Am I right?”
“Yes you are right. And that’s where we are going,” I replied.
“What will you be doing there? There is nothing there except wind after which the village got its new name!” he yelled out loud, stunned. “Nothing, believe me, there is nothing…”
“That’s okay Sir, then we will see nothing…” I answered.
“Χρηστε και Παναγια!...” (Jesus Christ and the Virgin Mary) he said in Greek and crossed himself.
* * *
The once terrible, potholed and narrow road leading from Dolno Papratsko to Krchishta has now been widened and paved with asphalt. The road ended where the threshing fields once used to be. On our way we made a stop at a place called Vishomo. Close to there, where the land rises and widens, is a church and all around the church there is nothing, only emptiness. The village Krchishta used to occupy that emptiness. As I stared at the desolate space where my village used to be, I was overwhelmed with a certain sickness and chills ran down my spine. The village was here but now it’s gone, only its name remains, a name given to it a long time ago, a name that means the “crackle” of chestnuts. I remember the old people saying that the name Krchishta was given to the village a very long time ago.
As I recall, a story was told that went something like this: During the Ottoman War against the Poles, which took place in 1689, a Beg (Ottoman officer) distinguished himself as a good fighter during the attack and capture of the city Hochim, so the Sultan rewarded him by giving him five villages and their residents, houses and land. So this Beg, in order to enlarge his fields, ordered the villagers to destroy the chestnut groves and their homes and relocate to a sandy, barren and less productive place. There he ordered them to build new houses for themselves, a house for himself and a mosque. The villagers did as ordered and, in respect of God, would not destroy the village churches. So the only buildings left standing, as markers of where the villages once used to be, were the five churches: Sveta Petka, Sveti Atanas, Sveti Giorgi, Sveti Jovan and Sveti Ilia. These church buildings survived the test of time, rebellions and wars.
There was a grove of tall oak trees to the left of the road from where we were standing. “There,” I said to my wife pointing at the oak trees, “is where the village Dolno Vishomo used to be and under the oaks was the church, Sveta Petka. We walked across the road to the oak grove and stood under its magnificent shade. Unfortunately there was nothing left of the old church, not even its foundation. The only things we found were a couple of rocks, some broken ceramic tiles, remnants of the old church and part of a burned candle stuck in the ground amongst the tiles. It was quiet in the grove except for the sounds made by the rustling leaves of the oak trees in a gentle breeze. A flock of ravens flew over us and disappeared beyond the forest. The sight gave me pain and chills. With a heavy breath we crossed ourselves and silently walked away and headed for my village.
The wide road ended where the village threshing yards used to be. To the left there was a wide metal door and behind it was a wide yard divided by a fence, behind which calves were mooing. There were many calves. On the opposite side was a house. A dog, tied to a post, was barking. A young man came out of the house. He greeted us in Greek and asked, “Are you looking for someone?”
“Yes…” I said, with tearing eyes as I looked over the entire yard…
“For who?” he asked.
I got a lump in my throat, my knees got weak and my chin began to tremble.
“My name is Lefteris. Please come in,” he said inviting us inside the small house.
“First we will walk over to the elms,” I said, “and then we will return…”
We left the car outside the farm (for fattening calves) and at a slow pace we walked on the street so that I could show my wife the village. After taking a few steps I closed my eyes to the emptiness, overgrown grass and weeds and in my imagination replaced them with the homes of the Nanovtsi, Damovtsi, Purdovtsi, Laskini, Popovtsi, Donovtsi, Liapovtsi, Pindzovtsi, Penovtsi, Shkoklovtsi, Trajkovci, Nakovtsi, Pandovtsi, Filiovtsi, Guliovtsi and other families. I imagined the fifty-four houses that existed here, in several rows, under whose roofs once lived over four hundred souls. I tried to imagine the feeling of the fifty or so other souls, who at the time were pechalbars (migrant workers) overseas, gone beyond the great waters, who never got a chance to return to see their homes and to visit with their families.
I spoke at great length, telling my wife about each house and the people who had lived in it, about the streets, about the time of the Greek Civil War during which forty-three people were mobilized from whom twenty-nine were killed. I told her about the fifty-four children that were taken to Eastern European countries and about the seven families who fled to Kostur and Rupishta and all the other families that were exiled and scattered around the world.
“Well,” I said to her, “this emptiness was once a village and this void was once filled with life ...” “And here,” I said, “where we now stand was the house where I was born…” “Here,” I said, “was the large wooden door that was locked from the inside with a thick wooden lever. And there was the garden and behind it was the outdoor oven. Here is where the steps that led to the second floor used to be.” “Here,” I said, “is where my mother Fimka brought eight children into this world of whom three were given rifles, four were collected and sent to the Eastern European countries and one, the youngest, died in Albania. My brother, her third born son, left his soul in Gramos just before reaching his eighteenth birthday. So Fimka was left alone and, abroad where she lived, every night she dreamt the same dream - that some day soon all her children would again be together and have a meal at the same dinner table...”
My thoughts had taken me back to a time gone by, but then, for a moment I returned to reality, to the emptiness which again reawakened more memories, seeming like they were tied together by a chain, flooding back, pushing, scratching, pounding, squeezing, burning and creating sorrow. To calm my spirit I kicked some soil with my foot and out came a broken ceramic tile and underneath it, in the ashes, was a broken stone. I picked it up and blew away the ashes with my warm breath and then placed it near my heart but I could not feel my heart beating, it felt as if it too had turned to stone....
I took my photo album out of my backpack; a photo-album to which I had been adding old photographs year after year and from the photographs life began to sprout. Who were those people in the old photographs? What had dhappened to them? Who went where and who returned from where? Where are they today and what happened to them in the past?
Where!
The images of the people in the photographs seem to float, to come alive, to reflect on the life which now appears to me only in spirit and in shadows. Through the photographs I was able to see the people with their joy, sorrow and pain of what once was. What once was, is now gone. The families are gone. The houses are gone. Everything is gone. Only the ghosts and the shadows of the ghosts remain...
I look at the images in the photographs and imagine the people leaving, taking the road to banishment.
To what country did they go?
To what unknown latitudes of the world did time take them?
When did they leave?
Under what circumstances did they leave?
Did they travel one behind the other?
Did they leave quickly, en masse?
Time…
What is time and what are people in time?
Time kills.
Time wounds.
Time heals.
Time forgets.
Time leaves no footprints.
Time destroys.
Time is a killer.
Is time a witness?
Time passes.
Time brings concerns.
Time remembers.
Time tells.
Time verifies.
Time accepts and rejects.
It is said at this and this time.
During the time of great upheaval.
During the time of war.
During the time of so and so plagues.
We are here. At the empty, naked, scarred place.
Time has passed, it has expired.
And here, now, at this time, today, at this moment of time, we are in a moment of time.
We are at the time divided between now and yesterday.
Time…
Whose and what kind of time?...
We are here in time past, time without people and without homes; we are here in time present without life, only empty fields and flocks of crows.
Time.
Whose time?
What kind of time?
Time for what?
Time measured with what?
Time marked with what and how?
Time lost.
Time brings.
Time brings what?
Time of happiness.
Time of hunger.
Time of fear.
For victims, lies and curses.
Time for cursing, lies and betrayals.
Time for cursing and waiting.
Time compressed between times.
What kind?
Time for remembering.
Remembering what?
Time for existence, time for endurance, time for safeguarding time.
Here time was measured with time for digging foundations, for carving stones, for building walls, for laying roof tiles, for plowing and sowing, for living, for reaping crops, for celebrations, for holidays, for growing and aging, for happiness and sadness, for life…
After that time came time for war. It was a time of bad times, a time of great promises and many lies. It was time to separate the children from their mothers, it was time for eradication. It was a time of silence of the church bells. It was a time without faith in God.
Where did time stop?
Now there is only time for recollection of time past so that time past is not forgotten. Here now there is only now.
Will it last only that much, as long as we remain bowed over the burned out places and foundation remains of our homes?
Time remains in us forever preserved and baked in our memory.
Time over which the fog and dust of forgetfulness whirls and glides.
It is time for the fog to lift.
It is time for the dust that rests in time to be blown off.
It is time for ripening.
It is time to change time.
Leave a comment:
-
-
Greece's problem is not the name, but Macedonia's statehood - law expert
Skopje, 22 May 2012 (MIA) - Greece has no problem with the name but the existence of Macedonia as a state, says Toni Deskoski, international law professor and member of the legal team that represented Macedonia before The Hague-based International Court of Justice (ICJ).
In the 'Alfa' TV program, Deskoski said the name problem was invented as an insoluble one, namely as a toll that should prevent Macedonia to be an independent state.
Despite the ICJ ruling that Greece's objection to Macedonia's NATO membership at the 2008 Bucharest Summit was illegal and not in line with the international law, NATO member-states reiterated at the Chicago summit declaration the conclusion from Bucharest, namely that the Alliance will extend an invitation to the Republic of Macedonia to join the Alliance as soon as a mutually acceptable solution to the name issue is reached, Deskoski said.
Leave a comment:
-
Leave a comment: