Risto Stefov - Articles, Translations & Collaborations

[George S.]

Lerin, Aegean Macedonia

Lerin, Aegean Macedonia

Introduction | Expulsion of Ethnic Macedonians After 1913 | Change of Toponyms and Names
The ABECEDAR Case | The Metaxas Dictatorship

Introduction

Aegean Macedonia came under Greek occupation in 1913 following the Balkan Wars and partition of Macedonia. The Greek government immediately began a terrorist campaign against the Macedonian people, resulting in hundreds of thousands killed, tortured, or expelled. Many Greeks, however, refuse to admit that a sizeable ethnic Macedonian minority exists in Greece. (See Greek Propaganda). The Greek government claims that 98.5% of its country is ethnically Greek while the remainder belongs to the "Muslim minority of Thrace". It claims that there are no ethnic minorities within its borders. The human rights record of Greece is horrendous, despite being a member of the United Nations, European Union, and NATO and a signatory of several international human rights agreements including the United Nations Universal Declaration of Human Rights. This has been well-documented by several human rights organizations including: Human Rights Watch/Helsinki; Amnesty International; United Nations; Greek Helsinki Monitor; Minority Rights Group; International Helsinki Federation; and the Macedonian Human Rights Movement of Canada.


Expulsion of Ethnic Macedonians After 1913

Kukush, Aegean MacedoniaThe Greek government attempted to ethnically cleanse the Macedonian population and colonize Aegean Macedonia with Greeks. A series of population exchanges occurred after 1913 which saw tens of thousands of Macedonians forcibly expelled while over half a million Greeks were shipped in from Turkey and Bulgaria.

"All statistics except the Greek ones are also in general agreement that these Macedonians represented the largest single group on the territory of Aegean Macedonia before 1913. The figures range from 329,371 or 45.3 per cent to 382,084 or 68.9 per cent of the non-Turkish population; and from 339.369 or 31.3 per cent to 370.371 or 35.2 per cent of the total population of the area of approximately 1,052,227 inhabitants.

The number of Macedonians in Aegean Macedonia began to decline both in absolute terms and as a percentage of the total population during the Balkan wars and particularly after the First World War. The Treaty of Neuilly with Bulgaria provided for the so-called volun-tary exchange of Greek and Bulgarian minorities. According to the best available estimates, 86,582 Macedonians were compelled to emigrate from Aegean Macedonia, mostly from its eastern and central regions, to Bulgaria in the years from 1913 to 1928. More importantly still as a result of the compulsory exchange of Greek and Turkish or rather Christian and Muslim minorities required by the Treaty of Lausanne, which ended the Greek-Turkish war (1919-22), 400,000 Turks, including 49,000 Muslim Macedonians, were forced to leave Greece; and 1,300,000 Greeks and other Christians were expelled from Asia Minor. In the years up to 1928 the Greek government settled 565,143 of these refugees as well as 53,000 colonists from other parts of Greece in Aegean Macedonia. Thus, as a result of the removal of 127,384 Macedonians and the conscious and planned settlement of 618,199 refugees, the Greek government transformed the ethnographic structure of Aegean Macedonia in the period between 1913 and 1928." 1

"Even Greek sources concede that during the years from 1913 to 1928 the enormous movements of population which took place in Greek Macedonia changed the ethnological composition of the area. Macedonia, History and Politics, acknowledges that perhaps 100,000 Slavic speakers 'left' (ie., were forced to leave), 77,000 of these in 1926 alone. These figures may well be an underestimate but this material does add weight to the idea that even greater numbers of Greeks came in. The extent of the population movement out of Aegean Macedonia is emphasized in a report on March 30, 1927, in the Greek newspaper Rizospastis, which stated that 500,000 Slavic speakers were resettled to Bulgaria." 2

"Thus the majority of the Greek-speaking population of Aegean Macedonia is descended from relatively recent Greek refugees from Turkey and other places. This being the case, Greece might be considered to have questionable claim on the name Macedonia. Remember, too, that the name Macedonia was not applied to the province by Greece until 1988. Thus much of the current population has lived at most some 70 years in a land that has been called 'Macedonia' for less than a decade. Clearly they do not have the kind of historical claim to the land and to the name Macedonia as the Macedonian Slavs, Vlachs and Albanians whose ancestors have been there for 1,500 years or more." 3

"...they have carefully fostered this delusion, as if to give the impression both to their own people and to the world that there that there was no Slav minority in Greece at all; whereas, if a foreigner who did not know Greece were to visit the Florina (Lerin) region and from his idea of the country as a whole, he would conclude that it was the Greeks who were the minority. It is predominantly a Slav region not a Greek one. The language of the home, and usually also of the fields, the village street, and the market, is Macedonian, a Slav language." 4

The Macedonians became a minority in the eastern half of Aegean Macedonia while remaining (still today) a majority in western Aegean Macedonia, around the villages of Lerin, Kostur, and Voden. The numbers of ethnic Macedonians was reduced to 240,000. Today, the estimates range between 270,000 and one million (the latter number by Macedonian human rights activists in Greece).

Kostur, Aegean Macedonia"As official census data do not exist, and if they did they would not be reliable, we will mention here the most frequent estimate of some 200,000 Macedonian speakers in Greece (IHF, 1993:45; & Rizopoulos, 1993); the 1987 Encyclopedia Britannica Book of the Year 1987 gives an estimate of 180,000 (Banfi, 1994:5). Also, an anonymous Greek ethnologist gave an estimate of 200,000 for the community...(Chiclet, 1994:8). Another scholar, based on a detailed estimate of 30,000 speakers in the Florina and Aridea area makes a global estimate of 100,000-150,000 Macedonian speakers throughout Greek Macedonia (Van Boeschoten, 1994). Thus, the 200,000 estimate for the Macedonian community seems reasonable..." 5

"...we note Greek claims that Northern Greece, or Aegean Macedonia, is 'more than 98.5% ethnically pure.' The purity is held to be Greek. However, the statement is not accepted by reputable opinion outside of Greece. For instance, the 1987 edition of the Encyclopedia Britannica indicated that there were still 180,000 Macedonian speakers in this area, indicating a much greater percentage than 1.5%. If Macedonian activists from these areas are correct,there may be as many as 1,000,000 people from Macedonian-speaking backgrounds in Aegean Macedonia." 6

The following quote is from the Republic of Turkey's Ministry of Foreign Affairs: www.mfa.gov.tr/grupa/ac/ach/macedon2.htm

"Following the partition of Macedonia in 1913, Aegean Macedonia was annexed by Greece and since then its indigenous people, the ethnic Macedonians, became the target and often the victim of the oppressive policies of Greek state. Today, after nearly ninety years of assimilation efforts by the Greek governments it seems that measures have proved to be unsuccessful in Hellenizing the region. Currently, the ethnic Macedonians, estimated around 1,000,000 by some sources, still constitute the majority of population in that part of the Greece, Aegean Macedonia."


Summary of the Partition and Colonization of Aegean Macedonia 7

After the Balkan Wars (1912-1913), the First World War (1914-1918) and especially after the Peace Treaties of Lausanne (1923), which gave the Macedonian issue a central place, there began a great ethnic cleansing of Macedonians, who in 1912 had numbered 374,000, from the Aegean part of Macedonia.

Disregarding the principle of respect for minority rights within existing states, the negotiations in Lausanne accepted the principle of an obligatory resettlement of Christians from Turkey (Greeks, Turkophones, etc.) and of Moslems from Greece (Turks, Macedonian Moslems, etc.). Under the convention for obligatory emigration, 350,000 Moslems were expelled from the Aegean part of Macedonia. 40,000 of these were Macedonian Moslems.

In place of the Macedonians expelled to Bulgaria and Turkey (a total of 126,000) the Greek state resettled 618,000 persons of Greek and non-Greek origin in the Aegean part of Macedonia. This heterogeneous population, colonized in the Aegean part of Macedonia in the period between the two world wars, came from other parts of Greece, as well as from Asia Minor, the Black Sea region, the Caucasus, western Thrace, Bulgaria and other places.

The large majority of the refugee Christian population was settled in villages throughout the Aegean part of Macedonia, thus creating what has become known as the village, or agricultural, colonization; and a smaller number were colonized in towns, creating the so-called urban colonization.

This large colonization effected by Greece resulted in a major change in the historical status of the Macedonian language. Once the language used by most, it was now afforded only the status of the language of a minority, or the status of a family language, which was spoken by 240,000 Macedonians.

The large ethnic changes were the cause of changes in the status of the Greek language as well. From being the language of a minority, it now became the most used language, being imposed even on the Armenians, the "Turkophones", the in-comers from among the various Caucasian peoples, etc. With the imposition of the Greek language and with the help of mixed marriages, a new Greek nation was being created in the Aegean part of Macedonia.

The colonization by this population, whom the Macedonians called madziri (in-comers, foreigners), resulted in the Aegean part of Macedonia losing its Macedonian ethnic character. The Macedonians (240,000) became a minority; they were present as a majority only in the western part of the Aegean part of Macedonia (Kostur, Lerin and Voden regions).

The large colonization brought about by the Greeks was followed by a law passed by the Greek government in 1926 on the change of the toponymy of the Aegean part of Macedonia. All villages, towns, rivers and mountains were renamed and given Greek names.

The Greek state achieved this through a policy of state terror. As early as the period of the Balkan War of 1913 Greece had begun the ethnic genocide of the Macedonian people. The cruelty displayed by the Greek soldiers in their dealings towards the Macedonian people was merciless.

Solun, Aegean MacedoniaFollowing the political partition of Macedonia in 1913, Greece launched upon an active policy of the denial of the nationality and the assimilation of the Macedonians. The name Macedonian and the Macedonian language were prohibited and the Macedonians were referred to as Bulgarians, Slavophone Greeks or simply "endopes" (natives). At the same time, all the Macedonians were forced to change their names and surnames, the latter having to end in -is, -os or -poulos.

With the denial of the Macedonian nation went the non-recognition of the Macedonian language. It was prohibited, its standing was minimized and it was considered a barbarian language, unworthy of a cultured and civilized citizen. Its use in personal communication, between parents and children, among villagers, at weddings and funerals, was strictly forbidden. Defiance of this ban produced Draconian measures, ranging from moral and mental maltreatment to a "language tax" on each Macedonian word that was uttered. The written use of Macedonian was also strictly prohibited, and Macedonian literacy was being eliminated from the churches, monuments and tombstones. All the churches were given Greek names.

The attacks on the Macedonian language culminated at the time of Ioannis Metaxas (1936). General Metaxas banned the use of Macedonian not only in everyday life in the villages, in the market-place, in ordinary and natural human communications and at funerals, but also within the family circle. Adult Macedonians, regardless of their age, were forced to attend what were known as evening schools and to learn "the melodious Greek language". The violation of the ban on the use of the Macedonian language in the villages, market-places or the closed circle of the family caused great numbers of Macedonians to be convicted and deported to desolate Greek islands.

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Change of Toponyms and Names

In its attempts to eradicate the Macedonian name,

"Greece followed a policy of assimilating the Macedonian minority and Hellenizing the Macedonian region in northern Greece. The government changed place names and personal names from Macedonian to Greek, (Decree No. 332 of 1926) ordered religious services to be performed in Greek, and altered religious icons." 8

A few examples of changed village names:

Macedonian Name New Greek Name

Armensko Alonas Banica Vevi Bouf Akrita Gabresh Gavros Kostur Kastoria Kukush Kilkis Lerin Florina Negochani Niki Oshchima Trigonon Solun Thessaloniki Voden Edessa Zhelevo Antartikon

If Macedonia was always Greek, why would the Greek government have to change the Macedonian names of people, towns, and villages to Greek?

"Between 1913 and 1928 the Slavic names of hundreds of villages and towns were Hellenized by a Committee for the Changing of Names, which was charged by the Greek government with 'the elimination of all the names which pollute and disfigure the appearance of our beautiful fatherland and which provide an opportunity for hostile peoples to draw conclusions that are unfavourable for the Greek nation' (Lithoxoou 1992b: 55). In 1927 the Greek government issued a directive calling for the destruction of all Slavic inscriptions in churches and forbidding church services from being held in a Slavic language. Finally, in 1936 a law was passed ordering that all Slavic personal names, both first and last, be Hellenized (Human Rights Watch/Helsinki 1994b: 6-7). Jovan Filipov, therefore, became Yannis Filippidis, and Lena Stoikov became Eleni Stoikou." 9

Sveti Atanas Church in Zhelevo

Sveti Atanas Church in Zhelevo, Aegean Macedonia
The original Macedonian inscriptions were wiped out and replaced with Greek writing

"The participants in this partitioning claimed right to parts of Macedonia, declaring Macedonians to be Southern Serbs, Bulgarians and Slavophonic Greeks. They changed their new subjects' names and surnames. They forbade the Macedonian language, forced Macedonians to learn in foreign languages and imposed their own interpretations of history. They forced them to go to their churches. In short, they turned them into second-rate citizens, subjected to systematic re-settling and permanent exile. The common denominator of such politics was denationalization of the Macedonian people, erasing them from the Balkan's map of peoples, usurping its history, identity and desire for its own state. They forced upon us the fate of disappearing through assimilation." 10

"After the Greeks occupied Aegean Macedonia, they closed the Slavic-language schools and churches and expelled the priests. The Macedonian language and name were forbidden, and the Macedonians were referred to as Bulgarians, Serbians or natives. By a law promulgated on November 21, 1926, all place-names were Hellenized; that is the names of cities, villages, rivers and mountains were discarded and Greek names put in their place. At the same time the Macedonians were forced to change their first names and surnames; every Macedonian surname had to end in 'os', 'es', or 'poulos'. The news of these acts and the new, official Greek names were published in the Greek government daily Efimeris tis Kiverniseos no.322 and 324 of November 21 and 23, 1926. The requirement to use these Greek names is officially binding to this day. All evidence of the Macedonian language was compulsorily removed from churches, monuments, archaeological finds and cemetaries. Slavonic church or secular literature was seized and burned. The use of the Macedonian language was strictly forbidden also in personal communication between parents and children, among villagers, at weddings and work parties, and in burial rituals." 11

"In 1926 the Greek government ordered in decree no. 332 of November 1926 that all Slavonic names of towns, villages, rivers and mountains should be replaced by Greek ones." 12


Summary of the Change of Toponyms and Names 13

Immediately after the Bucharest Peace Treaty, when it became quite clear that Greece had usurped territory which did not belong to it either by the ethnic structure of the population or geographically, the Greek government conducted a census of the population in the new lands. According to this census the Aegean part of Macedonia numbered 1,160,477 inhabitants. In 1917 the law known under the number 1051 was passed, article 6 of which established the formation and functioning of the town and village municipalities of the New Lands.

The White Tower in SolunOn 10th October 1919 the Commission on Toponym in Greece issued a circular letter which contained instructions for the choice of place-names. The circular letter from the Commission was immediately followed by a booklet by N. Politis entitled "Advice on the Change of the Names of Municipalities and Villages" (Athens, 1920), published by the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Greece. At the same time, special sub-commissions were formed in the newly-established districts in the Aegean part of Macedonia, whose task it was to study the problem on the spot and to suggest new names for the villages and towns in the respective districts.

In the spirit of this letter, in 1922, the Commission on Toponyms of Greece issued a more detailed statement under the number 426. This Commission had intensified its activities and was now giving concrete suggestions. However, owing to the Graeco-Turkish War, the still undefined peace agreement with Turkey and also the great migrations of the population between Aegean Macedonia and Turkey and the forced movement of an estimated 33,000 Macedonians to Bulgaria (imposed by the Neuilly Convention, signed by Bulgaria and Greece, for "voluntary" resettlement) the process of renaming was slightly slowed down.

Thus in the period from 1918 to 1925 inclusive, 76 centres of population in Aegean Macedonia were renamed: in 1918 - one; in 1919 - two; in 1920 - two; in 1921 - two; in 1922 - eighteen; in 1923 - eighteen; in t924 - six and in 1925 - twenty-six. But as soon as the processes of migration came to an end and the position of the state was strengthened, and, following the legislative orders of 17th September 1926, published in the "Government Gazette" N2 331, 21st September 1926, and the Decision of the Ministerial Council dated 10th November 1927, and published in the Government Gazette S2 287, 13th November 1927, the process of renaming the inhabited places was accelerated to an incredible degree. Consequently, in the course of 1926, 440 places in the Aegean part of Macedonia were renamed: 149 in 1927, 835 and-in 1928, 212, i.e. in only three years , 1926, 1927 and 1928, 1,497 places in the Aegean part of Macedonia were renamed.

By the end of 1928 most of the centres of population in the Aegean part of Macedonia had been given new names, but the Greek state continued the process by a gradual perfection of the system of renaming, effected through new laws and new instructions. On t3th March 1929 the special law known under its number, 4,096, was passed and published in the "Government Gazette" S-- 99 of 13th March 1929.

This law contained detailed instructions and directives as to the process of renaming places. By the force of this law and the earlier instructions, amended by Law Ng 6,429 of 18th June 1935, Law S2 1418 of 22 November 1938, Law N2 697 of 4th December 1945 and many other instructions, legislative orders and other enactments, the process of renaming the inhabited areas has been carried on to this day, taking care of each and every geographical name of suspicious origin throughout Macedonia, including entirely insignificant places, all aimed at erasing any possible Slav trace from the Aegean part of Macedonia and from the whole of Greece. With these laws, instructions and other enactments, the district commissions in charge of the change of place names and the Principal Commission at the Ministerial Council of Greece (established as early as 1909) enforced many more changes.

In the period from 1929 to 1940 inclusive, another 39 places in the Aegean part of Macedonia were renamed, and after World War II (up to 1979 inclusive) yet another 135 places in this part of Macedonia were renamed. An estimated total of 1,666 cities, towns and villages were renamed in the Aegean part of Macedonia in the period from 1918 to 1970 inclusive. This number does not include those inhabited places the renaming of which has not been announced in the "Government Gazette", which has been taken as the exclusive source for the figures and the dynamics of renaming given here by years and districts. Neither does it include the numerous Macedonian settlements named after saints, the names of which official Greece simply translated from the Macedonian into the Greek language.

Renamed centres of population in the Aegean part of Macedonia by district:

1. Ber - 49; 2. Negush - 16; 3. Greven - 82; 4. Voden - 34; 5. Enidzevardar - 56; 6. Meglen - 48; 7. Drama - 233; 8. Kavala - 24; 9. Pravishta - 36; 10. Sari shaban - 38; 11. Tasos - 3; 12. Katerini 42; 13. Kajlari - 32; 14. Kozzani - 88; 15. Naselichka - 72; 16. Gumendze 29; 17. Kukush - 179; 18. Kostur 104; 19. Lerin - 101; 20. Valovishta 84; 21. Zihneni - 20; 22. Nigride - 35; 23 Ser - 55; 24. Lagadin 76; 25. Salonica - 78; 26. Larigovo - 6; 27. Halkidiki - 40; or a total of 1,666.

Renamed places in the Aegean part of Macedonia by years:

1918 - 1; 1919 - 2; 1920 - 2; 1922 - 19; 1923 - 18; 1924 - 6; 1925 - 26; 1926 - 440; 1927 - 835; 1928 - 212; 1929 - 9; 1930 - 7; 1932 - 6 1933 - 2; 1934 5; 1936 - 2; 1939 - 2; 1940 - 6; 1946 - 1; 1948 - 2; 1949 - 5; 1950 - 17; 1951 - 4; 1953 - 22; 1954 - 18; 1955 - 25; 1956 - 4; 1957 - 3; 1958 - 2; 1959 - 2; 1960 - 5; 1961 - 6; 1962 - 3; 1963 - 6; 1964 - 3; 1965 - 4; 1966 - 1; 1968 - 1; 1970 - 1; or a total of 1,646.

We shall give just a few examples of renamed places, rivers, mountains, rivers, lakes and mountains: The town of Voden was renamed Edessa; Rupista - Argos Orestikon; S'botska - Aridea; Postlo - Pella; Libanovo - Eginion; Larigovo - Arnea; ostrovo - Arnisa; Vrtikop - Skidra; Valovista - Sidirokastron, and the small settlements of Barbesh and Kutlesh into Vergina. The River Vardar was renamed Axios, the Bistrica - Alliakmon; the Galik - Erigon, etc. Lake ostrovsko became Limni Arnisis; Lake Gorchlivo became Pikrolimi, etc. Mt. Pijavica was renamed as Stratonikion; Grbovica on Mt. Athos Agion Oros; Karakamen - Vermion, Kusnica - Pangeon, etc. The Voden district became Nomos Pelis; Gumendze district - Eparhia Paeonis; Valovista district - Eparhia Sindikis; Zihnenska ditrict - Eparhia Philidos; Pravishka district - Eparhia Pangeu, etc.

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The ABECEDAR Case

AbecedarThe Greek government, upon signing the Treaty of Sevres on August 10, 1920, undertook obligations to protect its national minorities. Articles 7,8,and 9 stipulated the free use of the minorities' language, education, religious services, etc.

In March 1925, the Council of the League of Nations insisted that Greece carry out the stipulations of the agreement and provide the Macedonians with their educational and religious needs. The Greek government notified the League of Nations that:

"...measures were being taken towards the opening of schools with instruction in the Slav language in the following school year of 1925/1926 and towards granting freedom to practise religion in the Slav language." 14

A primer, entitled ABECEDAR, was written in the Macedonian language and was intended for use by Macedonian school-children. This was used by Greece as evidence of their commitment to the League of Nations agreement. It was prepared by a special government commission and published by the Greek government in Athens in 1925.

The following is a quote from Salonica Terminus: 15

"Official policy, since the integration into the modern Greek State of the region called Macedonia, has been to deny the existence of the Slav-Macedonians as a distinct people, separate from the Greeks. But lingering just below the bright, hard surface of the discourse of authority is an ill-concealed malaise. In 1925, the country's education ministry prepared a primary school reader in Slav-Macedonian entitled Abecedar for submission to the League of Nations. The book was to be held up as proof that the Macedonian Slavic tongue was neither Bulgarian nor Serbian, but a distinct language protected and encouraged by the State. On the delegation's return from Geneva, the Abecedar was confiscated and destroyed. Two years later, by government decree, all Slavonic church icons were repainted with Greek names. Why had it become necessary to eradicate that which did not exist?"


Summary of the Abecedar Case 16

Zhelevo, Aegean MacedoniaBy signing the Treaty of Sevres on 10th August, 1920, the Greek government undertook certain obligations regarding "the protection of the non-Greek national minorities in Greece". Articles 7, 8 and 9 of this treaty stipulated precisely the free use of the minorities' language, education, religious practice, etc. Bulgaria and the Kingdom of the Serbs, Croats and Slovenes interested themselves in the implementation of this treaty, and when Greece realized it was in its interest to sign the "Lesser Protocols" (League of Nations, Geneva, 29th September 1924) on the protection of the Greek minority in Bulgaria and the reciprocal protection of the Bulgarian minority in Greece, Sofia launched a campaign in support of the activities initiated by the Joint Greek-Bulgarian Commission for the ,'voluntary" exchange of minorities. Large numbers of Macedonians were forcibly moved to Bulgaria, and Orthodox Christians from Turkey, Bulgaria and other places were brought to the Aegean part of Macedonia where, as Greeks, they took over the Macedonians' property. However, since this met with resolute opposition not only in Sofia but in Belgrade as well, the Greek parliament did not ratify certain relevant clauses of the "Lesser Protocols".

In March 1925 the Council of the League of Nations concerned itself with the situation so created and addressed three questions to the Greek government, insisting particularly on a reply on the measures taken with regards to the needs, the education and the freedom of religious practice of the "Slav speaking minority" in Greece. These documents treated the Macedonians neither as a Serbian nor as a Bulgarian minority, but as a "Slav-speaking minority". In its reply the Greek government categorically denied the Bulgarian government the right to be interested in the "Slav-speaking minority", claiming that only the League of Nations could have and had the right to intervene with regard to the rights of this minority. Greece stated that no steps were taken for the protection of the "Slav-speaking minority in Greece" as it had been thought that the convention on reciprocal resettlement would result in "the moving of all Macedonians" beyond the borders of Greece.

The Greek government also notified the League of Nations that "measures were being taken towards the opening of schools with instruction in the Slav language in the following school year of 1925/26" and towards granting freedom to practice religion in the Slav language. The primer intended for the Macedonian children in this part of Macedonia, entitled ABECEDAR, was offered as an argument in support of this statement. This primer, prepared by a special government commission and published by the Greek government in Athens in 1925, was written in the Lerin-Bitola vernacular (even though Bitola was not within the Greek borders!) but printed in a specially adapted Latin alphabet (instead of the traditional Cyrillic, which was the official alphabet of Bulgaria and Serbia).

Many primers written mainly in Macedonian and intended for schools in Macedonia were published in the 19th century, but this was the first primer for Macedonians written and published by a legitimate government for its citizens and under the aegis of the League of Nations. This significant act on the part of the Greek government was condemned outright by both Belgrade and Sofia. The former proved that those for whom the primer was intended were in fact "Serbs", whereas the latter claimed that they were "Bulgarians". Bulgaria commissioned its outstanding philologists and Slavists to help its diplomats and Belgrade inspired petitions from two ailari villages (written in Serbian!) which were sent to the League of Nations. These petitions stated that the signatories were "Serbs by nationality" and that they demanded their rights "as a national minority" and also a "Serbian school" in order to "protect their language from enforced Graecization". At the same time, propaganda activities were undertaken among the population of these villages, promising free land and Serbian priests and teachers to those who declared themselves as Serbs. The Greek government's immediate response was another petition from the same village (Birinci), signed 16th October 1925, in which the signatories claimed that "in this region there are no Serbs, nor are there any Serbian institutions, and consequently the Serbian language is not used". The League of Nations used this statement to ask, in writing, the following question: the Greek government claims that this population does not speak Serbian, but does not say "what the language they speak in is".

At the last moment before the deadline the Greek government replied by cable saying that "the population of these villages knows neither the Serbian nor the Bulgarian language and speaks nothing but a Slav-Macedonian idiom". Thus the Greek government officially recognized for the first time the separate national entity of the Macedonians within Greece's borders, which is also clearly confirmed by the pure language of the pnmer, ABECEDAR, published in Greece. Following the stormy and violent reaction in the press of the three monarchies the Greek government decided, with relief, not to introduce the primer, which was already published, into Macedonian schools.

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The Metaxas Dictatorship

"The use of the Macedonian language was prohibited both in public and at home, and the penalties included fines, forced drinking of castor oil, thrashing, torture, and exile. All its native speakers were forced to attend night school to learn Greek." 17

Banica, Aegean MacedoniaGeneral Metaxas severely persecuted those who spoke Macedonian, even in private everyday life in the villages, at funerals, and at home. Adult Macedonians were denied the right to speak their mother tongue and were forced to attend night school to learn Greek.

Use of the Macedonian language meant harsh reprisals, including a "language tax". The following is a quote from Hristo Melovski, a professor of history at the University of Skopje, who was born in Aegean Macedonia.

"They told us our name was now Mellios and it was forbidden to speak our language-for every Macedonian word, you would be fined 30 to 40 drachmas (40 cents U.S.). One man I knew fought it. He would see a policeman and go right up to him, pronounce a Macedonian word, and hand him the money." 18

"The dictatorial regime established in 1936 under General Metaxas adopted a policy of forced assimilation of the Macedonian minority. The repression of the Macedonian minority in Greece was further stepped up. Macedonians were forbidden to speak their language in public, and deportations to the islands became a usual governmental practice. According to Yugoslav sources, some 1,600 Macedonians were interned on the islands of Thasos and Cephalonia in the years preceding World War II." 19

"The dictatorship of Ioannis Metaxas (1936-1940) was especially brutal in its treatment of the Slavic speakers of Aegean Macedonia, who by this time had increasingly begun to identify themselves as Macedonians. On December 18, 1936, the Metaxas dictatorship issued a legal act concerning 'Activity Against State Security.' This law punished claims of minority rights. Ont he basis of this act, thousands of Macedonians were arrested, imprisoned, or expelled from Greece. On September 7, 1938, the legal act 2366 was issued. This banned the use of the Macedonian language even in the domestic sphere. All Macedonian localities were flooded with posters that read, 'Speak Greek.' Evening schools were opened in which adult Macedonian were taught Greek. No Macedonian schools of any kind were permitted. Any public manifestation of Macedonian national feeling and its outward expression through language, song or dance was forbidden and severely punished by the Metaxas regime. People who spoke Macedonian were beaten, fined, and imprisoned. Punishments in some areas included piercing of the tongue with a needle and cutting off a part of the ear for every Macedonian word spoken. Almost 5,000 Macedonians were sent to jails and prison camps for violating this prohibition against the use of the Macedonian language. Mass exile of sections of Macedonians and other 'difficult' minorities took place. The trauma of persecution has left deep scars on the consciousness of the Macedonians in Greece, many of whom are even today convinced that their language 'cannot' be committed to writing." 20

References

The Macedonians of Aegean Macedonia: A British Officer's Report, 1944, Andrew Rossos, The Slavonic and East European Review, Volume 69 Number 2, April 1991; p.284
Macedonia and Greece - The Struggle to Define a New Balkan Nation, John Shea, McFarland and Company Inc., North Carolina, 1997; p.107
Ibid; p.107
The Macedonians of Aegean Macedonia: A British Officer's Report, 1944, Andrew Rossos, The Slavonic and East European Review, Volume 69 Number 2, April 1991; p.293 (quotation by British Captain P.H. Evans, stationed in Aegean Macedonia during WWII)
Greek Monitor of Human and Minority Rights, December 1995 Volume 1, No.3, Minority Rights Group and Greek Helsinki Monitor, 1995; p.20
Macedonia and Greece - The Struggle to Define a New Balkan Nation, John Shea, McFarland and Company Inc., North Carolina, 1997; p.105
Macedonia and Its Relations With Greece, Macedonian Academy of Sciences and Arts, Skopje, 1993; p.70-73
Denying Ethnic Identity: the Macedonians of Greece, Human Rights Watch/Helsinki, New York, 1994; p.6-7
The Macedonian Conflict, Loring M. Danforth, New Jersey, Princeton University Press, 1995; p.69
Macedonian President Kiro Gligorov, quoted by the Macedonian Information and Liaison Service (MILS), Skopje, August 3, 1994
Macedonia and Greece - The Struggle to Define a New Balkan Nation, John Shea, McFarland and Company Inc., North Carolina, 1997; p.108-109
The Balkans - Minorities and States in Conflict, Hugh Poulton, Minority Rights Group, Minority Rights Publications, London, 1991; p.176
Macedonia and Its Relations With Greece, Macedonian Academy of Sciences and Arts, Skopje, 1993
League of Nations, Official Journal, Council, Geneva, 6th year, No.7, July 1925; p.950
Salonica Terminus, Reed, Fred A., Burnaby, Talonbooks, 1996; p.249-250
Macedonia and Its Relations With Greece, Macedonian Academy of Sciences and Arts, Skopje, 1993
Greek Monitor of Human and Minority Rights, December 1995 Volume 1, No.3, Minority Rights Group and Greek Helsinki Monitor, 1995; p.37
National Geographic, Volume 189, No. 3, March 1996; p.131
The Rising Sun In the Balkans: The Republic Of Macedonia, International Affairs Agency, Sydney, Pollitecon Publications, 1995; p.33
Macedonia and Greece - The Struggle to Define a New Balkan Nation, John Shea, McFarland and Company Inc., North Carolina, 1997; p.111-112

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Partition of Macedonia

In their aim to annex Macedonian territory and drive out the Ottoman Turks, Greece, Bulgaria, Serbia, and Montenegro declared war on Turkey in the autumn of 1912. Macedonians took part in the First Balkan War believing that it would finally bring them freedom. Upon defeating the Turks, the Balkan allies could not reach an agreement on how to partition Macedonia. The Second Balkan War began in 1913 and ended with the Treaty of Bucharest signed on August 10, 1913. The map below illustrates how Macedonia was partitioned as a result of this treaty.

Macedonian Cultural and Historical Resource Center

"On October 8, 1912, the First Balkan War begun. Montenegro, Serbia, Bulgaria, and Greece attacked the European positions of the Ottoman Empire. More than 100,000 Macedonians also took active part and contributed in driving the Turks out of Macedonia. Turkey capitulated soon, but Macedonia did not free itself. The victorious Balkan kingdoms convened in Bucharest in August 1913 to divide the spoils.

Greece was awarded Aegean Macedonia and renamed it to "Northern Greece"; Bulgaria annexed Pirin Macedonia and abolished the Macedonian name, and Serbia took over Vardar Macedonia and renamed it to "Southern Serbia". The same year, N. Pasich of Serbia and E. Venizelos of Greece agreed on the newly formed Greek-Serbian (later Yugoslavian) border, so that there would be "only Serbs to the North and only Greeks to the South", and no "Macedonians" on either side. Thus, the politics to assimilate the Macedonians of Aegean Macedonia had already begun."

Macedonia and Greece 1

"...even in the very long rule of the Turks, Macedonia was recognized as a separate entity. It was this Greater Macedonia that was divided by the Greeks, Bulgarians and Serbians after the Balkan wars of 1912-13. No historian, Greek or otherwise, uses any name but Macedonia to descrbie the territories that were partitioned. After the division, none of the controlling powers permitted the use of the name in the portions of Macedonia that they had taken. The kingdom of the Serbs, Croatians and Slovenians used the name 'South Serbia'; Greece referred to the 'Northern Provinces'; and Bulgaria used the name 'Western Bulgaria.'"

Carnegie Commission Report on the Balkan Wars, 1914

"The most natural solution of the Balkan imbroglio appeared to be the creation in Macedonia of a new autonomy or independent unity, side by side with the other unities realised in Bulgaria, Greece, Serbia and Montenegro, all of which countries had previously been liberated, thanks to Russian or European intervention. But this solution had become impossible, owing first to the incapacity of the Turkish government, and then to the rival pretensions of the three neighbouring States to this or that part of the Macedonian inheritance."

Macedonia and Its Relations With Greece, 2

"Following their own interests and aims to conquer and partition the European part of Ottoman Turkey, the neighbouring Balkan states - Serbia, Greece, Bulgaria and Montenegro - decided to start a war. The Treaty between Serbia and Bulgaria signed on March 12th 1912 (with a secret annexe) included a possibility for the transformation of Macedonia into an autonomous region and anticipated the arbitration of the Russian Tsar. In such form, this agreement was a compromise to avoid the territorial separation and partition of Macedonia. After Greece and Montenegro joined the agreement, a Balkan Alliance was formed and it immediately began preparations for a war against the Ottoman Empire.

In autumn 1912 the Balkan allies declared war on Turkey. The offensive actions of the Balkan allies against the Turkish army were carried out mainly on Macedonian territory and on the Thracian front. Believing that this war would bring the long-expected freedom, the Macedonian people took active part in the First Balkan War with their own regiments (chetas) and voluntary units. Forty-four such units were operating in Macedonia at the time impeding the mobilization and the movement of the Turkish army with their diversions. About 14,000 Macedonians fought together with the Bulgarian army within the so-called "Macedonian Regiment." At the same time there were Macedonian soldiers distributed in thirty units within the "National Defence" and the "Voluntary Regiments" of the Serbian army. A similar formation, called the "Holy Regiment", was operating within the Greek army.

The victories of the Balkan allies over the Turkish army conditioned Turkey to sign a cease-fire and a short-term truce, but the battles went on until May 30, 1913. However, new bloodshed started soon among the Balkan allies who could not reach an agreement as how to partition the territories taken over from Turkey. The partition was carried out by force of arms and sanctioned by the Bucharest Peace Treaty signed on August 10th, 1913 according to which all the Balkan states expanded their territories. Macedonia was not only denied its autonomy which had originally been one of the causes of war against Turkey, but it was forcefully divided and partitioned by the neighbouring Balkan states. Greece seized the biggest, southern part of Macedonia, Serbia won the central Vardar region and the Pirin part with the Strumica vicinity was given to Bulgaria.

Drawing new borders under the excuse of establishing a "balance" and peace in the Balkans was a violent denial of the rights of the Macedonian people to live and develop as a free, unified and independent nation. The aspirations towards the creation of a state of their own as a necessity, a guarantee of the national sovereignty and territorial integrity of Macedonia, were evident in the ideas and actions of the Macedonian patriots. Despite the conquering and partitioning of their homeland they fought for independence and the establishment of a Macedonian government and national assembly which would decide on the form of government and "the internal structure of the Macedonian state." However, the attempts to prevent the compulsory partition of Macedonia were in vain because the Balkan and European states remained deaf to the demands of the Macedonian people for preserving the integrity of their land and its constitution as a state.

The new masters of the conquered Macedonian regions introduced a violent military and police regime, denied the national individuality of the Macedonian people, deprived them of their rights and tortured and denationalized the Macedonian people. A regime of "special decrees" from the mid-nineteenth century was imposed in the territory under Serbian rule. In the part of Macedonia under Bulgarian rule, military commanders helped by comitadji voivodes ruled over the civil authorities and "dispensed justice" to the people. In the Macedonian districts under Greek rule the notorious Cretan gandarmerie, which acted in support of the conservative Greek governors, kept law and order.

The territorial, ethnic and economic disintegration of Macedonia caused severe damage to the economy, to the Macedonian movement for national liberation and to its socio-political development. After the Balkan Wars, Macedonia was completely devastated. Besides the tens of thousands killed in the war, there were several hundreds of thousands of refugees (more than 135,000 Macedonians and a small number of Bulgarians from Thrace escaped from the Aegean part of Macedonia occupied by the Greek army alone). There were numerous cases of genocide towards the Macedonian population in the territories occupied by the Greek, Serbian and Bulgarian armies and, according to the Carnegie Commission, several towns like Voden, Negush, Ber, Enidzhe Vardar, Dojran, etc., more than 200 villages (out of which around 170 villages with 17,000 homesteads in the Aegean part of Macedonia) were completely destroyed. In June 1913 the Greek army burnt to ashes the Macedonian town of Kukush with its 1,846 houses, 612 shops, 6 factories, etc. At the same time 4,000 houses were burned to the ground in the Serez vicinity.

The tragic outcome of the Balkan Wars was a real national catastrophe for Macedonia. The unresolved Macedonian question continued to be "an apple of discord" for the Balkan states. It remained in the whirlpool of events which were of fatal importance both for Macedonia and the future of the Balkans."

The consequences of this partition are outlined under the category - Human Rights

References

Macedonia and Greece - The Struggle to Define a New Balkan Nation, John Shea, McFarland and Company Inc., North Carolina, 1997; p.91
Macedonia and Its Relations With Greece, Macedonian Academy of Sciences and Arts, Skopje, 1993; p.67-70

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[George S.]

The covered market place and the
Isac Mosque in Bitola, Macedonia

Summary of Ottoman Rule in Macedonia

Excerpt from: Makedonski Icelenuchki Almanac '97 1

Macedonia before the Balkan WarsAt the end of the 14th century, after a famnonym for having no rights. For a long period Macedonia was subject to a dual domination: economically and politically to the Sultan's rule, and religiously to the rule of the Constantinople Patriarchate, at the head of which were Greeks.

The struggle against feudal exploitation and Turkish rule in Macedonia took the form of repeated rebellions and insurrections, which later developed into organized ajduk strife (ajduks were outlaws opposed to Turkish rule). In 1564-1565 the Mariovo- Priand the beginning of the 19th century was accompanied by the first emergence of capitalism in Macedonia and the intensifying of national liberation activities. Macedonians took an active part in the insurrections of the neighbouring peoples. The attempts of the Ottoman Empire at reforms in the social, economic, and political system in Macedonia, made under the pressure of the contemporary European Great Powers, did not lead to any improvement in the difficult situation.

Following its defeat in the 187f San Stefano. By ignoring the real interests and struggle of the Macedonian people for liberation and a state of their own, European diplomacy encouraged the nationalist and expansionist myths of the neighbouring Balkan states, and turned the Macedonian Question into an important European political question.

Dimitrija Chupovski's "Macedonia and the Macedonians"
Written in 1913
Ottoman Terror in Macedonia

General Info | Photo Gallery | Those who are acquainted with the history of the revolutionary movement in Macedonia know about the many excesses of the Committee, which were contrary to the tasks of the Internal Organization and thus wakened the power of the popular movement.

Following the Macedonian uprising of 1895 (led by Trajko Kitanchev) and the (Armenian) slaughter in Asia Minor, the European states succeeded only in forcing the Sultan in 1896 to proclaim his famous "Irade" for reforms in the whole of European Turkey. But this irade did not help the Christian population of Macedonia in the least.

The Internal Organization, however, vigorously prepared itself for a new uprising under the slogan "Macedonia to the Macedonians", and the people, exhausted by the Turkish atrocities, were glad to join the revolutionary movement. Of course, this did not suit the will of the Balkan states, which dreamt of grabbing Macedonia themselves. They only awaited a suitable moment to declare war on Turkey, and such an event was a result of the difficult position of the Osmanli state, caused by the Macedonian and Albanian uprisings, internal turnovers, and primarily, by the Italo-Turkish War. Even before the end of that war, the Balkan states united in an alliance and came out against Turkey under the slogan of liberation of the Christians from the Turkish yoke.

In view of the menace of events the Macedonian emigrants to Bulgaria, organized in 27 brotherhoods, formed an executive committee from the delegates of all the brotherhoods, under the presidency of Lieutenant Colonel Aleksandar Protogerov and Polihron Naichev. This executive committee established from the Macedonian emigrants and Russian volunteer detachments, one of which, known under the name of "Krdzhaliska", captured Yaver Pasha with an army of 12,000. There were 27 such volunteer detachments, according to the number of the largest towns in Macedonia, and all those units were sent into Macedonia, some of them acting independently, and some along with the Bulgarian, Serbian and Greek regular armies. Apart from the aforementioned units, the activists of the Internal Organization, such as Todor Lazarev, Todor Aleksandrov, Petar Kuchev, Dr. Hristo Tatarchev, Hristo Matov, Sandanski and others, also organized local terrorist bands. Both these and the other partisan units acted ahead of the advancing allied front blowing bridges, demolishing roads, destroying Turkish units, giving information about the disposition of the enemy, etc. They also collected food both for the people and the horses in the regular armies.

Especially organized was the activity of detachments of voyvoda Sandanski in the regions of Mount Pirin, Melnik, Nevrokop and Drama. Even before the start of the war, the voyvoda took the Christian inhabitants from these regions to the mountains, where after they had built a series of inaccessible fortifications, he trained them in manipulating with arms. He had more than 2,000 men.

The activity of these detachments extended not only on the Macedonian military scene but on the Thracian one as well, where they suffered severe losses during the capture of Bulair and Shar-Koj. The Macedonian units captured many Turkish garrisons and many towns even before the arrival of the allied forces.

In this way, the Macedonians, as regards Bulgaria, Serbia, Greece and Montenegro, appeared as allies in the present Balkan war. In general, more than 100,000 Macedonians participated in this war, not considering the help of the whole population offered to the allies for the liberation. Justice required, after all, when the Macedonians fought against the Turks for their freedom under the slogan "Macedonia to the Macedonians" and helped the allies in the war, that the interests of Macedonia, too, should be recognized by the Balkan Alliance and all means satisfied in the form of autonomy.

King MarkoOver almost twenty centuries the Macedonian people have always and in all circumstances striven toward freedom and independence. However difficult their economic situation was, however harmful for that situation their continuous struggle was, they raised at every suitable moment the banner of rebellion and rose against the oppressors, suffering innumerable sacrifices. But these freedom-loving people did not think only of their freedom; all revolutions, all wars for liberation of the Slav neighbours even those of the same faith, such as the Greeks, met with their fiery response. The Macedonians then left their fields, their wives and children, and went to die for the cause of the others, as if for their own. Who of the Bulgarians, Serbs and Greeks will dare deny this fact? The feeling of solidarity for the members of the same stock or the same faith has been preserved in them from times immemorial. The Macedonian national hero, Marko Krale, forced in 1394 to join the Turks as a vassal against the Moldavian prince Mirko, expressed the depth of this brotherly national spirit with the following words: "Lord, may I die in this battle, but let the Christians win". And he died for the Christians, compelled to fight against them.

The Slavs, settling the territory of present-day Macedonia, simultaneously adopted the Christian doctrine from the older inhabitants that remained there, and along with it, the Christian culture as well. The Christian communes were established here by the first followers of Christ and mainly, they were the result of the activity of the Holy Apostles St. Paul, St. Andrew, and one of the seventy apostles of Aristarchus, who was first Bishop Salonika.

For a long time, the cultural Christian centre of Macedonia, and of the balkan Peninsula in general, was Salonika with its archbishopric. But even the Emperor Justinian (527-565) with his decree (law), issued in the name of Archbisop Catelian, separated the Illyrian Archbishopric (which was located in western Macedonia, near present-day Skopje) as an autonomous unit, calling it Prima Justiniana, giving it an authority equal to the authority of the Patriarchate and subordinating the whole of the Balkan Peninsula to it.

With decree 131, issued on 17th March 545 A.D., Justinian confirmed those rights, with the amendment that the Archbishop should be ordained by his own synod, with rights equal to those of the Roman Pope.

The Prima Justiniana was of immense significance for the whole country and was actually an antecedent of the future Archbishopric of Ohrid.

But the whole Christian culture could not attain in its development full significance as an autonomous Chruch until the distinct Slav literacy, and along with it the translations of the holy books, were furnished by the Salonika brothers, SS. Cyril (with his secular name of Konstantin) and Methodius.

The father of Cyril and Methodius, Lev, was a Macedonian Slav in the Byzantine service, occupying the post of assistant to the Salonika military commander. Cyril the Philosopher and his brother acquired the highest education possible for that time in Constantinople, in the Imperial Palace, and attracted the attention of the Slavs even at the time. Born in Salonika, and being Slavs themselves, they invested all their efforts into educating their compatriots.

Soon after the completion of his education, we see Konstantin near the banks of the River Bregalnica, where he found a certain number of pagans still, and owing to his relentless endeavours, he Christianized, according to the data of the chronicler, 4,050 Slavs.

In 843 A.D. Methodius was appointed Prince of the Struma region in Macedonia, where he stayed until 853 A.D.

When in 855 A.D. the Byzantine emperor Michael, on the request of the Moravian prince Rastislav, decided to send Slav priests as educators his choice naturally fell upon the Salonika brothers (at that time the brothers had already cut their hair and become monks).

"You are Salonikans, and all Salonikans speak pure Slavic", said Emperor Michael, sending them to Moravia.

Even before, while they were still in Macedonia, the holy brothers composed an alphabet and with its help translated the Gospels and the religious service books into the Macedonian Slav language.

Just as in Moravia, the brothers sowed Christianity with the help of these church books throughout the other Slav countries as well, and after their death, their work was continued by their disciples Gorazd, Kliment, Angelarius, Sava, Naum and many others.

The most important centre of the Christian national culture of Macedonia became the town of Ohrid with its famous Archbishopric of Ohrid, restored upon the ruins of the Justiniana by the great Macedonian emperor, Samuil, with the same right as the latter.

This archbishopric fought, defending Macedonian Slav culture during the whole period from 995 to 1767, when it fell under the pressure of Hellenism, strengthened at the time of the Turkish reign, and as a result of the intrigues by the Constantinople Patriarch.

The triumphant Hellenism which extinguished the last embers of national church life in the form of the aforementioned archbishopric, invested all its forces in dispossessing and Hellenizing the Macedonian people. Only Greeks were appointed bishops and priests, the schools were turned into Greek, and the Slavic services replaced by Greek ones.

All this gave rise to a powerful resistance by the Macedonian Slavs, which started a long struggle for the restoration of their national Church, a struggle of Slavism against Hellenism, which led to the Bulgarians managing to establish their Exarchate (autonomous Church) in 1872. Many Macedonians joined it, since the Bulgarians were allowed to found churches and schools throughout Macedonia and the Macedonians had to choose the lesser of the two evils - at least a Slav, although alien, Church. The Macedonians have not succeeded in restoring their autonomous Ohrid Church up to the present day.

Thus, the detrimental influence of the Greek Patriarchate was combined with the no less detrimental influence of the Exarchate, which employed all its forces for the Bulgarianization of the Macedonian Slavs. Through this instrument of its own (the Exarchate), the Bulgarian Government put its chauvinist ideas firmly into practice, not shrinking from the use of any means.

The population of the unfortunate country began suffering pressure from two sides. But this was still not enough. The struggle of the Greeks and the Bulgarians for domination over Macedonia provoked the third side to struggle, too - the Serbs - who, noticing that nobody was advocating a case for the Macedonians anyway, procured a right from Turkey to spread their propaganda in the country also, thus creating "Serbian" people where they had never existed. In 1897, not without the support of Russian diplomacy, Serbia obtained the right to have its own Church in Macedonia, and then its own schools as well. From that moment on, the Macedonian people were forced to carry a triple cross upon their backs. What the Greeks could not Hellenize over the course of several centuries, what the Bulgarians could not put in their Exarchist bosom, now the Serbians started to try to grab with their Church and schools. The depredation of the unprotected Macedonian people thus began, and in that depredation the Turkish Government also consciously participated, which acting on the principle of divide and rule, readliy cooperated in the cultural and spiritual partition of this one poeple into three sections, finding in this the guarantees for its peace and power.

The historical facts and the evidence of national culture were distorted with evil intentions, the national customs, traditions and songs were twisted and destroyed with the only aim of proving that all of it was either Serbian, Bulgarian or Greek, excluding among themselves the rights of the others.

All these Bulgarian, Serbian and Greek nationalities were created artificially with the help of whole rivers of gold, which flew from the interested states into the pockets of both Turkish civil servants and certain Macedonians who sold their fatherland for money or worked for no profit as blind instruments of foreign states, under the influence of education or upbringing acquired there.

This abnormal phenomenon, which developed in the body of the living organism - the people, could not fail to cause protests and resistance by the patriots who thought honestly and who saw that such a state of affairs could sooner or later bring abaout the ruin of the whole people. A struggle was started, but not any more for "distributionof shirts", but against the foreign culture, which plundered the national property. Both individuals and whole organizations came out with protests against such a depredatory way of dealing by current allies. Collective complaints were submitted to the Turkish Sultan, as the supreme authority in the country, similar complaints were also submitted to the Russian Tsar, as the prime protector of the whole Slav and Orthodox world, memoranda were sent throughout Europe.

The Turkish authorities, of course, did not pay any attention to those complaints, but on the contrary, looked at the Macedonians as revolutionaries.

All those who declared that Macedonia was a single, indivisible body, which should not be subjected to disintegration, were handed over by the agents of the three aforementioned countries to the Turkish Government as persons who threatened the integrity and inviolability of the Turkish Empire, were put in prison and subjected to torture.

The Russian Emperor Alexander lll and the present sovereign who rules successfully, Emperor Nicholas ll, permanent protectors of the oppressed, have many times drawn attention through their representatives of the governments of Turkey, Bulgaria, Serbia and Greece to the abnormality of this phenomenon.

But the countries interested in the cultural occupation of Macedonia, aware that in such a way they would also achieve a political occupation, refused to listen to any advice and continued their mission which was destructive for Macedonia, arousing thus great wrath and protests among the Macedonians whom they were tearing apart.

And now, after the subjugation of many centuries and the long influence of alien cultures upon them, regardless of all unfavourable circumstances, regardless of the pressure they endured and are still enduring, the Macedonian people have left the arena of the centuries just as pure and autonomous as they entered it.

Reference

Makedonski Icelenuchki Almanac '97, Matitsa na Icelenitsite od Makedonija; Skopje, 1997; p.35-36
Macedonia and the Macedonians, Dimitar Chupovski, Makedonski Golos, 1913

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St. Jovan Church in Ohrid, Macedonia

St. Jovan Church in Ohrid, Macedonia

"During the night Paul had a vision of a man of Macedonia standing and begging him, 'Come over to Macedonia and help us.' After Paul had seen the vision, we got ready at once to leave for Macedonia, concluding that God had called us to preach the gospel to them."

The Holy Bible - Acts 16:9,10

Excerpt from: Macedonia and Its Relations With Greece 1

The Macedonian people has re-established its church as one of the fundamental features of its national identity on the foundations of the Archbishopric of Ohrid. This autocephalous church has existed, first at Prespa and then in Ohrid, since the time of Tsar Samuil and his descendants as the spiritual institution of that empire. It was legally strengthened by the Byzantine Emperor Basil II as an ecumenical Christian institution immediately after his defeat of Samuil's state in 1018.

The administrative, economic and cultural measures then instituted by Byzantium were adapted to the local traditions. A leader of Slav Macedonian origin was retained at the head of the Archbishopric. At the time when the archiepiscopal leadership considered that the ecumenical Patriarchate in Nicaea had, at the beginning of the 13th century, infringed the autocephalous rights of the Archbishopric of Ohrid there was a fiery reaction from its Archbishop, Demetrius Homatian, who in large measure laid down the ecclesiastical and canonical aims of his ecclesiastical institution which would later be the canon law foundation for other archbishoprics as well.

St. Naum Church in OhridIn the 13th century at the time of the Bulgarian Emperor Ivan Asen II, in addition to the church at Trnovo, the older Ohrid Church was also an object of respect. This was also the case under the rule of the Serbian sovereign, Stefan Dushan: in addition to his church at Pec, he treated the Archbishopric of Ohrid with equal respect. After the proclamation of the Serbian Patriarchate in 1346 and its expulsion from the ecumenical body, the Patriarchate in Constantinople, the archbishops of Ohrid were engaged in a process of reconciliation for the return of Serbia into the orthodox community.

With the fall of Ohrid under Ottoman rule at the close of the 14th century the Archbishopric of Ohrid was legalized before the Turkish authorities and strengthened its rights, as had the Patriarchate of Constantinople after 1453, and for a period in the 15th century both the territory of Serbia and a part of Bulgaria came under its ecclesiastical jurisdiction.

In the Ottoman state the archbishops of Ohrid, particularly in the 17th and 18th centuries, took on the role of popular leaders in the movement for liberation, carrying on talks, predominantly with Austria, concerning the formation of a state for the captive Christians, primarily the Macedonians.

Despite the fact that Orthodox Albanians, Vlachs and Greeks from Epirus came into the Ohrid diocese in the course of the 18th century, all of these were deeply linked to the traditions of the Ohrid Church, guarding its autocephalous nature jealously. In the first half of the 18th century, therefore, virtually an the Lives and Services of the saints of its Church, starting with the Slavonic educators of the 9th and 10th centuries, were published in Macedonian Slavic.

BogorodicaIn 1767, the financial difficulties of the Archbishopric of Ohrid were used as a pretext and it was discontinued by agreement of the Patriarchate of Constantinople and the Ottoman authorities. This dealt a grievous blow to the centuries-long ecclesiastical and cultural traditions maintained in Macedonia and the neighboring regions.

Throughout the long life of this extremely distinguished institution, lasting nearly eight centuries, the Archbishopric of Ohrid had not lost its autocephalous status, regardless of changes in the political situation under Byzantine, Bulgarian and Serbian rule or during the lengthy period of Ottoman Turkish rule. Other peoples and their parts of the Balkans had come under the diocese of the Archbishopric of Ohrid, which was extremely large, up to the 13th century and under Ottoman rule (15th and 16th centuries), but throughout the whole of its existence the Macedonians formed the basic zone of its eparchies and the main body of the faithful. The guardian and patron saint of the Church was the first pupil of Ss. Cyril and Methodius, St. Clement of Ohrid, one of the founders of Slavonic culture and literacy. His work was celebrated by distinguished Greek archbishops (e.g. Theophilact and Homatian), who respected the traditions of their flock, during the Byzantine period. The language of this institution of public worship was Slavonic, established by Ss. Cyril, Methodius and Clement and also ancient Greek which, together with Latin, was treated as a language of the entire Christian world.

In the cultural traditions of the Ohrid School, especially in its art, portraits of the first Slavonic educators from the 9th and 10th centuries have been created over a period of a thousand years, and many hundreds of representations of them have been preserved in churches. Macedonia was a center of the iconography of the old Slavonic period right up to the end of the 19th century.

The contact of the Macedonians with Byzantium, its culture, scholarship and art was a beneficial one. The Macedonians, like the Russians, Bulgarians, Serbs, Romanians and other peoples of the "Byzantine Commonwealth", as it has been termed by the distinguished British scholar D. Obolensky, made a great contribution in the middle ages to the development of the Byzantine style and culture through their own creative strengths., their outstanding writers, artists, builders, etc.

It is quite comprehensible that in the 19th century, in the struggle for cultural emancipation in Macedonia, the question of the revival of the Archbishopric of Ohrid was also posed. In the course of their struggle for their own language, the ecclesiastical and educational districts in Macedonia from the mid-19th century onwards sought also the revival of the ecclesiastical institution which had been discontinued in 1767. Starting out from the fact that neither the Bulgarian nor the Serbian authorities had in earlier periods discontinued the Archbishopric of Ohrid, but rather recognized its autocephalous nature, there existed certain suppositions, both legal and ecclesiastical, concerning its revival; but the prevailing political and military conditions and above an the activities of neighboring propaganda rendered this impossible.

In the 20th century, during the period of the Second World War and the course of the military actions of the struggle for Macedonian statehood, the Macedonians put the question of an autocephalous church. In 1943, when the national liberation movement became a massive uprising and when the first liberated territory was established in the village of Izdeglavje in the Debar district of the Ohrid region, the First Assembly of Macedonian Clergy was held on 21st October and a decision was taken to form an Archpriests' Governership with the aim of its developing into an autocephalous Macedonian church.

St. John BigorskiIn October 1944, in the village of Gorno Vranovel in the Veles district, a Preliminary Committee for the organization of church life in Macedonia was formed. The first Church-and-People Assembly was held in Skopje in March 1945, when 300 delegates, all clergyman and laymen from whole of Macedonia declared themselves in favor of the realization of the aims expressed at Izdeglavje for the formation of an autocephalous Macedonian Orthodox Church with Macedonian Archiepriests. On 8th May 1946, only fourteen months after the first Church-and- People Assembly, a new Assembly of the Clergy took place in Skopje as a reaction to the fact that the decisions passed at the first Church-and-People Assembly had met with no understanding at the Holy Synod of the Serbian Orthodox Church.

Since the representatives of the Serbian orthodox Church were attempting to postpone the solution of the Macedonian Church question, the delegates to the second Church-and-People Assembly, held in Ohrid on 4th and 5h 0ctober 1958, passed a decision in favor of the revival of the Archbishopric of 0hrid and of the Constitution of the Macedonian orthodox Church, although with the recognition of the Patriarch of the .Serbian Orthodox Church the Bishop of Toplice, Dositej, was elected as its Archbishop, its supreme head.

After a year of negotiations, the Holy Synod of Archpriests of the Serbian Orthodox Church agreed to the secession of the three Macedonian eparchies order to form an independent Macedonian Church and stated that the regulations and the Constitution of the Serbian Orthodox Church ceased to be valid in the Macedonian Church. In accordance with this decision, the Serbian archpriests took part in the consecration of the first Macedonian archpriests The Patriarch German employs the title of Patriarch of Serbia and Macedonia''.

Since the Serbian Church did not proclaim the state of affairs that had come to pass, the Holy Synod of the Macedonian Orthodox Church caned its third Church-and-People Assembly on 17th-18th July 1967 in Ohrid and discarded the personal union of the Macedonian and the Serbian Orthodox Churches . The Macedonian Orthodox Church is administered by an assembly and consists of the Eparchies of Skopje, Prespa and Bitola, Debar and Kicevo, Bregalnica, Polog and Kumanovo, Vardar, Strumica, the American and Canadian Eparchy and the Australian Eparchy, while a European Macedonian Eparchy is in the process of formation.

In its concern for the faithful beyond their fatherland, the Church endeavors to organize them into Macedonian church districts. The first such district came into being in 1958, immediately after the holding of the second Church-and-People Assembly. Today there are more than forty Macedonian church districts in the U.S.A.. Canada, Australia and Europe in which virtually all the Macedonian emigrants are enrolled.

The education, training and renewal of the clergy of the Macedonian Orthodox Church is undertaken through the St. Clement of Ohrid Theological College, founded in 1964 and, since 1377. a Theological Faculty has also been operative.

Reference

Macedonia and Its Relations With Greece, Macedonian Academy of Sciences and Arts, Skopje, 1993; p.25-30

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[George S.]

"Perched in his royal seat high over the city of Ohrid, Tsar Samuil fought the Byzantine invaders who frequently tried to take over Macedonia. A ruler as well as a warrior, he led a brave and loyal army who would follow him to the grave."

Tsar Samuil established the first Macedonian state in 976 A.D. lasting until 1018, following the defeat at the hands of the Byzantines. Samuil's Empire consisted of the entire region of Macedonia, as well as Thessaly, Epirus, Albania, Serbia, Duklja, Travina, Zahumlje, Neretva, and a considerable part of Bulgaria. In this empire the majority of the population were Macedonians, followed by Bulgarians, Serbs, Croats, Romaioi (Byzantines), Albanians, and Vlachs. The official language of the empire was Macedonian.

Tsar Samuil's Fortress

Tsar Samuil's Fortress - Ohrid, Macedonia

The Archbishopric of Ohrid was established with Ohrid becoming the religious centre and capital of the Empire. Following the defeat of Samuil's Empire by the Byzantine Empire in 1018, the Macedonians were dealt with harshly.

"The Byzantine Empire also placed the Archbishopric of Ohrid under the jurisdiction of the Patriarchate of Constantinople, and the Greek hierarchs started suppressing Slavonic written documents, Slav hagiographies, etc. It was considered, that with the eradication of the Archbishopric of Ohrid the traditions cherished by the Macedonian people will also be eradicated. Yet Slavonic literacy could not be eradicated." 1

The work of Sts. Cyril and Methody was already well-established. In addition to creating the first Slavonic alphabet, translating religious books into Macedonian, they also expanded their activity among other Macedonians.

Clement and Naum continued the mission of the two brothers.

"In Ohrid, during his activity of 20 years, Clement instructed about 3,500 teachers and priests in the Slavonic alphabet and introduced the Slavonic language in religious service. He was the first original Slav and Macedonian writer. The Ohrid Literary School, being the first Slav university, has left deep traces and has been the basis for Macedonian cultural identity." 2


The Empire of Samuil - Summary (from Mi-An Publishing)
At the end of January 969, immediately after the death of Tsar Petar, the four sons of the Komitadji Nikola-David, Moysey, Aron and Samuil-began an uprising against Bulgarian authorities. Taking advantage of a Russian invasion by Prince Svyatoslav which preoccupied the Byzantines and Bulgarians, they quickly succeeded in overwhelming all opposition in the region. The young Komitadjis, whose territory was far distant from the Russo-Byzantine conflict, remained neutral despite attempts by both sides to sway them. In the summer of 971 near the Danube River, Byzantine Emperor John I Tzimisces delivered a decisive blow to Svyatoslav, and incorporated the Bulgarian empire into Byzantium following the victory.

For two years the Macedonian state of the four brothers had been independent of Byzantium. With the Tzimisces' victory over Svyatoslav and the extension of Byzantine borders as far as Dalmatia, the Macedonian state could be subordinated to the supreme authority of Constantinople in 971, and Bulgaria and Serbia were transformed into Byzantine provinces. By 976, the Komitopulis made several attempts to gain international recognition; there is record of a visit paid by two of them to the court of the Holy Roman Emperor Otto I in 973, with the intention of contacting European rulers gathered in Otto's capital at Kwedlinburg. In January 976, immediately after the death of Tzimisces, the komitopulis rose in revolt: some historians consider this to be a second, new uprising by the four brothers, while others argue that it was a continuation of their first uprising of 969.

"The first date, the year 969," writes Styepan Antolyak, "marks the beginning of the formation of a state core in Macedonia under the leadership of the komitopulis, who, after their liberation from the authority of the Bulgarian church began to extend [the borders of] their still small state in the shadow of nominal Byzantine supremacy. The year 976 marked the beginning of strong development of the state community, the borders of which soon extended from the Black Sea to the middle part of the Adriatic and to the Sava, Drava and Danube Rivers."

In the newly-established state, completely independent of Byzantium, the brothers ruled jointly. This joint rule lasted for a very short time: "Of the four brothers, David was soon killed in the area between Prespa and Kostur by some Vlach travelers, while Moysey was slain by a stone thrown from the ramparts during the siege of Serres. According to the records, Aron, either because he supported the Romaeans or because he sought to grasp power for himself, was killed together with his family by his brother Samuil. Only [his son] Ivan was saved by Radomir Roman, Samuil's son. Thus, Samuil became the sole ruler of Bulgaria: a militant man who was never at peace." Such were the circumstances in which the life of the new empire began. The ambitions of Samuil, called "a brilliant commander" even by Byzantine chroniclers, lay in the west: he attacked Thrace, Macedonia, Thessaloniki, Thessaly, Greece and Peloponnesus. By the 10th century, he succeeded in incorporating the entire territory of Macedonia (without Thessaloniki), most of the former Bulgarian Empire, part of Greece, a large part of Albania, Dioclea, Serbia, Bosnia and a part of Dalmatia within his Macedonian Empire. At the close of the 9th century, Pope Gregory V heralded and blessed Samuil as a king, and the empire of the youngest son of the Komitadji Nikola acquired international recognition and character.

It is very important to note which church recognized Samuil. Some Bulgarian historians have asserted that Samuil's empire was a continuation of the First Bulgarian Empire-recognized by Constantinople and the Orthodox Church. But Samuil's empire was recognized by the Catholic Roman Curia. In addition, Samuil represented a new imperial dynasty, the empire was founded on a new state and legal basis, with new twin capitals at Prespa and Ohrid, and with a precisely defined core centered around Macedonia and the Macedonian Slavs as the fundamental element of the new empire. All of this points to the fact that Samuil's empire was not merely a continuation of the First Bulgarian Empire recently shattered by Byzantium, but a new political entity which emerged independently. The first capital of Samuil was Prespa, later transferred to Ohrid. At that time, the latter was a strongly fortified town and well-suited to forestall Byzantine reconquest. In Ohrid Samuil built imperial palaces and a church to be the seat of the Macedonian church. It is also significant to note that, throughout the existence of the Macedonian Empire, the capital was situated within Macedonia-a confirmation of the essentially Macedonian character of this medieval Balkan state.

As recorded in Byzantine chronicles, Basil II, the new Byzantine emperor, invaded Macedonia almost "every year" and gradually succeeded in capturing and destroying a number of strongholds. The fall of Durres and of the fortified towns on the other side of the Maritsa River and the submission of Greater and Lesser Preslav, Pliska, Veria, Servia, Voden, Vidin, Edirne and Skopje considerably eroded Samuil's power. The decisive battle between Samuil and Basil II took place at the foot of Mt. Belasitsa on July 29, 1014.

"The emperor had given up hope that he would be able to pass, when Nicephorus Sciphianus, appointed by him as strategist of Philippopolis, bade him stay there and assault the barriers [before the battle of Belasitsa Samuil had blocked the road where Basil II sought to enter Macedonia by barriers and trenches], while he would attempt a rescue action. And he took his soldiers and, unexpectedly, with shouts and great noise, appeared on the hill behind their backs. Frightened by the unexpected appearance of enemy soldiers, the army [of Samuil] started to run away. The emperor pulled down the barriers and began to chase them. Many of them were killed, and even more were taken captive. Samuil narrowly escaped death with the help of his son, who bravely fought against the attackers. He put his father on a horse and took him to the fortress called Prilep. The emperor blinded captives-about 15,000 of them, they say-and ordering afterwards that every hundred of them be led by a one-eyed soldier, he sent them thus to Samuil. The latter was so shaken by the sight of them walking in rows of equal numbers that he felt sick. Everything went black in front of his eyes and he fell on the ground. Those present, who tried hard to restore his breathing with water and herbs, succeeded to bring him back to consciousness for a few minutes. When he revived he asked for cold water; however, when he began to drink, he suffered a heart attack and two days later he died." This is the 12th century account of the Byzantine historian Skylitzes about the defeat of Samuil by Basil II. There is no definite proof where Samuil died-in Prilep, as claimed by Skylitzes, or in Prespa, as stated by Michael Attaliot. But the date of Samuil's death is placed at October 6, 1014.

The death of Samuil did not mean disintegration of his empire. His successor to the throne was his son Gavril Radomir, who continued the war with Byzantium and raided as far as Constantinople. The Byzantines intrigued to achieve what they could not win on the battlefield: they persuaded Ivan Vladislav, the son of Aron-alive only thanks to Gavril Radomir's intervention with Samuil-to kill Radomir. Promised "gold and silver to his heart's content" and even Samuil's empire, Vladislav agreed and in August or September 1015, Gavril Radomir was killed by Ivan Vladislav while hunting near the town of Ostrovo. Regardless of the fact that he took an oath of loyalty to Basil II, Ivan Vladislav continued to fight Constantinople. But after a series of dramatic battles, devastating campaigns and acts of treason throughout Samuil's empire, the last faithful commanders of Samuil, Ivec and Nikolica, were defeated in the summer of 1018 and Ohrid taken. Basil II could now boast that he had crushed and conquered Samuil's state. The territory of Macedonia was divided into a number of administrative regions, called themes. Consequently, the chances for Macedonians to unite and renew the uprising were reduced to the absolute minimum.


References

Makedonski Icelenuchki Almanac '95, Matitsa na Icelenitsite od Makedonija; Skopje: 1995; p.36
Ibid; p.37

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[George S.]

The two Macedonian monks, Saints Cyril and Methody, were instrumental in the cultural and religious achievements of the Macedonians and the rest of the Slavic world. They invented the Cyrillic alphabet in 863 A.D. and began the process of converting the Slavs in to Christianity, later continued by Saints Clement and Naum. These Macedonians converted religious documents into Macedonian, which aided in their conversion missions, and helped the Macedonian language become the fourth official language of the Christian church.

"However, a significant event in the history of Macedonia and the history of the Slavs in general took place in 863 when the distinguished Byzantine missionaries from Salonica, the brothers Sts. Cyril and Methodius and their disciples, set out for Moravia bearing with them the first books in a Slavonic language, written in the Glagolitic alphabet which they themselves had invented. It is of particular significance that this new form of writing was created on the basis of the phonetic principles of the Slavs in Macedonia (from the surroundings of Salonica) and that the first translations of the holy books were made into the language of the Macedonian Slavs. This was the fourth language, in addition to Hebrew, Greek and Latin, which was officially recognized by the Christian church."

"The process of Christianisation was completed in Macedonia as early as the course of the second half of the 9th century. After the propagation of Sts. Cyril and Methodius' Moravian mission (885), St. Clement, after a brief sojourn in Pliska, was nominated a teacher in the region of Kutmichevica, which included the south-western Macedonian districts (Strumica Region), and the Ohrid Glagolitic literary school was established. Thanks to St. Clement and, after 893, St. Naum (who took over the role of teacher when St. Clement was named the first Slav archbishop), about 3,500 Slav teachers, clergy, writers and other literary figures emerged from the Ohrid literary school whose activity was crowned with the laying of sound foundations for the building-up of the Slavonic cultural, educational and ecclesiastical organization."1

Life & Work of the Macedonian Brothers
Sts. Cyril & Methody

The following is an excerpt from Macedonian Immigrants in Canada and Their Background 2

Sts. Cyril and Methody

St. Cyril and his brother St. Methody were born in the city of Solun, Macedonia. Their father Leo held the position of assistant to the Military Procurator of Solun. He was a person of outstanding Christian virtue and was compared to Job the Righteous. His mother was also a very devout woman and history says that both father and mother were of Slavonic origin.

St. Cyril, the youngest child of the family was born in 827; we have no exact date for St. Methody. The two brothers received their primary education and rearing in their home in the city of Solun under the direction of their parents. The older brother, Methody, was for a time Governor of a Slavic Province which probably was found on the Balkan Peninsula. He later became a monk in the monastery on Mount Olympus, in the Province of Vitania, Asia Minor.

St. Cyril, who was orphaned at the age of fourteen, continued his education in Constantinople wherein he was enrolled by Theoclyt the Logician in the Imperial Magnaurska School, where the sons of the Byzantine Royalty were taught. Upon completing his education there under the direction of the famous teachers of that time, Leo the Mathematician, Photious, later the Patriarch of Constantinople, and others, he assumed the position of Librarian in the Patriarchical Library of Constatntinople and later became a teacher in Philosophy in the Magnaurska School. His great knowledge of philosophy and language as well as dialectics, elevated him highly before the Byzantium Imperial Palace. Theoclyt the Logician who had great affection for St. Cyril, offered him an opportunity to marry a relative of his and to place him at a high Byzantine Military Position, as Strategist, but, he refused. As he said, "that it was not his wishes and apart from learning, nothing else interested him."

The Byzantine Government designated him responsible religious-political tasks before the Caliph of Baghdad against the Hussars in southern Russia and the Ikonoclasts, which he performed successfully. He won a famous dispute with the eminent Ikonoclastic Patriarch, John, and also with Saracens and the Hussars. His brother Methody, who accompanied him among the Hussars, later was appointed Egumen of the Polychron Monastery in the City of Kezek on the Sea of Marmora.

St. Cyril, after a brief stay in the Church of the Holy Apostles in Constantinople, also entered the monastery. Here, it appears, the two brothers conceived the idea of Christianization of the Slavonic tribes in their native tongue. St. Cyril invented in the Polychron Monastery the Slavonic alphabet called "Glagoritsa" (Glagolithic).

The language however, in which the Gospel of St. John was translated and later, the remaining sacred and service books, was that of the Macedonian Slavs. The short period in which the portion of the Gospel was translated and the accuracy of the translation thoroughly demonstrate that the two brothers knew the Slavonic language to perfection.

St. ClementPresently, scholars accept the position that Sts. Cyril and Methody were of Slavonic origin and not Greeks because of their knowlege of the Slavonic language.

When in 863, emissaries from the Moravian Prince, Rostislav came to Constantinople to seek Slavonic Missionaries and Slavonic books, Emperor Michael III and the Patriarch Photius sent the two brothers of Solun, who were accompanied by their followers and helpers, embarked for Moravia, where they were received with great honour by Prince Rostislav and the Moravian people.

In Velegrad, the capital of Moravia, the two brothers dedicated themselves to intense missionary work and teaching. Soon the Moravian Church services were heard in the intelligible Slavonic language in place of the Latin language in which the German clergy celebrate the services. The brothers, supported by Prince Rostislav, and surrounded by many Slavic followers, taught the Slavonic languae and writing and prepared missionaries and teachers.

The Matin, the Vesper, the Hours, and the Divine Liturgy Service were translated in the Slavonic language. The Slavonic work of the Holy Brothers however met with great opposition from the side of the German clergy who alleged that God can only be served in three languages - Greek, Latin, and Hebrew. In order that they could continue their great enlightening work without interference, Sts. Cyril and Methody departed for Rome to seek the approval of the Pope. On the road to Rome they stopped in the city of Blatno, the capital of the Panonian Slavs and where Prince Kostel became interested in their work and so gave them fifty followers from among his people. After passing Venice, where St. Cyril was also detained by controversy concerning the Slavonic Services, the brothers finally reached Rome. They carried with them the relics of St. Clement of Rome, found in Chersones and therefore were received in triumphant manner. Pope Adrian II, not only did not disapprove of the enlightening work of the two brothers in Moravia, but arranged that the followers accompanying St. Cyril and St. Methody be ordained priests; and the Slavonic Service Books be consecrated and placed on the altar of the church and for five consecutive days, the Divine Liturgy be served in the Slavonic language in the larger churches in Rome.

Lesnovo MonasteryIn this way, Pope Adrian II managed to keep Moravia in his domain. The brothers remained in Rome for an entire year. There, St. Cyril at 42 years of age became seriously ill, and on February 14, 869, died. He was buried in the Church of St. Clement with honour which only the popes themselves receive when buried.

St. Cyril bestowed the legacy upon his brother to continue their work. Pope Adrian II detained Methody in Rome until the end of 870 when in accordance with the decision of the Council of Constantinople of that year, the Latin clergy were expelled. St. Methody and his followers departed for Moravia, but, because of the death of Rostislav, and the ascension of his nephew, Svetopolk, he remained in Panonia. The Panonian Prince requested that St. Methody be consecrated a bishop and sent him back to Rome.

In order to prevent that which happened in Panonia, Pope Adrian II fulfilled the wishes of Kotsel and appointed St. Methody, the Bishop of the re-established Sirmo-Panonian Bishopric. This however provoked the Salzbury Archbishopric to oppose St. Methody since Panonia at the time fell under his jurisdiction. He began to intrigue and detract against the new Slavic Bishop until finally at a council at which Prince Svetopolk attended, St. Methody was sentenced to prison where he remained two and a half years.

Released from prison through the intervention of Pope John VIII, St. Methody returned to Panonia and thereafter through the wishes of the Moravians was appointed by the Pope to be Archbishop of Moravia and Panonia. Even though he was supported by Rome, the Latin clergy did not cease intrigues against him. Therefore, in 879 he was called before the Pope, and, was vindicated.

The intervention of Pope John VIII, before Prince Rostislav and the support he received from his Orthodox followers permitted St. Methody to remain in Panonia to the end of his life. He died April 6, 885, and was buried in Velegrad. As Archbishop, he enlarged the Slavonic Literature with the assistance of two followers (priests), and he translated almost the entire Old Testament with the exception of the book of Macabees, the Nomokanon of Photius and some minor service books. He convinced the Czech Prince Boryvoy to be baptized along with his people, and he preached Christianity to the Slavs who lived on the lands around the River Vesta. Thus the two Slavonic teachers ended their difficult early life. However, they left abundant literature manifesting the magnificent results of their work in the field of coulture and philosophy.

Since these two brothers were sons of Macedonia, many of our churches and universities are dedicated to their names and glory. These two eternal flames will lighten the path of our people in their struggle for human rights - freedom, language, self-determination and social justice.

References

Macedonia and Its Relations With Greece, Macedonian Academy of Sciences and Arts, Skopje, 1993
Macedonian Immigrants in Canada and Their Background, Macedonian Canadian Senior Citizens Club-Toronto, Haynes Printing Company Ltd., Cobourg, 1981; p.32-34

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[George S.]

Oshchima, Aegean Macedonia


Greek propagandists are quick to note that the Balkans experienced a wave of migration from the Slavs in the 6th and 7th centuries. They insist that modern-day Macedonians are descendants of these Slavs and therefore, cannot claim Ancient Macedonia.

No nation is homogenous. Every part of the world experienced different migrations, settlements, etc. The Slavs integrated with the Ancient Macedonians resulting in today's Macedonian population.

"Over the past two thousand three hundred years or so, the Balkan peninsula has been invaded by hordes of newcomers, including Celts (third to first century B.C.), Germanic tribes ( third century A.D.), Slavs (fifth and sixth century A.D.), and Turks (fourteenth century A.D.). The original peoples were not wiped out, or pushed out of Macedonia or Greece by these new peoples. What happened for the most part was that after a time the new peoples merged with the existing peoples."

"However, there is no evidence to suggest that the people of Macedonia are any less ethnically 'pure' and representative of the ancient peoples, than the Greeks." 1

If the Greek argument were true, then modern-day Greeks cannot claim descent from the ancient Greeks for the following reasons:

The ancient Greek language and modern Greek are completely different languages and are mutually unintelligible.
Greek territory was subject to a countless number of migrations, attacks, and forced assimilation dating back to 2000 B.C. Example - The classical Mycenean culture (who lived on Greek territory and are claimed as a Greek tribe) were completely wiped out by the Dorian invasions of 1200 B.C.
Greece was never a unified country until 1832, nor did the ancient Greeks view themselves as being members of one nation. Ancient maps show Greek territory as divided in the following territories: Achaia, Epirus, Thessaly, Sparta, Athens, etc.

Yet modern-day Greeks continue to claim that their race is continuous dating back from 4000 B.C.

"Today's Macedonians know who they are. They trace their name to the empire of Alexander the Great in the fourth century B.C. They trace their ethnicity to the Slavs...and their faith to the Byzantine Empire that brought them into the Eastern Orthodox Church." 2

Greeks refuse to admit that the Slavs invasions had a profound effect on their ethnic makeup. They claim that the Slavs overran the Balkans (Macedonia, Serbia, Bulgaria, etc.) yet somehow managed to stay out of Greece. They make these claims despite the universal acceptance of scholars that the opposite indeed happened.

"The Slavs spread throughout Greece" 3

"...by about the eighth century A.D., Slavs were settled along the whole length of the Balkan peninsula right to the tip of the Peloponnese and were especially strong along the western coast. Pockets of Greek inhabitants remained along the east coast." 4

"The Byzantine emperor Constantine Porphyrgenitus openly says that the whole of Hellas had been Slavicized." 5

"Even today in the Peloponnese, one cannot go three miles in any direction without encountering a Slavonic place name" 6

Settlement of the Slavs - Summary

During the 6th and 7th centuries, a large number of Slavs moved from the area between the Baltic Sea, the Carpathians and the rivers Dnieper and Dniester to the left bank of the river Danube and into the Balkans. The Byzantine territories were attacked and eventually settled by Slavs, including Serbia, Croatia, Bulgaria, Macedonia, and even Greece. The original Bulgarians, who were an Asiatic people, were completely assimilated by the Slavic tribes and these Slavs became known as Bulgarians. Although today's Greeks will not admit it, their culture was heavily influenced by the Slavs. This is only logical as the entire region of the Balkans became the subject of a countless number of Slav attacks and settlement. Could Greece be the only country that was not affected? Unlikely.

In the case of the Macedonians, the Slavs integrated with the ancient Macedonians and their ethnicity became dominant. The existing Macedonians transmitted to them some of their own customs, including the Christian faith, culture, and name of their homeland, Macedonia.

An important event took place in 863 when the Macedonian missionaries, Sts. Cyril and Methody from Solun invented the first Slavonic alphabet (the Glagolitic). From this came the Cyrillic alphabet which today is used by virtually all Slavs.

The Macedonians made an incredible contribution to the cultural development of all Slavs, the creation of this alphabet. From this event came the transliteration of Church documents into Macedonian and other Slavic languages. The acceptance of the majority of Slavs into the Eastern Orthodox Church followed as the Macedonians spread Christianity. The achievements of all Slavs in literature, art, and culture began with the achievements of the Macedonians.

Reference

The Real Macedonians, Dr. John Shea, as quoted in Panorama - Vol.2 No.1, Macedonian Cultural Society "ISKRA", Adelaide, 1996; p.100
National Geographic, Volume 189, No. 3, March 1996; p.124
"Greeks and Romans" in Greece Old and New, ed. by Tom Winnifrith and Penelope Murray, Macmillan, London, 1983
Macedonia and Greece - The Struggle to Define a New Balkan Nation, John Shea, McFarland and Company Inc., North Carolina, 1997; p.86
Ibid; p.86
Macedonia and Its Relations With Greece, Macedonian Academy of Sciences and Arts, Skopje, 1993; p.14

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[George S.]

cedonia is one of the few countries that has existed for thousands of years. Greece is not listed, instead, it has been known as several different names such as Achaea, Thessaly, Epirus, etc. over the centuries. The Greek position is that their race is "continuous" and "pure" over 4000 years. This has been universally dismissed by scholars. The first reference to a territory known as "Greece" or "Hellas" occurs after the independence of Greece from the Ottoman Empire in 1832. It is also very dangerous to claim that any race is "pure". It exposes modern Greece for what it is - racist and intolerant. For more information, please visit:

Aegean Macedonia Since 1913
Human Rights Activists in Aegean Macedonia
The Rule of Greece in Aegean Macedonia
Greek Propaganda

Chronology

197BC

The King of Macedonia is Philip V.
His forces are defeated by the Romans at the battle of Cynoscephalae, and he is forced to accept all conditions insisted upon by the consul Plamininus in exchange for peace.
Macedonia is stripped of its possessions in European Greece and Asia Minor (Anatolia).
Ends three years of fighting between Rome and Macedonia in Illyria.

196BC "Roman Army Helps to Free Greeks From Rule by Macedonia"

"There are celebrations at the Isthmian Games as a decree is issued declaring freedom and autonomy for the Greeks after the defeat of the Macedonians by Rome." (p.143)

179BC

Perseus succeeds father, Philip V, as King of Macedonia.

168BC

"Macedonia surrenders to the Romans after its defeat at the battle of Pydna, which saw 20,000 Macedonians dead...The empire of Alexander has finally disintegrated." (p.144)

148BC

Macedonia becomes a Roman province.
Following the defeat of the Macedonians in 168BC, the Romans divided Macedonia into four closely supervised federations.

The previous quotations are from:
Mercer, Derrick, et al., Chronicle of the World, London, Dorling Kindersley Limited, 1996

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[George S.]

"Touched by the hand of God, youth immortalized, wearing his golden crown of glory. A symbol of strength and power for his Macedonian comrades-in-war. His military genius too great to be wasted on Europe, he looked east, to conquer Persia, the greatest kingdom of all. More than a conqueror, an intellectual with a team of all the finest minds in the world. Visualizing a universal empire for all, he left the legacy of the greatest empire the world has ever seen."

Introduction | Early Life | Alexander on the Macedonian Throne - The Crash of the Greek Resistance
The Battles of Granicus and Issus | Alexander in Egypt | The End of the Persian Empire
Alexander in India | Alexander's Marriage | Alexander's Death

Introduction

Greek propagandists claim that the King of Macedonia, Alexander the Great, was in fact, Greek, despite the universal acceptance of historians and scholars that Alexander was indeed Macedonian. Furthermore, Alexander and the ancient Macedonians were not regarded as kinsmen by the Greeks, nor did they view themselves as Greek. The following will prove that Alexander the Great and the Ancient Macedonians were Macedonian.

The following are excerpts from Macedonia FAQ 1

Early Life
Alexander the Great's Macedonian Empire

Alexander the Great (356-323 BC), the king of Macedonia that conquered the Persian empire and annexed it to Macedonia, is considered one of the greatest military geniuses of all times. He is the first king to be called "the Great."

Alexander is supposed to have been fair skinned, with a ruddy tinge to his face and chest. Plutarch stated that he had a pleasing scent. Like all Macedonians, Alexander liked his liquor; his fondness for wine also caused some of his outbursts of rage. Alexander liked drama, the flute and the lyre, poetry and hunting bur what he truly wanted in his life, was a glory and valor, rather than easy living and riches. He was not fond of athletic contests, according to Plutarch.

Alexander, born in Pella, the ancient capital of Macedonia, was the son of Philip II, king of Macedonia, and of Olympias, a princess of Epirus. Philip and Olympias wanted nothing less than the best for their son, so when he was 13, his parents hired Aristotle to be his personal tutor. Aristotle gave Alexander a thorough training in rhetoric and literature and stimulated his interest in science, medicine, and philosophy, all of which became of the utmost importance for Alexander in his later life. The two later became estranged, due to their difference of opinion on the status of foreigners; Aristotle saw them as barbarians, while Alexander sought to merge Macedonians and foreigners.

In 340 BC, when Philip went to Byzantium to fight rebels, Alexander, a mere 16 years old, was left in charge of Macedonia as regent, with the power to rule in Philip's name in his absence. That Alexander was given such a position at such a young age indicates that he was already accomplished in battle. But Alexander never got along well with his father, although Philip was proud of Alexander for the Bucephalus incident. Alexander had always been closer to Olympias than to Philip. Philip and Olympias also did not get along all that well, owing primarily to Olympias' "barbarian" heritage of Epirus, now Albania.

The family essentially was split apart irreparably when Philip married a woman named Cleopatra, a Macedonian. At the wedding banquet, Cleopatra's father made a remark about Philip fathering a "legitimate" heir, i.e., one that was pure Macedonian. Alexander took exception and threw his cup at the man, and some sources say Alexander killed him. Enraged, Philip stood up and charged at Alexander, only to trip and fall on his face in his drunken stupor. Alexander, rather upset at the scene, is to have shouted:

"Here is the man who was making ready to cross from Europe to Asia, and who cannot even cross from one table to another without losing his balance."

When Philip divorced Olympias Alexander fled. Although allowed to return, he remained isolated and insecure until Philip was assassinated (some think that Olympias may have even had a role in Philip's murder), in the summer of 336 BC.

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Alexander on the Macedonian Throne - The Crash of the Greek Resistance
Bust of Alexander the GreatAlexander ascended to the Macedonian throne when his father died. Once on power, he disposed quickly of all conspirators and domestic enemies by ordering their execution. Then he descended on Thessaly, where partisans of independence had gained ascendancy, and restored Macedonian rule. Before the end of the summer of 336 BC he had reestablished his position in Greece and was elected by a congress of states at Corinth.

But, Greek cities, like Athens and Thebes, which had pledged allegiance to Philip, were unsure if they wished to do the same for a twenty-year-old boy. Likewise, northern barbarians that Philip had subdued were threatening to break away from Macedonia and wreak havoc in the north. Alexander's advisors suggested that he let Athens and Thebes go and to be gentle with the barbarians to prevent a revolt. However, in 335 BC, Alexander campaigned toward the Danube, to secure Macedonia's northern frontier. He carried out a successful campaign against the defecting Thracians, penetrating to the Danube River. Alexander marched quickly north and drove the rebelling barbarians beyond the Danube River and out of the way. On his return he crushed in a single week the threatening Illyrians.

On rumors of his death, a revolt broke out in Greece with the support of leading Athenians. Alexander marched south covering 240 miles in two weeks. Arrian related the story of how Alexander dealt with Thebes and Athens. There were rumors in these cities that Alexander had been killed, and that the time was right for them to separate themselves from Macedonia. Instead, in the fall of 335 BC, Alexander marched up to the gates of Thebes, and let them know that it was not too late for them to change their minds. The Thebans responded with a small contingent of soldiers, which Alexander repelled with archers and light infantrymen. The next day, Alexander's general, Perdiccas, attacked the gates. Perdiccas broke through and into the city, and Alexander moved the rest of his force in behind to prevent the Thebans from cutting Perdiccas off from the rest. The Macedonians then stormed the city, killing almost everyone in sight, women and children included. They plundered, sacked, burned and razed Thebes, as an example to the rest of Greece. Only the temples and the house of the poet Pindar were spared from distraction. Athens then quickly rethought its decision to abandon Alexander. Greece remained under Macedonian control.

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The Battles of Granicus and Issus
Alexander began his war against Persia in the spring of 334 BC by crossing the Hellespont(modern Dardanelles) with an army of 35,000 Macedonians and 7,600 Greeks. He threw his spear from his ship to the coast and it stuck in the ground. He stepped onto the shore, pulled his weapon from the soil, and declared that the whole of Asia would be won by the spear. His chief officers, all Macedonians, included Antigonus, Ptolemy, and Seleucus.

Battle Scene at GranicusThe Macedonian army soon encountered the Persian army under King Darius III at the crossing of the river Granicus, near the ancient city of Troy. Alexander attacked an army of Persians and Greek hoplites (a heavily armed foot soldiers of ancient Greece) who distinguished themselves on the side of the Persians against the Macedonians. Alexander's forces defeated the enemy (totaling 40,000 men) and, according to tradition, lost only 110 men.

Then he turned northward to Gordion, home of the famous Gordian Knot. The legend behind the ancient knot was that the man who could untie it was destined to rule the entire world. Alexander simply slashed the knot with his sword and unraveled it.

Continuing to advance southward, in November of 333 BC, Alexander met Darius in battle for the second time at a mountain pass at Issus, in northeastern Syria. The size of Darius's army is unknown but although the Persian army greatly outnumbered the Macedonians, the narrow field of battle allowed Alexander to defeat the Persians. The Battle of Issus ended in a great victory for Alexander. Cut off from his base, Darius fled northward, abandoning his mother, wife, and children to Alexander, who treated them with the respect due to royalty.

In the next year, he marched down the Phoenician coast and received the surrenders of all of the major cities there except for Tyre. A seven-month siege of the city followed, and the Tyrians eventually surrendered to Alexander. Then he continued south into Egypt after he had secured the entire Aegean coast.

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Alexander in Egypt
Statue of AlexanderAlexander entered Egypt in 331 BC. When he arrived, he was welcomed, and he ordered a city to be designed and founded in his name at the mouth of the river Nile. Alexandria would become one of the major cultural centers in the Mediterranean world in the following centuries.

In the spring of 331 Alexander made a pilgrimage to the great temple and oracle of Amon-Ra, Egyptian god of the sun, whom the Greeks identified with Zeus. The earlier Egyptian pharaohs were believed to be sons of Amon-Ra; and Alexander, the new ruler of Egypt, wanted the god to acknowledge him as his son. The pilgrimage apparently was successful, and it may have confirmed in him a belief in his own divine origin.

While in Egypt, Alexander spontaneously decided to make the dangerous trip across the desert to visit the oracle at the temple of Zeus Ammon. On the way, he was blessed with abundant rain, and he was guided across the desert by ravens. At the temple, Alexander spoke to the oracle about matters that are unclear to most historians. Many sources, however, speculated that the priest told Alexander that he was the son of Zeus Ammon and that he was destined to rule the world.

He was then made pharaoh voluntarily by the Egyptians, who despised living under Persian rule. He exchanged letters with Darius while he was in Egypt, and the Persian offered a truce with Alexander with a gift of several western provinces of the Persian Empire, but Alexander refused to make peace unless he could have the whole empire. In the middle of 331 BC Alexander marched back to Persia to find Darius.

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The End of the Persian Empire
Alexander reorganized his forces at Tyre and started for Babylon with an army of 40,000 infantry and 7000 cavalry. He conquered the lands between the rivers Tigris and Euphrates and found the Persian army which, according to the exaggerated accounts of antiquity, was said to number a million men at the plains of Gaugamela (near modern Irbil, Iraq). The Macedonians spotted the lights from Persian campfires one night, and they encouraged Alexander to lead his attack under cover of darkness. He refused to take advantage of their situation because he wanted to defeat Darius in an equally matched battle so that the Persian king would never again dare to raise an army against the Macedonians. The two armies met on the battlefield the next morning on October 1, 331 BC, and the Macedonian forces swept through the Persian army and slaughtered them. Darius fled as he had done at Issus to the mountain residence of Ecbatana, while Alexander occupied Babylon, the imperial capital Susa, and Persepolis. Henceforth, Alexander was proclaimed king of Persia, and to win the support of the Persian aristocracy he appointed mainly Persians as provincial governors. After four months, the Macedonians burned the royal palace to the ground thus completing the end of the ancient Persian Empire.

Yet a major uprising in Greece had Alexander so deeply worried, that after hearing that the rebellion had failed, he proclaimed the end of the Hellenic Crusade and discharged the all Greek forces.

Alexander continued his pursuit of Darius for hundreds of miles from Persepolis. When he finally caught up to him, he found the Persian king dead in his coach, assassinated by his own men. Alexander had the assassin executed and gave Darius a royal funeral.

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Macedonian Nobles Resistance and the Macedonian Language
Alexander the Great Statue in SolunDuring the reign of Alexander the Great, the Macedonians spoke their own native language. Though Alexander spoke also Greek, loved Homer, and respected his tutor Aristotle, there is much evidence that he hated the Greeks of his day. He thoroughly destroyed Thebes. His Asian empire is correctly called Macedonian, not Greek for he won it with an army of 35,000 Macedonians and only 7,600 Greeks.

Alexander's increasingly Oriental behavior led to trouble with Macedonian nobles and some Greeks. In 330 BC a series of allegations was brought against some of Alexander's officers concerning a plot to murder him. Alexander tortured and executed his friend, Philotas (commander of the cavalry) the accused leader of the conspiracy, and several other high-ranking officials in order to eliminate the possibility of an attempt on his life. The question of the use of the ancient Macedonian language was raised by Alexander himself during the trial of Philotas. Alexander has said to Philotas:

"The Macedonians are about to pass judgment upon you; I wish to know weather you will use their native tongue in addressing them." Philotas replied: "Besides the Macedonians there are many present who, I think, will more easily understand what I shell say if I use the same language which you have employed." Than said the king: "Do you not see how Philotas loathes even the language of his fatherland? For he alone disdains to learn it. But let him by all means speak in whatever way he desires, provided that you remember that he holds out customs in as much abhorrence as our language."

The trial of Philotas took place in Asia before a multiethnic public, which has accepted Greek as their common language. Alexander spoke Macedonian with his conationals, but used Greek in addressing West Asians. Like Illirian and Tracian, ancient Macedonian was not recorded in writing. However, on the bases of about a hundred glosses, Macedonian words noted and explained by Greek writers, some place names from Macedonia, and a few names of individuals, most scholars believe that ancient Macedonian was a separate Indo-European language. Evidence from phonology indicates that the ancient Macedonian language was distinct from ancient Greek and closer to the Tracian and Illirian languages.

Another old-fashioned noble, Cleitus, was killed by Alexander himself in a drunken brawl. Heavy drinking was a cherished tradition at the Macedonian court when Alexander ran him through with a spear. Although he mourned his friend excessively and nearly committed suicide when he realized what he had done, all of Alexander's associates thereafter feared his paranoia and dangerous temper. Alexander next demanded that Europeans follow the Oriental etiquette of prostrating themselves before the king - which he knew was regarded as an act of worship by Greeks. But resistance by Macedonian officers and by the Greek Callisthenes (a nephew of Aristotle who had joined the expedition as the official historian of the crusade) defeated the attempt. The Greek Callisthenes was soon executed on a charge of conspiracy.

As the Macedonians marched into Parthia, the tone of the journey changed. Alexander had adopted the Persian style of dress, rather than his traditional Macedonian clothing, and his troops were unhappy with him.

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Alexander in India
Alexander the Great's Macedonian Empire

Map of Alexander's Empire

In the spring of 327 BC, Alexander and his army marched into India invading Punjab as far as the river Hyphasis (modern Beas). At this point the Macedonians rebelled and refused to go farther.

The greatest of Alexander's battles in India was against Porus, one of the most powerful Indian leaders, at the river Hydaspes. On July 326 BC, Alexander's army crossed the heavily defended river in dramatic fashion during a violent thunderstorm to meet Porus' forces. The Indians were defeated in a fierce battle, even though they fought with elephants, which the Macedonians had never before seen. Alexander captured Porus and, like the other local rulers he had defeated, allowed him to continue to govern his territory. Alexander even subdued an independent province and granted it to Porus as a gift.

In this battle Alexander's horse, Bucephalus, was wounded and died. Alexander had ridden Bucephalus into every one of his battles in Greece and Asia, so when it died, he was grief-stricken and founded a city in his horse's name.

Alexander's next goal was to reach the to travel south down the rivers Hydaspes and Indus so that they might reach the Ocean on the southern edge of the world. The army rode down the rivers on the rivers on rafts and stopped to attack and subdue villages along the way. During this trip, Alexander sought out the Indian philosophers, the Brahmins, who were famous for their wisdom, and debated them on philosophical issues. He became legendary for centuries in India for being both a wise philosopher and a fearless conqueror.

One of the villages in which the army stopped belonged to the Malli, who were said to be one of the most warlike of the Indian tribes. Alexander was wounded several times in this attack, most seriously when an arrow pierced his breastplate and his ribcage. The Macedonian officers rescued him in a narrow escape from the village. Alexander and his army reached the mouth of the Indus in July 325 BC and turned westward for home.

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Alexander's Marriage
In the spring of 324, Alexander held a great victory celebration at Susa. He and 80 close associates married Iranian noblewomen. In addition, he legitimized previous so-called marriages between soldiers and native women and gave them rich wedding gifts, no doubt to encourage such unions. When he discharged the disabled Macedonian veterans a little later, after defeating a mutiny by the estranged and exasperated Macedonian army, they had to leave their wives and children with him. Because national prejudices had prevented the unification of his empire, his aim was apparently to prepare a long-term solution (he was only 32) by breeding a new body of high nobles of mixed blood and also creating the core of a royal army attached only to himself. After his death, nearly all the noble Susa marriages were dissolved. He established training programs to teach Persians about Greek and Macedonian culture, and he married Roxane, a Persian.

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Alexander's Death
We will probably never know the truth, of Alexander's mysterious death, even though new theories are still coming out. Alexander the Great, the Macedonian king and the great conqueror, died at the age of 33, on June 10, 323 BC. Three days earlier, on the 7th of June, 323 BC, the Macedonians were allowed to file past their leader for the last time before he finally succumbed to the illness. Alexander died without designating a successor. His death opened the anarchic age of the Diadochi and the Macedonian Empire will eventually cease to exist.

Reference

Obtained from the Macedonia FAQ website. A project of RMacedonia.org
URL: http://faq.RMacedonia.org/

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© Copyright Macedonia for the Macedonians
Created and maintained by Bill Nicholov

[George S.]

"All-consuming ambition, a visionary of his time. Proud soldier and Macedonian. Inventor of the famous 'phalanx' military formation, great governor and strategist. A man under who's heel succumbed the foreign Hellenic states, in all of their glory."


The following are some quotes regarding the Ancient Macedonians and King Philip:

"He was not, however, a Greek politician or even a Greek, but king of the Macedonians". 1

"Even in Philip’s day the Greeks saw in the Macedonians as a non-Greek foreign people...The dislike was reciprocal, for the Macedonians had grown into a proud masterful nation, which with highly developed national consciousness looked down upon the Hellenes with contempt." 2

"Neither Greeks nor Macedonians considered the Macedonians to be Greeks." 3

"The “unrest in Greece” encompasses all the city-states in Greece. These city-states were ready to throw off the Macedonian yoke. Here we have a clear delineation between Greek city-states, who were the conquered party, and Macedonia, the conqueror." 4


The following is an excerpt from Macedonia FAQ 5

Philip II of Macedonia (382-336 BC), king of Macedonia (359-336 BC), was born in Pella, the capital of ancient Macedonia. Long before Philip was born, the ancient Macedonians regarded the ancient Greeks as potentially dangerous neighbors, not as kinsmen. The Greeks stereotyped the Macedonians as "barbarians" and treated them in the same bigoted manner in which they treated all non-Greeks. Herodotus, the Father of History, relates how the Macedonian king Alexander I (498-454 BC), a Philhellene (that is "a friend of the Greeks" and logically a non-Greek), wanted to take a part in the Olympic games. The Greek athletes protested, saying they would not run with a barbarian. Historian Thucydidis also considered the Macedonians as barbarians.

Philip II, the Macedonian "barbarian" was a hostage in Thebes, from 367 to 365, then the greatest power in Greece. During that period he observed the military techniques of Thebes, which will help him later reorganize the Macedonian army on the model of the Theban phalanx. In 364 Philip returned to Macedonia and in 359 he was made regent for his infant nephew Amyntas. Later that year he seized the Macedonian throne.

Philip came to power at the time when the Macedonians had just suffered a defeat from the Illyrians. Macedonia was in political and military turmoil, and Philip immediately set about bringing the people of Macedonia under his control. In less than two years he will secure the safety of his kingdom and firmly establish himself on the throne. After defeating the Illyrians in 358 BC, Philip sought to bring all of Upper Macedonia under his control and make them loyal to him. Apart from military, Philip had several political inventions that helped turn Macedonia into a world power. His primary method of creating alliances and strengthening loyalties was through marriage. In 357 BC he married Olympias, from the royal house of Molossia, and a year later they had a son, Alexander.

But Alexander never got along well with his father, although Philip was proud of Alexander for the Bucephalus incident. Alexander had always been closer to Olympias than to Philip. Philip and Olympias also did not get along all that well.

The family essentially was split apart irreparably when Philip married a woman named Cleopatra, a Macedonian. At the wedding banquet, Cleopatra's father made a remark about Philip fathering a "legitimate" heir, i.e., one that was pure Macedonian. Alexander took exception and threw his cup at the man, and some sources say Alexander killed him. Enraged, Philip stood up and charged at Alexander, only to trip and fall on his face in his drunken stupor. Alexander, rather upset at the scene, is to have shouted:

"Here is the man who was making ready to cross from Europe to Asia, and who cannot even cross from one table to another without losing his balance."

OlympiasWhen Philip divorced Olympias Alexander fled. Although allowed to return, he remained isolated and insecure until Philip was assassinated (some think that Olympias may have even had a role in Philip's murder), in the summer of 336 BC.

Philip allowed the sons of nobles to receive education in the court of the king. Here the sons would not only develop a fierce loyalty for the king, but it was also a way for Philip to, in a sense, hold the children hostage to keep their parents from interfering with his authority. He also gave more people positions of power and more of a sense of belonging to the kingdom.

From then on, Philip's policy was aggressive. In 357 he conquered the Athenian colony of Amphipolis in Thrace. That gave him a possession of the gold mines of Mount Pangaeus, which will finance his wars. In 356 he captured Potidea in Chalcidice, Pydna on the Thermaic Gulf, and in 355 the Thracian town of Crenides, later acquiring new name Philippi. In 354 Philip conquered Methone, advanced into Thessaly but did not attempt to take the pass of Thermopylae in 352 because it was strongly guarded by the Athenians. In 351 the great Athenian orator Demosthenes delivered the first of his Philippics, a series of speeches warning the Athenians about the Macedonian menace to Greek liberty. The great Athenian statesman, spoke of Philip II:

"... not only no Greek, nor related to the Greeks, but not even a barbarian from any place that can be named with honors, but a pestilent knave from Macedonia, whence it was never yet possible to buy a decent slave." [Third Philippic, 31]

The Macedonian "barbarian" defeated Greece at the battle of Chaeronea in August 338 BC and appointed himself "Commander of the Greeks". Philip's army was greatly outnumbered by the Athenian and Theban forces, yet his phalanxes overwhelmed the Athenians and Thebans. His victory made him complete master of Greece. This battle had established Macedonian hegemony over Greece and this date is commonly taken as the end of Greek history and the beginning of the Macedonian era.

Two years later, in the spring of 336 BC, Philip start preparing for his big invasion of Persia. He sent Attalus and Parmenion with 10,000 troops over into Asia Minor but just before he was to travel to Asia to begin the conquest, he was assassinated.

His vision to conquer the Middle East, will be carried away by his son Alexander the Great. However, without the military and political efforts of Philip, Alexander would have never been as successful as he was. According to Bosworth, Philip's work with the Macedonian army and establishment of alliances with the Balkan peoples gave both himself and Alexander the resources necessary to carry out such conquests.

Philip introduced the 6 meter long sarissa, a wooden pike with metal tip, for use by his infantry in the phalanx. The sarissa, when held upright by the rear rows of the phalanx (there were usually eight rows), helped hide maneuvers behind the phalanx from the view of the enemy. When held horizontal by the front rows of the phalanx, it was a rather brutal weapon. People could be run through from 20 feet away, giving quite an advantage to the phalanx in hand-to-hand combat.

Philip made the military a way of life for many Macedonian men. He made the military a professional occupation that paid well enough that the soldiers could afford to do it year-round, unlike in the past when the soldiering had only been a part-time job, something the men would do during the off peak times of farming. This allowed him to count on his man regularly, building unity and cohesion within the army. In addition to the basic phalanx, Philip and Alexander used light auxiliaries, archers, a siege train, and a cavalry.

The royal tomb excavated in 1977 at Vergina (Kutlesh), near Salonika (Solun), is believed to be Philip's.

References

Encyclopedia Britannica, vol.14, p.225
Alexander the Great, Ulrich Wilken, WW Norton & Co., New York/London 1967, p.22-23
In the Shadow of Olympus - the Emergence of Macedon, Eugene N. Borza, New Jersey, Princeton University Press, 1990
The History of Alexander, Quintus Curtius Rufus
Obtained from the Macedonia FAQ website: faq.macedonia.org


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© Copyright Macedonia for the Macedonians
Created and maintained by Bill Nicholov

[George S.]

Introduction | Chronology of Ancient Macedonian History | The Ancient Macedonian Language
Ethnic Affiliation of the Ancient Macedonians | Conclusion

Introduction

"When the uproar had ended, Paul sent for the disciples and, after encouraging them, said good-by and set out for Macedonia. He travelled through that area, speaking many words of encouragement to the people, and finally arrived in Greece, where he stayed three months. Because the Jews made a plot against him just as he was about to sail for Syria, he decided to go back through Macedonia."

The Holy Bible - Acts 20:1-3

Greek propagandists claim that ancient Macedonia was Greek. Why then, would the Holy Bible distinguish between the two?

The history of the Macedonian people began in approximately 2200 B.C. The Ancient Macedonian Empire reached its pinnacle with the conquests of King Philip of Macedon and his son Alexander the Great. Greek propagandists insist that the ancient Macedonians were Greek and therefore, Greece has the right to the name, Macedonia. Worldwide scholarly opinion accepts that the ancient Macedonians were a distinct people from the Greeks and that the name Macedonia belongs to the Macedonians.

Here are some quotes...

"Examining the dynamics of Macedonian relations with the Greek city-states, he (Borza) suggests that the Macedonians, although they gradually incorporated aspects of Greek culture into their own society, maintained a distinct ethnicity as a Balkan people". 1

"It is universally known that the classical Greek authors did not recognise the Macedonians as their fellow countrymen, calling them barbarians, and they considered Macedonian domination in Greece as an alien rule, imported from outside by the members of other tribes, the, as Plutarch says, Allophyloi." 2

"The language of these Macedonians was not Greek, nor were their gods, nor were they recognized by the Greeks." 3

"The tension at court between Greeks and Macedonians, tension that the ancient authors clearly recognized as ethnic division." 4

"Macedonian was the language of the infantry and that Greek was difficult, indeed a foreign tongue to them." 5

Excerpt from Macedonia Through the Ages 6

In the course of the second pre-Christian millennium, the ancient Greeks descended in several migratory waves as goatherds and shepherds from the interior of the Balkans to Greece. Some passed through the Morava-Vardar Valley and across the plain of Thessaly on their way south, while others went south through Epirus. More recent scholars point to Asia Minor as the original Greek homeland. There is no evidence that prehistoric Macedonia was ever occupied by ancient Greeks. Archeological finds from Macedonia are meager and sporadic. The scholars believe that ancient Macedonia lay beyond the cultural and ethnic borders of the Bronze Age Mycenaean Greek Civilization (1400-1100 BC).

King PhilipAncient Macedonia was home to many tribes and nations. The ancient Macedonians claimed kinship with the Illirians, Tracians, and Phrygians, but not with the Greeks. In fact, the Brygians of Macedonia are believed to be the European branch of people, who in Asia Minor were known as Phrygians.

Greek migrants came to Macedonia, Trace, and Illiria after they exhausted the possibilities of settlement in Asia Minor, Italy, France, Spain and Scythia (Ukraine and Russia). However, they did not consider Macedonia especially attractive for permanent settlement. Neither did the Macedonians welcome them as openheartedly as did the Italians and Scythians. By the middle of the fourth century BC, the Greek settlers were expelled from Macedonia and their cities, including Aristotle's native Stragira, razed to the ground by the Macedonian king Philip II (360-336). Aristotle died in exile in Greece.

The Macedonian "barbarian" defeated Greece at the battle of Chaeronea in August 338 BC and appointed himself "Commander of the Greeks". This battle had established Macedonian hegemony over Greece and this date is commonly taken as the end of Greek history and the beginning of the Macedonian era. Greece did not regain its independence until 1827 AD.

In 335 BC, Philip's son Alexander campaigned toward the Danube, to secure Macedonia's northern frontier. On rumors of his death, a revolt broke out in Greece with the support of leading Athenians. Alexander marched south covering 240 miles in two weeks. When the revolt continued he sacked Thebes, killing 6,000 people and enslaving the survivors. Only the temples and the house of the poet Pindar were spared.

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Chronology of Ancient Macedonian History

The following are excerpts from: Chronicle of the World 7

359BC
Philip becomes regent of the small kingdom of Macedonia on the death of his brother, King Perdiccas, whose son is a mere child. Philip, aged 22, already displays unusual diplomatic and military acumen.

356BC
Amyntas, son of the late King Perdiccas, is deposed and Philip is confirmed as absolute king. He signs a pact with the Chalcidian league which names Athens as the common enemy, and goes on to take the city of Potidaea. During the year Philip has more good news: his horse wins at Olympia and his wife, Olympias, gives birth to a son, Alexander.

351BC
The orator Demosthenes denounces the expansionist policies of Philip of Macedon and castigates his fellow citizens for their lack of awareness.

348BC
Philip of Macedon takes Olynthus by siege and utterly destroys it, securing control of the Chalcidice peninsula. When the Chalcidian league learnt of Philip's intentions, they broke with their former ally and appealed to Athens. Convinced by Demonsthenes, Athens at last sent an expeditionary force - but it was too late.

346BC - Despised Macedonia crushes the Greeks in the "Sacred War"

The Sacred War, waged for the last ten years for possession of Greece's supreme oracle at Delphi, has ended with Philip of Macedon, despised as a barbarian by the Athenians, winning ascendancy over Greece. This unforeseen result of yet another internecine quarrel bodes ill for the city states.

It started when the Thebans, who controlled the Amphictiony, the multi-state council which administers the shrine, forced through a threat of war against the Phocians unless they paid a fine for cultivating sacred ground.

The Phocians, who had once had control of Delphi, chose to go to war to re-establish their position, but there then followed a period of cruel, confused warfare during which the Phocians were generally successful. But then the war drew in the ambitious Philip, who saw his opportunity to seize Greek territory.

His advance and involvement in Greek affairs drew bitter attacks from Demonsthenes, who issued the first of his "Philippics" in 351BC. Athens belatedly sent an army to help Athens' allies besieged by Philip at Olynthus.

It was too little and too late. Philip captured the city and razed it to the ground. Phocis has now been forced to sue for peace and Philip the Barbarian holds power in Greece.

346BC - "Puny Village" becomes a hub of empire

Pella, the capital of the Ancient Macedonian Empire

Pella, the capital of the Ancient Macedonian Empire

Athenian propaganda asserting that the Macedonian capital, Pella, is 'a puny little village' (as Demosthenes, the anti-Macedonian lobbyist, has suggested) is contradicted by eye-witness accounts of recent travellers who visited it.

Far from its being an inaccessible shanty town, they say, it is approaced by a well-engineered road some 30 feet wide. It is ona vast fertile plain flanked by the sea, with a thriving port. This prime site was developed some 50 years ago by King Archelaus. Elegant buildings, with walls six feet thick, are decorated with rare pebble mosaics, Ionic and Doric colonnades, and three-foot roof tiles stamped "Pella".

The palace contains murals by the great artist Zeuxis. Standards of public hygiene, water supply and drainage match the aesthetic quality of the city. The plays of Euripides are performed and the heir to the throne, young Alexander, has Aristotle as a visiting tutor. Pella is unquestionably the hub of a growing empire.

340BC - Macedonia Conquers Thrace, a flourishing kingdom of contrasts renowned for warlike shepherds and sophisticated jewellery

After 20 years at war, Macedonians under Philip II are beginning to take stock of the huge and wealthy Thracian empire they now control.

With lands that stretch from the Danube to the Bosporus, Philip II now rules one of the most culturally, economically and politically advanced regions in the world.

Thracian treasure with its fine filigree work in silver and gold is internationally famous, with Thracian craftsmen setting new standards in fashioning jewellery, helmets and breastplates in gold and silver. Much noted are those decorated with unusual combinations of human and animal subjects, reflecting Thrace's eastern influences.

This ability to generate items of wealth was a weapon in the unsuccessful campaign by Thrace's last overall ruler, Kotys, to win allies and influence friends.

Kotys tried to unite Thrace's tribes of wild shepherds into an empire, reminiscent of the Persians' that would extend from the Black Sea to the Mediterranean.

339BC
Hostilities are renewed between Athens and Macedonia, marking the start of the fourth Sacred War. Philip II occupies Elateia, two days' march from Attica. Demosthenes saves the day for the panic-stricken Athenians by engineering an alliance between Athens and Thebes.

338BC
Philip II of Macedon defeats the combined forces of Athens and Thebes at the battle of Chaeronea. With the surrender of Thebes the Boeotian league is dissolved. Philip imposes peace terms on Athens which include allying with Macedonia and dissolving the Athenian league. Struck by the generosity of their conqueror, the Athenians offer citizenship to Philip and his son, Alexander.

337BC - Philip of Macedon conquers the Greeks

After a decisive defeat by Philip II of Macedon, Athenian leaders have accepted peace on terms which effectively end the traditional independence of Greek city states. In a war which began more than 20 years ago, the Macedonian "barbarian" has proved himself a master of political strategy as well as a military genius. He has used the wiles of diplomacy, marriage, banking, corruption and sabotage. His military coups include the defeat of Illyria to the north, together with Athens' maritime ally, Chalcidice, to secure his southern Aegean flank and the remorseless occupation of mainland cities.

Athens, a tardy opponent, held his advance after a long battle in 352BC to control the strategic Thermopylae Pass. Philip used a temporary peace with Athens to join Thebes in its "Sacred War" against Phocis. Theses, a hollow victor, was spent. The real winner was Philip.

Other governments anointed him as a peacemaker, but in 341BC he attacked Athens' allies in Thrace-Gallipoli. Renewed warfare culminated in an evenly-matched combat at Chaeronea last year. The turning point was a feigned retreat by Philip behind piles of corpses, enticing the Athenians into hot pursuit and an ambush. This was sprung by seasoned Macedonian cavalry, led by Philip's son Alexander.

In the immediate aftermath of the war, Thebes has been occupied by Macedonians. Nominal self-government continues elsewhere, but without autonomy overseas. Most states must join Philip's new League of Corinth as he prepares to repay Persia for its earlier attacks. Greece is unified, but at a great cost.

337BC
Philip's decision to marry Cleopatra, a woman from the Macedonian nobility, causes a stir at court. The marriage, which will be polygamous, stems from Philip's concern about his line of succession. Alexander is his heir-designate but, as his second son, Arrhidaeus, suffers from epilepsy, he thinks it wise to have a third son.

336BC - Philip slain: Alexander is in power

King Philip II of Macedon has died at the hands of an assassin in his hour of triumph. After attending a state ceremony at which his own statue was displayed as a new Olympian god, he was stabbed by Pausanias, a royal bodyguard with a grudge. Philip is succeeded by his son Alexander, aged just 20.

In spite of his youth Alexander is already a veteran of warfare and of government. Four years ago, while Philip was on an expedition to Byzantium, Alexander acted as regent of Macedonia and fought his own local war against the Thracian Maedi. His role in the battle of Chaeronea spread his reputation throughout Greece.

Alexander has had a rich and complex education. Along with the studies normally pursued by a young aristocrat he has been exposed to hard lessons in practical politics within the family circle. In his early years at Pella, the Macedonian capital, he came under the influence of his mother, Olympias.

Her kinsman Leonidas introduced him to the Homeric legends as a guide to practical living from the art of war to navigation. At the age of 13 he was taken by his father to become a pupil of Aristotle. A liberal education with others in residence at Miezeincluded medicine, geometry, rhetoric and literature.

Throughout his formative years his mother's influence remained. When Philip married a younger woman named Cleopatra polygamously last year, it provoked a near fatal division between the two men. At the wedding feast, the bride's uncle unwisely predicted a "legitimate heir to the throne". An enraged Alexander, war veteran as well as true heir, started fighting. Philip intervened but collapsed, drunk. Alexander left, saying: "Here's the man who was making ready to cross from Europe to Asia, and who cannot cross from one table to another without losing his balance." Only recently was Alexander persuaded by his father to come out of self-imposed exile in Illyria, after escorting his mother to sanctuary.

335BC
After succeeding his father as king of Macedonia, Alexander sets out on his first military campaign, aiming to punish the Triballi for their rebellion of 339BC and re-establish order in the Balkans. His victory reinforces Macedonian power in the region of the lower Danube.

337BC - Alexander subdues restless Greeks

Alexander's attacks on regional enemies have been bold. He led a pre-emptive attack against the Triballi and the Illyrians which took him across the Danube. In his absense, however, there was disaffection in Sparta and Athens.

It was in Thebes that the most serious trouble occurred, ignited by rumour that Alexander had been killed in action. After a forced march of 310 miles (500km) in 13 days, Alexander stormed the city and systematically destroyed everything except temples and the home of Pindar the poet. The city's 8,000 people were sold as slaves and their homeland split into lots which were also sold. Other states tempted to dissent hastily sought the king's pardon.

To complete preparations for his campaign against Persia, Alexander consulted the Oracle at Delphi, but chose a day regarded by temple authorities as inauspicious for any "reading". The king promptly summoned the presiding priestess, who refused to perform the ceremony. Alexander manhandled her towards the temple. The frightened woman shouted words to the effect that Alexander was "invincible". A delighted Alexander released her and said he had no further need of prophecies.

Beneath his confidence, though, it is clear that Alexander is not ready to place people from the old city-states of Athens, Sparta or Thebes in positions of trust. Regiments from these areas are now second-rate members of his expeditionary force, or potential hostages.

333BC
Already in control of a large part of Asia Minor (Anatolia), Alexander defeats Darius III of Persia at Issus. This follows his great victory over the Persians last year at the river Granicus. Darius is put to flight and Alexander captures his camp and family, sleeping in the Persian king's tent on the night of his victory.

332BC
Alexander has taken the city of Tyre after an eight-month siege. It is reported that 8,000 citizens have been killed and 30,000 sold into slavery. After Alexander's recent rout of the Persians the cities of Phoenicia - except for Tyre - wisely surrendered to him.

331BC
After his unopposed expedition to Egypt, Alexander moves into Persia and defeats the Persian army at Gaugamela. Babylonia and Susa surrender to him.

331BC - Egyptian city commemorates triumphs of Macedonian conqueror

Foreigners from all parts of the eastern Medierranean are flocking to a splendid city which the conqueroring Macedonian king, Alexander, is building on the Egyptian coast in the west of the Nile delta. A great harbour, being created by constructing a mole linking the mainland with the island of Pharos, will be used as a naval base for Alexander's war against the Persian empire.

The architect Dinocrates, who gained notoriety when he suggestd that Mount Athos be carved into a gigantic seated statue, is marking out the new city, to be called Alexandria, in a grid pattern of straight streets intersecting each other at right angles.

Alexander's decision to found the city was announced after he had visited the oracle of Ammon, at the Siwa oasis in neighbouring Libya. The Greeks identify Ammon with their own Zeus, and it is said that Alexander wanted to trace his birth back to Ammon. He was not disappointed. Having been guided to the oasis by two black crows, he was greeted by a priest who hailed him as a "son of the god".

330BC
Alexander marches on Persepolis and allows his army to pillage the royal city. He wants to take Darius alive, but the Persian king is assassinated by rebels. His death marks the collapse of the Achaemenid dynasty.

330BC - Military genius wins war against Persians

Early on a summer's morning, Alexander and his army, crossing the mountainous region of western Iran, came upon the remnants of the once-mighty forces of Darius III. Most of them fled, and when Alexander caught up with the Persian wagons he found Darius in one of them, dead from stab wounds inflicted on the orders of his cousin Bessus. The campaign that had begun three years before, when Alexander crossed into Asia Minor with 30,000 men, was over. At last he was master of the Persian empire.

The Persians had the bigger army, but Alexander had the better one. The first battle took place at the Granicus river, near the Sea of Marmora. It was the first battle of the war in which the phalanx was used. This close formation of long spears behind a wall of overlappping shields devastated the Persian lines.

327BC
Alexander secures the conquest of Bactria and Sogdiana, begun two years ago when he crossed the Hindu Kush after conquering the eastern states of the Persian empire.

327BC
The official historian of Alexander's expedition, Callisthenes, is executed for his alleged complicity in a conspiracy.

325BC - Alexander expands his empire into India

Alexander has arrived back in this capital (Susa, Persia), his army victorious in their Indian campaign - but almost halved in numbers by the toll taken on them by hear, hunger and thirst on the long march from the Punjab.

Alexander had fought his way across Afghanistan and penetrated the Khyber Pass to descend on to the Punjab plain where he vanquished Porus, the last rajah to have been brought under Persian influence. Porus met him on a river bank with 40,000 men and 200 elephants, but Alexander secretly crossed the river by night and swept down on Porus' exposed flank. Some 20,000 Indian infantry and 3,000 cavalry were killed, for the loss of about 80 of Alexander's men.

It has been an heroic saga, with Alexander winning battle after battle, year after year. He struck through the Hindu Kush into Turkestan, crossed the Oxus river to reach Samarkand and captured the Scythian chief Oxartes, whose daughter Roxana he married.

In his desire to unite his newly-conquered empire he encouraged his men to form marriage alliances with Asian women. He himself has adopted some Persian customs. As king of the rugged Macedonian tribes he had striven to gain acceptance by the cultivated Greeks.

Now he seems to be betraying that ideal, and discontent is growing in his army. He has begun to scent conspiracies and has even had Parmenio, his faithful chief of staff, put to death. Alexander's ambition was to penetrate as far as the Ganges, where he expected to find the eastern limit of the inhabited world. But his troops refused to go further. For three days he sulked in his tent before giving way.

He divided his forces. He sent the main body back through Afghanistan, and dispatched a fleet down the Indus river with orders to sail along the coast to reach the Persian Gulf. A third force he led across the desert of Baluchistan. It was to be a terrible three months' march.

323BC - Alexander dies aged 32

In the spring Alexander came down to Babylon, where embassies from all parts of the known world were waiting to pay homage to the conqueror of the east. He was already planning his next great enterprise, the exploration of the seas around his empire.

In the year since he had returned from India he had devoted himself to overhauling the imperial administration, dismissing officials judged to be incompetent and dealing with complaints of corruption. He sought to bind the conquered Persians to his cause by offering satrapies to Persian grandees and recruiting 30,000 Persian youths for his armies. He took another oriental wife, Satira, the daughter of Darius, before leaving Susa for Babylon.

In Babylon he ordered the construction of an immense fleet, and under dis supervision a great basin was excavated in the Euphrates capable of taking 1,000 ships. He wanted to open a maritime route from Babylon to Egypt, round Arabia. Later, in the far north of his empire, he would seek a passage from teh Caspian Sea to the Northern Ocean.

By the summer everything was ready and a date fixed for his departure He spent two nights carousing with friends. Afterwards he awoke with a fever, which at first he dismissed as trivial. But soon he became delirious. The palace swarmed with generals, soothsayers, and priests making sacrifices and uttering incantations. Once, during a lucid moment, he was asked who should inherit his empire. His reply: "The best man."

One by one the men of his Macedonian army passed through the sickchamber, bidding him farewell. It is said that he recognised each man by name. He died as the sun was setting on the plain of Babylon. He was 32 years old.

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The following are excerpts from: Macedonia and Its Relations With Greece and Macedonia FAQ 8

The Ancient Macedonian Language

In Greece today people start from the a priori assumption the "Greek identity of Macedonia is an obvious fact". Identifying the Greeks from the ethnic and linguistic point of view with the ancient Macedonians is not scientifically supportable.

Although none of the Mycenaean scholars in the world takes seriously Greek hypothetical interpretations of the Mycenaean texts, Greek scholarship nevertheless wishes to discover in them "proofs" that the ancient Macedonians were Indo-Europeans, proto-Hellenes, and that their language was the oldest, purest and most conservative Greek dialect which at the same time cast a new light on the history of the Greek ethnos (Istoria tou Elinikou ethnous, Proistoria kai proto istoria, Athens, 1970). This thesis reached its culmination at the beginning of the 1980's when an unusual jubilee under the title of 4000 years of Greek Macedonia was celebrated with great pomp.

Ancient Macedonian House of PsalmsThe theory thus constructed has pretensions to scholarship, but in fact it starts out from unsupported presuppositions. The history of the Ancient Macedonians over a lengthy period of 1 600 years (2200-600 BCE) has been reconstructed on the basis of a pre-judgement that they could have been nothing other than Greeks.

In fact there is no argument that will prove any phase of a alleged close relation between the Greeks and the Macedonians in the ancient period. The assertation, very often emphasized, that there is no preserved documents about the language of the Macedonians, is unconvincing and is result of a prejudiced policy. It is impossible that the great and powerful Macedonian state should not have produced numerous administrative documentation. The question is where that documentation had been kept; is it still on that undiscovered place or is it destroyed, and if this is true who destroyed it and when.

Only about hundred words of the old Macedonian language are known. While earlier on Doric forms were being sought in the Macedonian words, Greek linguists are now investing great efforts in revealing archaic Aeolian, Arcado-Cypriot and Mycenaean parallels. The hypothesis that ancient Macedonian was closest to the Thessalian and Magnesian Aeolian dialect is based upon a fragment from Greek mythology in Hesiod (Fr.7-MW), that Magnes and Makedon were first cousins by the sons of Helen. It is methodologically unsound to reconstruct histor y on the basis of. The same myth offers a similar link between the Romans and Greeks, and consequently, according to the modern Greeks, this would imply that even the Romans were Greeks ??? It is clear that among the glosses there are borrowings from Greek which in antique times was a language of great prestige (as English and French are today, and Latin was in the Middle Ages).

"The Kultursprache of ancient Macedonians, as soon as they felt the need for one, was inevitably Greek, as it was in the case of various other ancient peoples. There was no feasible alternative. But as N.G.L. Hammond remarked, in the memorable closing words of volume I of his History of Macedonia, "a means of communications is very far from assuring peaceful relations between two peoples, as we know from our experience of the modern world."9
It is equally far (we might add) from betokening any consciousness of a common interest.

The Greek words however have been adapted according to a different, non-Greek phonetic system, just as English borrowed words from Latin (dignity = dignitas, tatis) and just as any language today borrows words from English and Latin (English Computer, Macedonian, Serbian, Croatian, Slovenian, kompjuter; or Latin - dignitas, tatis, English - dignity, Macedonian - dignitet). Here are some examples from ancient Greek and Macedonian:

Macedonian Greek
ade (sky) aither (air)
danos (death) thanatos (death)
keb(a)le (head) kephale (head)

But at the same time there are among the glosses such words that are not found in Greek but have parallels in other Indo - European languages:

Macedonian: aliza (a white layer under a bark of tree)
Slavonic: e/olha (a white layer under a bark of tree)

Macedonian: goda (innards)
Greek: entera (innards)
Old Indian Sanskrit: gudam (intestine)

From the analysis of the ancient Macedonian glosses it can be concluded that ancient Macedonian was an Indo-European language distinct from Greek. The well-known French Indo-European scholar A. Meje says that Greek is no closer to ancient Macedonian than it is to any other Indo-European language.

Another fact proving the idea that ancient Macedonian was a separate language is the fact that the mother tongue of Alexander the Great was not understood by the ancient Greeks: a fact of which there are explicit proofs. (Quintus Curtius Rufus, VI, 9, 37 ). Plutarchus wrote that the Macedonians had their own language:

"But, he [Alexander]...jumped up on his feet and started to call his shield bearer in Macedonian [and that was a sign of great danger]..."

Plutarchus, Alexander, 51.

The question of the use of the Macedonian language was raised by Alexander himself during the trial of Philotas, one of his generals accused of treason. Alexander said to Philotas:

"The Macedonians are about to pass judgment upon you; I wish to know whether you will address them in their native tongue." Thereupon Philotas replied: "Besides the Macedonians there are many present who, I think, will more easily understand what I shall say if I use the same language which you have employed, for no other reason, I suppose, than in order that you speech might be understood by the greater number." Then said the king: "Do you not see how Philotas loathes even the language of his fatherland? For he alone disdains to learn it. But let him by all means speak in whatever way he desires, provided that you remember he holds our customs in as much abhorrence as our language."

Quintus Curtius Rufus, Alexander, VI. ix. 34 - 36

There is no doubt that the letters sent by the soldiers to their relatives home were written in their mother tongue, in Macedonian.

Alexander in battleThose historical testimonies are strengthened by the information of N.Oikonomides about the existence of more then 5,000 writings in Macedonian, collected within the frames of the Greek program KERA, but not published in order not to be of use to the "State of Skopje", referring to the Republic of Macedonia. Oikonomides fully denied allegations of the scientists, that written material in Macedonian had not been preserved. Since they write about the Macedonians and their language, and define their ethnic affiliation, they had to take into consideration the serious rebuke and indications of N. Oikonomides (N. Oikonomodes, Book Review, History Department, University of Chicago, 1988, p. 121-6). By the way, only as information and without any suggestion let it be known that at his first visit to Greece after this was published, Mr. Oikonomides died suddenly, and the Greek authorities explained that as alcohol abuse.

But even if (the key word here is IF) the Macedonians might have spoken a form of Greek dialect, it still does not make them Greeks, and it does not nullify the proofs that say the opposite:

"Let us again look at the Jews - those who in the 1930s were living in Eastern Europe. Their names were Hebrew with a slight admixture of German and Slav elements; their alphabet and their sacred writings were Hebrew. Yet their vocabulary was largely, and the structure of their vernacular language almost entirely, that of a German dialect." 10

As a precious survival of a pro-nationalist world, they are of special interest in such comparisons. One wonders what scholars would have made of them, if they had been known only through tombstones and sacred objects. In any case, interesting though the precise affinities of Ancient Macedonian must be to the linguistic specialist, they are again of very limited interest to the historian. Linguistic facts as such, just like archaeological finds as such, are only some of the pieces in the puzzle that the historian tries to fit together. In this case, unfortunately, as every treatment of the problem nowadays seems to show, discussion has become bedeviled by politics and modern linguistic nationalism: the idea that a nation is essentially defined by a language and that, conversely, a common language means a common nationhood - which is patently untrue for the greater part of human history and to a large extent even today.

The allegation, groundless again, that the Macedonian population was not Slavic at all, is a great and complex historical question. Whether the thesis that the Slavs decided to come down to the Balkans much later, which is defined according to Greenberg's writings as a "nomadic-rural settlement" is true, is again an unconfirmed fact. We find confirmation of this thesis (especially) in the writings of G. S. Grinevich, dealing with the subject of pre - Slavic literacy (Genadij Stanistavlovich Grinevich, World History Department, Russian Physical Society, Moscow, 1994).

The decoding and the linguistic coding results that Grinevich had revealed show that the pre-Slavic literacy existed much before the creation of the letters and coding of the Slavic language by the brothers Sts. Cyril and Methody.

The most important argument to the proto-Slavic origin of the Macedonians is that Grinevich has decoded the inscriptions using a language, according to him, spoken by the Aegean Pelasti who were pre-Slavs (p. 175). Grinevich concludes that the pre-Slavic written language had been very close to the Old Slavic written literary language of all Slavs, the later was introduced by the brothers Sts. Cyrilus and Methodius and their students, Sts. Clement and Naum of Ohrid. Since we know the Old-Slavic language from the area around Salonica, it will lead us to the conclusion that that is the language of the Macedonians. The applied antonym Macedonians is in complete accordance to the Ph. Papazoglu's estimation:

Having ceased to exist as a state [after the Roman defeat]... Macedonian people did not vanish; it continued to exist within the frames of the new political community, then Roman State, preserving its ethnic characteristics, its language, religion and customs.

The presence of a pre-Slavic language, such as that one of the Pellastis, is not a new discovery. Even in the distant 1815 the German philosopher L.F. Pasof said that Homer's language is as a matter of fact a form of Slavic. In 1850 his work was translated in English and published in New York (a proof that this theory was not discarded once it emerged). Pasof said that Homer's lexic in the Illiad actually corresponds to the lexic of the Slavic Languages. Because contemporary Macedonian language is also a Slavic language, and according to a lot of research the ancient Macedonian language was of the same kind as the language of the Pellastis, being the oldest recognized Slavic language, it is very likely that contemporary Macedonian in certain laxic elements is like the Homeric Language.

It should be taken into consideration, that the Iliad became popular in Athens in 592 BCE, in the time of king Solon, and his heir, Pysistrates, ordered that the be Iliad translated and decorated in Greek so that the Greek people can be familiar with the victory of the Hellenic peoples over the non-Hellenes (M.N. Gjuric, History of Hellenic Literature, 67 - 8). Plutarchus says that the Iliad was not originally written in Greek, and that Solon used Homer's masterpiece in his own advantage:

Linguistic continuity between the ancient and modern Macedonians is shown by the continuity of the name of the ancient capital of Macedonia, Edessa. The Macedonians knew this city as 'Voden' long before linguists discovered that the Slavic name was a translation of the original name and that both meant "watertown." The Greeks, on the other hand, unless they study linguistics, do not know the meaning of the name.

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Ethnic Affiliation of the Ancient Macedonians

The Macedonians in Ancient times were an ethnic group of Indo-European origin, distinct from the ancient Greeks and the other neighbors (Illirians and Trakians). It is a common knowledge that the classical Greek authors did not recognize the Macedonians as fellow countrymen, calling them barbarians (non-Hellenes):

Makedonsko Sonce - KutleshThe ancient Macedonians regarded the Greeks as potentially dangerous neighbors, never as kinsmen. The Greeks unanimously stereotyped the Macedonians as "barbarians" and treated them in the same bigoted manner in which they treated all non-Greeks. Herodotus, the Father of History, relates how the Macedonian king Alexander I (498 - 454 BCE), a Philhellene, that is, "a friend of the Greeks", and logically a non-Greek, wanted to take part in the Olympic games. The Greek athletes protested, saying they would not run with a barbarian. The historian Thucydides, himself half barbarian, considered the Macedonians as barbarians. Demosthenes, the great Athenians statesman and orator, spoke of the Macedonia king Philip II as:

"...not only no Greek, nor related to the Greeks, but not even a barbarian from any place that can be named with honors, but a pestilent knave from Macedonia, whence it was never yet possible to buy a decent Slave." 11

The Hellenes considered Macedonian domination in the Greek states as an alien rule, imported from outside by the members of other tribes, the, as Plutarchus says, allophyloi (Plutarchus, Vita Arati, 16).

In his eighth book, Herodotus wrote about the ethnic affiliation of the Macedonian royal line and emphasized the Spartan thesis about Alexander I as a Macedonian. So, it was in interest of the Hellenes not to believe the Persian emissary, Alexander the Macedonian:

"Don't let the Alexander the Macedonian persuade you, he who sweetens the message of the Macedonians [the Persian Commander]. He has to do so since the tyrant cooperates with the tyrant."

Herodotus, The Histories VIII, 142.

The ethnic distinction between the Macedonians and the Hellenes is emphasized by other authors as well. Namely, Alexander III the Great, as Plutarchus wrote, told his soldiers:

"For the Macedonians, I will conquer the world...but not for the Hellenes."

Plutarchus, Alexander, 47

Ancient bronze utensilIt is very interesting and important to know according to what source and on what grounds, this very clearly stated commitment of the Macedonian king was made. Very often this statement is overturned by the Historians and his conquest is interpreted as an action in favor of the Hellenes and as an alleged cause of their uniting. The facts are clear, and do not allow any further interpretation.

However, the modern Greeks offer the idea that the Macedonians were just another Hellenic tribe. Proofs offered by the Greek side include sources such as Herodotus and Thukydides:

"..the Hellenic nation.. settled about Pindos under the name Makedon."

Herodotus, The Histories 1.56

"..all these (groups).. belong to the Dorian and Macedonian nation (and) had emigrated last from Erineus and Pindos and Dryopis."

Herodotus, The Histories 8.43

"Now that the men of this family are Greeks, sprung from Perdiccas, as they themselves affirm, is a thing which I can declare on my own knowledge, and which I will hereafter make plainly evident. That they are so has been already adjudged by those who manage the Pan-Hellenic contest at Olympia"

Herodotus, The Histories 5.22

"Hereupon Pausanias...addressed the generals, and said, - 'Since the battle is to come with tomorrow's dawn, it were well that you Athenians should stand opposed to the Persians and we Spartans to the Boeotians and the other Greeks;..."

Herodotus, The Histories 9.46

"Next to the Persians he placed the Medes, facing the Corinthians, Potideans, Orchomenians, and Sicyonians; then the Bactrians, facing the Epidaurians, Troezinians, Lepreats, Tirynthians, Myceneans, and Phliasians; after them the Indians, facing the Hermionians, Eretrians, Styreans, and Chalcidians; then the Sacans, facing the Ambraciots, Anactorians, Leucadians, Paleans, and Eginetans; last of all, facing the Athenians, the Plateans, and the Megarians, he placed the troops of the Boeotians, Locrians, Malians, and Thessalians, and also the thousand Phocians.. Besides those mentioned above, Mardonius likewise arrayed against the Athenians the Macedonians and the tribes dwelling about Thessaly"

Herodotus, The Histories 9.31

"`Alexander, I demand you remember Greece, for the sake of which you embarked on this expedition, with the intention to add Asia to Greece...so that by the Hellenes and Macedonians you are treated as a man in the way fitted for Hellenes to honor."

Arrian, Anabasis 4.11.7 - 12.1

Let's look at part of that quote: ...so that by the Hellenes and Macedonians you are treated as a man in the way fitted for Hellenes to honor...First, Arrian says "Macedonians and Hellenes". If Hellenes and Macedonians were the same, then this is the same as saying Californians and Americans. What are Californians, non - Americans??? No, they are Americans, therefore this phrase is wrong. If Arrian used and, then they are not the same, otherwise if he's such a great historical source he shouldn't make such big grammatical mistakes. It is not a mistake, but Arrian is saying that the Macedonians were not Hellenes!

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Conclusion

Excerpt from: Macedonia and Its Relations With Greece and Macedonia FAQ

Greek scholarship underestimates the migration of peoples, which fundamentally redrew the ethnic map of Europe, and especially of the Balkans, during the early Byzantine period. Macedonia has been represented as a buffer zone protecting Hellenism form the waves of the barbarians throughout the centuries. The Slavonic element in Greece is either denied or minimized and it is well known that the Byzantine historian Constantine Porphyrogenitus openly says that the whole of Hellas had been Slavicized. It is likewise a known fact that Slavonic tribes of the Ezerites and the Milingi were independent in the Peloponnese in the 7th and 8th centuries and did not pay tribute to Byzantium. If such facts are borne in mind, it is not difficult to understand whether Macedonia at that period was really a "Bastion of Hellenism".

There have been protests in Greece that the Republic of Macedonia has not used toponyms from the Aegean part of Macedonia in the forms which were given to them by a decree in 1913 and more specially in 1926 because this has called Greek sovereignty into question. Demelios J. Georgakas notes that in Peloponnese no matter which direction one moves one cannot go three miles without encountering a Slavonic place-name (D. J. Georgacas - W. A. McDonald, Place-Names in Southwest Peloponesus, Athens, 1967, 15). Similar statements have been made by Ph. Malingudis (Ph. Malingudis, Studien zu den Slavischen Ortsnamen Griechelands, 1. Slavische Flurnamen aus der messenischen Mani, Mainz, Akademie der Wissenschaften und der Literatur, 1981). If there are so many Slavonic place - names in the Peloponnese, how many more are there in the Aegean part of Macedonia where the Slavonic tribes dwelt? And today Slavs have been living there for a period of 1,400 years. What is more natural, than that the Balkanized Slavs who have lived so long and continuously in Macedonia should be called Macedonians and their language Macedonian.

References

Borza, Eugene N., In the Shadow of Olympus - the Emergence of Macedon, New Jersey, Princeton University Press, 1990
Macedonia and Its Relations With Greece, Macedonian Academy of Sciences and Arts, Skopje, 1993; p. 11
Macedonia and Greece-The Struggle to Define a New Balkan Nation, John Shea, McFarland and Company Inc., North Carolina, 1997; p.12
Borza, Eugene N., In the Shadow of Olympus - the Emergence of Macedon, New Jersey, Princeton University Press, 1990
Ernst Badian, (from Harvard University, History Department)
Macedonia Through the Ages, Jacques Bacid, Macedonian World Congress, 1983.
Chronicle of the World, Mercer, Derrick, et al., Dorling Kindersley Limited, London, 1996
Obtained from the Macedonia FAQ website. A project of RMacedonia.org
URL: http://faq.RMacedonia.org/
Studies in the History of Art Vol.10, Macedonia and Greece in the Late Classical and early Hellenistic Times, The National Gallery of Art, Washington, Prof. E. Badian, Department of History, Harvard University, Boston, Ma.
Ibid.
Ibid.

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© Copyright Macedonia for the Macedonians
Created and maintained by Bill Nicholov

[George S.]

Excerpt from: Makedonski Icelenuchki Almanac '97 1

Important Dates in Macedonian History

C. 653 B.C.
King Perdiccas I establishes the Macedonian Kingdom.

359-336 B.C.
Significant military and financial reforms carried out during the reign of Phillip II, determining the geographical, historical, and ethnic boundaries of Macedonia.

336-323 B.C.
Reign of Alexander the Great, King of Macedon. Macedonia reaches the peak of its military power. He spreads Macedonian culture to the East.

215-205, 200-193, 171-167 B.C.
Macedonian - Roman wars. Macedonia falls under Roman rule.

A.D. 535
The Byzantine Emperor establishes the town of Justiniana Prima (in the vicinity of Skopje), an important church (archbishop's seat) and political centre in the Balkans.

End of 6th and beginning of 7th centuries
Slavs settle the territory of Macedonia.

855
The brothers Cyril and Methody create the first Slavonic alphabet.

886
Clement comes to Macedonia, spreads Christianity in the Slavonic language and founds the Ohrid Literary School.

969
The sons of komes Nicholas (David, Moses, Aaron, and Samuil) rebel against Bulgarian authority and establish the medieval Macedonian state, which in 997 becomes the Macedonian Empire.

1014
Battle of Mount Belasica. The army of the Macedonian Tsar Samuil is defeated by the Byzantines.

1018
The Macedonian Empire falls under Byzantine rule.

1040-1042
Insurrection against Byzantine authority led by Petar Deljan.

1072-1073
Gjorgji Vojteh's insurrection based in Macedonia.

1371
The Battle of Marica and penetration of the Turks into the Balkans.

1395
Macedonia falls under Turkish domination. King Marko dies in a battle near Rovin.

1564-1565
The Mariovo - Prilep Rebellion, the first known rebellion of the Macedonian peasants.

1689
The Karpos Uprising, insurrection of the Macedonian people against the Turks in the Kriva Palanka and Kumanovo regions.

1767
The Abolition of the Archbishopric of Ohrid by an irade of the Sultan under the pressure of the Greek Patriarchate of Constantinople.

1822
The Negus Uprising, insurrection of the Macedonians for liberation in the Aegean part of Macedonia.

1876
The Razlovci Uprising, insurrection in eastern Macedonia which heralded the national liberation struggle.

1878-1879
The Macedonian Kresna Uprising, insurrection which adopted a constitution known as The Rules of the Macedonian Uprising Committee.

1894
Establishment of the Internal Macedonian Revolutionary Organization. Gotse Delchev joins the Organization.

1902
Foundation of the Slavonic - Macedonian Scholarly Literary Society in St. Petersburg, Russia.

1903
The Ilinden Uprising and the ten days of the Krushevo Republic.

1909
Establishment and activity of the Popular Federal Party.

1912-13
The Balkan Wars and Macedonia's partition with the Peace Treaty of Bucharest.

1914-1918
The First World War.

1919
The Treaty of Versailles sanctions the partition of Macedonia.

1924
The May Manifesto, resolution of the Communist Party of Yugoslavia on the right of the Macedonian people to self- determination.

1925
The establishment of the Internal Macedonian Revolutionary Organization (United).

1934
The Fourth Nationwide Conference of the Communist Party of Yugoslavia. This passed a decision on the establishment of a national party in Macedonia.

1936
Establishment and ideational-political formation of the MANAPO (Macedonian National Movement).

1936
Foundation of the Macedonian Literary Society in Sofia by outstanding Macedonian writers.

1940
The Fifth Nationwide Conference of the Communist Party of Yugoslavia. This passed a resolution on the equality and self- determination of the Macedonian people.

1939-1945
The Second World War.

1941-1944
Macedonia's participation in the Second World War (National Liberation War of Macedonia).

1944
Proclomation of the Macedonian state. (August 2).

1945
Formation of the first government of the People's Republic of Macedonia (April 16).

1945
Adoption of the Macedonian alphabet.

1946
Start of university education in Macedonian (Faculty of Philosophy).

1946
Adoption of the first constitution of the People's Republic of Macedonia.

1967
Foundation of the Macedonian Academy of Arts and Sciences.

1967
Proclomation of the autocephalous Macedonian Orthodox Church (Restoration of the Archbishopric of Ohrid).

1991
Referendum on a sovereign and independent state (September 8).

1991
Adoption of the Constitution of the Republic of Macedonia (November 17).

1993
Macedonia is admitted to the United Nations.

1995
Macedonia becomes a member of the Council of Europe.

Prepared by the Institute of National History


Click here for a chronology of the rule of Greece in Aegean Macedonia


Reference

Makedonski Icelenuchki Almanac '97, Matitsa na Icelenitsite od Makedonija; Skopje: 1997; p. 39-41


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The Other Face of History - Part - 30














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The Other Face of History

Part – 30



By Stoian Kochov

Translated and edited by Risto Stefov

[email protected]

December 15, 2013



***



Macedonians showed themselves to be trustworthy and such trust served as a mobilization success factor. But then came what was unexpected: thousands of our Macedonian young people being sent by Markos’s orders to the depths of Greece. And what was their fate? That’s a different story; most of them disappeared as if walking through a pit of quicksand. I will mention this; I was among the 350 young men, aged 17 to 18, recruited from the Macedonian villages Turie, Bapchor, Visheny, Kolomnati etc. between October 5th and 10th, 1947 who were sent to the Headquarters in Epirus and Antihashia and who fought in Konitsa. I was among the few who survived when about two thirds of us left our lives on those battlefields. But let us see how our history assessed our sacrifice:



“The Macedonian military formations, now units of DAG, were sent south into Greece in order to strengthen the existing partisan movement there. And they truly furthered the armed struggle in that part of the country…” (See: Kiriazovski 1985/166).



***



That is exactly why we Macedonians, during the Greek Civil War, were unable to impose our political or military will and shift the orientation of our struggle towards defending and saving our homeland and preventing the eradication of our homes.



And what happened to us after the war? For Greece we no longer existed! And for the communists who got us into this mess in the first place, we were nothing… For the last half century or so we were nobodies; after this war no one cared about how the Macedonians from Greek occupied Macedonia coped or how they existed, roaming the world as permanent refugees…



The CPG 3rd Plenum was held from September 15 to 17, 1947 in order to discuss military matters. This was when the famous slogan: “All to arms and everything for victory!” was coined. This was when it was also decided to create a free territory in the Kozheni plateau, which was surrounded by the mountain Massifs of Pindus, Pieria, Karakamen, Kaimakchalan and Vicho.



September 27, 1947 – The General Headquarters of Markos’s Partisan units, before the Democratic government was declared, which makes this act illegal, issued orders to mobilize fighters aged 17 to 35 years. But after this mobilization, because it was carried out only in the Macedonian villages, only 15,000 to 17,000 fighters were mobilized. Just for comparison: in the spring of 1946 when the Greek Civil War began, the Greek government possessed the following numbers: 27,000 policemen from whom 14,000 were from Northern Greece (i.e. Greek occupied Macedonia); paramilitaries about 5,000; national military units 17,000 (40 battalions); 75,000 regular soldiers (7 armies and two free brigades) (See: “DAG-strategic issues and management tactics,” G. Maltezos Dzhumerkiotis, p.60).



According to Dzhumerkiotis: “It is well known that in 1947 DAG had not resolved either the issue of military supplies or the issue of arming its fighters with ordinary battle machine guns and other battle assets, as well as ammunition. It also remains to be explained why on the one hand Zahariadis gave Markos orders to increase the number of fighters in DAG to 60,000 while Ioannidis gave Markos orders to acquire arms for only 4,500 thousand fighters. It is also well known that Markos, in 1947, ended up sending home thousands of fighters who wanted to voluntarily enter the ranks of DAG.” (p. 354). The question is: “Why did General Marcos conduct an illegal mobilization only in Macedonia, mobilizing young and old and wreaking havoc on the Macedonians?”



The decisions made by the CPG Central Committee during the 3rd Plenum, held in Belgrade in September 1947, is also a problem for Greek analysts. According to Gusias (p.251) the Plenum was attended by only six CPG Central Committee members and several military personnel, but not a single Macedonian was present!



The Plenum decided to oblige DAG General Headquarters to start mobilizing recruits right across the country so that by March 1948, there would be 60,000 armed fighters in DAG. At the same Plenum it was decided to switch fighting tactics from self-defense to going on the offensive and take power by force. To achieve this goal plan “S” was put into effect, also known as operation “Lake”. This plenum also coined the slogan: “All to arms and everything for victory!” At this Plenum it was decided to create a free territory on the Kozheni plateau, which was surrounded by the mountain Massifs of Pindus, Pieria, Karakamen, Kaimakchalan and Vicho. The plan was to liberate the towns Lerin, Voden, Negush, Sobotsko, Konitsa and others as a first stage to liberating all of Greece.



From what was said above, there is clear confirmation that all these decisions were made without Macedonian presence or consent and that the Greek Civil War was intended to be fought in Greek occupied Macedonia. All this was decided at the Belgrade Plenum in September 1947 with no Macedonian representation!



Mobilization beyond the borders of Greece to include all those people who had fled to Yugoslavia to save themselves from the Greek terror



September 27, 1947 – DAG Headquarters ordered the mobilization of all men between the ages of 17 to 35. With much intensity, over the course of 4 to 9 months, the Macedonian political refugees who had fled to Yugoslavia and were living in Skopje, Veles, Shtip and Bitola were also mobilized into DAG and shipped from Yugoslavia to the front in Greece, in trucks covered with tarps during the night. (See: F.M INI SK.4-271/60 p.73-76).



(42) Memorial service for 150 young people was held in Shtip. The 150 were forcibly taken from sovereign Yugoslavia and sent to Greece to fight in the Greek Civil War where they were all killed. The reason they were taken to Greece was because they were born in Greek occupied Macedonia. In the pages of “Н. М.” of May 29, 1994 the person who took these young people and made them pay their “national debt”, showed them the way to their “freedom” and left their bones in Gramos was openly identified. That person was “sindrofos Michos” (who presented himself as a politician, revolutionary and mobilization officer). He said: “…I came to Skopje and in four months I recruited hundreds of fighters into the ranks of DAG!”







ДРУГОТО ЛИЦЕ НА ИСТОРИЈАТА - 30

Стојан Кочов



***



Таквата доверба, послужи како мобилизационен успешен фактор. Но, потоа, се случи она што не се очекуваше: илјадници наши Македонци се најдоа(беа испратени) по налог на Маркос во длабината на Грција, а каква им беше судбината, тоа е посебна прикаска, оти се знае дека тие исчезнаа како во жив песок. Само ќе наведам дека и јас сум едно од тие млади момчиња (сите бевме на возраст од 17-18 година), кога на 5-10 октомври 1947 година, околу 350 деца бевме регрутирани (од селата. Турје, Бапчор, Вишени, Кономлати и др) од Македонија за штабовите во Епир и антихашија, за кои по борбите во Коница не останавме ниту една третина. Но, да видеме, како го има оценето таквиот зафат нашата историја:



“Македонските воени формации, сега единици на ДАГ беа испратени во внатрешноста на Грција со цел-да се омасови и таму партизанското движење. И НАВИСТНА МНОГУ ПРИДОНЕСОА ЗА РАЗВОЈОТ НА ВООРУЖНАТА БОРБА И ВО ТИЕ ПОДРАЧЈА. “. (Види: Кирјазовски 1985 /166).



***



Ете зошто ние Македонците во Граѓанската војна не можевме да му наметнеме, ни политичка ориентација, ниту воена ориентација или некаква стратегија и требаше да сватиме дека татковина не се брани со уривање на домовите и искоренување на човекот.



А по таа војна што не снајде ние -Македонците по војната за државата Грција не постоеме, ниту пак комунистите, пола век не не побараа и не не заштитија... Од 15 до 17 септември 1947 година е одржан III-от Пленум на КПГ, на кој се расправало за воените прашања. На пленумот е истакната паролата: “Сите на оружје, се за победата!” Решено е да се создаде слободна територија на Кожанската висорамнина, која е опкружена со планинските масиви на Пинд, Пиерија, Каракемен, Кајмакчилан и Вичо.



На 27 септември 1947 година, Главниот Штаб на партизанските единици на Маркос (бидејки уште не беше прогласена Демократската влада, а тоа е незаконито и недозволено) издава наредба да се изврши моболизација од 17 до 35 години. Но, и по оваа мобилизација, бидејќи се спроведе само во македонските села одвај ја достигна бројката од 15.000 до 17.000 борци учесници во ДАГ. Само за споредба: пролетта 1946 година кога почна Граѓанската војна, Владата на Грција располагаше со следните оружени сили:



27.000 милиционери од кои 14.000 имаше во Ворија Елада (Е. Македонија);



Парадржавни организации околу 5.000;



Национални воени единци 17.000 (околу 40 батаљони);



Редовна војска од 75.000 војници (7 армии и 2 слободни бригади), (Види: ”ДАГ-стратешките прашања и тактиката на раководењето”, од Г. Малтезос-Џумеркиотис стр.60). Тој понатаму пишува:” Познато е дека во 1947 година ДАГ, не само што го немаше решено прашањето за воените резерви, туку го немаше решено и прашањето на вооружувањето со обичните бојни пушкомитралези и други бојни средства, но и муниција и тоа останува необјаснето, зошто од една страна Захаријадис му даваше на Маркос наредба да го зголеми бројот на силите во единиците на ДАГ до 60.000, а Иоанидис на Маркос му даваше (обезбедуваше) вооружување само за 4.500 илјади борци, а пак тој Маркос се до крајот на 1947 година враќаше илјадници симпатизери-војници кои сакаа доброволно да стапат во редовите на ДАГ” (стр.354). Се поставува прашањето:Зошто генерал Маркос само во Македонија вршеше незаконски мобилизации, од старо до младо и направи пустош од Македонците?



Проблем за грчките аналитичари е и решението на 3-от Пленум на ЦК на КПГ што се одржа во Белград, во септември 1947 година, и како што пишува Гусиас (стр.251), на пленумот присуствуваа само шест членови на ЦК на КПГ и неколку воени лица, но ниту еден Македонец.



Пленумот реши и го задолжи Главниот Штаб на ДАГ да почне со мобилизација во целата земја и до март 1948 година наоружаните сили на ДАГ да нарасне на 60.000 борци. На истиот Пленум е донесено решение, од централното тежиште на самоодбрана да се премине во напад, во борба за власт. За постигнување на таа цел беше изработен воено-оперативен план “С”, односно познат како “Езеро”. На овој Пленум се истакна и паролата: ”Сите на оружје, се за слободата!” Решено е да се создаде слободна територија на Кожанската висорамнина, окружена со планинските масиви на Пинд, планината Пиерија, Каракамен, Кајмакчалан и Вичо, и со тој план требаше да се ослободат градовите Лерин, Воден, Негуш, Соботско, Коница и други. Тоа би било како прва етапа за ослободување на Грција.



Ете, сето ова ни потврдува и е уште еден непобитен факт, дека се сакало Граѓанската војна да биде лоцирана во Егејскиот дел на Македонија, а тоа било решено во Белград на тој пленум, без никаков обѕир спрема македонскиот народ и неговата судбина, туку се во интерес на туѓите политички цели.



Мобилизации надвор од границите на Грција на сите луѓе кои имаа пребегано од теророт во Југослвија



На 27. 09. 1947 година, Главниот штаб на ДАГ издаде наредба за мобилизација на сите мажи од 17 до 35 години. Со не помал интензитет, веќе за неколку месеци (од 4-9 месеци) се вршеше мобилизација на бегалците Македонци (политичката емиграција во Југославија) низ Скопје, Велес, Штип и Битола, од разни Ворјасовци и се испраќаа во единиците на ДАГ (Види: Ф.М во ИНИ, СК.4-271/60, стр.73-76).



(42) Панихида во Штип за 150 млади, кои беа насилно земени од суверената Југославија и испратени во суверена Грција, во прегратките на смртта во Граѓанската војна, само затоа што тие беа родени таму...) . На страниците на “Н.М” од 29 мај 1994 година веќе и отворено се идентификува кој го правел таквиот “национален долг” и им го покажал патот до “слободата”, на овие млади луѓе, кои што ги оставија коските на Грамос. Тоа е синдрофос Мичос (како што се претстави: политичар, револуционер и мобилизатор). Тој вели: “...Дојдов во Скопје и за четири месеци испратив стотина борци во редовите на ДАГ” (Во заклетвата на борецот во редовите).






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[George S.]

The Other Face of History

Part – 10



By Stoian Kochov

Translated and edited by Risto Stefov

[email protected]

October 6, 2013



Was the program accomplished by the CPY/CPM? No! Was it terrible for the Macedonians! Yes!



As I said before, by now we have enough facts to give us a glimpse of our true past. If facts are a sacred thing then, right from the start, let us confess that there were no Macedonian National coats of arms, crests, flags or any other kind of symbol used in the five year war period (Greek Civil War). So what exactly makes this war a “Macedonian Revolution” as we are led to believe by historian Kiriazovski in his many books? And now in the epilogue of his latest book he wrote:



“… an attempt has been made to give tribute to the magnificent struggle of the Macedonian peoples from the Aegean part of Macedonia, a struggle which had a deep national and progressive character…!” Further down he wrote: “…The armed struggle of the Macedonian people from Aegean Macedonia in the period from 1945 to 1949 represents a continuation of earlier struggles for survival and for political and national equality and freedom.” (215, 216).



Again, as I said before, it was by no “accident” that the history of the “Macedonian people from Greek occupied Macedonia” was written in this manner and as such we should not believe the illusions presented to us without hard, objective and analytical historical facts to back them. The people from Greek occupied Macedonia experienced a traumatic tragedy and deserve to know why they were lied to and who brought the evil that destroyed their lives and uprooted them from their native home forever.


The Greek Civil War turned us into a mass of faceless people, and in fact this was the goal of those who designed the war.



I say again; I don’t know why we are so timid and don’t have the courage to come out and tell the whole truth about our Macedonian tragedy and admit that it was a conspiracy; since all facts point to that.



The first “external” reason for the alleged “Macedonian Revolution”, we are told, was to “Unite Macedonia”.



Here’s why this was not possible: Let us first examine how the Balkans were divided after WW II!



A historic meeting took place from October 10 to 20, 1944, (14) in Moscow where Stalin and Churchill discussed the fate of the Balkan peoples and how the Balkans were going to be divided between Russia and England.



It was during this October 10th, 1944 famous meeting that an agreement was reached where Greece was to go under the British sphere of influence while the rest of the Balkan countries were to remain under the influence of the Soviet Union.” By extension: <ΞΕΝΟΚΡΑΤΙΑ>, ΠΑΠΥΡΟΣ, ΑΘΗΝΑΙ, 1975.



So, was this decision and agreement not clear enough for us Macedonians? Were the decisions of two super powers not enough of a deterrent for us Macedonians?



This of course, logically leads us to the next question: Do you really think that after the Balkans were divided into spheres of influence, we Macedonians had a chance of “Uniting” Macedonia? Or was the Greek Civil War a Balkan sized conspiracy to destroy us?! Which is more believable?



After the world was split into two irreconcilable camps, East and West, one side aimed to exterminate its class of enemies by filling the Siberian camps with political prisoners. The other side, meanwhile, persecuted the communists at an unprecedented level, us Macedonians along with them; by ethnic cleansing us from our own homeland and by perpetrating genocide against us with the ultimate goal of driving us all out of our ancestral hearths forever.



These acts perpetrated against us are neither offered nor explained in Kiriazovski’s book, which leads us to wonder:



“Did the evil that befell the Macedonian people in Greek occupied Macedonia fall from the sky?! Or did someone intentionally bring it there? Perhaps not willingly but, nonetheless, the Macedonian people did suffer and need to know:



“Who activated the “Macedonian syndrome” of (self) sacrifice in the years 1945 to 1949 and why?!”



“Why did the CPY/CPM do this (1945-1946) before the Greek Civil War started? Why did they organize the Macedonian people and push them to fight against the Greek Monarcho-Fascist human flesh grinding machine, when they very well knew that the borders between Yugoslavia and Greece would not change and would remain “status quo”? Was it not Tito himself who spoke so many times in speeches and in diplomatic circles against a “United Macedonia”? So why push the people to fight for a “United Macedonia”?



After living with them for nearly 40 years, from 1900 to 1940, did we Macedonians not know what the Greeks were capable of? And now that 100 years have passed let us ask ourselves: “How have the Greeks changed?” They have not changed at all! After annexing Macedonian territories, the Greeks have been persistent; have never stopped, in their pursuit of the Macedonian heritage. They have never subsided in their quest to wage a fascist ideological war against us with aims of exterminating us and everything that we stand for. It has been a historic mission for them to trample on us, on our culture, our history, our traditions, our language and to deny us our identity since they first laid hand on our Macedonian territories.



There was massive fraud committed against us in the years 1940 to 1950. The communist Greeks, because they were communists, seemed to show some more understanding for us Macedonians but when it came to our National interest (human rights) they were no different than their Fascist counterparts. When it came to recognizing the rights of the Macedonian people, both the Left and the Right proved to be the same. This is an irrefutable confirmed fact which holds true to this day!



Historian Kiriazovski, who had been silent on this subject for years, now claims that both Yugoslavia and Greece interfered in the Greek Civil War.



Who actually were our allies in the Greek Civil War? The answer is: No one! Not even the CPM because it was completely subordinated to the CPY.



First axiom: The Macedonian people from Greek occupied Macedonia, from October 1944 to October 14, 1946 were led by the CPY/CPM during which time the Macedonian Organizations NOF and AFZH were formed with their own programs, goals and objectives. And as such, NOF took its instructions from the CPM Central Committee.



The first instructor to instruct NOF was a Slovenian named Miha Marinko. After him came Nikola Minchev and Dimitar Dimitrievski - Pekar. Who could have even imagined that at that time those people were preparing the Macedonian nation for war? Imagine, this little group of instructors playing “god” with the lives of the Macedonian people.



The hidden evil had a face and a name but eluded Macedonian history for the last 60 years.



Second axiom: How and why did the “Macedonian story” remain in the shadows from October 1946, when “Tito surrendered the Macedonian people from Greek occupied Macedonia, like slaves, to Zahariadis (15)”, until August 27, 1949 when the Greek Civil War, under the leadership of the CPG, ended.



Also let us not forget another, a second “internal strategic obstacle” that stood in the way of a “United Macedonia” and that was the “new ethnic composition” of the population in Greek occupied Macedonia which had recently changed with the colonization of the Macedonian territory with 660,000 newcomer colonists delivered to Macedonia after its 1913 division. (16) This particular group of colonists came from Asia Minor and although they were Christian by religion, they were a multi-ethnic group consisting mainly of Turks, Armenians etc., who in Greece were considered to be Greeks. These people, combined, made up a large chunk of the total population in Greek occupied Macedonia and would have opposed and resisted the Macedonian territory being separated from Greece. General Markos Vafiadis, who led DAG during the early part of the Greek Civil War, belonged to this group of colonists brought to Greece from Asia Minor. Do we seriously believe that he would have led a “Macedonian Revolution” and would have acted against his own personal and his people’s interests?



And how can we forget the circumstances that brought those Asia Minor colonists to Macedonia in the first place? How could we forget the 1913 genocide perpetrated against the Macedonian people to make colonization possible in Macedonia? The Macedonian people in Greek occupied Macedonia have experienced continuous waves of ethnic cleansing and genocide from 1913 to 1940 (17). It is well known that Greece, through a number of diplomatic maneuvers and population exchanges has managed to exile countless Macedonians from Greek occupied Macedonia. Legal, by signed conventions, or by any other means they are judged by history as evicting people from their own native homes, and that in my book makes them illegal and immoral. Just because they were done by “signed conventions” does not make them less painful for those involved!



Even though Greece was charged with the responsibility of “caring” for the people living on Macedonian soil when it was awarded its share of Macedonian territory by the 1913 Treaty of Bucharest, Greece it seems, was more interested in “grabbing” the territory than caring for the people or respecting their rights as Macedonians. In fact, by repeatedly ethnically cleansing Macedonian territory of its Macedonian population, Greece has demonstrated continuous and uninterrupted genocide! It did this under the conventions:



a) The Neuilly Convention signed on November 27, 1919 between Greece and Bulgaria. By virtue of this convention alone, Greek authorities forced 86,517 Macedonians out of their native homes and expelled them to Bulgaria.



b) Then came the Treaty of Lausanne signed in July, 1923 after the Greko-Turkish war ended. This Treaty called for the compulsory exchange of populations between Greece and Turkey. The Greko-Turkish War (1919-1922) was Greece’s last historic, small but ambitious, attempt to expand the Greek kingdom, to realize the “Megali Idea” of a Greater Hellas. Through the Treaty of Lausanne, Greece forcibly exiled 354,000 ethnic Macedonians because they were Muslim by religion.



The consequences of these so-called “legal” acts are indescribable and have caused unprecedented genocide against the Macedonian population not only because 354,000 ethic Macedonians were evicted from Macedonian territory but also because 660,000 Asia Minor colonists were deposited in Macedonia, who in fact changed the Macedonian demographic for the first time in Macedonia’s history. The colonists or “Prosfigi” or “Madzhiri” as the Macedonians called them, or “Ponti” as they called themselves, spoke their own languages which were not Greek, and during the wars of 1940 to 1949 the Macedonian people wholeheartedly accepted them for who they were. Now it seems, official Greek policy is to call them “autochthonous Macedonians” while they deny the real Macedonians their rights and identity. Greek propaganda now claims that a population of 2.5 million pure Macedonians lives in “Greek Macedonia”; this includes their Prime Minister Karamanlis who is an Asia Minor colonist.



If identity is inherited from our ancestors then how can these Asia Minor colonists call themselves “indigenous Macedonians” and legal heirs to the indigenous, centuries old Macedonian heritage?! Since the idea of annexing Macedonian territories got inside the Greek heads, Greeks on both sides of the ideological fence (left and right) have been busy creating various identities for us and for those replacing us. While the Greeks were busy finding new names for us and calling us “Bulgars”, “Bulgarophone Greeks”, “Slavophone Greeks”, “Slavs”, Skopjans, Gypsies etc., they never hesitated for an instant to call the newcomer Asia Minor colonists and settlers “Macedonians”. Even the colonists and settlers themselves are shamelessly encouraged to tell the world that they are Macedonians, descendents of the ancient Macedonians (and therefore Greeks)!



Yesterday’s colonists and settlers from Asia Minor today are today’s modern Greeks, descendents of the ancient Greeks, Spartans, Athenians, Thracians, Byzantines, Epirotes, Macedonians and what not! The real Macedonians, on the other hand, have no right to their own identity. But, from old demographic maps and census statistics, we very well know what kind of people used to live in that part of Macedonia. According to these old stats, Macedonians, Turks, Armenians, Albanians, Vlachs and others used to live in that part of Macedonia. With the exception of the colonists and settlers, a Christian Turkish population, brought there in the 1920’s, the same people (Macedonians, Turks, Armenians, Albanians, Vlachs and others) still live there. So we don’t need Greek lies and Greek myths to tell us who we are and who else lives amongst us!



NOTES:



(14) Here is what Churchill wrote in his memoirs about the Balkans: We arrived in Moscow in the late hours of October 9, 1944. We had our first significant meeting and counseling in the Kremlin the next day, October 10. Attending the meeting were Stalin, Molotov, Eden and myself. The Majors Boris and Popov performed the translations… An agreement was reached on the division of spheres of influence. Under this deal, Greece was entirely left to the British sphere of influence, with rights, if necessary at any time to be able to intervene with all possible means.



(15) Nikos Zahariadis was born on April 27, 1903 in Edirne, Eastern Thrace. His father was employed as a clerk at “Razim”, a French commercial tobacco company based in Constantinople. From 1911 to 1912 Nikos Zahariadis lived and attended school in the “Ibin Paiko” settlement in Skopje, where his father worked as a representative of the “Razim” Company. In 1913 he moved to Solun. In 1922 and 1923 he worked as a sailor, a job which took him to the Soviet Union where he became a member of the Communist Party. In 1924, with the exchange of populations between Turkey and Greece, Zahariadis’s family was moved to Greece. In 1924 he visited the famous Communist University of Eastern European nations KUTVE in Moscow. Nikos Zahariadis was leader of the Greek communist movement and secretary general of the CPG from 1936 to 1956. Zahariadis treated the CPG like a cult and had absolute confidence in Stalin and his Communist Party, which he believed to be infallible. He himself admitted to this.

Zahariadis committed suicide in 1973 while serving a prison sentence in Sorgun, Siberia.



(16) As a consequence of the Balkan Wars (1912-1913) and the 1913 Treaty of Bucharest signed August 10, 1913, and sanctioned by the Neuilly Agreement, signed August 10, 1920, Macedonia was divided between Greece, Serbia, Bulgaria and Albania. Albania later was awarded Mala Prespa and Golo Brdo. Greece received 34,356 km2 or 51% of the Macedonia’s ethnic and historical territory; Serbia received 25,713 km2 or 39%; Bulgaria received 6798 km2 or 9.5% and Albania received 0.5%.



(17) See: a) Neuilly Convention and b) Treaty of Lausanne.







ДРУГОТО ЛИЦЕ НА ИСТОРИЈАТА - 10



Стојан Кочов







Се оствари ли таа програма КПЈ/КПМ? Не! Беше ли кобна за Македонците Да!



Но сега ги има доволно фактите кои ни овозмозуваат да го обелоденине нашето минато. Ако фактите се света работа, уште на почетокот треба да се каже дека низ петогодишниот период на Граѓанската војна намаше национални нишани со кои можеме да ја наречеме Македонска Револуција, како што тоа го правеше историчарот Кирјазовски во досегашните негови книги со искривените факти. Но тој, и сега во својот епилог на оваа книга, внесува стари и неодржливи заклучоци и пишува:



“Направен е обид да се даде почит на величествената борба на Македонците од Егејскиот дел на Македонија, која имаше длабок национален и прогресивен карактер...?” И понатака пишува: “Оружената борба на Македонците од Егејскиот дел на Македонија во периодот 1945-1949 година преставува продолжение, односно континуитет на поранешните борби за опстанок, и за политичка и национална рамноправност и слободи.” (215, 216)



Значи, ете како е пишува историјата и не треба да имаме некакви илузии, туку макотрпно, објективно и аналитички со историските факти кои ќе ни овозможат да ја согледаме трагедијата на Македонците од Егејска Македонија, а не да ги оправдуваме потезите на сите оние кои го донесоа злото и го измамија народот.



Граѓанската војна се претвори во маса безлични луѓе, а всушност тоа е беше и целта на тие што ја проектираа таа војна.



Не знам зошто, се криеме зад прстот и немаме смелост докрај да ја кажеме вистината на Македонската трагедија за која сите аргументи зборуваат дека тоа беше заговор.



Првата надворешна пречка за наводната револуција на Македонците за обединета Македонија.



Ете зошто: Да видиме како настана деление на Балканот по Втората светска војна?



“Од 10 до 20 Октомври 1944 година во Москва се случи едно меѓународно историско советување (14): Сталин и Черчил разговара и се пазареа. Што разговараа; за судбината на Балканските народи. Што се пазареа; за поделбата на народите по меѓу Русија и Англија.



Познатиот договор по меѓу Сталин и Черчил на 10 Октомври 1944 година во Москва за поделбата на сфери на влијание помеѓу Советскиот сојуз и Велика Британија фактички, му овозможи на премиерот Черчил да ја сочува за западните сојузници единствено Грција, додека сите останати Балкански земји останаа под влијание на СССР.” Поопширно: <ΞΕΝΟΚΡΑΤΙΑ>, ΠΑΠΥΡΟΣ, ΑΘΗΝΑΙ, 1975 (13).



Значи, зар ова за нас Македонците не беше доволно јасно и дека некој турка пред најголема и несовладлива стратешка пречка, не само од Грчките власти, туку и од двете супер сили: Англија и Америка?!



Логично следи прашањето: Дали навистина по поделбата на свери на влијание за нас Македонците не постоеше заговор од Балкански размери?!



По ова се подели светот на два непомирливи табори – Источен и Западен блок. И едните тежнеа кон истребување на класниот непријател полнејќи ги Сибирксите лагори, а другиот со невиден прогон на комунистите и конкретно со нас Македонците; етничко чистење со крајна цел – геноцид за навек губење на татковата грутка македонска земија и лишени од желбата за етничко однесување.



Такви елементи во книгате самиот Киријазовски ни ги нуди, но не ги објаснува? И човек се прашува:



- Злото во Егејска Македонија не падна од небото?! Туку некои организирано со умисла го донесе. Можеби не по нивна волија, ама на Македонецот треба да му се каже:



- Кој го активира конечно “Македонскиот Синдром” за нашето (само) жртвување во годините (1945-1949)!



- Зошто тоа го сторија КПЈ/КПМ (1945-1946) пред да почне Граѓанската војна? Го организира и турна Македонскиот народ во монархофашистичката машина за мелење човечко месо, кога се знаеше дека границите по меѓу Југославија и Грција се “status quo”. Нели, самиот Тито, беше против за обединета Македонија?



Дали ние Македонците не знаевме дека Грците четириесет години (од 1900 до 1940, а сега поминаа сто години, а тие си останаа исти) против нас низ историјата водеа идеолошка фашисоидна политика со геноцидни цели. Грците владаи во анектираната територија на Македонија ја имаа сотрено: културате, историјата, традицијата и јазикот кој беше основнен идентитет.



За голема измама во годините (1940-1950) надежта доаѓаше од фактот што тие се комунисти и имаат поголем слух за нас Македонците, но сите тие, и левицата и десницата во однос на нашите национални интересе се покажаа дека се исти. Тоа сега го потврдуваат многу непобитни факти.



Историчарот Киријазовски, низ изнесените факти пишува и сега тврди дека низ годините на Граѓанската војна, буричкале две држави (Југославија и Грција), а тоа значи и две вистини:



- Кој беа всушност нашите сојузници во Граѓанската војна? Одговорот е: Никој! Па ниту ни КПМ, бидејќи таа беше целосно потчинета од КПЈ.



Првата аксиома: Од октомври 1944 година до 14 Октомври 1946 година, Македонците од Егејска Македонија биле под раководство на КПЈ/КПМ и дека “Оформените Македонску организации НОФ и АФЖ имале свои програмски цели и задачи. И дека работата на НОФ ја раководеа инструктори на ЦК на КПМ.”



Прв иструктор беше Словенецот Миха Маринко, потоа Никола Минчев и Димитар Димитриевски-Пекар. И кој би можел денес да помисли и сфати дека луѓе во сопсвеното време има ангажмани и непосредна врска со активизмот; како да го турната масовно Македонскиот народ во војна, а оваа група луѓе како инструктори кои си играа мали богови со големи овластувања.



Притаеното зло имало лице и име а се притајуваше цели 60 години во Македонската историја



Втората аксиома: Како и зошто Македонската приказна остана во сенка. Од Октомври 1946 година кога “Тито им ги отстапива (1946 година) Егејските Македонци (како робовите – моја забелешка) на Захариадис (15)” до 27 Август 1949 година (кога заврши војната под раководство на КПГ).



Но да не заборавиме дека Втората внатрешна стратешка пречка за револуција на Македонците за обединета Македонија беше истотака промената на етничкиот состав на населението во Егејска Македонија со донесувањето на новородното население од околу 660 илијади, кое беше донесено по поделата на Македонија 1913 (16) година. (Тоа население беше со христијанска вера, но не беа исти по етничка основа. Тие беа од разни националности-Ерменици, Туркофони и други.)



Како можеше да се заборави дека во Грција над Македонците е вршено етничко чистење, токму во годините од 1913 до 1940 (17) година. Многу познати се фактите кога преку дипломатски трампи исчезнаа неброени Македонци, токму од Македонија под Грција. Душите ин ги сомле историјата по потпишаните конвенции и нивното иселување.



Грција, по освојувањето на “новите предели”, наместо почитување на правата на Македонците, таа почна со етничко чистење. Тоа го правеше со конвенциите:



А/ Нејскиот мировен договор потпишан на 27 Ноември 1919 година, по меѓу Грција и Бугарија. Грчките власти до 1925 година по силата на оваа конвенција речиси 86.517 Македонци беа принудени од своите родни огништа да заминат за Бугарија.



Б/ Потоа уследи и Лозанскиот мировен договор потпишан во 1923 година за задолжителната размена на населението меѓу Грција и Турција. Турско-Грчката војна (1919-1922) беше последен историски обид на малото, но амбициозно Грчко кралство да наметне и да реализира една дамнешна великодржавничка политика за “Мегали” и чиста национална Елада. Со Лозанскиот мировен договор од Македонија под Грција се иселија 354.000 Македонски муслимани.



Последниците од тие “легални” договори се неописив и е направен невиден геноцид и сето тоа падна на грбот на Македонците, бидејќи на нивно место беа донесени колонисти (само во Македонија) повеќе од 660.000 т.н. Просфиги-Маџири, односно Понтдии од Средна Азија (кои имаа свој посебни јазик и го зборуваа во Македонија, дури и за време на војните 1940-1949, а сесрдно беа прифатени од Македонците), кои денеска официјалната политика на Грција – ги претставува како автоктоно население од 2,5 милиони луѓе и дека тие денес се сметаат за Македонци меѓу кои е и премиерот Караманлис.



Ако наследството е идентитет, тогаш овие колонисти, како можат да градат идентитет на нашето староседелско вековно Македонско наследство?! Но, како самата држава, така и комунистите, упорно градеа идентитиет на нажето наследство, оти нивното го оставија во Мала Азија-Пондиаја. Сега најголеми гласоговорници се токму тие пред светот кажуваат дека тие се Македонци!



Тие денес претставуваат како современи Грци, но и претендираат да бидат Спартикијци и Тракицјци, и Визандици и Епирци, и Македонци и антички Грци, а што уште не! Само современите Македонци не можат да имаат свој идентитет. Но и од статистиката се знае дека токму во тој дел на Македонија (некои живееле) сега живеат голем дел Турци, Ермени, Власи, се разбира и ние Македонците.



ЗАБЕЛЕШКИ



(14) Денес на Балканот: Черчил го опишува во своето мемоари: “Пристигнавме во Москва во доцните часови на 9 Октомври 1944 година. На 10 Октомври ја имавме првата значајна средба и советување и се договоривме во Кремељ. Беше Сталин, Молотов, Иден и јас. Мајорите Бирис и Попов го извршуваа преводот...” Значи, постигната е согласност за поделба на интересни сфери. Според договорот, Грција беше целосно препуштена на Британското влијание, со право, по потреба во секое време, да може да интервенира со сите можни средства.



(15) Никос Захариадис, е роден на 27 Април 1903 година во Одрин (Адријануполис). Источна Тракија. Татко му бил вработен како службеник – експерт во Француската трговска команија за тутун “Рази” со седиште во Цариград. Никос Захариадис од 1911-1912 година живее во Скопје во населба “Ибин Пајко”, каде неговиот татко работел во преставништвото на споменатата компанја “Рази”. Во Скопје Захариадис заоди на училиште. Во 1913 година се преселува во Солун. Во 1922 и 1923 година како морнарски работник допатува во Советскиот Сојуз, каде се зачлени во КПСС. Во 1924 со размена на населенијата меѓу Турција и Грција, семејството Захаријадис се преселива во Грција. Во 1924 година го посетува познатиот комунистички универзитет за народите од Источна Европа КУТВЕ во Москва. Никос Захаријадис бил лидер на Грчкото комунистичко движење и генерален секретар на КПГ, од 1936 година до 1956 година. Захаријадис упорно го култивираше во редовите на КПГ култот и сета доверба во апсолутната непогрешност на КПСС и на Сталин, факт, како што и самиот призна, многу скоро го плати Грчкото комунистичко движење, Грчкиот и Македонскиот народ и самиот тој. Се самоуби како робијаш во градот Соргун во Сибир 1973 година.



(16) Како последица од Балканските војни (1912-1913) и со Букурешкиот мировен договор од 28 Јули (10 Август) 1913 година, санкциониран од Нејскиот мировен договор од 28 Јули (10 Август) 1920 година, Македонија беше поделена меѓу Грција, Србија, Бугарија и подоцна Албанија која ги доби Долна Преспа и Голо Брдо. Грција доби 34.356 км2 или 51% од Македонската етничко-историска територија; Србија 25.713 км2 или 39%; Бугарија 6.798 км2 9,5% и Албанија 0.5% од Македонската-историска територија.



(17) Види под А/Нејскиот мировен договор и под Б/лозанскиот мировен договор.




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[George S.]

N THE NEWS


SCHOLARLY CONFERENCE ON THE PARTITION OF MACEDONIA A GREAT SUCCESS!
Melbourne, 11 September 2013
The Australian Macedonian Human Rights Committee was honoured to host an international scholarly conference on the Partition of Macedonia and the Balkan Wars of 1912-13.
The conference was held at the Monash University Law Chambers from 4-7 September 2013.
The aim of the conference was to attempt a historical survey of the context and the effects, both short and long term, of the partition of Macedonia on the inhabitants of Macedonia, from a variety of perspectives, especially linguistic, sociological, anthropological and political.
The conference and subsequent post-conference dinner dance event attracted strong interest from the Macedonian community and beyond. A number of very high quality papers were delivered, resulting in stimulating discussions and scholarly debate.
Here is a brief summary of the papers/presentations:
Professor Andrew Rossos of the University of Toronto presented a paper on The Balkan Wars (1912-13) and the Partition of Macedonia: A Historical Perspective. In his paper Professor Rossos placed the partition of Macedonia in the context of the long history of the Macedonian question.
Professor Victor Friedman of the University of Chicago presented a paper titled The Effects of the 1913 Treaty of Bucharest on the Languages Spoken in Macedonia. His paper examined the fate of the languages spoken in Macedonia at the time of partition by the 1913 Treaty of Bucharest. Large segments of the population were bi- or multilingual, as evidenced, among other things, by folklore as well as the grammatical and lexical commonalities that characterize the Balkan Sprachbund.
Professor Katerina Kolozova of the University American College-Skopje made a presentation titled Living beyond identity in which she examined how a name points to the narrative of how one identifies, explains, defines, and positions oneself in the world.
Dr. Michael Seraphinoff Discussed two Significant Works of Macedonian Literature that Deal with the Balkan Wars and World War One.
Professor Keith Brown of the Watson Institute for International Studies, Brown University, USA, presented a paper titled How Trauma Travels. His paper sought to understand some of the mechanisms at work, focusing in particular on the transmission of trauma through history, memory and testimony.
George Vlahov of the Australian Macedonian Human Rights Committee presented a paper titled A Survey of the ‘Macedonian Question’ in Dialogue with Greek Nationalism. His paper surveyed the attempts of the Greek state and some of its supporters to provide historical justifications for preventing the international recognition of the Republic of Macedonia and for denying the right of present-day Macedonians to refer to themselves and their language as Macedonian.
Dr Vasko Nastevski also of the Australian Macedonian Human Rights Committee presented on The Partition of Macedonia and International Law: From Clausewitz to McDougall. His paper considered the different aspects of international law: from the legal and moral justifications to the preceding armed conflicts; the conduct of belligerents during those conflicts; and the ultimate division of the geographical territory known as Macedonia and the legitimisation of the partition through international treaty.
Professor Loring Danforth of Bates College USA wrote a paper titled The Scholar and the State: Evangelos Kofos on the International Recognition of the Republic of Macedonia. His paper offer an anthropological critique of Evangelos Kofos’ work on the Macedonian conflict, the “global cultural war” between Greeks and Macedonians over the name by which the Republic of Macedonia should be internationally recognized.
Professor Christina Kramer of the University of Toronto presented on Partitioning Language Policy and Status Planning in Macedonia. Her paper focused on how the partition of Macedonia in 1913 led to asymmetric developments in the Macedonian language and, more specifically, the use of Macedonian in a number of public and private domains.
Professor Peter Hill of University of Hamburg presented a paper titled The codification and elaboration of the Macedonian standard language under the conditions of partition. His paper focused on the codification of the Macedonian Standard Language. Like other European standard languages, the MSL contains both indigenous and borrowed elements.
Professor Grace Fielder of the University of Arizona presented a paper on Partition, Linguistic Identity and Language Standardization. Her paper focused on a specific problem of variation in a local linguistic practice in Sofia, Bulgaria, which cannot fully accounted for nor fully understood without reference to the partition of Macedonia in 1913.
Dr Akis Gavriilidis of University of Macedonia, Salonika presented on the topic Who was liberated in 1912? Parts, Wholes and States in partibus. His paper drew on psychoanalysis but also from other theoretical traditions such as translation studies, linguistics and philosophy.
Pandora Petrovska of La Trobe University presented a paper titled Recalibrating the past: using narrative and language education. Her paper explored some of the ways in which Macedonians in the Diaspora have dealt with the consequences of the partition of their homeland, namely the poverty which accompanied the partition, land dispossession and population exchanges. It also considered the refugee experience and the effects of forced migration.
Dr Jim Hlavac of Monash University presented a paper on Partition without fragmentation: a cross-perspective analysis of Macedonian language maintenance in Australia. His paper presented a study of Macedonian language maintenance across three generations of speakers. The study employed a multi-faceted analysis of a well-established speech community and draws on domain-focussed questionnaires, language attitude data, ethno-linguistic vitality questionnaires and video-taped narratives conducted in the minority language.
The conference papers will now be complied into a book which is expected to be published in 2014.
The Australian Macedonian Human Rights Committee would like to express its sincere gratitude to all the speakers and those who attended, as well as to the following sponsors of the conference: Macedonian Orthodox Community of Melbourne and Victoria (St.George, Epping); Australian Macedonian Youth Association; Macedonian Community of Adelaide and South Australia; Macedonian Australian Orthodox Community of Melbourne (Uspenie na Presveta Bogorodica, Sydenham); Macedonian Community of Brisbane; Jim Thomev; and Macedon Publishers and Translators.
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Established in 1984, the Australian Macedonian Human Rights Committee (AMHRC) is a non-governmental organisation that informs and advocates before international institutions, governments and broader communities about combating racism and promoting human rights. Our aspiration is to ensure that Macedonian communities and other excluded groups throughout the world, are recognised, respected and afforded equitable treatment. For more information please visit www.macedonianhr.org.au, email [email protected] or via +61 3 9329 8960.

AUSTRALIAN MACEDONIAN HUMAN RIGHTS COMMITTEE (AMHRC)
Suite 106, Level 1, 55 Flemington Rd
North Melbourne VIC 3051, Australia
Tel/Fax: +61 3 9329 8960
Email:[email protected]
Visit our website: www.macedonianhr.org.au