Macedonia & Greece: Name Issue

[King Makedon]

Thanks to the new governement the first steps are made for electing people as representatives, from the macedonian diapora (progonot) in USA,Canada,Australia and Europe, in the macedonian "sobranie" parliament.

May be we should make another thread towards this how to unify our all interests of the diaspora helping the republic and how the republic should help to people from the diaspora.

[The LION will ROAR]

I believe now Macedonians around the world would be more supportive...
Any protest that would be held..? A greater turn out will happen...
Someone from our readers who could write a letter to the Diaspora and others around the world or anyone who has any contacts.. to kick this off...

We need to be seen and have our say..!!!!

[King Makedon]

I don't know how the macedonian oganizations functions abroad Europe, but here in Europe it's really difficult to get them all together.
The diaspora must unite into one organization so that it may come true.

Maybe a good start is to organize a common orgnization for all macedonians living outside macedonia, with representatives for Europe, America,Canada and Australia aswell South-Africa and Southern America (a lots do live in Brazil, Argentina and Chile).
Communication within the organization should be for the beginnig via internet, later we should hold our own congresses where we can debate about our own issues and what our goals are for helping each other). We are brothers and sisters after all. a big family. I can do the part for Europe for example. but to visit and contact them all would take a year.

[Bratot]

I'm against divisional approach for Macedonian core since every single man of Macedonian origin on this world is equal carrier of our cause and in every one of us we can find common flaws and strength.

Every critic is welcome as well as there is selfcritic too.


Such global protest is achievable but of course it must be well synchronized to make effect.


If there is a real willingness I can try to rewoke the organization and to chose appropriate date, for me personally 2 of August would be the best option.

[makedonin]

It is noble Idea.

Ја се сумњам дека повеќе од сигурно ќе биде не синхронизиран потег како Илинден шо заврши.

Тука у Германија нема шанси да ги собереш на една забава, а па камоли на Протест

Само слушам патетични работи како "Други ни кројеа судбината, друѓи ќе продужат да ни ја кројат."

Ќе видеме.

[Mr. MASO]

We should be lke the tibetans just go crazy

[Diabolical]

this is a great idea... but how do we turn the spark into a blaze?

also how would we deal with the timezones lol? some cities will be copped with 3 in the morning lol

[Diabolical]

this is a great idea... but how do we turn the spark into a blaze?

also how would we deal with the timezones lol? some cities will be copped with 3 in the morning lol

damn double post >_<

What would we be protesting about? The name? Minorities in Greece?

[The LION will ROAR]

It doesn't matter about time zone...as long every city does it within a day...
I think Australia should lead the way...because Australia doesn't recongise Us as Republic of Macedonians..only because of the great number of Greeks in Australia especially in Melbourne..
I believe doing this, we will be herd...
Bring up the name issue and the rights for the Macedonian minority in greece, bulgaria and albanian...
And maybe start going crazy on that day...i know i will.....
With the internet, TV, Radio and Facebook we could spread the word....??????

[Diabolical]

I'm definitely all for it, however I'm concerned about the name issue. If the republic decides to then go ahead with the name North Macedonia, then the protest would be for nothing. Even so, it would be great if we could pressure the international community to look into the ethnic minorities in Greece (and actually do something about it, not just acknowledge it and hope it goes away on its own)

[King Makedon]

I'm still wondering why in Australia the macedonians couldn't manage it.
In Canada for example the situation is similar.
But the Canadians recognized Macedonia as Macedonia.

[Volk]

Now is not the time for massive protests as there no sense of urgency.

At the last Australian protests Macedonia was under massive pressure to change its name due to the NATO deadline.

[Rogi]

King Makedon, the Greeks are more involved and connected at the highest levels of politics in Australia, than they are in Canada or the United States.

For example, the current #2 of the political party forming Government is squarely in their pockets.

In Australia the numbers matter more. By that, I mean the number of Greeks involved in politics and lobbying, not so much population numbers.

Because of that, we have ethnic Greek branches of the major political parties, as well as many branches which were 'stacked' by the Greeks before the major parties began cracking down on branch stacking. This has subsequently led to Greeks being voted to State Delegate positions and then to Parliamentary candidate positions and finally to Ministerial positions.

Of course, it goes without saying that it's all possible because of the Greeks being rather organised, having sorted out many of their internal problems / in-fighting much earlier on than we have.

Without naming names, one senior politician has also said to us that for them, it is quite good that the Macedonian community is so disorganised and in shambles, for if we all worked as one, the politicians would not be able to ignore us any longer and that would cause problems for them with the Greeks.


But I'm confident that things are changing.

I think many more people are now getting involved who understand the Australian political system, speak fluent English, and have been raised in Australia and are educated at higher levels and the politicians seem to be taking notice of this now.

Soon enough they will not be able to ignore our community, whilst we're getting a lot smarter at understanding the contacts needed and who to get behind early on.

The responses of the politicians are changing too, their willingness to meet with us at the highest levels and discuss what our community wants and needs have completely changed, they seem to understand the change that is happening in our community and its leadership and they're responses are in line with that.



As for organising a protest, it does take a lot of work but it's not as hard as it used to be to get the numbers out, nor does it take as long to organise the protest. We organised the last one in just under a month and a half (compared to the big one in the 90's which took 6 months of hard work) - we may not be able to get as many as the big protest in the early 90's, but with mobile phones today (and SMS, etc) and with the Internet and the Radio and the TV and so on, we are definitely able to pull off another protest like the one we organised in Melbourne last year. But Volk is right, there also needs to be a simultaneous sense of urgency or pressure for their to be a real turnout.

[Thorvald]

Perhaps it might enlighten other Greeks (?)

[The LION will ROAR]

Hello Risto

Thank you for this article and the many other articles that you forward to me. I agree that the whole world needs to know the truth about Macedonia and the fact that we exist. As you know this is a theme in many of my poems. It is up to us the exiled Diaspora to make this happen. We have great power. We can not expect the Macedonians from Greek occupied Macedonia to take a major stance. They are too oppressed and down trodden. The people who remember the atrocities against Macedonians are getting too old. People are simply trying to survive under difficult political and economic situations, as are the Macedonians in Bulgaria and Albania.

The Macedonians in the Republic are presently too preoccupied with other political and national matters. However we in the Diaspora are in an excellent position to increase the world’s awareness of the Macedonian people, identity, history and denied rights. I like your idea of a mass demonstration. However for the world to notice us they need to take place around the world. On the same day and time if possible, in the major cities. They also need to be peaceful demonstrations, depicting our culture and educating the world of our existence. Banners should carry slogans such as “We are Macedonians, no one can deny our existence” and “I am a Macedonian, from Greek occupied Macedonia”. (Thank you for this term, which I often use when referring to my part of Macedonia). “I am a Macedonian and I exist” How about “Me a Greek? No thank you!”. It would be so much fun thinking up slogans.

At the early stages of the campaign, I believe that there should not be banners saying “Greeks do not exist”. Simply because this would not be believable to most people, as the Greek propaganda is too well entrenched for this to be believed. After all they have managed to convince many of us to question our identity. Some Macedonians are even convinced that they are Greek. In fact they have convinced the whole world with their lies and romanticized fabricated idea of what is Greece. A too aggressive initial attack will weaken our plight, as there would be resistance from the world’s population, which we are trying to educate to understand our situation. It would even detract from the messages that we are trying to convey. Only after the world populations are beginning to have doubts about the Greeks, and Greece is starting to lose some of its false façade, should we attack with banners reading “Greeks do not exist” or “Greek heritage is a myth”, etc.

We need strategies. There should be committees in every state, territory and city working on this campaign, in all the countries where Macedonians live, outside of the four parts of Macedonia. There has to be mass media coverage for maximum effect. Further, when the people of the oppressed occupied parts of Macedonia see in the media what their fellow Macedonians, outside of Macedonian soil are doing, it will give them greater confidence and they will feel less isolated and abandoned. Therefore it may give them greater courage to do whatever they can towards their plight for recognition.

These “committees” for want of a better word, should have the very best people in them, who are logical, genuine and passionate about the Macedonian cause. The committees should not only include men, but also women and Macedonian youth representatives.

Perhaps the campaign could cover:

1. The awareness of Macedonians as a separate nation, with its own culture and history.

2. Attempts to draw back the Macedonians who self identify as Greek or Bulgarian in the Diaspora.

3. Then the weaknesses and the propaganda of the Greeks and Bulgarians could be addressed, with banners as you suggested stating “Greeks do not exist”, etc.

For the above to be achieved it could take several years. Therefore there would need to be annual world wide demonstrations over several years.

Apart from any major demonstrations as mentioned above, we need to inform the people in our daily lives as to who we are. Not give mixed messages. We need to promote ourselves and culture. Greece does. It even promotes our songs, dances, culture and history as theirs.

What does this mean in our daily lives as Macedonians: Invite non Macedonians to our dances and cultural events and therefore not be too insular; do not carry our Greek imposed names and revert to our Macedonian names; when someone calls us Greek, correct them in a calm informative way; not get drawn into heated arguments with Greeks about our identity. After all we have the truth on our side. We calmly simply state our case. Generally we need to speak our truth whenever we can. If we convince in our daily lives small groups who know us and our integrity about the truth of who we are, collectively we can make a big difference. This could go a long way towards our fight for our rights. As a result demonstrations will have a greater impact. We may even get the sympathy of non Macedonians who may wish to join our demonstrations and therefore increase our numbers. We need to market ourselves. The Greeks have marketed themselves on untruths and have succeeded, so imagine what we could do, considering we do have the truth on our side. To be successful, we need to educate the world and no longer remain a secret, as our occupiers want us to be.

A couple of other comments I want to make: When I commenced my poetry readings at the front of a group of non Macedonian writers, academics etc., hardly anybody knew anything about the truth of Macedonia. Many if they even gave Macedonia a thought, simply believed the Greek propaganda. Now after hearing several of my poems on Macedonia, I am sure that if they saw a demonstration relating to Macedonia, they would have a different view of the Greek and Macedonian conflict.

The second point I would like to stress is, it disheartens me when I watch utube postings by Macedonians relating to Macedonia and Greece, and bad language is used referring to Greeks. I realize people are angry and frustrated, but let us keep our dignity. We do not need to swear. After all we have the truth on our side. Let us use the truth in our persuasions instead of swear words. Swear words are more likely to turn people off, rather than convey what we need the world to know about Macedonia and Macedonians.

Regards,

Lita

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