Australian Macedonian Human Rights Committee (AMHRC)

[julie]

AMHRC/MHRMI, thank you, you guys are awesome

[Mikail]

Keep it up TEAM keep it up

[Soldier of Macedon]

Excellent and strong statement, well done.

[Daniel the Great]

"There is no Macedonian minority in Bulgaria. In Bulgaria there are no minorities of any sort, however there are people who have human rights and our constitution is based on the individual rights of people and not collective rights”.

Is that man serious? no Macedonian minority in Bulgaria? and no minorities of any sort? why do they let him in Macedonia? next time they should tell him to piss off.

Any way well done AMHRC and MHRMI once again supporting Macedonia and the Macedonian people.

[Prolet]

Daniel, I posted the Sitel link ages ago remember?

Thank you very much AMHRC, this is fantastic

Sloboda i Pravdina za Makedoncite od Pirinska Makedonija!!!

Da Zhivee Makedonija!!

[AMHRC]

AMHRC Summer Review 2010

AMHRC Summer Review - 2010

In this issue of the AMHRC Review:

* AMHRC official visit to Canberra
* Detsa Begaltsi
* Greece blacklists Macedonians
* On the difficulties facing Vinozito
* Mike Rann in focus
* In review - Michael Seraphinoff
* AMHRC hosted the Melbourne premiere of a name is a name
* Every Premier has his price, and some go real cheap
* Igor Pavlovski of Denes interviews the AMHRC Executive
* MHRMI and United Macedonians contribute to Canadian Museum for Human Rights
* Macedonia and Greece: What is the basis for a reconciliation?
* MHRMI and AMHRC condemn Albanias state-sponsored discrimination against Macedonians
* The meaning of the term Skopian or Skopjan Could it be regarded as an example of synecdoche?


Download:

http://macedonianhr.org.au/reslib/docs/1274401551424.pdf

[makedonche]

AMHRC

Just had a quick skim through, looks fantastic, well done boys, onward and upward - whatever the cost -count me in!

[Grotius]

Well done. A Review that details and informs about actual activities being undertaken and from an organisation that works hard for Macedonian human rights everywhere. Look forward to hearing and reading more.

[AMHRC]

Thanks for the support; with the aim whetting appetites, here is an article from inside:

Every Premier has his price, and some go real cheap


It all gets a bit much to be constantly finding fault with our fellow human beings. Even more upsetting and tiresome is to have to complain about Australian politicians who consider any excuse is a good excuse for vote grabbing. Mike Rann, Premier of SA, about to face the music with the impending state election, is in the well-worn political tradition of acting in bad faith. He has shamelessly slandered the Macedonian people calling them robbers of the so-called Hellenic heritage of the modern Greeks who lay claim to Macedonia both ancient and modern.

The official Greek nationalist ideology of modern times has been centred on the following fictions: 1) “We were here first” (primacy) 2) “We have been here for the last 4,000 years” (continuity) 3) “We have always owned it” (ownership) 4) “We are great, important because the Greeks invented democracy, philosophy, science etc” (the world’s greatest over-achievers). These are the crucial elements of the fairy tale. A corollary of this is that non-Greeks are inferior or barbaric.

However, everyone who reflects on the matter will perceive that the only thing that does not change in history is the inexorable process of change itself. Even a casual glance at a map of the Balkans, let alone a rough idea of the comings and goings of different peoples in the region over the centuries, will give a prima facie indication that to claim Macedonia has been “Greek” for the last four thousand years is not merely an unsophisticated and unhistorical view, but a mad fantasy. It is as ridiculous as to claim that the people, language and culture of the existing Hellenic Republic has been around that long - every history book on Greece will tell you that it assumed its present borders in the second decade of the 20th century.

Apart from serving as a catch-cry to bolster Greek national significance and self-importance, the nationalist fairy tale has guided official Greek policies on its ethnic minorities.

But here, I want to bring the reader back to the real subject of this commentary. How on earth does one jump from these bizarre nationalist myths, to the accusation that the Macedonians are robbers of the Greek cultural heritage in self-identifying as Macedonians and who speak a language that is universally known as the Macedonian language and have a sovereign and independent nation state recognised by 130 nations, including the major powers?

Of course, Mike Rann is a politician and we all know that most, if not all, politicians are opportunists. Politicians anywhere are usually opportunists after their own fashion and what they can get away with determines their style.

Is Mr Rann, interested in “whatever it takes” to be re-elected? Indubitably, or why else would he go around saying appalling things about the Macedonians and think himself virtuous and rational with a right to his “opinion”. He has told the media he won’t apologise, even though his views are offensive and give further fuel to hatred of the Macedonians by the Greeks. He has been praised by former Labor Senator Nick Bolkus, a fund raising mate of his, who thinks everyone is entitled to their own opinion. So given this very broad criteria of what an acceptable “opinion” is implicit in the views expressed about the Macedonians, he would have to admit he is committed to the tolerating the intolerable, racists, fascists, neo-Nazis and all criminal ideologies.

Like Jeff Kennett when he was Premier of Victoria in the 90’s, Mike Rann has not been particularly interested in the history or the real nature of the dispute between the Macedonians and the Greeks. What he has really been interested in, amounts to no more than the following: the loud and pushy lot are more numerous that the group they despise. Why not give the Greeks what they want as they would be more useful for his re-election to the highest office in the state? This is another example of the routine banality of politics, which is the source of much evil in the world.

When Jeff Kennett was at the peak of his power in Victoria in 1994, he was prepared to do anything to show what a great pal he was to the Greek community. He told one gathering of Greeks that it was absurd for Slavs to claim Macedonia because the Greeks were there 4,000 years BC (or BCE). Now, one of the books Mr Kennett was given as a gift, among many gifts, to enlighten him on the glorious Greek history of Macedonia, had “4,000 years” on its glossy cover title. Presumably, Mr Kennett was so enthralled by this figure (2,000 BC + 2,000 AD = 4,000 years) that he decided to trump the ingenious symmetrically-minded Greek scholars by saying that the Greeks were actually in Macedonia 4,000 before the Lord Jesus went around preaching love and hope in his Roman-occupied homeland. Thanks to Mr Kennett’s largesse, this erudite contribution would suggest the Greeks have been loitering in Macedonia for 6,000 years.

Even if Zeus from Mount Olympus were to send the world tablets outlining the full criteria of evidence that would support the Greek fairy tale as Absolutely True, I would still see a problem. The problem is that the ethnic minorities in modern Greece do not have their human rights respected. All fair-minded people and modern institutions like the United Nations would agree that a nation’s view of its past can never justify racism and discrimination against any other ethnic group(s).

The real problems facing a modern nation like Greece can only be solved with proper governance, offering all its citizens, regardless of their ethnicity, a normal, peaceful and meaningful life with just laws and employment. When puff and bluff are the very substance of political life as they have been in Greece to date, the encroaching national calamity due to bankruptcy means a radical revolution in national policies will need to take place.

To mitigate the dire consequences of the financial and political failures, co-operation and peaceful coexistence must be fostered with all Balkan nations and especially the Republic of Macedonia. There would be so much to gain with harmony, avoiding the incredible waste of resources that are being used for undermining Macedonia by Greece.

One of the most urgent transformations will need to be the eradication of the endemic racism and all-consuming intolerance within Greece of other cultures and ethnic groups. This racism, like the financial catastrophe, has been inflicting pain on too many innocent people and continues to do so. And it has been and remains utterly gratuitous.

In repeating the formulas of Greek national fictions, Jeff Kennett before him and Mike Rann in recent months, have endorsed on-going discrimination and cultural genocide – an untenable situation by any moral yardstick. I don’t think either of them could really claim to have been innocent about what the effects of mouthing Greek chauvinist mantras might be. And I would be further surprised if anyone needs to have explained why such behaviour from Australian politicians is fundamentally ignoble and irresponsible. I remind the reader, Jeff Kennett’s directive to change the way in which the Macedonian language was officially referred to in Victoria, was in breach of Australian law.

Jim Thomev

[julie]

Well done AMHRC, as always. Am so proud of you all, you guys rock
Jim Thomev, a very well written article

[DIMO]

jim thomev taped on vox pupili on sbs in 86, 87 agreeing we are a slavic people that speek a slavic language.

[Soldier of Macedon]

I don't think Thomev meant it in a self-negating way, as the Macedonian language does belong to the Slavic linguistic group, although he could have used better terminology if as described above.

Do you have a link to the clip or transcripts, Dimo?

[DIMO]

ive got it on vhs tape. Dont get me wrong im not against amhrc they are doing a fantastic job. In the 70's and 80's we suffered alot when macedonians came out in the media and reffered to macedonians as slavs that speek a slavic language.

[indigen]

I don't think Thomev meant it in a self-negating way, as the Macedonian language does belong to the Slavic linguistic group, although he could have used better terminology if as described above.

Do you have a link to the clip or transcripts, Dimo?

Not commenting on the above article but what DIMO says about JT does make sense and reminds me of some of his associates, who are probably the doyens of the MHRM in AU, preaching a similar line in their publication of 1989. I hope they have changed their views but one never knows.

Secondly, JT was owner or part owner of the original AMW and I urge you to find out what his editorial said on the eve of RoM general elections in 1990! He lost me there forever! As for the other doyens of MHRM in AU, the one in WA was a FANATICAL supporter of Gligorov as late as 1999 or 2000 and thus he lost me there as well, but I am hopeful the other two have reassessed their previous erroneous ways vis-a-vis Macedonian indigenity and are making a good contribution to the cause because they certainly are capable and very talented individuals.

[Prolet]

SOM, Didnt South Australian Community leader Steve Kostoff say something similar?