Cases of Greek bishops destroying and burning Macedonian relics

[Pelister]

Your nephew from kindergarten probably believes he is descended from Pericles' armpit.

haha

Stop trying to usurp 1000 different generic terms for your name and just settle on one. What is it about the indecisive nature of your people, it take you 140 years to decide whether or not you are going to use a dead language and you still criminally snatch and grab any term in history which fits the mythology of your largely artificial identity.

That is perfectly said.

[Venom]

My nephew in kindergarten would have a more intelligent and sophisticated approach ..
What is the image you have about Bulgaria,sitting in your home in Terra Australiensis?
I guess you re afraid that crossing the border from RoM to Bulgaria you ll meet the Hordes of Asparuh ,eating horses and singing in their turcic language..

and some funny staff from the "biggest whiskers ever" Greek singer Kokotas ('60s-'70s)
"Romios agapise Romia,Romia kai Thessalonikia .."

Yeah no problems mate. You talking about someones intelligence and a lack thereof. I call that irony.

Stop trying to usurp 1000 different generic terms for your name and just settle on one. What is it about the indecisive nature of your people, it take you 140 years to decide whether or not you are going to use a dead language and you still criminally snatch and grab any term in history which fits the mythology of your largely artificial identity.

Beautifully said SoM.

[Pelister]

Context:

In early 1902 Karavangelos has come to Macedonia, with a group of Turkish subjects from Crete, known as the "Greek bands". Karavangelis was escorted everywhere by a Turkish guard which he had payed for, and he began his plans to "take over" the Macedonian Christian empire, by issuing orders and directives to assasins to kill Macedonian priests.

Spanos, a "Greek" who could speak perfect Macedonian, but bought by the evil cleric karavangelis hired two Turkish guards from Zhelevo to help him kill the Macedonian priest.

They killed the Macedonian priest Papa Kosta in the old Macedonian church of Zhelevo, and buried his head near the bridge of Rupishta (Spano's own village)

Source: Douglas Dakin, Greek Struggle in Macedonia, p.134 (apparently this information comes from Spanos's private letters and correspondence)
Source: Vasil Bogov, Macedonian Revelation, p.161

Nex day Spanos went back an unearthed the head and took it to Karavangelis for a reward, after which Karavagelis displayed the head in his quarters.

Well paid bands from outside Macedonia, devastated the country

Source, Brailsford, p.313

Something else.

Just a note on some of the techniques the new Greeks were using to portray Vlachs and Macedonians as "Greeks". "How" did they do it?

Remember that Macedonians were still under Ottoman administration.

Hilmi Pasha in 1903 handed over a large number of Macedonian villages and churches to the Greek faction

This means that Churches that had been Macedonian for over a thousand years, had now become Greek. Not only become "Greek" over night, but all the inhabitants of that village (and even whole districts) were now counted as "Greek Orthodox". This was "one way" the new Greeks were able to manipulate the number of "Greeks" in Macedonia, particularly when they were making their case to Britain.

It wasthe Turks and phil-hellenes in the Turkish Empire including the Sultan himself who "handed over" Macedonian churches and villages to the Greek church. Two, from that moment on these villages and everyone in them would be recorded as "Greek Orthodox" in the Ottoman census. This explains the statistics. In 1881, only 2% of Macedonia is Greek Orthodox, but after than the number is much larger. This is because in 1882 a new Sultan came to the thrown - who was a phil-hellence, and appointed generals, inspector generals such as Hilma Pasha, with instructions to block reform in Macedonia, and help convert the Macedonian churchs into Greek churches.

This was very important in future years when the Greeks tried to establish a Greek presence in Macedonia. They pointed to the number of Greek Orthodox Churches in Macedonia, and the entire village was counted as Greek.

[Pelister]

Greek bands "since 1890" have been burning religious service books in Macedonian churches and forcing the people to join the Greek patriarch by force of arms, by threats, or by persuasion, from one church to another

Source, Douglas Dakin, The Greek Struggle in Macedonia, p.226

I believe there is evidence it started a few decades before this date. For intance, the Strumitsa Metropolitan, Yertotai, was shamefully driven out of Berovo in 1874 by the local Macedonians. It was said that as many as 10,000 Macedonians turned up - and he only escaped because he was escorted by a large Turkish guard.