Risto Stefov - Articles, Translations & Collaborations

[George S.]

Macedonian FX3H studio - part of visual effects Oscar winner 'Life of Pi'



2/26/2013 3:27:05 PM



Los Angeles, 25 February 2013 (MIA) -Macedonian FX3X, a Skopje-based CGI studio founded in 1997 by Kristijan Danilovski and Milivoje Gjorgevic, were part of the special effects teams of three films nominated for this year respective Oscar, including the winner 'Life of Pi'



FX3X worked with the Industrial Lights & Magic team on the 'Marvels The Avengers', as well as with MPC Technicolor from London on 'Prometheus' and 'Life of Pi'. It also joined London Mill Film in 'Les Miserables', being nominated for best picture.



In spite of being just a tiny part of the "Life of Pi', FX3X is proud of its work, particularly with the fact that such quality is being reached here in Macedonia, Danilovski says.



For the last three years FX3X has been working with the best visual effects wizards worldwide, Gjorgevic said few days ago. The studio is already working on five films that will most probably be on the list of 2014 Academy Award nominees, he added.





Македонците во Пустец слават



Вечерва Македонците од општината Пустец слават. На плоштадот „Гоце Делчев" во Пустец Македонците се радуваат на враќањето во службена употреба на историското, автохтоно македонско име на општината.

На прославата зборуваше Едмонд Темелко, градоначалникот на Пустец, а музичкиот дел од прославата го збогати групата „Персида“ од Ресен.

Денеска пратениците во Собранието на Албанија едногласно ја донесоа одлуката за донесување на Законот за враќање на македонското име на општина Пустец. Името на Пустец (поранешно официјално име Ликенас) и другите населени места во оваа општина се албанизирани во 1973 година, за време на владеењето на комунистичкиот диктатор Енвер Хоџа. Сега општината Пустец има право да ги врати македонските имиња на сите други македонски села од општината.

[George S.]

Greek media: Germany backs Skopje's EU perspective



2/23/2013 149 PM



Athens, 23 February 2013 (MIA) - Several Greek media report on Saturday about the visit paid by Germany's Foreign Minister Guido Westerwelle to Macedonia yesterday, where he held talks with country's top officials.



"Germany supports Skopje's European perspective" says Imerisia daily reporting about Westerwelle's visit to Skopje.



"Germany fully supports Macedonia's European and Euro-Atlantic perspective which requires conditions to be met that apply equally to every candidate," FM Westerwelle is quoted as saying.

"Westerwelle tells Skopje: find solution to the name issue, then we'll see..." reads a headlines in Ethnos newspaper.



"Firstly, certain issues need to be settled, such as the name dispute and we encourage you to take advantage of every occasion that will be given to you. The government of Germany will exert just and fair influence in Europe, however decisions will be reached as soon as the reports are released and the results are known. There is no point in predicting future moves," reads a quotation in Ethnos.



Express daily newspaper points out his appeal to the political stakeholders in Macedonia to demonstrate preparedness for compromises and flexibility as a way to resolve the internal political impasse.

[George S.]

The Greek Macedonian Question (Part 2)

(Thanks to Tasko T. for providing this article)



Reaching the point where we will focus on aspects of the issue within the framework of the Greek state, in this part will follow, broad and without being able to mention all the dimensions, the course of Greek policy towards populations from 1913 incorporated in Greece.



By Catherine Alamanou



* Continued from: The Greek Macedonian Question (Part 1)

When they finished the Balkan Wars and signed the Treaty of Bucharest in 1913, the southern half of Macedonia passed into the territory of Greece. Immediately the Greek government began to implement a policy of localization in order to digest their ethnically heterogeneous inhabitants of the region and to integrate them into the Greek state which became citizens.

Between 1913 and 1928 the Slavic names of hundreds of villages and towns Hellenized by the Commission of the names of the Greek and Committees renaming of settlements and place names, which are tasked by the Greek government to "eject all the names of settlements and communities which molynousi aschimizousi and the consideration of our beautiful homeland and conferring no pretext at unfavorable for the Greek Nation conclusions opponents treat people against us."

In the decades of 1920 and 1930 destroyed the Slavic inscriptions in churches and banned the celebration function in the Slavic language. Also Hellenized all Slavic names and surnames of persons. So Jovan Filippov was John Philippides and Lena Helen was Stoikof Stoikou.

The assimilative policies adopted by the government in Greek Macedonia were intended to impose a sense of Greek national identity among heterogeneous local residents, many of whom still identify themselves with local conditions and ethnographic.

The period of the dictatorship of Metaxas as the Second World War, the Slav-speaking population in Greek Macedonia faced very bad treatment.

In his study, The Macedonian Conflict, the Loring Danforth cites the story of John Markov: Markov John remembers that period between was decisive for his life. When he was a child and lived in a village near Florina, he listened to his father: "We're not Greek." When he went to school, did not know a word of Greek. A few years later with some friends secretly learned to read and write "Bulgarian or Macedonian like to tell you today." A classmate grabbed his notebook and showed it to the teacher. The result was that gendarmes came, grabbed him and began to beat him. Threw him down in the snow and swearing 'vromovoulgare. "At that time he took oath. He said to himself: "I will get out a word. They will hate you forever ....".

After the Second World War and went as the Greek Civil War became increasingly important contribution of "Macedonians" in case the communists. According to Greek sources, around the end of the Civil War, 30% of the Republican Army, which kathodigoutan by communists, consisted of "Macedonians" and most of them were looking at some sort of "Macedonian autonomy" after the war.

The same sources also estimate that at that time more than half "of the Greek-speaking Slavic Macedonia exhibit consciousness." Of course there were numerous Slav-speaking inhabitants of Greek Macedonia who had already developed Greek national consciousness or developed at that time. The majority of them fought with the Greek army against the communists in the Civil War. In this way closely linked to national identity on the one hand and the political orientation of the other.

As with the Metaxas dictatorship in the past decade, the Civil War was for many people a critical period for the development of "Macedonian national identity" them. Therefore, during 1940, the Slav-speaking inhabitants of northern Greece, who until then largely shared the same local or ethnic identity, were divided into two opposing and hostile camps with different national identities.

Since the end of the Civil War (1949) as the military dictatorship of 1967

When the Civil War ended, many of those who fought on the side of the communists, fled from Greece to settle in the Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia and other countries of Eastern Europe. At the same time the Slav-speaking Greeks who did not feel persecuted wild. Accused on the one hand as "communists" and another as "Slavs" and "Bulgarians".

Considered "enemies of the fatherland" both because of political beliefs that fed and because of their ethnic or national identity. And of the two views are not considered "real Greeks" and full members of the Greek nation.

The persecution in Greece got two very extreme forms: the imposition of loyalty oaths and the confiscation of their property. In the late 1950's, residents of several villages in the prefectures of Florina, Kastoria and Edessa had to swear that they would never speak again "local Slavic idiom", but will only spoke Greek.

Several laws since the late 1940's and early the next day to allow confiscated without compensation the property of those who lost their Greek citizenship because they fought alongside communists in the civil war or left the country illegally. This was even though members of their families who remained in Greece continued to hold these properties. According to some estimates, two-thirds of the 22,000 political refugees who applied for the above laws were Slav-speakers.

The same laws provided for the removal of border areas between what is dangerous for national security and their replacement by "nationalist settlers" who came from other parts of Greece. H government often lock into place with its own costs the "settlers" on the estates seized by political refugees. The colonization of frontier areas of Greek Macedonia was considered necessary for reasons of demography and national security.

The dual process seizures and settlements continued throughout the 1950s and for much of the next. The results of these laws were still considerably more recently, as political refugees trying to return to Greece and take back the properties when he escaped fled to the north after the Civil War, but in vain.

During the military dictatorship, many Slav-speaking exiled or imprisoned. When democracy was restored, abandoned the most oppressive forms of complaints and prosecutions, but continued the general policy which denied that there is a different national or ethnic consciousness.

* Read: Danforth, Loring, The Macedonian Conflict: Nationalism in a transnational world, Athens, Alexandria Publications, 1999.



Грчката македонското прашање (Дел 2)



Постигнување на точка каде што ќе се фокусираме на аспекти на проблемот во рамките на грчката држава, во овој дел ќе следат, широка и без да бидат во можност да се спомене сите димензии, курсот на грчката политика кон населението од 1913 инкорпорирани во Грција. Кетрин Alamanou

* Продолжува од: Грчката македонското прашање (Дел 1)

Кога тие завршија балканските војни и потпишан Договорот од Букурешт во 1913 година, јужната половина Македонија го донесе на територијата на Грција. Веднаш грчката влада почна да спроведува политика на локализација, со цел да се вари нивните етнички хетерогени жители на регионот и да ги интегрираат во грчката држава која станаа граѓани.

Помеѓу 1913 и 1928 година на словенските имиња на стотици села и градови хеленизирани од страна на Комисијата на имиња на грчки и комитети преименување на населените места и имиња на места, кои се задолжени од страна на грчката влада да "извади сите имиња на населби и заедници кој molynousi aschimizousi и разгледување на нашата убава татковина и пренесува нема изговор во неповолни за грчката нација заклучоци противници ги третираат луѓето против нас. "

Во децении на 1920 и 1930 уништија словенски натписи во црквите и забрани прослава функција во словенскиот јазик. Исто така хеленизирани сите словенски имиња и презимиња на лица. Значи Јован Filippov беше Џон Philippides и Лена Хелен беше Stoikof Stoikou.

На assimilative политики усвоени од страна на Владата во грчка Македонија беа наменети да се наметне чувство на грчкиот национален идентитет меѓу хетерогени локалните жители, од кои многумина се уште се идентификуваат со локалните услови и етнографски.

Периодот на диктатурата на Метаксас како Втората светска војна, словенски јазик населението во грчка Македонија се соочил со многу лош третман.

Во својата студија, Македонскиот конфликт, Лоринг Данфорт наведува приказната за Џон Марков: Марков Џон сеќава дека периодот беше решавачка за неговиот живот. Кога беше дете и живеел во село во близина на Лерин, тој слушаше татка си: "Ние не сме грчки." Кога тој отиде во училиште, не знам еден збор на грчки. Неколку години подоцна со некои пријатели тајно научил да чита и пишува "бугарски или македонски сакал да ви кажам денес." А соученик зграпчи неговиот лаптоп и покажа дека на наставникот. Резултатот беше дека жандармите дојде, зграпчи него и почна да го победи. Го фрли долу во снегот и vromovoulgare пцуењето ". Во тоа време тој го зеде заклетва. Тој рече дека за себе: "Јас ќе излезат збор. Тие ќе те мразат засекогаш .... ".

По Втората светска војна и отиде како на грчката граѓанска војна стана повеќе важен придонес на "Македонци" во случај на комунистите. Според грчки извори, околу крајот на Граѓанската војна, 30% од републиканска армија, која kathodigoutan од комунистите, составен од "Македонци" и повеќето од нив беа во потрага по некој вид на "македонската автономија" по војната.

Истите извори, исто така проценуваат дека во тоа време повеќе од половина "на грчки јазик словенски Македонија изложба свест." Се разбира имаше голем број словенски јазик жители на грчка Македонија кои веќе развиени грчка национална свест или развиена во тоа време. Мнозинството од нив се бореле со грчката војска против комунистите во Граѓанската војна. На овој начин тесно поврзани со националниот идентитет на една страна и политичка ориентација од другите.

Како и со Метаксас диктатура во изминатата деценија, на Граѓанската војна беше за многу луѓе критичен период за развој на "македонскиот национален идентитет" нив. Затоа, во текот на 1940 година, словенските јазични жителите на северна Грција, кој до тогаш во голема мера дели истата локална или етнички идентитет, беа поделени во две спротивставени и непријателски табора со различни национални идентитети.

Од крајот на Граѓанската војна (1949), како на воената диктатура од 1967

Кога Граѓанската војна заврши, многу од оние кои се бореа на страната на комунистите, избегаа од Грција да се населат во Република Македонија и други земји од Источна Европа. Во исто време зборуваат словенски кои не се чувствуваат прогонети дивината. Обвинет од една страна како "комунисти", а друг како "Словени" и "Бугарите".

Сметаат за "непријатели на татковината" и поради политички убедувања кои се хранеле и поради нивната етничка или национален идентитет. И на двата пати не се смета за "вистински Грци" и полноправни членови на грчката нација.

Прогонот во Грција доби две многу екстремни форми: наметнување на лојалност заклетва и конфискација на нивниот имот. Во доцните 1950-тите, жителите на неколку села во префектурите Лерин, Костур и Воден мораше да се заколнам дека тие никогаш нема да зборуваат повторно "локален словенски идиом", но ќе зборуваат грчки.

Неколку закони од крајот на 1940-тите и почетокот на следниот ден за да се овозможи конфискувани без надомест во сопственост на оние кои ги загубија своите грчко државјанство, бидејќи тие се бореа рамо до рамо со комунистите во граѓанската војна или ја напуштиле земјата нелегално. Ова беше, иако членовите на нивните семејства кои останаа во Грција продолжува да се одржат овие својства. Според некои проценки, две третини од 22.000 политички бегалци кои се применуваат за горенаведените закони беа словенски јазик.

Истите закони предвидени за отстранување на пограничните области помеѓу она што е опасно за националната безбедност и нивна замена со "националистичката доселеници", кои дојдоа од другите делови на Грција. H Владата често ја заклучите во место со своите трошоци на "доселеници" на имотите одземени од страна на политичките бегалци. Колонизацијата на пограничните области на грчка Македонија се сметаше за неопходна поради демографијата и националната безбедност.

На двојна процес напади и населби продолжи во текот на 1950-тите и во поголемиот дел од следниот. Резултатите од овие закони се 'уште значително повеќе во последно време, како политички бегалци се обидуваат да се вратат во Грција и да се врати на својствата кога тој избегал избегал на север по Граѓанската војна, но залудно.

Време на воената диктатура, многу словенски јазик протерани или затворени. Кога демократијата е обновен, напуштен од најпознатите угнетувачка форми на жалби и обвинувања, но продолжи генералната политика која негираше дека постои различна национална или етничка свест.

* Прочитајте: Данфорт, Лоринг, конфликтот во Македонија: Национализмот во транснационалниот свет, Атина, Александрија Публикации, 1999.



„Ова е историски ден за Македонците од Пустец, за Македонците во Албанија. Пустец и официјално ќе се вика Пустец, како што сите ние и досега го викавме. Пред оваа одлука имавме средби со претставници на сите парламентарни партии во Албанија. Ветивме дека ќе учествуваме на наредните парламентарни избори на 23 јуни. Покажавме дека обединети можеме да постигнеме многу. И ние на наредните избори треба да настапиме обединети околу нашата партија, Македонската алијанса за европска интеграција“, изјави Темелко.

http://www.mkd.mk/makedonija/dijaspo...-pustec-slavat

[George S.]

Karavilka Petrovich



Karavilka Petrovich, of Valparaiso, Ind., passed away Saturday, March 9, 2013, peacefully with her family by her side.



She was born on June 15, 1902 in Rotino, Macedonia (former Yugoslavia) to parents Jordan and Kalina Stojanovich.



Karavilka came to America with her children in 1936 to be with her husband, Spero Petrovich, settling in Gary, Indiana. She was proud to become an American citizen.



Karavilka was preceded in death by her husband Spero Petrovich, son Vladimir Petrovich, parents Jordan and Kalina Stojanovich, brother Eftin (Elinka) Stojanovich, and sister Vlorinka.

She is survived by her daughter Donna (Theordore) Erceg; granddaughters, Lauren (James) Thorstad, Susan (George) Eberhardt, and Joann (Thomas) Meyer; great-grandchildren, Nicholas Mandich, Natalie (Nathan) Griffin, Thomas Thorstad and Audrey Temple, Andrew Thorstad, Henry Meyer, Martin Meyer; great-great grandsons Troy, Samuel and Joseph; Godchild Demetra (Jesse) Reithal; loving nieces Verka Simonovski and family, Milka Saricos and family, and the family of the late Trajanka Nicolich.



Mrs. Petrovich was a founding member of SS Peter & Paul Macedonian Orthodox Church and Ladies Auxiliary. Her greatest joy was her family and spending time with her many friends, treating them all with her cooking and baking. She was an excellent gardener and enjoyed embroidering. She was known to everyone as Grandma Petrovich, a loving Mom, Grandma or just Baba. She will be remembered and dearly missed.



Funeral services will be Wednesday, March 13, 2013 at 10 a.m., directly at SS Peter & Paul Macedonian Orthodox Cathedral, 9700 Broadway, Crown Point, Ind., with the Very Rev. Tome Stamatov officiating. Interment will be at Calumet Park Cemetery.

Visitation will be held Tuesday at Burns Funeral Home, 10101 Broadway, Crown Point, Ind., from 2 to 8 p.m. with a Pomen Service at 7 p.m. In lieu of flowers please make memorial contributions to a favorite charity.



For further information please call Savich & Semplinski Directors at Burns Funeral Home (219) 769-0044.

[George S.]

By Sam Vaknin Author of “Malignant Self-love: Narcissism Revisited”



http://www.newyorkdailysun.com:80/al...ian-nightmares



Western thinkers believe that throwing money at discontent – in the form of better and freer commerce – is the perfect and irretrievable antidote to war. They accentuated interest at the expense of fear and honour. The all-pervasiveness of this fallacy amounts to an almost reflexive defence mechanism of denial of the reality and inevitability of war and of its role as arbiter and pacifier.



In the Balkans, both the United States and the European Union continue this tradition. The association and stabilization agreements they often dangle and rarely sign, are sometimes followed by civil wars. The stability pact brought no stability. And the profusion of aid money and credits served only to augment flagrant corruption and arm the combatants.



The same tried and disproven methods are now applied by cynical and weary diplomats in Macedonia. Aid is withheld and promised as a bargaining chip. Elusive EU membership is supposed to concentrate the minds of the antagonists. But Macedonia’s problem is one of honour, and of fear, and only then – of self interest.



The Albanians in Macedonia are economically better off than their kith and kin anywhere else in the Balkan. This, they claim, is no thanks to the state. Official unemployment amongst the young is intolerably high. Access to secondary and higher education limited (especially since the use of the Albanian language in these institutions is restricted). They are under-represented in public administration. The physical infrastructure of their villages and cities is crumbling or altogether non-existent.



To this the Macedonians retort that Albanians make up a hefty chunk of the informal economy, thus distorting official unemployment figures. Albanians in western Macedonia largely do not pay taxes – an act of civil disobedience long preceding the current insurgency. Their admitted undr-representation in state administration is due to the lack of properly qualified and educated cadre. That they prevent their women from attending school does not help. And infrastructure all over the country is decrepit, Macedonia being the third poorest country in Europe.



What preceded what – discrimination poverty or the reverse – is immaterial except to traditional Balkan hair splitters. Economic problems should and can be solved by economic and regulatory means, goes the West. A tweaked constitution, the right laws passed, credits to small and medium enterprises and, presto, problem solved.



But the Macedonian problem – now in its second century – is a lot deeper than any Western pocket.



The Macedonians regards the current state of Macedonia as the final realization of a dream. It occupies less than a third of the historical territory known as Macedonia – but it is theirs, a sovereign state, where they are fully Macedonian in language and in custom. Macedonia to the Macedonians is, in other words, a fatherland, not merely a convenience. They cling to their tiny plot even more tenaciously in the face of Serb, Greek and Bulgarian disparagement. The Greek doubt the authenticity of the current inhabitants of Macedonia as do the Serbs (to whom Macedonia is “south Serbia”). The Bulgarians regard Macedonian as a villager’s dialect of Bulgarian. This inane opposition by their neighbours hardens Macedonian resolve to prevail and perpetuate both their national identity and their language. This is a throwback to the 19th century concept of nation-state – a space populated by a more or less homogeneous people with their own history, national myths, language, and political agenda.



Where the Macedonian’s attitude is historical – the Albanians’ is territorial (“Albania is where Albanians are”). To them Macedonia is a mere territory inhabited by two major nations (the Macedonians and the Albanians). It is a political and economic partnership. As such, it can theoretically be dismantled, or substantially altered at will. Since no single nation in such a citizen’s compact can have a privileged position – they each can veto each other’s decisions and vision.



This Albanian rendering of Macedonia is much closer to the American instrumental ethos of the state. To Americans, the USA is the outcome of a social contract constantly re-negotiated and rephrased. It is founded upon piles of documents – the Constitution, the Bill of Rights. It is an abstract entity in flux, re-defined by its constituents and managed by sempiternal arbitration.

The Albanian position is also close to the European Union’s new found totem of the “multi-cultural society”. States belong to their citizens, regardless of colour, race, or origin. Germany, the United Kingdom, and France are slowly being transformed into immigrant societies – dysfunctional melting pots of hitherto foreign cultures and societies. This tendency is further enhanced by the gradual emergence of the European supranational federation. Sovereignty is in the descendant – national cohabitation in the ascendant.



Here lies the danger to Macedonia’s future. Both the USA and the EU are likely to coerce Macedonia to adopt a contract-based, multi-cultural solution to the crisis. The Americans are likely to impose on it an American style constitution – and the European are likely to implement a bevy of “minority rights” measures. In a region still steeped in nationalistic lore and enthralled by the spectre of the nation-state, these would spell the end of Macedonia as a political entity. At the very least it would spell the end of Macedonia as the homeland of the Macedonians.



NATO and the EU – and to a lesser extent the USA – are committed to preserving Macedonia’s stability. The main transport corridors connecting the reformed Yugoslavia to Greece cross Macedonia. KFOR’s supply routes and logistical bases are in Macedonia. NATO’s southern flank – comprising the ever adversarial Turkey and Greece – may itself be destabilized by an inter-religious conflict in the cradle of Orthodox Christianity. Add to this the destabilizing and radicalizing impact upon the delicate fabric of Kosovo of the throngs of Albanian refugees from Macedonia and NATO’s involvement becomes more understandable as is the relentless pressure it exerts on local politicians to deliver a peace and nation building agreement.



Macedonia never really succeeded to integrate its Albanian citizens. They boycotted the 1991 referendum on independence and the attendant census. In January 1992 they held a plebiscite of their own in which they opted for autonomy. They publicly and recurrently rejected the results of the 1994 internationally monitored census (according to which Albanians made up 23% of the population).



Many Albanians in western Macedonia feel closer to their kin and kith in Kosovo than to the Macedonian state. In both 1968 and 1981 they demonstrated in solidarity with the bloody outbursts in Kosovo against the former Yugoslavia. The demands to be annexed to the autonomous Kosovo were often heard between 1969 and 1989. Albanians from Macedonia attended Pristina University where they interacted with radical Maoist students from both Kosovo and Albania. In 1992 the Albanians briefly declared an “Autonomous Republic of Illirida” in a series of demonstrations in Struga.



Back to the old blame game:



Macedonians intermittently accused the Albanians of illegal construction, purchases of real estate at inflated prices, mass immigration from Kosovo, re-population of Macedonian villages abandoned by their inhabitants, ethnic cleansing by intimidation of urban neighbourhoods, nationalist indoctrination under the guise of religious instruction, pressuring other Moslems to declare themselves as Albanians, and irredentism.



Albanians intermittently accused the Macedonians of discrimination in the labour market, in secondary, and higher education, in outlays on infrastructure (many Albanian villages still lack proper roads and are not connected to the national grids of water and electricity), and in the public administration. Albanians claim that police brutality, discriminatory legislation, and the exclusive use of the Macedonian language violate their human and civil rights. They lost faith in the Macedonian’s will to accommodate their demands, however legitimate.



Author Bio



Sam Vaknin ( http://samvak.tripod.com ) is the author of Malignant Self-love: Narcissism Revisited and After the Rain – How the West Lost the East, as well as many other books and ebooks about topics in psychology, relationships, philosophy, economics, and international affairs.



He is the Editor-in-Chief of Global Politician and served as a columnist for Central Europe Review, PopMatters, eBookWeb , and Bellaonline, and as a United Press International (UPI) Senior Business Correspondent. He was the editor of mental health and Central East Europe categories in The Open Directory and Suite101.



Visit Sam’s Web site at http://www.narcissistic-abuse.com

[George S.]

One dead, hundreds of homes flooded in Macedonia



http://uk.news.yahoo.com/one-dead-hu...184650735.html



SKOPJE (Reuters) - One man was drowned and several hundred homes in Macedonia were flooded on Tuesday as two days of heavy rain drenched farmland and caused power outages in the Balkan country, authorities said.


Macedonia's Crisis Management Centre said more than 10 rivers had burst their banks, destroying at least two bridges and flooding homes and thousands of hectares (acres) of farmland in the northeast.


A 51-year-old man from the north-eastern village of Cvetisnica drowned after he tried to cross a rising river.


"The villages of Opae and Lopate are badly hit - the height of the water is almost one metre (yard)," the crisis centre said in a statement. The government said it was acting to alleviate the crisis.


"From the data on the ground we have already given direction to use state-owned machinery to aid the situation, and we have distributed materials to prevent further flooding," said government spokesman Aleksandar Georgiev.


Rising water levels put pressure on dams, and at least two were described as critical. Nearby residents were evacuated.


The crisis centre reported power outages in some areas. North of Macedonia, in the southern Serbian region of Bujanovac, 40 homes were evacuated due to flooding.





Gruevski: Kicevo was and will remain Macedonia



Friday, March 15, 2013,



Kicevo, 15 March 2013 (MIA) - Kicevo was and will remain Macedonia. The same goes for Struga, Tetovo, Gostivar, said VMRO-DPMNE leader Nikola Gruevski at the rally of coalition For Better Macedonia in Kicevo late on Thursday.



"The DUI candidate has urged Albanians from the diaspora to come and vote in Kicevo. They should come and see their relatives, but this will be a message for us that turnout should be 100 percent", said Gruevski.



He added that Kicevo should be left to the people who live there, not someone who has been living abroad for 20 years.



"Ethnic Albania will not happen in Macedonia, not now, not ever", stressed Gruevski.

Mayor candidate Blagoja Despotovski stressed he would represent the interests of all communities living in Kicevo.



"Over the past four years we implemented over 200 projects, supported by the Government. We will continue to work with the same tempo so that Kicevo becomes a better place to live in", said Despotovski.

[George S.]

Бабата на Александар Македонски била од битолско Црнобуки

Вторник, 05 Март 2013 11:51



Археологот Виктор Лилчиќ, во првиот том од едицијата за старите македонски градови, вели дека сегашното битолско село Црнобуки се наоѓа на градот каде што била родена бабата на Александар Македонски, Евридика, пишува весникот Дневник.



Виктор Лилчиќ, професор од Институтот за историја на уметност и археологија во книгата „Kорпус на стари градови и тврдини во Македонија-Линкестида и Девриоп“ ја застапува тезата дека археолошкиот локалитет Градиште кај битолското село Црнобуки најверојатно го крие градот Линк, престолнина на кралството на Линкестидите, од каде што потекнувала и бабата на Александар Македонски, Евридика.



Лилчиќ деновиве во Битола ги презентира податоците од своите долгогодишни теренски истражувања за документирање на старите населби. Грандиозниот корпус што ќе се печати ќе има 17 тома, од кои засега е испечатен само првиот, посветен на старите антички населби во Битолско.



- Централна идеја во првиот том е потрагата по главниот град на кралството на Линкестидите, Линк, за кој се смета дека е во Битолско. Линкестидите имале најдиректно античко македонско потекло. Од тој град потекнува крвта на Александар Македонски. Историските податоци велат дека со градот владеел кралот Арабеј Први, чија ќерка ја зел некој соседен крал Сирас и ја добиле Евридика. Таа станала сопруга на македонскиот крал Аминта Трети. Тие имале три сина, а меѓу нив најмладиот бил Филип Втори, татко на Александар - вели Лилчиќ.



Овој археолог објаснува дека не случајно тргнал од Линкестида за да покаже преку движни и недвижни артефакти дека на овој простор живееле антички Македонци во населби кои ние денес можеме да ги истражиме. Лилчиќ смета дека ако се докаже дека Линк е на нашата територија, тоа ќе биде светска сензација.



И претходно имало претпоставки за местоположбата на Линк. Според археологот Иван Микулчиќ, можно е градот да се наоѓал на Висок Рид во Егри, а смета дека Црнобуки е Персеида. Археологот Фанула Папазоглу сметала дека Линк е во Хераклеја, а античките археолози дека тоа е Лерин.



Лилчиќ се сомнева во ова зашто смета дека Висок Рид не е доволно висока позиција за да може кралството да се брани од напаѓачи, Хераклеја се развивала подоцна, а во Грција не му дозволиле да истражува. За точно да се утврди местоположбата, потребно е да се спроведат археолошки истражувања зашто со книгата е направено картирање на местата.





Alexander's grandmother was from Bitola Crnobuki



Tuesday, 05 March 2013 11:51



http://www.kurir.mk/makedonija/vesti...olsko-Crnobuki

Google Translator:-

Archaeologist Viktor Lilcic in the first volume of the edition of old Macedonian cities, the newspaper Dnevnik says the current Bitola village, Crnobuki, is the city where Eurydice, the grandmother of Alexander was born.

Viktor Lilcic, professor at the Institute of Art History and Archaeology in the book "Korpus old towns and castles in Macedonia Lynkestidia Devriop" argued that the Gradishte archaeological site in Bitola village Crnobuki probably hides City Link, the capital of the kingdom Linkestidite , where it and the grandmother of Alexander, Eurydice, originated.

Bitola Lilčić recently presented data from its long-term field studies documenting the old neighborhoods. Grandiose Corps that will be printed will have 17 volumes, of which so far only one is printed. The first is dedicated to old ancient settlements in the surroundings.

- The Central idea in the first volume is the search for the capital of the kingdom Linkestidite Link, which is considered to be in its vicinity. Linkestidite had a direct ancient Macedonian origin. Bloodlines from that city came from Alexander. Historical records say that the city was ruled by King Arabej I, whose daughter married a neighboring king, Siras, and bore Eurydice. She became the wife of the Macedonian king Amyntas III. They had three sons, the youngest among them was Philip II, Alexander's father - says Lilcic.

The archaeologist explained that accidentally went to Lynkestidia to show through both mobile and immobile artifacts that Macedonians lived in neighborhoods in this ancient space, that we can today explore. Lilcic believes that if it is proved that the link is on our territory, it will be a world sensation.

And before there were assumptions about the location of the link. According to archaeologist Ivan Mikulcic, it is possible that the city was situated on a high hill in Egri, and he believes that Crnobuki is Perseida. Archaeologist Fanula Papazoglou thought that Link was in Heraclea, ancient archaeologists think it is Lerin.


Lilcic doubts this, arguing that the High Hill is not in a high enough position for the kingdom to be able to defend itself from invaders, Heraclea developed later, and we are not allowed to explore in Greece. To accurately determine the location, it is necessary to conduct archaeological research for the book and map the places.

[George S.]

Mercenaries guarding Greek government



Read an interesting thing in the news today, apparently blackwater which is an American mercenary for hire company is over seeing the police in Greece and also protecting the government. Rumors have been spreading that a coup might be coming or something similar. So they are going back to the military dictatorship days, good on them.

http://21stcenturywire.com/2013/02/2...rseeing-police

Blackwater mercenaries are currently overseeing the police in Greece as rumours of a coup abound. We understand the situation is extremely tense and that the mercenaries are there mainly to protect the Government and parliament should trouble break out either in the form of a revolution or counter-revolution. Already, a destabilisation plot involving the far-right and police has been uncovered. More below…

Over the last 12 months or more Greece has seen wave after wave of mass demonstrations, riots, battles between police and protesters, armed attacks on Government premises, attacks by fascists (i.e. Golden Dawn ) on migrants, as well as, of course, the complete collapse of the economy. The Government has been beset by scandals (e.g. secret bank accounts in Switzerland) and journalists have been arrested. Most people now exist day by day via co-operatives; workers are taking over the factories.

As we have said, there is a revolution taking place – a messy revolution. And it’s going to get messier, for the situation in Greece has now entered a critical phase – here is a summary (with further details below):

* Strategy of tension has already commenced
* Government is under siege and is protected by mercenaries
* Military coup is now talked of openly
* Insider warns that revolution (or counter-revolution) is imminent

Strategy of tension

A few days ago we reported on a plot by the police in collusion with the far-right to instigate a massacre of police, which would then be blamed on anarchists – presumably this would then be used as an excuse to introduce martial law or a state of emergency. The plot may have been foiled (23 persons were arrested) by Blackwater working in conjunction with police officers who are loyal to the Government. Blackwater are expected to continue monitoring police operations generally, to identify those officers who may be involved in other, similar plots.

Note… The term strategy of tension came about in Italy in the 1970s and 1980s when bombings of civilian were committed by neofascist organisations such as Ordine Nuovo, Avanguardia Nazionale or Fronte Nazionale).

Mercenaries protecting Government under siege

The Greek Government signed a contract with Academi (the new name for Blackwater) in November last year, though this was a secret agreement and you will not find details about it on the Academi website). News of the contract leaked out end of January when the Greek ambassador to Canada, Leonidas Chrysanthopoulos, let slip about it in an interview, which was then published in a blog (see highlighted sentence in red). The contract with Academi was confirmed a few days later via the Greek military news site Defencenet.

Blackwater/Academi are infamous as the company that ran mercenary operations during the last Iraq War and were engaged in unnecessary fire fights in urban areas, taking civilian lives. They currently have a forward ops base in Afghanistan.

We understand their principal role in Greece is two-fold. One is to oversee police operations. They have been contracted to do this because the Government are aware that the police have been comprehensively infiltrated by members of the fascist Golden Dawn and so cannot trust the police to stay loyal. Their other role is to act as a neutral force to provide full protection to the Government against assault from any quarter. In effect, the Greek Government is under siege.

Coup possibility

Recently the Government secured an agreement from the army that under no circumstances would they resort to a coup (as happened in 1967, leading to the junta of1967-1974). Whether this agreement will be honoured remains to be seen. As Greece is now part of the European Community a coup will be unlikely, but in the event of heightened tension martial law could be declared with curfews etc.

Warning of revolution/counter-revolution

According to Ambassador Chrysanthopoulos in his interview, “At a certain moment, quite soon, there will be an explosion of social unrest. It will be very unpleasant.” He then referred to fifteen armed incidents in the previous ten days, including the firebombing of the offices of the governing parties and the homes of pro-government journalists, the machine-gunning of the headquarters of the prime minister’s conservative New Democracy party, and a bomb explosion at a shopping mall belonging to the country’s second wealthiest citizen. Chrysanthopoulos predicts the trouble will begin when new tax bills arrive (soon)…

Source: Darker Net

[George S.]

Bulgaria: where western democracy meets Russian-style corruption


by Ognyan Minchev

05 March 2013



http://www.publicserviceeurope.com/a...yle-corruption



The post-communist transition model in many countries such as Bulgaria combines a western-style democratic political system with a Russian-type of oligarchic economy, a recipe for corrupt public institutions, argues think-tank

Another government on Europe's periphery has collapsed under pressure from its angry citizens. On February 21, the Bulgarian government of Prime Minister Boyko Borisov resigned following large-scale public demonstrations against electricity prices. Borisov and his centre-right Citizens for European Development of Bulgaria party had been relatively successful in their attempts at implementing strict austerity policies and balanced budgets in the aftermath of Europe's economic crisis.

But while budgetary discipline was sustained, almost half the companies on the market went bankrupt and unemployment and poverty rose dramatically. Yet this is only the most obvious manifestation of the economic and political crisis that has stricken the European Union's poorest member - a popular target of criticism for institutional inefficiency, high levels of corruption, and an inadequate judiciary.

The electricity prices that angered millions of Bulgarians are an effect of an energy system that is under the full control of corporate oligarchies in Moscow and in Sofia. Bulgaria has a special position in Moscow's energy strategy. Strong pressure has been exercised upon successive Bulgarian governments since the early 2000s to accept several large Russian energy projects on Bulgarian soil. The Burgas-Alexandroupolis oil pipeline was developed in the early 1990s and a framework agreement between Russia, Greece and Bulgaria was signed in Athens in 2007.

The project envisaged almost no benefits for Bulgaria but posed high-level environmental risks and other liabilities for the Bulgarian Black Sea coast, a popular tourist area. The GERB government consequently revoked Bulgarian participation in the project in 2010. The South Stream gas pipeline is the second major Russian project in Bulgaria, inked by a contract between Sofia and Moscow in late 2012. It was an attempt by Russian President Vladimir Putin to offset the implementation of the EU's third energy package - made effective on January 1, 2013.

But the most controversial Russian project in Bulgaria is the Belene power plant, designed to be the first Russian-technology nuclear site on EU soil. For a decade after 2002, Belene developed as a corrupt and completely illegitimate business project, aimed at producing abundant and expensive electricity in a country with excess capacity in a region of declining electricity demand. Bulgaria will not need additional electricity capacity before the late 2030s, nor can the country export its electricity surplus at the cost levels foreseen for Belene-produced electricity.

As the Bulgarian government terminated the Belene project in early 2012, pro-Russian energy lobbies opened a noisy campaign in favour of the project, which ended up in a referendum on nuclear energy that failed to produce clear results. The doubling and tripling of electricity bills in January is widely believed to have been an orchestrated manipulation aimed at provoking open public discontent and protests in the streets of the country.

The Bulgarian crisis might prove a case study for destabilisation in Eastern Europe. The post-communist transition model in many countries such as Bulgaria combines a western-style democratic political system with a Russian type of oligarchic economy, a recipe for corrupt public institutions. The governing oligarchy model is still sustainable in Russia because of two major factors: the immense natural wealth of Siberia and the authoritarian power maintained by the Putin regime.

The other countries of Eastern Europe do not command a pool of natural resources comparable to Siberia, nor can their fragile democratic regimes sustain brutal oligarchic control over national economies and public institutions. Large-scale corruption and the criminal appropriation of funds by local oligarchies in countries such as Bulgaria are a curse for national economic development and for the improvement of their low living standards.

The clash between the Russian oligarchic model of economic and political control and a western-style democratic system produces structural instability in the Eastern part of Europe, which may prove a strategic challenge for the EU and the transatlantic security system. The Russian strategy of energy monopolisation is aimed, first, at charging extraordinarily high prices and, second, at undermining the western strategic periphery in Eastern Europe.

Both Brussels and Washington seem to be heedless to the effects of this strategy. The instability and fragility of Eastern Europe could be compensated for by efficient policies of investment, institutional development assistance, and diversified energy supplies through projects like the Nabucco pipeline from Turkey. Yet the improvement of relations with Moscow at any price seems to be a bigger priority for the EU and the United States, rather than the guaranteed security and stability of Europe's eastern periphery.

Ognyan Minchev is a fellow at the German Marshall Fund of the United States' Balkan Trust for Democracy. The GMFUS first published this article as part of its Transatlantic Take series:



Russia's energy monopoly topples the Bulgarian government

[George S.]

Hanson – ancient Macedonians were considered a distinct people



Friday, March 15, 2013,



Washington, 15 March 2013



Some 30 years ago, the understanding of the ancient Macedonians has changed and and they were now declared as pure Hellenes, even though, until then, they were considered as, at best, a people in need of Hellenization, says Victor Davis Hanson, American scholar on the Classical period and its warfare, and a well known Conservative opinion maker. Hanson says that it can’t be said with certainty whether this change was due to new scientific, or tourist and political reasons. In his interview with MIA, he Hoover Institution professor also discussed the decline of the West, President Obamas views on Europe and the change in the way the Western countries approach warfare.



Professor Hanson, you have devoted a fair amount of your life studying and writing about Greece, its history, culture and civilization, but also on warning about the decay of Western civilization in general. What are your personal views on the Greek collapse in the last three years, which in a way combined these two issues?



Anyone who visited Greece often between 1980 and 2010 should have been disturbed. Even to the naked eye, it was a huge German-fed Ponzi scheme, in which a naturally poor country cooked the books and used German loans to live the good life—and it was very good for very long for very many. The Greece of 2000 sounded a lot like Athenian literature of the 4th-century B.C., the topics ranging from envy and jealousy to bickering over state entitlements to ways of doing very little for state pay.



As someone who was warning for a long time on the unsustainability of the European social model, what is the lesson you believe that the World will learn from the current crisis? Would it be the view favored by the Conservatives, that it will be danger of the economy of debt, or will the Left prevail, warning that the crisis is the result of the policies of austerity?



Ultimately someone has to live in the real world. That fact is unmistakable. The fight over austerity is usually a battle over bailouts, in the sense that a country like Italy or Greece says it is willing to cut back in order to get more northern European loans and forgiveness of debt. The assumption is that someone north of the Rhine did something different than someone south of the Rhine to have the real material wealth to loan out. So for all the sloganeering of the left, even it does not believe that its own system creates real wealth. Italy does not bail out Portugal, or Portugal Greece. Europe is engaged in what we call over here a stand-off: how creative can the more socialist debtor nations become in either threatening or guilt-tripping the more free-market creditors to bail them out. And they are creative, from raising the specter of a Samson in the temple EU meltdown to rehashing World War II.



You are certainly aware that two small Balkan countries, Macedonia and Greece, have been locked in a difficult, two decades long struggle over the name Macedonia. Many consider this a laughable issue, but it carries some serious consequences, from the Greek economic embargo of the 1990ies, to the elevated tensions in the region.



Mostly ironic, if I can be excused for such a detached view, in the sense that classical scholarship as it pertains to Greece and emanates from Greeks and philhellenes up until about 1975 saw Alexander and the Macedonians as sort of uncouth half-Greeks in need of hellenizing by the city-states. After 1980, they were often reinterpreted as pure Hellenes. I am not sure whether archaeological breakthroughs, tourism, or politics account for the change. I think the Greek view is that the culture of Macedon in the widest sense of Macedon being Pella or the key cities was Hellenic-like, with a language similar to Greek (although sometimes not easily understandable to Greeks) and a culture considered in antiquity somewhat similar to Greeks' earlier monarchies. How that translates into cultural continuity, much less claims of heritage, across 2,500 years, I am not competent to ascertain. The problem is linguistic, ethnic, and historic—as the large ancient kingdom of Macedonia is variously now interpreted as Slavic, Hellenic, autonomously Macedonian, ancient, Medieval, and modern. There were an ancient Macedonian people, like a present-day Kurdish people, and they lived in areas that now belong to different states, as is true also of the Kurds, but after that politics make easy conclusions impossible.



In the Balkans, historic research is often used to support exclusionary policies toward the neighbors. There are frequent accusations of ‘theft’ of someone elses history of tradition, often baffling the Western historians. What is your experience with the Balkan historians?



I don't have much experience other than a sense that most historians of Greek background tend to assume that all of ancient Macedon and contemporary Greek Macedonia are synonymous, and most Slavic historians seem to assume that modern Macedonia is a legitimate cultural successor to a complex ancient kingdom of mixed languages and ethnicities—and that most Americans and English historians are, as you suggest, baffled. My own view is that in the latter 5th century B.C., the royal elite of a vast, loosely defined Macedonia made a conscious effort to Hellenize its elite and its urban culture, especially for purposes of military efficacy, and it was somewhat successful, as long as one defines success as not turning the southern Balkans into Greece per se. But how that translates into 21st century politics is bizarre but not unprecedented—compare historical claims for Palestine or even East Prussia.



Greece in all seriousness takes into account its historic heritage and guides its policy toward Macedonia with this goal, of preserving it. Do you think that modern Greece has been a good steward or representative of its cultural heritage?



I lived in Greece for two years and have visited there over 20 times, and have some knowledge of its idiosyncrasies. In a word, it lives in a rough neighborhood, separated from Europe by the Balkans and wide open to the Middle East and Turkey, a society occupied for nearly 400 years by the Turks, and often a pawn in big power politics of the 19th and 20th centuries. The Greeks believe that their spectacular classical heritage has survived intact through 2,500 years of Macedonian, Roman, Ottoman, Frankish, Venetian, and European occupation, and should accord them status and influence not commensurate with its otherwise small population and unimpressive economy. Individual brilliant Greeks are thought far better to represent Greece as a whole rather than dismal economic statistics.



Greece is nominally a free market state, while Macedonia was a Communist state, which is now introducing free market reforms and maintains a low level of debt. How is it that the two countries are going in so different directions?



Well our version is called red versus blue state. Illinois, California, and New York are high tax, big government, big exodus states. Utah, Texas, or Indiana are low tax, smaller government, and influx states. The former brag about their culture—Chicago, San Francisco, New York—the latter about their lower crime, and more freedom. The truth is, however, the blue states are in financial peril, are living off their fabulous inheritances where the American industrial miracle sprung up, and cannot continue their present course. The irony here is that once poor states seem to be far better run than wealthy states, and people are willing to leave a beautiful California to migrate to a hot and sometimes ugly Texas or Nevada to enjoy the better, smaller governance.

During the Bush administration there was much talk about New Europe, the string of new NATO allies that supported the Iraq war. The current administration seems much less interested in influencing the European countries in transition. Do you see room for a greater US role in transforming Europe?



The Obama administration sees the EU as a model, both economically and culturally. For Obama, this presents a paradox: he resents Europe for its supposedly imperialist, racist, and colonial past, but also admires it for its socialist and anti-traditional present. Add in the fact that the EU is almost imploding and a Greece is the future of California, and Obama finds it difficult to hold up Europe as a model. To sum up, present-day Europe's socialism is for Obama atonement for its culpable past, and should be best left alone. Obama admires a socialist Latin America or multicultural Asia or Islamic Middle East more than he does the prosperous and humane countries like Denmark or Germany or the Netherlands. He snubbed Germany on the anniversary of the fall of the Wall, ditches NATO meetings, flies to Scandinavia only to lobby for the Olympics or accept his prize, and gratuitously insults the British in petty ways; in contrast, a thuggish Erdogan is supposedly our model of a sober leader. He is much more likely to bow to the Saudi kleptocrats or the Chinese autocrats than the Queen of England.

In Brussels there is a bold feeling that they must unite the entire Continent under a strong, imperial technocratic Government, seen in the calls of ‘more Europe’. What do you think would be the outcome?



It is as old as Plato; the radical egalitarian always seeks more power and less democracy to ensure his vision of utopia, replete with an exempt technocracy under his tutelage. Radical egalitarianism always ends with totalitarianism, given human nature's innate desire to be free and pursue liberty and not go willingly to the equality of result gallows. We are seeing that here in the United States, as the Left is left mute when Obama trumps Bush in his lack of transparency and use of government edicts to pursue his version of egalitarian paradise. Statism leads only to poverty and misery, as Mao, Stalin, Castro, Chavez, and the North Koreans should have taught us.



You are a historian of ancient warfare, its tactics, geopolitics and heroics. Yet, the modern style of warfere, with its attacks on the civilians, terror strikes on religious shrines, etc, leaves very little room for the old heroic narrative we associated with war.



Western modernism, after WWI and WWII, rejected the idea of victory and defeat, as well as good and bad. Now we must be 100% perfect to be good at all, and can only fight if we are assured that everyone has universal health care. Such impossible expectations lead to stasis, like we have seen in the last 20 years. We fight kinda, sorta wars, out of sight, out of mind, mostly with borrowed money and the classes that we consider illiberal. But if the US or Europe does not believe in the exceptionalism of the West, why should others? And how surreal that we defer to the lead of thugs and fakers who trash the West, even as their own populations risk all to live in the West. In America we are the butt of constant verbiage from Mexico City even as 12 million Mexican nationals flee to join the gringos; your version is the hostile Arab World and radical Islam that cannot keep its own from fleeing to the land of the decadent infidel Crusaders. Is the West evil or the home of big-screen TVs or both? And yet to state just that is seen as politically-incorrect and worse. We are lost souls in the West, where only pockets of the old belief and confidence struggle on. In an existential struggle, we might abandon the pretensions brought on by our affluence and leisure, but so far our wars are mostly optional and not existential. That may change…and change in frightening ways.