Modern Greece and the Macedonian Heritage – Part 23 – The Need for Intelligence Gathering
Risto Stefov
June 07, 2009
We all talk about the tremendous effort and money our enemies spend in pursuit of their interests, which directly affects our ability to pursue ours, but we have no idea specifically who our enemies are. Why? Because we have absolutely no information on who is the enemy. We may not even have information on our own people who make decisions, run our organizations, raise funds, contribute funds, etc. We have little to no information particularly on those who are "influential in the Macedonian community and in Macedonian organizations" inside or outside of Macedonia. So our enemies "might" even be closer than we think. The operative word here is "might" and the question is "how do we know for sure who the enemy is and is not?"
Hearing what we want to hear and assuming that all people who speak positively about our cause have our best interests at heart, nowadays, is not enough to assume that all such people are honest and our friends. Words alone are cheap and cost nothing.
We may or may not have enemies in our midst; all I am saying is that we should have some way of screening our people especially in positions of responsibility, just like every corporation screens its employees, to ensure that they don´t have "bad apples". How many Macedonian Organizations today screen their members, particularly those who serve on executive boards?
Why am I asking these "uneasy" questions and possibly creating suspicion and mistrust among our people?
Too many times, at critical moments, we have witnessed our enemies waltz in and take over our organizations. It has happened to dozens of Village Associations in the Diaspora in the last fifty years or so. It has happened half a dozen times during the Greek Civil War when "friendly" Greeks infiltrated Macedonian organizations and not only rendered them useless but vilified our leaders and true patriots and made them look like traitors in front of their own people. It has even happened at the most critical time in Macedonia´s history; the Ilinden Uprising. Did you know that Gotse Delchev and his supporters did not want an "early Uprising" because they knew the Macedonian people were not ready? Yet we had an early Uprising which turned into a disaster for the Macedonian people and for the Macedonian cause. And who benefited the most from the early Uprising? Our enemies of course, the very same ones who occupy Macedonia today! How many times must this happen before we realize that we need to do more to prevent these things from happening again?
This is why it is very important to have reliable information on our leaders, particularly on the Macedonian leadership outside of Macedonia where our enemies can easily infiltrate organizations and lead our people astray.
This is not to accuse anyone here of anything but to suggest that we proceed with caution.
The idea for gathering intelligence is not new; it has been used by every country in the world to keep an eye on its enemies. Unfortunately it has not been effectively implemented in the Macedonian communities especially outside of Macedonia; which has potentially left gaping holes for our enemies to walk through.
Our enemies do not work in mysterious ways when it comes to infiltrating our organizations. They simply find ways to create contention between Macedonians and manage to stifle our progress and divide our people. Instead of sticking to issues, our enemies attack the integrity of good people and make their motives look questionable. I have seen this happen many times to good people who were falsely accused of "wrongdoing" and forced to explain themselves for something they had not done. Found in this situation, most honest Macedonians give up and quit fighting for the cause. There is nothing worse and demoralizing than being falsely accused of "wrongdoing" especially if you have voluntarily devoted your life´s energy to work hard for the benefit of every Macedonian!
One of the more effective methods Macedonia´s enemies employed during the Ilinden Uprising was to infiltrate Macedonian organizations by pretend to be great patriots and by saying all the right things that every Macedonian wanted to hear. Then while having the attention of the Macedonian people, particularly in private, they would find faults, criticize, demean and generally work against the Macedonian leadership.
The worst however that our enemies can do is use our own energies and resources against us. Imagine our enemies raising funds from our Macedonian communities and using those funds against the very same generous and patriotic people who donated them. What measures have we implemented to prevent this from happening?
How many times have you witnessed Macedonian leaders being accused of "stealing money" without a shred of evidence and with absolutely no consequence to the accusers? In what society do people tarnish innocent people´s reputations and get away with it? What have we done to ensure that this does not happen?
It is easy to see why intelligence gathering is so important.
Here is a 120 year old story about a Macedonian patriot who gave up fame and fortune for the sake of helping his people.
"Realizing the Graecizing intentions of the Greek authorities, the young Macedonian poet became a bitter enemy of their policy, and particularly of the Greek clergy, led by the notorious Patriarch of Constantinople. Grigor Prlichev (1830-1893) was sufficiently far-sighted to realize that the cultural domination under Greek rule would have much worse consequences for the national and cultural development of the Macedonian people than the politico-social domination under Turkish rule, which, though it had lasted a long time, was bound to end sooner or later. Accordingly, following the example of his master Dimitar Miladinov, Prlichev decided to wage unremitting war on the assimilating ambitions of the Greek clergy. All this is very significant because Prlichev, this talented Greek scholar, this passionate lover of classical Greek literature, who for long believed there was no greater poet than Homer and no better doctors than those of Athens (as he himself wrote in his" Autobiography"), suddenly changed. Putting love of his own [Macedonian] nation first, he never wrote another line in Greek, although he knew very well that he could have exploited his extraordinary poetic gifts in that language with undoubted success." (Nurigiani, Giorgio. "The Macedonian Genius Through the Centuries". London: David Harvey Publishers, 1972. page 147)
As it was done in the 1800´s it is so done today, Hellenism will stop at nothing from swallowing up ethnic groups and turning them into Modern Hellenes, a deadly disease that has not ceased since the formation of the artificial Greek state in 1829. Besides wanting to turn every Macedonian into a Greek, modern Hellenism also sees Macedonism as its mortal enemy with which it cannot co-exist and will do everything in its power to destroy it.
"…as it is well known that from a fifth to perhaps nearly a fourth of the inhabitants of Greece are said to be Albanians, whose fathers played so noble a part, both by sea and land, in the war of Greek independence. We believe the following facts have to do with that antipathy. No people have a more ardent national spirit, or cling more tenaciously to their language and ancient customs, than the Albanians. Now the Greeks, to their honour be it said, among the first things they did as a nation, set up a system of National schools, with primary, secondary, and higher education, all over the country; but in these schools nothing was taught but Greek, and hence the Albanians, who did not understand that language, were put to a serious disadvantage. Greek statesmen said Albanian was no language – it had no literature, not even an alphabet – it was a patois, and would die out in a generation, and the children of the Albanian soldiers and sailors would all be good Greeks; and so neither the Government nor private individuals did anything for the Albanian population. But now, at the distance of over half a century, things remain very much as they were when Greece, first was declared independent. Most of the Albanians are rude and ignorant, and far behind the rest of the population; while in the island of Aegina and many other places – nay, only a few miles from Athens itself; there are many families who can´t speak a word of Greek. The experiment has failed. It is the same problem that meets us in the highlands in Scotland, in Wales and in Ireland. We do not greatly blame Greece, for she probably believed that she could Hellenize these sturdy Arnauts; but it is high time now to retrace her steps, and complete her admirable schooling-system, by teaching both Albanian and Greek where the population is Albanian. Thanks to the London Tract Society, there are now school-books in both dialects of languages, while the Bible Society has provided them with the Testament and Psalms. Greek would thus remove the fear of national annihilation, with which so many regard union with her as synonymous, while she will pay a graceful tribute of gratitude to her Albanian people, and raise them from that barbarism in which so many still remain, and, still more, from their deep religious ignorance." ("The Catholic Presbyterian", edited by Professor W. G. Blaikie, D.D., LL.D., F.R.S.E., Vol. II., July – December 1879, page 318)
"This preoccupation with Greekness only really began after the War of Independence, when defining what it meant to be a Greek became a vital element in creating a new state. And it never ceased being a national sport. When the Greeks won their freedom from the Ottomans in 1834, their first capital was the smart little Peloponnesian port of Nafplio. It was thought to be far more suitable than the goat-infested ruins and the insignificant, predominantly Turkish-Albanian settlement which existed in nineteenth-century Athens." ("Euridyce Street a Place in Athens", by Sofka Zinivieff, page 38)
For those who are still not convinced that the Modern Greek identity is an artificial creation, please continue to read this series of articles.
Author´s note:
Dear Macedonians, one way to defend ourselves from the Greek onslaught and gain back our identity and dignity is to fight back to the level to which the Greeks have reduced us; that is to attack their identity as they have attacked ours. We need prove nothing to them except to expose them as the artificial identity they truly are and to uncover their design to wipe us out in order to usurp our Macedonian heritage.
To be continued.
Many thanks to TrueMacedonian from www.maknews.com for his contribution to this article.
You can contact the author at rstefov@hotmail.com
Hearing what we want to hear and assuming that all people who speak positively about our cause have our best interests at heart, nowadays, is not enough to assume that all such people are honest and our friends. Words alone are cheap and cost nothing.
We may or may not have enemies in our midst; all I am saying is that we should have some way of screening our people especially in positions of responsibility, just like every corporation screens its employees, to ensure that they don´t have "bad apples". How many Macedonian Organizations today screen their members, particularly those who serve on executive boards?
Why am I asking these "uneasy" questions and possibly creating suspicion and mistrust among our people?
Too many times, at critical moments, we have witnessed our enemies waltz in and take over our organizations. It has happened to dozens of Village Associations in the Diaspora in the last fifty years or so. It has happened half a dozen times during the Greek Civil War when "friendly" Greeks infiltrated Macedonian organizations and not only rendered them useless but vilified our leaders and true patriots and made them look like traitors in front of their own people. It has even happened at the most critical time in Macedonia´s history; the Ilinden Uprising. Did you know that Gotse Delchev and his supporters did not want an "early Uprising" because they knew the Macedonian people were not ready? Yet we had an early Uprising which turned into a disaster for the Macedonian people and for the Macedonian cause. And who benefited the most from the early Uprising? Our enemies of course, the very same ones who occupy Macedonia today! How many times must this happen before we realize that we need to do more to prevent these things from happening again?
This is why it is very important to have reliable information on our leaders, particularly on the Macedonian leadership outside of Macedonia where our enemies can easily infiltrate organizations and lead our people astray.
This is not to accuse anyone here of anything but to suggest that we proceed with caution.
The idea for gathering intelligence is not new; it has been used by every country in the world to keep an eye on its enemies. Unfortunately it has not been effectively implemented in the Macedonian communities especially outside of Macedonia; which has potentially left gaping holes for our enemies to walk through.
Our enemies do not work in mysterious ways when it comes to infiltrating our organizations. They simply find ways to create contention between Macedonians and manage to stifle our progress and divide our people. Instead of sticking to issues, our enemies attack the integrity of good people and make their motives look questionable. I have seen this happen many times to good people who were falsely accused of "wrongdoing" and forced to explain themselves for something they had not done. Found in this situation, most honest Macedonians give up and quit fighting for the cause. There is nothing worse and demoralizing than being falsely accused of "wrongdoing" especially if you have voluntarily devoted your life´s energy to work hard for the benefit of every Macedonian!
One of the more effective methods Macedonia´s enemies employed during the Ilinden Uprising was to infiltrate Macedonian organizations by pretend to be great patriots and by saying all the right things that every Macedonian wanted to hear. Then while having the attention of the Macedonian people, particularly in private, they would find faults, criticize, demean and generally work against the Macedonian leadership.
The worst however that our enemies can do is use our own energies and resources against us. Imagine our enemies raising funds from our Macedonian communities and using those funds against the very same generous and patriotic people who donated them. What measures have we implemented to prevent this from happening?
How many times have you witnessed Macedonian leaders being accused of "stealing money" without a shred of evidence and with absolutely no consequence to the accusers? In what society do people tarnish innocent people´s reputations and get away with it? What have we done to ensure that this does not happen?
It is easy to see why intelligence gathering is so important.
Here is a 120 year old story about a Macedonian patriot who gave up fame and fortune for the sake of helping his people.
"Realizing the Graecizing intentions of the Greek authorities, the young Macedonian poet became a bitter enemy of their policy, and particularly of the Greek clergy, led by the notorious Patriarch of Constantinople. Grigor Prlichev (1830-1893) was sufficiently far-sighted to realize that the cultural domination under Greek rule would have much worse consequences for the national and cultural development of the Macedonian people than the politico-social domination under Turkish rule, which, though it had lasted a long time, was bound to end sooner or later. Accordingly, following the example of his master Dimitar Miladinov, Prlichev decided to wage unremitting war on the assimilating ambitions of the Greek clergy. All this is very significant because Prlichev, this talented Greek scholar, this passionate lover of classical Greek literature, who for long believed there was no greater poet than Homer and no better doctors than those of Athens (as he himself wrote in his" Autobiography"), suddenly changed. Putting love of his own [Macedonian] nation first, he never wrote another line in Greek, although he knew very well that he could have exploited his extraordinary poetic gifts in that language with undoubted success." (Nurigiani, Giorgio. "The Macedonian Genius Through the Centuries". London: David Harvey Publishers, 1972. page 147)
As it was done in the 1800´s it is so done today, Hellenism will stop at nothing from swallowing up ethnic groups and turning them into Modern Hellenes, a deadly disease that has not ceased since the formation of the artificial Greek state in 1829. Besides wanting to turn every Macedonian into a Greek, modern Hellenism also sees Macedonism as its mortal enemy with which it cannot co-exist and will do everything in its power to destroy it.
"…as it is well known that from a fifth to perhaps nearly a fourth of the inhabitants of Greece are said to be Albanians, whose fathers played so noble a part, both by sea and land, in the war of Greek independence. We believe the following facts have to do with that antipathy. No people have a more ardent national spirit, or cling more tenaciously to their language and ancient customs, than the Albanians. Now the Greeks, to their honour be it said, among the first things they did as a nation, set up a system of National schools, with primary, secondary, and higher education, all over the country; but in these schools nothing was taught but Greek, and hence the Albanians, who did not understand that language, were put to a serious disadvantage. Greek statesmen said Albanian was no language – it had no literature, not even an alphabet – it was a patois, and would die out in a generation, and the children of the Albanian soldiers and sailors would all be good Greeks; and so neither the Government nor private individuals did anything for the Albanian population. But now, at the distance of over half a century, things remain very much as they were when Greece, first was declared independent. Most of the Albanians are rude and ignorant, and far behind the rest of the population; while in the island of Aegina and many other places – nay, only a few miles from Athens itself; there are many families who can´t speak a word of Greek. The experiment has failed. It is the same problem that meets us in the highlands in Scotland, in Wales and in Ireland. We do not greatly blame Greece, for she probably believed that she could Hellenize these sturdy Arnauts; but it is high time now to retrace her steps, and complete her admirable schooling-system, by teaching both Albanian and Greek where the population is Albanian. Thanks to the London Tract Society, there are now school-books in both dialects of languages, while the Bible Society has provided them with the Testament and Psalms. Greek would thus remove the fear of national annihilation, with which so many regard union with her as synonymous, while she will pay a graceful tribute of gratitude to her Albanian people, and raise them from that barbarism in which so many still remain, and, still more, from their deep religious ignorance." ("The Catholic Presbyterian", edited by Professor W. G. Blaikie, D.D., LL.D., F.R.S.E., Vol. II., July – December 1879, page 318)
"This preoccupation with Greekness only really began after the War of Independence, when defining what it meant to be a Greek became a vital element in creating a new state. And it never ceased being a national sport. When the Greeks won their freedom from the Ottomans in 1834, their first capital was the smart little Peloponnesian port of Nafplio. It was thought to be far more suitable than the goat-infested ruins and the insignificant, predominantly Turkish-Albanian settlement which existed in nineteenth-century Athens." ("Euridyce Street a Place in Athens", by Sofka Zinivieff, page 38)
For those who are still not convinced that the Modern Greek identity is an artificial creation, please continue to read this series of articles.
Author´s note:
Dear Macedonians, one way to defend ourselves from the Greek onslaught and gain back our identity and dignity is to fight back to the level to which the Greeks have reduced us; that is to attack their identity as they have attacked ours. We need prove nothing to them except to expose them as the artificial identity they truly are and to uncover their design to wipe us out in order to usurp our Macedonian heritage.
To be continued.
Many thanks to TrueMacedonian from www.maknews.com for his contribution to this article.
You can contact the author at rstefov@hotmail.com