Whatīs up with Macedonia and Greece?
Risto Stefov
November 14, 2008
Until recently not too many people had heard of Macedonia but thanks to the problems it is having with Greece more and more people are finding out about it.
We all know that Macedonia being "advertised" in this way cannot be good for Macedonia but in this case bad publicity for Macedonia is better than no publicity at all. Our responsibility as Macedonians here however is to set the record straight.
Browsing through the www.maknews.com/forum I ran into an article written by Bushav which gave me an idea which I hope will simplify our understanding of Macedoniaīs relationship with Greece. Thank you Bushav for the inspiration and the credit for this article goes to you.
The way we see it the so-called Greek-Macedonian name dispute was created by one side, the Greek side. Why do we agree on this? For a couple of reasons! First, the dispute was created by Greece and therefore cannot be a "mutual dispute". The so-called Greek-Macedonian dispute is nothing more than a singular attack from Greece on Macedonia. Second, Macedonia and the ethnic Macedonian people have NO problem with Greece and Greeks calling themselves Greeks or Hellenes or whatever they want to call themselves or with calling their Northern Province "Macedonia". Macedonians feel no need to enter the Greek political arena and tell the Greeks to change their name or their identity to suit the Macedonians. Since the so-called "name-dispute" is a one sided attack on Macedonia it cannot be called a "dispute" and the solution must come from Greece since it was Greece alone which created this problem. Macedonians will remain who and what they are irrespective of any so-called "disputes" Greece wishes to raise and bring to the negotiating table.
The Macedonian identity is deep rooted and well established, which begs the question, why did Greece raise this "dispute" in 1991 and not in 1913 when Macedonia was invaded, occupied, divided and annexed by Greece, Serbia and Bulgaria? If Greece had a fundamental problem with the name "Macedonia" why didnīt it raise it with anyone from 1913 to 1991? There was a Peoplesī Republic of Macedonia from 1945 to 1990 inside Yugoslavia with which Greece had no problem. In fact there are Greek school books from the 1960īs and 1970īs that show that Greek children were taught that there was a country named Macedonia and a people called Macedonians just north of the Greek border! Obviously Greece had no problem with that!
There can be but one answer to this question and that is "Greece never had a problem with the name until 1991 when the Republic of Macedonia declared its independence from Yugoslavia". In fact if you look more closely you will see that Greece still has no problem with the name. Greece has a problem with the Macedonian people and uses the name as a cover. The name issue is just a distraction to sidestep the real issue which lies inside Greece and not with the Republic of Macedonia. The real issue is that Greece doesnīt want anybody to know that Macedonians live inside Greece.
Why doesnīt Greece want people to know that Macedonians live inside Greece?
Because after distorting the truth for decades that "Macedonians do not exist" and that "there is no such thing as a Macedonian" it will have to explain to the world and to its own people how those Macedonians got inside Greece and why Greece abused them since 1913 and continues to abuse them to this day!
Let me try and take a simpler approach to better explain the situation. Let's assume we have two neighbouring families, a Macedonian and a Greek, which have existed side by side for a long time and each is aware of the otherīs existence since they came into being. Also letīs assume both families live in their ancestral homes for a long time and are surrounded by other families like Albanian, Serbian, Bulgarian, etc.
Some time ago there was a crisis and every property and person in the neighbourhood fell under the control of the Ottoman bank. After being under Ottoman ownership for a long time some families managed to pay off their debts and recovered their properties. The Macedonian and Albanian families unfortunately happened to be still under Ottoman debt when three of the debt free families Greece, Serbia and Bulgaria offered to pitch in and help the Macedonian family pay its debt and regain its property. The offers unfortunately turned out to be dishonest and while the three neighbours did pitch in and paid Macedoniaīs debt, they decided to keep Macedoniaīs property and divide it amongst themselves. They all liked Macedonia's central location and its nice backyard where they could plant a garden and plants would easily grow. They liked Macedonia so much that the three fought over how to divide it. Once they did they knocked the nice Macedonian house down and extended their own properties over it. Without a house of their own members of the Macedonian family were left homeless.
The Greek family had big plans for its share of the Macedonian property. As for the homeless Macedonians, Greece decided to adopt some of them. Most members of the Macedonian family did not want to be adopted by any of its neighbours but all three neighbours insisted that the Macedonians be adopted and live as part of their own families. Those Macedonian family members who still refused to be adopted were sent out to far away families such as the USA, Canada, Australia, etc., to live as orphans. Anyway, the Greek family used the beautiful Macedonian property as a garden to produce food and improve its economic position in the neighbourhood. This was its priority. As for the members of the Macedonian family living in the Greek home, they were told that they were Greeks now and since there was no Macedonian house to speak of there could be no Macedonian family.
Now four generations later the Serbian family which had subdivided the Macedonian property and had adopted part of the Macedonian family, believed it was time to give it back. As the small part of the Macedonian family took back this part of its property it was happy again to live as a Macedonian family.
When the Greek family on the other side of the fence saw what was happening it did not like the development one bit. The Greek family felt it had invested a lot of time and effort to make the Macedonians become part of its family and it did not want that to be disturbed. Besides, the Greek family was now dependent of the Macedonian land for its prosperity and it definitely did not want to give it up. So instead of admitting it had taken land from the Macedonian family and opening itself to all sorts of legal problems and potential losses of land, the Greek family took the attitude that there never was a Macedonian family and that the Macedonian land had always belonged to the Greek family.
Some of the older Macedonian members however suspected that they were not Greeks and knew that a long time ago they belonged to a Macedonian family which was then split up by Greece, Serbia and Bulgaria. Macedonian members of the Greek family also spoke a language which was different from Greek which the Greeks could not understand and, as some remember, they were even beaten for speaking it.
As the Macedonian members of the Greek family saw a Macedonian family next door they began to wonder what had happened. Where did this Macedonian family come from? Were the Macedonian members of the Greek family related to this Macedonian family?
Knowing the history of the Macedonian family, the Greek family began to fear that if the truth came out it may lose its Macedonian property. To confuse the issue, the Greek family began to call its own Macedonian property "Macedonia". In fact the Greek family became so liberal with the words "Macedonia" and "Macedonian" that it began to apply them to practically everything and everyone, even to the children that were adopted from Asia Minor. Unfortunately this did not work as well as expected as some members of the Greek family still kept looking over the fence for answers. So the Greek family decided to use more confusion and cleverer tactics to muddy the issue. In other words a "Macedonian" was not really a Macedonian but a Greek who just happened to live on the Macedonian property, a property which belonged to the Greek family. At the same time the Greek family, without explanation, decided that only the Greek family could use the word "Macedonia" and "Macedonian". Naturally the Macedonian neighbour thought that that was a bit unfair and refused to agree. The Greek family then began to take more drastic measures.
The Greek family adopted several tactics. Since the Greek family also used the term Macedonia, it decided to file several complaints against its neighbour with city council. The Greek family placed so many complaints that its Macedonian neighbour could not even get electricity, a phone line or pave the driveway. The Greek family complained saying it had a problem with its neighbourīs name because the name "Macedonia" was part of the Greek family and the neighbour was trying to steal it. The Greek family was also claiming that Macedonia was part of its own family history and that its neighbour was only calling itself Macedonian just to lay claim to the Greek property.
Of course the Macedonian family north of the fence by now had been through a very tough time and just wanted to live in its small house in peace and carry on with life. The Macedonian family knew of the goings on next door, but it was not greedy like its Greek neighbour so it made no counter-claims to recover the property that belonged to its ancestors. The Macedonian family let bygones be bygones as far as the property was concerned but felt strongly that it was important the entire Macedonian family be re-united no matter in whose house family members happened to live.
The Greek family however, still fearful of losing the property and wanting to protect the actions of its ancestors, decided to escalate the situation and told its Macedonian neighbour not to use Macedonia as its family name under which to register the house. The Greek family taking this issue to council requested that the term "Macedonia" not be used at all by its neighbour and that an acceptable family name for the neighbour must be negotiated and agreed upon by the Greek family.
The Greek family presented all sorts of statements to the council claiming that it was the historical owner of that land since the time of the ancient settlements and that its family history had much to do with that place and people and so on. The council was sick and tired of listening to the incessant Greek complaints and, even though it knew there were rules allowing the Macedonian family the right to exist side by side with its Greek neighbour, moved to force the two parties to 'negotiate' a suitable name.
The small remaining Macedonian family felt that it had been wronged by the actions of its neighbour and by council, and had realized that its Greek neighbour had no good intention and nothing good would come out of the negotiations because there was nothing there that could be negotiated to the benefit of the Macedonian side.
So this is where we are. Seventeen years later and the dispute continues.
You can contact the author at rstefov@hotmail.com
We all know that Macedonia being "advertised" in this way cannot be good for Macedonia but in this case bad publicity for Macedonia is better than no publicity at all. Our responsibility as Macedonians here however is to set the record straight.
Browsing through the www.maknews.com/forum I ran into an article written by Bushav which gave me an idea which I hope will simplify our understanding of Macedoniaīs relationship with Greece. Thank you Bushav for the inspiration and the credit for this article goes to you.
The way we see it the so-called Greek-Macedonian name dispute was created by one side, the Greek side. Why do we agree on this? For a couple of reasons! First, the dispute was created by Greece and therefore cannot be a "mutual dispute". The so-called Greek-Macedonian dispute is nothing more than a singular attack from Greece on Macedonia. Second, Macedonia and the ethnic Macedonian people have NO problem with Greece and Greeks calling themselves Greeks or Hellenes or whatever they want to call themselves or with calling their Northern Province "Macedonia". Macedonians feel no need to enter the Greek political arena and tell the Greeks to change their name or their identity to suit the Macedonians. Since the so-called "name-dispute" is a one sided attack on Macedonia it cannot be called a "dispute" and the solution must come from Greece since it was Greece alone which created this problem. Macedonians will remain who and what they are irrespective of any so-called "disputes" Greece wishes to raise and bring to the negotiating table.
The Macedonian identity is deep rooted and well established, which begs the question, why did Greece raise this "dispute" in 1991 and not in 1913 when Macedonia was invaded, occupied, divided and annexed by Greece, Serbia and Bulgaria? If Greece had a fundamental problem with the name "Macedonia" why didnīt it raise it with anyone from 1913 to 1991? There was a Peoplesī Republic of Macedonia from 1945 to 1990 inside Yugoslavia with which Greece had no problem. In fact there are Greek school books from the 1960īs and 1970īs that show that Greek children were taught that there was a country named Macedonia and a people called Macedonians just north of the Greek border! Obviously Greece had no problem with that!
There can be but one answer to this question and that is "Greece never had a problem with the name until 1991 when the Republic of Macedonia declared its independence from Yugoslavia". In fact if you look more closely you will see that Greece still has no problem with the name. Greece has a problem with the Macedonian people and uses the name as a cover. The name issue is just a distraction to sidestep the real issue which lies inside Greece and not with the Republic of Macedonia. The real issue is that Greece doesnīt want anybody to know that Macedonians live inside Greece.
Why doesnīt Greece want people to know that Macedonians live inside Greece?
Because after distorting the truth for decades that "Macedonians do not exist" and that "there is no such thing as a Macedonian" it will have to explain to the world and to its own people how those Macedonians got inside Greece and why Greece abused them since 1913 and continues to abuse them to this day!
Let me try and take a simpler approach to better explain the situation. Let's assume we have two neighbouring families, a Macedonian and a Greek, which have existed side by side for a long time and each is aware of the otherīs existence since they came into being. Also letīs assume both families live in their ancestral homes for a long time and are surrounded by other families like Albanian, Serbian, Bulgarian, etc.
Some time ago there was a crisis and every property and person in the neighbourhood fell under the control of the Ottoman bank. After being under Ottoman ownership for a long time some families managed to pay off their debts and recovered their properties. The Macedonian and Albanian families unfortunately happened to be still under Ottoman debt when three of the debt free families Greece, Serbia and Bulgaria offered to pitch in and help the Macedonian family pay its debt and regain its property. The offers unfortunately turned out to be dishonest and while the three neighbours did pitch in and paid Macedoniaīs debt, they decided to keep Macedoniaīs property and divide it amongst themselves. They all liked Macedonia's central location and its nice backyard where they could plant a garden and plants would easily grow. They liked Macedonia so much that the three fought over how to divide it. Once they did they knocked the nice Macedonian house down and extended their own properties over it. Without a house of their own members of the Macedonian family were left homeless.
The Greek family had big plans for its share of the Macedonian property. As for the homeless Macedonians, Greece decided to adopt some of them. Most members of the Macedonian family did not want to be adopted by any of its neighbours but all three neighbours insisted that the Macedonians be adopted and live as part of their own families. Those Macedonian family members who still refused to be adopted were sent out to far away families such as the USA, Canada, Australia, etc., to live as orphans. Anyway, the Greek family used the beautiful Macedonian property as a garden to produce food and improve its economic position in the neighbourhood. This was its priority. As for the members of the Macedonian family living in the Greek home, they were told that they were Greeks now and since there was no Macedonian house to speak of there could be no Macedonian family.
Now four generations later the Serbian family which had subdivided the Macedonian property and had adopted part of the Macedonian family, believed it was time to give it back. As the small part of the Macedonian family took back this part of its property it was happy again to live as a Macedonian family.
When the Greek family on the other side of the fence saw what was happening it did not like the development one bit. The Greek family felt it had invested a lot of time and effort to make the Macedonians become part of its family and it did not want that to be disturbed. Besides, the Greek family was now dependent of the Macedonian land for its prosperity and it definitely did not want to give it up. So instead of admitting it had taken land from the Macedonian family and opening itself to all sorts of legal problems and potential losses of land, the Greek family took the attitude that there never was a Macedonian family and that the Macedonian land had always belonged to the Greek family.
Some of the older Macedonian members however suspected that they were not Greeks and knew that a long time ago they belonged to a Macedonian family which was then split up by Greece, Serbia and Bulgaria. Macedonian members of the Greek family also spoke a language which was different from Greek which the Greeks could not understand and, as some remember, they were even beaten for speaking it.
As the Macedonian members of the Greek family saw a Macedonian family next door they began to wonder what had happened. Where did this Macedonian family come from? Were the Macedonian members of the Greek family related to this Macedonian family?
Knowing the history of the Macedonian family, the Greek family began to fear that if the truth came out it may lose its Macedonian property. To confuse the issue, the Greek family began to call its own Macedonian property "Macedonia". In fact the Greek family became so liberal with the words "Macedonia" and "Macedonian" that it began to apply them to practically everything and everyone, even to the children that were adopted from Asia Minor. Unfortunately this did not work as well as expected as some members of the Greek family still kept looking over the fence for answers. So the Greek family decided to use more confusion and cleverer tactics to muddy the issue. In other words a "Macedonian" was not really a Macedonian but a Greek who just happened to live on the Macedonian property, a property which belonged to the Greek family. At the same time the Greek family, without explanation, decided that only the Greek family could use the word "Macedonia" and "Macedonian". Naturally the Macedonian neighbour thought that that was a bit unfair and refused to agree. The Greek family then began to take more drastic measures.
The Greek family adopted several tactics. Since the Greek family also used the term Macedonia, it decided to file several complaints against its neighbour with city council. The Greek family placed so many complaints that its Macedonian neighbour could not even get electricity, a phone line or pave the driveway. The Greek family complained saying it had a problem with its neighbourīs name because the name "Macedonia" was part of the Greek family and the neighbour was trying to steal it. The Greek family was also claiming that Macedonia was part of its own family history and that its neighbour was only calling itself Macedonian just to lay claim to the Greek property.
Of course the Macedonian family north of the fence by now had been through a very tough time and just wanted to live in its small house in peace and carry on with life. The Macedonian family knew of the goings on next door, but it was not greedy like its Greek neighbour so it made no counter-claims to recover the property that belonged to its ancestors. The Macedonian family let bygones be bygones as far as the property was concerned but felt strongly that it was important the entire Macedonian family be re-united no matter in whose house family members happened to live.
The Greek family however, still fearful of losing the property and wanting to protect the actions of its ancestors, decided to escalate the situation and told its Macedonian neighbour not to use Macedonia as its family name under which to register the house. The Greek family taking this issue to council requested that the term "Macedonia" not be used at all by its neighbour and that an acceptable family name for the neighbour must be negotiated and agreed upon by the Greek family.
The Greek family presented all sorts of statements to the council claiming that it was the historical owner of that land since the time of the ancient settlements and that its family history had much to do with that place and people and so on. The council was sick and tired of listening to the incessant Greek complaints and, even though it knew there were rules allowing the Macedonian family the right to exist side by side with its Greek neighbour, moved to force the two parties to 'negotiate' a suitable name.
The small remaining Macedonian family felt that it had been wronged by the actions of its neighbour and by council, and had realized that its Greek neighbour had no good intention and nothing good would come out of the negotiations because there was nothing there that could be negotiated to the benefit of the Macedonian side.
So this is where we are. Seventeen years later and the dispute continues.
You can contact the author at rstefov@hotmail.com