Modern Greece and the Macedonian Heritage – Part 22 – The Greek Macedonians
Risto Stefov
May 30, 2009
Several days ago I received a phone call from a stranger who opened the conversation in Macedonian and later asked me if I spoke Greek. He introduced himself as a "Grkoman" and asked me if I had ever heard of him. I said no to both questions.
This person, who asked to remain anonymous, said he was sick and tired of the Greeks denying the existence of Macedonians and wanted to have a meeting with me to tell me his side of the story so that I could write about it.
I don´t know the man and I don´t know if his intentions were honourable, but being the suspicious kind that I am, I couldn´t help myself but question "what is this all about?"
Is this another attempt by the Greeks to muddy the waters by pretending to be Macedonians in order to diminish the real Macedonian cause? Or have the "Hellenized Greeks" (Grkomani), who for years have abandoned their true ethnicity in favour of being "Greeks", come to their senses and now want to join the Macedonians?
Is this another "Greek ploy" working at a "higher level" to usurp the Macedonian heritage at the expense of the real Macedonians in line with the Greek "Macedonian Party" I wrote about a couple of weeks ago? http://www.americanchronicle.com/articles/view/102681 Or is there a genuine desire by the Grkomani to liberate themselves from the Greek shackles?
Was this person acting as a Trojan horse for the Greeks? Or was he genuinely tired of the Greeks abusing him and wanted to do something about it?
Why did he introduce himself as a "Grkoman" and why ask me if I spoke "Greek" when we both communicated very well in Macedonian?
There are too many questions for which I have no answers so I can´t risk brushing him off as another "agent of Greece" or as a Macedonian who is genuinely concerned for his own kind. Therefore my choice would be to define what a "Grkoman" is, according to my understanding, and leave the rest to the readers to reach their own conclusion.
Plainly put, in this context, a "Grkoman" is a Hellenized Macedonian. But in the eyes of the genuine Macedonian people, a "Grkoman" is simply a traitor.
The "Grkomani" are a product of Greece´s forced assimilation policy designed to Hellenize Macedonia and the Macedonian people.
To truly understand the "Grkoman" or "Bulgaroman" phenomenon one has to imagine an "occupied" people in a world where the conditions for survival are "created" by the "occupier".
In order to maintain control of the occupied, the occupier needs to know when and where to act and for that he needs reliable information. This information must come from the inside and must be accurate. So, to gain such information the occupier needs to enlist the services of insiders in the occupied world. Unfortunately, the only insiders who are willing to provide such information are those who are either disgruntled individuals or individuals that can be bought in exchange for something they desire such as sums of money, social status, free education, a better job, power over others, etc. However, to prove his or her loyalty the insider or collaborator is expected to commit some act, usually a criminal act, against his own people. This way the occupier will be assured of the collaborator´s loyalty.
So how will a collaborator react to a situation where the occupier is threatened? In such a situation the collaborator will fight for the occupier in order to maintain the status quo.
I am not implying that all "Grkomani" are collaborators but I do question their actions. If these people have committed no harm to the Macedonian people then what are their motives for siding with the occupiers? So my hope here is that many of these "Grkomani" are ignorant of their real identity or are taking advantage of the situation for some small personal gain. Thus, no harm done and there is hope for them yet. But for those who have done serious harm, good luck to them!
To be loyal to family and friends is fine but it should not stop people from thinking for themselves and finding out who they really are. I have been told that loyalty to family comes first and I can´t say that I disagree with that. If your parents or grandparents saw themselves as other than Macedonians, for which I am sure they had a reason, that does not change the fact that they have a Macedonian ancestry which, when the time comes, will be recognized as such. So where does that leave you? You can argue with me that, that will never happen just as many in the past have argued that Macedonia will never be free of the Romans, Byzantines, or Turks or you can reconsider where you stand and make the right choice.
The Republic of Macedonia´s independence has created a problem for Greece. Greece took the 19th century road but somewhere down the line forgot to take a turn when the whole world was turning.
Yugoslavia was whole at one time populated by "South Slavs". In fact Yugoslavia was touted as the Switzerland of the Balkans. But where is Yugoslavia today? Who would have thought Yugoslavia, the Switzerland of the Balkans, would disintegrate to its elemental level? Who would have thought that Yugoslavia was populated by other than "South Slavs"? Believe me; Greece is not far behind. Its belligerent behaviour towards its minorities, especially the Macedonians, will not serve it well!
So if I may summarize, I see the "Grkomani" falling into three categories;
1. Those who are truly ignorant of their own ethnicity. The ones who learned to speak Macedonian from their predecessors and think it´s a "Greek dialect". They call themselves Greek because all their lives they have been told they are Greek.
2. Those who know they are not Greek but pretend to be Greek because there are advantages to "being Greek" or because they are afraid of being harmed if it is discovered that they are not Greek.
3. The ones who in the past, in the name of Greece, have committed crimes against their own people and need the Greeks to protect them from prosecution. These types will do anything to keep themselves safe, even help the Greek cause against the Macedonians in order to maintain the status quo.
If the man who called me on the telephone falls into the first two categories I would be more than glad to help him and I am sure I speak for every Macedonian when I say "welcome back". But if the man falls into the third category I want no part of him and I will not hesitate to expose him and the crimes he has committed. It is people of the third kind who helped the Greeks make the dreaded "black lists" and sent so many innocent Macedonians to their death and to the Greek concentration camps. It is people of this kind that made so many Macedonians permanent refugees. It is these "sold out" Macedonians that today are so vocal and against the Macedonians gaining their human rights.
Another thing that this man mentioned, which sounded peculiar, was the number of Macedonians living in Ontario. "Did you know," he asked "that 600,000 Macedonian live in Toronto, or, well, I mean in Ontario and roughly 3,000,000 in Greece?" I did not know that! I didn´t bother to ask where he got his figures, but then I remembered a friend from Australia sent me the following article, part of which I would like to share with you.
"Some Greek community leaders say there are 700,000 Greeks in Australia, implying that one in 25 Australians is Greek by some way or another, but are they? Another interesting perception is that outside Greece Melbourne is the second largest Greek speaking city in the world, but here again is it?
Not by birthplace, or even by parental birthplace.
The 2006 census recorded only 109,989. The 1991 census recorded 136,331.
Not by Language.
The 2006 census recorded 252,216. The 1991 census recorded 274,974 Australians who said that they spoke Greek at home.
Not by Ancestry.
The 2006 census recorded 365,145. The 1986 census, when this question was first asked, recorded 311,942.
If there are indeed 700,000 Greek Australians then that suggests that most Greek Australians were not born in Greece, do not have Greek born parents, do not speak Greek at home and do not see themselves as people of Greek Ancestry. According to various Greek Community sources however, which continuously convey information to the Australian authorities, there are still 700,000 Greeks in Australia.
According to the Australian Bureau of Statistics the real figure for the Greek Australian population lies in the 365,000 range. Information relating to the three census questions all point to this figure.
Another misconception portrayed in the Australian Greek media is that Melbourne is the third largest Greek City outside of Greece. But is it?
In Canada the Greek media portrays Toronto as the third largest Greek City in the world.
In the USA the Greek media portrays New York as the third largest Greek City in the world.
The Australian Bureau of Statistic has shown that Victoria has a population of 5.3 million of which 3.9 million live in Melbourne and 128,164 Melbournians are of Greek ancestry.
Despite the census being conducted by government bodies, the Greek media has still managed to convince various authorities in Australia, Canada and the USA that the third largest Greek city in the world is situated in Melbourne, Toronto and New York respectively! How can that be?" (Zoran C.)
We know very well that "Greek" as an ethnic entity does not exist but to maintain the impression that it does, Greeks will resort to anything and everything possible from claiming that people of the Christian Orthodox religion are in reality Greeks to anyone who has a "Greek sounding name" is Greek. Just pick up a Greek community telephone book in Toronto and you will find Macedonians, Spaniards and even Latvians represented as Greeks. As long as it sounds Greek, it must be Greek! But then if you think about it, it all makes sense. If Slavs, Macedonians, Albanians, Christian Turks and Vlachs can be "instant modern Greeks" then why not other people with "Greek sounding" names? After all "Greek sounding" is almost Greek; isn´t it? How more fake is a Greek-sounding name of a Latvian than a "Hellenized" Greek sounding name of a Macedonian? I would say they are about equal! "Hellenizing" other ethnic groups, to most Greeks, is equivalent to subjecting them to a "civilizing" process! And what is wrong with that? There is nothing wrong with it except "fake Greeks" have no heritage and cannot be the descendents of the so-called ancient Greeks.
Unfortunately being upright and honest has never been a Greek forte so to cover up their artificiality they resort to not only changing people´s name but erasing timeless place names and replacing them with alien ones to suit their purposes.
"But how were the names changed?
One method was by the direct replacement of the existing names by their ancient predecessors. The usual source was Pausanias´ description of Greece, written in the second century AD. When the names stemmed from (ancient) Greek toponyms but had been adopted to the local dialect (i.e. they had been ´altered´), they should be reformed in accordance with the phonetic and morphological rules of Katharevousa. (Marousi, derived from the ancient Amarynthos became amarousion). Sometimes toponyms were replaced by names that really existed; other times they were changed randomly and hastily. When non-Greek toponyms were adopted, this was done in a total arbitrary fashion, sometimes on the basis of misunderstood morphology (for example, a wooded village might be called ´tree-less´ (adendron). In other cases, the result was the unsuccessful translation of the non-Greek name. Names that had acquired a commemorative value, particularly since the Revolution of 1821, were often replaced by obscure, antiquated denominations (Tripoly in place of Tripolitza, Aigion in place of Vostitsa, Kalamai in place of Kalamata, Amphissa in place of Salona, Lamia in place of Zitouni, Agrinion in place of Vachori). Even national heroes had to change their names. For example, Rigas Valestinlis had to change to Rigas Pheraios because his village of Valestino was near the site of ancient Pherai. Still, despite apparent chaos, frequently comic results, and general incoherence, the process followed an internal logic: the creation of a ´Hellenized´ toponymic environment.
Who decided to change the toponyms?
It might have been expected that this would have been done at the initiative of the state: An instruction came from above, from the center to the region. But it did not happen exactly this way. The government used to appoint commissions composed of university professors of history, linguistics, folklore, and archeology. The 1920 commission, set up after the acquisition by Greece of Macedonia, Thrace and Epirus, was constituted by the same persons who had created the ´scientific´ study of the Greek nation – that is, the creators of the country´s history, archives, and the Museum of National History (Spyridon Lambros), of its folklore (Nikolaos Politis), and of its linguistics (Georgios Tajiadakis)." ("Hellenism Culture, Identity, and Ethnicity from Antiquity to Modernity", edited by Katerina Zacharia, pages 232 and 233)
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
This person, who asked to remain anonymous, said he was sick and tired of the Greeks denying the existence of Macedonians and wanted to have a meeting with me to tell me his side of the story so that I could write about it.
I don´t know the man and I don´t know if his intentions were honourable, but being the suspicious kind that I am, I couldn´t help myself but question "what is this all about?"
Is this another attempt by the Greeks to muddy the waters by pretending to be Macedonians in order to diminish the real Macedonian cause? Or have the "Hellenized Greeks" (Grkomani), who for years have abandoned their true ethnicity in favour of being "Greeks", come to their senses and now want to join the Macedonians?
Is this another "Greek ploy" working at a "higher level" to usurp the Macedonian heritage at the expense of the real Macedonians in line with the Greek "Macedonian Party" I wrote about a couple of weeks ago? http://www.americanchronicle.com/articles/view/102681 Or is there a genuine desire by the Grkomani to liberate themselves from the Greek shackles?
Was this person acting as a Trojan horse for the Greeks? Or was he genuinely tired of the Greeks abusing him and wanted to do something about it?
Why did he introduce himself as a "Grkoman" and why ask me if I spoke "Greek" when we both communicated very well in Macedonian?
There are too many questions for which I have no answers so I can´t risk brushing him off as another "agent of Greece" or as a Macedonian who is genuinely concerned for his own kind. Therefore my choice would be to define what a "Grkoman" is, according to my understanding, and leave the rest to the readers to reach their own conclusion.
Plainly put, in this context, a "Grkoman" is a Hellenized Macedonian. But in the eyes of the genuine Macedonian people, a "Grkoman" is simply a traitor.
The "Grkomani" are a product of Greece´s forced assimilation policy designed to Hellenize Macedonia and the Macedonian people.
To truly understand the "Grkoman" or "Bulgaroman" phenomenon one has to imagine an "occupied" people in a world where the conditions for survival are "created" by the "occupier".
In order to maintain control of the occupied, the occupier needs to know when and where to act and for that he needs reliable information. This information must come from the inside and must be accurate. So, to gain such information the occupier needs to enlist the services of insiders in the occupied world. Unfortunately, the only insiders who are willing to provide such information are those who are either disgruntled individuals or individuals that can be bought in exchange for something they desire such as sums of money, social status, free education, a better job, power over others, etc. However, to prove his or her loyalty the insider or collaborator is expected to commit some act, usually a criminal act, against his own people. This way the occupier will be assured of the collaborator´s loyalty.
So how will a collaborator react to a situation where the occupier is threatened? In such a situation the collaborator will fight for the occupier in order to maintain the status quo.
I am not implying that all "Grkomani" are collaborators but I do question their actions. If these people have committed no harm to the Macedonian people then what are their motives for siding with the occupiers? So my hope here is that many of these "Grkomani" are ignorant of their real identity or are taking advantage of the situation for some small personal gain. Thus, no harm done and there is hope for them yet. But for those who have done serious harm, good luck to them!
To be loyal to family and friends is fine but it should not stop people from thinking for themselves and finding out who they really are. I have been told that loyalty to family comes first and I can´t say that I disagree with that. If your parents or grandparents saw themselves as other than Macedonians, for which I am sure they had a reason, that does not change the fact that they have a Macedonian ancestry which, when the time comes, will be recognized as such. So where does that leave you? You can argue with me that, that will never happen just as many in the past have argued that Macedonia will never be free of the Romans, Byzantines, or Turks or you can reconsider where you stand and make the right choice.
The Republic of Macedonia´s independence has created a problem for Greece. Greece took the 19th century road but somewhere down the line forgot to take a turn when the whole world was turning.
Yugoslavia was whole at one time populated by "South Slavs". In fact Yugoslavia was touted as the Switzerland of the Balkans. But where is Yugoslavia today? Who would have thought Yugoslavia, the Switzerland of the Balkans, would disintegrate to its elemental level? Who would have thought that Yugoslavia was populated by other than "South Slavs"? Believe me; Greece is not far behind. Its belligerent behaviour towards its minorities, especially the Macedonians, will not serve it well!
So if I may summarize, I see the "Grkomani" falling into three categories;
1. Those who are truly ignorant of their own ethnicity. The ones who learned to speak Macedonian from their predecessors and think it´s a "Greek dialect". They call themselves Greek because all their lives they have been told they are Greek.
2. Those who know they are not Greek but pretend to be Greek because there are advantages to "being Greek" or because they are afraid of being harmed if it is discovered that they are not Greek.
3. The ones who in the past, in the name of Greece, have committed crimes against their own people and need the Greeks to protect them from prosecution. These types will do anything to keep themselves safe, even help the Greek cause against the Macedonians in order to maintain the status quo.
If the man who called me on the telephone falls into the first two categories I would be more than glad to help him and I am sure I speak for every Macedonian when I say "welcome back". But if the man falls into the third category I want no part of him and I will not hesitate to expose him and the crimes he has committed. It is people of the third kind who helped the Greeks make the dreaded "black lists" and sent so many innocent Macedonians to their death and to the Greek concentration camps. It is people of this kind that made so many Macedonians permanent refugees. It is these "sold out" Macedonians that today are so vocal and against the Macedonians gaining their human rights.
Another thing that this man mentioned, which sounded peculiar, was the number of Macedonians living in Ontario. "Did you know," he asked "that 600,000 Macedonian live in Toronto, or, well, I mean in Ontario and roughly 3,000,000 in Greece?" I did not know that! I didn´t bother to ask where he got his figures, but then I remembered a friend from Australia sent me the following article, part of which I would like to share with you.
"Some Greek community leaders say there are 700,000 Greeks in Australia, implying that one in 25 Australians is Greek by some way or another, but are they? Another interesting perception is that outside Greece Melbourne is the second largest Greek speaking city in the world, but here again is it?
Not by birthplace, or even by parental birthplace.
The 2006 census recorded only 109,989. The 1991 census recorded 136,331.
Not by Language.
The 2006 census recorded 252,216. The 1991 census recorded 274,974 Australians who said that they spoke Greek at home.
Not by Ancestry.
The 2006 census recorded 365,145. The 1986 census, when this question was first asked, recorded 311,942.
If there are indeed 700,000 Greek Australians then that suggests that most Greek Australians were not born in Greece, do not have Greek born parents, do not speak Greek at home and do not see themselves as people of Greek Ancestry. According to various Greek Community sources however, which continuously convey information to the Australian authorities, there are still 700,000 Greeks in Australia.
According to the Australian Bureau of Statistics the real figure for the Greek Australian population lies in the 365,000 range. Information relating to the three census questions all point to this figure.
Another misconception portrayed in the Australian Greek media is that Melbourne is the third largest Greek City outside of Greece. But is it?
In Canada the Greek media portrays Toronto as the third largest Greek City in the world.
In the USA the Greek media portrays New York as the third largest Greek City in the world.
The Australian Bureau of Statistic has shown that Victoria has a population of 5.3 million of which 3.9 million live in Melbourne and 128,164 Melbournians are of Greek ancestry.
Despite the census being conducted by government bodies, the Greek media has still managed to convince various authorities in Australia, Canada and the USA that the third largest Greek city in the world is situated in Melbourne, Toronto and New York respectively! How can that be?" (Zoran C.)
We know very well that "Greek" as an ethnic entity does not exist but to maintain the impression that it does, Greeks will resort to anything and everything possible from claiming that people of the Christian Orthodox religion are in reality Greeks to anyone who has a "Greek sounding name" is Greek. Just pick up a Greek community telephone book in Toronto and you will find Macedonians, Spaniards and even Latvians represented as Greeks. As long as it sounds Greek, it must be Greek! But then if you think about it, it all makes sense. If Slavs, Macedonians, Albanians, Christian Turks and Vlachs can be "instant modern Greeks" then why not other people with "Greek sounding" names? After all "Greek sounding" is almost Greek; isn´t it? How more fake is a Greek-sounding name of a Latvian than a "Hellenized" Greek sounding name of a Macedonian? I would say they are about equal! "Hellenizing" other ethnic groups, to most Greeks, is equivalent to subjecting them to a "civilizing" process! And what is wrong with that? There is nothing wrong with it except "fake Greeks" have no heritage and cannot be the descendents of the so-called ancient Greeks.
Unfortunately being upright and honest has never been a Greek forte so to cover up their artificiality they resort to not only changing people´s name but erasing timeless place names and replacing them with alien ones to suit their purposes.
"But how were the names changed?
One method was by the direct replacement of the existing names by their ancient predecessors. The usual source was Pausanias´ description of Greece, written in the second century AD. When the names stemmed from (ancient) Greek toponyms but had been adopted to the local dialect (i.e. they had been ´altered´), they should be reformed in accordance with the phonetic and morphological rules of Katharevousa. (Marousi, derived from the ancient Amarynthos became amarousion). Sometimes toponyms were replaced by names that really existed; other times they were changed randomly and hastily. When non-Greek toponyms were adopted, this was done in a total arbitrary fashion, sometimes on the basis of misunderstood morphology (for example, a wooded village might be called ´tree-less´ (adendron). In other cases, the result was the unsuccessful translation of the non-Greek name. Names that had acquired a commemorative value, particularly since the Revolution of 1821, were often replaced by obscure, antiquated denominations (Tripoly in place of Tripolitza, Aigion in place of Vostitsa, Kalamai in place of Kalamata, Amphissa in place of Salona, Lamia in place of Zitouni, Agrinion in place of Vachori). Even national heroes had to change their names. For example, Rigas Valestinlis had to change to Rigas Pheraios because his village of Valestino was near the site of ancient Pherai. Still, despite apparent chaos, frequently comic results, and general incoherence, the process followed an internal logic: the creation of a ´Hellenized´ toponymic environment.
Who decided to change the toponyms?
It might have been expected that this would have been done at the initiative of the state: An instruction came from above, from the center to the region. But it did not happen exactly this way. The government used to appoint commissions composed of university professors of history, linguistics, folklore, and archeology. The 1920 commission, set up after the acquisition by Greece of Macedonia, Thrace and Epirus, was constituted by the same persons who had created the ´scientific´ study of the Greek nation – that is, the creators of the country´s history, archives, and the Museum of National History (Spyridon Lambros), of its folklore (Nikolaos Politis), and of its linguistics (Georgios Tajiadakis)." ("Hellenism Culture, Identity, and Ethnicity from Antiquity to Modernity", edited by Katerina Zacharia, pages 232 and 233)
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
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