Macedonians, have we reached a new low?
Risto Stefov
November 28, 2010
As much progress as we think we may have made in our quest for human rights, our plight as Macedonians is still to be acknowledged and recognized. Worse, lately we seem to be sinking to a new low!
There was a time when our enemies killed us, tortured us, put us in jail, exiled us and took our homes and lands, humiliated us, changed our names, banned our language and attempted to assimilate us on our own lands and in our own country where we were born. Many of us left that old racist world in hopes of saving ourselves, our souls, our dignity and our national identity. But today it seems that there is no place where we can go to hide where our identity, our language and our existence can be secured. It seems to me that there is no longer a place where we can go, where we can feel safe and where we can be at peace.
Correct me if I am wrong but it seems to me that we are now being attacked by the very same International "institutions" which we came to depend on for the protection of our rights; institutions which sprang out of the chaos of the war years, promising "equal rights to all". Institutions created to champion "democracy", "equality" and "self-determination" for all, including the Macedonians. Institutions created to uphold our human rights, fight against racism and protect us from all kinds of discrimination.
It seems to me that such institutions no longer exist, if they ever existed for the Macedonian people.
By the way, did you know that the Macedonians in Greek occupied Macedonia were facing their greatest threat of extinction as a people at exactly the same time the United Nations Universal declaration of human rights was being adopted?
When the rest of the world began to enjoy its human rights, the rights of the Macedonians in Greece were being trampled and repeatedly violated by the Greek state. The basic human rights which include equality, freedom from discrimination, the right to live free and secure, freedom from torture and humiliation, the right to be recognized as an individual before the law, freedom from arbitrary jailing and prosecution, the right to a fair trial, the right to be innocent until proven guilty, the freedom to travel outside of the country, the right to property, the freedom of thought and expression, the freedom to peaceful assembly, the freedom to education, the freedom to belong to a political system in which these rights and freedoms can be realized, the right to achieve the regulations from this declaration without their prevention from the state, groups or individuals, etc., of the Macedonians were repeatedly violated by the Greek state while the United Nations Universal declaration of human rights was being adopted.
That was then, but how are things today?
Well, yesteryear these things were happening inside Greece, supported by the Greek government and perpetrated by fanatic Greeks who, for their own personal reasons, personal satisfaction, or for "mother country", imposed their will on the Macedonian people. Now, some generations later, a new type of "cunning and sophisticated" Greek has surfaced and has extended his net of abuse to include the entire world. There is no longer a place on this earth where a Macedonian can feel safe to assert his or her own ethnic and national identity without being attacked, humiliated and challenged.
Yes things have changed in the world but for the Macedonians they have changed for the worse!
Yesteryear the Macedonians had no country of their own, today they do but that hardly seems to matter to the racist Greeks and others who want the Macedonian identity rubbed out and everything that is genuinely Macedonian erased from this world.
For example, ever since 39% of Macedonia became an independent and sovereign state the Greeks have "insisted" that it not be called Macedonia! And since the people of the 39% of Macedonia named their little country the Republic of Macedonia the Greeks have "adamantly insisted" that they change the name! Even though Macedonia, an independent and sovereign nation, has every moral and international legal right to choose its own name, the Greeks still insist that Macedonians cannot use the name Macedonia for their country because that name belongs exclusively to Greece!
Well, I for one do not agree with such Greek claims on account of the way the Greeks obtained 51% of Macedonia during the Balkan Wars in 1912 and 1913 when their army, along with the Serbian and Bulgarian armies, illegally invaded, occupied, partitioned and took Macedonia by force for themselves. This happened only 10 years after the Macedonian people themselves made a bid, in a major but failed uprising, to liberate themselves from a previous occupation and create their own Macedonian state. The Greeks, Serbians and Bulgarians, along with the rest of the world, should have realized then that Macedonia belonged to the Macedonian people. Greece, Serbia and Bulgaria however ignored all that and annexed Macedonian lands for themselves. In other words, they literally stole Macedonia out of the hands of the Macedonian people while the rest of the world sat by silent on the sidelines. That is why I believe Macedonia does not belong to anyone other than to the genuine Macedonian people. Not to the "pretend" Greeks, not to the Serbians and Bulgarians and not to the Albanians; Macedonia belongs to the Macedonian people who were a nation before they had a country. Unlike the Greeks for whom the Great Powers first created a country and then fabricated their mythical "fake" Greek nation to fit. The Macedonians were a Macedonian nation before there was a modern Macedonian state and the Macedonian people have the right to name their state Macedonia.
I, however, am not the only one who believes that Macedonia belongs to the Macedonian people.
Former German Ambassador to Macedonia, Hans Lothar-Schteppan in an interview with Mia, Mina and A1, said that Macedonia should never under any circumstances yield to Greece. He also calls Macedonia a "victim of Europe´s 20th century conspiracies".
"I am convinced that if any politician wishes to understand today´s political conflict between Macedonia and Greece, they must look deep into history. History proves what I believe, for example, that Greece prior to 1913 never had Aegean Macedonia [51% of Macedonia] in its possession. Not in ancient times, not in Roman times, not during Ottoman times, not at any point in time did Greece ever have anything to do with Macedonia," says Hans Lothar-Schteppan.
"After an outrageous breach of international law in 1912-1913 during the Balkan Wars, Greece together with Bulgaria and Serbia & Montenegro occupied and took Macedonia, Thrace, and Epirus. The main basis here is that Greece has illegally stolen Macedonian territory, which is against international law. This historical connection however is independent of the right of Macedonia to seek its self determination. Everyone on earth has the right to self determination, so does Macedonia, and no one can change that," says Hans Lothar-Schteppan.
It seems that today the "Greek tentacles" that once threatened the Balkans have grown and have encircled the world. They are now interfering in International affairs and in organizations like NATO, the European Union and the United Nations, to mention a few.
Even though Macedonia is the fourth or fifth largest proportional contributor of military troops to NATO peace-keeping missions worldwide, it is still waiting for an invitation for its political wing to join NATO and all this, I am told, is because of Greek interference! Greece is the only NATO member in the world that does not want Macedonia to join NATO!
More recently the Macedonian language has been attacked both in the European Union and in the United Nations where it has disappeared from important reports and websites.
The latest European Commission progress report did not include "Macedonian" to refer to the Macedonian language and in its place it used "state language". EU Ambassador Erwan Fouere called it a "misunderstanding".
If that was not enough, the Macedonian language was completely erased from the United Nations website registry and the profile of the Republic of Macedonia was altered to point to the profile of Afghanistan. http://data.un.org/CountryProfile.as...of%20Macedonia
These, we are told, are "oversights" and "misunderstandings"! But why are there no "oversights" or "misunderstandings" when it comes to other peoples´ languages and country profiles?
Personally I am not convinced that these were "accidental" acts and no "tentacles" had anything to do with them! What worries me more however is the "apologetic attitude" which the powers responsible for the security and integrity of this information have taken when it comes to Macedonia.
From where we as Macedonians stand, these are not "accidents", "oversights", or "misunderstandings". These are only "deliberate acts" to eradicate the Macedonian identity! And until the United Nations, the European Union, NATO and the others look at these incidents as nothing less than "deliberate acts" to eradicate the Macedonian identity, we as Macedonians have no choice but to "look down" on these institutions and think of them as no more than "clubs" pandering to Greek racism and Greek discrimination against the Macedonians at an International level.
And these are the institutions we strive to join? And these are the institutions for which we are willing to "compromise" our name?
How much more will it take for us Macedonians to see what we have gotten ourselves into before we pull away from these so-called "negotiations" with Greece?
Personally I have to admit that I am really tired and fuming mad from the abuse we are continuing to take; not only directly from the Greeks and Bulgarians but from their lackeys and paid pawns internationally. But I have to believe that we are on the right track and someday our plight for human rights will be recognized and acknowledged by the rest of the world. I also have to admit that my patience is wearing thin and unless I soon see progress in the direction we take, I for one will eventually lose faith in our approach! As a friend once said, referring to another tormented people who today are successful, "no one paid attention to them until they grabbed their Kalashnikovs and took matters into their own hands"! I hope it doesn´t come to that for the Macedonians! But then how far can a nation be pushed before it rebels?
Other articles by Risto Stefov:
http://www.maknews.com/html/articles.html#stefov
http://www.americanchronicle.com/authors/view/3446
Free electronic books by Risto Stefov available at:
http://makedonskakafana.com/ebooks.html
Our Name is Macedonia
www.mhrmi.org/our_name_is_macedonia
You can contact the author at rstefov@hotmail.com
There was a time when our enemies killed us, tortured us, put us in jail, exiled us and took our homes and lands, humiliated us, changed our names, banned our language and attempted to assimilate us on our own lands and in our own country where we were born. Many of us left that old racist world in hopes of saving ourselves, our souls, our dignity and our national identity. But today it seems that there is no place where we can go to hide where our identity, our language and our existence can be secured. It seems to me that there is no longer a place where we can go, where we can feel safe and where we can be at peace.
Correct me if I am wrong but it seems to me that we are now being attacked by the very same International "institutions" which we came to depend on for the protection of our rights; institutions which sprang out of the chaos of the war years, promising "equal rights to all". Institutions created to champion "democracy", "equality" and "self-determination" for all, including the Macedonians. Institutions created to uphold our human rights, fight against racism and protect us from all kinds of discrimination.
It seems to me that such institutions no longer exist, if they ever existed for the Macedonian people.
By the way, did you know that the Macedonians in Greek occupied Macedonia were facing their greatest threat of extinction as a people at exactly the same time the United Nations Universal declaration of human rights was being adopted?
When the rest of the world began to enjoy its human rights, the rights of the Macedonians in Greece were being trampled and repeatedly violated by the Greek state. The basic human rights which include equality, freedom from discrimination, the right to live free and secure, freedom from torture and humiliation, the right to be recognized as an individual before the law, freedom from arbitrary jailing and prosecution, the right to a fair trial, the right to be innocent until proven guilty, the freedom to travel outside of the country, the right to property, the freedom of thought and expression, the freedom to peaceful assembly, the freedom to education, the freedom to belong to a political system in which these rights and freedoms can be realized, the right to achieve the regulations from this declaration without their prevention from the state, groups or individuals, etc., of the Macedonians were repeatedly violated by the Greek state while the United Nations Universal declaration of human rights was being adopted.
That was then, but how are things today?
Well, yesteryear these things were happening inside Greece, supported by the Greek government and perpetrated by fanatic Greeks who, for their own personal reasons, personal satisfaction, or for "mother country", imposed their will on the Macedonian people. Now, some generations later, a new type of "cunning and sophisticated" Greek has surfaced and has extended his net of abuse to include the entire world. There is no longer a place on this earth where a Macedonian can feel safe to assert his or her own ethnic and national identity without being attacked, humiliated and challenged.
Yes things have changed in the world but for the Macedonians they have changed for the worse!
Yesteryear the Macedonians had no country of their own, today they do but that hardly seems to matter to the racist Greeks and others who want the Macedonian identity rubbed out and everything that is genuinely Macedonian erased from this world.
For example, ever since 39% of Macedonia became an independent and sovereign state the Greeks have "insisted" that it not be called Macedonia! And since the people of the 39% of Macedonia named their little country the Republic of Macedonia the Greeks have "adamantly insisted" that they change the name! Even though Macedonia, an independent and sovereign nation, has every moral and international legal right to choose its own name, the Greeks still insist that Macedonians cannot use the name Macedonia for their country because that name belongs exclusively to Greece!
Well, I for one do not agree with such Greek claims on account of the way the Greeks obtained 51% of Macedonia during the Balkan Wars in 1912 and 1913 when their army, along with the Serbian and Bulgarian armies, illegally invaded, occupied, partitioned and took Macedonia by force for themselves. This happened only 10 years after the Macedonian people themselves made a bid, in a major but failed uprising, to liberate themselves from a previous occupation and create their own Macedonian state. The Greeks, Serbians and Bulgarians, along with the rest of the world, should have realized then that Macedonia belonged to the Macedonian people. Greece, Serbia and Bulgaria however ignored all that and annexed Macedonian lands for themselves. In other words, they literally stole Macedonia out of the hands of the Macedonian people while the rest of the world sat by silent on the sidelines. That is why I believe Macedonia does not belong to anyone other than to the genuine Macedonian people. Not to the "pretend" Greeks, not to the Serbians and Bulgarians and not to the Albanians; Macedonia belongs to the Macedonian people who were a nation before they had a country. Unlike the Greeks for whom the Great Powers first created a country and then fabricated their mythical "fake" Greek nation to fit. The Macedonians were a Macedonian nation before there was a modern Macedonian state and the Macedonian people have the right to name their state Macedonia.
I, however, am not the only one who believes that Macedonia belongs to the Macedonian people.
Former German Ambassador to Macedonia, Hans Lothar-Schteppan in an interview with Mia, Mina and A1, said that Macedonia should never under any circumstances yield to Greece. He also calls Macedonia a "victim of Europe´s 20th century conspiracies".
"I am convinced that if any politician wishes to understand today´s political conflict between Macedonia and Greece, they must look deep into history. History proves what I believe, for example, that Greece prior to 1913 never had Aegean Macedonia [51% of Macedonia] in its possession. Not in ancient times, not in Roman times, not during Ottoman times, not at any point in time did Greece ever have anything to do with Macedonia," says Hans Lothar-Schteppan.
"After an outrageous breach of international law in 1912-1913 during the Balkan Wars, Greece together with Bulgaria and Serbia & Montenegro occupied and took Macedonia, Thrace, and Epirus. The main basis here is that Greece has illegally stolen Macedonian territory, which is against international law. This historical connection however is independent of the right of Macedonia to seek its self determination. Everyone on earth has the right to self determination, so does Macedonia, and no one can change that," says Hans Lothar-Schteppan.
It seems that today the "Greek tentacles" that once threatened the Balkans have grown and have encircled the world. They are now interfering in International affairs and in organizations like NATO, the European Union and the United Nations, to mention a few.
Even though Macedonia is the fourth or fifth largest proportional contributor of military troops to NATO peace-keeping missions worldwide, it is still waiting for an invitation for its political wing to join NATO and all this, I am told, is because of Greek interference! Greece is the only NATO member in the world that does not want Macedonia to join NATO!
More recently the Macedonian language has been attacked both in the European Union and in the United Nations where it has disappeared from important reports and websites.
The latest European Commission progress report did not include "Macedonian" to refer to the Macedonian language and in its place it used "state language". EU Ambassador Erwan Fouere called it a "misunderstanding".
If that was not enough, the Macedonian language was completely erased from the United Nations website registry and the profile of the Republic of Macedonia was altered to point to the profile of Afghanistan. http://data.un.org/CountryProfile.as...of%20Macedonia
These, we are told, are "oversights" and "misunderstandings"! But why are there no "oversights" or "misunderstandings" when it comes to other peoples´ languages and country profiles?
Personally I am not convinced that these were "accidental" acts and no "tentacles" had anything to do with them! What worries me more however is the "apologetic attitude" which the powers responsible for the security and integrity of this information have taken when it comes to Macedonia.
From where we as Macedonians stand, these are not "accidents", "oversights", or "misunderstandings". These are only "deliberate acts" to eradicate the Macedonian identity! And until the United Nations, the European Union, NATO and the others look at these incidents as nothing less than "deliberate acts" to eradicate the Macedonian identity, we as Macedonians have no choice but to "look down" on these institutions and think of them as no more than "clubs" pandering to Greek racism and Greek discrimination against the Macedonians at an International level.
And these are the institutions we strive to join? And these are the institutions for which we are willing to "compromise" our name?
How much more will it take for us Macedonians to see what we have gotten ourselves into before we pull away from these so-called "negotiations" with Greece?
Personally I have to admit that I am really tired and fuming mad from the abuse we are continuing to take; not only directly from the Greeks and Bulgarians but from their lackeys and paid pawns internationally. But I have to believe that we are on the right track and someday our plight for human rights will be recognized and acknowledged by the rest of the world. I also have to admit that my patience is wearing thin and unless I soon see progress in the direction we take, I for one will eventually lose faith in our approach! As a friend once said, referring to another tormented people who today are successful, "no one paid attention to them until they grabbed their Kalashnikovs and took matters into their own hands"! I hope it doesn´t come to that for the Macedonians! But then how far can a nation be pushed before it rebels?
Other articles by Risto Stefov:
http://www.maknews.com/html/articles.html#stefov
http://www.americanchronicle.com/authors/view/3446
Free electronic books by Risto Stefov available at:
http://makedonskakafana.com/ebooks.html
Our Name is Macedonia
www.mhrmi.org/our_name_is_macedonia
You can contact the author at rstefov@hotmail.com
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