A search for a nation-building material Macedonia vs Greece
Gandeto
December 08, 2008
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Today's over aggressive Greek propaganda to portray the ancient Macedonians as Greeks is a very recent phenomenon. Its aim is twofold: (1) to establish a direct genealogy with the ancient Greeks, and (2) to make the ancient Macedonians a Greek tribe, and thereby solidify its current status with Aegean Macedonia and its name.
It is a fact that Aegean Macedonia is viewed by today's Macedonians as de-facto, an occupied territory. This part of Macedonia which the Greeks obtained in 1913 as a result of the treaty of Bucharest remains an unsettled issue and a thorny field for the Greeks.
Although, the present Greek narrative appears to be solidly constructed, upon closer scrutiny, this solidity quickly dissolves and leaves a trail of highly fragmented elements in its structure. The apparent urgency of the Greek government to convince the world of its "righteous" position, and the visible dissatisfaction with the (un)obtained goals can be attributed to the following underpinning constructs:
(1) Failure to completely "Hellenize" the indigenous Macedonian population in the occupied territory i.e., failure to eradicate the Macedonian element from Aegean Macedonia,
(2) The fear of losing the "grip" over the local Macedonians who have recently "awakened" and are asserting their human rights under the new Europe, and
(3) The porosity in their own nation building foundation where several diverging streams from their not so distant past, appear to be contradicting today's loud proclamation/stand of the Greek government that ancient Macedonians were Greeks.
The first two attributes, even though extremely pertinent to the topic in question, will not be discussed here, so we may focus our attention to attribute #3 and the fact that Greeks in the early stages of their nation building process did not regard the ancient Macedonians as Greeks.
From the Journal of Modern Greek Studies 14.2 (1996) 253 - 301, [John Hopkins University Press] in Victor Roudometof 's article "Nationalism and Identity Politics in the Balkans: Greece and the Macedonian Question" we lift the following noteworthy statements:
(1) "The Macedonian narrative views Macedonia as occupied by the Macedonian nation and suggests the existence of national minorities in Bulgaria and Greece."
(2) "The Greek narrative does not acknowledge the existence of a Macedonian nation and considers the existence of a Macedonian minority within Greece to be a manifestation of Macedonian irredentism."
(3) "During the eighteenth century, the West's preoccupation with a "mythical" ancient Greece conceived as the birthplace of Western civilization, and the neoclassicism that dominated the intellectual discourse of the period, influenced the Greek-Orthodox intellectuals to develop their own genealogy that linked modern Greece with Hellenic antiquity."
Most likely, the Western intelligencia could not bear the thought that their civilization had its roots in Muslim countries in the near East.]
(4) "By means of this neoclassicism, the modern Greeks came gradually to conceive of themselves as the descendants and heirs of the ancients whose land they inhabited and whose language they spoke. This conception of ethnic continuity between the classical and modern Hellenes, which was the direct product of the reception of Enlightenment neoclassicism into Greek thought, provided the basic ingredient of the self-definition of the modern Greeks". (Kitromilides 1983:59).
This novel idea was introduced and vigorously propagated in 1844.]
(5) "As late as 1824, the Phanariot Theodore Negris identified Serbs and Bulgarians as Greeks, a definition that was closer to that of the Orthodox religious community of the Rum Millet than to the definition of modern secular Greek identity". (quoted in Skopetea 1988:25).
(6) "The challenge to the historical continuity thesis by Fallmerayer (1830), the gradual rise of the Bulgarian national movement, and the religious revival within the Greek kingdom all collided, suggesting the need for a different evaluation of Greece's historical past." (Politis 1993:36; Dimaras 1958).
(7) "In the modern Greek Enlightenment, the ancients and the moderns were connected through a genealogical tie, while the Orthodox and Byzantin past had been undermined."
A political necessity needed for the transformation of the religiously based identity into a national based identity.]
(8) In 1844 Ioannis Koletis declares that "Greek nation's boundaries were not identical with those of the Kingdom of Greece."
This is the first articulation of Greek irredentism, the "Great Idea".]
(9) "The official version of Greek history, published during the late 1860s by Paparrhigopoulos, was grounded in the notion of unbroken historical continuity between ancient and modern Greece."
With these several passages at hand, and more importantly, keeping the main component of the Greek nation-building process in focus - the unbroken historical continuity between the ancients and the moderns - we are confronted with unexpected statements that strongly undermine Greece's position that the ancient Macedonians were Greeks.]
(10) "In the early years of the Kingdom of Greece (1832-1844), the boundaries of modern Greece were conceived as identical to those of ancient Greece."
Please, juxtapose this statement with the one given by Koletis in 1844, where he assumes quite the opposite.]
(b) "The ancient Macedonians were viewed as conquerors of ancient Greece and not as part of it."
36. See Dimaras (1985:338-339) and Dimakis (1991). The appropriation of the legacy of ancient Macedonia by the modern Greeks belongs historically to the second half of the nineteenth century. Politis (1993:40-42) cites fourteen examples from the Greek literature of the 1794-1841 period in which the ancient Macedonians are not considered to be part of the ancient Greek world. Prominent intellectuals like Ioannis Rizos Neroulos and Adamantios Koraes were among those who shared this viewpoint. ]
These passages alone provide the reader with granite-solid proof that ancient Macedonians were just that -Macedonians - and Greece's racist propaganda against today's Macedonians is laced with venom and hate and represents a classic case of modern fabrication of history. Their highly vocal assertions that "ancient Macedonians were Greeks", and "Macedonia is Greece" are exposed for what they really are - lies and fabrications.
Today's over aggressive Greek propaganda to portray the ancient Macedonians as Greeks is a very recent phenomenon. Its aim is twofold: (1) to establish a direct genealogy with the ancient Greeks, and (2) to make the ancient Macedonians a Greek tribe, and thereby solidify its current status with Aegean Macedonia and its name.
It is a fact that Aegean Macedonia is viewed by today's Macedonians as de-facto, an occupied territory. This part of Macedonia which the Greeks obtained in 1913 as a result of the treaty of Bucharest remains an unsettled issue and a thorny field for the Greeks.
Although, the present Greek narrative appears to be solidly constructed, upon closer scrutiny, this solidity quickly dissolves and leaves a trail of highly fragmented elements in its structure. The apparent urgency of the Greek government to convince the world of its "righteous" position, and the visible dissatisfaction with the (un)obtained goals can be attributed to the following underpinning constructs:
(1) Failure to completely "Hellenize" the indigenous Macedonian population in the occupied territory i.e., failure to eradicate the Macedonian element from Aegean Macedonia,
(2) The fear of losing the "grip" over the local Macedonians who have recently "awakened" and are asserting their human rights under the new Europe, and
(3) The porosity in their own nation building foundation where several diverging streams from their not so distant past, appear to be contradicting today's loud proclamation/stand of the Greek government that ancient Macedonians were Greeks.
The first two attributes, even though extremely pertinent to the topic in question, will not be discussed here, so we may focus our attention to attribute #3 and the fact that Greeks in the early stages of their nation building process did not regard the ancient Macedonians as Greeks.
From the Journal of Modern Greek Studies 14.2 (1996) 253 - 301, [John Hopkins University Press] in Victor Roudometof 's article "Nationalism and Identity Politics in the Balkans: Greece and the Macedonian Question" we lift the following noteworthy statements:
(1) "The Macedonian narrative views Macedonia as occupied by the Macedonian nation and suggests the existence of national minorities in Bulgaria and Greece."
(2) "The Greek narrative does not acknowledge the existence of a Macedonian nation and considers the existence of a Macedonian minority within Greece to be a manifestation of Macedonian irredentism."
(3) "During the eighteenth century, the West's preoccupation with a "mythical" ancient Greece conceived as the birthplace of Western civilization, and the neoclassicism that dominated the intellectual discourse of the period, influenced the Greek-Orthodox intellectuals to develop their own genealogy that linked modern Greece with Hellenic antiquity."
Most likely, the Western intelligencia could not bear the thought that their civilization had its roots in Muslim countries in the near East.]
(4) "By means of this neoclassicism, the modern Greeks came gradually to conceive of themselves as the descendants and heirs of the ancients whose land they inhabited and whose language they spoke. This conception of ethnic continuity between the classical and modern Hellenes, which was the direct product of the reception of Enlightenment neoclassicism into Greek thought, provided the basic ingredient of the self-definition of the modern Greeks". (Kitromilides 1983:59).
This novel idea was introduced and vigorously propagated in 1844.]
(5) "As late as 1824, the Phanariot Theodore Negris identified Serbs and Bulgarians as Greeks, a definition that was closer to that of the Orthodox religious community of the Rum Millet than to the definition of modern secular Greek identity". (quoted in Skopetea 1988:25).
(6) "The challenge to the historical continuity thesis by Fallmerayer (1830), the gradual rise of the Bulgarian national movement, and the religious revival within the Greek kingdom all collided, suggesting the need for a different evaluation of Greece's historical past." (Politis 1993:36; Dimaras 1958).
(7) "In the modern Greek Enlightenment, the ancients and the moderns were connected through a genealogical tie, while the Orthodox and Byzantin past had been undermined."
A political necessity needed for the transformation of the religiously based identity into a national based identity.]
(8) In 1844 Ioannis Koletis declares that "Greek nation's boundaries were not identical with those of the Kingdom of Greece."
This is the first articulation of Greek irredentism, the "Great Idea".]
(9) "The official version of Greek history, published during the late 1860s by Paparrhigopoulos, was grounded in the notion of unbroken historical continuity between ancient and modern Greece."
With these several passages at hand, and more importantly, keeping the main component of the Greek nation-building process in focus - the unbroken historical continuity between the ancients and the moderns - we are confronted with unexpected statements that strongly undermine Greece's position that the ancient Macedonians were Greeks.]
(10) "In the early years of the Kingdom of Greece (1832-1844), the boundaries of modern Greece were conceived as identical to those of ancient Greece."
Please, juxtapose this statement with the one given by Koletis in 1844, where he assumes quite the opposite.]
(b) "The ancient Macedonians were viewed as conquerors of ancient Greece and not as part of it."
36. See Dimaras (1985:338-339) and Dimakis (1991). The appropriation of the legacy of ancient Macedonia by the modern Greeks belongs historically to the second half of the nineteenth century. Politis (1993:40-42) cites fourteen examples from the Greek literature of the 1794-1841 period in which the ancient Macedonians are not considered to be part of the ancient Greek world. Prominent intellectuals like Ioannis Rizos Neroulos and Adamantios Koraes were among those who shared this viewpoint. ]
These passages alone provide the reader with granite-solid proof that ancient Macedonians were just that -Macedonians - and Greece's racist propaganda against today's Macedonians is laced with venom and hate and represents a classic case of modern fabrication of history. Their highly vocal assertions that "ancient Macedonians were Greeks", and "Macedonia is Greece" are exposed for what they really are - lies and fabrications.
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