What's great about being a Nationalist isn't being a hypocrite, its showing them online that you are

In my short online career I have been demonized by some of the Greek Nationalist internet warriors. Once again I have been attacked in print (or pixels I guess) in the Chronicle and in online forums. Not that I care, we Macedonians are used to being attacked; although this attack was a little different.

I have been accused of theft; I am not kidding. And it´s not theft of the X-Box 360 tag line and the nerdy kid with braces image that I used for the title of this article and its picture either. Apparently I am the Winona Ryder of revisionist Macedonian history; if I may creatively paraphrase a claim in a recent Chronicle opinion piece.

Nikolaos Macedon' stated that we Macedonians want to "to strip the Greeks of their history and cultural heritage". We are accused of stealing history by Greek politicians. We have no desire to ´strip Greeks of their history´; they can ´have´ their history however they define it. History is a mental construct; you cannot stick it up your blouse and walk out the shop with it like Wynona did. Like any other idea, you can accept or reject it, but you can´t steal it. Can you steal ´Maths´ or ´Geography´?

But my criminal activities aren't the only thing that keeps me awake at night. My parents apparently aren't the people I thought they were. Have you ever had anybody question your parentage? Not like in a simple form of abuse that you hurl at a taxi driver who almost collided with you, but someone seriously putting some thought into who your ancestors were.

There is nothing like knowing that around the world there are dozens of frustrated old men typing into their PCs at early hours of the morning questioning your ancestry. Really, I´m serious. The other night, I woke up in the middle of the night and realized right now there are some swarthy chain-smoking men in wife-beater singlets angrily posting in forums (like Topix, YouTube and more specialized forums) that my ancestors weren't who they were. Why? And who cares? No matter how much they type – they can´t change who I am.

One of those that seem to question my parentage here on Chronicle is ´Nikolaos Macedon´(his article of March 25, 2009), when he states that I am not a ´rightful descendant´ of the Ancient Macedonians – because I am not Greek. What is a rightful descendant? Someone´s ´descendant´ is their children. So the ´rightful descendants´ of the Ancient Macedonians would be their literal children. So what we are really talking about here is a 2300 year old paternity case.

How do we know who someone´s child is? Well, if there is anything we can learn from Maury Povich, or the half dozen guys who were bonking Anna Nicole Smith or the case of that poor Alfie Patten kid, we know that DNA can tell us who a ´rightful descendant´ is.

It works like this. When you are growing in your mother´s womb you are growing due to cells splitting and copying themselves. Each cell carries 46 chromosomes; 2 of these being the XY or XX chromosomes that determine gender. The only way you get more cells is by cells copying themselves. They generally reproduce without errors, but sometimes there are tiny ones that don´t affect how you survive. But because, on the whole, cells copy each other, you can match the chromosomes of your child to what is lovingly referred to on Maury as ´yo baby daddy´.

While you are a unique combination of genes, the Y chromosome that you carry if you are a boy is pretty much an exact copy of your fathers – as was his father´s. They were pretty much the same for their male ancestors stretching back thousands of years. However over many generations there were a number of small copy errors. These are called ´mutations´.

The difference between Ancient Macedonians and Ancient Greeks, genetically, were some of these ´copy errors´ or ´mutations´ or ´genetic markers´. As for much of their history they were relatively isolated from each other, they didn't get much of an opportunity to interbreed and therefore the genetic profiles preserved these mutations as unique.

When archaeological finds have been made, teeth and bones are often found and DNA extracted from these can be amplified using relatively standard and often repeated techniques. This gives us data that can then be used in modern analytical lab machines, and it can show us which particular mutations were typical of people in ancient societies. One of those that has been identified by iGenea (part of the world´s largest genealogical DNA lab 'Family Tree DNA') by using data from articles in the 'American Journal of Human Genetics' (one of the world´s most respected Genetics journals), is the 'Ancient Macedonian' profile.

Now what would you think if somebody had those exact ´Ancient Macedonian´ mutations in their own modern DNA? How did it get there? Was I bitten by a radioactive spider or something? The only way I can get cells and the mutations carried in them, as I mentioned earlier, is through cells replicating themselves. No matter how much I like or dislike my ancestors – they are written in my DNA. The cells in my body had ancestor cells thousands of years ago. But what does this mean to the Macedonian debate?

According to the Swiss company iGenea's data, 30% of Modern Macedonians, myself included, are able to show that they have the same genetic markers in their chromosomes as the Ancient Macedonians. Why does that upset some people? It upsets some people because for 20 years before the DNA tests were analyzed, the Greeks were claiming that they alone were the descendants of the Ancient Macedonians. "Macedonian therefore Greek" is the rather puerile chant that they repeat over and over, as if to convince themselves, if not anybody else. Nikolaos in his opinion piece, after questioning my parentage, states the same mantra. Well Nikolaos, nobody is stopping you getting your own test and knowing for sure who your ancestors were. You don´t have to worry anymore about convincing people how ´Greek´ your ancestors were, you´ll have a little certificate showing that you are descended from Greeks or Macedonians or Phoenicians. DNA testing does a much better of job of showing parentage than propaganda ever could.

Which brings me to another point. Apparently there are some who are saying the genetics means nothing in relation to ethnicity. It is true that there is more to ethnicity than genetics, but genetics is a good proxy for some less measurable aspects of ethnicity – namely family history and culture. We don´t know exactly how people lived 2000 years ago – but we do know that culture, generally speaking, like genes, is spread from parents to children. The implication is that people with the same genes have passed a culture down which has evolved over thousands of years. In my case, and that of many Macedonians, it is a culture of proud warriors who later became an Orthodox people that spoke a Slavic language, my culture was further shaped by Ottoman domination and later by Macedonian nationalism, and in my instance, my family´s culture has also been shaped by the experience of being part of the Macedonian Diaspora. My own family culture has come a long way in 2300 years, but my X chromosomes are nearly the same as that of a Macedonian woman´s of 330BC.

It is a statement of fact – I can show you my DNA data. This does not mean that we Macedonians are the only people to have genetic ancestors from Ancient Macedonians.

Nobody is saying that Greeks cannot claim to be descended from Macedonians as well – I just don´t understand why they would want to be if they aren't actually literal descendants

The part that really concerns me is that Greece backs up their concerns about my parentage with force. This is the bit I don´t understand. Let´s try to illustrate the issue in familiar terms. America was discovered by Columbus. Columbus had children in Spain. Christopher Columbus was of course important in how America has defined and imagined itself historically, but that doesn't make him ´Non-Spanish´ or ´Spanish therefore American´. The Greek position on Macedonia would be equivalent to the United States saying that they are the only descendants of Christopher Columbus and that they will blockade Spain if Spain tries to state that Columbus´ children were Spanish. Like Columbus and the United States, Alexander never lived in Greece.

Of course all this concern with my parentage could be treated as a joke if it weren't for some of the threats made by Greek nationalists and the mindset accompanying them. ´Nikolaos Macedon´ stated that Macedonia was "almost being depleted by their indigenous Greek element ending up with mixed populations which were Greek, Turkish and Bulgarian. Unfortunately for the Slavomacedonians and their Bulgarian brothers, not for long!"

One could almost assume that Nikolaos was gloating about ethnic cleansing that occurred in the early 20th century which was followed with the Greek government declaring in the late 1920s that they were ´ethnically pure´.

You wonder about people that gloat about ethnic cleansing. Did the Serb Paramilitaries that ethnically cleansed Vukovar, Croatia, in 1991, make jokes about ethnic cleansing before they committed genocide?

Nikolaos Macedon´ also stated: "I am born a Macedonian from Greece and I am Greek by the historically established fact that the ancient Macedonians considered themselves Greek."

When Nikolaos states that the Ancient Macedonians considered themselves Greek he does so with little support from the modern academic community. While some may argue that point, it is a shrinking minority of academics. The Droysen tradition of Macedonian studies – an idealistic German school that stemmed from the Philhellism of the early 19thC – the roots of Modern Greece itself, saw Alexander as an idealistic hero for Greek culture. Droysen's followers have variously described him as being Greek or Macedonian. However in the 20th century scholars such as Green, Badian and Borza have shown a more believable Alexander who acted out of self interest, like most people in real life. Of course if one broadens the definition as to what ´Greek´ was and applies modern definitions, a case can be made either way, but as Borza states, no matter what we may think of the Ancient Macedonians, neither they nor the Greek writers at the time considered themselves to be Greek. Anybody trying to reinterpret them is generally doing so in the service of a political cause.

These academics stated that while the Macedonian royalty had learned Greek, the average Macedonian spoke Macedonian. Nikolaos stated "I find this claim absolutely absurd."

"You" find that absurd – but what qualifies your opinion? This is exactly the point made by scholars like Badian, Borza, Green and even Hammond. These guys are paid over $140,000 a year for their knowledge of Greek history by the most respected schools on the planet. I can direct you to their writings – and I would love to see you debate them, I really would. A Greek nationalist internet warrior against a Harvard Greek History Professor. It would be like watching a fight between Sugar Ray Robinson and Pee Wee Herman.

Nikolaos Macedon' further stated: "I am sick and tired to be called all kinds of names by the Fyromians and have them telling me what my history and my heritage is not."

Really? You want to know what it feels like having your identity dictated by somebody else? My ethnic homeland has to put ´Former Yugoslav´ in front of its name at the UN and the Olympics because Greece is protesting our identity! If he hates it so much, isn't it a bit ironic that Nikolaos calls Macedonians by 6 different names within his short opinion piece and then proceeds to tell us what our heritage is!

I guess the great thing about being a Greek Nationalist isn't being a hypocrite; it´s being unashamed to display it to everyone online. But then I guess when one celebrates ´Ethnic Cleansing´, hypocrisy is hardly a vice in comparison.

Nikolaos stated that my arguments are pathetic. He states that "Alexandra Aleksovska…..states the Greeks were Orthodox Christians whereas the Macedonians were polytheistic." That would have been a pathetic argument – if I had actually made it. Explain why I would state that the Ancient Greeks were Orthodox? They were Christians 600 years before Christ? Modern Greeks are Orthodox monotheists, Ancient Greeks and Ancient Macedonians were polytheists. Of course if you read my article, I never claimed what he stated.

One of the first thing that is apparent on the internet is that nobody really cares what anybody else thinks, and of course the wonderful thing is that we can all post our opinions, no matter how nutty, ill-informed or bigoted they may be. Which is why Nikolaos can conclude with:

"Greece should never recognize the country of the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia with the name Macedonia. In fact she should never recognize any mention of the Macedonian name in the Fyromian nation´s name."

Nobody really cares if you do Nikolaos. However more than 125 countries recognize Macedonia by its constitutional name. UN Declarations on Human Rights allow people to self-determine their identity. Even if they changed their name to ´Vadarska´ to appease Greek concerns, and thereby getting into NATO and the EU, there is nothing stating that they couldn't change it back to ´Republic of Macedonia´ the next day. Likewise if Greece wanted to change its name to ´Yunanistan´, which has a much deeper connection to Greek history than the modern Greek state, nobody could stop you.

Then Nikolaos followed with an attack on minorities:

"Furthermore she will never accept the legitimacy of a Macedonian minority. Such a minority cannot be accepted."

You really don´t get it do you? What do you think the UN visited Greece for in September last year? You can´t ´accept or reject´ minorities. Minorities exist or don´t exist. The UN and other organizations have repeatedly found that they exist. I find it strange that one can have an immigration department (which Greece does) yet have no minorities (which Greece claims). What do you do? Shoot them when they get off the plane?

Hypocrisy – I see nothing but hypocrisy on the Greek side of this issue. Greek Nationalists talk and talk and talk about their honor and reputation and their history as if it is a human right; it isn't. There is no human right that guarantees you that you wont be insulted by someone else´s identity. Recognizing that sometimes others think things that you may not accept, but that you have no right to force them to change, is called tolerance; it is a sign of maturity.

Let me conclude with a message for the Greek nationalist readers:

"Persons belonging to national or ethnic, religious and linguistic minorities have the right to enjoy their own culture, to profess and practise their own religion, and to use their own language, in private and in public, freely and without interference or any form of discrimination."

That isn't me; that is the United Nations. I really don´t care what you or your nation thinks, but myself, and the rest of the world, care how you act. You cannot challenge someone´s identity or ethnicity. I am a Macedonian, my parents were, and according to my DNA, my ancestors were; no matter how offended Greece is by that, they cannot change it.