Professor Stephen Miller, who sent a petition to Obama calling for, it was believed by most of the world, including Greek media and Greek lobby groups, the derecognition of the Republic of Macedonia's name, has now stated that he is not asking for this. He states that all along he was seeking to 'Save Alexander'. Seeing that he has not written about Alexander before, I find this a little unlikely.
The recent Greek postal service interference with the minority party Vinozito is symptomatic of the Greek government attitude towards minorities. Given that this type of attitude is unlike the majority of western countries, maybe we should again question whether Greece deserves to be considered 'Western'?
Katy Perry (who isn't actually Katy Perry) is trying to stop Katie Perry selling clothes under her own name. Greece (who isn't Macedonia) is trying to stop Macedonia being called by its own name. What right does somebody else have to determine the name of another?
Reporting on minorities in Greece can get you arrested and jailed - so we know the police are pretty quick to react. Recently a Macedonian-Greek dictionary was launched in Athens. Chrysi Avyi thugs showed up and so did the Greek police - with predictable results.
Recently a petition of pro-Greek academics has been circulating. The petition seeks to serve Greek government attempts to deny human rights to Macedonians. Given the control the Greek government has on archaeological research done in Greece, it isn't surprising that some academics will sign up with Greece. There are however some very notable absences.
A recently publicized 'top secret' Greek document from 1982 appears to indicate that the Greek government pursued an active policy of trying to disrupt the Macedonian community within its borders. Did some of their policies meet the legal definition of genocide?
Alexander the Great is a powerful symbol and is therefore attractive to many people who would like to 'own' him for their own purposes. These symbols are attractive because they are less complex than realities like human rights, however they are nowhere near as important. We should focus more on our human rights and less on empty symbols.
In the Macedonia/Greece debate, there is a considerable amount of hypocrisy being shown by the Greek side. While fundamental human rights allow us all as humans the freedom of self-determination, Greece consistently attempts to deny those rights inside and outside their borders.
In response to Istor's article of the 12th of March: Being proud of the Ancient Macedonian campaign (including the conquering of Greece in 338BC) does not make you an Ancient Macedonian, anymore than being proud of how Bilbo Baggins snuck past the Dragon in ´The Hobbit´, would make you a Hobbit. On the other hand, modern Ethnic Macedonians in Greece have been investigated by a number of agencies and determined to be an ethnic minority. The UN is calling on Greece to change their behavior.
Ethnicity is a complex concept that has many more factors than merely language, which is the dominant factor used by many Greek nationalists in their denial of Macedonian ethnicity.