Македонија и ЕУ...и кога конечно во ЕУ?

GREECE ’S PROBLEM WITH THE REPUBLIC OF MACEDONIA

by Dr. Georgios Nakratzas

Greece ’s conduct towards the Republic of Macedonia reminds one of the imperialist period in Greek history, between 1912 and 1922.

Currently both Greece and Macedonia are defiling the memory of Alexander the Great, concealing the true history of the problem.

In Greek schools the nationalist curriculum teaches that Macedonia was liberated in 1912, a statement which fails, of course, to reflect the entire truth, since in reality Macedonia was annexed by force of arms.

Use of the term ‘liberation’ is warranted only in those circumstances where the majority of the population are well-disposed to the development; otherwise it is more correct to speak of an occupation.

At the time of the occupation of Macedonia even the figures given by the Ecumenical Patriarchate acknowledge that only around 10% of the population consisted of Greek-speaking Macedonians, while 40% were Slav-speaking Macedonians and the other 40% Muslim Macedonians.

There were also small populations of Latin-speaking Vlachs, Albanians, Jews and Gypsies. The Jewish population formed a majority only in the city of Thessaloniki .

Throughout the region then known as Macedonia Greeks were found only in Roumlouki, i.e. the area extending roughly from Katerini to the south-western corner of the Lake of Yannitsa (modern Meliki).

There were also Greeks in a part of Halkidiki, while in the prefecture of Serres they were to be found only in the coastal area of Nigrita and in the Darnakohoria. In the prefecture of Drama they were found almost exclusively in the vicinity of Doxato.

Outside Thessaloniki the population of the villages across the whole province were Slav-speaking: for example, in Diavata, Sindos (Tekeli), Anatoliko (Yioudoular), Asvestohori (Peizanovo), Oraiokastro (Daout Bali), Neohorouda (Novoselo), Pentalofo (Gradebor), Melissohori (Baltza), Soho (Souho) and many other villages.

Even today one hears old men in these villages speaking the Macedonian language, or Slavo-Macedonian as it is sometimes known.

For Greek nationalism at that time the greatest danger lay in the growth of Macedonian nationalism, whose emergence dates officially from 1897, when the first Macedonian convention was held in Thessaloniki, attended by the Macedonians’ national hero Deltsev.

Greek propaganda has claimed, down to the present day, that there are no Macedonians, nor any Macedonian identity or movement – despite the fact that the danger has now disappeared.

At the time of the Asia Minor catastrophe, the consequence of the insane Great Idea, the first victims were the population of Asia Minor and the Thracian refugees, i.e. our own parents and we their descendants. Subsequent tragic victims of Greek nationalism were the Slav-speaking Macedonians of Greek Macedonia.

The Slav-speaking Macedonians found themselves persecuted by the Greek state on the land they had inhabited for 1400 years. The repression of this group was particularly fierce under the dictator Metaxas, when elderly Slav-speaking Macedonians were fined if they dared to speak Macedonian in their own village in the hearing of the local gendarme. We must remember that Macedonian was the only language these old people spoke.

Other forms of repression included exile to islands and a range of other administrative sanctions. Apart from this active persecution, the enforced change in their family names and the change of the Slav place names of Macedonia completed the cultural and nationalistic crime perpetrated by the Greek state.

In 1924 the arrival of refugees from Asia Minor and Thrace brought a radical and non-reversible change in the ethnic composition of the population of Greek Macedonia, of which the final stage was the involvement of the Macedonians in the civil war, on the losing side, and finally their mass emigration, after 1950, to such destinations as Canada, Australia and the United States.

As a result of these events, in combination with the departure to Turkey in 1924 of 500,000 Macedonian Turks, and the extermination by the Nazis of the Jewish community of Thessaloniki , the ethnic composition of Greek Macedonia was transformed – with Greeks now making up 90% of the whole.

Following this historical account of the current ethnic composition of Macedonia , we observe that the population of Greek Macedonia today, consisting of 2 to 2.5 million people, is composed of persons of Greek descent accounting for 90% of the total, with just 20,000 to at most 60,000 persons of Slavo-Macedonian or Macedonian descent.

After many decades of sacrifice the Macedonian nation has finally succeeded in achieving a haven for what remains of its population in the territory of the Republic of Macedonia – attempting, the last nation of the Balkans to do so, to forge a national and political identity as it proceeds towards membership in the European Union.

The Greek state, however, pursuing its policy of intolerance towards the ethnic Macedonians in the area of Greek Macedonia, refuses to recognize even that remnant of the Macedonian nation inhabiting the Republic of Macedonia , not through military force, which is no longer an option, but through the threat of vetoing our neighbour's entry into NATO and the European Union.

One of the most ludicrous arguments is that we the modern Greeks, and not the Macedonians, are the only heirs of the ancient Macedonians, and of that butcher of entire peoples Alexander the Great, as Mr. Nimitz most aptly expressed it.

At a recent presentation of the Macedonian translation of my book The Close Racial Affinity of the Modern Greeks and Ethnic Macedonians, in the capital of the Republic of Macedonia , Skopje , I made the following observation, before an audience of hundreds:

Neither we the Greeks nor you are the descendants of the ancient Macedonians; we are a cocktail of many different peoples and races. In my book I refer to the Republic of Macedonia and to the ethnic Macedonians out of respect for your national identity. Our overriding duty is one of mutual respect between our peoples in the name of peace.

It would be absurd for either the Macedonians or the Greeks to claim descent from particular ancient ancestors.

It would be equally absurd, in a hypothetical case where the Republic of Macedonia was already an EU member with the right of veto, to claim that for Greece to join the Union it must change its name from the Hellenic Republic to some mutually acceptable title like, for example, the Albano-Vlacho-Slav Republic. For in fact this is the racial composition of the people of the older part of Greece and a part of Greek Macedonia.

Greece cannot impose its veto on the entry of the Republic of Macedonia into NATO or the European Union under the name FYROM, since it has already accepted, in the guise of an official international agreement, under the supervision of the EU, the temporary appellation of Macedonia as FYROM ( Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia ).

If Greece should attempt to                                                                                                 go back on the interim agreement of Ochrid, which remains in effect for a whole year after its termination, it would lose all international credibility, with consequences that cannot be foreseen.

In the European Union it is not only Greece which has the right of veto. Other countries may well wish to use their own veto to punish a member which has proved so untrustworthy.

Moreover, the threat of an alternative highway to the Egnatia Motorway (Burgas-Sofia-Skopje – Durres ), exploiting the port of Durres , would do great economic damage to the port of Thessaloniki and the whole region of Greek Macedonia.

It is in the interest of our own country and the whole Balkan region to cease this nationalist paranoia and allow our neighbour country to pursue its path towards membership of the European Union. This will bring enormous benefits not only to the city of Thessaloniki , but to the Greek and Macedonian peoples in their entirety.

Note: This article will be distributed to many MEPs and other persons around the world.

E-mail: g.nakratzas@wxs.nl   info@nakratzas.com

Website:  www.nakratzas.com