From: vkb57@cas.org ()
Subject: Re: MIRacles No. 13
Organization: Chemical Abstracts Service, Columbus, Ohio
Date: Thu, 8 Oct 1992 15:18:42 GMT

In article <1475300380@igc.apc.org> lgsax@igc.apc.org (Lynn Gazis-Sax) writes:
>
>I've seen the propaganda about Alexander the Great in
>this newsgroup (also some denials by Macedonians that
>they have anything to do with Alexander the Great, in
>this same newsgroup).  In Skopje, I didn't encounter
>it.  This makes me suspect that it is the view of only
>a fringe element, and that in general Macedonians and
>the government of the Republic of Macedonia aren't
>trying to claim descent from Alexander the Great.

As you mentioned in your original posting,  the distinction between the
ancient Macedonian Kingdom of Alexander the Great and the Slavic-culture
dominated medieval and modern-day history of Macedonia is very clear and
carefully observed in Macedonia.  The history of Macedonia, from prehistoric
times to the present,  is a major topic of study in high school as well as in
the advanced years of grade school;  the distinction between the ancient and the
modern Macedonians is,  if anything,  excessively stressed.  No Macedonian with
even a rudimentary education is going to confuse the ancient Macedonians,
their language,  and their culture with that of the modern Macedonians.

On the other hand, despite the Slavic domination of the modern Macedonian
language and culture,  the ancient Macedonian Kingdom,  the Roman province of
Macedonia,  and the Turkish province of Macedonia during the long Ottoman rule
of the region are major parts of the history of Macedonia.  Genetic, cultural,
and linguistic ties to all of those periods remain and constitute a rightful
and significant part of the heritage of modern Macedonia.
>
>The claims about an oppressed Macedonian minority in
>Greece are a more complicated issue.  This belief seems
>to be more widely held (judging from both the postings
>here and the conversations I had in Skopje); at the
>same time, I didn't hear the extreme statements on
>this matter in Skopje which I have seen on a few occasions
>on the net (the ones which sounded as if the poster was
>accusing Greece of being an occupier of its province
>of Macedonia - a minority among the Macedonian postings
>here, but one which understandably alarms the Greeks).

The oppressed Macedonian minority in Greece is indeed a very complicated and
sensitive issue.  The serious estimates of the size of the minority vary from
150-180,000 given by the Encyclopaedia Brittanica World Books to 300,000
compilled by the Macedonian historians by tracing the population of each
little village and hamlet trough the history.  That the minority is oppressed
and does not enjoy the usual and customary minoruty rights is well documented
in many places,  including the 1991 US State Department report on the issue.  It
is also evident from the fact that its very existence is being denied.

Greece did not get to be the only 95+ percent ethnically pure country on the
Balkans,  where the norm is more like 50-80%,  by respecting minority rights.
It took decades of forcible assimilation by the gun and castor-oil bottle,
forced name changes,  forced expulsion,  encouraging emigration,  and other
usual and customary ethnic-cleansing techniques to achieve such level of
ethnic purity.

Its should also be noted that the severity of the oppression has been
drastically scalled down in recent years.

>On the whole, the people I met in Skopje seemed to be
>far more concerned about the oil shortage than about
>the status of any group of Greek citizens.
>
The oil shortage is a seriuos problem and it tends to preoccupy people.  It is
clear hoowever to everyone that the state of Macedonia will always be very
concerned about the status of the Macedonian minority in Greece and will apply
every pressure it can to help them achieve human and minority rights
comparable to those that minorities in Macedonia enjoy.

>Lynn Gazis-Sax

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