From: zoltan@psychnet.psychol.utas.edu.au (Zoltan Schreter)
Subject: Re: Skopjian Recognition after US elections.
Organization: Psychology Department, University of Tasmania
Date: Thu, 19 Nov 1992 03:25:26 GMT

In article <1992Nov12.184211.20013@murdoch.acc.Virginia.EDU> gd8f@kelvin.seas.Virginia.EDU (Gregory  Dandulakis) writes:
>Xref: newsroom.utas.edu.au soc.culture.greek:13244 soc.culture.yugoslavia:12826
>Newsgroups: soc.culture.greek,soc.culture.yugoslavia
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>From: gd8f@kelvin.seas.Virginia.EDU (Gregory  Dandulakis)
>Subject: Re: Skopjian Recognition after US elections.
>Message-ID: <1992Nov12.184211.20013@murdoch.acc.Virginia.EDU>
>Sender: usenet@murdoch.acc.Virginia.EDU
>Organization: University of Virginia
>References: <1992Nov9.190403.1583@informix.com> <1992Nov10.050446.23853@walter.bellcore.com> <1992Nov11.010403.7462@informix.com>
>Date: Thu, 12 Nov 1992 18:42:11 GMT
>Lines: 97
>In article <1992Nov11.010403.7462@informix.com> rika@informix.com (Rika Tsitsinia) writes:

Stuff deleted
>
>     Georgios, did you see that SAS reacted to my posting about splitting
>     the Scopja by arguing a similar treatment for last century's Greece.
>     But everybody knows that last century's Greece survived the Ottomans
>     by skillfully manouvering her Geopolitical importance with the
>     great powers, and by selling internally the "megali idea", to
>     liberate the ottoman christians. Can you imagine a similar
>     manouvering from the Scopjan government where will lead?
>     The great powers soon or later through their competition in the
>     region will promote the irredentist muthology. The political
>     history has proven this again and again and again and NEVER
>     disproved it.
>
>     Now the argument that economically can be absorbed by Greece,
>    this is very weak. The power center in Skopja will never give up
>    its powers (that's the natural reaction from all the power thirsty
>    (covered by idealism) competing political feagures; the power
>    is like the living organisms, it continuousely wants to be 
>    self-replicated).
>
>    Now the argument that the people there don't want Greece. Wrong!
>    Even though they are tought so, the reality is different. There
>    are still Vlachs (100,000) there who have still live connections with the
>    Greek Vlachs who left Monastir (Bitola) after the Balkan Wars,
>    and live in northern Greece. These people easily can distinguish
>    the myth and disaster from the facts and potential.
>    An other group is the slavophones refugees and their descendents (100,000)
>    from the greek civil war (they used to be the famous Grecomaniacs just
>    in 1910-20's). Those people even though they were
>    severly alianated from Greece during the Cold war, still they are
>    missing their ancestral ethnical affiliation, and for that reason
>    even the Scopjan regime never permitted them to acquire high rank
>    administrative positions: they are notoriousely suspicious of them.
>    Those two groups of people can almost immediately be assimilated
>    within the greek society. (After all, my great-grand father was
>    a turkish-mother tongue christian cretan).
>
>    Now, why not Bulgaria to take a piece of it. They had once strong
>    connections with them. A stable, viable Bulgarian state is immensely
>    preferable than a power-keg neo-invented "macedonian-ethnicity" which
>     doesn't have to lose anything even if all the Balkans explode, since
>     itsown people are big losers.
>
>   The split between Serbia-Bulgaria-Albania-Greece would have become
>   reality if the americans didn't strongly react already two years
>   ago; for that reason I reckon that a brave political alliance of these
>   4 states, in defiance of the outsiders, in accord to the 1st Balkan
>   war, seems to me the best.
>
>   As far as Albania is concerned, I personally see as best solution,
>   to become the only solid muslim country in the Balkans, taking one
>   third of the Scopja, half of Kosovo, and giving the fourth orthodox
>   south to Greece, since the northern-epirots so much want it.
>
>   This arrangement will finally resolve the Ottoman legacy from the
>   balkans and the intrabalkan friction can finally go away (slowly we
>   can start looking like western europeans). All the rest are half-solutions
>

Western Europeans? I don't know what you mean by this - and obviously
it is a rather fuzzy category - but to me it means, among other things,
a politically "grown up" mentality, tolerance, solving issues by negotiations
instead of by using force, respecting the right of the self determination
of people, etc. 
Well, as far as I can see, you are - with your views concerning the 
splitting up of Macedonia - about as far from being West European as you 
could be. 
You hope to start "looking like western europeans" by that "arrangement".
It would be a very sad thing - for Western Europeans at least - to happen.


Zoltan Schreter
University of Tasmania at Hobart
Australia


   which will destroy us again in the near future. It seems that Serbia does
>   what Kemal did in Anatolia in 1910-20's and Venizelos agreed upon
>   later. Maybe it's time to finish it now.
>
>   Do the Balkan politicians have the mental abilities to see this?
>   We need smart and brave men.
>
>
>   Just my thoughts,
>
>   Gr
>
>   PS: Ofcourse and these solutions can last, let's say, only few centuries.
>       History never stops. And history is played with arms too. Whoever
>       is not ready to fight, then soon will be dissapeared (physically or
>       culturally).
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