From: gd8f@kelvin.seas.Virginia.EDU (Gregory  Dandulakis)
Subject: Re: The Balkan Dance of Death [Macedonia]
Organization: University of Virginia
Date: Tue, 15 Dec 1992 01:16:15 GMT

In article <1992Dec14.213549.23873@cas.org> vkb57@cas.org () writes:
>
>Yes,  there were probably Macedonians that were praying that the brotherly
>Christian Greece would liberate them from the Muslim Turk yoke.  Maybe even
>thousands.  What they did not realize was that,  once they liberated them from
>the Turks,  the Greeks were going to proceed to liberate them from their
>language, their old Slavonic church books,  their names and the names of their
>villages, mountains and rivers.  I am sure that the 11th and 12th century old
>Slavonic writings on the church-wall frescoes did not fare much better.  You
>know about most of that,  it has been on the net again and again,  quotes,
>dates,  and the whole bit.


 I didn't know that the slav-speaking greek macedonians fighting during
 the Macedonian struggle in 1904-1912 didn't know that Greece's official
 language was Greek and not Slavic, like for example in Bulgaria and
 in Serbia. 

 You are known into manipulating things around, but not everything can
 be manouvered :-).

 I thought that most of the educated people even in Skopjia had to drop
 their "heavy" regional accents, variant words and many even language (eg
 vlachs) just for their desire to belong in a group of people which
 offers to them much more than their local language. You can see this
 even here in the US in a ridiculous level. As far as the name change
 here in the US was even worse, without even the pressure from neighboring
 hostile states. In Greece, in areas where there was no foreign irredendism
 the names have kept their old look. What about Skopia? Do you keep all
 the Ottoman names?


>Yes,  please do post parts from the Harvard encyclopedia,  as often as you
>can.  Whenever i see them,  I get reassured that not all Greeks are as bad or
>as badly biased as some of them,  and that there is still hope for peace in the
>Balkans.  Your distinguished compatriot Chris Spirou,  for example,  former
>democratic candidate for Governor of new Hampshire,  was so"appalled" when he
>"read the chapter on Macedonians,  pages 690-694,"  that in July of 1986 he
>fired and angry 13-page letter to then Harvard president Derek Bok,
>requesting, among other things that,  an erratum be published.  His stand was
>apparently endorsed even by Governor Dukakis on August 9, 1986 in the Boston
>Globe.  As you can see,  you have come a long way.
>
>Try to make sure that what you post reflects the impression given by the whole
>pieece,  and do not take parts of paragraphs out of context.
>
>Vasil


I have asked before to give me any reference for Dukakis objection. I cann't
think why he would do it. If you fail to provide reference, then again you
deserve to be named as "rumor generator".

As far as the encyclopedia's article, I'm delighted that you don't
have any problem w.r.t. THE PROCESS WHICH CREATED YOUR ETHNIC IDENTITY.
I will reposted it ALL, without any subtraction. (Except if
*you* like to intrude other information irrelevant to the "creation
process" just "for the fun of it").




==============================================================================

******************************************************************************
*                                                                            *
*  "Harvard  Encyclopedia of American  Ethnic  Groups", Stephan Thernstrom,  *
*   Harvard University Press, Cambridge, Massachusetts, 1980,                *
*                                                                            *
*   and from the entry under the title: Macedonians, p. 691:                 *
*                                                                            *
******************************************************************************


                                                                          STEPS
                                                                          =====

Macedonian  L E A D E R S BEGAN to develop a strong sense of  R E G I O-   [1]
N A L  I D E N T I T Y  in  the  19th  century, but it  was not until the 
20th  century  that  SOME  I N T E L L E C T U A L S  BEGAN to  A R G U E   [2]
that Macedonian Slavs  were neither Bulgarian nor Serbian, nor Greek, but 
a  S E P A R A T E  P E O P L E. The  C O M M U N I S T  party  of  Yugo-   [3]
slavia  SUPPORTED this IDEA  during World War II, and in 1945 a People's 
(later Socialist) Republic of Macedonia was established as one of the six
constituent republics of the Federal Socialist  Republic of Yugoslavia. A
Macedonian  L I T E R A R Y  L A N G U A G E  was  D E V E L O P E D, and
the   I D E A  of  Macedonian  N A T I O N A L I T Y  was  E N C O U R A-
G E D. In 1958 a Macedonian Orthodox C H U R C H  was  C R E A T E D, and
nine years later it acquired jurisdictional independence. Neighboring Bu-
lgaria, which  has a  Macedonian  minority population, initially  favored
these developments and from 1944 to 1958 even recognized the existence of
a  Macedonian  nationality. Since 1958, however, Bulgaria has argued that
all  Macedonians are  Bulgarians, and this policy contributes to the dis-
cord and  tension  between  Bulgaria and Yugoslavia. The Greek government 
has never recognized Macedonians as a distinct nationality.

===============================================================================


As it can be clearly seen: The masses of the population were brainwashed
into becoming "Macedonians" only during the Communists. Before only some
local Warlords (leaders) and some Intellectuals (known and as "Intelligentia")
were doing CREATIVE ETHNIC ENGINEERING ...:-).


Gr