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Date:         Wed, 22 Jul 1992 13:56:44 EST
Reply-To:     George S Kardaras <kardaras@ECN.PURDUE.EDU>
From:         George S Kardaras <kardaras@ECN.PURDUE.EDU>
Subject:      "New quarrels from old roots" (US NEWS & WORLD REPORT 7/27/92)
Comments: To: hellas@brownvm.brown.edu
Comments: cc: macedonia@husc.harvard.edu, nea@athena.mit.edu

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		NEW QUARRELS FROM OLD ROOTS
		===========================

The sleepy village of Pella in  northern  Greece  looks  like  an
unlikely   starting  point  for  world  domination.  It  has  two
stifling bars, farm tractors  standing  idle  in  a  ditch,  some
unkempt ruins and a museum that in midafternoon tells visitors to
come back tomorrow. But two millenniums ago, Pella was the gilded
capital of ancient Macedonia, where world conqueror Alexander the
Great was born. Out of the little village's past  now  flares  an
ethnic  battle  that divides the Balkans almost as angrily as the
guns in Sarajevo. The issue: Who owns the rights  to  Alexander's
fame?

Modern Greece and  defunct  Yugoslavia's  southernmost  republic,
centered  on  the  city  of  Skopje,  are proving that new ethnic
quarrels can grow from very old roots.  They  have  turned  their
archaic   dispute  into  a  passionate  showdown  over  the  name
Macedonia. The rugged ex-Yugoslav land with a population  of  two
million  is  urgently  seeking  international  recognition as the
independent state of  Macedonia,  the  name  it  carried  as  the
poorest and most neglected part of the old Yugoslav federation.

Ten million Greeks won't  have  that.  Their  northern  province,
between  the  Aegean  Sea  and the Balkan slopes, is Macedonia to
them. "Skopje's stealing our history," fumes Ioannis  Tsaluhidis,
top official at Greece's Ministry of Macedonia in the Aegean port
of Salonika, a short ride from Pella. "They  are  Slavs  who  are
taking a Greek name. No new state can start life as a brigand"

Greek and  ex-Yugoslav  Macedonians  do  not  agree  on  much  of
anything.   Take   Alexander   himself.   According  to  Salonika
classical archaeology Prof. Dimitrios Pantermalis,  the  military
genius  who  conquered  Persia  and  the  ancient world as far as
India had "a classical Greek profile  with  hair  splashing  like
water  from  a  spring  and gleaming, moist eyes." But in Skopje,
classical history Prof. Nade Proeva  says  the  only  sure  thing
about Alexander, who was born in 356 B.C., is that he was "small,
very small.".  Pantermalis shrugs that off, despite stories  that
the  invincible  Macedonian  ruler need to climb up on a table in
order to try out the throne of the defeated king of Persia.

Busts and statues of Alexander  abound  in  Greek  Maedonia;  the
Athens government has just struck a new 100-drachmas coin bearing
his godlike head to emphasize his Greekness. Bu he is nowhere  to
be  seen in Skopje.  Yugoslavia's Communist rulers made Alexander
an unperson, and he is only now recovering heroic status as local
nationalists press their news state's cause.

The Macedonia that Alexander and his warrior father,  Philip  II,
turned  into  a  superpower was, it seems clear, Greek in spirit.
Alexander spoke Greek, was tutored by  Aristole  and  bossed  the
ancient Greek city states around just as King Philip, by force of
arms, had won the power to do. Athenians  and  Spartans  regarded
him   less  as  a unifier than as a rough diamond from the north,
but that scarcely worried Alexander, who died at age 33 after  he
was injured on the banks of the Indus River.


Rubber borders.
--------------

Thereafter, Macedonia's frontiers turned to rubber. Slavs arrived
from upper Europe in the sixth and seventh centuries and occupied
the  mountainous   Skopje   region,   a   passageway   from   the
Mediterranean  to  the Danube. Beginning in the 14th century, the
Turks took charge of most of the Balkans and designated the heart
of  Alexander's  old  kingdom as the Ottoman Empire's province of
Macedonia -- a domain that  included  most  of  today's  northern
Greece,  Slavic  Macedonia,  western  Bulgaria,  and  a ribbon of
Albania.

The Ottoman province was dismembered on  the  eve  of  WWI,  when
Greece  incorporated  the  larg  Greek-speaking  part  and Serbia
incorporated the Slav-speaking portion. The  latter  was   called
South Serbia until Tito rechristened it the republic of Macedonia
after WWII while he hammered together his Yugoslav federation.

Now, Skopje won't budge before Greece's refusal to  let  it  call
itself  Macedonia.  So  far, Athens has got is European Community
partners and Washington on its sides, despite  their  inclination
to   recognize   "Macedonia".  Skopje  Social  Democratic  leader
Vladimir  Milcin,  a  reform  Communist,   bemoans   the   West's
hesitation.   "You  can't  own  a  name  because somewhere in the
darkness of the past a Macedonian dynasty ruled  Greece,"  Milcin
says.  "As Slavs, we are not the same as the ancient Macedonians,
but nor are they in Greece. No one can live in  terms  of  3,000-
year-old memories".

Greece,  however,  considers  the  proposed  name  not   only   a
historical affront, but also a mortal danger. Greek leaders paint
dire pictures of an independent Slav "Macedonia" somehow becoming
a   pan-Macedonian   rallying   point  that  would  menace  Greek
sovereignty and pull Greece into today's Balkan war.  "If  Skopje
is  allowed  to  call itself Macedonia, it will be a live serpent
hissing  at   Greece's   door,"   says   Salonika-based   Stelios
Papathemelis,  a  deputy  in  the  Greek  Parliament and a former
government minister.


Slavomacedonia?
---------------

Greek leaders foresee their old foes, Bulgaria and Turkey,  which
alone  have recognizes Skopje as Macedonia, barging into the act.
They fret  about  an  old  Slav  hankering  for  access   to  the
Mediterranean at their expense. And, they argue, shouldn't Greece
be favored  for fighting off Communist domination when the  Slavs
to the north submitted?

There is little room for compromise. Could Upper  Macedonia,  New
Macedonia, or Slavomacedonia work? Not now.  Greek PM Constantine
Mitsotakis has managed to  cajole  his  fellow  EC  leaders  into
backing  his  rejection of any name that includes the dreaded "M"
word. Any form of surrender would  almost  certainly  bring  down
Mitsotakis.  Half  a  million  Greek Macedonians recently took to
Salonika's streets to display their passion.  Each  side  accuses
the other of irrational nationalism.

This might have exasperated the godlike  figure  who  started  it
all.  Alexander,  th  least  nationalistic of conquerors, married
10,000 of his Macedonian soldiers to Persian women  in  lands  he
vanquished in an effort to head off just such ethnic showdowns.

			  By Davide Lawday in Salonika and Skopje

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