From: vassil@cs.wisc.edu (Vassil Peytchev)
Newsgroups: soc.culture.yugoslavia,soc.culture.bulgaria,soc.culture.greek
Subject: RE: SKOPJE'S SWISS DREAMS
Date: 23 Aug 92 20:21:35 GMT
Followup-To: soc.culture.bulgaria
Organization: U of Wisconsin CS Dept

In article <3548.3248.uupcb@factory.com>, michael.polymenakos@factory.com (Michael Polymenakos) writes:
|> 
|>  [...]
|>  What I am talking about is the 2 successful and 2 unsuccesful attempts
|>  by bulgaria to conquer Macedonia and Vardar:
|>   1913 - 2nd Balkan War - failed
|>   1915 - WWI  - Allied to the central Empires / 2 year occ. of Vardar
|>   1941 - WWII - Allied to Hitler / 3 year occupation
|>   1947 - Involvement in Greek Civil war  - failed.

Bulgaria's involvement in this war - if any - was *ideological* and not an
attempt to conquer anything - to the contrary, if the communists in Greece had
succeeded, BG would have probably lost Pirin Macedonia to a Macedonian republic. 

|> 
|>  I draw your attention to the following points:
|> 
|>  1. All attempts took place in our century.
|>  2. The context of the 1915 and 1945 attempts still exists. In fact it
|>     only exists because the Skopjie and Sofjia governments continue to
|>     cultivate the prenciple of a "Greater Macedonia".

No, the context is very different. In 1915 and in 1940 there were very few
people who would call themselves Macedonians (as opposed to Bulgarian, Greek, 
etc.) Now these people are the majority in the x-Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia.
In 1915 and in 1940 Bulgarians were the majority in Vardar Macedonia and were in
substantial numbers in Greek Macedonia, and there was a large number of
refugees from Greek Macedonia who felt cheated by the population exchanges. 
Now those with Bulgarian consciousness in Vardar Macedonia are a minority and 
of the ~50K `slavophone greeks', about which almost all Greek netters agree to 
exist, I have no reliable info whether they consider themselves anything else 
but Greek.

Where did you read or learn that Sofia `government continues to cultivate
the principle of a Greater Macedonia'? In your earlier postings you also acted
as if you were the private confidant of the BG government...

|>  3. Bulgarian/Skopjie officials (and even some netters) on this board
|>     are still advancing claims that a large "Macedonian minority" exists
|>     in Greece, citing pre-1913 figures and denying that the population
|>     exchange ever took place. 

Bulgarian officials on this board? Gee, I must have missed something... And
which Bulgarian netter has claimed that there is a `large Macedonian minority'
in Greece?

|>                                 For proof that the population exchange
|>     took place, I direct you to your nearest encyclopaedia. For an
|>     explanation of why the "Macedonian Minority" claims are being
|>     advanced, will have to look up under the topics "Propaganda" and
|>     "Expansionist Desires".
|> 
|> Michael.
|>                                  

Vassil

---
Vassil Peytchev
vassil@cs.wisc.edu
Xref: sparky soc.culture.yugoslavia:8418 soc.culture.greek:8315 soc.culture.europe:7994 eunet.politics:1179 talk.politics.misc:43183 talk.politics.theory:3971 soc.culture.bulgaria:1294 soc.culture.turkish:9586