From: chrysp@zooid.guild.org (Chrys Pelegris)
Newsgroups: soc.culture.greek
Subject: H.N.I.N. #4 - PART 4/4
Date:  8 Jan 93 21:15:47 GMT

CONTINUED FROM PREVIOUS MESSAGE...
 

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 01.08.92
 
                              THE ECONOMIST
 
                           THE PRICE OF A NAME
 
     It all has the look of an old-fashioned postcard.  The fishermen of
Skopje,
 the capital of the ex-Yugoslav republic of Macedonia, stand waist-deep in the
 Vardar river from dawn to dusk.  Sculptos work in central Tito Square,
chipping
 blocks of stone into abstract shapes.  The tranquility, however, is
deceptive.
     Unrecognised except by Bulgaria and Turkey (though neither country has
sent
 an ambassador to Skopje), Macedonia fears it may slip into some sort of
 diplomatic black hole.  It is excluded from meetings of international
 organizations, even as an observer.  It cannot join the United Nations or get
 a loan from the International Monetary Fund.  Macedonian companies cannot
 draw funds from banks abroad.  Diplomatic isolation could lead to economic
 disaster.
     War in ex-Yugoslavia affects Macedonia too.  About 40,000 refugees from
 Bosnia & Herzegovina are already being looked after in private homes. 
Although
 not a member of the UN, Macedonia is applying sanctions against Serbia,
 formerly its main trading partner.  According to the government, the embargo
 will cost Macedonia $1.3 billion this year.
     In Mcedonia, unlike other parts of ex-Yugoslavia, ethnic tolerance
prevails
 among a mosaic of nationalities.  Nonetheless Albanians, gypsis and Turks,
who
 together make up more than one-third of the country's population of 2,2 m.
 claim they suffer discrimination.  In Skopje they live in shanty towns, not
 state-owned blocks of flats.  Those with public-sector jobs are more likely
 to be street-cleaners and clerks than doctors and bank managers.  The
Albanians,
 much the largest group, run taxis and cafe's.  They control the officially
 tolerated black market in hard currency.  The minorities have also set up
their
 own political parties to press for more equality with other Macedonians.
     Though ex-communists, now called Social Democrats, are still prominent,
 Macedonia has a lively parliament.  Its sessions are broadcast on television.
 As a result, there has been a market drop in support for the main nationalist
 party, the Internal Macedonian Revolutionary Organization.  The party has
 no real platform and many of its deputies come across as ignorant bullies.
 With 37 out of 120 seats, it is the biggest party in parliament.  Yet it will
 not take part in the new government being formed by Peter Gosev, a Social
 Democrat.  His main coalition partner will be the Albanian party.
     The new government's task will be to win international recognition for
 Macedonia.  Its predecessor, a groupd of technocrats, lost a vote of
confidence
 last month after the European Community, yielding to pressure from Greece,
 decided that Macedonia must change its name in order to be recognised(...)
     Macedonia was carved out of southern Serbia by Tito in 194.  One of his
 ideas was to create a Greater Macedonia, incorporating parts of Bulgaria
 and northern Greece.  A future revival of territorial claims by a state
called
 Macedonia cannot be ruled out, according to the Greeks.
     The Macedonians deny they have such ambitions and are adamant that they
 will not change their name just to suit Greece.  They are annoyed that, after
 first backing recognition for Macedonia, the EC's leaders caved in to the
 Greeks(...) Kiro Gligorov, the Macedonian, president, has asked the EC for
 financial assistance and for a peacekeeping force to be deployed in
Macedonia.
 The worry is that if conflict erupts in Kosovo, Albanians from Macedonia
could
 join in the fighting.  That could provoke a Serbian attack on Macedonia.
     Nobody wants the war to spread.  The British, holding the rotating EC
 presidency, may be asked to negotiate a formula for recognition through a
 double name - Macedonia at home and Vardar Republic, say, for the country's
 nameplate at the UN.  Neither Greece nor Macedonia objects in principle to
 the twin-name solution.  Confusion at the post office would be a small price
 to pay to keep Macedonia peaceful.
 

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                         ANTIQUE WORDS OF WISDOM
 
 
                                  HESIOD
     - According to Hesiod, who lived between 8th and 7th century B.C.
Macedon,
 (the first Macedonian) and Magnes (the first Thessalian) were the offspring
of
 Zeus and Pandora and resided on Mounts Pieria and Olympus respectively:
     "And she conceived and bore to Zeus who delights in the thunderbold two
 sons, Magnes and Macedon, rejoicing in horses, who dwell round about Pieria
 and Olympus."
 Hesiod, Catalogues of Women and Eoiae 3 (Loeb. HG. Evelyn-White)
 
 
                                HERODOTUS
     - The "father of history" Herodotus (484-425 BC) mentions Perdiccas as
 the founder of the Macedonian dynasty and speficies:
     "Now that these descendants of Perdiccas are Greeks, as they themselves
 say, I myself chance to know."
 Herodotus V,22,1 (Loeb, A.P. Godley).
     Documenting the Greekness of the Macedonians, Herodotus points out that
 they shared with the rest of the Greeks the same languages, the same temples,
 the same mores.  He points out:
     "... the kinship of all Greeks in blood and speech all the shrines of
 Gods and the sacrifices that we have in common and the likeness of our way of
 life".
 Herodotus, History VIII, 144, 2 (Loeb A.D. Godley).
 
 
                                THUCYDIDES
     Thucydides (born between 470-460 and died between 400-395 B.C.) himself,
 known as the most meticulous historian of antiquity mentions by name:
     "The country by the sea which is now called Macedonia" and referes to
 the Macedonian dynasty as follows:
     "Alexander, the father of Perdiccas, and his forefathers, who were
 originally Temenidae from Argos".
 Thucydides II, 99, 3 (Loeb, C.F. Smith).
 
 
                                 POLYBIUS
     Acknowledging the debt of all Greeks to the Macedonians, the ancient
 historian Polybius (205-122 BC) had this to say:
     "How highly should we honour the Macedonians, who for the greater part
 of their lives never cease from fighting with the barbarians for the sake
 of the security of Greece?  For who is not aware that Greece would have
 constantly stood in the greater danger, had we not been fenced by the
 Macedonians ("ei mn Makedovas exomev profragma") and the honorable ambition
 of their kings?".
 Polybius "The Histories" IX, 35,2 (Loeb, W.R. Paton).
 
 
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