From: Chrys Pelegris <chrysp@zooid.guild.org>
Subject: Macedonia, what's in  1/3
X-To: ALL
Organization: The Zoo of Ids
Date: Sun, 22 Nov 1992 19:04:18 GMT

Koitate va deite oles tns malakies pou diabazo edw stov kavada..
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
TORONTO STAR
Sunday November 15/92

MACEDONIA
What's in a name?

    Plenty, according to residents of the former Yugoslav republic as they
    strive for statehood.

    by: Bill Schiller - Toronto Star

      Skopje - Pance Todorovski, a robust, broad-shouldered man with thinning
hair, still remembers his first lesson on his very first day at school.
      "Your name?" his Serbian teacher asked.
"Pance Todorovski," the young boy replied, using the Macedonian pronunciation.
      "That's impossible," the teacher said firmly.  "You cannot be."
      Insisting on Serbian pronunciation and spelling, the teacher demanded, in
don't-you-forget-it tone: "You are Panta...Panta Todorovic."
      That was 65 years ago.
      Macedonia had then recently thrown off 500 years of Turkish rule in its
drive for independence, only to awaken the morning after World war I to find it
had been torn in three between Greece, Bulgaria and Yugoslavia.

..( I thought it was divided in 1913, gee rewriting more history..)

      For Macedonians here in Skopje, freedom remained a distant dream.
      They had merely exchanged their Turkish rulers for Yugoslavian ones.
      Yet today, Todorovski, like most of his 2 million fellow citizens, still
yearns to be recognized as Macedonian - and to see this Yugoslav republic
recognized as a free and sovereign state.
      In a referendum last fall, Macedonians voted overwhelmingly to do just
that. But the Greek government of Constantine Mitsotakis continues to block
Macedonian aspirations.
      The reason?
      They insist the name "Macedonia" belongs exclusively to Greece, and accuse
this tiny, land-locked state of stealing Greek culture and symbols on which
to build a future nation.
      The Greeks have used their veto powers to prevent European Community
recognition of the country under the name Macedonia - effectively preventing
universal recognition.

..( This writer actually thinks the EC is the United Nations with that last
    statement.  If he bothered to have picked up a book or a newspaper, he
    would have seen that the Lisbon Agreement of last spring was UNANIMOUSLY
    approved - Greece used NO VETO )..

      And they have gone further:  They have set up an economic embargo on
Macedonia's border, impounded 80,000 tones of already-paid-for oil bound
for Macedonia in the Greek power of Thessaloniki, and slowly and effectively
begun to strangle the Macedonian economy.

..( Again this person hasn't done his research.  According to the Lisbon
    agreement, ALL EC countries agreed UNANIMOUSLY (again) to not accept
    trade with the "Republic of Macedonia" - one of the reasons being
    that in their eyes, there is no nation named "Republic of Macedonia",
    thus how could you trade with a nation that does NOT exist? Also,
    why don't they use their land route with their buddies Bulgaria and
    Turkey? )..

      Last week Greece even launched a glossy ad campaign in international news
magazines on behalf of their own province - also called Macedonia - to
reassert their ownership of the name, key symbols and historical figures,
including Alexander the Great.
      But the advertising blitz and the embargo hasn't diminished the resolve of
Macedonians.
      In a kilometre-long line along the Vardar River, at one of
Skopje's three operating gas stations, in this city of 500,000, 20-year-old
Miki Lazevski slowly pushes his rusty, 1979 Fiat up to the pump.
      "I only waited about four to five hours today," he says.  "If you're
unlucky, you can wait four to five days."
      Gasoline here is selling at 600 Macedonian denars (85 cents per litre).
But you can avoid the lines and buy it on the black market, provided you can
pay up to $2.13 per litre in German marks.
      Lazevski can't.  Today he digs deep into his jeans to produce government
coupons good for 20 litres, which he can use twice per month, and greases
the gas jockey's palm with a little extra to get another 10 litres.
      "I am pure Macedonian," Lazevski asserts. "We want our own country and we
want our own name.  What the Greeks are doing to us is terrible, but our fight i
worth it."
      The truth is, however, that the Macedonian economy, like Skopje's pumps, i
running out of gas.
      In an interview in which he is supposed to answer questions and not pose
them, Prime Minister Branko Crvenkovski is interested in one thing.
      "How long do you think the war in Yugoslavia is going to last?" he asks.
      The answer, though unknowable, is crucial, because a prolonged war in the
former Yugoslavia has dire consequences for Macedonia.
      It used to sell 50 to 60 percent of its goods to other Yugoslavian
republics: textiles and tobacco and agricultural products.
      Now the war has eliminated the Bosnia-Herzegovina market, made Slovenia an
Croatia unreachable overland and - in what appears to be a fit of masochism
- Macedonia has decided to uphold UN sanctions against Yugoslavia and not
sell to Serbia or Montenegro.

..( Why isn't this nice of them?  They are just so honourable.. )..

      It's not as crazy as it sounds, Crvenkovski says:  Macedonia has put its
application for recognition before the UN and, hence, feels obliged to
abide by its guidelines.
      But the main Macedonian problem, he says, remains the Greek demand that th
new nation-to-be change its name.
      Only seven countries have recognized Macedonia so far.

..( Anyone know exactly which?  This seems too high for me to believe. )..

      Canada is expected to, but not before the EC logjam is broken.
      "The (Greek) argument is irrational," says Crvenkovski, who portrays himse
as a 30-year-old born-again capitalist, despite his Communist background.
      "What kind of sovereignty will a country achieve," he asks, "if, in the
first instance, it gives in to another country which wants it to change its
name?"
      "The name Macedonia is not just the state," he explains, "it is the name
of the people, which means if you give up your name, you give up your national
identity."

..( Funny how they don't even mention the 40% Albanian population who have
    stated quite publically that they are NOT Macedonians, and that they
    want their own state called "Illyria"..?! )..

      Crvenkovski dismisses Greek fears that Macedonia has "territorial
ambitions" on its neighbour which has 10 million people - five times the number
of Macedonians.

..( For the territorial ambitions, I suppose their recent "Greater Macedonia"
    map in their national newspapers which includes half of Greece doesn't
    mean much.  Nor how their first currency print included scenes of Greece.
    As for population wise, put the populations of: Albania, Bulgaria,
    Greece, Turkey together and you will end up with quite a war. )..

      "Everyone knows," he says, "that in terms of size, population and overall
numbers, Macedonia is inferior to Greece.  Therefore such things are not
possible.. we have no territorial claims."

..( Hahhaha. )..

      The Macedonians even went one step further:  they altered their
constitution and added a clause stating it will never make territorial claims.

..( I suppose he hasn't even heard of how the "Republic of Macedonia" has
    already seized several towns along the M/Serbian border proclaiming
    it theirs.. and how constitutions CAN be changed. )..
>>> Continued to next message
---
 * SLMR 2.1a * McBorg:  Over 50 Billion assimilated!
      "We also offered to sign an agreement with Greece regarding the
inviolability of borders and an agreement for overall economic co-operation."

..( Gee.. how many of these did Hitler sign?  Did he follow up on any? That
    sort of answers my views on that point )..

      They are still awaiting a response, he says.
      But the recognition problem is not just political, Crvenkovski points out.
It is also a financial problem.
      Until Macedonia is recognized, it cannot obtain International Monetary Fun
assistance or World Bank loans.
      "You can't just live on your name or on patriotism," Crvenkovski
emphasizes. "You live on your economy."
      The Macedonian denar was devalued 40 percent last month, with $1 US buying
865 denars as compared to 520 previously.
      Food and electricity prices shot up 75 percent.  Unemployment is more
than 30 percent and only about 50 percent of the "country's" manufacturing
capacity is being used.
      Some economists estimate that inflation is galloping at 200 percent per
month.
      Like Dal Metfu's Restaurant on Marshall Tito Blvd., where Skopje's youth
choke on cigarettes and eat pizza while listening to Chuck Berry wailing
"Johnny B. Goode," the entire economy seems to rely on smoke and mirrors.
      But there is a greater danger to the delay of recognition than bankruptcy,
says former Prime Minister Nikola Kljusev: war.
      The attitude of the Belgrade based Serbian government remains unclear, he
says.  The Yugoslav army pulled its bases out of Macedonia last year, without
firing a bullet, taking everything but the wall sockets.
      Macedonians would like everyone to believe that it was a negotiated
withdrawal, but some analysts say the army was simply needed in the war against
Croatia.
      Kljusev fears the Serbians may return when they're done with Bosnia - with
a vengeance.
      "I don't want to think about war.  It would be tragic," he says.  "But if
Serbia attacks Macedonia, Bulgaria (where other Macedonians still live) won't
stay on the sidelines.  And this will trigger a real Balkan War.

..( I thought decades ago, the Bulgarians denounced any connections to the
    so called Macedonians in Yugoslavia, after the failure of the agreement
    between their government with Tito - since the people strongly objected
    saying they are Bulgarians. )..

      "No one will be out of it.  Not even Russia.  It will be truly
international."
      Delaying recognition, he says, "gives the other side (Serbia) the
opportunity to bring the war to Macedonia."
      Informed Western observers note hat Macedonia wants to raise an army of
18,000 regulars and has now, or will have shortly, 10,000 in training.
      The troops are supposed to be for the defence of borders only and their
largest weapon is a machine gun.

..( And the heavy artillery given/sold to them from Turkey and Germany. )..

      Still, is an independent Macedonia worth fighting for, Kljusev is asked?
      "You should be ashamed for asking such a question," he retorts.  "Is an
independent Canada worth fighting for?"
      Kljusev feels what the Greek government really fears is not so much the us
of the name Macedonia, but a future problem with its own Macedonian minority
in its northern provinces.
      Macedonian sovereignty north of its border may give the Greek minority
ideas.
      "We were a republic within Yugoslavia known as Macedonia since 1944," he
notes.  "Why didn't the Greeks complain about the name then?"
      Indeed, the Greeks argue that Macedonia was the biggest lie ever
manufactured under Tito's Yugoslavia.
      Marshall Tito, trying to create a complex but balanced society after World
War II, recognized Macedonia as one of the country's six republics, and in 1945,
a standardized alphabet was also recognized and Macedonian became an official
Yugoslav language.
      Not surprisingly, Tito's picture still hangs proudly in many shops and
restaurants here.
      But Greek emotion soars highest perhaps at what they perceive as Macedonia
claims over Alexander the Great, who nearly 2,500 years ago ruled much of the
then known world from his kingdom of Macedon.
      About 65 kilometres (40 miles) south of the Macedonian border, in Pella,
Greece, where Alexander the Great was born, Greek State Curator Dimitrios
Balaskas scoffs at the idea of "Yugoslavian Macedonians" claiming Alexander the
Great on behalf of Greece.
      "Alexander the Great was Greek," he says, "not Yugoslavian.  He was born i
Greece.  His teachers, like Aristotle, were Greek."
      A marble bust of Alexander the Great stands on the south wall of the
museum, along side antiquities dating back to the 5th century BC.
      High on a hill where Alexander the Great lived, 15-year-old Jordan
Hatzipavlidis and his friends wander about the maze of tunnels beneath Alexander
the Great's house with candles, and dream of becoming Greek archaeologists.
      "Alexander the Great was from here," says Jordan, "and here is Macedonia.
      "Up there in Skopje," he adds, shaking his head, "they're just telling
lies."
      But Skopje anthropologist Milos Konstantinov, 66, says that present day
Macedonia claims no blood connection to ancient Macedonia.  The ancient
Macedonian empire fell and ultimately dissolved after Alexander the Great died i
323 BC.

      ..( And I take it this guy actually believes that after the fall of the
      empire, all the Greeks just "vanished" - thus no blood connection )..

      Still, he adds, Greeks would be wrong-headed to claim that Alexander the
Great as Greek.
      "Greek? Alexander the Great? Absolutely not," he scowls, his cigarette
ashes drifting through his grey beard to fall on his desk and an acre of
meticulous research.  "He was Macedonian.  They were separate peoples with
different cultures.  They (the ancient Macedonians) were barbarians to the
Greeks! And that is a fact."

      .. ( So now they admit that there was a "Greece/Hellas" back in those days
             which involved all the small different kingdoms. ie) Athens, Sparta
             etc.. but NOT to Macedonia? Hahahah.  As for different cultures,
             obviously he believes that the Ancient Macedonians practised their
             current slavic traditions and not the Hellenic ones )..

      Today's Macedonians are descended from a group of small nations that merge
together in the middle centuries, he says, and who experienced a "national
renaissance" in the mid-18th to mid-19th centuries when Bulgarians, Slavs and
Greeks wanted to move in and claim their territory.

      .. ( So the Greeks, Slavs and Bulgarians came and conquered today's
             "Macedonians".. sort of contradicts almost every historian and the
             fact that the Slavs were the ones who "immigrated" to that area. ).

      He bristles at the thought that anyone would refer, as some do, to the
Macedonian language as a "dialect" and not a "language."

      .. ( Of course not.  It has absolutely NO connections to the Bulgarian
             language right?  I think not. )..

      "Dostoevsky, Tolstoy, Shakespeare, they've all been translated into
Macedonian," he says.  "We've got Serb to Macedonian dictionaries, English to
Macedonian dictionaries, French to Macedonian dictionaries."

      ..(    And again of course no mention to how their alphabet was just
             recently completed, what just over a year ago - from what it used t
             be 5 years ago just under 10 characters - to well over 25. )..

      Macedonia is "the California of Europe" he proclaims, rich in agriculture
and scenic vistas and if small countries like Luxembourg and San Marino can be
independent, "why not us?"
      Across town near the Greek consulate - where two visits and a half dozen
phone calls over six days have not been enough to inspire the local consul to
emerge for an interview - a group of young and restless Macedonian college
students takes a scotch and congnac break.
      It is 10 a.m.
      "It's not important to me to be Macedonian if I don't have any money in my
pockets," says 21-year-old technical engineering student, Kosta Angilov.
      Cvetko Golovodovski, 18, announces that he's coming to Canada to visit his
uncle in Toronto, and maybe look for work.
      Downtown, the clock on the old train station is still frozen where it
stopped at 5:17 on the morning of July 26, 1963, when an earthquake rocked this
>>> Continued to next message
---
 * SLMR 2.1a * McBorg:  Over 50 Billion assimilated!
city, killing more than 1,000.
      It remains a fitting symbol:  until Macedonia wins international
recognition, this country will remain frozen in time.

      ..(    Touching.. breaks my heart. )..

END.
---
 * SLMR 2.1a * McBorg:  Over 50 Billion assimilated!