From: cla04@seq1.keele.ac.uk (A.T. Fear)
Newsgroups: soc.culture.europe,soc.culture.greek
Subject: Re: A GERMAN IN GREECE!
Date: 28 Sep 92 15:35:34 GMT
Organization: Keele University, England

From article <5562.3244.uupcb@factory.com>, by michael.polymenakos@factory.com (Michael Polymenakos):
 
>>I realized that Greek opinions carry some sort of paranoia which can
>>be best summarized as the territorial claims on Greece by Macedonia,
>>where some organizations at the extreme right in Macedonia are held
> 
>  "Organizations"? Try the government of Skopjie itself.

Which has altered its constitution to state explicitly it has no
territorial claims  on its neighbours. It would be nice if people would
stop repeating things which just aren't true, they're not fooling
anyone, except maybe themselves, and I hope not even that.


>>The sentence,"Macedonia is Greek" was written on almost everything I
>>saw.
> 
>  Here we go again. The greeks are demonstrating their allegiance to the
> Macedonians (the REAL Macedonians) rather vocally. So what? Two years
> ago, the Americans were in a similar patriotic blitz, with yellow
> ribbons everywhere,

Except of course this was about Americans imprisonned elsewhere, not an
attempt to hijack a country's name. Now if they'd put 'Only the USA is
America' on their stamps perhaps we'd have a viable parallel.


> And what about the Vardaris?

Are these people like the Thamesians who live in a river? 

> *  Travelers returning from Skopje say that the slogan "Solun is
> * ours," referring to Salonica by it's Macedonian name, has begun
> * appearing in graffity on walls in that city.
>    (From the N.Y. Times, 3/2/92)

Given the Greek attitude on this issue it is hardly surprising this
happens. One important difference of course is that this is the work of
individual Macedonians not the government of Macedonia. Once again the
parallel drawn is hardly equitable - a few graffiti on one side, a full
blown propaganda campaign financed by a government on the other. As for graffiti writers, I dare say if someone continually told you to change your name,
said that you were
part of a bastard race, had been brainwashed etc, you'd start to get angry too. Greek
intransigence will only increase this sort of thing. If Greece is
serious about peaceful relations with Macedonia why does she wish to
poison relations between the two countries in this way? 


>>responsible.That's really funny.How can such a small country claim land
>>from Greece? Aggressive policies of the greek government have made the
> 
>   Gunther, Gunther, Gunther. Of all people, you should know better than
> that. In 1933 one might have asked how a defeated, demoralised,
> practically unarmed country could possibly threaten the whole of Europe.
> In 1933, the Polish army was larger than the German. Much good that did
> for Poland in 1939. And with the Turkish side eager to come to the
> "assistance" of "M", the threat is very, very real.

For paranoia of monumental proportions this really takes the biscuit. 
Next perhaps we'll be told that the Republic of Macedonia is
responsible for Hurricane Andrew, the famine in Somalia, [put your
suggestion here]. Once again where is one scrap of evidence that
Macedonia is going to transform itself into an expansionist Hitlerite
state? Where for that matter is the evidence that the fiendish Turk has
his invasion plans ready either? Reading this newsgroup can be very
depressing at times.

Andy



 
Xref: sparky soc.culture.europe:8636 soc.culture.british:13055 soc.culture.celtic:6232