From: lb@cs.man.ac.uk (Luben Boyanov)
Newsgroups: alt.news.macedonia
Subject: Re: Victim of Cynical Balkan Power Play (Macedonia)
Date: 27 Jan 93 11:27:39 GMT
Organization: Dept Computer Science, University of Manchester, U.K.

In article <1993Jan25.034129.29841@sol.ctr.columbia.edu> mworden@vela.acs.oakland.edu (Mike Worden) writes:
>
> 
>                Victim of cynical Balkan power play
>		by Chris Popov

[deleted]

>   The Slav tribes, which arrived in Macedonia from the early Sixth
>Century onwards, assimilated and merged with those peoples already 
>settled there, including remnants of the ancient Macedonians, and 
>through a process of ethno-cultural development created a distinct 
>ethnic group

Which group or process has NOT been described by scholars who worked on
ethnic and cultural groups. Only in later years - after WWI and WWII, some
(not all !!!) writers extrated parts of information from older books, which
fits some political motives, in order to present such group. In no book
from the past, on no ethnic map from before WWII, there is such term like
ethnic Macedonian (well, at least I haven't seen even a reference to such).

> -the Macedonians- in much the same way that the Angles
>and Saxons eventually became the English. Macedonians have for 
>centuries used the name of the land in which they live to describe
>their unique identity.

This is simply not true. Even more - not only there were no people calling
themselves like this, but the very name "Macedonia" wasn't used in the
region for a very long time - the name was "restored" by Greeks during the
18th (or 17th - not sure) century as this was a Greek name and so - was
used to influence/introduce a Hellenic spirit in the region. Not only the
Ottoman Empire had never had such province, but also for the 2 - 3
centuries before the Ottoman conquest, the name 'Macedonia' was not in use
in those lands.

>   They are not merely "Slavs" (a purely genetic term) or
>"Slavomacedonians" as Greek propaganda would have the world believe.

This is also not true. It wasn't Greek, but Serbian propaganda which
introduced this name, for the simple reason to conceal the existence of
Bulgarians in Macedonia. But it is also true, that after some time, the
policy worked and people in the region regard themselves as a distinct
group called 'Macedonians'. The fact that there are Bulgarian-Macedonians,
Greek-Macedonians and Macedonian-Macedonians makes the matter a bit more
complicated, but not impossible to understand.
 
>   In 1913, when Macedonia was partitioned between Greece, Bulgaria
>and Serbia, ethnic Macedonians 

There have never ever been a reference to "ethnic Macedonian" not only in
1913, but also many years later. But nowadays is not 1913 - its 1993.

[the rest - deleted. Too many fictions to talk about]

 
>   Dr Chris Popov is secretary of the Macedonian Human Rights Committee 
>of Melbourne and Victoria.
> 
>   Printed with another article by V. Maghinas in "The Age" of 26th of May,
>1992, under Features, Macedonia - more than a name.
 
The curious thing is that Australian Macedonians 'feel' different than
Vardar Macedonians, and the Australian Macedonian 'history' has absolutely
amazed and made laugh all people, who have read it. So - one must keep in
mind that there are Australian Macedonians as well :-)


Luben