From: aleck@athena.mit.edu (Aleck H Alexopoulos)
Subject: Re: Independence for the State of Idaho and its people: Idahi! [Re: Indep..
Organization: Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Date: Mon, 31 Aug 1992 03:56:35 GMT

In article <1992Aug30.125903.20679@eecs.nwu.edu>, efstse@epsilon.eecs.nwu.edu writes:
|> In article <1992Aug30.102838.15630@enea.se> sommar@enea.se (Erland Sommarskog) writes:
|> >Rika Tsitsinia (rika@informix.com) writes:
|> >>	    Native americans would be rightly outraged if anglo-saxons
|> >>	    or any other immigrants would call themselves Indians
|> >>	    or Anasazi
|> >
|> >Aren't several of the states and cities in the US named after Indian 
|> >tribes?
|> 
|> Sure there are. But you did not get it, did you? It is not the naming of a
|> state (that is, a PROVINCE of USA) that would make the outraged but the ethnic
|> characterization of the people in it. An exactly similar situation happens
|> with the name `Macedonia'. The naming of a province of X-Yugoslavia (or any
|> other country) by `Macedonia' (although arbitrary) could be acceptable by
|> Greece as th naming of the state Idaho is OK. However, consider the case that
|> Idaho becomes an independent state and its inhabitants whether they
|> are Aglosaxon, or whatever, are called `Idahi' exactly the same name as
|> a native american tribe. THAT would not be acceptable by the native
|> americans or anyone else. In the particular case of the name `Macedonia'
|> while there was a former X-Yugoslavia Province (that was in essense the
|> meaning of `Republic' in X-Yugoslavia) that was named `Macedonia' the
|> people had the chance of keeping their ethic identity (Albanians,
|> Serbs, Bulgarians, etc.) and still be called `Yugoslavs'. On the other
|> hand, what is unacceptable to the Macedonians in Greece is an independent
|> state of `Macedonia' where a PSEUDO-MACEDONIAN ETHNICITY is imposed to its
|> people, thus creating a historical and cultural confusion regarding their
|> culture and heritage. Let alone the realistic fears by the Macedonians
|> in Greece that this new state has territorial claims on their ancestral land
|> of Macedonia.
|> 

The whole situation is so ridiculous that its hard to rationalize to any extent. 
OK. Its like suppose Mexico one day creates a province to the north called 
Texas (or something similar ...like Texicano....) and later on the country 
breaks apart and the northern province "Texas" declares independency using 
the name "Texas" and calling themselves "Texans". Also they claim that there 
is an "oppressed minority" to the north who are not allowed to speak their native 
"Texan" but are forced to speak english. 
Jeez i could continue this "thought experiment" in history but its allready 
pretty ridiculous, right? 

The problem is not "just a name", its more than that. Our northern neighbours 
wish to call themselves Macedonians when such a people exists for 4000 years. 
Do they at least realize that "Macedonians" are a subset of "Greeks"? 
They dont. If they did they would realize that by calling themselves 
Macedonians they must first call themselves Greeks! 

Like i said, theres more behind all this than just a name. 
If we had had no past conflicts, if there had been no attempt at 
rewriting history, no yearnings of "freeing the oppressed Macedonians 
of Greece", etc Greece would surely had no probelms with calling themselves 
something like "Slavic Macedonians". 

The biggest error on the part of us Greeks is that we let them get away with 
this farce for way too long. 

Aleck H Alexopoulos 

|>
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And always will be....... 
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