Organization: Penn State University
Date: Saturday, 11 Apr 1992 16:23:33 EDT
From: <PXP111@psuvm.psu.edu>
Newsgroups: soc.culture.greek
Subject: re:conference




Dear Mr Bosika apart from the personal message I sent you about my code
let me try to respond to your request:

 The modern so-called Macedonians are not Greeks and -risking to upset
some very nice people- I believe they are mainly Bulgarians with
Albanian,Serbian...minorities. Please check the article on the POLYGLOTS.
It was not written by Greeks but supports this general feeling in the
Balkans. The language of the people in question is a Slavonic one (South
Slavic), not Greek or the homeric-based dialect with slavic suffixes some
people speak in north Greece. I do not know your background in foreign
languages and this may make it difficult to affirm it yourself. Greek
sources and editions by Greek philologist are not easily found here. You
may want to look though on the census and populations measurement of the
Ottoman empire, Patriarchic or Exarhic sources and international Treateas
to check the existence of such a "nation".

Others as well as myself  may provide you with some of these but please
let as know whether you would consider them even if despite their
deviation they had a common theme (namely:no separate nation of
Macedonians).How would you feel if we gave you results of the elections
in the Santzuki of Monastery (3/17/1912): 2 Bulgarians, 1 Turk, 1 Greek.
(During the exchange of populations later most of the Greeks left.)
What about the author Ostrogorski who deals with movements of peoples
for more than 1000 years in the area from the collapse of the Roman
Emoire?

 I don't think Greece claims anything from them for it has no reason. The
Albanians(ancient Illyrians)...may, as well as the Serbians.

 The whole dispute is whether they should use the name of the ancient
Hellenes and their descendants:modern Greeks... and not another that used
to denote their region.

 I will not try to convince you on the nationality of the ancient Macedo-
nians.  The (Big) Oxford dictionary of  Ancient  Greece and Rome
acknowledges that despite the existence of small heterogeneous tribes in
those highlands (mace-don in Greek) the Hellenic core was by far the most
influential, and hellenized the rest... not to mention the bunch
of Alexanders,Philips,Amyntas,Aristoteles... who spread the Greek
civilization around the old world.I think the Coran also preserves some
words of King Alexander saying that he was Greek.. not to mention his
everyday life. Please, try to obtain a map with the excavated cities of
Macedonia and judge for yourself where these  ancient Dorians (as the
Spartans) lived. I hope you will reach the conclusion that they didn't
inhabit the area of modern Scopje.  If you come up with something new,
please give us your opinion, for despite the politics we shouldn't remain
mislead if this is the case.
( By the way, your name: Alex-ander as that of the Macedonian Kings'
 means Defender... and we can find it far back in the epic poem of the
 Iliad.)
                                                       Yours,Andronicos
                                                       Romanos