From: ptg2351@uxa.cso.uiuc.edu (Panos Tamamidis )
Subject: Why Macedonia is Greek
Organization: University of Illinois at Urbana
Date: Wed, 30 Sep 1992 03:26:30 GMT


                            WHY MACEDONIA IS GREEK

     The history of Macedonia is being falsified, as part of a continuous and
systematic campaign being waged by certain interests, in every possible way
and with ample economic means.  The campaign has now spread to the whole world.

     Macedonia itself, with its glories stretching back millenia, will not 
allow its history to be altered.  The mere mention of the names of Aristotle
and Alexander the Great, and of their contribution to the history of mankind
- the former with his wisdom, the latter with his valour, politics and
magnanimity - should have been enough to bring these interests to their senses
and to prevent a campaign of distortion which is unable to withstand even the
most elementary critisism.

     As Greeks, the Macedonians had the same language, the same sanctuaries
(where they sacrificed to the same gods) and the same manners and customs as
all the other Greeks.  Apart from the evidence provided by the old Testament
and the ancient authors, modern scholars ahve found innumerable inscriptions
on statues, graves and funerary stelae, with Greek names and votive offerings
of thousands of coins, not only in Macedonia itself but throughout the rest
of Greece and as far away as Libya, Egypt, Asia and India, thus proving beyond
doubt that the Macedonians, as Greeks, imposed their language (that is, Greek)
on the whole known world of the time and conveyed the Greek spirit to it.

     The excavations currently in progress in the sacred city of the 
Macedonians, Dion, and in other parts of Macedonia, Greece, Asia and Africa
show that the Macedonians had the same gods and the same customs of worship
as the other Greeks.  Mt. Olympus, the highest mountain in Greece and considered
to be adobe of the gods, lies in Macedonia.

     One fact accepted even by Slav historians is that Slav invasion of the
Balkan peninsula took place in the 6th century AD.  Behind the cultural history
of the Slavs stand two Greek monks from Thessaloniki, Cyril and Methodius, and
the deepest roots of the Slav cultural history are Byzantine Greek.

     The fact that the Macedonian Greeks performed their great deeds more than
1,000 years before the Slavs even arrived in the Balkans should, by itself, put
an end to the allegedly Slav origin of the Macedonians.

     There can be no question of any relevance on the part of the Slavs to
people and events in the southern Balkans before 6th century AD, and 
consequently there can be no links between the Slavs and the Macedonians, since
the latter had lived continuously in that area for 2,000 years before the Slavs
arrived.

     It was from Macedonia taht Alexander the Great set out on his crucial
campaign, after being proclaimed commander-in-chief of all the Greeks, as well
as king of Macedonia.  This title was bestowed on him, by all the Greeks except
the Lacedaemonians, at the Congress of Corinth in 335 BC.

     Alexander the Great changed the course of human history; not so much by
his conquests, for his campaign lasted only 13 years, as by his other 
achievements.  He, to begin with, and afterwards his Macedonian successors,
established Greek as the lingua franca of the empire, and they spread the
elements of Greek culture.  In the cosmopolitan empire of Alexander the Great,
all citizens, regardless of origin, tribe, nationality, language or religion,
strove to acquire the Greek language an learning and to assimilate the Hellenic
spirit of education.  Unless they could do so, they were not considered really
civilized.

     Alexander and his Macedonian successors had such an impact on the people
of the times, through Greek civilization and culture, that this period of more
than three centuries has come to be called the 'Helinistic' period.

     St Paul not only visited Macedonia first on his travels, but wrote his
divinely-inspired Epistles in Greek.  Since the 1st century AD, his Epistles
to the Philippians - that is, the Greek inhabitants of Philippi - and to the
Thessalonians have been constant reading throughout the Christian world.

     When the second World War ended and Yugoslavia was proclaimed a Fedeal
Socialist Republic, the 'Socialist Republic of Macedonia', with Skopje as its
capital, was set up in the southern part of the country.  Up to that time (1944)
the region had been called Southern Serbia or Vardarska Banovina.  Under the
new administrative arrangement, a 'Macedonian state' appeared in the Balkans
for the first time, even if only in the form of a federated republic.

     As a result, the falsification of Macedonian history took on a new form
and the entanglements which were created were bound to affect international
relations in that part of Europe.

    The historical facts, however, make the alteration of Macedonian history
impossible, and anyone who attempts to do so can hardly expect to be taken
seriously.

Panos Tamamidis

P.S.:  The facts for this article were taken from "The falsification of
       Macedonian History," by Nikolaos Martis, published in 1983. Mr. Martis, 
       a Macedonian himself, was a member of the parliament of Greeks from 
       1974 to 1981.  Mr. Martis was the minister of Northern Greece during
       the above period.  The book is dated, in its omission of recent more
       forceful claims by the Skopjens.