From: hilmi-er@vall (Hilmi Eren)
Newsgroups: soc.culture.greek,soc.culture.europe,eunet.politics
Subject: Re: Why Macedonia is Greek
Date: 30 Sep 92 10:01:43 GMT
Followup-To: soc.culture.greek
X-Newsreader: Tin 1.1 PL5

Panos Tamamidis (ptg2351@uxa.cso.uiuc.edu) wrote:
: 
:                             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.



         + Is the Macedonian History falsified by Macedonians?- are you 
         + trying to convince yourself or millions of Macedonians?
         + Please stop this bullshit- if there is a people called Macedonians
         + and if they want to call their state Macedonia then let them do it-
         + if there is a majority behind this - which it is.
Newsgroups: soc.culture.greek