From: rsakella@p4.cs.man.ac.uk (Rizos Sakellariou)
Newsgroups: soc.culture.yugoslavia,soc.culture.greek,soc.culture.europe,eunet.politics
Subject: Re: EDUCATION SPECIAL: MAP OF THE WORLD
Date: 18 Aug 92 21:30:28 GMT
Followup-To: soc.culture.yugoslavia

In <1992Aug18.191328.8445@sunbim.be> sk@groo.sunbim.be (Sasa Konecni) writes:
>   Macedonia had the name long before 1944 when "Tito assigned
>it that name". This can imediately and firmly be shown by
>consulting a number of unprejudiced historians and writers
>[Schevill 1922, Brailsford 1906, Moore 1971, PH 1920, den
>Doolaard 1934, Stavrianos 1958, TNCMH 1968, Woodhouse 1986].
>In this books the proof can be found that the Macedonian
>nationality existed before the Second World War. This is in
>contradiction to the hypothesis that the Macedonian people are
>invented by Tito.
It seems that you are completely confused. These books refer to
Macedonians as people who live in a specific region, as we refer
to Yorkshire people in England, Alsacians in France, Sicilians in
Italy and so on... All the books agree for the nationalities of people 
who were residing in the region the years before the Balcan wars 1912-13 : 
Bulgarians, Greeks, Turks, Albanians, Vlachs. There is no mention of a 
Macedonian nationality; this is definitely a recent invention.

The second confusion exists on which region is denoted by the term
Macedonia. Certainly, "Macedonia had the name long before 1944"
since Macedonia is the Greek term (meaning the land of Makednoi =
tall people) used from antiquity to denote the region around the
modern cities of Thessaloniki and Veria. The ancient Macedonian
state was well within the borders of modern Greece and the inhabitants
of the region around the city of Skopie were ennemies of the Macedonians
(you can consult N. Hammond a well-known historian who has written
several books on the history of ancient Macedonia and who suggested
that if Skopians want to use an ancient name they can use the name
Paeonia, which was the name of their region in antiquity). 
During the late Ottoman period (mid 19th century ) the term Macedonia 
was first used to denote a greater geographic region thus creating 
the contemporary confusions...


>The territory of NOrthern Greece was called
>Northern Hellas and in Novermber 1988, it was renamed Macedonia
>and Trace. Why?
Once again you post false information. These regions were **always** 
being called with their present names : Macedonia and Thrace(Thraki).
You can consult any atlas of the world.
And for your information : the Greek inhabitants of Macedonia are very
proud to be called Macedonians and Greeks.


>   The Greek propaganda machine is hard at work spreading lies
>but the truth will prevail.
Really? Which are the Greek lies? Did the Greeks publish maps
showing Greek territories (and Bulgarian as well) unified with
Skopie in a "Great Macedonia"? Did the Greeks claim the suppression
of non-existent population? Did the Greeks use emblems from their
neighbours' history on their flags?
Tell us the Greek lies Mr. Sasa...


--Rizos Sakellariou--

PS : I apologise from the rest of netters for repeating things
that have been written many times; but as it was recently written 
"all their books have been written in Belgrade" and one "can 
hardly blame them for what has been imposed on them for 70 years".

PS2 : For those who cannot understand Greece's insistence : 
Do you think that a nation can base its existence on a culture 
and history stolen from its neighbours?
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