Friday, May 9, 2008

Adversus solem ne loquitor


Macedonian issue is once more hot.
Macedonia is Greek,Macedonia is Slavic,Macedonia is Bulgarian,Macedonia is...Macedonian(sic) etc etc.Now look I am talking about the ancient people of Macedon,not the guys that live there now or in the middle ages etc.The people of Macedon were Greek,there is proof everywhere and every serious historian and archaelogist knows that.But of course there were other people in the area.Paeones,Thracians and other ancient tribes in ancient times,Slavs in the middle ages,Turks later on etc etc.Hell,a visitor would see 19th century Thessaloniki as a crossroad of nations.Greeks,Turks,Bulgarians,Jews...you name it!But Greece defeated Turkey and sent away the Turks.Then the same happned with Bulgaria.The Jews were mostly victims of the genocide by the Nazi and some perhaps had a better luck going to Israel or wherever.Even the president of France had a grandpa like that,that makes him part Macedonian.
I have talked with all kind of people these days.
Anyone with the slightest knowledge of History will laugh at the claims of FYROM.It's not that these people don't deserve a right to Macedonia.But their right is no bigger than the right Israelians could have.That is grandpas that lived there and that their current country was once part of the Macedonian empire.But I can't understand their obsession.So big is the power of propaganda?Slavs and Bulgarians that were taught they were descendants of Alexander now make stupid claims from Greece demanding that their land should be free and that the borders should be at Ioannina and Larissa,cities well outside Macedonia anyway.A foreigner may think there are populations that are not Greeks in Macedonia(the real one,the Greek province).Well they aren't.Did the Turks and Slavs etc turn into Greeks and we can't recognise them?Maybe.
I had a talk with a guy from Turkey who insisted on the theory that Macedon was a non Greek country that got Hellenised.Suppose it was so.And in fact it may have been so before 1200BC.But then there was no "Macedon" as a country.It all began with the Argead dynasty that said they were from Argos,Greece.So,these guys moved there.Of course there may had been natives who weren't Greeks.But the people that came with the Argead dynasty-the Macedonians-were Greek.Also historians say that the natives were Doric tribes,thus Greeks.But anyway,the Macedons didn't change.They didn't adopt Greek names or language or architecture.They always had them.How can you claim that some people got hellenised when you can't show that they weren't Hellenes before?!?
Of course this guy said that perhaps we don't have found these evidence yet(a theory based on things that aren't there at all,very...scientific!).That perhaps they became so much like Greeks that we can't distinguish them from the Greeks.(By the way what's the difference between "x" and something that all tests prove that it's "x"?!?).According to this theory 98% of the Turkish are not Turkish at all as DNA researches have proved.Proved?Well I think all those "dna this,dna that" is unreliable in such cases.But the fact remains that If you look the map of the world you'll see it changes as centuries go by.And what happened to the millions of people that lived in Asia Minor.Ionians,Lydians,Phrygians,Bithynians,Cappadocians etc?They moved to another planet and suddenly millions of Turkish were beaned down by Scotty in their houses?
Enough with all these.How about the name of FYROM?We talk about a name other than Macedonia and they come up with..."Republic of Macedonia"!Yeah,right...then I guess they will refer to them self not as Macedonians but as "Republicofmacedonians"?No.So who are they kidding?This behaviour is at least insulting in a dialogue.And what about "Slavomacedonia"?No,they say they are not Slavs although they look,sound,and speak like them."Vardaska" is out of the question although it's the name of the place they live.A negotiable name is "Upper Macedonia" or "North Macedonia".These sound fair for both.Actually they aren't since Vardaska is not a part of Macedonia,it's not Upper nor North.But Greece accepts these names.FYROM doesn't.I guess the name that both will agree is "New Macedonia".FYROM rejects this name too(as everything except "Macedonia" and "Republic of Macedonia")although it's what they want and it's a disgrace to History itself.Greek politicians accept it.Greeks don't.New Macedonia sounds like a colony.Like the New Ionia in Volos,built by people from Ionia.
I would accept "New Macedonia" to end the issue.Foreigners call FYROM Macedonia now,so it's better to accept the diplomatic defeat with "New Macedonia" than let the whole world confuse the real Macedonia with FYROM.People from thrid countries accept to call FYROM Macedonia,and why not?If I come and introduce myself as Patrick,you'll call me Patrick.The fact that I have nothing to do with that name changes nothing.