ENGLISH

A name to reckon with

By Metodija A. Koloski

May 4, 2008

The recent Greek veto of the Republic of Macedonia's NATO membership during the NATO Bucharest Summit earlier this month was unfounded and contrary to the principles of NATO and its member states.
Macedonia fulfilled all of the membership criteria set forth by NATO and all other NATO members supported its admission into the alliance. Despite not yet being a member of the Alliance, Macedonia participates in NATO operations in Bosnia and Afghanistan.
Macedonia also recently assumed command of NATO's former host nation support coordination center that provides logistical support for KFOR forces in Kosovo, and Macedonia is participating in combat operations alongside American forces in Iraq.
Greece's claims that it seeks a "mutually acceptable" solution to the "name dispute" and that it wants "good and neighborly" relations with Macedonia were betrayed by its veto and its acts since the NATO Summit. These acts have been carried out with disturbing bravado following Greece's self-proclaimed "success" at the Summit.
It was Greece, not Macedonia, that rejected the most recent proposal to resolve the "name dispute." Moreover, Greece's veto violated the 1995 Interim Accord that it signed with Macedonia, which binds Greece's right to veto Macedonia's NATO bid or any other international organization that Macedonia would like to join as long as it joins under the U.N. provisional reference term used to identify Macedonia.
It is now clear that Greece does not seek a "mutually acceptable" solution, but only a unilaterally imposed solution mandated to Macedonia by Greece. Having failed on all other fronts to prevail in the "name dispute," Greece believes it can abuse its NATO and EU membership to extort further concessions from Macedonia. In pursuing its bully diplomacy against Macedonia, Greece has sacrificed NATO interests and prestige in the region and jeopardized regional peace and stability simply to satisfy its pedantic objection to Macedonia's name.
Since the Bucharest Summit, Greece has distanced itself even further from the last proposal advanced by U.N. Ambassador Matthew Nimetz.
Additionally, in moves eerily reminiscent of the illegal Greek trade embargo against Macedonia from 1991 to 1995, Greece recently banned the import of meat from Macedonia into Greece and barred Macedonian Airlines Transport (MAT), a private company, from flying into or over Greece.
The rationale is that the meat is labeled as coming from the Republic of Macedonia and MAT includes the word "Macedonian" in its name. These are hardly the actions of a nation claiming it seeks "good and neighborly" relations with its neighbor.
In addition, most appalling, was Greece's attempt to literally buy its way out of the "dispute" when the Greek foreign minister announced Greece would make substantial foreign aid available to Macedonia if Macedonia simply capitulated to Greece and allowed Greece to dictate a new name for Macedonia.
As ridiculous as Greece's actions and posturing are, they are nothing new. Greece has pursued a policy of negating everything Macedonian and eradicating the Macedonian culture and national identity within its borders and in the wider region ever since Greece acquired a portion of geographic Macedonia because of the 1913 Treaty of Bucharest.
To this day, Greece denies the existence of a large Macedonian minority in northern Greece though numerous U.S. State Department Reports, Human Rights Watch Reports, and other independent nongovernmental organizations have confirmed its existence time after time.
Recent claims by the Political Party of Macedonian Minority in Greece, Rainbow, put the number of Macedonians in northern Greece at nearly 200,000. However, the Greek government continues to claim these people do not exist and indeed that Macedonians either inside or outside of Greece do not exist.
Greece's objections to Macedonia's name are not based on the Greek delusion of a direct link to an ancient Macedonian king nor on Greece's false claims that Macedonia harbors an expansionist agenda, but only on Greece's refusal to acknowledge the existence of the Macedonian people. Indeed, Greece hopes to impose a solution to the "dispute" under which Macedonians will be called something, anything, other than Macedonians.
One would hope Greece would not want to be considered complicit in a current long line of minority rights violations, human rights abrogations and political rights concerns.
The United States has been a beacon of light for democracy and human rights, and one would hope that just as the U.S. has taken the plight of Tibetans into consideration in regards to its relations with China, the same respect should be taken in its relations with Greek authorities of the rights of the Macedonian minority in Greece.
The United States should continue to support Macedonia's name and NATO membership.

Metodija A. Koloski is president of United Macedonian Diaspora, an international nongovernmental organization addressing the interests and needs of Macedonians and Macedonian communities throughout the world. (http://www.umdiaspora.org)

In memory of Goce Delchev

In observance of the 136th year after Goce Delcev’s repose, the United Macedonian Diaspora would like to commemorate this man as our most time-honored and respected national hero. The figure Goce Delchev not only embodies a grand piece of the Macedonian national consciousness, but also represents an unremitting movement towards statehood, freedom, national unity, and recognition. Goce Delchev fought and gave his life for this movement, and through this consciousness we stand today as Macedonians and continue his cause.
The United Macedonian Diaspora asks our communities throughout the world to unite in celebration of Goce’s achievements as well as our common bond to shed greater light on the injustices facing the Macedonian Minority that has yet to be recognized, and endures unsympathetic treatment in the nations of Greece and Bulgaria. Let us also continue the struggle for complete recognition of the Macedonian name in full accord with all European and International Associations, not through the decisiveness of nationalistic, exclusivity, but through an all-encompassing show of cultural competitiveness and sharing, as Goce Delchev envisioned.
Join the United Macedonian Diaspora and light a candle to our hero in memory of his faith, life, and vision for the future of Macedonia and beyond.

UMD

The Future of the Macedonian Nation

A Strategy

By Risto Stefov
rstefov@hotmail.com

June 2005

I have said it before and I will say it again, the Greek dispute with the Republic of Macedonia over the name "Macedonia" is nothing more than a ploy, a con, a ruse, to sidestep the real issues - the status of the Macedonian minority in Greece.
Like a crooked politician, Greece is doing everything it can to take attention away from its dismal human rights record and focus on something intangible like the name dispute.
The name dispute for Greece is another excuse to avoid coming clean with the Macedonian people.
What will Greece gain if Macedonia is not called Macedonia? NOTHING! Greece already has everything that is Macedonian, the Macedonian heritage, Macedonia’s history and 51% of Macedonia’s territory.
So, why is Greece complaining? Greece is cleverly down playing the Greek-Macedonian name dispute and making it look like it is about ancient history.
"Macedonia is Greek from ancient times" is a way of making an issue out of a non-issue. Why should anyone care about such a ridiculous claim? By doing so Greece is achieving the following objectives;
1. In the eyes of the world, they are down playing the dispute and making it appear trivial,
2. They are drawing our attention away from the real issues,
3. They are putting us on the defensive and forcing a fight for what appears to be a non-issue.
What in fact we should really be doing is asking the following questions;
1. How did Macedonia REALLY become Greek?
2. How did Greece get the Macedonian heritage?
3. How did Greece get Macedonia’s history?
4. How did Greece get 51% of Macedonia’s territory?
Greece is afraid that if the answers to these questions become known, then the truth will come out and there will be hell to pay.
So, what can we do to bring our issues with Greece on track? It is very important to first recognize Greece’s tactics and simply not play their game.
We must also bring attention to the following issues and make them our goals. Before we negotiate the name, we must insist that Greece;
1. Recognize the Macedonian minority inside Greece,
2. Grant human rights with full privileges to all minorities living inside Greece,
3. Allow the exiled Macedonian refugee children to return to Greece,
4. Compensate the families whose properties the Greek State confiscated,
5. Allow all Macedonian who were forcibly evicted by the Greek State to return and reclaim their homes and properties,
6. Take responsibility for the atrocities it committed against the Macedonian people during the Balkan Wars and the Greek Civil War.
It is every Macedonian's responsibility to disassociate himself or herself from debating with the Greeks on non-issues and bring the dispute where it really belongs, to the human rights arena.
Everyone concerned, including the international negotiators and mediators, MUST become familiar with the history of how Macedonia became Greek?
1. It is a well documented fact that Greece, in 1912, 1913 during the two Balkan wars, entered and forcibly occupied Macedonian territory illegally without the consent of the Macedonian people. It then, along with its partners Bulgaria and Serbia, went on a rampage bombing Macedonian villages and indiscriminately killing and murdering entire populations.
2. It is a well documented fact that as soon as Greece consolidated its hold on Greek Occupied Macedonia, it murdered or forcible exiled all Macedonians who refused to accept its conditions.
3. It is a well documented fact that after ethnically cleansing the Macedonian population, Greece brought Greek settlers from Asia Minor, Epirus and other regions and settled them on Macedonian territory, mostly on the lands of the exiled Macedonians, without their consent.
4. It is a well documented fact that during the early 1920's Greece began a campaign of denationalization by banning the Macedonian language and making it illegal to speak Macedonian in Macedonia. It then proceeded to forcibly change all peoples' names and toponyms.
5. It is also a well documented fact that during the Greek Civil War, Greece exiled a large part of the Macedonian population, including the refugee children, illegally expropriated properties and issued them to new settlers.
The territory which Greece today calls "Greek Macedonia" is in fact "Greek Occupied Macedonia" and has been occupied since 1912. The so- called "Greek Macedonians" are not really Macedonians at all, in fact they are the "Greek Settlers" who Greece has been depositing on Macedonian lands since the Balkan wars (1912, 1913).
So, what else can we do to progress to the next step?
1. The Macedonian people cannot and must not be content with the status quo. We need to work towards a common strategy that will involve the entire Macedonian nation regardless of where we live, be it in the Republic of Macedonia, Bulgaria, Greece, Albania, Canada, Australia, the USA or the world over. We must recognize that we are one and the same people and we must not allow those who benefit from our misfortunes to divide us. We must promote ourselves vigorously as one nation, one people irrespective of religious, political, or ideological interests.
2. We must work within the laws of the states in which we live in order to achieve our goals. We must also use those laws designed to help us by being diligent and not accepting the status quo.
3. Our strategy is to join world institutions, like NATO and the European Union (EU) because they offer security and human rights. The EU constitution contains human rights provisions which will help the minorities in Greece and Bulgaria when implemented. It is up to us, however, to ensure that those provisions are implemented.
4. When it comes to our interests, we must take action ourselves and not allow Greece, Bulgaria, or any other foreign power to lead us or to interfere in our affairs.
5. We must help the Republic of Macedonia choose its foreign policies wisely so that all Macedonians benefit from them.
I envision a borderless Macedonia as part of the EU where the Macedonian people will once again have the freedom to call themselves Macedonian, speak their Macedonian language, enjoy their Macedonian culture and have the freedom to travel all throughout Macedonia without fear or repercussions.

The Metaxas Dictatorship

"The use of the Macedonian language was prohibited both in public and at home, and the penalties included fines, forced drinking of castor oil, thrashing, torture, and exile. All its native speakers were forced to attend night school to learn Greek."(17)

General Metaxas severely persecuted those who spoke Macedonian, even in private everyday life in the villages, at funerals, and at home. Adult Macedonians were denied the right to speak their mother tongue and were forced to attend night school to learn Greek.
Use of the Macedonian language meant harsh reprisals, including a "language tax". The following is a quote from Hristo Melovski, a professor of history at the University of Skopje, who was born in Aegean Macedonia.
"They told us our name was now Mellios and it was forbidden to speak our language-for every Macedonian word, you would be fined 30 to 40 drachmas (40 cents U.S.). One man I knew fought it. He would see a policeman and go right up to him, pronounce a Macedonian word, and hand him the money."(18)
"The dictatorial regime established in 1936 under General Metaxas adopted a policy of forced assimilation of the Macedonian minority. The repression of the Macedonian minority in Greece was further stepped up. Macedonians were forbidden to speak their language in public, and deportations to the islands became a usual governmental practice. According to Yugoslav sources, some 1,600 Macedonians were interned on the islands of Thasos and Cephalonia in the years preceding World War II."(19)
"The dictatorship of Ioannis Metaxas (1936-1940) was especially brutal in its treatment of the Slavic speakers of Aegean Macedonia, who by this time had increasingly begun to identify themselves as Macedonians. On December 18, 1936, the Metaxas dictatorship issued a legal act concerning 'Activity Against State Security.' This law punished claims of minority rights. Ont he basis of this act, thousands of Macedonians were arrested, imprisoned, or expelled from Greece. On September 7, 1938, the legal act 2366 was issued. This banned the use of the Macedonian language even in the domestic sphere. All Macedonian localities were flooded with posters that read, 'Speak Greek.' Evening schools were opened in which adult Macedonian were taught Greek. No Macedonian schools of any kind were permitted. Any public manifestation of Macedonian national feeling and its outward expression through language, song or dance was forbidden and severely punished by the Metaxas regime. People who spoke Macedonian were beaten, fined, and imprisoned. Punishments in some areas included piercing of the tongue with a needle and cutting off a part of the ear for every Macedonian word spoken. Almost 5,000 Macedonians were sent to jails and prison camps for violating this prohibition against the use of the Macedonian language. Mass exile of sections of Macedonians and other 'difficult' minorities took place. The trauma of persecution has left deep scars on the consciousness of the Macedonians in Greece, many of whom are even today convinced that their language 'cannot' be committed to writing."(20)

References:

(17) Greek Monitor of Human and Minority Rights, December 1995 Volume 1, No. 3, Minority Rights Group and Greek Helsinki Monitor, 1995; p. 37
(18) National Geographic, Volume 189, No. 3, March 1996; p. 131
(19) The Rising Sun In the Balkans: The Republic Of Macedonia, International Affairs Agency, Sydney, Pollitecon Publications, 1995; p. 33
(20) Macedonia and Greece - The Struggle to Define a New Balkan Nation, John Shea, McFarland and Company Inc., North Carolina, 1997; p. 111-112