In September of 1991
the southern part of the broken up Yugoslavia named itself "Republic
of Macedonia" and declared itself a new independent country.
The inhabitants designed a new flag with the Sun of Vergina at
its center and printed new currency with the White Tower of Thessaloniki,
symbols clearly from the northern province of Greece. Because
of these actions and also because of certain articles in their
newly
adopted constitution which implied that the their country
had territorial rights to all of the ancient Macedonian area,
Greece imposed a trade embargo and prevented any trade commerce
through Greece's northern border. Greece reluctantly lifted the
trade embargo when The FYROM redesigned and accepted a new flag,
stopped the issuance of the new currency with the depiction of
the White Tower of Thessaloniki, and passed amended articles to
their constitution implying that they have no territorial rights
outside their present boundaries.Greece, however, continued to
object to their use of the name Macedonia. Because of this objection,
the United Nations accepted this nation as a new member with the
temporary name of "The Former Yugoslav Republic Of Macedonia
(The FYROM)" (UN Resolutions #817 of April 7 and #845 of
June 18 of 1993) until a permanent solution to the name is found.
To this date no solution has been found and the UN deadline of
September 13, 2002 has passed by with the two countries only agreeing
to extend discussions on this matter for one more year.
Original flag used by the F.Y.R.O.M. with the use of the Star of Vergina - BANNED by the U.N.
Current flag in use by the F.Y.R.O.M.
Actual currency printed with an immage of the port of Thessaloniki - BANNED by the U.N.
Propaganda Stamp - the bottom half of the area is actually Greek.
Before 1944 the area that later
comprised of the former Yugoslavia's southern republic was not
called Macedonia but was called Vardarska Banovina (Province
-of the river- Vardar). It was in 1944 that (Joseph Broz) Marshal
Tito, the Communist dictator ruling Yugoslavia at that time,
created Yugoslavia's southern republic and called it "Socialist
Republic of Macedonia". However, "Macedonia"
was already the name of one of Greece's northern provinces.
It is pertinent to note that Tito's Socialist Republic of Macedonia
consisted of not only a small part of ancient Macedonia but
also a far larger part from Slavic Yugoslavia. There is no doubt
that creating this Republic in the southern region in Yugoslavia
and including "Macedonia" in its name was deliberate
with the main intention of laying claim to the region of ancient
Macedonia of the northern province of Greece. Particularly,
what Tito and his Communist allies wanted was the city of Thessaloniki
with its lucrative warm water port.
After 1944 a deliberate and systematic campaign was initiated
for Yugoslavia's southern republic to take over the history
of ancient Macedonia. "Scholars" from the "People's
Republic of Macedonia" were commissioned to re-write their
history books to include the ancient Macedonian History according
to the wishes of the League of Communists of communist Yugoslavia,
accompanied by perverted maps showing their "Macedonia"
going all the way down to the northern half of Mount Olympus.
Also, "linguists" led by Blagoj Konev, a.k.a. Blaze
Koneski, were appointed to create the alphabet for and refine
the "newly discovered" Macedonian language, which,
of course, was made to sound as if it were the "natural
development" of the ancient Macedonian language. Through
their control of mass media and education, the government of
"People's Republic of Macedonia" then introduced this
language and claimed that it is the language that was spoken
by the ancient Macedonians. However, this language is grammatically
nearly identical to Bulgarian and, due to continuous government
interventions, its vocabulary tends to include more Serbo-Croatian
words that have replaced the Bulgarian words.
They clearly overlooked the unquestionable fact that the inhabitants
of ancient Macedonia were Greeks and spoke the Greek language.
Numerous excavations in all of the ancient Macedonia area
have consistently unearthed relics clearly with Greek writings,
and depictions of rulers clearly designated with Greek names.
In ancient Greek culture, Macedonians celebrated the same
festivals with the rest of the Greeks. They took part in the
Olympic games which at the time was only participated in by
the Hellenes. The regions that comprised the area of Macedonia
all had Greek names. Furthermore, the architecture of the
palaces, temples, theaters & ancient markets are all characteristic
samples of ancient Greek architecture of the time. These Hellenic
structures clearly included Greek writings on them which without
a shodow of a doubt prove that they were dveloped by the Greeks
and belonged to the Greeks. The ancient Macedonians believed
in the same 12 Gods of Olympus as the rest of the Hellenes.
In addition, the Macedonians fought together with the rest
of the Hellenes against barbarians. To the Greeks at the time,
a barbarian was defined as any group of people who did not
share the same developed culture. Any group of people outside
of civilized Greece was defended against by all of Greece,
which included Macedonia. Last but certainly not least, Macedonia
was a member of the Delphic Amfictiony, an institution which
was open only to Greeks.....
The Golden Larnaca - Tomb of King Phillip with the sun of Vergina
Macedonian column with the use of Ionic architecture - clearly Greek
The Golden Larnaca
Gold myrtle wreath
King Philipos
Head of Alexander the Great
Macedonian miniature shield
Gravestone with Greek writing
Stele describing gift of fields
Herakles
Tetradrachm of the First "Meris"
Gold stater of Philip II
Coin of Dion
Tetradrachm of Alexander III
Quotes Made by the Leaders of F.Y.R.O.M. that Contradict their Efforts
"We are Slavs who came to this area
in the sixth century ... we are not descendants of the ancient
Macedonians."
Quote from FYROM'S President Mr. Kiro Gligorov.
(from the Foreign Information Service Daily Report, Eastern
Europe, February 26, 1992, p. 35.)
"We are Macedonians but we are
Slav Macedonians. That's who we are! We have no connection
to Alexander the Greek and his Macedonia. The ancient Macedonians
no longer exist, they had disappeared from history long time
ago. Our ancestors came here in the 5th and 6th century."
Quote from FYROM'S President Mr. Kiro Gligorov.
(from the Toronto Star newspaper, March 15, 1992)
(after
these comments, there was a terrorist attack on the ex-president
of the F.Y.R.O.M. Kiro Gligorov. It nearly cost him his life)
22 January 1999: FYROM'S Ambassador in
Washington, Mrs. Ljubica Acevshka, gave a speech on the present
situation in the Balkans. At the end of her speech answering
questions Mrs. Acevshka said:
"We do not claim to be descendants
of Alexander the Great." "Greece is FYROM'S second
largest trading partner, and its number one investor. Instead
of opting for war, we have chosen the mediation of the United
Nations, with talks on the ambassadorial level under Mr. Vance
and Mr. Nimitz."
In reply to another question about the
ethnic origin of the people of FYROM, Ambassador Achevska
stated:
"we are Slavs and we speak a Slav
language."
24 February 1999: In an interview with
the Ottawa Citizen, Gyordan Veselinov, FYROM'S Ambassador
to Canada, admitted,
"We are not related to the northern
Greeks who produced leaders like Philip and Alexander the
Great. We are a Slav people and our language is closely related
to Bulgarian."
He also commented
"there is some confusion about
the identity of the people of this country."
Our View
If
they are not the ancestors of Alexander The Great, why would they
want to use his symbols, culture, name and history in order to
claim the whole Macedonian land as their own. Who gives them this
right?In any case, occupying 10% of ancient Macedonian land does not give
them the right to steal the Greek-Macedonian history and culture;
especially when 40% of their country is inhabited by Albanians
and another large percentage by Serbians, Bulgarians, etc. Who
then are these people that are attempting to consider themselves
Macedonians. The Macedonian civilization was part of the ancient
Greek civilization. It is part of Greece's national inheritance
and it can not be used by anyone else.