Marketed as a long-awaited diplomatic breakthrough to a supposedly irreconcilable identity issue, the “name deal” represents nothing less than the full and total capitulation of the post-“constitutional coup” Macedonian authorities to their Greek neighbors with implications that stretch far and beyond simply fast tracking Skopje’s subsequent membership to the EU and NATO. Regardless of how one might personally feel about the finer details of this dispute, it’s undeniable that the “resolution” being presented in the agreement is really just a thinly veiled cover for implementing a new type of post-modern control, one which will basically turn the Republic of Macedonia into a Greek puppet state whose people will continue to undergo socio-political experiments prior to having the “perfected” form of this model rolled out all across the EU.
To explain, the various “joint” structures that are created by this document will enable Greece to determine what Macedonian schoolchildren learn by granting Athens the power to censor their textbooks and affiliated materials. Furthermore, undefined “politically incorrect” concepts and so-called “propaganda” that vaguely allude to what the document describes as being “likely to incite violence, hatred, or hostility” through the purported promotion of “chauvinism, hostility, irredentism and revisionism” are banned, with the Macedonian authorities being obligated to prosecute any person or organization that Greece accuses of violating these terms. Not only that, but the Macedonian government officially agrees to consider the Greek-controlled region of Macedonia as constituting “Hellenic civilization, history, culture, and heritage…from antiquity to present day.”
Simply put, private citizens will be forbidden under pane of legal punishment from publicly referring to their ethnic Macedonian family members who fled what they refer to as Aegean Macedonia (a term that will also presumably be banned) unless they openly identify as “Greek” or “Hellenic”, as doing otherwise might risk Athens’ ire in being perceived as “inciting violence, hatred, or hostility” through “chauvinism, hostility, irredentism and revisionism”, which is an unprecedented affront to all patriotic Macedonians who care about their family’s roots. The “politically correct” police state that’s forming in the Republic of Macedonia is therefore a dystopian nightmare of epic proportions that might eventually spread to other countries in the coming years if the EU weaponizes this model as a means for systematically deconstructing their national identities prior to incorporating them into a “federation of regions” to replace the existing union of nation-states.
The post presented is the partial transcript of the CONTEXT COUNTDOWN radio program on Sputnik News, aired on Friday Jun 22, 2018:
DISCLAIMER: The author writes for this publication in a private capacity which is unrepresentative of anyone or any organization except for his own personal views. Nothing written by the author should ever be conflated with the editorial views or official positions of any other media outlet or institution.
So You think that Macedonian children should learn that Alexandar the Great was not Greek?
Alexander was not “the great”! He was Alexander Macedonian before the western “civilization” counterfeit the whole history of the world that we know it. Did you ever occur to you why all continent starts with an A, but only Europe with an E? Is it really Europe a continent? Is it?
There is no perfect crime! The small detail always reveals the truth.
The time will come, very soon, when the real history will come out from the locked doors of Vatican and Washington libraries, and people like you will be shocked from the truth. Till then have a nice counterfeit dream.
Why should we wait? It looks like You know all about that “real” history. So right a book. End tell me pls, do You realy think that Aristotl was teaching Alexander Macedonian on language even similar to one You are using today? By the way Vatican and Washington belt liberals are well known for falsifying history.
Post-WWII, both Bulgaria and Yugoslavia had attempted to take over Greece from the north. In particular, Tito began strongly advocating for a cause of self-determination to morally justify such incursions. Thus, the idea of Makedonja was strongly pushed to get an Aegean sea port and bypass the Turkish/NATO-controlled Bosporus. This is understandable given communism’s ambitions of spreading worldwide.
At least as far back as 1992, the Skopje government was openly promoting maps of a Makedonja that included all of Northern Greece (Thrace, Epirus, Thessaly and Macedonia) on broadcast television, radio and printed media. Anyone in northern Greece and Albania knew this type of programming was available on any television or radio in their own country, broadcast from Skopje.
Greece has a tremendous amount to fear from its neighbors. Turkey violates Greek airspace daily, refuses to withdraw from its occupation of Cyprus, and has stated openly that Greek islands belong to it as part of historical Ottoman rule. Skopje continues to promulgate fantasy maps taking over half of Greece using supposed historical justification, despite the fact that Slavic languages are linguistically distinct from Greek back to the Proto-Indo-European language. These are some of the reasons why Greece has the highest percentage of GDP spending on defense of any country in NATO besides the United States, and why it vehemently refuses to allow expansionist nationalist policies to potentially justify a name due to aspirations of future reunification under supposed self-determination. Thus, Greece has the absolute right to demand constitutional and legal changes by its neighbor if it is to be recognized by a name which would otherwise be used for such expansion.
The truth of the matter is that (a) the real name of the area under Skopje’s control should be Dardania, from the Dardani people who were of Illyrian descent and who currently inhabit this area intermixed with other Slavic tribes, and (b) while Macedonia as an ancient kingdom encompassed the area known as Dardania prior to Roman rule, the current inhabitants are genetically distinct from the Greeks who currently reside in Greece even though they eventually intermixed after Alexander united the city-states of what is now known as Greece. The Macedonia of ancient times is gone, and in its place are its descendants who live primarily in Greece, and the Slav/Illyrian people who live north of the Greek border. Skopje would be well to acknowledge its true history even if it is free to continue on its previous historic path – a path, to be sure, does not have strong historical justification.
It is, however, important to acknowledge that NATO, as an organization, does have a tremendous stake in this debate. Caught between split loyalties of Turkey and the aspirations of Skopje, and the fact that they want Greece and Turkey to work out any future conflict themselves without NATO intervention, having another member state like Skopje join it justifies its continued existence. This is why an agreement is being pushed so hard for the name, and needs to be acknowledged here.
Time changes things is the lesson.
“Makedonia” was certainly Greek, but only until late 500s, when Slavs poured into the country with the Avar attacks. Afterward, only small enclaves such as Salonika remained Greek. The whole rest of the country was Slav. The whole became Bulgarian in the VIII centuries, but reconquered by the Byzantines several times, only to be lost again in the many wars with the Slavs. The Ottomans extinguished both powers, and turned Salonika into a Turkish town. Mustafa Kemal, founder of the Turkish Republic, was born there. In the 1st Balkan War, Bulgaria had every intention of annexing all of Macedonia and its Slav population, including the Slav-Turk populated Salonika. But the Greeks wrested most of it from them in the 2nd Balkan War. And so the Slav population was deported northward into Bulgaria and Serbia, and the Turkish population expelled into Anatolia in exchange for refugees from Smyrna. So it came to be that the Greeks returned to Makedonia after an absence of almost 1,400 years.
Also, “Candia” was the name of Crete for 800 years, until revolution in 1898 caused the ancient Greek name for the Island to be resurrected. The mostly Turkish population was expelled by 1900. Yes, the Turks had come there as ruthless conquerors in the 16th and 17th centuries, and so were thrown out in a similar fashion.
And “Morea” was the name of Peloponnesus for 700 years until the Greek War for independence caused Europeans to reinstitute the ancient name.
And then there is the most notorious example: “Israel” ceased to exist c. 500 BC but today the modern State of Israel insist that “Palestine” never existed, even that’s the name given to the former territory of Israel for 2,000 years.