Preface

In his Spring 1994 relevant article: “Macedonia: Historical truths and journalistic practices,” George Petridis chided the media -- and by reference America’s foreign policy -- for “exhibiting a pattern of disturbing insensitivity and disregard of the principles of fairness of journalism,” and “also,” for their “tendency to trivialize the whole question of Macedonia.” He demanded that the issue be considered on the matter of “facts” based on “history.”

Introduction

In 1944, with the predominance of the Communist Party of then-Yugoslavia, Marshall Tito, for reasons of political expediency and given his ambition for territorial expansion southward toward a warm water port in the Mediterranean, arbitrarily renamed the area named officially until then “Vardarska” -- as shown in the 1939 Yugoslav postage stamp -- but also known as South Serbia, to the “Socialist Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia” and its inhabitants “Macedonians.”

Tito’s decision was also a consequence of the 1921 Moscow resolve by the Comintern (the Communist International) and the Balkan communist parties to pursue autonomy for Macedonia, and to include this most strategic region into the Communist camp.

After 1944, with the Yugoslavian Communist Party initiative and tutelage, four nonexistent constitutive elements of the created pseudo-Macedonian nation were manufactured:

1. Authority: a “Macedonian” Government and Parliament.

2. Language: the Slavic dialect of the Bulgarian language spoken in the area was named: “Macedonian Language” and, because as a dialect it lacked linguistic characteristics – syntax, orthography and grammar, a special committee was formed and assigned the project of transforming the dialect into a language.

3. Religion: the atheist Communist Party established in 1968, but only in Skopje, the autocephalous “Macedonian Orthodox Church” which is not recognized by any orthodox patriarchate, including the Serbian, nor even by the Vatican.

4. History: the three-volume “History of the Macedonian Nation” was published and circulated in 1969, self-appropriating all of Macedonia’s events and personalities of the past four millennia, shamelessly forging the history of the glorious fatherland of Aristotle and Alexander the Great. Certainly, we all remember the distortions the Skopjans were advocating: Alexander the Great and his predecessors and his descendants not being Greek but “Macedonian,” and speaking not Greek but “Macedonian”; new “Macedonia” maps depicting the areas in Greece and Bulgaria being under “occupation”; the “White Tower” on their money depicting Thessaloniki -- which they call “Solun” – as their capital and, later, the “Sun of Vergina” as their flag symbol; and many others.

“Macedonia” and “Macedonians” are Greek terms and no one else but the Greeks ever applied them or has the right to apply them.

By historical accounts, a Macedonian “nation” never existed in the past nor does it exist today. Macedonians were Greeks, they believed in the same gods, they used the same tongue – Greek, and they shared with the other Greeks the same vows to the gods.

The historical and the political fraud of the Skopjans is revealed by “the facts of history” in at least four ways:

I. Historical Background

A. The Slavs arrived in the Balkans during the 6th Century A.D. This is a historical fact that was also admitted by Skopje’s ex-Nazi, former Communist and Tito protege, and its new super-nationalist first President Kiro Gligorov (David Binder, The New York Times, January 30, 1992 & Marline Simons, The New York Times, February 3, 1992).

B. In the 9th Century, two Greek brothers and monks, Cyril and Methodius, illuminated them on orthodoxy and taught them their Slavic language. Cyril is credited with inventing the Cyrillic alphabet, thereby providing a tool for the Slavs to learn to write their own tongue. Accordingly, the Slavs cannot and do not have any historical connection before the 6th Century nor any political bond prior to the 9th Century. The Macedonians existed in Greece over three millennia before.

C. The borders between Greece and Serbia were defined in 1913 on the basis of the advances of the armies of the two nations during the first Balkan war. The border between Greece and Bulgaria was defined at the Treaty of Bucharest. Since then, the borders of the three nations had remained the same.

D. Macedonia, a region mostly of Greece since ancient times, was divided into three perhaps even four parts, with Greece keeping the largest portion of about 50%, then-Yugoslavia receiving about 35%, Bulgaria about 10% and a small percentage eventually ending in Albania. The Greek people on the portion of
the Macedonia part in Greece have been there since time immemorial -- over more than forty centuries before the Slavs arrived. The language spoken in the Greek region since antiquity is Greek, whereas the language of the former-Yugoslavia portion is a Slavic dialect of Bulgarian (Marline Simons, The New York Times, February 3, 1992). As a matter of fact, the portion of Macedonia in then-Yugoslavia was part of the Eastern Branch of the Roman Empire. The people who ruled over Serbia spoke Greek. Constantinople was their headquarters. Their main trade was to the South and East (Joseph C. Harsch, The Christian Science Monitor, January 29, 1992).

Hence, where do the Skopjans come from? If, as the historical record clearly documents and Mr. Gligorov agrees, the Slavs came to the northern area of Macedonia in the 6th Century A.D., they are Slavs and, therefore, not Macedonians, who were Greeks. If, on the other hand, they had been there before, from the time of Alexander and earlier which they were not, both by
historical chronicles and by their own acceptance then they are Greeks, since Alexander himself, among all Macedonians, acknowledged his Hellenic birth, and the times of his tenure and before stand proof positive of their Greekness!

As all the ancient Greek city-states ceased to exist with the prevalence of the Romans after 168 B.C., so did “Macedon.” Since then, Macedonia, like all the other Greek regions, remained a geographical area.

During the centuries of Turkish rule, the occupied lands were divided into localities, each identified after the major city of the area. This was due to Turkish forbiddance of Greek or historical names. Thusly, writers, freedom fighters and others became known as Righas Ferraios, Veniamin of Lesvos, Constantine Dosios Macedonian, Christopher Parraivos of Thessaly, Dominic Theotokopoulos as El Greco, and organizations such as Macedonian Educational Association of Serres, Macedonian Association Alexander the Great, etc.

The portions of ancient Macedonia which were inhabited primarily by Greeks but were captured by the Serbs and the Bulgarians, eventually were incorporated into Serbia and Bulgaria respectively. The portion which was freed by the Greek army [and in which my own father fought – I am proud to say --and was wounded on the last day of the battle in the capture of Thessaloniki] is today’s “Greek” Macedonia. All the world’s maps published between 1913 and 1944 referred to Macedonia only as Greek, for all knew and recognized Macedonia as an integral part of Greece.

After 1944, the Communists manufactured a “Macedonia” in then-Yugoslavia and Bulgaria, and sustained their argument in the division perpetrated by the Romans for their own security in their time.

During the reign of Philip II, the Greek region of Macedonia contained most of modern-day Bulgaria. However, when the Bulgarians conquered that territory they incorporated it into the Bulgarian nation.

E. In 1919 Serbia incorporated Croatia and Slovenia in establishing the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenians, known as “Kraljevina, Srba, Hrvata I Slovenaka.” If a Macedonian “nation” had existed, then it would have been the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats, Slovenians and Macedonians. The Kingdom was dissolved by the Germans in their 1941 invasion. If, therefore, World War II had not occurred, or if after the War the Communist Party had not ruled, there may not have been a “Macedonia” issue today.

E. The term “Macedonia” was not given only to the portion of the area which belonged to ancient Greece but to the entire region, including Skopje, which was not part of ancient Macedonia. Thus, as regional inhabitants, all the Bulgarians and the Greeks in their respective regions, and the Serbs and the Albanians in former South Serbia, were called Macedonians in the regional sense, as regional inhabitants. Today, the Albanian minority in the region perhaps as large as 800,000 object at being called Macedonian citizens rather than Macedonians in the regional sense.

The Skopjans are attempting to make an issue out of a Slavo-Bulgarian dialect into a so-called “Macedonian Language.” There never was a Macedonian language. The ancient Macedonians, being Greek, spoke Greek. All their writings – which are written in stone, literally – attest to the Greekness of their language. As an excuse, the Skopjans are now changing their falsified story to yet another untruth, that Alexander the Great had been “Hellenized.” This is not the case.

Alexander’s father, and their predecessors, all carried Greek names and they left us their Greek language written in stones. For example: Alexander (ÁëÝîáíäñïò) means “defending man,” Philip (Ößëéððïò) means “admirer of horses,” Aristotle (ÁñéóôïôÝëçò) means “good end,” etc. In fact, the very terms of the inhabitants of the region itself are Greek: Macedonian (Ìáêåäþí) means “tall,” and Macedonia (Máêåäïíßá) means “the land of the tall,” including trees, for the Macedonian region is blessed with high forests.

This pseudo-Macedonian language -- the really Slavophone dialect is a mixture of idiomatic expressions derived from Greek, Slavic, Albanian, Turkish, some Latin (remnants of the Romans), and plenty of Bulgarian. This latter influence is the reason linguists identify it as a “Bulgarian dialect.” “History” shows how this dialect came about.

The region of northern Macedonia was the crossroad of many armies and traders from the Romans to the Turks. The original Greek inhabitants were conquered by the Romans. Then the Slavs moved in during the 6th century A.D. The Byzantines who were the next rulers used Greek. The Bulgars, as neighbors who traded between the area and Byzantium, had enormous influence on the spoken tongue.

Finally, the Turkish occupation of nearly five centuries also had considerable influence on the spoken word. In addition, the existence of Greeks, Slavs, Turks, Bulgars and Albanians cohabitating the area contributed significantly in the development of this “dialect.” Consequently, therefore, if the Skopjans wish to call this dialect a language – which truly it is not, they must give it a proper name: Vardarian, Skopjan, or whatever is the true identity of their area of habitat.

It is also significant to consider the exchange of populations that took place during certain periods. Between 1919 and 1936, there was an exchange of populations between Greece and Bulgaria. The exchange brought 46,000 Greeks from Bulgaria to Greece, while 96,000 Bulgarians from Greece went to Bulgaria. In addition, the Turks departed from the region of Macedonia left to Greece. (Too bad they did not depart from Thrace also.) On the other hand,

Serbia did not exchange populations in South Serbia with Bulgaria. It is for this reason, therefore, that problems had existed between the two nations, Serbia and Bulgaria, and one of the reasons that influenced Tito to rename in 1944 South Serbia to the Socialist Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia with the hope that it would end Bulgarian expansion aims toward that territory. Incidentally, the exchange of populations was monitored by the League of

Nations under the watchful eye of Henry Morgenthau, the former U.S. Ambassador to Turkey during the course of the Armenian Genocide by the Turks, who was the first chairman of the Refugee Resettlement Commission of the League in Greece, and who wrote in his 1929-published book, I Was Sent

To Athens:

(a) “Soon after Athens had reached the height of its glory under Pericles in the 5th Century B.C., and had started on its decline, the rise of Macedon under Philip carried Greek influence into new regions…” (p. 9); and,

(b) “When I crossed into Macedonia, I realized that this was the soil from which Philip of Macedon had gone East to conquer

Thrace and from Which Alexander the Great carried Greek civilization across Asia Minor, Persia, the Indus River to the gates of Delhi, leaving behind Greek settlements that had colored the life of the Near East for two thousand years…” (p 92).

II. Irrefutable Rudiments of the “Greekness” of the Macedonians

A. The ancient Greeks had placed the habitat of their gods on Mount Olympus, in Macedonia. It would have been totally inconceivable for the Greeks to have placed the habitat of their gods in a non-Greek, “barbarian” territory.

B. The ancient Greeks also placed the habitat of their nine Muses in Osa, another Macedonian mountain, in the province of Pieria.

C. Hesiod, the ancient Greek poet from Boeotia, refers that the Macedonian son of Zeus and Pandora was the forefather of the Macedonian people.

D. The Greek folk hero Herakles (Hercules), son of Zeus, was considered the head of the Macedonian people.

E. In his Greek Political Oratory, the Athenian orator Isocrates addresses Philip of Macedon: “I intend to urge you to take the lead in a movement for Greek unity and in the campaign against the non-Greek world.”

F. In his Campaigns of Alexander the Great, the Latin historian Arrian wrote: “As an offering to the goddess Athena, he sent to Athens 300 full suits of Persian armor, with the following inscription: ‘Alexander, son of Philip, and the Greeks (except the Lacedaemonians) dedicate these spoils, taken from the Persians who dwell in Asia’.”

G. In his famous The History of the Peloponnesian War, the great Athenian historian, Thucydides, wrote: “The part of the country on the sea-coast, known as Macedonia, was first acquired by Alexander, the father of Perdiccas, and by his ancestors, who were originally Temenids from Argos.”

H. Herodotus, the Father of History, writing on the origins of the Hellenic race in his Greek Historical Thought, states that the Macedonians were Dorians: “…the nationality…in the time of Dorus, son of Helen…settled in Pindus and acquired the name of Macedni… From Pindus…eventually passed into the Peloponnese, where it came to be known as Dorian.”

I. In his immortal work: The Iliad, around 800 B.C., Homer wrote about Achilles, the great hero of the Trojan War, calling upon his Pelasgian-Dodonean God, Zeus, to come to the aid of his friend Patroclos in the battles with Hector, the Prince of Troy:

“Lord Zeus, Dodonean-Pelasgian Zeus, you who lives far away and rules over wintry Dodonis, surrounded by your prophets the Helli, who leave their feet unwashed and sleep on the ground…”

Over four centuries later, the Macedonia-born great Greek philosopher, Aristotle, wrote: “Ancient Hellas is the land Dodoni and Achellous where the Helli dwelled, called the Greci, now Hellenes.”

Thus, the divine poet and the great thinker tell us that the origins of the Greeks derive from the northern territories of what became Epirus and Macedonia. Of course, it is also both significant and relevant that by the 3rd Century B.C., King Philip of Macedon married the Epirote Princess Olympias, from which union was born the military genius Alexander the Great. From the earliest of times, therefore, we find that the northernmost territories of Greece were Greek, indeed.

J. The Macedonians were members of the Council of Delphi, and only Greek states were eligible and accepted for membership.

K. At least ten Macedonians won in as many Olympic Games, in which only Greeks could compete.

L. According to Herodotus, the Macedonian King Alexander II (grandfather of Alexander the Great), in registering with the Olympic committee to participate in the Games, registered as descendant of Hercules, son of Zeus.

M. Three ancient theaters still exist in Macedonia, those at Dion, Philippi and Vergina. The ancient Greek playwright Euripides wrote the tragedy Bachaee in Pella, a play with

Macedonian theme which premiered in Dion. Euripides died and was buried in Macedonia. It should be noted that in the ancient world only the Greeks had theaters, until the arrival of the Romans who copied the Greeks.

N. “Macedonia, therefore, is Greece,” wrote Strabo, the Pontus-born, Roman-era historian and geographer who lived circa 68 B.C. – 19 A.D.

III. The Holy Scriptures

There are several references in the Bible and the Talmud, and also in the Koran, identifying Alexander the Great and the Macedonians as Greeks.

A. Old Testament

1. “Alexander, son of Philip of Macedon, after his victory came out of the land of Chitim and crushed Darius, king of the Persians and the Medes, and reigned in his place after he had already become ruler [king] of Greece” (Maccabees, 1:1.1).

2. “After he [Alexander] fell sick and perceived he was dying, he summoned his most honored officers and companions from his youth, and divided his kingdom while still
alive” (Maccabees, 1:1.5).

3. “Antiochus…became king in the one hundred and thirty-seventh year of the kingdom of the Greek” [Seleucids of Macedonia] (Maccabees, 1:1.10).

4. “And the he-goat is the king of Greece [Alexander]; and the great horn between his eyes is the first king. As for his horn that was broken, in place of which four others
arose, four nations shall rise from this nation, but not with his powers” (Daniel, 8:1-22).
Hippolytus, Bishop of Rome from 217 to 222 A.D., wrote a commentary on the text of Daniel’s prophesy, which has been preserved in Greek, Iberian and Slavonic (Nicolaos K. Martis, The Falsification of Macedonian History, p.61). The Bishop wrote: “And the he-goat coming from the west he calls Alexander of Macedon, King of the Greeks” (Hippolytus, Commentary on the Prophet Daniel I, p.26).

B. New Testament

1. “…they came to Thessalonica, where was a synagogue of the Jews. And Paul…went in…and some of them were persuaded…as did a great many of the devout Greeks…”
(Acts, 17:1-4).

2. “…many of them therefore believed, with not a few Greek women of high standing as well as men” (Acts, 17-12).

IV. The “Sun of Vergina”
The 16-pointed star “Sun of Vergina,” discovered in the 1977 excavations as the symbol of the royal Macedonian dynasty of ancient Greece, and which is now being claimed as their own by the Skopjans, was widely used in Attica during the classical period
long before its adoption by the Macedonian royal house. The star, identical with the one decorating the larnax discovered in the tomb of Philip II, father of Alexander the Great, at Vergina in Northern Greece, has been found as one of the elements of decoration on at
least four temples of the classical era, including two on the Acropolis of Athens. The same symbol can be seen also on a 4th century B.C. urn on display at the Museum of Naples in Italy. It was found in Carnossa, Italy and depicts a form inscribed with the
word “Hellas” and flanked by the figures of Zeus and Athena. An interesting issue came to light regarding the Sun of Vergina being adopted as the flag symbol by Skopje. In the late 1940s, after Tito proclaimed South Serbia “the Socialist Yugoslav Republic of
Macedonia,” the new republic had three symbols from which to select its new flag: the Albanian eagle, the Bulgarian lion, and the “star [not ‘sun’] of Vergina” which it finally chose. Since the “star” was not the “sun” that we know – for it was not excavated
until 1977 , it was an ordinary sun, half-risen from behind a mountain, surrounded by a wreath centered by a small five-pointed star, an enormous difference from the “Sun of Vergina” that Professor Manolis Andronicos excavated in 1977.

It is also important to look more deeply into the self-evident falsehoods created by the Skopjans which overturn the main foundations of their of their communist-inspired and communist-invented myth:

1) 1) They allege that Alexander the Great, his father Philip and their ancestors were “Macedonians” and not Greeks! If this wrong logic were to be accepted as fact, then there were no Greeks then and there are no Greeks now, for Leonidas was Lacaedemonian, Pericles was Attican, Epaminondas was Boeotian, Pyrrhus was Epirote, Homer was Chian (unless we accept the version of the late Turkish President Turgut Ozal who, in his book: Turkey in Europe, wrote that Homer was a Turk, as well as Aristotle), and so on, including Dominic[os] Theotokopoulos who signed his great art as “El Greco.” Therefore, according to the Slavic Skopjan revisionist “historians,” none of the “Greeks” should be considered “Greeks.” This entire distortion of history is refuted, however, by what has been aforementioned, namely: historical documents, myriads of irrefutable rudiments, the Holy Scriptures (including the Koran which refers to Alexander as the king of the Greeks), and the preserved archaeological monuments all written in stone, and STONES DON’T LIE!

2) Skopje propounds itself as the cradle of Slavic orthodoxy, and connects their church with the “Macedonians” [not the Greeks] even though through the (Greek) monks Methodius and Cyril. This claim is refuted by Pope John Paul’s 1990 circular, in which he declared the two “Greek”monks “Heavenly protectors of Europe.”

3) The Skopjans allege that Samuel was “Macedonian,” and that during his reign from 1000 to 1018 A.D. in Achris he founded “the first Macedonian nation.” Samuel, however, was Bulgarian.

It was for this reason that Emperor Basil II, who descended from the glorious Macedonian dynasty, when he was victorious over Samuel’s forces was named «Âïõëãáñïêôüíïò» {Bulgar-slayer) and not «Ìáêåäùíïêôüíïò» (Macedonian-slayer). In addition, an inscription written in an old Bulgarian language, dated 1017, discovered by a Yugoslav archaeologist in Montenegro, makes reference to that Samuel preesnted himself to be of Bulgarian ancestry.

4) The Skopjans claim the 1902-03 insurrections as the national Macedonian uprising. This is refuted by the reports of the six foreign consuls, the dispatches of foreign journalists stationed in the area at the time, and the reports of historians all of whom referred to these disturbances as local uprisings of “Bulgarians” known as “komitazes.” Dr. Wayne Vucinich, former professor of history at Stanford University and author of Serbia Between East & West, wrote in 1960: “…in 1902, two Bulgarian officers precipitated an uprising in the vicinity of Bitolj…and in August… an insurrection …was suppressed within two monts.”

Also of significance is the is the Skopjans’ deception of the Vatican in 1986, when they exhibited at the Vatican Museum icons depicted as “Macedonian.” This was strongly denounced by the Archbishop of Athens, resulting in an immediate Vatican statement:

(a) not recognizing the Church of Skopje, and (b) that “it was deceived” by the Skopjans. Since then, Pope John Paul has taken several measures against the Skopjans, including his 1989 decision to stop addressing his Christmas and Easter messages also in the so-called “Macedonian” language. This particular action constitutes the most significant Catholic condemnation to the non-existence of pseudo-Macedonia.

There is also the issue of Greek inscriptions. In all of antiquity, in all of Macedonia, there never was an existence of any inscription in or of the so-called “Macedonian language,” anywhere. This, of course, is clearly evident from the fact that the Slavs of the northern Macedonia region did not arrive there until the 6th Century A.D., and their Slavic Bulgarian dialect did not even have a written form until Cyril devised an alphabet for them in the 9th Century. As Dr. Guliano Bonfante, former professor of romance languages at Princeton University wrote in 1960: “The language now spoken as Macedonian is a Bulgarian dialect. It has no connection with the ancient Macedonian (Greek) except for the fact it is spoken in the same region.”

All the historical documents -- from Herodotus and Plutarch to the Old and New Testaments, and from other historians after the House of Philip Dynasty -- have shown nothing other than the Hellenic period of nearly three centuries from Philip, through Alexander the Great, to Alexander’s successors. Also, it must be emphasized that it was due to the Macedonians that the Greek language -- their language -- and Greek civilization – their civilization -- were spread throughout the known world of the time, and influenced the Old Testament to be translated into Greek and the New Testament to be written in Greek. Furthermore, Greek was the language that was used to transmit Christianity throughout the Greek-speaking world of which Macedonia was an integral part.

An excellent example is Alexandria in Egypt, where the Macedonian Ptolemies established first their rule and then their influence for seven centuries, and where the laboratory sciences: anatomy, astronomy, biology, chemistry, geography, mathematics, physics, zoology, etc., advanced. It was in Alexandria also where the Theological Academy functioned during the 2nd and 3rd centuries A.D., and where the Greco-Christian civilization laid its early foundations. Throughout the period, the Macedonian Ptolemies used nothing but Greek, for they knew no other language since Greek was their native tongue. Thus, the internationality of Hellenism and the universality of Christianity, both of which so decisively influenced the Romans, the Byzantines, the Renaissance, and the contemporary world of today, are the results of the works and the successes of Alexander the Great and his successors.

It is also necessary to mention the German invasion of Greece on April 6, 1941 during World War II. The attack came from the Bulgarian region against the Greek defense line in Macedonia, and after Turkey in agreement with Nazi Germany, abrogated its bilateral defense treaty with Greece only hours before the invasion. The battle of Macedonia was fought by the Greeks only, and so heroically that it surprised even Hitler himself. In central Macedonia, the fighters were above all Greeks, with few units of Australians, Britons and New Zealanders. Contrarily, when the Germans entered Skopje – the capital of the South Serbian “Vardarska” province of then-Yugoslavia – after only a three-day military campaign, the German army was received as liberators with thousands of Bulgarian flags flying. As Professor Vucinich wrote in 1960: “During World War II…the followers of IMRO (Internal Macedonian Revolutionary Organization)…were supported by Fascist Italy, Hungary, Germany, and Bulgaria…At the end of World War II, the control of [northern] Macedonia passed to the Yugoslavian Communist Party, and became a new source of trouble in the Balkans. It was from [Tito’s created Socialist Yugoslav republic of] Macedonia that Communists organized [their] activity against Greece in 1947 and 1948.”

The Greek nation paid a very heavy price to defend the homeland:
685,000 homes destroyed, 100,000 of its people killed, and 29,000 of its children abducted to the “Socialist Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia” to be converted for their eventual return to Greece as communists and separatists. It is also significant that this “Greek Civil War” – as it was called – was the only one won against communists without American forces actively participating, but with American materiel aid, as then-NATO Supreme Commander, U.S. General James van Fleet strongly emphasized.

Last, but certainly not least, let us consider the significance of our United States foreign-policy facts of modern times and the importance of the statement of a recent and prominent United States Secretary of State.

Following Marshall Tito’s pronouncement of a “Macedonian nation near the conclusion of World War II, on December 26, 1944 then-Secretary of State Edward Stettinius sent in immediate response the following Circular Airgram (868.014):

“The Department has noted with considerable apprehension increasing propaganda rumors and semi-official statements in favor of an autonomous Macedonia, emanating principally from Bulgaria, but also from Yugoslav Partisan and other sources, with the implication that Greek territory would be included in the projected state. This Government considers talk of Macedonian ‘nation,’ Macedonian ‘Fatherland,’ or Macedonian ‘national consciousness’ to be unjustified demagoguery representing no ethnic or political reality,
and see in its present revival a possible cloak of aggressive action against Greece,” to which the Soviet Union’s arch-Communist Joseph Stalin boasted in 1946: “They do not have Macedonian consciousness, but they will.”

In the final analysis, therefore, U.S. recognition of a state with the pseudonym “Macedonia” would tantamount to a Communist victory after the end of the Cold War on an issue that our nation opposed them during the Cold War.

Also, the statement by former Secretary of State Henry Kissinger suffices to acknowledge, once more, that “Macedonia, therefore, is Greece,” indeed for, as he declared in Paris in 1992:

“I believe that Greece is right to object and I agree with Athens. The reason is I know history, which is not the case with most of the others, including most of the government and administration in Washington.”

In view of all the above, it is absurd that after a recorded history of over four millennia the Greeks have to prove to the world all over again that “Macedonia, therefore, is Greece,” indeed. The preposterous Skopje theories of the existence of a “Macedonian nation,” of a “Macedonian language,” and of a “Macedonian national consciousness” are not only contrary to historical facts, but also offensive not only to the Greeks but also to every civilized human being!

The question now arises: “Where do we go from here?” For our American nation, we must support the “fact” that “Macedonia, therefore, is Greece,” in the manner by which this “empire of reason” was established by our Founding Fathers on the “age of reason” of the ancient Greeks. For this we have a precedent:

There has been a movement by some individuals in Texas and in Mexico to revise history regarding the famous Texas Shrine in San Antonio, “the Alamo.” According to these revisionists, the defenders at the Alamo: the well-known heroes James Bowie, David Crocket, William Travis, among the 220, were “criminals, murderers, thieves, etc.” and that the Mexican General Santa Anna, who annihilated all of them, was an honorable man who wanted to eliminate these “criminals.” The U.S., of course, wants nothing to do with such “unjustified demagoguery.” Also, however, the United States must insist that the temporary yet official name provided by the United Nations until the correct name is agreed upon -- “FYROM (Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia)” – not be circumvented, which makes that country more intransigent in agreeing on a proper name.

For Greece, there are several steps to be taken. First, Dr. John Kostoulas’ four points from his article: “What is in the name Macedonia?” should be demanded of Skopje. They are:

1. settle on a name that does not contain the term “Macedonia” or any derivative there-of that in itself indicates aggression;

2. delete from its constitution all articles implying territorial claims against Greece and other neighboring countries;

3. cease to use Hellenic Macedonian symbols and distort history; and,

4. adhere fully to the Helsinki Final Act.

Should these conditions not be satisfied, Skopje should know that if and when it considers itself ready for application to either or to both NATO and the European Union, Greece, and starting next year in the European Union perhaps also Cyprus, would veto its application. Furthermore, Greece should make it clear to Skopje that all the years it refuses to cooperate in settling on a suitable name will count against its membership drive.

For us Greek Americans, we must be the conduit and the catalyst between our ancestral land and our native or country of citizenship, for better Greek American relations and for improvement of bilateral Balkan conditions. On how to do this, in a way we have already started. The several state resolutions on Macedonia’s “Greekness” is a good beginning. However, this is not enough. The general American public is neither knowledgeable of nor does it comprehend the issue. It is paramount therefore that the issue be expanded.

The various “international” clubs in practically every city of every state in our Union: Kiwanis, Lions, Rotary, etc., and so many others, always search for speakers on various different topics. Also, arrangements should be made for Greek cultural troupes from Macedonia to visit the United States to perform and to exhibit cultural programs. (Please consider the impact the Turkish exhibit of a few years ago: “Suleiman the Magnificent” had in America, even though Suleiman was a tyrant but the American public had no such knowledge. It took the Turkish gaff in the American operation on Iraq to diminish the influence that exhibit had made.) Americans like to attend such events, and American media provide good reviews. In conjunction, a lecture can be arranged at the local educational institution on the topic of “Macedonia.” This should be reciprocated with Greek American youth troupes visiting Macedonia and displaying programs and performing dances, reinforcing the spirit that the Diaspora is with them. In addition, mayors from U.S. cities and from Greece should be brought together both in America and in Macedonia to establish “sister-city” relationships, and later even governors from the U.S. and prefects (íïìÜñ÷åò) from Greece to establish “sister-state” relationships between American states and Macedonian provinces (íïìïýò). Governors exercise enormous influence in the American political system.

Perhaps finally, we must not overlook Henry Kissinger. He owes us, and he owes us a lot! It is now payback time! After all, he has supported the “historical facts.” Perhaps he wants to make amends for the wrongs he committed against Cyprus and Greece regarding Turkey. It is prudent therefore to contact him and pressure him to assist us. His influence continues to carry much heavy weight!

In closing, we all know that the task ahead may be difficult, but we also know that it is noble. As Euclid, the Father of Geometry, said: “There is no royal road to Geometry.” Also, however, we must heed the advice of the ancient Greek poet Pindar who warned: “That which is silent dies.” Let us, therefore, make the challenge an opportunity for all the positives that will derive from its success.

Let us be reminded once more of Pericles’ famous “funeral oration” statement: “We regard a man who takes no interest in public affairs not as harmless, but as a useless character,” and let us follow the guidance and carry out the call provided by Dr. Richard Hovenissian, Professor of History at UCLA: “One person becomes a drop in a stream, then the stream becomes a river. People together make a swell, then a tide, and that makes the difference.” Yes, that indeed makes a difference.