The Greek-Macedonia issue : Macedonia is Greek!
Uploaded by Koulourakia_Girl on May 02, 2002
In 1912, after the Balkan wars, the geographical territory known as Macedonia, in ancient times known as the Greek Kingdom at the northern end of Greece, was divided-up between Bulgaria, Serbia and Greece. The ownership of the territory, or more importantly, the identity of it, has been an important issue ever since. This is a deeply political and historical issue - an issue that is undoubtedly one of a very complex and often biased nature. The Issue, I believe, can be summed-up in the following queries:
1)Where does Macedonia lie?
2)Was Macedonia considered/regarded as Greek?
3)Who are the True inhabitants of Macedonia today?
And, of course, what is perhaps the core of the Greek argument -
4)Do the actions of FYROM (Former Yugoslav. Republic of Macedonia) constitute a thievery of an ancient culture and identity, to which they have no legal or ancestral rights?
There are two main groups at play in the 'Macedonian issue':
1)Greek Macedonians - those who are considered to have some sort of genetic/ancestral link to the Ancient Macedonians.
2)FYROM/non-Greek 'Macedonians' - a slavic nation attempting to adopt the history and culture of Ancient Macedonia as its own.
The most onvious problem the Greeks have with these non-Greeks claiming to be Macedonians, is the adoption of a Greek name for a non-greek people (Macedonia/ns). Macedonians were Greek, but these people are not. One only need look to the names of ancient Macedonians - they are Greek! For instance: Alexander (the Great). 'alex' = protects + 'andros' = man. ("he who protects men") Or even Philip. 'philo' = friendly + 'ippos' = horse. ("he who is friendly to horses").
Another problem, are the names of the region. The slavs often call them by different names - for instance Thessaloniki becomes 'Solun' and Edessa becomes 'Voden'. Unfortunately for them, there is proof that these places were commonly known, many centuries ago, by their Greek names. One only need look to the New Testament to see Paul's letters to the Thessalonians...
Naming a country after a neighbouring region is obviously a strategy to try to destabilize the region, in the hope that the country will absorb the neighbouring region. Even after the great exapnsion by Philip II and Alexander the Great in the 400's, when Macedonia was the most powerful Greek state, it was only at very most 10% of the FYROM territory was originally part of the Greek Kingdom. Yet FYROM passports no longer even stamp-in travellers from...