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Македонците се борат за Македонија, не само преку разморазни митинзи и собири, со палења амбасади, кршења прозорци и возила, не само внатре во Македонија, туку и надвор, насекаде.
на многаја лета
Macedonia: Reaching Out to Win Latin American Hearts and Minds
To Our Readers:
In order to assure fairness and address concerns regarding the
neutrality of COHA, Senior Research Fellow, Zlatko Kovach due to his
Macedonian descent, COHA would welcome responses of other points of
view in its “Forum”. It is our hopes that this would bring about
verbose discussion of the topic at hand, insuring objectiveness, and
prevent the possibility that a conflict of interest may arise.
On the eve of the explosive consequences of Kosovo’s independence, an artificial “dispute,” created by Greece seventeen years ago over the name and identity of the Republic of Macedonia, threatens to further destabilize the Balkans, with possibly uncontrolled consequences for regional peace. Incredibly, far off Latin America may help diffuse this situation and offer a solution.
Greece falsely accuses Macedonia that the latter is engaged in irredentism and hostile propaganda — not to mention Greece’s preposterous claim that Macedonia does not have the right to its own name and to its historical, ethnic, and religious identity. Demonstrably, Greece’s moves are suspect: Macedonia historically and culturally did transcend the country’s current borders. In 1912-13, through two brutal regional wars, Macedonia was forcefully partitioned among Greece, Bulgaria and Serbia. The Macedonians were subject to qualified genocide and many were driven from their land.
It is this reality that Greece tirelessly tries to cover up. Human Rights Watch, among other credible organizations, has documented the existence of on-going discrimination against the remaining Macedonians in Greece. In fact, until recently, Greece had legal provisions preventing exiled Macedonians from entering Greece in order to claim title of their family property. This context should help explain the “name dispute,” the endless Greek misinformation campaigns, the hostile posturing, and attempts to censor and trivialize Macedonian claims, but now via more refined methods involving international mechanisms, in the hope of gaining legitimacy via international sanctions of Macedonia.
Latin America and the Recognition of Macedonia
Greece’s campaign to wipe Macedonia from the map has been in effect for well over a century. In recent months, Greece has intensified its anti-Macedonian campaign in the United States and in the European Union, as well as in Latin America, at a time when Macedonia’s prospective stability is critically important as the country inches closer to European Union and NATO membership. Instead of its maliciously preventing Macedonia from establishing ties with Latin America, Greece should refrain from transferring its baseless European dispute to Latin America. Rather, it should take a leaf of history from recent Latin American successes at improving neighborly relations and area cooperation, such as the spate of local agreements now coming to life: Mercosur, CAN and Alba, to name a few.
Last year, for example, the name of Venezuela’s president Hugo Chávez was brazenly invoked by the Greek propaganda machine against Macedonia. During a visit to the United States, one of Macedonia’s political leaders was surprised to be questioned by U.S. officials over whether he had earlier entered into secret meetings with Chávez. This was one of a number of rumors that was being maliciously spread by the powerful Greek lobby in the United States which, we are lead to believe, coordinates its activities with those of the Greek ambassador to the U.S., Alexandros Mallias. The Greek interest was clearly to injure Macedonia’s ties with the United States by exploiting current U.S.-Venezuela difficulties. Chávez, for his part, had been surprised to learn that there exists a descendant of Alexander the Great, referring to Srdjan Kerim, the former Macedonian foreign minister who recently assumed the Presidency of the UN General Assembly.
The Latin American Angle
A competition has thus been steadily developing for winning Latin America’s hearts and minds regarding the issue of the recognition of Macedonia. Faced with a concerted Greek effort to block Macedonia internationally, bilateral recognition has become the ticket for Macedonia’s survival. This is understandable: at a time when war was raging in the Balkans in the 1990s, Greece’s campaign against Macedonia included a three-year illegal embargo and an economic blockage of Macedonia, which was also directed against international institutions dealing with the country. As a result, factories in Macedonia were shut down; crops rotted in the fields; emigration of Macedonians in search of slightly better living standards accelerated. What is most troubling is that the bulk of the émigrés included the young and the educated along with complete households and families. Some of these destinations included, Canada, Australia, and some Latin American countries such as Argentina or the Dominican Republic. At the time, a former Macedonian minister, Jane Miljoski, summed up Greece’s actions against Macedonia: “murder without bullets.”
Yet, the murdering of Macedonia’s identity continues in every respect and has finally reached a new level of paranoia: recently, Greece labeled any use of Alexander the Great’s name by Macedonia as hostile propaganda. It has attempted to officially prohibit the singing of a song at sporting events that mentions Alexander the Great. Putting the bizarre proposition of censoring another country’s musical preferences aside, many Greeks seem unaware of, or oblivious to, the historical fact that it was the Macedonian forces of Alexander the Great, led by his father King Philip II of Macedon, that beat the entire Greek army at Chaeronea in 338 B.C. and conquered the modern Greeks’ ancestors. The battle of Chaeronea had established Macedonian hegemony over Greece in ancient times; Greeks did not regain their independence until 1827, that is, until 181 years ago.
Some Recent Balkan and Latin American History
Despite Greece’s obstruction of Macedonia’s diplomatic recognition, some countries like Peru, Paraguay, and Suriname have had the courage to recognize Macedonia under its constitutional name. Others, like Brazil or Argentina, have been more circumspect, but have nonetheless extended recognition and established diplomatic ties with the “Macedonian government.” Still others, such as Chile, have completely ignored the argument, perhaps driven by more profitable considerations. Chile has so completely fallen under Greek sway that it does not even want to even hear about recognizing Macedonia under its centuries-old name. All seems “fair” in this pathetic game of pandering for influence, and Chile’s example may be influenced by the existence of such flourishing institutions as the “Fotios Malleros” Centre of Byzantine and Modern Greek Studies at the University of Santiago, the only one of its kind in Latin America. Perhaps Macedonia too will have to build a Center for Ancient and Contemporary Macedonian History near La Moneda in downtown Santiago. Meanwhile, most of the world’s leading regional historians such as Dr. Eugene Borza of Pennsylvania State University or Dr. Ernst Badian of Harvard, agree that the ancient Macedonians of Alexander the Great — the ancestor’s of today’s Macedonians — were a distinct, non-Greek people, conscious and proud of their Macedonian ethnicity, customs, and their name.
на многаја лета
Macedonia: Reaching Out to Win Latin American Hearts and Minds
To Our Readers:
In order to assure fairness and address concerns regarding the
neutrality of COHA, Senior Research Fellow, Zlatko Kovach due to his
Macedonian descent, COHA would welcome responses of other points of
view in its “Forum”. It is our hopes that this would bring about
verbose discussion of the topic at hand, insuring objectiveness, and
prevent the possibility that a conflict of interest may arise.
On the eve of the explosive consequences of Kosovo’s independence, an artificial “dispute,” created by Greece seventeen years ago over the name and identity of the Republic of Macedonia, threatens to further destabilize the Balkans, with possibly uncontrolled consequences for regional peace. Incredibly, far off Latin America may help diffuse this situation and offer a solution.
Greece falsely accuses Macedonia that the latter is engaged in irredentism and hostile propaganda — not to mention Greece’s preposterous claim that Macedonia does not have the right to its own name and to its historical, ethnic, and religious identity. Demonstrably, Greece’s moves are suspect: Macedonia historically and culturally did transcend the country’s current borders. In 1912-13, through two brutal regional wars, Macedonia was forcefully partitioned among Greece, Bulgaria and Serbia. The Macedonians were subject to qualified genocide and many were driven from their land.
It is this reality that Greece tirelessly tries to cover up. Human Rights Watch, among other credible organizations, has documented the existence of on-going discrimination against the remaining Macedonians in Greece. In fact, until recently, Greece had legal provisions preventing exiled Macedonians from entering Greece in order to claim title of their family property. This context should help explain the “name dispute,” the endless Greek misinformation campaigns, the hostile posturing, and attempts to censor and trivialize Macedonian claims, but now via more refined methods involving international mechanisms, in the hope of gaining legitimacy via international sanctions of Macedonia.
Latin America and the Recognition of Macedonia
Greece’s campaign to wipe Macedonia from the map has been in effect for well over a century. In recent months, Greece has intensified its anti-Macedonian campaign in the United States and in the European Union, as well as in Latin America, at a time when Macedonia’s prospective stability is critically important as the country inches closer to European Union and NATO membership. Instead of its maliciously preventing Macedonia from establishing ties with Latin America, Greece should refrain from transferring its baseless European dispute to Latin America. Rather, it should take a leaf of history from recent Latin American successes at improving neighborly relations and area cooperation, such as the spate of local agreements now coming to life: Mercosur, CAN and Alba, to name a few.
Last year, for example, the name of Venezuela’s president Hugo Chávez was brazenly invoked by the Greek propaganda machine against Macedonia. During a visit to the United States, one of Macedonia’s political leaders was surprised to be questioned by U.S. officials over whether he had earlier entered into secret meetings with Chávez. This was one of a number of rumors that was being maliciously spread by the powerful Greek lobby in the United States which, we are lead to believe, coordinates its activities with those of the Greek ambassador to the U.S., Alexandros Mallias. The Greek interest was clearly to injure Macedonia’s ties with the United States by exploiting current U.S.-Venezuela difficulties. Chávez, for his part, had been surprised to learn that there exists a descendant of Alexander the Great, referring to Srdjan Kerim, the former Macedonian foreign minister who recently assumed the Presidency of the UN General Assembly.
The Latin American Angle
A competition has thus been steadily developing for winning Latin America’s hearts and minds regarding the issue of the recognition of Macedonia. Faced with a concerted Greek effort to block Macedonia internationally, bilateral recognition has become the ticket for Macedonia’s survival. This is understandable: at a time when war was raging in the Balkans in the 1990s, Greece’s campaign against Macedonia included a three-year illegal embargo and an economic blockage of Macedonia, which was also directed against international institutions dealing with the country. As a result, factories in Macedonia were shut down; crops rotted in the fields; emigration of Macedonians in search of slightly better living standards accelerated. What is most troubling is that the bulk of the émigrés included the young and the educated along with complete households and families. Some of these destinations included, Canada, Australia, and some Latin American countries such as Argentina or the Dominican Republic. At the time, a former Macedonian minister, Jane Miljoski, summed up Greece’s actions against Macedonia: “murder without bullets.”
Yet, the murdering of Macedonia’s identity continues in every respect and has finally reached a new level of paranoia: recently, Greece labeled any use of Alexander the Great’s name by Macedonia as hostile propaganda. It has attempted to officially prohibit the singing of a song at sporting events that mentions Alexander the Great. Putting the bizarre proposition of censoring another country’s musical preferences aside, many Greeks seem unaware of, or oblivious to, the historical fact that it was the Macedonian forces of Alexander the Great, led by his father King Philip II of Macedon, that beat the entire Greek army at Chaeronea in 338 B.C. and conquered the modern Greeks’ ancestors. The battle of Chaeronea had established Macedonian hegemony over Greece in ancient times; Greeks did not regain their independence until 1827, that is, until 181 years ago.
Some Recent Balkan and Latin American History
Despite Greece’s obstruction of Macedonia’s diplomatic recognition, some countries like Peru, Paraguay, and Suriname have had the courage to recognize Macedonia under its constitutional name. Others, like Brazil or Argentina, have been more circumspect, but have nonetheless extended recognition and established diplomatic ties with the “Macedonian government.” Still others, such as Chile, have completely ignored the argument, perhaps driven by more profitable considerations. Chile has so completely fallen under Greek sway that it does not even want to even hear about recognizing Macedonia under its centuries-old name. All seems “fair” in this pathetic game of pandering for influence, and Chile’s example may be influenced by the existence of such flourishing institutions as the “Fotios Malleros” Centre of Byzantine and Modern Greek Studies at the University of Santiago, the only one of its kind in Latin America. Perhaps Macedonia too will have to build a Center for Ancient and Contemporary Macedonian History near La Moneda in downtown Santiago. Meanwhile, most of the world’s leading regional historians such as Dr. Eugene Borza of Pennsylvania State University or Dr. Ernst Badian of Harvard, agree that the ancient Macedonians of Alexander the Great — the ancestor’s of today’s Macedonians — were a distinct, non-Greek people, conscious and proud of their Macedonian ethnicity, customs, and their name.
