Macedonian* self-identification
akritas
Greece. It became the most powerful Greek state during the 4th century
bc after the decline of ancient Athens and ancient Sparta. Under the
leadership of King Philippos II and his son Alexandros III (known as
Alexander the Great) the Macedonian army conquered most of the world
and created the world's largest empire ever, including South-East
Europe, most of Asia and North Africa. After the death of Alexander,
Macedonia followed the fate of the rest of Greece. It became a Roman
province, later a Byzantine province, it was occupied by the Ottoman
empire and finally it became part of the indepented Greek state in
1912. Today the Slavmacedonia nation of the FYROM attempts to adopt
the history and culture of Macedonia as their own and present
themselves to the world as "ethnic Macedonians" and "descedants of
ancient Macedonians".
This is a blatant attack against Greece and her Macedonian self-
identification and its world wide respected history.
Slavmacedonians of the FYROM who claim to be "Macedonians" have no
historical, cultural or linguistic relation with ancient Macedonia.
They descended into the region not before the 6th cent. A.D. long
after ancient Macedonia was homogenized with the rest of Greece. Their
'Republic of Macedonia' occupies less than 10% of ancient Macedonia.
Therefore their claim on ancient Macedonia's name, history, culture
and symbols can not be justified.
The real question is how you segregate a Greek Macedonian identity
with a Slavmacedonian one?
Self-identification should be neither arbitrary nor at the expense of
the right of self-identification of other groups. The existence of
objective criteria as well as the historical and other special
ircumstances of each ase are also taken into consideration when
determining the existence of such groups. Antony D. Smith [NationaL
Identity, Oxford,1991] remarks that there are two main kinds of ethnic
extinction in the full sense: genocide and ethnocide, which is
sometimes - at times misleadingly — called «cultural genocide». In one
sense genocide is a rare and probably modern phenomenon. It includes
those cases where we know that mass death of a cultural group was
premeditated and the basis of that targeting was exclusively the
existence and membership of that cultural group.
Greece does not recognise that a distinct ethnic or linguistic
minority exists in Greece by the name ‘’Macedonian’’, since the name
Macedonian(Makedonas) is used in the cultural and regional sense by
Greek Macedonians living in the region. Thus, the use of the term
‘’Macedonian’’ to denote such an identity in Greece, not only fails to
respect the Hellenic cultural heritage and the identity of the 2,5
million Greek Macedonians living there, but also threatens to create a
serious confusion or even a potential clash over identities in the
whole region.
Of course, Greek State fully respects the individual rights of those
claiming to belong to a "’Macedonian ethnic minority", including their
freedom of association. The non-registration by the Courts of one
association using the name "Macedonia’" is now pending before the
Greek justice. However, the use of the name ‘’Macedonian’’, without a
qualifier which would denote that its founders are Slav oriented,
creates confusion with hundreds of other associations formed by Greek
Macedonians and using the same term, that is “Macedonian”. These
references should not be interpreted as implying a determination that
such a minority or language exists in Greece but as claims emanating
from the individuals concerned.
Let me add that the political party (‘’Rainbow/Vinozhito’’), which
claims to represent the so-called "Macedonian minority", obtained in
the Europarlimentary elections of 2009 took in Macedonia only 2.500
votes . These citizens are free to manifest their traditions and
culture. Festivities and cultural events are regularly held in the
region of Florina. One from the head also is public employee.
326 world scholars in an letter [http://macedonia-evidence.org/obama-
letter.html] asked from US President Obama "to help the FYROM
government in Skopje to understand that it cannot build a national
identity at the expense of historic truth. Our common international
society cannot survive when history is ignored, much less when history
is fabricated."
Let's following theirs advice. Slav Macedonians need to realize that
their newly conceived ethnogenetic dogma, extending to classical
antiquity, encroaches upon the Greek cultural heritage and the
identity of their Greek neighbours to the south. As such, it threatens
to ignite a clash of identities in the region as a whole.
===========================
*A Macedonian according to several sources[http://www.merriam-
webster.com/dictionary/Macedonian][http://www.thefreedictionary.com/
macedonian] is a native or inhabitant of the (Ancient or Modern)
Macedonian region.
http://modern-macedonian-history.blogspot.com/2009/06/macedonian-self-identification.html
