Macedonian Herald Voice of the United Macedonians

Transcription

UNITED
MACEDONIANS
JANUARI
JANUARY
Januari 2009
Established 1959
Proudly Canadian
Makedonski Glasnik
Glasilo na Organizacijata
Obedineti Makedonci vo Kanada
Macedonian Herald
Voice of the United Macedonians
Organization of Canada
2009
GODINA 50, BROJ 1
VOLUME 50, NUMBER 1
ISSN 1488-6006
Makedonski Glasnik - Glasilo na Organizacijata Obedineti Makedonci vo Kanada
1
137 years since the birth of the legendary Macedonian hero
uted to the influence of Delchev.
They comprise of Delchev’s
public education career as a
scholar in Novo Selo (near Shtip)
and Bansko (1894-1896), and of
his involvement with revolutionary ideals, making preparations
and seeking support for the
armed uprising from the
Macedonian people.
After taking the oath of
membership of the Macedonian
Revolutionary Organization, a
meeting of significant and historical importance took place in
Stip, in November 1894, between
Delchev and Dame Gruev, the
founder of MRO. Gruev had already realized the major impact
tion of the country.
Delchev was able to recognize the influence of other Balkan
monarchies, and in particular Bulgaria (which continues in part today) and their aspirations for the
Macedonian state. The most aggressive of this Bulgarian propaganda, was a destructive fraction
called “Vrhovism”, became the
target of Delcev’s most fervent
opposition. Delchev continued to
attend district meetings all over
Macedonia and put into place a
revision of the revolutionary districts in Macedonia in 1895, by
strengthening the weaker districts, by providing contacts for a
reliable network, and by the appointing of strong district leadership of the MRO. Delcev continued his belief that any revolution
could only be fought by
Macedonian forces to protect
Macedonia from falling under any
that Delcev had had upon the
expansion of the MRO, and its
organized network throughout
Macedonia. Delchev believed
that the liberation of Macedonia
was an exclusively domestic affair, based on an internally organized uprising. Delchev’s first
venture into the interior of the
Macedonian land was in April
1895. He oversaw the establishment of local branches of the
MRO. These branches were responsible for the spirit of freedom widely among the popula-
foreign control of neighbouring
Balkan states, in particular Bulgaria.
At the First Congress of
MRO, in April of 1896, a revised
restructure of the districts was introduced, and MRO was renamed
TMORO (Secret Macedonian
Odrin Revolutionary Organization), a new Constitution and
Charter was adopted (which was
drawn up by Gotsce Delchev and
Gjorche Petrov), and an expatriate
branch of TMORO was established in Sofia. Delchev and
GOTSE DELCHEV
The Macedonian people
yearned for their own national
identity toward the end of the
19th and the early 20th and as a
result of this desire for national
autonomy the Macedonian national liberation movement
emerged. This was a direct result of the political, national,
economic and cultural oppression of the Macedonian people.
The Turkish occupation had
lasted for over 500 years leading to social, economic, administrative and legislative crisis in
Macedonia, and by the interference of other foreign states in
Macedonian affairs.
The Macedonian Revolutionary Organization (MRO)
was formed and quickly became
the established leader of the
Macedonian national liberation
and social revolution movement, struggling for national
independence and social justice. Gotse Delchev, was an extraordinary visionary and ideological leader who organized
and mobilized the MRO.
Delchev had a brief but brilliant
career and was completely dedicated to the cause of
Macedonian nationhood.
Gotse Delchev, was
born to Macedonian parents,
Nikola and Sultana Delchevi on
February 4th, 1872, in Kukush,
a town 35 km north of Salonika.
He completed his primary education in Kukush, expanded his
education by completing his
secondary education in
Salonika, with emphasis on science, literature and social studies. Delchev furthered in education in the sciences at the
Salonika Military Academy. He
read widely on Macedonian
national affairs whilst attending
the Academy. He took an active
role in politics, and joined political clubs in Salonika and
Sofia, and had close contacts
with others, especially with the
socialist and the “Lozari”
clubs in Sofia. Membership of
these political organisations
contributed to the formation of
his revolutionary ideals.
Gotse Delchev’s membership in the MRO was the
most significant change in the
course of in the history of the
Macedonian national liberation
movement. While Delcev’s involvement with the MRO was
short, the years between 1894
and 1903 represent the efficient
revolutionary sequence of the
MRO, and was directly attrib-
United Macedonians Organization of Canada is the publisher
of “Macedonian Herald” as a
voice of the Macedonians in
North America.
Editor-in-Chief:
Dragi Stojkovski
Established 1959
Proudly Canadian
2
Editor:
Borche Kulevski
Organizacijata Obedineti
Makedonci vo Kanada e
izdava~ot na “Makedonski
Glasnik” kako glasilo na
Makedoncite od Severna
Amerika.
Glaven i odgovoren urednik:
Dragi Stojkovski
Urednik:
Bor~e Kulevski
Petrov became the first representatives of the expatriate
branch, and assumed total responsibility in respect of material supplies, including
weapons, ammunition, revolutionary literature, and other
publications. Delchev’s correspondence with the TMORO
members covers extensive
data on supplies, transport
and storage of weapons and
ammunition in Macedonia.
Delchev beleived in the independent production of weapons, which resulted in the
construction of a bomb manufacturing plant in the
Osogovo Mountains.
The inclusion of the
rural areas into the TMORO
resulted in the expansion of
the organization and the obvious increase in its membership, while setting the foundation for the military power
of the organization. Goce
Delchev was appointed as its
military advisor. The clandestine character of the TMORO
ended as a result of the Vinica
Affair in November 1897,
when domestic and world
opinion was exposed to the
TMORO’s existence and extent. The unity of the TMORO
was subject to the adverse infiltration of the Vrhovism fraction into the TMORO, followed by frequent subversions. These subversions led
to the reorganized structure of
some districts, and this was
implemented by Delchev during 1900-1902.
When was the uprising in Macedonia to take
place? Delchev and his followers believed that a premature uprising could fail and he
regarding this as the ultimate
crime a leader can inflict upon
a nation and its history. On his
way to the Congress in Ser
(now in Greece), held at
Lovchan Grove of Ali Botush,
Delchev stopped at the village
of Banica on the 4th of May
1903. Gotse Delchev found
himself betrayed and surrounded, and he was shot
dead. His tragic death cancelled many of his visions that
he had planned for that period
of the Macedonian history.
The death of Delchev made
headline news in Turkey and
Bulgaria. Delchev was only 31
when he died and was the
most dynamic personality of
the Macedonian revolutionary and national liberation
movement.
Delchev will be remembered for his famous quote: “I
understand the world solely
as a field for cultural compe-
tition among nations”.
Even though Delchev
strongly resisted the premature
uprising, its date of the uprising
was determined at the Smilevo
Congress. The uprising was to
start on August 2, 1903, the orthodox Christian holiday of St.
Elijah (Ilinden). This uprising
would hence be known as the
Iliden Uprising (Ilindensko
Vostanie) and involved the entire
Macedonian people, and the
most intense actions took place
in the liberation of Neveska,
Klisura and Krushevo, where the
Krushevo Republic was proclaimed by its president Nikola
Karev.
The Ilinden traditions reemerged during the National Liberation War (NOV) in Macedonia.
Their climax occurred at the Second Ilinden, when the First Assembly of ASNOM took place on
August 2, 1944.
The remains of Gotse
Delchev were returned to
Macedonia on 10 October 1946
after an agreement was reached
between the government of
Macedonia and the Association
of the Macedonian Fraternities in
Bulgaria. The following day, they
were solemnly embedded into a
marble tomb in grounds of the
Holy Saviour Church (Sv. Spas)
in Skopje.
Gotse Delchev’s effort
epitomises the character of the
proud Macedonian nation. The
Macedonian people consider
Delcev a national hero, in admiration of his history-making personality, tenacity, and his
unserving belief in Macedonian
national autonomy. Delchev’s aspirations for an autonomous state
became reality in 1991 when
Macedonia broke away from the
Yugoslav Federation. It is interesting to note that the 1991
Macedonian breakaway from the
Yugoslav Federation was
achieved without armed uprising
or bloodshed. Other former
Yugoslav Federation members
have not fared so well, and have
all endured some degree of armed
conflict to achieve their independence.
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Macedonian Herald - Voice of the United Macedonians Organization of Canada
January 2009
On September 3, 2008, the President of the United Macedonians
Organization of Canada had a Press Conference in Skopje,
Republic of Macedonia, presenting the Organization’s views
regarding the name issue as well as other topics of concern. The
following media reported from the Conference: A1 TV and Sonce
TV as well as the print media Makedonsko Sonce, Dnevnik,
Utrinski Vesnik, Vecer, Vreme Spic, Nova Makedonija and Focus
News Agency. Here we present some of the articles:
Ve~er, 04.09.2008
“OBEDINETI MAKEDONCI” VO KANADA
Na 3ti septemvri 2009 godina, pretsedatelot na
Organizacijata Obedineti Makedonci vo Kanada oddrà
pres konferencija vo Skopje, kade gi pretstavi
pogledite na organizacijata vo odnos problemot so
imeto kako i drugi va`ni temi. Sledinte glasila
objavija za konferencijata: A1 TV i Sonce TV, kako i
pe~atenite glasila Makedonsko Sonce, Dnevnik,
Utrinski Vesnik, Ve~er, Vreme, [pic, Nova Makedonija
i novinska agencija Fokus. Tuka prenesuvame nekoi od
napisite:
Da prekinat pregovorite za imeto so Grcija
Organizacijata
“Obedineti Makedonci” vo
Kanada upati apel do sekoj
Makedonec da pokaè
pogolema
po~it
kon
nacionalnoto ime Makedonci, a gi povika
pretsedatelot Branko
Crvenkovski i premierot
Nikola Gruevski da gi
prekinat site razgovori za
upotrebata na ustavnoto
ime
na
Republika
Makedonija so Grcija.
- Nie nikoga{ ne
sme imale problem so
na{eto nacionalno ime,
toa e nametnat spor od
strana na Grcija - naglasi
pretsedatelot na organizacijata Dragi Stojkovski
na v~era{nata pres-
konferencija.
Toj poso~i deka prof.
d-r Igor Janev e eden od
pove}eto eksperti {to imaat
razraboteno
celosna
strategija za re{avawe na
pra{aweto so imeto, i toa
vo ramkite na ON.
Makedonija
postoela i bez NATO i bez
EU mnogu godini i moè da
postoi u{te mnogu godini
dodeka kone~no ne se re{i
ovoj problem – oceni
Stojkovski, potsetuvaj}i
deka
Makedonija
ima
prijateli i lobisti, kako
{to se SAD.
Spored nego, ne treba
da se organizira referendum vo odnos na
pra{aweto za imeto, zatoa
{to najgolemiot del gra|ani
nemaat problem so na{eto
ime, no i zatoa {to so
referendum, moè lesno da
se manipulira za, pod
pritisok, da se dobie
posakuvaniot rezultat.
Stojkovski, vo imeto na
makedonskite iselenici vo
Kanada, upati apel i do
dràvniot vrv da pokaè
edinstvo za site nacionalni
pra{awa vo dràvata.
Stojkovski vo imeto
na makedonskite iselenici
pobara i ostvaruvawe na
pravoto na glas. Toj izrazi
nade` deka ovoj sobraniski
sostav }e ovozmoì nivno
ramnopravno vklu~uvawe vo
izbornite procesi, i toa ne
samo so glasawe, tuku i so
predlagawe nivni kandidati.
Ne
sme
zadovolni
so
predloèniot
broj,
odnosno eden partenik da
ja pretstavuva Evropa,
eden za Severna Amerika
i eden za Avstralija. Toa
se ogromni prostranstva
i dràvata mora da go
znae brojot na glasa~ite
i da se dade mo`nost za
soodveten broj pratenici
– re~e Stojkovski.
Spored
nego
potrebna e dràvna
strategija za da se
ohrabrat iselenicite
pomasovno da zemaat
makedonsko
dràvjanstvo. Toj poso~i deka
potrebno e poednostavuvawe na procedurata i
namaluvawe na cenata za
dobivawe makedonski
paso{i, koja vo momentot
iznesuva 250 amerikanski dolari za edno
lice.
Pretsedatelot
Stojkovski informira
deka od osamostojuvaweto na Makedonija,
organizacijata
i
makedonskata zaednica vo
Kanada lobiraat i
dejstvuvaat vo interes na
zemjata,
a
svoite
iskustva gi razmenuvaat i
so makedonskite iselenici vo Avstralija.
Dnevnik, ~etvrtok, 04 septemvri 2008
I PATRIOTIZMOT IMA CENA
Iselenicite
baraat
poevtini
paso{i
Za nas e mnogu da
pla}ame po 250 kanadski
dolari za eden paso{ so
koj moème da patuvame
organizacijata “Obedineti
Makedonci” od Kanada. Toj ja
povika makedonskata vlast
da ja namali cenata, zaedno
so
olesnuvawe
na
procedurata za dobivawe
paso{. Toa se golemi pari i
za na{ite sonarodnici {to
ìveat vo stranstvo. Na
primer, edno ~etiri~leno
semejstvo treba da dade 1.000
dolari
za
da
dobie
makedonski paso{i. Toa e
Republika Makedonija ja
pla}aat za paso{i iznesuva
1.500 denari, odnosno 40
dolari. Osven ova, te{kotii
za dobivawe make-donski
paso{ predizvikuvala i
administrativnata procedura.
- Samo na porane{niot
pretsedatel na na{ata
organizacija mu bea potrebni
dve godini da izvadi paso{.
Go pra}aa od ambasadata do
iznesuva okolu 40.000. Vo
MVR v~era izjavija deka
baraweto za poevtini
paso{i i za poednostavni administrativni
proceduri }e bide
razgledano.
Organizacijata
“Obedineti Makedonci”
pobara pravo na glas za
iselenicite, pri {to,
namesto eden prfatenik,
tie da imaat pravo na
pove}e mandati.
Da se
prekinat
pregovorite
so Grcija
okolu ustavnoto ime so
Grcija. Toj ne prifa}a
nitu referendum okolu
re{enieto do koe bi se
do{lo vo pregovorite.
- Grcija e zemja {to
ima problem so imeto, a
ne nie. Treba da se
prifati predlogot na
profesor Igor Janev da
zaprat pregovorite i da go
ostvarime priemot vo
OON preku Me|unarodniot sud vo Hag. Desetici
zemji uspeale na toj na~in
da stanat ~lenki. Nie
mo‘eme da opstoime kako
dr‘ava ~ekaj}i na ta
presuda,
a
na{eto
rakovodstvo ne smee da n#
stava vo situacija “ili }e
popu{time ili nema da
opstaneme” – veli toj.
(B.\.)
Foto: Maja Zlatevska
Stojkovski
pobara
Makedonija
vedna{ da gi prekine
pregovorite vo sporot
Utrinski Vesnik, 04 septemvri 2008
samo vo mati~nata zemja,
veli Dragi Stojkovski,
pretsedatel
na
Makedonci” od Kanada
êtiri~leno
semejstvo treba da dade
iljada dolari za paso{i:
Dragi Stojkovski
Taksata od 250
dolari za dobivawe
makedonski paso{ e
preskapa za na{ite
sonarodnici
vo
dijasporata, poradi {to
tie vo mnogu slu~ai ne
sakaat da go dobijat, izjavi
v~era Dragi Stojkovski,
pretsedatel
na
Januari 2009
premnogu vo situacija koga za
dobivawe kanadski paso{
treba da platat samo 70.00
dolari. Nie imame paso{i na
dràvite vo koi ìveeme i
so niv patuvame nasekade vo
svetot. Glavnata pri~ina
zo{to sakame da imame i
makedonski
paso{
e
patriotska, bidej}i toj paso{
moème da go koristime samo
koga odime vo Makedonija.
Zatoa, cenata treba da se
namali – re~e Stojkovski. Toj
dodade deka vakvite poplaki
doa|ale i od makedonskite
iselenici
vo
SAD,
Avstralija i vo drugi zemji.
Taksata {to gra|anite na
konzulatot, vr{ea mnogu
pproverki. Tamu kako da ne
funkcionira edno{alterskiot sistem – se poàli
Dragi Stojkovski.
Spored
nego,
dobivaweto makedonski
paso{ mnogu }e pomogne vo
zajaknuvawe
na
makedonskiot identitet kaj
novite generacii na{i
sonarodnici.
Vo
Makedonci” procenuvaat
deka
vo Kanada momentalno ima
okolu 150.000 Makedonci,
dodeka oficijalniot popis
pokaàl deka taa brojka
Makedoncite od
Kanada
baraat prekin na
pregovorite
za imeto
Organizacijata
vo Kanada upati apel do
sekoj Makedonec da
pokaè pogolema po~it
kon nacionalnoto ime
Makedonci,
a
gi
povikuva pretsedatelot
Branko Crvenkovski i
premierot
Nikola
Gruevski da gi prekinat
site razgovori za
upotrebata
na
ustavnoto ime na
Makedonija so Grcija.
“Nikoga{ ne sme imale
problem so na{eto
nacionalno ime, toa e
nametnat spor od strana
na Grcija”, naglasi
pretsedatelot
na
organizacijata, Dragi
Stojkovski,
na
v~era{nata
preskonferencija. (P.R.)
3
Nova Makedonija, 04.09.2008
Vreme, 04.09.2008
OBEDINETI MAKEDONCI
Da se prekinat pregovorite za
imeto so Grcija
Makedonskata
vlada da gi prekine
pregovorite so Grcija i
itno da go informira
Sovetot za bezbednost na
Obedinetite nacii deka go
prodolùva ~lenstvoto
pod imeto Republika
Makedonija, pobara v~era
Organizacijata “Obedineti
Makedonci” od Kanada.
Dragi
Stojkovski,
pretsedatel
na
organizacijata, pobara od
makedonskoto rakovodstvo
da kaè zo{to gi ignorira
sugestiite na ekspertot po
me|unarodno pravo Igor
Janev,
koj
predlaga
Me|unarodniot sud vo Hag
da re{ava za imeto pod koe
Makedonija ~lenuva vo ON.
- @alno e koga
dràvnoto rakovodstvo
postavuva la`ni dilemi i
veli
deka
ili
}e
popu{time vo sporot za
imeto i }e opstoime ili ne
popu{tame i nema da
postoime. Rakovodstvoto e
izbrano ne da dava crni
scenarija, tuku da najde
re{enie
–
izjavi
Stojkovski. OMK pobara da
se olesni procedurata za
vadewe
paso{
za
Makedoncite
od
dijasporata. Cenata od 250
kanadski dolari za niv e
previsoka, a za paso{ se
~ekalo duri i dve godini.
Kanadskite Makedonci
baraat
vo
idniot
parlament da se zgolemi
brojot na pratenici {to
doa|aat od dijasporata.
G.M.
Organization of Macedonians in Canada suggests
talks for the name with Greece are suspended
3 September 2008 | 15:20 | FOCUS
News Agency (Sofia)
Skopje. An organization called
United Macedonians with a
headquarters in Canada
appealed during a press
conference in Skopje today that
the Macedonian government
suspends the talks on the name
with Greece, the correspondent
of FOCUS News Agency in
Skopje announced.
The
organization
opposes a referendum for the
name because they believe the
results could easily be
manipulated.
Da prekinat
pregovorite za
imeto
Organizacijata
vo Kanada upati apel do
sekoj Makedonec da
pokaè pogolema po~it
kon nacionalnoto ime
Makedonci, a gi povika
pretsedatelot Branko
Crvenkovski i premierot
Nikola Gruevski da gi
prekinat site razgovori
za
upotrebata
na
ustavnoto
ime
na
Republika Makedonija so
Grcija.
- Nikoga{ ne sme
imale problem so na{eto
nacionalno ime, toa e
nametnat spor od strana
na Grcija - naglasi
pretsedatelot
na
organizacijata Dragi
Stojkovski na v~era{nata
pres-konferencija.
Toj poso~i deka
prof. d-r Igor Janev e
eden
od
pove}eto
eksperti {to imaat
razraboteno
celosna
strategija za re{avawe na
pra{aweto so imeto, i toa
vo ramkite na ON. Spored
Stojkovski, ‘alosno e koga
dr‘avnoto, kako {to re~e, gi
stava problemite za imeto
vo odnos “ili-ili” - ili }e
popu{time i }e opstoime,
ili nema da opstoime.
Makedonija
postoela i bez NATO i bez
EU mnogu godini i mo‘e da
postoi u{te mnogu godini
dodeka kone~no ne se re{i
ovoj problem – oceni toj,
potsetuvaj}i
deka
Makedonija ima prijateli i
lobisti, kako {to se SAD.
Spored nego, ne
treba da se organizira
referendum vo odnos na
pra{aeto za imeto, zatoa
{to najgolemiot del
gra|ani nemaat problem so
na{eto ime.
ALEXANDER OF MACEDON AND MACEDONIA IN SCOTLAND
As proof of the Scots
love for and connection to
Macedonia, here we present the
beautiful monument depicting
the scene of Alexander of
Macedon (the Great) taming the
wild Bucephalus. Another Scottish connection to Macedonia is
the Memorial plaque in honour
of the soldiers fallen on battlefields. The plague reads: “To the
glory of God and the memory of
the officers, non-commissioned
officers and the men of the Scottish horse who gave their lives
in the two great wars”. Under the
years of the First World War,
1914-1918, Macedonia is men-
tioned along Gallipoli, Egypt
and France. A similar plague
and for the same purpose,
adorns the Canadian Parliament building in Ottawa.
When
we
are
mentioning Macedonia in
connection to Scotland, it is
only fitting that we also
mention the plague that the
British
placed
on
a
Macedonian cliff after the First
World War and a replica was
recently placed in the Republic
of Macedonia which reads:
“To the memory of the heroic
dead of the 22nd division who
fell in Macedonia 1915-1918.
Lets hope the Greeks (read their
government) do not find out
about the Scottish, British and
Canadian
mention
of
Macedonia, because who
knows, they might find
themselves in front of the
4
International Court of Justice for
stilling “Greek” history. And as
far as the Scottish monument of
Alexander is concerned…
well… is that not too much for
Bakoyannis?
January 2009
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Januari 2009
5
TERRITORIAL EXPANSSION OF GREECE . . .
By presenting this map
of Greece, our aim is to simply
counter Greece’s claim that the
Republic of Macedonia has
“territorial pretensions against
the Greek province of
Macedonia”.
The map, which was
6
taken from Stavrianos’ book
“The Balkans since 1453”,
clearly shows the opposite that Greece as a country, since
its inception in 1832, has had
territorial pretensions on its
neighbours. Namely, as the
map depicts, indicating with a
black colour, the Greek state was
formed on the historic territory of
the Hellenic city-states. Since then,
the Greek state has been in
expansion: in 1864 the British gave
them the Ionian Islands in order to
strengthen the state for the
forthcoming attacks on the
neighbours; in 1881 Greece
attacked Turkey and occupied
Thessaly and part of Epirus; in
1913, Greece, along with Bulgaria
and Serbia, attacked Turkey and
occupied the biggest part of
Macedonia as well as Crete and
the north-eastern Aegean Islands.
Of course, the territorial
aspirations of the ever-hungry
Greek state for territory did not
stop here. Fortunately, the
subsequent
territorial
excursions into Turkey ended
in total fiasco, so that the
“darling of the west” was
January 2009
. . . AND BULGARIA
forced to retreat. Unfortunately
for the Macedonians, the retreat
did not go far enough.
From the moment that
Greece occupied and partitioned
Macedonia with Serbia and
Bulgaria, the Greek king gave
orders for the “newly occupied
territories”. This was not a naïve
statement by the king – he knew
Januari 2009
perfectly well that Macedonian
was never Greek prior to that
time (1912), therefore the use of
the statement “newly occupied
territories”.
Just to be fair to the European politicians and policymakers, we will attempt to educate them about the territorial expansion of the new EU country,
Bulgaria, by also present the
map from the same book.
Stavrianos here presents with
black colour the formation of the
Principality of Bulgaria in 1878,
following the Treaty of Berlin. In
1885 Bulgaria occupied Eastern
Rumelia from Turkey and in
1912-13, along with the other expansionist EU country, Greece
(with the future EU country,
Serbia), occupied and partitioned Macedonia.
The European policymakers need to also be reminded
that both expansionist countries, Greece and Bulgaria, even
after the occupation of foreign
lands, pretend to be ethnically
homogenous countries! Whom
are they trying to lie? For obvious reasons it is very easy to
manipulate the European policy-
makers (or maybe they know
they are being manipulated,
however, it is in their interest to
play along).
However, it is hard to manipulate the Macedonians,
Turks, Albanians, Vlahs and others whose lands they have occupied.
7
OD PROSLAVATA NA ILINDENSKIOT PIKNIK
AVGUST 3, 2008 GODINA
Na 2 avgust bea poloèni venci vo ~est na padnatite borci za
slobodata na Makedonija i Kanada
Pretsedatelot na “Obedineti Makedonci” Dragi
Stojkovski so Generalniot konzul, Ambasadorot Martin
Trenevski i Konzulot Branko Trajkovski; podole so
pogolema grupa gosti na piknikot.
8
January 2009
Najmladite Makedon~iwa se razonoduvaa skokaj}i na skoka~kata
tvrdina, igraj}i na lizgalkite, lula{kite i drugite igra~ki.
Iljadnici Makedonci budno go sledeja izborot
za Ubavica na “Obedineti Makedonci za 2009 godina”
- pobedni~ka be{e Meri Lazarevska dodeka
Aleksandra Pazarkoska i Biljana Markovska go
podelija vtoroto mesto.
Januari 2009
9
10
January 2009
Januari 2009
11
Book Review:
THE UNTAMED BALKANS
The book “The Untamed
Balkans” was written by Franz
Carl Weiskopf (born 3. April
1900 in Prague; died 14.
the great underground army in
the Nazi-occupied countriesGermany included-to the victors
of tomorrow.”
The book has 248
headings: Albania: The Sons of
the Eagle; Macedonia: Forlorn
Land; Hellas: Home of Beauty
and Poverty; Bulgaria: Black
Sea, Blue Sea, and Red River;
with a map of the country with
graphic depiction for the areas
where minorities live.
The chapter that
covers Macedonia (Chapter 5,
language:
The inhabitants are a
mixture of peoples, the majority
of them Slavic. Macedonian
idioms belong neither to the
September 1955 in Berlin) under
the pseudonyme Frederic W.L.
Kovacs in 1941 by Modern Age
Books Inc, New York (the book
was also published in 1942 by
Robert Hale and now the book
can be viewed on the Internet
at http://www.archive.org/
d e t a i l s /
untamedbalkans009125mbp.)
The book was written and
published at the height of the
Nazi occupation of Europe and
the start of the underground
movement for liberation. For
that reason the author dedicated
the book “(T)o the soldiers of
pages and is divided into three
parts. The first part, The
Debacle , in two chapters
explains the Nazi Blitz strategy of
conquest and the reaction of the
Balkan governments and their
peoples to the German
occupation.
Part two, The Balkan
Pattern, is divided into seven
chapters. The third chapter of the
book (or first in this section)
gives a historic overview of the
Balkan Peninsula while the
following chapters cover the
Balkan countries under the
Rumania:
Boyars
and
Baksheesh; and “Unity or
Death”: The Story of
Yugoslavia. It is interesting here
that all the chapters cover an
existing country at the time,
1941, but the author also gives
us special chapter on
Macedonia, even though at the
time, Macedonia was not a
separate state entity. We know
that this happened in 1944, with
the proclamation of the People’s
Republic of Macedonia as part
of the Yugoslav Federation.
Each of these chapters begins
Macedonia: Forlorn Land) also
has a map of the area, indicating
the state borders as they existed
between Albania, Yugoslavia,
Bulgaria and Greece, however
also indicating the ethnic
Macedonian borders with
separate shading and covering
the parts of Macedonia that
were within the above
mentioned states. Similarly, a
bigger map on the inside front
cover, showing South East
Europe with emphasis on the
Balkan countries, depicts
Macedonia within its ethnic
borders.
The
c h a p t e r
covers pages
54-66
and
gives
an
overview of
r e c e n t
Macedonian
h i s t o r y
t h r o u g h
headings
such as The
BulgaroSerbian Feud,
I M R O ,
Ilinden , and
Reaction and
Feudism.
It is
interesting
here
to
present what
the author
says about
t
h
e
Macedonians
and
the
Macedonian
Serbian nor to the Bulgarian
tongues. They constitute a sort
of link between these two
branches of the South Slavic
family of languages. The Serbs,
however, call the Macedonian
language “Southern Serbia”;
the Greeks contend that the
Macedonians
are
only
“Slavophones,” meaning
Slavic-speaking Greeks; and
the Bulgarians claim the
Macedonians as pure Bulgars.
The Macedonians themselves
are not asked their opinion.
And this is the story of
Macedonia in a nutshell: a
country and a people
continually
under
the
domination of other peoples
and states, a bone of contention
between rival neighbours, a
battlefield for foreign wars, an
oft-cheated rebel whose
struggle for freedom and
independence has been
constantly misused for the sake
of others. (p. 56)
One needs to be
reminded that the book was
printed three years before Tito
apparently “made up” the
Macedonians as a separate
people and four years before
Blaze Koneski “made up” the
Macedonian language, both
“historical claims” according to
the Bulgarian and Greek
propagandists. It is also
interesting that neither Tito nor
Koneski
are
mentioned
anywhere in the book.
The author makes an
in-depth analysis of the stages
of the Internal Macedonian
12
January 2009
Revolutionary Organization
(IMRO), from the formation of
the organization through the
Ilinden uprising and the Balkan
Wars, as well as its final stage
when “the IMRO movement
had already come under the
influence and onto the payroll
of Bulgarian nationalist circles,
(when) the greater part of the
leadership (was) fighting not
for a free Macedonia but for a
Bulgarian Macedonia.”
This is how the
author presents the formation
of IMRO:
In the autumn of
1893, a student and a teacher
founded in Reesen, a little
town of Western Macedonia, a
secret society on the pattern of
the Carbonaris of Italy. They
called it the “Internal
Macedonian Revolutionary
Organization,” and its aim
was to fight for the liberation
and complete independence of
Macedonia. Its symbol was a
black cloth, signifying
serfdom under the Turks, and
embroidered across it, the
inscription, in white: “Liberty
or Death.” Members had to
swear an oath on Bible, dirk,
and pistol, as follows:
“I swear on my faith,
conscience, and honor that I
will work for the liberty of
Macedonia and the Vilayet of
Adrianople with all my
strength and means, and that
I will never betray the secrets
of the revolutionary work of
IMRO. Should I do so, may I
be killed by this dagger, which
I kiss. Amen.”
Further on this
is what the author
writes about IMRO’s
involvement during the
Balkan
Wars
and
expectations for the
aftermath:
When the Balkan
War broke out in 1912, the
IMRO
chief,
Todor
Alexandroif, issued an appeal
for open uprisings in support
of the Balkan allies. The
Central Committee of IMRO
then knew nothing of the
secret treaty of Greece, Serbia,
and Bulgaria concerning the
division of Macedonia. The
revolutionists expected to
gain Macedonian freedom as
a reward for their aid.
The chapter ends
with another eye-opener for
the Balkan propagandists:
In World War II,
Macedonia has again
become a battlefield. A few
bands of reactionary Imroists
joined the Nazi armies as they
poured into Yugoslavia, but
the bulk of the population did
not greet the soldiers under
the swastika as liberators.
And it is significant that on
the day of the Yugoslav
surrender, when official
Bulgarian
hopes
of
recovering the whole of
Macedonia were high, the
government papers carried
sharp attacks against “those
Bolshevist elements of Imro
United who want to split
national unity by renewing
their old demagogic slogan
of Macedonia for the
Macedonians.”
Chapter 6 covers
Greece under the heading
Hellas: Home Of Beauty And
Poverty.
Here too the chapter
starts with a map of Greece
and has graphic depiction of
where the Macedonians live.
On page 70 the author gives
an interesting data about
Greece’s population make-up:
Of the 6,900,000
inhabitants, more than
1,500,000 were refugees from
Asia Minor, having come into
the country after 1923.
Almost 90 percent of the
population is Greek; the rest
Januari 2009
are Macedonians, Bulgars, and
Turks, with a few Armenians,
Jews, and Albanians.
Chapter 9 covers “Unity
or Death”: The Story of
Yugoslavia. The chapter starts
with a map of Yugoslavia where
the different ethnic groups
(Slovenes, Magyars, Bulgars,
Turks, Macedonians, Germans,
Albanians and Rumanians) are
represented with a different
graphic design and the
Macedonians are presented as
covering most of the territory of
present Republic of Macedonia.
In terms of the
population of Yugoslavia, on page
130 the author states the
following:
“The Yugoslav population
of 15,000,000 has a manifold
national and religious pattern.
There are about 7,000,000 Serbs,
3,500,000 Croats, 1,175,000
Slovenes, 600,000 Macedonians,
500,000 Germans, and as many
Albanians; the rest are
Bulgarians, Rumanians, Jews,
Gypsies, Tsintsars, Italians, Turks,
and a few other national
splinters.”
Throughout the book the
author uses the terms Macedonia
(territory), Macedonians (as
people or ethnic group) or
Macedonian
(language,
peasants…) separately from
Serbian, Bulgarian or Greek
(Hellen). To stress the point, here
we will present few examples.
On page 6 (Chapter 1:
Twenty-eight days of blitz history)
the author explains the internal
contradictions in Yugoslavia that
the Nazis can use to control the
country:
There are serious threats
from within too. Maintaining
itself through terror and
corruption, the dictatorial regime
for years has aroused and fed the
hatred of the national minorities
– Croats, Moslem Bosnians,
Macedonians, and Slovenes.
In relation of the economic
conditions of the Balkan peasants,
on page 164 the author states: In
Bulgaria, Rumania, Albania,
Greece, Macedonia, and Serbia,
the majority of the peasants do
not know mattresses or even straw
sacks…
In relation to the local
foodstuffs page 165 make a clear
distinction
between
Macedonians
and
Bulgarians: Onions and
garlic are both primary
foods and delicacies. A
Bulgarian
peasant
family will consume an
average of 120 pounds of
onions and 60 pounds of
garlic a year.
On the other
hand,
an
old
Macedonian children’s
song goes: “The angels
smell sweet of onions.”
Further on the
same page: To buy a pair
of shoes the Rumanian
peasant must work fortyfive days; the Bulgarian,
thirty-five; and the
Macedonian seventy.
The author ends
the book with a prophecy
of the “things to come”
with the resolution of the
Second World War. On
page 229 (Chapter 14,
Conquered
But
Untamed: The Shape of
Things to Come ) the
author
gives
his
prophetic views about
the “New Order”:
But it may be
said, in all sobriety and
without illusions, that
Hitler will not be able to
solve
the
Balkan
problem, and that the
Balkans, now submerged
under the Nazi wave, will
emerge again and once
more play an important
role in the hour when the
real “New Order” of
Europe will be set up in
the final stages of the war
and in the first phase
after its end. What is the
foundation for such an
assertion? In order to get at it
we must examine Nazi methods
and plans for the conquest and
reorganization of the Balkans in
their “New Order.”
And further on the
same page, under the heading
“Half
a
Dozen
New
Macedonias” the author
explains how the Nazis used the
minority problems in the
Balkans as “human dynamite”
in order to establish its control
changed masters without
getting national independence.
And it may be remembered that
over the area. Because of its
insight on the topic, especially
about the Bulgarian/Serbian
“solution” to the Macedonian
question, we present the
section in its entirety:
One of the most
effective Nazi weapons in
disrupting the defensive
potentialities of the Balkan
countries was the national
question. The minorities
were correctly called
“human dynamite” in the
hands of Nazi foreign policy.
The Nazis have succeeded in
shattering Yugoslavia and
Rumania largely by means of
using this human dynamite.
But their “New
Order” in the Balkans
creates half a dozen
Macedonias in place of the
one old one. Where formerly
there were a million
Hungarians under the
foreign rule of Rumania,
there is now a new minority
of a million Rumanians
under Hungarian rule in the
northern
half
of
Transylvania, which was
ceded to Hungary under Axis
dictation.
By
giving
Carpathian Russia to
Hungary, the Axis created a
national minority of 600,000
Ukrainians, and by allowing
Hungary to occupy the
former Yugoslav Voivodina it
created a third national
minority of 600,000 to
700,000 Serbs and Croats.
Slovenia, with a population
of about 1,175,000 Slovenes,
was divided between Italy
and Germany. And Italy
gathered under its wing an
additional 250,000 Croats
in Dalmatia, and about
200,000 Greeks in Southern
Epirus and on the islands
under her “protection.”
The Macedonian
question was “solved” in the
way that the Bulgarian
reactionaries wanted it. The
biggest part of Macedonia
became Bulgarian. It simply
there already has been a period
of Bulgarian administration in
Macedonia from 1916 to 1918
with the result that Bulgarian
courts-martial had to work on
a twenty-four-hour-a-day
schedule in order to deal with
the flood of “Serbophile
treason.” When, later on,
Macedonia was turned over to
the Serbs, Serbian tribunals
had the same trouble and
often tried the Serbophiles
of
yesterday
for
“Bulgarophile treason.”
(pages 229-230)
Dragi Stojkovski
DELÊV VOJVODA
Goce Del~ev na{ vojvoda
Goce Del~ev gorski junak
Na{ slaven Makedonec.
Ti da znae{ Goce da
znae{
roden den ti pravime
ime tvoe Ti slavime.
Pesni za tebe peeme
vo pesni te spomnuvame
nie so Tebe se gordeeme.
I ako ne si na ovoj beli
svet
vo na{ite srca Te nosime
kako rosen gorocvet.
Slavno e ime tvoe
na sekade na zemjata
na{ Del~ev makedonski.
Slaven Ti }e ostane{
vo mislite na{i
Tvoeto ime ve~no
se slavit.
Ratka [apas
Toronto
13
Vrz osnova na ~len 68 stav 2 od Ustavot na Republika Makedonija, Sobranieto na Republika Makedonija,
na sednicata odràna na 27 avgust 2008 godina, donese
REZOLUCIJA
za begalcite od voenite dejstvija vo Republika Grcija za vreme na Gra|anskata i Vtorata svetska vojna
Soo~uvaj}i se so
posledicite od tragedijata na nad 80.000
begalci, od koi 28.000
deca, od voenite dejstvija
vo Republika Grcija za
vreme na Gra|anskata i
Vtorata svetska vojna,
zdruènija vo Republika
Makedonija, a obedineti vo
Konferen-cijata
za
Rakovodej}i se od
Konvencijata za statu-sot
na begalcite, spored koja
se raboti za socijalen i
humanitaren problem koj
ne treba da predizvikuva
tenzii me|u dràvite,
kako i nivnata obvrska da
prezemat se {to e vo
nivna mo} ovoj problem da
bide nadminat,
Imaj}i gi predvid
pravnite akti doneseni od
strana na Republika
Grcija, kako {to se
Zakonot broj 1285 od 1982
godina za priznavawe na
nacionalniot otpor na
gr~kiot narod protiv
okupatorskite vojski
(1941-1944), Zakonot broj
1543 od 1985 godina,
godina za reguli-rawe na
imotite na politi~kite
povrat-nici vo Grcija i
godina za eliminirawe na
posledicite
od
Gra|anskata vojna (19441949), kako i brojnite
odluki na sudovite i
lokalnite organi na
Republika Grcija so koi
se vr{i diskriminacija
po etni~ka osnova na ovie
lica,
gra|ani
na
Republika Makedonija,
Imaj}i gi predvid
iznesenite stavovi na
sednicite na Postoja-nata
anketna komisija za
za{tita na slobodite i
pravata na gra|aninot na
Sobranieto na Republi-ka
Makedonija, a vo vrska so
pretstavkite na gra|ani na
Republika Makedonija,
organizi-rani
preku
Zdruènieto na decata
begalci od Egejskiot del
na
Makedonija
i
poddràni od srodnite
14
Solun
koordinacija
na
zdruènijata na Makedoncite od Egejskiot del na
Makedonija,
prava i osnovni slobodi so
koja se zabranuva diskriminacijata,
a po potreba da se primeni
institutot na generalna
supstitucija,
1. Sobranieto
na Republika
Makedonija i
ukaùva
na
Vladata
na
Republika
Makedonija:
da
obezbedi
poddr{ka so cel da se
pomogne vo procesot na
vodewe na edna takva
obemna
i
sloèna
aktivnost i da obezbedi
sloboden prekugrani~en
protok na lu|e posebno za
ovie celi,
- da gi prezeme
site aktivnosti
so cel da im
ovozmoì
na
begalcite
od
voenite dejstvija
vo Republika
Grcija za vreme
na Gra|anskata
vojna i Vtorata
svetska vojna,
gra|ani
na
Republika
Makedonija, da ja
k o m p l e t i r a a t
dokumentacijata
vo
funkcija na institucionalno i pravno zaokruèno
da
dade
poddr{ka
na
me|unarodnata sorabotka
vo
ramkite
na
Konferencijata
na
organizaciite za privaten
nedvièn
imot
od
balkanskite zemji,
- da prezeme
aktivnosti vo ramkite na
bilateralnata sorabotka
preku redovnite kontakti
so nadle`nite organi na
Republika Grcija, na
planot na razgleduvawe na
Informacija
do
Sobranieto na Republika
Makedonija za prezemenite
aktivnosti i merki na
sekoi {est meseca.
2. Ovaa rezolucija
}e
se
dostavi
do
pretsedatelot
na
Republika Makedonija i
Vladata na Republika
Makedonija
i
do
parlamentarnite sobranija
na site me|unarodni
vladini organizacii.
3. Ovaa rezolucija
}e se objavi vo “Slu`ben
vesnik na Republika
Makedonija”.
SOBRANIE
NA
R E P U B L I K A
MAKEDONIJA
Broj 07 - 3627/1 27
avgust 2008 godina
Skopje
Iskaùvaj}i ja svojata
cvrsta opredele-nost da se
ispolni obvrskata koja
proizle-guva od Ustavot i od
me|unarodnite dokumenti
koi se odnesuvaat na
~ovekovite prava i so koi se
garantira pravoto na
sopstvenost, a so cel da se
poddràt ovie gra|ani pred
se na planot na pravnoto
razjasnuvawe na nivnite
otvoreni
pra{awa
i
reguliraweto na nivnite
odnosi od dràvata od koja
poteknuvaat,
Povikuvaj}i se na
~lenot 13 stav 2 od
Univerzalnata deklaracija
za ~ovekovite prava na
Obedinetite nacii spored
koj “Sekoj ima pravo da ja
napu{ti
zemjata,
vklu~uvaj}i ja i negovata
sopstvena zemja, kako i da se
vrati vo svojata zemja”,
~lenot 1 od Me|unarodnata
konvencija za eliminacija na
site formi na rasna
diskriminacija i ~lenot 14
od Evropskata konvencija za
za{tita na ~ovekovite
Lerin
i izdràno istapuvawe vo
procesot na ostvaruvawe na
nivnite imotni prava pred
nadle`nite organi na
Republika
Grcija
i
me|unarodnite organizacii,
imotnite pobaruvawa na
ovie gra|ani na Republika
Makedonija
sprema
Republika Grcija i
- da dostavuva
PRETSEDATEL
NA
SOBRANIETO
NA
R E P U B L I K A
MAKEDONIJA
Trajko Veqanoski
January 2009
Januari 2009
15
THE MACEDONIAN LANGUAGE IN US CENSUSES
In a recent search on the
Internet, on a Bulgarian propaganda site, I found a reference
on the American census of the
1910. Namely, the site mentions
the Instructions to Enumerators
for the 1910 Census (the Instructions can be seen on http://
usa.ipums.org/usa/voliii/
inst1910.shtml) and quotes Article 137 which states:
Do
not
write
“Macedonian,” but write Bulgarian, Turkish, Greek, Servian,
or Roumanian, as the case may
be.
The Bulgarian propagandists use this as proof of nonexistence of the Macedonian
language and, therefore, a separate Macedonian ethnicity.
However, this would not be a
propagandist theory if it did not
stop there, without revealing the
reasons for such a statement
and without continuing the research for the censuses before
and after 1910.
So lets start from the beginning. The Instructions to
Enumerators for the 1900 Census (the Instructions can be
seen on http://usa.ipums.org/
usa/voliii/inst1900.shtml) under
the section Nativity, Column 13
- Place of birth of person it had
explanations for enumerators in
order to help in situations when
a client states a name of non-existent country as a place of birth.
This is what the Instructions
state at the end of Article 139:
…Thus, do not write
Prussia or Saxony, but Germany.
To this rule, however, note the
following exceptions:
140. Write Ireland, England, Scotland, or Wales rather
than Great Britain. Write Hungary or Bohemia rather than
Austria for persons born in Hungary or Bohemia, respectively.
Write Finland rather than Russia for persons born in Finland.
141. Note, also, that the
language spoken is not always
a safe guide to the birthplace.
This is especially true of Germans, for over one-third of the
Austrians and nearly threefourths of the Swiss speak German. In case a person speaks
German, therefore, inquire carefully whether the birthplace was
Germany, Austria, or Switzerland.
142. In case the persons
speaks Polish, as Poland is not
now a country, inquire whether
the birthplace was what is now
known as German Poland or
Austrian Poland, and enter the
answer accordingly as Poland
(Ger.), Poland (Aust.), or Poland
(Russ.).
As can be seen from Articles 139 through 142, because
of the border changes in Europe,
it became very confusing for the
enumerators what they can write
down. Therefore, if a Pole stated
that he spoke Polish or that he
was Polish, the enumerator was
instructed to “inquire whether
the birthplace was what is now
known as German Poland or
Austrian Poland, and enter the
answer accordingly as Poland
16
(Ger.), Poland (Aust.), or Poland
(Russ.). This meant therefore,
just because Poland was not a
country at the time, the Polish
language and “nativity” had to
be specified with a geographic
designation (similar specification what the Greek nationalists
demand of the Macedonians at
the present time).
Perhaps already at this
time, during the census of 1900,
there were people who claimed
that they spoke Macedonian
and that their “nativity” was
Macedonian, although not in a
large enough number to make a
mark as a separate language and
ethnicity for the following census. And now we come back to
the fist quotation from the top
of this article, which the Bulgarian propagandists love to quote.
However, by looking at the
whole section “Ability to speak
English” of the Instructions,
Article 134 gives a list of languages with additional instructions. It is best to quote the full
Article:
The following is a list of
principal foreign languages spoken in the United States. Avoid
giving other names when one in
this list can be applied to the language spoken. With the exception of certain languages of eastern Russian, the list gives a
name for every European language in the proper sense of the
word.
Albanian
Armenian
Basque
Bohemian
Briton
Bulgarian
Chinese
Danish
Dutch
Finnish
Flemish
French
German
Greek
Gypsy
Irish
Italian
Japanese
Lappish
Lettish
Little Russian
Lithuanian
Magyar
Moravian
Norwegian
Polish
Portuguese
Rhaeto-Romanish
Roumanian
Russian
Ruthenian
Scotch
Servian or Croatian (Including
Russian, Dalmatian,
Herzegovinian, and Montenegrin)
Slovak
Slovenian
Spanish
Swedish
Syrian
Turkish
Welsh
Wendish
Yiddish
Article 138 follows with an
interesting instruction: Do not write
“Czech,” but write Bohemian,
Moravian, or Slovak, as the case
may be. Similarly, Article 141 instructs the enumerator to: Write
Little Russian instead of “Ukrainian.”
It is widely known to all linguists that both Czech and Ukrainian languages exist as separate languages, however, it is also widely
known that state bureaucracies are
not examples of fast adaptation to
reality on the ground.
However, with time change
does come and the Instructions to
Enumerators for the 1920 Census
shows precisely that (the Instructions can be seen on http://
usa.ipums.org/usa/voliii/
inst1920.shtml). Section “Nativity
and Mother Tongue”, Article 146,
gives the “Principal foreign
languages…which are likely to be
reported as the mother tongue or
language of customary speech of
foreign-born persons”:
Albanian
Arabian
Armenian
Basque
Bohemian (Czech.)
Breton
Bulgarian
Chinese
Croatian
Dalmatian
Danish
Dutch
English
Esthonian
Finnish
Flemish
French
Frisian
Friulian
Gaelic
Georgian
German
Great Russian
Greek
Gypsy
Hebrew
Hindu
Icelandic
Irish
Italian
Japanese
Korean
Kurdish
Lappish
Lettish
Lithuanian
Little Russian
Macedonian
Magyar
Montenegrin
Moravian (Czech.)
Norwegian
Persian
Polish
Portuguese
Romansh
Rumanian
Russian
Ruthenian
Scotch
Serbian
Slovak
Slovene
Spanish
Swedish
Syrian
Turkish
Ukrainian
Walloon
Welsh
Wendish
White Russian
Yiddish
As can be seen from the list
above, the Macedonian language is
listed equally among all the other
Balkan languages (Albanian, Bulgarian, Greek, Serbian), and all of this
happens in 1920, 3 years before the
“Executive Committee of the
Comintern and the Executive Committee of the Balkan Communist
Federation decided that the question
of the independence of Macedonia
was “a question of Principle””
(Evangelos Averoff-Tossizza: By
Fire and Axe, The Communist Party
and the Civil War in Greece, 19441949, p. 22); 24 years before Tito
“made up” the Macedonian nation;
and 25 years before Blaze Koneski
“made up” the Macedonian language (or as the Greek and Bulgarian propagandists love to shoot
themselves in the foot). We must
also stress that with this list the
Czech and Ukrainian languages were
officially recognized by the US government. This recognition does not
mean that they were “made up” by
the US, but simply that the languages finally received official recognition.
Just to give a final blow to
the Bulgarian and Greek propagandists, chauvinists and human rights
violators, we will present the list
one more time, because the same list
is presented in the 1930 census as
well (the Instructions can be seen
on http://usa.ipums.org/usa/voliii/
inst1930.shtml)…177. Principal
foreign languages.-Following is a list
of the principal languages which are
likely to be reported as the mother
tongue or native language of foreignborn persons:
Albanian
Arabic
Armenian
Basque
Breton
Bulgarian
Czech
Chinese
Croatian
Dalmation
Danish
Dutch
Egyptian
English
Estonian
Finnish
Obedineta Makedonija
Macedonian Radio Program
Saturdays 9 – 10 am on CHKT AM 1430
Micko i Dragica Dimovski
Tel/Fax: 905-265-2197
Flemish
French
Frisian
Friulian
Gaelic
Georgian
German
Great Russian
Greek
Gypsy
Hebrew
Hindu
Icelandic
Irish
Italian
Japanese
Korean
Kurdish
Lappish
Lettish
Lithuanian
Little Russian
Macedonian
Magyar
Montenegrin
Norwegian
Persian
Polish
Portuguese
Romansh
Rumanian [sic]
Russian
Ruthenian
Scotch
Serbian
Slovak
Slovenian
Spanish
Swedish
Syrian
Turkish
Ukrainian
Walloon
Welsh
Wendish
White Russian
Yiddish
Although the same website
presents the Enumerator Instructions for 1850, 1860, 1870,1880,
1890, as well as 1940 and 1950, we
will not cover them here, since the
Instructions do not mention specifically any of the Balkan languages.
Dragi Stojkovski
UPRAVATA
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16 Condotti Dr., Woobridge, ON L4H 2C8
January 2009
the Balkanalysis.com Interview:
VICTOR FRIEDMAN ON MACEDONIA
12/14/2008 (Balkanalysis.com)
Professor Victor Friedman is one of the world’s foremost experts on Balkan languages, and has been studying
them for almost four decades,
since 1993 as a linguist at the
University of Chicago. Professor Friedman has a special place
in his heart for Macedonia,
which he first visited in 1971.
This year finds him back in the
country, as the recipient of a
Fulbright-Hays Grant from the
US Department of Education
and a research grant from the
John Simon Guggenheim Foundation. (All opinions expressed
herein are his own and do not
necessarily represent those of
the funding organizations.)
Balkanalysis.com Director
Christopher Deliso caught up
with Professor Friedman
recently in Skopje for an
interview. Their engrossing and
wide-ranging conversation,
covering everything from
linguistic history, politics and
lobbying to national identity
and multiculturalism, is
reproduced below for our
readers.
………………
Christopher Deliso: Victor,
thanks for taking the time to
discuss your ideas and your
research, it’s a great privilege.
Victor Friedman: Thank you,
I’m always happy to speak
about the Balkans and
Macedonia.
Reminiscences
CD: Victor, the first time you
visited Macedonia was in 1971.
A lot must have changed since
then.
VF: Indeed it has. When I first
came here, during the height of
Yugoslavia, many houses did
not have telephones, and I recall
you had to wait for 2 years to
get one… even in 1994 when I
was here for 3 months it was
impossible for me to get one in
the apartment where I was
staying. Things have improved
considerably since those days.
And some of the damage from
the 1963 earthquake damage
was also still evident in Skopje.
CD: Even in the center?
VF: Even in the center. A lot of
the new buildings were already
completed, but there were still
some piles of rubble near the
Hotel Turist, today’s Best
Western on the Ulica
Makedonija pedestrian street.
Sewer lines were being laid in
the Stara Charshija (the bazaar
quarter in the old part of town)
so you had to cross some
streets on boards. And there
were an awful lot of buildings
still housed in purpose-built
‘barracks.’
CD: Some of which still remain,
for housing and offices.
VF: Probably so. And back
then, the new main campus of
University Ss Cyril &
Methodius of Skopje hadn’t
been built yet, and the new
building for MANU (the
Macedonian Academy of
Sciences & Arts) hadn’t been
rebuilt yet. It was housed in a
mansion that I was told had
once been owned by a Vlah
merchant, and later served as
the Italian embassy. There was
one shopping center that just
opened up in 1973.
Januari 2009
CD: You mean the famous GTC
(Gradski Trgovski Center)?
VF: Indeed, the GTC. And there
were many ordinary consumer
goods you couldn’t get here.
People went to Thessaloniki or
Belgrade to shop for many items.
CD:
Interesting.
Many
Macedonians proudly claim to
me that in Yugoslav times they
were on a much higher social and
economic level than the Greeks.
VF: Actually, the Greeks and
Yugoslavs were about on the
same level then. With hard
currency, you could get a good
rate on the drachma. But the
difference was that Greece never
had Communism, and in the
1970s Greece already had
American style-supermarkets;
one had to go to Thessaloniki or
the US Embassy PX in Belgrade
to get peanut butter.
Fewer consumer goods were
available in Macedonia than in
wealthier parts of Yugoslavia, of
course. In 1973, for example, meat
was hard to find. I was told that
the price for meat was better in
Serbia and all the meat went
there. On the other hand, public
sociability was more vibrant and
relaxed. In mild weather all of
Skopje went to what was then
Marshal Tito Square for korzo
(corso). In those days, Skopje
wasn’t as big as it is now, and
you could meet anyone you
wanted to see there. It was also
a great way to make new friends.
The Project of the Day
CD: So how about your project
that brings you here this time.
What is that about?
VF: My project investigates the
continuing existence of
multilingualism in Skopje.
wanted to study this and
document its continuing
existence today.
Grammatical Multilingualism
CD: ‘Balkan linguistics league’what do you mean by this?
VF: Right. At the beginning of
the 20th century, in the Balkans
you had a range of diverse
languages on the same territorythe Slavic languages, Greek,
Albanian, local dialects of
Turkish, three kinds of Romani,
Romance languages like
Romanian,
Aromanian,
a
n
d
MeglenoRomanian
and, before
t
h
e
Holocaust,
Ladino (or
Judezmo) the language
of
the
Sephardic
Jews,
a
language
derived from medieval Spanish
with additions from Hebrew and
local languages that too shape
after the expulsion of the Jews
from Spain in 1492.
In particular, the Slavic,
Romance, Albanian and Greek
languages share a lot of
grammatical features that are the
result of mutual multilingualism.
CD:
Grammatical
multilingualism?
I
can
understand vocabulary, loanwords, shared by co-existing
languages, but what examples
are there of grammar influence
in the Balkan languages?
VF: The replacement of
infinitives
by
analytic
subjunctive clauses using
native material is an example of
a shared grammatical feature
among Balkan languages.
CD: Meaning the particle, like
‘na’ in Greek and ‘da’ in
Macedonian?
VF: Yes. And what is really
interesting is that even the
Balkan dialects of Turkish, but
only the Balkan ones, replace
the infinitive with an optativea verb form like a subjunctive
but without a particle.
CD: That’s an interesting topic.
I suspect you are spending a lot
of time in the Stara Charshija?
Linguistic Developments
VF: Indeed. Among the
craftsmen’s shops, tea houses,
mosques, churches and open
markets there, that is one of the
best places in the city to find
different social groups and
languages rubbing elbows on a
daily basis- Macedonian,
Albanian, Turkish, Romani, even
some Aromanian and Greek. My
project studies the way that
these languages are interacting
today.
VF: Yes, the Balkans are very
interesting. We know what
Ancient Greek, Latin, and Old
Church Slavonic, and Sanskrit
looked like, and we have Turkic
texts going back to the 8t h
century. We know what these
languages looked like in the
early medieval period. For
Albanian, our oldest significant
texts are from the early modern
period. We know these changes,
these grammatical influences,
were taking place in the late
medieval and early Ottoman
periods (although some are
older in some languages). It was
really in the Ottoman period that
the Balkan languages as we
know them today came to
resemble one another.
CD: And this idea was
something you used to get
funding for the project?
VF: Yes. As a linguist, I had to
present my case, and the
argument that won funding from
the Fulbright-Hays (Department
of Education) and Guggenheim
is that Macedonia in general, and
Skopje especially, represents the
last place in the Balkans where
the conditions that created the
Balkan linguistic league are still
present to some extent. So I
CD: Wow- that’s fascinating.
CD: Was this line of
investigation something that
had been applied elsewhere, or
received attention from linguists
for a long time?
VF: Well there was some talk in
the 19th century of that sort of
thing, but in the 19th century,
when modern linguistics first
took shape with the discovery
of the regularity of sound
change, most linguists were
spending their time trying to find
out
how
languages
genealogically resembled one
another.
CD: Genealogically, meaning
finding a common ancestor,
yes? Was this a result of the
influence of Darwinism, some
sort of intellectual zeitgeist of
the time?
VF: Well, some people might tell
you that, but most accurately we
can say that it coincided with
Darwinism and similar trends.
But what got people really
interested in the genealogical
approach to linguistics was the
British conquest of India.
CD: Really! Very unusual.
VF: Well think about it: you had
these
cultured
British
gentlemen, who had been raised
on the full classical education of
Latin and ancient Greek, coming
to this land of supposed
primitives and savages- and
getting completely blown away
by the resemblances between
Sanskrit, which they came
across for the first time, and
Latin and Greek.
The Balkans: A Special Place
CD: So then, to return to the
former topic, can I ask whether
this grammatical influence of
different languages within a
specific terrain is a rare thing?
Do you find it in other parts of
Europe like, say, Switzerland,
with its four official languages
(French, German, Italian, and
Romansch) as well as the
linguistically distinct Swiss
German?
VF: Not to the same extent as in
the Balkans. French, German
and those languages had
specific influences of different
kinds on each other, but the
ordinary populations were not
necessarily multilingual until
relatively recently, and even
today each language in
Switzerland is influenced
significantly by the usage in the
neighboring nation-states
where they are standardized.
CD: So what was it about the
Balkans that made it so
amenable to multilingualism?
VF: Well, going back to
Ottoman times, we could
consider it partially an issue of
pragmatism for city dwellers,
traders and so on, for whom
knowing other languages was
directly beneficial to their
livelihoods and businesses,
with such diverse populations
living together.
It’s also interesting to note that
most linguistic studies of
multilingualism today are being
carried out in post-colonial areas
of the world, or among
immigrant communities living in
wealthy countries. My research
here in the Balkans is unusual
in this context because this is a
region with an endemic, longexisting, relatively stable and
uninterrupted history of
multilingualism.
Continues on next page
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17
Continued from previous page
Multilingualism as a Culture
Value: A Telling Absence
VF: At the same time,
multilingualism here was also a
matter of a common cultural
value, one shared by speakers of
all the Balkan languages, except
Greek. But we should also note
that this language-ideological
resistance on the part of Greek did
not keep the language from being
influenced by those with which
it was in contact.
CD: Really! That’s unusual. How
do we know Greek lacks this
value?
VF: One telling aspect, from a
linguist’s point of view, is that
Greek is the only language in the
Balkans that does not have a
proverb to the effect that
‘languages are wealth’ or ‘the
more languages you know, the
more people you’re worth.’ All
other Balkan languages have
some such saying that indicates
a value placed on multilingualism.
CD: Are we sure this is true, that
Greek lacks such a value? Or
could someone just invent one
for the sake of it?
VF: To the best of my knowledge,
there is no such expression. And
over the years I have asked every
Greek friend of mine for such a
proverb and not one of them has
come up with one. And I am
talking about linguists, experts on
the Balkans who are not
subjective.
An example I recall comes from
the introduction to a recently
published book on the minority
languages of Greece (which is,
alas, still a highly political topic
in that nation-state). The author
was talking about Arvanitika, the
Albanian dialect/language of
speakers who migrated to Greece
a millennium or so ago. The
introduction was written by a
respected Greek linguist… he
wrote that among the Arvanites,
and probably, emphasis mine,
among the other Balkan peoples,
there is this expression of
languages as wealth. But he
didn’t know of any such
expression in Greek.
Confusion and Denial
CD: By the term ‘Arvanitika,’ you
mean medieval Albanian?
VF: Most precisely, it refers to the
Albanian dialects of Greece that
separated from the main body of
Tosk Albanian 600-1000 years
ago. The dialects were spoken on
many Greek islands, the
Peloponnese, and in Attica and
Central Greece. Greeks don’t like
to admit it, but they have had
large
Albanian-speaking
populations for a very long time,
not just post-Communist
economic migrants. While these
dialects are now moribund owing
to hegemonistic Greek language
policies, they can still be
encountered in places like
Livadhia.
CD: An interesting detailVF: And I recall one vignette:
many years ago at a conference,
I met a woman who was Greek,
but she knew Arvanitika. So we
communicated, I in standard
modern Albanian, she in
Arvanitika. It was close enough
to communicate.
I asked her, ‘how do you know
this language’? As a linguist, it
was an interesting detail. She
replied, ‘well, I learned it from my
grandmother.’
18
CD: Which would have meant
she was of partial Arvanitika
descent?
VF: Well, I asked innocently
enough – I wasn’t really aware
of the politics at the time – ‘why
would a Greek learn Albanian if
they weren’t Albanian’? She was
somewhat confused.
The next morning, however,
when I saw this woman she said
to me: ‘I couldn’t sleep all night
thinking about what you said.’
She was a bit upset. ‘I thought
about it,’ she said, ‘and no! I am
Greek! I am Greek!’ It was the last
time I tried to suggest to a Greek
that if they learned another
language at home, it was because
that was the native language of
the speaker.
The Nationalist Trap and State
Policies
CD: (Laughing) on that note,
let’s talk about the Macedonia
issue now. Greece denies the
Macedonian identity, referring to
ancient history. What do you
think about this?
system used religion as the main
factor in classifying its subjects?
VF: Yes, but not just because of
the Ottomans- religion was more
important then as well. It was the
late 18th/early19th century ideas,
developed from the French
Revolution that led to nationstate ideologies.
Organized Obliteration?
VF: But even well before this,
some have made a case – and this
refers again to the social
resistance against other
languages – that the Greeks have
been trying to destroy Slavic
culture in this area since the
Middle Ages.
CD: ‘Greeks,’ meaning the
Byzantines?
VF: Yes. For example, John Fine
in his book The Early Medieval
Balkans (p. 220) cites Vladimir
Moshin, who published an article
in1963 in a Russian academic
journal in which he made the
argument that the reason there
are no Slavic language
manuscripts from this region
Prilep and Kichevo. It is not
identical with any specific
dialect, and has elements from
the eastern ones as well.
Standard Bulgarian is not
based on a single dialect, but
is based on eastern Bulgarian
dialects, from Veliko Tarnovo
to the Danube and further
east.
CD: Why were these specific
dialectal areas chosen, in both
cases?
VF: What happened was that
in the 19th century there were
two major centers of literacy
and prosperity- one in
southwestern Macedonia, the
other in northeastern
Bulgaria. The Bulgarians
decided to impose those
eastern dialects from the area
north of the Stara Planina
range, east of the dialectal
division called the yat line,
and south of the Danube, on
the whole state.
CD: What was the thinking?
Was this an organized
campaign for specific
reasons?
VF: Unfortunately, with
independence,
some
Macedonians fell into the
nationalist trap set by Greece.
The Greeks came up with a line
claiming the Macedonians
could not claim the name
Macedonia unless they were
descended from the Ancient
Macedonians.
CD: This is very interesting to
me, because as you know, many
Greeks today refer to the whole
country of Macedonia by the
name of the capital, and the
people as ‘Skopjeans.’ So they
were using this reference even
then?
VF: Of course. But already in the
19 th century, Macedonian
speakers were calling themselves
Macedonians (Makedontsi),
their language, ‘Makedonski.’
This is documented.
CD: But they were also calling
themselves ‘Bulgarians’ then.
VF: Yes, some were, and
speakers identified as Serbs or
Greeks or Turks, depending on
religious loyalties, but most of
the time, speakers called
themselves Christians or Turks
(Muslims).
CD: Because the Ottoman
VF: Yes, and it happened to a
colleague of mine who was
doing dissertation research in a
village whose name I will omit to
protect the inhabitants.
CD: aha, the village of… near
Kastoria?
VF: Yes, and precisely for this
reason it is one of the most
interesting
Macedonian
dialects, because it is the most
southwestern Macedonian
dialect. It is transitional between
eastern and western types of
Macedonian. And the Greek
police confiscated the tapes of
this linguist and interfered with
his research. However, he did
finish his dissertation on this
dialect. In fact, in his
introduction, he made a point of
thanking the Greek police for
teaching him to always keep
backup tapes!
VF: They’re incredibly insecure.
No, they’re not just insecure.
They have a linguistic ideology
that insists on wiping out all
other languages. This is an old
ideology. It is the origins of the
term barbarian. Think about it.
Why don’t we have any traces
of other languages preserved?
As a matter of fact we do. There
are some ancient inscriptions in
Thracian.
prior to 1180 is owing to their
deliberate destruction by the
Greeks/Byzantines.
CD: Really!
VF: Oh, it’s been that way ever
since modern Macedonians
began to call themselves
Macedonians. The Greeks have
been denying the existence of its
Macedonian minority since
acquiring Greek Macedonia at
the Treaty of Bucharest
following the Second Balkan War
(1913), except for a brief period
in the 1920s. In 1957, an
otherwise respectable Greek
linguist named N. Andriotis
published a polemical and, from
an academic point of view,
deeply flawed booklet entitled
‘The Confederate state of Skopje
and Its Language’ – referring, of
course, to Macedonia and
Macedonian within Socialist
Yugoslavia.
CD: Really! Are there some
examples?
CD: Ha! So with all of this
intimidation, not to mention the
journalist arrests we saw
recently, what are the Greeks so
afraid of?
Well, no one can reasonably
claim to be descended from the
Ancient Macedonians, but this
became part of the argument,
instead of other more pertinent
things. And so the issue has
remained. But the Greeks have
been denying the existence of
Macedonia
and
the
Macedonians all along.
CD: From your perspective, how
far back does this go as a state
policy? To the breakdown of
Yugoslavia, or further?
that the police will take your
tapes, destroy them, and kick
you out for expressing an
interest in what is still a taboo
topic for them.
VF: Up until his article, people
had been saying it was the Turks
who destroyed everything. But
there are Greek-language
manuscripts from this period that
survived in this region, whereas
Slavic ones did not. And it is not
as if the latter were not being
composed in an organized way;
the Ohrid literary school which
began in the late 9th century is
just one place where manuscripts
were being written in large
numbers. Which means that
Greeks have been trying to
destroy Slavic culture and
literacy for a very long time.
CD: Many Bulgarian politicians
and academics claim that
Macedonian is just a dialect of
Bulgarian. What do you say on
this topic?
VF: The answer is of course
Macedonian is a distinct
language. It is similar to
Bulgarian, but just as Swedish
and Norwegian are similar
languages, but separate, so, too,
are Macedonian and Bulgarian.
CD: Why?
VF: Both sets of languages have
different dialectal bases. And for
this reason it is not at all like the
case of Moldovan and
Romanian. The Moldovan
standard language is not based
on Moldovan dialects; it is based
on the same Wallachian dialects
as standard Romanian.
In the case of Macedonian,
however, the standard language
is based on the dialects spoken
in the west-central geographical
area defined by Veles, Bitola,
VF: We’re talking about the
phenomenon of intellectuals
fighting over what’s going to
happen when they get their
own state- just like with the
Congress of Manastir (Bitola)
in 1908, when the Albanians
were worrying about agreeing
on a common Albanian
alphabet before there was an
Albanian state (in 1912). The
Bulgarians didn’t have a state
until the Russo-Turkish War
of 1878.
CD: What about the situation
in Greece at the time, where
different propagandists were
at work from different sides?
Were
these
dialects
considered Bulgarian or
Macedonian, or both? What
can linguists reconstruct
today?
VF: There are a number of
dialectal studies. Some
speakers
considered
themselves Macedonians,
some Bulgarians, and some
Greeks, and some Turks,
depending, in part, on
religious affiliation (Exarchist,
Patriarchist, and Muslim for
the last three at that time).
Firsthand accounts are
available in some books
published in, e.g., Australia
and Poland, and Canada, but
the Aegean Macedonians
who were victims of Greek
abuse at that time are mostly
dead.
The generation that suffered
during the Greek Civil War
(1946-49) however, is still
alive. The ones who are still
alive often do not want to tell
their stories because they are
afraid or the memories are too
painful. Even for curious
foreigners, if you go to Greece
to
do
research
on
Macedonian, you run the risk
CD: I thought the Thracians had
no written language?
VF: They did. The inscriptions
are in Greek script, but the words
are Thracian. And the
inscriptions are sitting in Greece,
gathering dust. They know
they’re there, but no one’s
going to work on them because
the language is not Greek. So
they’re not going to let anyone
see them. I have this from a
colleague of mine who is a
classicist and interested in the
subject.
CD: Your Greece vignette
reminds me of being the village
of Amyndaeo south of Florina
last year. I came across these
two old men speaking to each
other in Macedonian. I said
dobar den (’good day’). And
you know what? This man was
so alarmed that he reacted
before he could think,
instinctively, by blurting out ne
razbiram Makedonski (‘I don’t
understand Macedonian’). This
was one of the most ironic
examples of fear of speaking
one’s language I could imagine.
VF: Indeed.
CD: So I guess my question for
you is, we asked the local people
in Florina what percent of the
people there speak Macedonian,
since public life is mostly in
Greek it was an interesting
question. And several people
said, ‘oh, everyone speaks it.’
What is your experience?
VF: Well, as far as I was told
everybody in the area around
Florina, or Lerin in Macedonian,
over the age of 40 speaks
Macedonian, whether they’re
Macedonian or not. This is
according to a colleague of mine
who has done recent research.
However,
the
younger
January 2009
generation is not learning it. But
it is a topic that requires further
(unhindered) research.
CD: From what I understand from
different stories, this is because
it is not helpful to advancement
in Greek society, and can even be
a strongly negative factorVF: Yes. The Greek government
is effectively carrying out
‘linguicide’ on the Macedonians
of Greece. And it has been a longrunning policy. For another
example, I have a photo of a sign
in Greek, from the 1950s, printed
up in blue-on-white, urging
people to forbid anyone from
speaking in ‘Vlahika, Makedonika
etc.’ There used to be many such
signs in Greek Macedonia.
CD: Really! That is quite
compelling. Do people know
about this?
VF: I don’t know-a friend sent the
photo to me, I am finally getting
around to publishing it in a review
article in the journal Balkanistika
next year.
But the Greek policy was always
trying to kill the language. It was
especially horrible in the 1930s.
Macedonian kids would go to
school, and if they spoke their
language, the language they
learned at home, numerous
‘corrective’ methods were used:
teachers beat them, or stuck their
tongues with needles, or rubbed
a hot pepper on their tongues;
anything to make them stop
speaking Macedonian.
CD: Really! That sounds very
extreme.
VF: Oh, they were terrible. In the
1930s, people were put in jail just
for speaking Macedonian. The
Greek government had people
skulking around the windows of
people’s houses, listening to hear
if they spoken Macedonian so
that they could report them to the
police. Mothers were thrown in
jail for speaking Macedonian to
their babies. They terrorized the
Macedonians, and then, with the
Greek Civil War, they drove many
of them out.
CD: Never to returnVF: And then there’s the
infamous ‘race clause’ in the
amnesty law of 1982; it stipulated
that to return the country and
reclaim one’s property, all those
who had been banished had to
declare they were Greek by genos,
by race or birth. Macedonians
who were expelled, many just
children at the time, in 1949, were
never allowed to reclaim their
property. It was racism, pure and
simple.
CD: Do you recall what was the
reaction here in Macedonia, from
the locals? And what about the
European countries? Surely this
would have been considered a
great breach of European values?
VF: I was actually here at the time
this was announced. The people
were very upset, because they
have been so badly mistreated all
along. The ‘Great Powers,’ of
course, said nothing.
CD: Well this is interesting,
because here we have in America
a new president, a black man who
surely knows something about
the meaning of racism, and indeed
the issues of race and injustices
resonated throughout Obama’s
campaign.
And at the same time, Obama
signed that anti-Macedonian
senate resolution, and has been
a big supporter of the Greek
lobby, who are probably counting
on a return on their investment.
Has anyone, to the best of your
Januari 2009
knowledge, pointed out this
blatant hypocrisy regarding his
support for a country that has a
history of racist policies against
its own citizens?
the Communist government,
because it used Aegean
Macedonian dialects, as it was
about the post-Ilinden period
just after 1903.
VF: No, I haven’t heard anyone
put this to his people. It would
be nice if the message could be
gotten out, but so far I haven’t
seen this happen. The
Macedonians don’t seem to
know enough about public
relations and American politicsthey should be using lobby
companies, getting their
message out every day in
Washington.
The memorable line from the
film, which was part of a real folk
song dating back to 1878, was
something like this: ‘be thou
cursed and thrice cursed
Europe, O you whore of
Babylon and murderer of
Macedonia.’
CD: Yes, I concur with thatVF: And, at the same time, the
Greeks get away with this ‘cradle
of democracy’ image! Give me a
break! Ancient Greece was a
slave-owning society. And you
know, some scholars argue that
Modern Greece is a creation of
the Western European romantic
imagination- for example, Lord
Byron’s romanticized view of
Ancient Greece projected, on
the modern population. This is
persuasively argued in a book of
academic Michael Herdzfeld,
called Ours Once More.
CD: That is an interesting
school of thought, I had not
really conceived it as such but
there is something to it. What
was the reaction to this book?
VF: I do not think there was a
huge reaction, but Herzfeld was
involved with another book,
Anastasia Karakasidou’s Fields
of Wheat, Hills of Blood, which
did generate a great deal of
controversy. Published by the
University of Chicago Press in
1997, this book was actually a
very mild challenge to Greek
hegemonistic notions. What it
dared to do, based on fieldwork
in Greek Macedonia, was to
state that there were citizens of
Greece who did not feel
themselves to be ethnic Greeks
and that they still spoke their
own language.
Cambridge University Press had
committed to publishing the
book with minor revisions, and
then they suddenly decided not
to publish the book. They had
committed to it and suddenly
changed their minds. Prof
Herzfeld was on the editorial
board of CUP’s anthropology
series at the time, and he
resigned in protest, as did other
members of the board.
CD: Yes, they cited ‘the safety
of their staff in Greece’ as their
reason, right?
VF: Well they said that.
However, the way I heard it, CUP
had a monopoly on Englishlanguage testing in the schools
of Greece as well…
CD: Do you believe that the
Greek government threatened
that they would lose this
privilege?
VF: I have no idea, but assuming
that they had a monopoly- two
plus two, what are you going to
make of that, four or twentytwo?
CD: But then you guys saved
itVF: Yes, the University of
Chicago went ahead and
published the book, to their
credit. But the whole situation is
just disgusting; it makes Europe
look like what she was called at
the beginning of the 20th century,
as depicted in the Bulgarian film
Mera spored Mera, made in the
1980s. It was somewhat
provocative, and received
criticism from some quarters of
CD: So, what do you think then
of
the
international
negotiations over the name
issue, and the constant
pressure for Macedonia to
‘compromise’ with Greece here?
VF: There is no real
compromise. There can’t be.
Think about it: if a thief comes
up to and holds a gun to your
head and says ‘give me your
money,’ do you say, ‘I’ll give
you half,’ and call that a
compromise? That’s Greece.
They are trying to destroy
Macedonia’s identity, plain and
simple.
Note that no one on the
Macedonian side is saying that
Greeks cannot call themselves
Macedonians, or their province
Macedonia. But they never call
themselves as such out of this
context- they are, to
themselves, Greeks first and
foremost. So nobody actually
needs the name Macedonia,
and no one needs to call
themselves Macedonians for
their primary identity, except for
these people in this small
country that is not a threat to
anyone.
BLAGODARNOST
KON NA[ITE
DARITELI
Blagodarej}i
do
dare`livosta i trudoqubivosta na mnogubrojnite
Makedonci, Organizacijata Obedineti Makedonci vo Kanada postana
najgolemata makedonska
organizacija nadvor od
tatkovinata. I ovaa godina
koga ja slavime 50godi{ninata od osnovaweto, so gordost se
zablagodaruvame na Majk
Ro{tankovski i Marko
Janovski, koi bea vidni
dariteli za minatata
godina. Prethodni dariteli bea Trajanka Bakalovska i Kice Aleksovski.
Blagodarej}i
do
prethodnite dariteli kako
i site site ~lenovi na
upravata, Organizacijata
uspeva da go obnovuva
manastirot Sv. Ilija i da
go priprema Ilindenskiot
park za veli~enstveniot
Ilindenski piknik.
Majk Ro{tankovski
Marko Janovski
CD: On that note, to conclude,
let me ask this: based on your
research, do you think that
Macedonia gets enough credit
for
preserving
its
multiculturalism? And does it
reflect at all on the temperament
of the people here that it has
been able to do so?
VF: First of all, Macedonia
doesn’t get any credit. And in
fact the isolation that Greece
has succeeded in imposing on
Macedonia in the last 17 years
has been a major factor in
adding to interethnic tension
here, as we saw unfortunately
in the 2001 conflict.
If the Greeks had just left the
Macedonians alone to begin
with, there would have been
fewer such problems, or at least
greater capacity to deal with the
existing ones. But it was the
Greek government (especially
after 1991) and the Serbian
government (especially after
1981) who exacerbated most of
the problems, for their own
purposes.
You know, the vast majority of
normal people of all ethnicities
in this country live together
peacefully. There is a saying in
Macedonian: nie sme krotok
narod: ‘we are a mild people.’ A
peaceful people. This is
something that is constantly
overlooked by the Great
Powers- that, relative to the rest
of the Balkans and much of the
world, for all the very real
problems
that
exist,
Macedonians are still among
the most peaceful and tolerant
people you will find anywhere.
CD: Victor, thank you very
much for your time and
insightful comments. I
appreciate it.
VF: And thank you.
GLAS OD DALEÎNITE
(Vo ~est na 50-godi{ninata od osnovaweto na
organizacijata “Obedineti Makedonci”)
Sakam da se najdam
na vrvot od najvisokata
planina
za da moàm od
viso~inite
da go izgovoram tvoeto
ime
stopati na cel glas…
Ehoto gromoglasno da se
raznese nasekade
vo dale~ni prostori…
preku okeani i
meridijani;
za da slu{nat onie koi
{to te sonuvaat
i vo mugrite tvoi se
budat,
za da slu{nat onie {to
te sakaat,
i onie {to te baraat pod
tu|iot svod.
Ehoto niz dale~inite so
tvoeto ime
od vrvor na najvisokata
planina
da dopre do burniot Egej,
kade silnite branovi
bijat
po ronliviot breg na
moreto
Da dopre i do onie {to
slu{aat
- a ne zau{uvaat,
i ne te prepoznavaat
da im gi zaglu{i{
u{ite!
I kamenot belutrak da
prepukne
od vibracijata na glasot
od imeto tvoe iskonsko,
- Makedonija,
stopati Makedonija na
cel glas.
Blagica Dafovska
~len na literaturnoto
dru{tvo “Bra}a
Miladinovci” - Toronto
19
20
January 2009

Macedonian Herald Voice of the United Macedonians

Transcription

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