NIKOS MARTIS
Former Hellenic Government Minister
President of “Macedonian Hestia”
8, Kaisarias Street, 115 27 Athens
Tel. +30 210 7778800, +30 210 6204826
SKOPJANS HAVE NO RIGHT TO CALL THEMSELVES MACEDONIANS
AS MACEDONIANS WERE AND ARE ONLY GREEKS
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Macedonians were Greeks, like the Athenians, the Spartans, the Corinthians, the Cretans and many others. According to Herodotus they had all the common elements that characterize a nation. Namely, they had the same language, as the rest of the Greeks – the Greek language – the same temples and the same gods, whose adobe was on the Macedonian mountain Olympus.
It is unthinkable that Greeks would not have had their Gods not adobe in Greek territory, but in a barbaric one.
The 9 Muses also came from the Pieria region of Macedonia.
Macedonians, like all other Greeks, participated in the Amphictyonies and the Olympic games, where some of them became champions.
The President of the first modern Olympic games, that took place in Athens in 1896, was Dimitris Vikelas, born in the district of Veria, in Macedonia.
The Macedonians, like all other ancient Greeks, had founded theatres. There are also two ancient Greek theatres in the Southern part of FYROM, on a small strip of land, which belonged to ancient Macedonia, but was taken in 1912 by the Serbian army and was annexed to Serbian territory.
The identity of the Macedonians as Greeks, constitutes the essence of the problem raised by FYROM and not simply the name of this state, without being related to history.
As I have mentioned in my letter to the competent commissioner for the enlargement of the EU, Mr. Oli Rehn, the Greek identity of the Macedonians is corroborated by the sacred text of the Old and the New Testaments, the texts of Ancient Greek, Hebrew and Roman authors and thousands of existing Greek inscriptions found in all of Macedonia. The Central Israelite Council of Greece, mentions in its letter addressed to the International Hebrew Conventions and Councils, that “The Jewish religion and philology constitute the undeniable witnesses of the ancient ethnological character of the Macedonians as Greek”.
“The ancient and contemporary Macedonians are Greeks and the language of the Macedonians is Greek”, declared with unanimous decrees the Legislative Bodies of 14 States of the USA.
FYROM insists on the post–dated constitutional name of their State as “Democracy of Macedonia”, in order to legitimise themselves as “Macedonians”, descendants of Alexander the Great.
Any discussion as to whether the Skopjans are descendants of Alexander the Great, does not become the EU, which, as a union of democratic people, ought to have said to FYROM that they are not Macedonians and descendants of Alexander the Great, who is universally regarded as Greek. This fact corroborate by the following:
· Prophet Daniel (Chapter H 1-21) prophesied that the Greek King would defeat the Persian King. In his vision he saw the goat of Aegae crushing the ram. The goat of Aegae, being the King of the Greeks and the ram, the King of Medes and Persians.
· The Maccabees state: “Alexander the Macedonian, son of Philip, defeated Darius”.
· Prophet Daniel prophesied the Kingdom of Alexander the Great on the throne of Solomon.
· Prophet Isaiah prophesied: “When the Egyptians cry out to God, God will send a man to save and govern them”. According to Professor Trebella, this man is Alexander who, when he turned up in Egypt, was proclaimed Pharaoh (his statue is in the Cairo museum).
· Prophet Isaiah praises a period of free communication. This period is the period of Alexander the Great.
· Many Talmud texts call in Hebrew “Alexander the Macedonian, King of the Greeks”.
· The Talmud, describing the encounter of Alexander and the High Priest in 333 B.C., mentions that the latter called him “Alexander, King of the Greeks”.
· The late President of the Hellenic Republic Constantine Karamanlis, during the inauguration of the Vergina archaeological findings, had said: “Alexander served as no one else the dreams of the Greek nation, a symbol of the unbreakable union and continuation of ancient and modern Hellenism”.
· Holsner, in his book “PAUL”, writes: “The sole quasi-colonial method Alexander used for the conquest of the East, was the spreading of the Greek education, the Greek language, the Greek communal life and the Greek polis. The Greek language became thereafter the universal language of culture and education”.
· Alexander led the Army of the Greeks to the victorious war against the Persians.
· Plutarch mentions that: “Vactra and Caucausus” worshiped the Greek gods thanks to Alexander.
As Undersecretary of Trade, I visited in 1957 Lebanon, Syria and Jordan, in connection with a) the Exhibition of Damascus, b) the Cyprus issue, c) the Patriarchate of Jerusalem, where the position of the Patriarch was vacant, as well as for matters relating to trade and economy, to which I will confine myself.
I met 3 Foreign Ministers, 3 Ministers of Trade and one Undersecretary. They all proposed that Greek Technical Companies undertake the construction of their public works (airports, ports, roads etc.). They said to me that they trusted neither the Russians nor the West. They all said to me in the end: “You Greeks will never try to conquer us. We regard ourselves as descendants of Alexander the Great”.
On the archaeological site of Kabul, is a Head of Buddha and next to it a Head of Alexander the Great.
“The intellectual meeting of Greeks and Arabs (a result of the spreading of Greek learning by the Army of Alexander the Great) was the most important event in history, the benefits of which are enormous in Islam, in Europe and in the entire world”, wrote Overbye in 2001 in the TIMES of New York. Here we can add that the Greek language continued to be the official language for one hundred years, after the Arabs invaded Alexandria in 642 A.D.
The Pseudo-Macedonian nation of present FYROM, was started following the resolution of the Commitern, which sanctioned the resolutions of the Balkan Communist Parties (including the Greek Communist Party), regarding the autonomy of Macedonia. This was aimed in controlling the Aegean at a suitable time, as part of the communist expansionist plans. The opportunity for its creation was given in World War II. The 7 month resistance of the Greeks to the Axis in 1940-41, upset Hitler’s plans to concur the Soviet Union. Hitler, in order to help Mussolini, who had been defeated by the Greeks, launched an attack on the 6th April 1941 against the fortifications of the Greek borders in Macedonia and Thrace, and at the same time on Yugoslavia. During the German occupation of Yugoslavia, communist Tito finally prevailed. In September 1944, when the Germans and Bulgarians left Skopje, Tito invaded Skopje and fabricated on paper the pseudo-Macedonian nation. Tito, as a Croat, in order to diminish the power of Serbia, founded the Socialist Democracy of “Macedonia”, while he was on Yugoslavian territory.
Soon thereafter, in December 1944, Stettinius –Foreign Minister of the USA – denounced as a fraud the Democracy of Macedonia and subsequently US President Truman prevented the extraction of Macedonia and its incorporation to Skopje.
The fighting of the Greeks in 1940-41 against the Axis, which lasted 216 days till the whole of Greece, including Crete, was occupied by the Germans, saved the Soviet Union, prevented Hitler’s predominance and led to Germany’s defeat in Europe and eventually, as Hitler, Kaitel, Eden and others admitted, contributed to the Allies’ final victory in WW II.
The Frenchman Bourdau, speaking on the BBC in 1942 said: “Following England’s resolution in 1940 the Greek people saved the European civilisation. Let the Europeans remember this, otherwise it will go down as ingratitude toward Greece and betrayal toward Europe”.
President Czervenkofski and President Kerim are mistaken in believing that because a some states recognise FYROM as “Macedonia” and that FYROM may become a member of NATO and the EU, entitles them to become legalised as “Macedonia” and “Macedonians”. Those who recommended to various states to call FYROM “Macedonia”, do not know history. Verification of this point are:
· Kissinger’s statement, who speaking in Paris said: “Greece is right about the name issue. I say this because I know history, which American Ministers and officials do not. I should say that Greece has never made proper use of its strongest weapon, which is its history” (and unfortunately, among those who do not know history, are also officials of the EU).
· The late President of Hellenic Democracy, Constantine Karamanlis, in his letter addressed to his colleagues of other countries, said among other things: “It is inconceivable that at the end of the Cold War should be given historical legitimacy to Tito and Moscow, by calling South Yugoslavia Macedonia, in order to control the Aegean and extract Macedonia from Greece”.
· The US deputy Foreign Minister Mr. Τhomas Niles, making a statement on the 23rd June 1992 to the Sub-Committee of US Congress, about recent developments in Europe said: “For “Macedonia” to be recognised as an independent state, it would be necessary to change its name” and added: “It is historically proven that the Yugoslavian Democracy of Macedonia was created by Stalin, Tito and Dimitrov, aiming at the stealthy removal of a large part of Northern Greece. This Democracy was used during the period 1944-1949 in order to destabilise Greece” (Newspaper ELEFTHEROTYPIA, June 24, 1992).
I will refer only to certain frauds committed by FYROM. (Full documentation that reveal these frauds, are to be found in all my books, which many officials of the EU have in their possession).
· In 1986, FYROM deceived the Vatican and presented Greek Byzantine Icons as “Macedonian”. Following the protestation of the Archbishop of Athens, the Vatican apoligised and stated: “We were trapped by the Skopjans”.
· FYROM deceived the Russians and in the well-known Tretiakov Hall, by presenting terra cottas of the 4th century with Greek inscriptions, as “Macedonian”.
· FYROM presented the Illiden incident, that is the uprising of the Bulgarians against the Turks in 1903, as uprising of the “Macedonians” and they turned it into their National Day. The consuls of USA, England, France, Austria lived through these events of Monastery (Bitola) in 1903. According to their reports (70 in total) to the Foreign Ministers of their countries, they inform them that it was a Bulgarian uprising. The Turkish Ambassador to France, gave also the same report to the French Foreign Minister.
· In FYROM school books, a map of Macedonia is printed, in which they mention that there never was any presence of Greeks in Macedonia. They are belied by Apostle Paul, who visited Greek cities in Macedonia (Philippus, Thessaloniki, Veria), which had centuries before and continue to have the same Greek names. In Thessaloniki and Veria he came across Greek men and women whom he converted to Christianity. This reference to the Apostle, confirms the identity of Macedonia to be Greek and Macedonians to be Greeks.
· In Central Europe, during the Turkish rule, Greeks from Macedonia became Emperors (Hungary), Ministers (Rumania), Advisors and wealthy businessmen.
As it is known, an Agreement of Stability and Association was signed in 2001 between FYROM and the EU. In all my letters to High EU Officials, I emphasise that the main goal is the stability of the region, peace and good neighbour relations.
If the EU does not make it clear to FYROM that they do not represent a “Macedonian Nation” and there are no “Macedonian minorities”, there will never be any stability in the region, peace and good neighbour relations.
The only way the people of FYROM can be persuaded they have been deceived, is to follow what archaeologist Manolis Andronicos, who discovered Philip’ grave, had said: “Look at the inscriptions”.
Unfortunately, the competent authorities responsible for the enlargement of the EU, despite my numerous letters, do not decide to accompany all those members of the European Parliament related to the above Agreement and pertinent representatives of FYROM, on a visit to a) the National Research Centre of Athens, housing 5000 Greek inscriptions of Macedonia, b) the archaeological sites and the Museums of Macedonia and Skopje, so that they can confront the historical truth with their own eyes and say what the late French President Mitternad had said after such a visit: “I did not know about the excavations nor could I imagine the Greek presence would be so great here. I delved into the grandeur of ancient Macedonia”.
FYROM asserts that there are “Macedonian minorities” in Albania, Bulgaria and Greece. The existence of a minority in a country presupposes a corresponding nation, in this case a “Macedonian Nation”. Bulgarians, Albanians and Greeks renounce the existence of “Macedonian minorities” and a “Macedonian Nation”.
Zelef, as President of FYROM Democracy, when asked on the 20 th June 1993 in Sweden by a journalist of the Swedish Newspaper Svenska Dugbladed about the “Macedonian Nation”, had said: “The Macedonian Nation Commitern created after the war is a Crime committed by Titoism and Stalinism”.
Revealing about the non-existence of the Macedonian Nation are:
· The Secret Diary (published in a book by the journalist and Director of the Macedonian News Agency, Spyros Kouzinopoulos) of the Bulgarian communist leader Dimitrov, who was also one of the heads of the Communist Bloc. Dimitrov clearly mentions that in Tito’s “Macedonia”, there are only Bulgarians, Serbs and Greeks.
· Stalin’s statement – confession: “It doesn’t matter that there is no Macedonian consciousness”; and he brought as example that: “During the October revolution of 1917, there was no Nation of White Russia. We created it and nobody denies it today”.
Tzaferri, leader of an Albanian party in Skopje, accused Gligorov in August 1997 of usurping the historical and cultural heritage of other Balkan countries, with the characteristic example of the self-evident historical antiquities of Bulgaria and Greece, that resulted in quarrels. Gligorof concluded, by emphasizing that there is no real Macedoniansm, but imaginary, because it endeavors to be build on the grounds of a myth. He recently stated: “It is condemned by all scientists”.
There is no precedent in universal history of a people, that occupied and settled in another country, to appropriate the name of this country and its people, which pre-existed for more than 1000 years. It is also absurd to discover after 1950 the existence of a “Macedonian Nation”, which no history or map even mentioned for more than two thousand years.
The condemnation on the part of Greece of FYROM’s unfounded claims, must be taken for granted.
If EU does not take a stand in the matter of the identity of the Macedonians, which is the identity of the Greeks, problems will continue to arise also outside the Balkans, as it is ascertained by the following incident that lacks seriousness. In December 1955 the Italian House MEMMO and the Ministry of Culture organized in Rome an exhibition, dedicated to Alexander the Great, with the title “Macedonians, the Greeks of the North”. The delegate, Ambassador of FYROM to Rome Dr. Risto Blazevski, wrote in his letter (Registration No. 1701-2795) to the President of MEMMO HOUSE: “The Embassy of the Democracy of Macedonia expresses its immediate protestation about the offensive title of the exhibition, which advertises the Macedonians as Greeks of the North. With this title (he continued), which had serious political repercussions, the history of humanity is grossly distorted, because all those, who know true, know that the ancient Macedonians, like the Macedonians of today, have no Greek origin whatsoever. The Embassy requests hereby that you erase everywhere the inscription “Macedonians”, the Greeks of the North”. If you do not intervene, the Embassy will reserve the right to have recourse to Justice”
