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[insan]

From the Little Book of BIG Greek Lies

BIG Greek Lie # 10

by Risto Stefov

January 2006

[email protected]

Click Here for Other Greek Lies

"Greeks claim no Macedonians, Turks,
Albanians or Vlachs live in Greece today"

(Greek beliefs don't include Macedonians, Albanians,
Vlachs and Turks as part of Modern Greece)


[NOTE: Our apologies to the Greek people if they find these articles offensive. Our objective here is NOT to create tension between the Macedonian and Greek people but rather to highlight the problem that exists within the Greek State and its institutions. As long as the Greek State denies our existence as Macedonians with rights and privileges, we will continue to publish these types of articles.]

It is indeed a strange phenomenon for Greece to be the only homogeneous country in an otherwise multi-ethnic heterogeneous Balkans! Is this true or has Greece developed amnesia about its past?

Before we delve into the subject of "a homogeneous Greece", let's get a few things straight. What exactly is homogeneous? I mean in a demographic sense.

A country is demographically homogeneous when its entire population is of the same culture, speaks the same language, practices the same religion and shares similar customs and traditions.

Let us now take a trip down memory lane, back to a point just before Greece became a country for the first time and see if Greece was homogeneous then?

If I am not mistaken, outside of some high ranking Christian Church clergy and a very small minority of Christian educated, middle class Ottoman families, no one spoke Greek before Greece was a country. In fact, the language spoken by the above mentioned people then was not even called Greek. I am talking about the Koine language, the ancient language of trade and commerce.

Koine, which has its roots in ancient Attica, was popularized by Alexander the Great when he made it his international language of trade and commerce for his vast Macedonian Empire. Later Koine was adopted and preserved by the Orthodox Church as the language of liturgy in some parts of the multi-ethnic Byzantine Empire. After the establishment of Ottoman rule in the Balkans it resurfaced and found its way into the Ottoman administration, spoken by a rich multi-ethnic Christian educated middle class people based in Istanbul.

More recently the ancient international Koine was adopted by the Greek State as the official language of Greece and was renamed "Greek".

So what language did the vast majority of the so-called "Greek people" speak before that?

If history serves me right, in 1821, just before Greece was established as a country, its people did not speak Greek. In 1829 when Greece became a state, for the first time, it was a small country covering the region of Morea, modern day Peloponnesus (Greece proper). The majority of people living in Morea at the time spoke Albanian, Turkish, Vlach and Slav. Athens itself, the cradle of the ancient civilization, was nothing more than an Albanian village.

So if "Greece proper" was not "pure Greek" why would anyone expect Epirus, Thessaly, Thrace, or Macedonia, regions that were never Greek to begin with, to be "pure Greek"?

The argument for "a pure Greece" used by modern Greeks today is that even though Greece was not pure at its inception, it was purified after the population expulsions in 1913 and after the population exchanges with Turkey in the 1920's.

If Greece was not "pure Greek" why would it release statistics in 1928 claiming 98% of its population to be "pure Greeks" and 2% of it to be Muslim Greeks?

This is a strong argument if one trusts Greek statistics! Unfortunately I don't!

Many Greeks today believe that Greece was purified after it expelled a large number of people in 1913 during the second Balkan War.

Many Greeks today also believe that the population imported from Asia Minor and other parts of Turkey was "pure Greek".

The fact is;

1. The population expelled from Greece in 1913 was not expelled because of its ethnicity, but rather because those people refused to be assimilated in the Greek fold. They simply refused to become Greeks.

2. The population remaining in Greece was labeled "Greek" only because it agreed, mostly out of fear, to pledge loyalty to the Greek State.

3. The population imported from Turkey in the 1920's was not imported because it identified with Greece. It was imported because it was Christian. Christianity and Islam were the only criteria separating the so-called Greeks from Turks. The vast majority of the Asia Minor Christians, culturally and linguistically, identified more with the Turks than they did with the Greeks. That, however, did not stop the Greek State from turning them into Greeks.

So who were the original so-called "pure Greeks"? Was it the Slavs of Morea, the Albanians of Epirus, the Vlachs of Thessaly, the Turks of Thrace, or the Macedonians of Macedonia?

You see I am having difficulty identifying these elusive "pure Greeks". If they were not Albanian, Vlach, Turk, or Macedonian who were they then? What criteria can we use to separate the "pure Greeks" from the Albanians, Vlachs, Turks and Macedonians living in the pre-Greek Ottoman territory of Modern Greece?

Obviously not language, since only a very small minority of the total population of Greece spoke Koine, which was later renamed Greek.

Religion? Greece at one time used religion alone to distinguish Greeks from Turks.

Wasn't that why Greece expelled Muslims to Turkey because they were thought to be Turks and imported Christians from Turkey because they were thought to be Greeks?

This criterion unfortunately is also flawed. If Orthodox Christians were Greek then everyone in the Balkans who was Orthodox Christian qualified to be Greek! This included Bulgarians, Serbians, Albanians, Macedonians, Vlachs, Turks, etc. Are Bulgarians and Serbians Greek? They don't think so!

Obviously religion alone was not a good criterion to separate Greeks from the rest!

So back to the original question, "who were the pure Greeks?"

THE TRUTH:

The ethnic composition of modern Greece today is made up of assimilated Albanians (Arvanites), Vlachs (Vlahous), Turks (Turkous) and Macedonians (Makethones). There was no pre-19th century Greek ethnicity. The Greek ethnicity was artificially created by the Phanariots with the assistance of the Great Powers!

The Phanariots were a multi-ethnic group of Koine speaking Christians belonging to the rich and educated Ottoman middle class. They were the high ranking Church clergy, the Ottoman bankers, the sea captains, the language interpreters and the traders who did business for the Ottoman Empire outside of Ottoman territories.


When Greece became a nation for the first time in 1829, it faced an identity crisis because it could not cope with its multi-ethnic, multi-cultural demography. Greece struggled for years to find an identity until one was created for it by its British and French philhellene patrons.

After adopting the ancient Koine as the language of its nation, Greece fabricated a mythical past with a lineage stretching back to the Ancient Greeks and initiated a denationalization and assimilation process. Through intensive, sometimes violent propaganda campaigns Greece began to assimilate the various ethnicities making Greeks out of Albanians, Vlachs, Slavs, Turks and later out of Macedonians.

As I mentioned earlier, the various people Greece expelled from its newly conquered territories were those who refused to assimilated into the new Greek identity.

The majority of Muslims Greece evicted during the population exchange with Turkey were ethnic Macedonians.

The people Greece imported from Asia Minor, Istanbul and other places in Turkey were not Greek, they were Turkish Christians. A large number were prominent business people who owned various businesses and estates in Turkey. Unfortunately when they were displaced they lost everything and became second class citizens in Greece. Even though Greece promised them homes, after nearly eighty years, some still live in Government owned shacks and shantytowns. These people too were forcibly assimilated and made into unwilling Greeks just like the rest of the ethnicities on Greek soil.

So, is Greece "truly pure and homogeneous" or has it developed an amnesia about its past? You decide!

Worse than pretending to be who they are not, modern Greeks are now interfering with Macedonian affairs, telling the Macedonians they can't be Macedonian because according to Greek logic Macedonians don't exist! In reality however, it's the Greeks who don't exist, not the Macedonians!

Here is a question for our neo-Greek friends: Please tell me, ethnically speaking, who are the "Maniates", where did they come from and what language did they speak before they were made into Greeks?

Hint: The Maniates are a tall blond people now living in the Peloponnesus. Before they were turned into Greeks they lived in Mani in the region known as the Morea. They were/are supposedly the most loyal and trusted of all Greeks.

http://www.maknews.com/html/articles/st ... fov88.html

[insan]

The Greek Atrocities in Aegean Macedonia

On June 21, 22, and 23, 1913, the Greek army completely burned to the ground the city of Kukush (today Kilkis), known for its resistance against Hellenism in the XIX century.
Between June 29 and 25, 39 villages in the Kukush area were also burned down.
On June 23 and 24, the city of Serres (today Serrai) was set on fire where 4000 houses perished. In the Serres gymnasium the Greeks murdered about 200 people.
During these days the larger portion of Strumica was also destroyed by the Greek army.
Between June 23 and 30, many villages in the Drama and Serres districts were burned down.
From June 27 to July 6, all Macedonian quarts in Salonika were set on fire.
The Carnegie Commission composed of members from USA, Germany, Russia, France, Austria, and England, witnessed these Greek atrocities when visited Aegean Macedonia. Their final conclusion was that the Greek army has burned to the ground 170 Macedonian and Turkish villages, with over 17,000 houses.

Since 1913, official Greece has been trying to banish native Macedonian names of villages, towns, cities, rivers, and lakes in Aegean Macedonia. For example, the little stream which issues from Mount Olympus and flows into the Aegean Sea is labeled Mavroneri ("black water") on the maps made by Greek cartographers after 1913. However, the same river appears as Crna Reka, a native Macedonian name meaning "black river" on the maps made before 1913. Kukush has been dropped for Kilkis and Serres for Serai, together with at least 300 other places all over Macedonia.

http://faq.macedonia.org/history/12.1.2.html#tga

[insan]

Forced Change of the Ethnic Structure of Aegean Macedonia

The presence of the Macedonians in Aegean Macedonia could not allow Greece to claim that land to be Greek and only Greek. Since it was proven that they resisted the Hellenization, Greece decided to drive them out of Macedonia. Greece made agreements with Bulgaria (signed 10/27/19), and Turkey (1/30/23 in Lausanne), for exchange of population. This provided for the Macedonians of Aegean to leave for Bulgaria, while the Greeks in Bulgaria and Turkey settled in the Aegean part of Macedonia. These measures changed the ethnic character of the Aegean. According to the "Great Greek Encyclopedia", there were 1,221,849 newcomers against 80,000 "slavophones". The "Ethnic Map of Greek Macedonia Showing the Ratio Between Various Ethnic Elements in 1912 and 1926," claims there were 119,000 "bulgarisants" in 1912, and 77,000 in 1926. The Greek ethnic map of Aegean Macedonia was submitted to the League of Nations by the Greek government. The League of Nations had not visited Aegean Macedonia and did not participate at all in conducting these statistics. Greece here refers to the Macedonians as "bulgarisants", which means "those who pretend to be Bulgarians" and obviously non-Bulgarians. However, Greece uses many other names in falsificating the identity of the Macedonians. Slavophones, Slav Macedonians, Makedoslavs, Slav Greeks, and Bulgarisants, are only some of the names that prove Greece's non-preparedness in this mean falsification of the Macedonian people and language. There are also other Greek sources that contradict the previous numbers of the Macedonians in Greece. The Athenian newspaper, "Message d' Aten" wrote on February 15, 1913, that the number of "Bulgar-echarhists" was 199,590 contradicting with those 119,000 of the "Ethnic Map of Greek Macedonia".

When the Bulgarian and Serbian views are added, the confusion gets only bigger. According to the Bulgarian Rumenov, in 1928 there were total of 206,435 "Bulgarians", while the Serb Bora Milojevich claimed 250,000 "Slavs" in Aegean Macedonia. The speculations with the real number of Macedonians is obvious again. Their true number remains disputable in the Balkan documents, same as it was the case before the partition of 1912. On the other hand, the Greek government would not allow anybody, including neutral observers to conduct statistical studies.

[insan]

Recognition of the Macedonian Language by Greece

Greece signed the agreement to provide education in the languages of the minorities that remained within her borders, obligated under the international law. As a result, Sakerlarou Press in Athens printed a primer in the Macedonian language called "Abecedar" in 1924. It was intended for the Macedonian children in soon to be opened new schools in Aegean Macedonia. This was a clear recognition of the existence of the Macedonians in Greece. The Greek government, however, later changed its position and the primer never reached the schools.

[insan]

The Macedonian Language Forbidden in Greece

The Englishmen B. Hild who traveled through Aegean Macedonia in 1928 has recorded that the Greeks are chasing not only the alive Macedonians, to whom they sometimes refer to as "bulgarophones" and sometimes as "slavophones", but also the graves of dead Macedonians, by destroying all non-Greek signs on the crosses. The use of the Macedonian language was forbidden and punishable when dictator Metaxis gained power in Greece. It is believed that between 1936 and 1940, some 5,250 Macedonians were persecuted for only speaking their native language. Here is an official order of the National Garde in Nered (Polipotamos):

"All residents from two to fifty years of age are forbidden to use any other language but Greek. I direct special attention to the youth. Anyone to break this law will be punished."

[insan]

Etnic Maps of Macedonia

As the facts point out, the Macedonians were not wiped out from Aegean Macedonia in spite of the many assimilation attempts of the Greek government. One such fact is the ethnic map of Europe in The Times Atlas of World History, where the Macedonians presented as separate nationality cover the territory of complete Macedonia, including Aegean Macedonia in Greece.

Here is another map, part of a larger Balkan map and made by German slavists and ethnographers, first published after World War I, which proves that that the ethnic Macedonians are the majority in Aegean Macedonia while the Greeks consist only a small minority.

[insan]

Macedonians Oppressed in Greece

Following are several documents regarding the oppression of the Macedonians in Aegean Macedonia before World War II. They appeared in "Rizospastis", a newspaper published by the Greek Communist Party (KKE).

April 15, 1934

Serres (Serrai). The town square was covered with leaflets with revolutionary proclamations calling upon the soldiers to straggle for a solution to their problems and against the beastly reign of terror. Officers imprisoned the soldiers who read the leaflets... The most barbarous methods were used against us Macedonians, soldiers of the 6th Heavy Artillery Regiment. The majority of us are illiterate, we do not know Greek and therefore we frequently do not understand their orders. The officers tried to teach us to read and write, but their efforts were abandoned too soon and were performed so improperly than none of us learned anything.
June 6, 1934

Voden (Edessa). Here, in Voden, and in our whole district, in the heart of Macedonia, here where we Macedonians do not know any other language but our own Macedonian, various agents of the Greek capitalism force us to speak Greek. Consequently, they threaten us constantly with expulsion to Bulgaria, they call us Komitajis, expropriate our fields which we have drenched with our sweet just to produce a piece of bread. In addition, they deprive us of the freedom which our fathers won after many years of struggle in which they gave their lives for the liberation of Macedonia. We live under the yoke of Greek capitalism, literally as slaves. In the elementary schools, the young children who speak their own language are beaten every day. Particularly here in Voden, the henchman and fascist Georgiadis beats the children if they speak their Macedonian tongue.
June 8, 1934

Lerin (Florina). It has been some time now that the whole bourgeois press launched a campaign against the Macedonian people. It represents a part of the fascist and military measures which the Government of Tsaldaris carries out in its orientation towards an increasingly brutal oppression of the people's masses in Macedonia. The Chief of the Security Forces here, Karamaunas, whenever he meets us on the streets threatens us with the words: "You are Bulgarians and if by any chance I discover any sort of organized movement, I will beat you without mercy and than I will deport you." We Macedonians should rise with greater courage and by means of increased activities should reject this campaign because it brings us an even more brutal oppression, starvation, misery, and war.

[insan]

VIOLATION OF THE HUMAN RIGHTS OF THE MACEDONIANS IN GREECE

The 80-page human rights violation report on Greece entitled "Denying Ethnic Identity - Macedonians of Greece" was published in May 1994. After visiting Aegean Macedonia, The Human Rights Watch/Helsinki concluded:


http://faq.macedonia.org/history/12.1.2.html#tga

Come on Oracles the great philosopher... ur daddy wants to hear ur opinions regarding Greek lies and human rights violations of Greece.

[kafenes]

insan, why is this in the 'Cyprus Problem' section??

[Oracle]

Insan is trying to ignore posts against Turkey ... which is the real enemy occupying Cyprus and instead has picked on a random EU member state ... probably because of some past affiliations.

He is old fashioned and not prone to moving with the times ...

Let's ignore him for his own good!