Macedonia President: Country Won’t Give Up Identity

SHAPING the culture and identity of a country while not including a fourth of your population is just not wise, is it? I am actually surprised albanians haven't split up yet, but then again there's always tomorrow.

Republic of Northern Macedonia, in all uses, erga omnes Makedonse, or whatever as the ethnicity, and, Makendonski, as the language. No, no, and once more no again, today majority in fyrom is not related to the ancient Macedonians or the ancient Macedonian kingdom, whether the latter were or were not Hellenes. Also, this will be the last chapter in the previous struggle between Greek-speakers and Slav-speaking Orthodox peoples in the PROVINCE of Macedonia, most of which lies in modern-day Greece today

Way to go Vardaska! Give up the reality of a future for the ongoing falsification of the past... We Albanians support you all the way.

I have no problem with Macedonia using the "Republic of Macedonia" as it's official name, so long as the country recognizes that the ancient Macedonians considered themselves Greek, as did those around them at the time. As such, they should give up this Alexander-worship and antiquisation movement. That's something that belongs to Greek history. But using the same name as an ancient Greek people is not identity theft, anymore than using the name Peter is identity theft of someone that used that name before them. The Greek argument about the expansionist intentions of the FYROMians is garbage and should be dismissed. The Greek argument about the confusion caused by calling the country Macedonia should also be dismissed. It will create confusion amongst idiots who don't care either way, and who cares what they think anyway?

God will look down on our leaders one day and say confusion must have been invented in Macedonia for of course you are Macedonians. Our identity has always been the red line mr. President. This continued fabrication that if we put a Geographic qualifier like North in our name it would alter our identity has always been our conservatives argument to not budge on the issue due to overpwering pressure from the Macedonian Diaspora who have been bankrolling Gruevski's government ever since it came into power. Our Macedonian identity for those who are still to comprehend will never vanish regardless if we put North, Upper, Ober, Varder, etc.

"Is there anyone in this country who does not individually know the red lines regarding his identity, language, culture and tradition? Those individual red lines are our national red lines,” President Ivanov stated Try to tell this to the muslims which make up 40% of your population. The 2001 return match is round the corner.

The President of the Republic of Macedonia is right to object name change.The red line is well known to Greece.Here are some of the reasons Macedonia wants to preserve the Macedonian identity;Evangelos Kofos,the Special Counsellor on Balkan Affairs in the Greek Ministry of Foreign Affaires, reports that;"The Greek State, like other Eastern European countries of the interwar period, had pursued a policy of assimilation og ethnic groups. After World War 1 and some hesitation in the early 1920s it had decided to treat the remaining Slav speakers as Slavophone Greek."Evangelos Kofos,National and Communism in Macedonia.Aristide D.Caratzas-Publisher, New Rochelle N.Y. 1993 page 255. Decree No 332 of 1926 ordered the Slavic names of towns,villages,mountains and rivers changed to Greek name. Law No 87 of 1936 ordered Macedonians to change their names to Greek names. The Greek official Gazette published an order on July 15,1927, decreing the erasure of all old Slavic inscriptions from churches,church services in the Slavic language were forbiden, and Macedonianswere forbiden to use the Macedonian language. The Greek government changed place names and personal names from Macedonian to Greek.Ordered religious services to be performed in Greek, and altered religious icons. In 1947 those who had fought againts the government in the civil war and fled Greece were deprived of their citizenship and their property, but in 1985 a law was enacted that permitted political refugees who were "Greek" by origin to reclaim their property, thus excluding Macedonians from doing so. The Greek government denies that a Macedonian minority exists in Greece. It refers to ethnic Macedonians as "Slavophones"or "Slav Speakers". The official Greek position is that the Greek State is ethnically homogenous.How ironic to think purity while the State is more than 40% Albanians exluding the Macedonians,Vlahs,Roma,Turks, Pontious,Arvanites and others. Republic of Macedonia cannot and must not fall into a trap in the name talks.Furtheremore,Macedonia must put a stop to these absurd name talks. Here is what Miss. Skoulariki a Greek professor said"The Greek arguments are not convincing because it is a fundamental right of all people to freely choose their name. We insist that our neighbor has no right to use the name Macedonia, ignoring the fact that during the 19th and 20th centiry there was a wider region called Macedonia."I do hope,the readers on this site understand why Macedonia cannot change its identity.Greece has been engaged in a bitter propaganda againts the Macedonian minority in Northern Greece (Macedonia).It is a shame for a State such as Greece to fabricate and lie to the World and most of all to their own people.Karamanlis said "The Pontious are the real ancient Macedonians".They flip flap at every time they wants you to believe their side,and all for their political gain.

These red lines regarding your identity, language, culture and tradition, these national red lines you speak of President Ivanov were crossed when your government continued this fascist quest of Macedonism (Pseudomacedonism) and totally disregarded their Bulgarian identity and Slavic roots.

Your history lessons are becoming quite boring considering they are regurgitations of Risto Stefovs's highy fictitious renderings. You should consult independent sources and critically analyse them yourself my Diaspora friend for in Macedonia we all study regional history as it has been written by our forefathers Delchev & co. Start to think independently and you will find some good material but using recycled jargon which has been refuted by academics time and time again, all you do is show how shallow your capability is in good hard research. Good luck Peter. Long live the Macedonia Youth and SDSM

A. The changing of place names in the geographical region of Ancient Macedonia per say during modern times as you claim were a deliberate attempt to give back the original Greek names of places before Bulgarian and Ottoman invaders renamed these Greek places to Bulgar/Turkish variants. People of FYROM love to claim ancient history as their own yet fail to look past 1936 (the year of your supposed claims) in regards to this. Never has there been documented an ethnic Macedonian presence in the Balkans according to sources other than Greek including Roman, Turkish(Ottoman), Slavic or Bulgarian documents. The Macedonian legacy has always been Hellenic from Ancient to Byzantine (refer to Macedonian Dynasty founded by Basil I in 867-86) to present. B. I think you've confused FYROM's documented Albanian presence with baseless, uncreditable, ficticious propaganda spewed out by fascists in regards to this "40% of Greeks are Albanian" rubbish. C. The "Macedonian language" differs how much to Bulgarian? By 4 letters maybe?? Its more a dialect than a language in reality. D. the word fabricate comes easy to you as your whole existence is just that; a fabrication.