by Manolis Astreinidis

A Skopian banknote with the White Tower on it.

After 1944 a deliberate and systematic campaign was initiated for Yugoslavia’s southern republic to take over the history of ancient Macedonia. “Scholars” from the “People’s Republic of Macedonia” were commissioned to re-write their history books to include the ancient Macedonian History according to the wishes of the League of Communists of communist Yugoslavia, accompanied by perverted maps showing their “Macedonia” going all the way down to the northern half of Mount Olympus. Also, “linguists” led by Blagoj Konev, a.k.a. Blaze Koneski, were appointed to create the alphabet for and refine the “newly discovered” Macedonian language, which, of course, was made to sound as if it were the “natural development” of the ancient Macedonian language. Through their control of mass media and education, the government of “People’s Republic of Macedonia”, then introduced this language and claimed that it is the language that was spoken by the ancient Macedonians. However, this language is grammatically nearly identical to Bulgarian and, due to continuous government interventions, its vocabulary tends to include more Serbo-Croatian words that have replaced the Bulgarian. They clearly overlooked the unquestionable fact that the inhabitants of ancient Macedonia were Greeks and spoke the Greek language. Numerous excavations in all of the ancient Macedonia area have consistently unearthed relics clearly with Greek writings, and depictions of rulers clearly designated with Greek names.

In September of 1991 this republic declared independence from Yugoslavia and it named itself “Republic of Macedonia” as a new independent country. They designed a new flag with the Sun of Vergina at its center and printed new currency with the White Tower of Thessaloniki, symbols clearly from the northern province of Greece. Because of these actions and also because of certain articles in their constitution which implied that the their country had territorial rights to all of the ancient Macedonian area, Greece imposed a trade embargo and prevented any trade commerce through Greece’s northern border. Greece reluctantly lifted the trade embargo when The FYROM redesigned and accepted a new flag, stopped the issuance of the new currency with the depiction of the White Tower of Thessaloniki, and passed amended articles to their constitution implying that they have no territorial rights outside their present boundaries. Greece, however, continued to object to their use of the name Macedonia. Because of this objection, the United Nations accepted this nation as a new member with the temporary name of the “Former Yugoslav Republic Of Macedonia (FYROM)” (UN Resolutions #817 of April 7 and #845 of June 18 of 1993) until a permanent solution to the name is found. To this date no solution has been found and the UN deadline of September 13, 2002 has passed by with the two countries only agreeing to extend discussions on this matter for one more year.

If the entire region of the FYROM were from ancient Macedonia they would have some legitimate claim for the FYROM to be called Macedonia. But it is not. Over 90% of the ancient Macedonian area is outside of the FYROM’s borders and less than 1/5 of its own land within its borders is from the ancient Macedonian area. The FYROM is clearly mostly a Slavic region.

If a vast majority of the inhabitants in the FYROM were Greeks, they would have some legitimate claim to have this country named Macedonia. But they are not. The Greek inhabitants in the FYROM are a small minority.

So where does their claim for the FYROM to be called Macedonia in any form comes from? There is no valid reason, which is based on truth for this country to have any form of a name that contains “Macedonia” in it.

Presently, internal strife between the various minorities within the FYROM, has placed the country on the verge of collapse. Albania and Bulgaria are anxiously waiting on the sidelines for this to happen to quickly rush in and grab a piece of it. On the other hand, Greece maintains a position of a staunch supporter for the survival of this country. Isn’t it ironic that the FYROM continues to slap Greece, its one and only friend of the region, in the face with the “Macedonian Name Issue”?

Changing their name back “VARDARSKA REPUBLIKA“ would serve as a unifying force for the various factions within its borders, would eliminate the name controversy with its neighbors, and would put them on the road to their proper identity, ethnicity, heritage and most of all dignity.