Đoko Slijepčević, “The Macedonian Question”, Chicago 1958

The monograph “The Macedonian Question” by the exiled Serbian historian and Germanist Đoko Slijepčević, published in 1958 in Chicago represents a classic synthesis of historical and ethnological aspects of Slavic identity in Povardarje, with emphasis on its Serbian aspect which is often neglected in modern-day discourse due to the far greater quantity of Bulgarian and Pseudomacedonian publications in English language dealing with the issue. Although it is dated in some aspects and deficient in review of archeological material and the issue of Hellenism of Macedonia proper, author’s reliance on well-established fact and erudition with regard to Povardarje’s history, especially the medieval period, emergence of 19th century Bulgarian Revival on the area of FYROM and Ecclesiastic History, including the early separatism of what is today known as the so-called “Macedonian Orthodox Church” make this book a worthy addition in every historical research.

Link to the online edition:

http://www.povardarje.info/html/djoko-slijepcevic-the-macedonian-question-1958.html

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The Names of Famous Macedonians on Public Signs in FYROM Scrawled with Spray Paint [06-V-2009]

News segment which presents the conclusion from the Greek newspaper “Ethnos” about the name dispute between Skoplje and Athens, the news about spray-painting over the names of famous Ancient Macedonians on public signs in FYROM and the news about meeting of Đorđe Ivanov and Antonio Milošoski.

Miroslav Grčev, an Architect, About the Monument of Alexander in Skoplje [06-V-2009]

Taken from the website of Bulgarian Press Agency “Bgnes”.

http://news.v2.bgnes.com/view/734407

Според архитекта Мирослав Гърчев този паметник “е пълен нонсенс”. “Вече никой не си задава въпроса за това каква е логиката за този паметник, какво е посланието му, какъв е смисълът от поставянето на този гигантски паметник точно на Александър Македонски и неговия кон. Поставянето на толкова голям паметник на този малък площад не е оправдано, нито от естетическа, нито от архитектурна гледна точка, да не говорим за цивилизационна”, казва още Гърчев. Според него подобни паметници намират място само в авторитарни общества, на деспоти, на диктатури, на тирани от най-различен произход – фашистки, комунистически или от някоя друга идеология. Последните подобни паметници в света са построени от Садам Хюсейн. Такива гигантски паметници има само в Монголия, Северна Корея. В историята на нито една балканска страна, включително и на Македония няма подобни неща”, каза с възмущение Гърчев. Според него тази инициатива представлява и “престъпление срещу изкуството”.

According to the architect Miroslav Grčev that monument is a “full nonsense”. “Nobody is asking himself what is the logic of that monument, what is its message, what is the meaning of placement of that gigantic monument precisely of Alexander of Macedon and his horse. Placement of such large monument on that tiny square is not justified, neither from aesthetic, nor from architectural viewpoint, not to mention the civilizational one”, says Grčev. According to him, similar monument are finding their place only in authoritarian societies, of despots, of dictatorships, of tyrants of all kind of origins-Fascist, Communist or from some other ideology. The last monuments of that kind in the world were build from Saddam Husein. Such gigantic monuments can be found only in Mongolia, North Korea. In the history of neither Balkan land, including Macedonia there are no similar things”, says Grčev with anger. According to him that initiative represents also a “crime against the art”

Lazar Elenovski Calls for Compromise on the Name Dispute with Greece [14-IV-2009]

Lazar Elenovski, a centrist political leader and former FYROMian Minister of Defense urges for compromise with Greece with regard to the name dispute at a conference of local Euro-Atlantists.

Professor and Writer Jasna Kotevska Against Pseudomacedonism [08-II-2009]

Jasna Kotevska gives her opinion about the Pseudomacedonian fascist regime, making parallels with other totalitarian regimes, in an interview by A1’s Biljana Sekulovska.

Martin Bernal’s “Black Athena” Promoted at Skoplje’s Book Fair [09-IV-2009]

The central promotion of the debunked magnum opus of Afrocentrism, “Black Athena” by Martin Bernal, during the Book Fair in Skoplje. Among the participant, apart from the author, were Rubin Zemon of “Evro-Balkan” institute, professor of philosophy Branislav Sarkanjac and Jordan Plevneš of the so-called “World Macedonian Congress”, all of whom openly displayed Pseudomacedonian nationalist motives for their admiration of this book.

Tito Petkovski Speaks About the Absurdities of FYROMian Politics [07-IV-2009]

Tito Petkovski, a veteran leftist politician, speaks after his defeat in the race for office of Skoplje’s Mayor.

Letter to Victor Friedman

Ime romeos e xeuro plus glose Fazio degli
Uberti, Il Dittamondo, 3.23.36
March, 2009

In his interview on Balkanalysis.com (12/14/2008) [1], Linguistics professor and Balkan Studies scholar Victor Friedman portrays Greeks as a most undemocratic and oppressive nation, from ancient to present time, and places the role of Greece in the Balkans in a most negative light. The core of his arguments seems to lie in what he considers suppression of multilingualism and minorities in Greece, which he associates with the current dispute between Greece and the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia (FYROM) on the name of the latter country. As scholars and academics, some of us students of Macedonian history and culture, we wish to offer an alternative perspective and rebut Friedman’s views and assertions in regard to the identity of the modern Greek nation and the true nature of the current dispute between Greece and FYROM. It should be noted that, prior to our decision to write this letter, we invited Dr. Friedman to debate his views in the Hellenic Electronic Center/Professors’ Forum*, but he declined our invitation.

Friedman’s overt bias is best exemplified in his remark “Greeks get away with this ‘cradle of democracy’ image! Give me a break! Ancient Greece was a slave-owning society,” which defies further comment. It is indeed unfortunate that such a statement came from a scholar.

We will not respond with similar sensationalism here. Rather, we will remain close to the facts and scholarly sources, and address those points made by Friedman which might sound reasonable to a reader who is not familiar with the past and the recent history of the Southern Balkan region.

1) Friedman states that “Greeks have been trying to destroy the Slavic culture and its literacy since the Middle Ages”.

Quite to the contrary, the Greeks of Byzantium and the post-byzantine period immensely and crucially contributed to the development of the Slavic cultures of Russia, Bulgaria, and Serbia, during their conversion to Christianity [2]. Remarkably, Friedman neglects to acknowledge that the written Slavic languages were developed by two Byzantine Greek monastic scholars and linguists, Cyril and Methodius of Thessaloniki. Among others, Friedman also displays sheer disregard for: a) the pivotal contributions to Russian literature and philosophy by 15th century Athonite luminary monk Maximus Graecus (Μάξιμος ο Γραικός) [3]; b) the learned Greek brothers, Ioanniky and Sofrony Likhud (Λειχούδη), founders of Moscow’s first institution of higher learning, the Slavic-Greek-
Latin Academy, in 1687 [4]; and c) the centuries-old devotion of the Mother Church (Patriarchate of Constantinople) and Greek clergy to their Slav brethren, as embodied in the published works of the 19th century influential theologian and scholar Konstantinos Oeconomos (Κωνσταντίνος Οικονόμος εξ Οικονόμων)[5], a strong advocate of the historical ties and close kinship between Greeks and Slavs through the centuries.
2) In his rather bookish and rigidly circumscribed view about linguistically divergent constituencies in Greece, Friedman challenges the very essence of Modern Greek identity by disregarding -in a historical sense- the inclusive tradition of Romiosyni, the natural precursor of the Modern Greek nation. The concept of Romiosyni is, in many respects, akin to a ‘Greek Commonwealth’, which transcends racial, tribal, and regional linguistic barriers. In failing to bring this concept into consideration when it comes to the historical context of multilingualism in the Balkan region, Friedman echoes earlier claims by—let us note—Greek scholars such as the late Loukas Tsitsipis [6] of Aristotle University of Thessaloniki and the late Kostas Kazazis [7] of the University of Chicago. Friedman -who is no stranger to Arvanitika, Vlahika and Slavonic dialects in the geographic region of Macedonia- fails to acknowledge that linguistically variegated groups such as Vlach-, Arvanite-, and Slavonic speakers in Macedonia, members of the Ottoman Rum millet and loyal followers of the Patriarchate of Constantinople, were not “Hellenized” subjects (by way of coercive or repressive assimilation) but rather they comprised dominant forces decisively partaking in the fermentation process leading to the shaping of Modern Greek identity and the dissemination of Greek letters in Ottoman Rumelia long before the eruption of ethnic feuds, divisions, and regional nationalisms [8, 9].
3) Friedman alludes to Greek indifference or even resistance to learning foreign languages, unlike other Balkan peoples. It is surprising that a Linguistics scholar uses the (presumed) lack of a Greek proverb to the effect that ‘languages are wealth’ as evidence that Greeks do not value multilingualism. This kind of rhetoric does not constitute a sound linguistic argument, and though possibly appealing to a lay-person, it reflects a way of thinking (called “strong relativism”) that has been largely discredited in current Linguistics.

To go back to scholarly sources, in his book “Bilingualism and the Latin Language” Cambridge University Press, 2003 [10], John N. Adams, Senior Research Fellow of All Souls College, Oxford, asserts that whilst “it has long been the conventional opinion that Greeks were indifferent or hostile to the learning of foreign languages, recently it has been shown that that view is far from the truth. Latin in particular was widely known, as has been demonstrated by Holford-Strevens and on a massive scale by Rochette.” [11]

With reference to the modern history of the Greek Nation (Γένος), members of the Rum millet and Romiosyni, ranging from those belonging to the high echelon of diplomats and luminaries of the Sublime Porte (viz. the Phanariots) to the ubiquitous Balkan merchants and retailers in the Ottoman Rumelia, were in fact polyglot (Greek-, Vlach-, Albanian-, Slavonic-, and/or Turkish-speaking, many of them acquainted with Russian, French, German and/or English). Noteworthy in this regard was the precocious (18th century) Greek ‘renaissance’ in Moschopolis/Moscopole (present day Albania) [12] and the
19th/early 20th century Greek cultural dimension in Pelagonia (Krushevo and Monastir/Bitola; present day FYROM) [8, 9]. These centers fostered the dissemination of Greek culture and letters, promoted by bilingual or polyglot speakers with fervent Greek national identity. Vestiges from this, once flourishing, community are still present today
in FYROM.

The famous Protopiria (Primer), an Albanian-German-Modern Greek-Vlach dictionary written by the polymath cleric and scholar Theodoros Anastasiou Kavaliotis (Kavalliotes) [13], was the forerunner of comparative linguistics in the Balkans. It was printed in 1770 in Venice, and stands as a reminder of the widespread multilingualism in the flourishing Grecovlach center of Moschopolis/Moscopole and across the territories of the Ottoman Rumelia (the geographical region of Macedonia included).

Reference is made herein to the published works by Thomas Paschidis (1879) [14] and Mihail Lanbrinydis (1907) [15], which capture the collective memories of Arvanite and Vlach Greeks during the second half of the 19th century and the early 20th century. These works offer a palpable proof of the Greek-Albanian kinship perceived by the 19th century Greek scholars. Noteworthy in this regard are the demonstrative sentiments of Thomas Paschidis, a bilingual -possibly polyglot- Greek Epirote/Arvanite luminary, towards his Grecovlach and Bulgarian brethren. His book contains an appendix in Arvanitika using Greek characters, which is especially informative and enlightening [14].

Given the above, we contend that claims for the presence of divergent identities of Greeks, Arvanites, Vlachs, and so-called Macedonian Slavs, based solely on linguistic grounds, should be viewed with cautious circumspection and within the context of time and space. In particular, it is somewhat surprising that Friedman did not consider the massive diffusion of Arbereshe (Arvanite) speakers southward into the Helladic Mainland and the Peloponnese during the 14th and 15th centuries (and the most relevant Stradioti saga). The remarkable fermentation and integration of Arbereshe/Shqiptare-speaking populations with Greek-, Vlach/Armin-, and Slavonic-speaking members of the Rum millet during the ensuing centuries remains at the core of Romiosyni and Modern Greek ethnogenesis.

Thus, from a modern historic and anthropological perspective, the rigidly circumscribed and sharply delimited ethno-linguistic ‘definitions’ and compartmentalizations brought forward by Friedman are open to critical reappraisal. Importantly, they are, to a large extent, alien and irrelevant to the Greeks of Arvanite or Vlach origin, whose identity has been shaped by their collective participation in the Modern Greek Experience during the past two (and possibly more) centuries.

The “Declaration of the Northern Epirotes from the Districts of Korytsa and Kolonia Demanding Union of Their Native Province with Greece — Pan-Epirotic Union in America, (Boston, 1919)” is a testament to the perception of their Greek identity among Albanian-, Vlach- and Greek speakers in Southern Albania/Northern Epirus http://www.helleniccomserve.com/pdf/Declaration%20of%20Northern%20Epirotes%20i n%2019%5B1%5D…pdf
Whilst the vision of the 18th century Grecovlach luminary Rigas Velestinlis Thettalos (Feraios) for the creation of a post-Ottoman Balkan Federation/Commonwealth, transcending regional and linguistic differences, did not materialize, the idea -nonetheless- reflected the sentiment of many emancipated Greeks at the time. But the ethnic/national ‘awakenings’ and the divisive forces were already underway, heralding the partial disintegration of Romiosyni followed by a protracted and intractable course of regional feuds and dissensions, which unfortunately live up to this day. The emergence of the ethnocentric national(istic) narrative of ‘Makedonism’ is symptomatic of delayed ‘awakening’ thanks -in part- to the contributions by scholars like Dr. Victor Friedman.

4) Friedman’s argument that “the Greeks came up with a line claiming the Macedonians could not claim the name Macedonia unless they were descended from the Ancient Macedonians” is a sheer misrepresentation. The basis of the dispute between Greece and FYROM lies on the open attempt by the FYROM government to appropriate a very significant part of the Greek history (see examples: http://faq.macedonia.org/history/ and http://www.macedonia-timeless.com/). As part of its newly constructed national narrative, FYROM has opted to trace its historical roots to classical antiquity, underrating the predominantly Slavonic cultural heritage of the majority of its population, which is shared with its Bulgarian brethren. In the words of Dr. Evangelos Kofos, Greece’s leading authority on Modern Macedonian History, this all-encompassing doctrine of ‘Makedonism’ is “encroaching upon an illustrious past, which had been recorded in the annals of Hellenic heritage, almost a millennium prior to the arrival of Slavic tribes in the region” [16] (N.B. There was no Slavic presence in Macedonia until nearly 1,000 years after the time of Alexander the Great).

Aside from the grandiose ideations traceable to antiquity, there is yet another darker side to the ethnocentric national narrative of ‘Makedonism’. Central to the problem at hand is the morbid obsession with race, DNA, HLA haplotypes, and the likes, underlying a broader racial purity narrative. In the video below, one can see footage from a staged propaganda-style inspirational film titled “Makedonska Molitva” (Macedonian Prayer), which was aired on the government-run MTV1 – National TV, First Channel television station of Skopje. Note that the video culminates in a crescendo blending biblical apocalyptic delusions with overtly racial overtones from a different era. Thus, using Hellenized terms, the narrator speaks God’s words to the children of the Sun and Flowers telling them that Mother Earth gave birth to three races: “Makedonjoide = white race, Mongoloide = yellow race, Negroide = black race (all others being mulattoes).” And God went on to say to the Makedontsi that, “All white people are your brethren because they carry ‘Macedonian’ genes.” [17] http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PZJ62MGF7xI
It is indeed regrettable that Friedman has opted to downplay the gravity and long-term implications of a morbidly nationalistic narrative nurtured in the primary and secondary school curricula of FYROM.

Greeks throughout the world do not harbor any enmity or hostility toward FYROM nationals, and yearn for a peaceful and productive coexistence between the two peoples.
Greece has an earnest desire for mutual respect and the realization of a lasting political solution with its northern neighbor. Greece does not deny the nationals of FYROM their identity (or identities). In this dispute, Greece is only compelled to delineate the distinction between the ethno-cultural domains of Greek Macedonia and FYROM. With this in mind, we wish that the people of FYROM start questioning the state propaganda and reflect upon their recent history. They were victimized for half a century under a totalitarian regime and were nurtured under a propagandistic educational system. In keeping with this entrenched tradition, Article 6 of the Law on the Scientific Research Activity, as published in the “Official Gazette of the Republic of Macedonia” Nos.13/96 and 29/02, proscribes the development of any scientific research on the ethnic identity of the citizens of FYROM. We believe that such obsessive preoccupation with national identity in the 21st century, coupled with misrepresentation of history, only harms the citizens of FYROM.

As a geographic region, Macedonia has long been known for its ethno-linguistic diversity for which the time-honored term “Macedonian salad” was coined. Hence, Macedonia is neither a single country nor the cradle of a single nation, but a geographic region (with protean borders throughout history) parts of which belong nowadays to three states, each with its distinctive cultural heritage, national identity, and collective memory. It is most disturbing that Skopje claims the entire geographic Macedonian region of modern times as part of that nation’s “tatkovina” (fatherland), thus effectively laying claim to unredeemed territories in Greek Macedonia [18]. This is not a “hidden agenda”. The government of FYROM has published and circulated a state map showing FYROM to extend over Greek territory, including Thessaloniki [19].

The Hellenic identity of ancient Macedonia is indisputable; it is supported by historical, archeological, and linguistic evidence. For the socio-political and historical facts, the most authoritative source is the classic work of the leading scholar on the history of ancient Macedonia, the late Prof. Nicholas Hammond’s book, The Macedonian State, Clarendon Press, Oxford, 1989. As regards the language, by 5th century B.C. Attic Greek was standardized as the language of Ancient Macedonia (Makedon). For instance, of the 1,044 inscriptions included in the fascicle Inscriptiones Thessalonicae et Viciniae (ISBN 3 11 0018594) -one of the most painstaking and complex volumes of the Berlin corpus, encompassing all the inscriptions of ancient Thessaloniki from the 3rd century B.C. to the 7th or 8th century A.D.- most are Greek, while a few are Latin (personal communication with Dr. John C. Rouman, Professor Emeritus of Classics at the University of New Hampshire) [20]. When considering the pre-5th century B.C. language (for which evidence is more fragmentary), the current consensus seems to be that it was a Hellenic dialect. The term “Hellenic” has been proposed by Professor Brian Joseph (Ohio State University, 1999, 2001) [21] to refer to the linguistic sub-family within the Indo-European languages that comprises Ancient Macedonian and the rest of the Greek dialects. This classification has been adopted by the LINGUIST list (the official electronic site of Linguistics); see
http://www.linguistlist.org/forms/langs/GetListOfAncientLgs.html and
http://linguistlist.org/forms/langs/get-familyid.cfm?CFTREEITEMKEY=IEG
On the first site, it is additionally cautioned that “Macedonian is the ancient language of the Macedonian kingdom in northern Greece and modern Macedonia during the 1st millennium B.C. Not to be confused with the modern Macedonian language, which is a close relative of the Slavonic Bulgarian [emphasis ours].” For additional references on the subject, see G. Babiniotis, “Ancient Macedonian: The Place of Macedonian among the Greek Dialects” in : A. M. Tamis (ed.), Macedonian Hellenism, Melbourne 1990, pp. 241-250; C. Brixhe, A. Panayotou, “Le Macedonien” in: Langues indo-europeennes, ed. Bader, Paris, 1994, 205-220; and J. Chadwick, The Prehistory of the Greek Language, Cambridge 1963.

5) Friedman’s assertion that the Greek State has implemented repressive measures against the “Macedonian minority” in Greece is politically motivated. Most importantly, it misrepresents the real demographic situation in the Northwestern prefectures of Greek Macedonia, by not taking into account the fact that the use of variant local Slavonic-like idioms/dialects is widespread among bilingual, indigenous Greek Macedonians with unambiguous Greek identity. These bilingual Greek Macedonians (also known as Grecomans or Grkmani) along with Grecovlachs were the backbone of Romiosyni and Hellenism in the region during the 19th and 20th centuries. Friedman should by now be cognizant of the fact that when it comes to Macedonian identities it ultimately boils down to choices of national affiliation, as, not infrequently, even members of the same family may profess divergent ethnic/national identities. And even though Greece disputes the existence of a “Macedonian minority” on the grounds of definition, the self-described “party of the Macedonian minority in Greece”, Rainbow-Vinozhito, enjoys full recognition by the Greek state (and receives a negligible number of votes in elections). Vinozhito’s members are free to openly express their grievances and dissenting opinions.

The problem of FYROM is further compounded by the fact that a large proportion of its population, and a number of the Slavophone inhabitants of Greece, collaborated with the Italian and German occupation forces (1941-1944) [22] and by the rekindling of old family feuds and grievances dating back to the days of the Greek Civil War (1945-1949). These have nowadays resurfaced thanks to the bitter politics embraced by a third generation of politicians in Skopje, belonging for the most part to the nationalist VMRO-DPMNE party [16, 22]. Some of them, like current Prime Minister Nikola Gruevski, identify themselves as “Aegean Macedonian” (Egejski) political refugees, based on their family roots in Greek Macedonia [16]. At issue are claims for restitution and/or repatriation, subjects that other states with autonomist Axis collaborators (such as the Czech Republic and Poland) refuse even to discuss [22, 23]. Whilst during the past thirty years the Greeks have managed to heal some of the Civil War wounds, there are still fresh memories, even among members of the Greek Communist Party, about the subversive actions of Makedonski autonomist bandsmen of NOF endangering the territorial integrity of Greek Macedonia. By playing the Egejski card half a century later, in the midst of negotiations over the thorny ‘name issue’, Skopje shows an increasingly intransigent and confrontational -rather than constructive- approach.
We conclude by emphasizing that sensationalism and sheer bias, as displayed in Friedman’s interview, serve neither historical truth nor a constructive scholarly or political discourse; and they certainly do not help the people of FYROM. No intellectual and scholar should feel comfortable accepting, let alone promoting, such rhetoric.

ENDNOTES

1. Victor Friedman on Macedonia: the Balkanalysis.com Interview
http://www.balkanalysis.com/2008/12/14/victor-friedman-on-macedonia-the-balkanalysiscom-interview/
2. “Byzantium nurtured the untamed tribes of the Serbs, Bulgars, Russians and Croats and shaped them into nations. It gave them its religion, its institutions, its traditions, and taught their leaders how to govern. Indeed, [Byzantium] gave them the essence of culture -written language/script and philology.” F. Dvornik, Les Slaves, Byzance et Rome au IXe siecle, II, Paris 1928 and P.P. Charanis, The development of Byzantine Studies in the United States. Acceptance lecture by Professor P. Charanis upon his conferral of Doctor honoris causa by the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki (14.3.1972), Thessaloniki, 1973, 34. Cited in Achille Lazarou, Ellinismos kai Laoi Notioanatolikis (NA) Evropis. Diachronikes kai Diepistimonikes Diadromes. Tomos A’. Lychnia Publishers, Athens, 2009, p. 218 [ISBN 978-960-930950-9].
3. Antonios-Emilios Tahiaos O Athonitis Monahos Maximos o Graikos. O Teleftaios ton Vyzantinon sti Rossia, published by the Society for Macedonian Studies, People’s Library, Thessaloniki 2008. http://www.ems.gr/ems/client/userfiles/file/EKDOSEIS/MAKEDONIKI_LAIKI_BIBLIOTHIKI/Taxiaos_ Maximos_Graikos.pdf
4. Before coming to Moscow, the Greek brothers studied in Venice and Padua. At the Moscow Academy, Ioanniky taught physics while his brother Sofrony taught physics and logic in the Aristotelian tradition, while also emphasizing the works of Byzantine philosophers. The Greek brothers embodied the so-called “Greek” trend that prevailed in Russian culture prior to the radical reforms introduced by Peter the Great. Unlike the “Latin” tradition, which emanated from medieval Western scholasticism with a slant toward rhetoric and poetry, the Greek trend focused heavily on philosophy, history, and natural sciences. The rich and fertile rivalry between these two scholarly and scientific traditions was a prevailing feature of Russian culture during the late 17th century [Source: Alexander Vucinich, Science in Russian Culture: A History to 1860, Stanford University Press, 1963]
5. P. Matalas, Ethnos kai Orthodoxia. Oi peripeteies mias schesis. Apo to ‘Elladiko’ sto Voulgariko schisma. Panepistimiakes Ekdoseis Kritis, 2002
6. Lukas D. Tsitsipis. A linguistic anthropology of praxis and language shift: Arvanitika (Albanian)
and Greek in contact. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1998. Also, see Victor Friedman’s “The Albanian Language in Its Eastern Diaspora.” Arvanitika kai Ellenika: Zetemata polyglossikon kai polypolitismikon koinoteton [Greek: Arvanitika and Greek: Problems of multilingual and multicultural communities], Vol. 2, ed. by Loukas Tsitsipis. Livadeia, Greece: European Union & The Prefecture of Levadeia, 1998,
pp. 215-231.
7. Kostas Kazazis’obituary by Victor Friedman posted on the website of Society Farsarotul, a United States-based political activist group promoting the so-called independent Aromanian movement http://www.farsarotul.org/nl25_5.htm
8. Antonis M. Koltsidas’ monograph entitled Greek Education in Monastir – Pelagonia Organisation and Operation of Greek Schools, Cultural Life. [English Translation by Janet Koniordos] published by the Society for Macedonian Studies, Macedonian Library – 105, Thessaloniki 2008
http://www.ems.gr/ems/client/userfiles/file/EKDOSEIS/MAKEDONIKI_BIBLIOTHIKI/Koltsidas_Monast
iri_Pelagonia.pdf
9. See Christos D. Katsetos’ article entitled Vlahoi. Rahokokalia tou Ellinikou ethnous (Vlachs – The backbone of the Greek nation) published in the Athens newspaper Apogevmatini (on 11 November, 2007, p. 17) http://www.vlahoi.net/content/view/257/109/
10. See the excerpt from the Introduction of J.N. Adams’ book. http://assets.cambridge.org/97805218/17714/excerpt/9780521817714_excerpt.pdf
11. See Rochette’s treatise Les Romains et le latin vus par les Grecs. http://www2b.ac-lille.fr/langues-anciennes/telechargement/20Latinetgrec4eme.pdf

12. See Lazarou, op. cit., p. 293 [vide supra]. Prokopios Dimitrios Pamperis Moschopolitis, «Απαρίθμησις Λογίων Γραικών», Hamburg, 1772. Reprinted by Karavias Publishers, Athens, 1966 http://www.rarebooks.com.gr/book.asp?catid=361
13. Theodoros Kavaliotis, founder of the New Academy of Moschopolis, was the author of a quadrilingual dictionary entitled Protopiria. Das dreisprachige Worterverzeichnis von Theodoros Anastasiu Kavalliotes aus Moschopolis, gedruckt 1770 in Venedig: albanisch-deutsch-neugriechischich-aromunisch/ neu bearbeit, mit dem heutigen Zustande der albanischen Schriftsprache verglichen_ [Protopiria (Πρωτοπειρία)= Primer. Three Lists of Words in Three Languages, which was printed in 1770 in Venice: Albanian-German-Modern (‘Nea’) Greek-Armin/Vlach; New edition, with the today’s Situation of the Albanian written Language].
14. Thomas Paschidis, «Οι Αλβανοί και το μέλλον αυτών εν τω Ελληνισμό) – Μετά παραρτήματος περί των Ελληνοβλάχων και Βουλγάρων»), υπό Θ. Πασχίδου [Shqiptaret dhe e ardhmja e tyre ne helenizem – Me shtese mbi grekovllehte dhe bullgaret] Th. Paskidu, 1879 [The Albanians and their future in Hellenism -With an appendix on Grecovlachs and Bulgarians]. Reprinted by Karavias Publishers, Athens, 1981 http://www.rarebooks.com.gr/book.asp?catid=356 http://www.shqiptarortodoks.com/tekste/albanologji/Paskidu_1879.pdf
15. Mihail Lambrinidis, «Οι Αλβανοί κατά την κυρίως Ελλάδα και την Πελοπόννησον (Υδρα-Σπέτσαι)», υπό Μιχαήλ Λαμπρυνίδου, 1907[Shqiptaret ne Greqine qendrore dhe ne Peloponez Mihail Lambrinidou, 1907] [The Albanians in Mainland Greece and Peloponnese (Hydra-Spetsae)]. Reprinted by Karavias Publishers, Athens, 1981 http://www.rarebooks.com.gr/book.asp?catid=357 http://www.shqiptarortodoks.com/tekste/albanologji/Lambrinidu.pdf
16. See analysis by Dr. Evangelos Kofos of the ICG Report “Macedonia’s Name: Breaking the Deadlock” http://blogs.eliamep.gr/en/kofos/analysis-icg-report-macedonia’s-name-breaking-the-deadlock/#more-92 Also, see essay by the same author entitled ‘The Unresolved “Difference over the Name”: The Greek perspective’. In: Kofos E, Vlasidis V (Eds) Athens-Skopje: An Uneasy Symbiosis, 1995-2002. Research Centre for Macedonian History and Documentation at the Museum of the Macedonian Struggle, Thessaloniki, 2005 http://www.macedonian-heritage.gr/InterimAgreement/Downloads/Interim Kofos.pdf

17. See claims about the ‘Sub-Saharan origin of the Greeks’ in state-sponsored ethnogenetic studies. http://www.makedonika.org/processpaid.aspcontentid=ti.2001.pdf
18. Kofos, ibid
19 Vance Stojcev. Voena Istorija Na Makedonija: Skici. Sojuzot na drustvata na istoricarite na RM i
Voenata akademija General Mihailo Apostolski, ISBN 9989776075 (9989-776-07-5)/ Military History of
Macedonia. Military Academy General Mihailo Apostolski, ISBN 9989134057 (9989-134-05-7)
20. Excerpted from the letter of Dr. Rouman to the New Hampshire Governor Craig Benson (dated 2002). Dr. Rouman was for five years, both at the University of Wisconsin at Madison and at the Institute for Advanced Study at Princeton, research assistant during Professor Charles F. Edson’s protracted and difficult project, focusing on the editing of all the inscriptions of ancient Thessalonica from the third century B.C. to the seventh or eighth century A.D. for the German Academy of Berlin. For his meritorious contribution Dr. Edson was awarded the prestigious Charles Goodwin Award of Merit of the American Philological Association.
21. Brian Joseph (1999), Ancient Greek in: J. Garry, C. Rubino, A. Faber, R. French (editors), Facts Aboutthe World’s Languages: An Encyclopedia of the World’s Major Languages: Past and Present, New
York/Dublin, H. W. Wilson Press, 2001
22. See article by Aristide D. Caratzas titled Oi nazistikes rizes tou VMRO (the Nazi origins of VMRO)published in the Athens newspaper Ethnos (2.8.2009)
http://www.ethnos.gr/article.asp?catid=11378&subid=2&tag=8334&pubid=1370687 Also, see article by the same author entitled “Why the Greek People Cannot Easily Accept FYROM’s Claims” published in The National Herald (30.8.2009) http://rieas.gr/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=739&Itemid=41
23. See commentary by Evangelos Kofos titled “Unexpected Initiatives: Towards the resettlement of aSlav-Macedonian minority in Macedonia?” (Originally published in the Athens newspaper To Vima onJune 25 , 2003) http://www.macedonian-heritage.gr/Opinion/comm 20030710Kofos.html

SIGNATURES
Martis, Nikolaos, Former Minister of Macedonia/Thrace.
Agathos, Spiros N., Professor, Catholic University of Louvain, Louvain-la-Neuve,
BELGIUM.
Albrecht-Piliouni, Effie, Professor of Linguistics, Auburn University, Auburn, AL, USA. Albrecht, Ulrich, Professor of Mathematics, Auburn University, Auburn, AL USA. Anagnostopoulos, Stavros A., Professor of Civil Engineering, Head, University of Patras,
26500, Patras, GREECE.
Anastassiou, George, Professor of Mathematics, University of Memphis, USA. Anastassopoulou, Jane, Professor, NTUA, GREECE.
Andreadis, Stelios T., Ph.D., Professor, Bioengineering Laboratory, University at Buffalo, The State University of New York, New York, USA.
Antoniou, Antonios, Dr. Dent., D.M.D., Dental Surgeon, Lemesos, CYPRUS.
Arkas Evangelos, Ph.D., CEO Prometheus Technology Inc. London, UK.
Aroniadou-Anderjaska, Vassiliki, Ph.D., Research Assistant Professor of Neuroscience, Dept. of APG and Dept. of Psychiatry, F. Edward Hebert School of Medicine, Bethesda,
MD, USA.
Athanassouli, Georgia, Ph.D., Associate Professor, Department of Physics, University of Patras, GREECE.
Baloglou, George, Associate Professor of Mathematics (retired, SUNY Oswego), Thessaloniki, GREECE.
Balopoulos, Victor, Associate Professor, Dept. of Civil Engineering, Democritus University of Thrace, Thrace, GREECE.
Barbas, John T., Ph.D., Professor of Chemistry, Valdosta State University, Valdosta, GA,
USA.
Billis, Euripides, Ph.D., Assistant Professor, National Technical University of Athens,
Athens, GREECE.
Bitros, George C., Professor of Economics, Emeritus, Department of Economics, Athens, University of Economics and Business, Athens, GREECE.
Botsas, Lefteris N., Ph.D., Professor Emeritus, Economics Oakland University, Rochester, Michigan, USA.
Boundas, Constantin V., Professor Emeritus, Department of Philosophy, Trent University, Peterborough, Ontario, CANADA.
Bouros, Demosthenes, MD, Ph.D. FCCP Professor of Pneumonology, Chairman, Dept, of Internal Medicine, Democritus University of Thrace, GREECE
Bronstein, Arna, Associate Professor of Russian, Dept. of Languages, Literatures and Cultures, University of New Hampshire, Durham, NH, USA.
Burriel, Angeliki R., DVM, MSc, MSc, PhD, MRCVS, GREECE.
Bucher, Matthias, Ph.D., Assistant Professor, ECE Dept., Technical University of Crete,
Chania, Crete, GREECE.
Cacoullos, Theophilos, Emeritus Professor, University of Athens, Athens, GREECE.
Caratzas, Aristide D., Historian, Academic Publisher, Athens/New York.
Chaniotakis, Nikos, Professor of Chemistry, University of Crete, Crete, GREECE.
Christodoulou, Chris, Ph.D., Assistant Professor, Department of Computer Science, University of Cyprus, 75 Kallipoleos Ave, P.O. Box 20537, 1678 Nicosia, CYPRUS.
Christodoulou, Manolis A., Professor of Control Laboratory, Technical University of
Crete, Chania, Crete, GREECE.
Chrysanthopoulos, Michael, Ph.D., Historian, Hagiographer, Thessaloniki, GREECE. Cladis, John B., Ph.D. in Nuclear Physics, Lockheed Martin Space Physics Lab, Palo
Alto, California, USA.
Clairmont, Richard, Dr., Senior Lecturer of Classics, University of NH, USA.
Constantinides, Christos, Professor Emeritus, Electrical and Computer Engineering, University of Wyoming, USA.
Constantinou, Philip, Ph.D., Professor, School of Electrical and Computer Engineering. National technical University of Athens, Athens, GREECE.
Constantopoulos, Yannis, Professor of Universite Libre du Bruxelles, Belgium and
Hellenic Naval Academy, GREECE.
Coucouvanis, Dimitri, Professor of Chemistry, The University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, Michigan, U.S.A.
Daglis, Ioannis A., Ph.D., Research Director, Institute for Space Applications National Observatory of Athens, Penteli, GREECE.
Damianou, Pantelis, Professor, Department of Mathematics and Statistics, University of Cyprus, 1678, Nicosia, CYPRUS.
Danginis, Vassilios A., Ph.D., Director of Engineering, SMSC, Hauppauge, NY 11788,
USA.
Deltas, Constantinos, Professor of Genetics, Chairman of Biological Sciences, Head, Laboratory of Molecular and Medical Genetics, University of Cyprus, Kallipoleos
Nicosia, CYPRUS.
Demetracopoulos, Alex C., Professor, Dept. of Civil Engineering, University of Patras,
265 00, Patras, GREECE.
Demopoulos, George P., Ph.D., Eng., FCIM, Professor and Gerald Hatch Faculty Fellow, Associate Chair and Graduate Program Director, Department of Mining and Materials Engineering, McGill University, Wong Building, 3610 University Street, Montreal, QC
H3A 2B2, CANADA.
Dimopoulos, Nikitas, PhD, PEng, FEIC, Professor and Lansdowne Chair in Computer Engineering, Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, University of Victoria PO BOX 3055, Victoria B.C. V8W 3P6, CANADA.
Dokos, Socrates, Dr., Senior Lecturer, Graduate School of Biomedical Engineering, University of New South Wales Sydney, AUSTRALIA.
Doulia, Danae, Professor of Nat. Techn. University of Athens, Athens, GREECE. Dritsos, Stephanos E., Professor, Dept. of Civil Engineering, University of Patras, 26500,
Patras, GREECE.
Economou, Thanasis, Senior Scientist, Laboratory for Astrophysics and Space Research, Enrico Fermi Institute, University of Chicago, IL, USA.
Efthymiou, Pavlos N., Professor, Dr. ret. nat., Faculty of Forestry and Natural Environment, Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, GR – 541 24 THESSALONIKI,
GREECE
Episcopos, Athanasios, Associate Professor, Athens University of Economics and Business, Athens, 10434, GREECE.
Eriotis, Nikolaos, Associate Professor of Accounting, University of Athens, Philothei,
GREECE.
Fleszar, Aleksandra, Assoc. Professor of Russian, University of New Hampshire,
Durham, NH, USA.
Flytzani-Stephanopoulos, Maria, Ph.D., Professor, Department of Chemical and Biological Engineering, Tufts University, Medford, MA, USA.
Fotopoulos, Spiros, Professor, Electronics Laboratory, Department of Physics, University of Patras, GREECE.
Foudopoulos, Panayotis, Ph.D., Electrical Engineer, National Technical University of
Athens, Athens, GREECE.
Fthenakis, Vasilis, Director, Center for Life Cycle Analysis, Earth and Environmental Engineering Department, Columbia University, 926 S.W. Mudd, 500 West 120th Street, New York, NY 10027, USA.
Gatzoulis, Nina, Supreme President of the Pan-Macedonian Association (USA) and Professor, Department of Languages, Literatures and Cultures, University of New Hampshire, USA.
Gavalas, George, Professor Emeritus of Chemical Engineering, California Institute of Technology, USA.
Gavras, Irene, MD, Professor of Medicine, Boston University School of Medicine,
Boston, MA, USA.
Georgakis, Christos, Professor, Department of Chemical and Biological Engineering, Bernard M. Gordon Senior Faculty Fellow of Systems Engineering, TUFTS University, Medford, MA, 02155, USA.
Georges, Anastassios T., Professor, Department of Physics, University of Patras,
GREECE.
Georgiou, Demetrius A., Associate Professor, Faculty of Engineering, Democritus University of Thrace, GREECE.
Giannakidou, Anastasia, Professor of Linguistics, Dept. of Linguistics, University of
Chicago, USA.
Grammatikos Theoharry, Associate Director, Methods and Processes Improvement, European Investment Bank, 100, blvd Konrad Adenauer, L-2950, Luxembourg.
Groumpos, Petros P., Professor, Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, University of Patras, GREECE.
Halamandaris, Pandelis, Ph.D., Ed.D. Professor Emeritus, Brandon University, Deputy Director, University of Manitoba Centre for Hellenic Civilization, CANADA.
Hassiotis Sophia, Ph.D., Civil Engineering Program Director, CEOE, Stevens Institute of
Technology, Hoboken, N.J. 07030, USA.
Horsch, Georgios M., Assistant Professor, Department of Civil Engineering University of Patras, Patras, GREECE.
Ioannou, Petros, Ph.D., Professor, Electrical Engineering-Systems, University of Southern California Los Angeles, CA, USA.
Iliadis, Lazaros S., Associate Professor, Democritus University of Thrace, GREECE.
Kakouli-Duarte, Thomais, Ph.D., President, Hellenic Community of Ireland, and Lecturer, Environmental Bio-Sciences, Dept. of Science and Health Institute of
Technology, Carlow, IRELAND.
Kamari, Georgia, Professor, Division of Plant Biology, Department of Biology, University of Patras, GR-265 00, Patras, GREECE
Kambezidis, Harry, Dr., Research Director, National Observatory of Athens, Athens,
GREECE.
Karabalis, Dimitris L., Professor, University of Patras, GREECE. Karageorgis, Demetris, Information Science Teacher, Nicosia, CYPRUS.
Karagiannidis, Iordanis, Ph.D., Assistant Researcher, Department of Medicine, David Geffen School of Medicine, UCLA, Los Angeles, CA, USA.
Karakatsanis, Theoklitos S., Ph.D., Electrical Engineer N.T.U.A, Assistant Professor D.U.TH., Dept. of Production Engineering & Management, School of Engineering, Democritus University of Thrace, GREECE.
Karatzios, Christos, M.D. C.M., FRCPC, Assistant Professor of Pediatrics, McGill University Health Centre, Division of Infectious Diseases, Montreal Children’s Hospital; Associate Member, Special Immunology Division, Centre Universitaire Mere-Enfant de l’Hopital Ste Justine, University of Montreal, Quebec, CANADA.
Karayanni, Despina A., Ph.D., Assistant Professor of Marketing, University of Patras, Department of Business Administration, GREECE.
Karpathakis, Anna, Ph.D., Associate Professor of Sociology, CUNY, New York, USA.
Katsetos, Christos D., M.D., Ph.D., FRCPath, Professor of Pathology, Drexel University College of Medicine and St. Christopher’s Hospital for Children, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, U.S.A.
Katsifarakis, Konstantinos L., Ph.D., Professor, Department of Civil Engineering, Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, GREECE.
Katsifis, Spiros, Ph.D., FACFE, Associate Professor and Chair, Department of Biology, University of Bridgeport Bridgeport, CT, USA.
Katsoufis, Elias C., Associate Professor of Physics, School of Applied Sciences, National Technical University of Athens, Athens, GREECE.
Katsouris, Andreas, Professor of Ancient Greek Philology, Division of Classical Philology, University of Ioannina, GREECE.
Kitridou, Rodanthi C., MD, FACP, MACR Professor Emerita of Medicine (Rheumatology), USC Keck School of Medicine, Los Angeles, CA, USA.
Komodromos, Petros, Lecturer, Department of Civil & Environmental Engineering University of Cyprus, CYPRUS.
Konstantatos (Kostas), Demosthenes J., Ph.D., M.Sc., M.B.A., Telecommunications,
Greenwich, CT, USA.
Kottis, George C., Emeritus Professor, Athens University of Economics and Business Science, Athens, GREECE.
Kugiumtzis, Dimitris, Assistant Professor, Department of Mathematical, Physical and Computational Sciences, Faculty of Engineering, Aristotle University of Thessaloniki,
GREECE.
Koussis, Antonis D., Ph.D., Research Director, Institute for Environmental Research, National Observatory of Athens, Metaxa & Vassileos Pavlou, GR – 152 36 Palaia Penteli,
Athens, GREECE.
Koutroumbas, Konstantinos, Ph.D., Researcher, Institute for Space Applications & Remote Sensing, National Observatory of Athens, Palea Penteli, 15236 ATHENS-
GREECE.
Koutselini, Mary, Dr , Department of Education, University of Cyprus, CYPRUS. Kouzoudis, Dimitris, Lecturer, Engineering Sciences Department, University of Patras,
26504 Patras, GREECE.
Kritas, Spyridon K., DVM, Ph.D., Dipl. ECPHM Assistant Professor, Department of Microbiology and Infectious Diseases, School of Veterinary Medicine, Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, Thessaloniki, Macedonia, GREECE.
Kritikos, Haralambos N., Professor Emeritus, Department of Systems and Electrical Engineering, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia PA, USA.
Kyriacou, George A., Associate Professor, Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, Democritus University of Thrace, Xanthi, GREECE.
Kyriakou, Anastasia, Plant Pathologist, Agricultural Research Institute, Lefcosia,
CYPRUS.
Ladikos, Anastasios, Professor, Department of Criminology and Security Sciences, University of South Africa, Pretoria, SOUTH AFRICA.
Lagoudakis, Michail G., Assistant Professor, Technical University of Crete, Chania,
GREECE.
Lambrinos, Panos, Professor of Mathematics, School of Engineering, Democritus, University of Thrace, Xanthi, GREECE.
Lampropoulos, George A., Ph.D. Adjunct Professor, ECE Dept., University of Calgary,
CANADA.
Lampropoulou, Venetta, Professor of Deaf Education, Deaf Studies Unit, Department of Education, University of Patras, GREECE.
Lazaridis, Anastas, Professor Emeritus, Widener University, One University Place, Chester, PA 19013, USA.
Leventouri, Theodora, Dr., Professor, Department of Physics, Florida Atlantic University, Boca Raton, FL, USA.
Lialiaris, Theodore S., BSc, MD, Ph.D., Assoc. Professor of Medical Biology and Cytogenetics, Medical School of Democritus University of Thrace, GREECE.
Lolos, George J., Professor, Physics Department, University of Regina, CANADA.
Lymberopoulos, John Ph.D., Leeds School Summer Dean, Professor of International Business & Finance Leeds School of Business, University of Colorado at Boulder, USA.
Manias, Stefanos, Professor, National Technical University of Athens, Dep. of Electrical and Computer Engineering, Electrical Machines and Power electronics Laboratory,
Athens, GREECE.
Manolopoulos, Vangelis G., Assoc. Professor of Pharmacology, Democritus University of Thrace, Medical School, Alexandroupolis, GREECE.
Maragos, Petros, Professor, National Technical University of Athens, School of Electrical & Computer Engineering, Athens , GREECE.
Melakopides, Costas, Associate Professor of International Relations, University of
Cyprus, Nicosia, CYPRUS.
Mermigas, Eleftherios, Professor, ASCP, Pathology and Anatomical Sciences, University
at Buffalo NY, USA.
Metallinos-Katsaras, Elizabeth, Ph.D. RD, Associate Professor, Nutrition Department, Simmons College, Boston MA, USA.
Michaelides, Stathis, Ph.D., P.E. Professor and Chair, Mechanical Engineering University of Texas at San Antonio One UTSA Circle San Antonio, TX, USA.
Michailidis, Dimitri, M.D., Gen.Surgeon, President, ELEFI (Hellenic Association of Pharmaceutical Physicians), President, Auditors Committee, Hellenic Society of Pharmacology, Member, EB IFAPP, GREECE.
Michopoulos, Aristotle, Dr., Greek Studies, Hellenic College, Brookline, MA, USA. Miller, Stephen G., Professor Emeritus, Classical Archaeology, University of California,
Berkeley CA, USA.
Mylonakou-Kekes Iro, Assistant Professor, Department of Educational, Sciences, Faculty of Primary Education, University of Athens, 13A Navarinou, 10680 ATHENS, GREECE.
Milonas, Nikolaos, Professor of Finance, University of Athens, Marousi, GREECE.
Moulopoulos, Konstantinos, Dr., Associate Professor of Physics, University of Cyprus,
CYPRUS.
Mourtos, Nikos J., Ph.D., Professor, Mechanical & Aerospace Engineering, San Jose State University, One Washington Square San Jose, CA, USA.
Nasis, Vasileios T., Ph.D., Adjunct Professor, Drexel University College of Engineering, Philadelphia, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, U.S.A.
Nenes, Athanasios, Associate Professor, Schools of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences and Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering, Georgia Institute of Technology, USA.
Newman, Constantine, Reverent Dr., Classics Professor-University of New Hampshire,
USA.
Newman Anna, Professor of Classics-University of New Hampshire, USA.
Nikolakopoulos, Konstantin, Professor, Institute of Orthodox Theology, Ludwig-Maximilians-University, Munich, GERMANY.
Panagiotakopoulos, Chris T., B.Sc., Ph.D., Assistant Professor of Educational Technology, University of Patras – School of Humanities and Social Sciences Department of Education, Archemedes Str., 265 04 Rio Patras, GREECE.
Panagiotakopoulos, Demetrios, Professor of Civil Engineering, Democritus University of Thrace, Xanthi, GREECE.
Panagiotopoulos, Dimitrios P., Assoc. Professor, University of Athens, Attorney-at-Law, President of International Association of Sports Law, GREECE.
Papadopoulos, George K., Ph.D., Professor of Biochemistry and Biophysics, Epirus Institute of Technology, Arta, 47100, GREECE.
Papadopoulos, George, Professor Emeritus, Applied Electronics Laboratory, Electrical and Computer Engineering, University of Patras, GREECE.
Papadopoulos, Kyriakos, Ph.D., Professor, Department of Chemical & Biomolecular Engineering, Tulane University, New Orleans, LA 70118, USA.
Papamarkos, Nikos, Professor, Democritus University of Thrace, School of Engineering, Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, GREECE.
Papavassiliou, Dimitrios P., MD, Assistant Professor of Clinical Pediatrics Pediatric Cardiology, Morgan Stanley Children’s Hospital of New York-Presbyterian Columbia University Medical Center. New York, NY, USA.
Papazoglou, Georges, Professor of Palaeography, Chairman – Department History and Ethnology, Democritus University of Thrace, KOMOTINI, GREECE.
Patitsas, Steve, Ph.D., Assoc. Professor, Physics Department, University of Lethbridge,
4401 University Drive, Lethbridge, Alberta, T1K 3M4, CANADA.
Patitsas, Tom Athanasios, Professor Emeritus, Department of Physics and Astronomy Laurentian University, Sudbury, ON, CANADA.
Pelekanos, Nikos, Professor of Materials Science and Technology, University of Crete,
Heraklion-Crete, GREECE.
Pelides, Panayiotis, Ph.D., Consultant Anesthesiologist, American Heart Institute,
Nicosia, CYPRUS.
Persephonis, Peter, Professor, Physics Department, University of Patras, GREECE.
Phufas, Ellene S., Professor, English/Humanities SUNY- ECC Buffalo, NY, USA.
Pintelas, Panagiotis E., Professor of Computer Science, Dept. of Mathematics, University of Patras, Patras, GREECE.
Pittas, Stamatios, Head of Marketing Dept., KOSTEAS GROUP OF COMPANIES,
Chalkis, GREECE.
Plionis, Manolis, Ph.D., Research Director, Institute of Astronomy & Astrophysics, National Observatory of Athens, GREECE.
Pnevmatikatos, Dionysios, Assoc. Professor, ECE Department, Technical University of
Crete, GREECE.
Polychroniadis, K.E., Professor, Department of Physics, Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, Thessaloniki, GREECE.
Poularikas, Alexander D., Professor Emeritus (University of Alabama in Huntsville, Huntsville, Alabama), Houston, Texas, USA.
Pozios, John LL.B., MBA, Director, Desautels Centre for Private Enterprise and the Law, Faculty of Law, University of Manitoba, CANADA.
Psaras, GK, Ph.D., Professor, Section of Plant Biology, Department of Biology, University of Patras, Patras, GR 265 00, GREECE.
Psyrri, Amanda, MD, Assistant Professor of Medicine, Yale University, New Haven, CT,
USA.
Rantsios, Apostolos T., Ph.D., Dipl., Past President, World Veterinary Association,
Marousi, GREECE.
Rapsomanikis, S., Ph.D., Professor, Director, Laboratory of Atmospheric Pollution, Control Engineering of Atmospheric Pollutants, Department of Environmental Engineering, Democritus University of Thrace, Xanthi, GREECE.
Raptis, Aristotle, Professor, University of Athens, GREECE.
Rigas, Fotis, Ph.D., Associate Professor, National Technical University of Athens,
Athens, GREECE.
Roilides, Emmanuel, MD, PhD., Assoc. Professor, 3rd Dept. Pediatrics, University of Thessaloniki, Hippokration Hospital, Thessaloniki, GREECE.
Romanos, Michael, Ph.D., Professor of Economic Development, School of Planning, University of Cincinnati, Cincinnati, Ohio, USA.
Rontoyannis, George P., Professor, Dept. Phys Ed Sports, Science University of
Thessaly, GREECE.
Rouman, John C., Dr., Professor Emeritus of Classics.
Sarafopoulos Dimitrios, Associate Professor, Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, Democritus University of Thrace, Xanthi, GREECE.
Samaras George, Professor, USA.
Samothrakis, Periandros, Ph.D., P.E., Hydraulic Engineer, Frederick, Maryland, USA.
Sapatinas, Theofanis, BSc, MSc, Ph.D., Associate Professor of Statistics, Department of Mathematics and Statistics, University of Cyprus, Nicosia, CYPRUS.
Savvas, Minas, Professor Emeritus, San Diego State University, SanDiego, CA, USA.
Siafarikas Panayiotis, Professor, Department of Mathematics, University of Patras
Patras, GREECE.
Sideris, Kosmas, Ph.D., Civil Engineer Lecturer, Democritus University of Thrace,
Xanthi, GREECE.
Simitses, George J., Professor Emeritus of Aerospace Engineering, Georgia Institute of
Technology, Atlanta, GA, USA.
Siolas, John G., Ph.D., Educator, New York, USA.
Sivitanides, Marcos P., Ph.D., CCP. Associate Professor, Information Systems, McCoy College of Business, Texas State University San Marcos, Texas, USA.
Skias, Stylianos G., Assist. Professor, Democritus University of Thrace, GREECE.
Skodras, A. N., Professor, Head of Computer Science, School of Science & Technology Hellenic Open University, 13-15 Tsamadou, GR-26222 Patras, GREECE.
Sotiropoulou, Georgia, PhD, Assoc. Professor, Department of Pharmacy, School of Health Sciences, University of Patras, Rion-Patras 26500, GREECE.
Staikos, Georgios, Assoc. Professor, Laboratory of Organic Chemical Technology Department of Chemical Engineering, University of Patras, University Campus – Rion,
GR – 265 04 Patras, GREECE.
Stamatoyannopoulos, George, M.D., Dr., Sci., Professor of Medicine and Genome Sciences, Director, Markey Molecular Medicine Center, K-240 Health Sciences Building, Box 357720, Seattle, WA 98195-7720, USA.
Stamboliadis, Elias, Associate Professor, Mineral Resources, Engineering Dept, Technical University of Crete University, Campus Chania, Crete, GREECE.
Stavrou, Esther, Ph.D., Associate Clinical Professor, Ferkauf Graduate School of Psychology, Yeshiva University, Bronx, New York, USA.
Stephanopoulos, Greg W.H., Dow Professor, Chemical Engineering and Biotechnology, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Department of Chemical Engineering,
Cambridge, MA, USA
Syrimis, Michael, Assistant Professor, Department of French and Italian, Tulane University, New Orleans, Louisiana, USA.
Tassios, Dimitrios, Professor Emeritus, National Technical University of Athens, Athens,
GREECE
Tavouktsoglou, Athanasios N., Ph.D., Professor, Concordia University, College of
Alberta, CANAD
Templar, Marcus A., M.A., M.S., Balkans expert, Illinois, USA
Thramboulidis, Kleanthis, Assoc. Professor, Software Engineering Group (SEG) -Electrical & Computer, University of Patras, PATRAS, GREECE
Triantaphyllopoulos, Demetrios D., Professor, Department of Archaeology and History, University of Cyprus, CYPRUS.
Tryphonopoulos, Demetres P., A/Dean, School of Graduate Studies, Professor, Dept. of English, University of New Brunswick, Fredericton, N.B., CANADA
Tsakiridou, Cornelia A., Ph.D., Associate Professor, Philosophy, Director, Diplomat-In-Residence Program, La Salle University, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA
Tsatsanifos, Christos, Ph.D., Civil Engineering MSc., D.I.C. M.ASCE. Athens,
GREECE
Tsigas-Fotinis, Vasiliki, Ph.D., Professor of Education, Caldwell College, Caldwell, New Jersey, USA
Tsihrintzis, Vassilios A., Ph.D., P.E., P.H., Professor of Ecological Engineering & Technology, Director, Laboratory of Ecological Engineering & Tehnology, Chairman, Department of Environmental Engineering, School of Engineering, Democritus University of Thrace, Xanthi 67100, GREECE
Tsaroucha, Alexandra, MD, Ph.D., Assistant Professor of Surgery, Democritus University of Thrace, Xanthi 67100, GREECE
Tsinganos, Kanaris, Professor, Department of Physics, University of Athens, Athens,
GREECE.
Tsohantaridis, Timotheos, Ph.D., Professor of Biblical Studies and Greek, George Fox University, Newberg, Oregon, USA.
Valanides, Nicos (visiting scholar at DePaul University, Chicago, USA), Associate Professor (Science Education), Nicosia, CYPRUS.
Velivasakis, Emmanuel E., PE, FASCE, President, PANCRETAN ASSOCIATION OF
AMERICA & HELLENIC AMERICAN NATIONAL COUNCIL, New York, USA
Vardulakis, Antonis, Professor, Department of Mathematics, Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, Thessaloniki, GREECE
Varkaraki, Elli, Ph.D., Senior Researcher, Centre for Renewable Energy Sources,
GREECE
Vasilos, Thomas, Professor Emeritus, Department of Chemical Engineering, University of Massachusetts, Lowell, Massachusetts, USA.
Velgakis, Michael, Professor of Physics, Engineering Science Dept., University of Patras,
Patras, GREECE.
Vlavianos, Nickie, Assistant Professor, Faculty of Law, University of Calgary, Calgary,
CA, USA.

FYROM: Fascism in Action

The new provocative measures undertaken by the regime of Nikola Gruevski show that the political leadership of the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia decided to create a virtual reality as a substitute for normal free life of its citizens. The Prime Minister of the small Balkan nation, termed “the immortal and eternal shepherd and leader of his people” by the state TV continued the policy of historical revisionism carried through occult usurpation of the space much to the disbelief and revolt among outside observers which slowly but steadily begun to understand its eerie monstrosity.

Since its separation from Yugoslavia in 1991, FYROM struggled with its troubled past originating from the ideology of separate “Macedonian” nation formulated by the Bulgarian VMRO, later by Communist Internationale in 1934 and implemented on its soil from 1944 onwards by Yugoslav Communist dictator Josip Broz “Tito”. While there is a convergence in the global Balkanology-oriented historiography that prior to 1944 most of FYROMian so-called “Macedonian” population was ethnically Bulgarian, energetic Titoist policy of allocating large funds to creation of schools, media outlets, institutions, museums and other cultural institution among the hitherto extremely backward people managed to instill a strong sense of one’s “Macedonian” ethnicity, neither Bulgarian, nor Serb and categorically as well as diametrically opposed to any other interpretation of local culture and politics. After 60 years of such totalitarian “national-communist” model which is continued today in altered form by the ruling “Internal Macedonian Revolutionary Organization” (VMRO), this view escalated into widespread belief among the general public that the Pseudomacedonian ethnic group has its direct ancestry from Ancient Macedonians, a Greek entity bulk of which historically inhabited modern-day northern Greek province of Macedonia.

A mountain of evidence exists against this postulated linear connection brought by two centuries of historical and linguistic studies against any connection, including those of cultural, linguistic and demographical type between Macedonians of antiquity and FYROMian Slavs of Bulgarian and Serbian type. However, the lack of any kind of public discourse as well as absence of alternative media brought confusion about the national identity of the population of self-styled Bulgarian-speaking “Macedonians”. Although, with the possible exception of North Korea, the phenomenon of collective government-imposed delusion in FYROM is the largest and most profound such example in modern times, it didn’t attract the due interest from scholars and thinkers worldwide. History and politicology never hitherto witnessed that a massive disposition in an ethnic groups towards symbolical connection with a imagined ancestral stock whose alien character is apparent from a cursory glance over history, geography and facts of language may function as a central foundation of both internal and external politics in their totality.

Yet, the politics of lie and eradication of the true history of Pseudomacedonian people continues unchallenged. From 2006 onwards the entire landscape has been turned into a theme-park celebrating the Ancient Macedonians. In what was named a “renaming spree” by some observers, enormous number of public facilities were named either “Philip the Macedonian” or “Alexander the Great” and plenty of statues of these ancient Greek historic persons were erected. Usage of the names of other Macedonian figures is avoided most likely because their Greek character would be more salient. The “Vergina Star”, the political and dynastic symbol of the historic Macedonians is cherished and implemented in a number of architectural and decorative projects. The state-organized education instills a sense of ethnic superiority , namely the idea that the entire human civilization originated among FYROMians. Private historical research is forbidden and challenge of the official identity dogma is a criminal offense carrying lengthy prison sentence (article 179 of the Criminal Code).

The international community must intervene energetically if this abomination is to be stopped and the people of FYROM saved from ultranationalist, collectivist fallacies. What is in stake is a wholesale cultural genocide over the countries remaining Slavic populations compromised of Serbs and Bulgarians which remained true to the type, the later being particularly exposed to repression and obstacles to creation of even the most diminutive forms of political and cultural association. The outgoing administration of George W. Bush, in a catastrophic mismanagement of Balkan policy, blindly supported the Pseudomacedonian side which nourishes ambitions of territorial expansion towards Greek Macedonia. This policy, motivated by US support for creation of east-west communication and transport infrastructure traversing FYROM, created an island of instability in the southern Balkans and obstructed the peaceful harmonization of the region in the European Union. Hope remains that the incoming administration of President-Elect Barack Obama will, after the initial adaptation during the transit of power, have a clear, coherent Balkan policy, a hope strengthened by the fact that it will be shaped by Vice-President Joseph Biden and the next Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, individuals with profound Balkan expertise and history of their involvement in Balkan affairs.

However, the primary place in the process of destruction of the VMRO regime in FYROM should be given to Serbia and Bulgaria, which should, coordinated with other leaderships and thinkers within the Slavic word, work on the palliative process of restoration of country’s true Slavic identity which will be a precondition of cherishing libertarian values in politics, economy and culture. At the same time, a process of healing the catastrophic relationships between Skopje and Athens, which will take certainly more than a decade should start. The first step of this process should be rejection of Skopje’s irredentist program and its machinery and a wholesale reform of public education, universities, museums, institution.

The latest provocative act of FYROM is the erection of a 50ft tall horseman statue of Alexander the Great at Skopje’s central square, scheduled for the later half of January. It remains to be seen whether the resident diplomats, including the representatives of EU will protest over this farce. The expected massive hysteria will coincide with the time of downfall of the economic parameters. The occult symbolism of “Alexander returning abroad” and the apparent manifestation of “our king” as the crowd shall cheer will be a prime example of futility of emotions and moods manipulating politics which isolated a European country into a brainwashing camp. In the war between freedom and individuality and collectivist groupthink , FYROM is the most acute hotspot in Europe. Decisiveness in the treatment of VMRO gang is what the civilized world owes to itself.

The Rosetta Stone Hoax: Pseudomacedonism’s Sharpest Tool

Aristotel Tentov and Tome Boševski, lecturing about their "discovery", December 2008

The Rosetta Stone Hoax of FYROM is a milestone in the idiosyncratic form of fascism which is developed along conservative-authoritarian lines and the myth of regional supremacy based on synthetic “Macedonian” origin. The revisionist act of translating (again!) an ancient text well-established as a cornerstone in annals of linguistic may seem as, in principle, a harmless exercise, but putting a straight face on the idea is already a challenge against scientific formulations which stood the test of time. The act of pseudoscientific forgery, delivered through unapologetic exhibitionism via the national media escalated into an official dogma.

Ethos of the regime is essentially ethno-socialist by nature: folkish common good is the motive for the goal-oriented activities of political party’s infrastructure which adapts the sphere of public opinion in a Machiavellian fashion, alternating both its transitory, actual content and the permanent, metaphysical concept of principles through manipulation with historiography as a way to outline the sequences of their manifestations in concrete manner. This is a main path chosen by policy makers of the vertical official nomenclatura and laterally positioned individuals in the sphere of administratively organized local culture. To a large degree, this state of affairs correlated with what could have been a petty play by two neophytes in the area of philology and historic linguistics.

So what is the Rosetta Stone Hoax all about and how does it fit into the political life of FYROM?

Enter Aristotel Tentov and Tome Boševski in the picture, two professors of engineering with an interesting claim:  an ancient text in hitherto unknown language, originating from today’s Egypt has been studied and translated by them and the resulting text is an ancestral form of today’s Slavic “Macedonian” language, quite similar to it. At a first glance, stated this way, it is a legitimate inquiry, the results of which should be subjected to scrutiny of peer-reviewed publication process. The main trouble, in theory. which nobody saw in the initial phase, is that the scholars wished to pursue an independent of any check-out presentational mode of contact with a general audience. In practice, the stance of linguistic combined with historiography was resolute for more than 100 years.

The Rosetta Stone,  a granite block containing an administrative decree by priests of the Ptolemaid Macedonian Greek dynasty, dated in 196 year BCE served as a benchmark for translation of the hieroglyphs, hitherto well-known but undeciphered script of Ancient Egyptians. It contains a text of the decree in hieroglyphs, demotic script and Greek alphabet, respectively, from the bottom to the top of one of its sides.

The presumption that the text in Ancient Greek could be a starting point for understanding of the hieroglyphs and the demotic script-a simplified variant of hieratic, which in turn is a variant of hieroglyphs-designated for fast writing in a more secular context that put premium on speed which appears from 7th CBE on Egyptian soil-seemed intuitive enough for the British scholar Thomas Young and his French colleague Jean-François Champollion. Successively and separately, in a process involving among other methods comparative studies of the language of the Copts, than in liturgical usage, Young deciphered the Demotic part of the monument and Champolion the hieroglyphic, laying the groundwork of modern Egyptology. Refinement of the method come with the successful application of initial principles to the quantitatively enormous wealth of Ancient Egyptian texts, that also included several polylingual monuments.

While the Rosetta Stone is one in a series of several known variants of the decree, the artifact, today custody of the British Museum in London remains iconic among epigraphical artifacts. As such,  its technical description and the translation of the text are universal starting point in any publication or study of Egyptology and in digested version, knowledge about the Stone is integral part of great deal of popular as well as broader-themed historical and archaeological books and articles. Rich bibliographical corpus formed for more than 100 years around the inscription and kindred artifacts. It is well popularized on the Internet, where general and even mid-level peer-reviewed, often technical information may be found.

Tentov and Boševski (T & B) gave these startling claims about the stone in 2006:

“This is a fallacy. For me it is not a scientific discovery, but a fallacy that the Ancient Macedonians were illiterate in their own language, and they founded the famous Alexandria library. What kind of illiterate people is making a library”? [ A1 TV, 26. 06. 2006]

Obviously the statement contains a lie: that the scholarly world thought of Ancient Macedonians as illiterate, which is very much out of question and professors must have known that. The statement about the library is a non sequitur. Among other claims that these two Pseudoscientist claim are:

The demotic script was not deciphered at all, an ordinary lie which could be easily verified.

That the script was originally ancient Macedonian. This claim, repeated enormous number of times, stands to a striking contrast with the facts that outside the domain of the Egyptian Civilization this script is unknown, that it is 3 centuries older than the establishment of Greeks led under Alexander the Great on the soil of today’s Egypt, that it is morphologically tied to the signs of the preceding hieroglyphic writing system. Being absolutely unknown outside the areal of the Egyptian culture, it remains such at the soil of Macedon, rest of Greece south of Mt. Olympus and throughout the entire Empire of Alexander, including the successor states in Middle East. No evidence exists that during the Hellenistic era demotic was exported for official or any kind of other use outside Egypt.

The most fundamental question is: how is it possible that Egyptologists were blind for more than 150 years regarding  the reality that they are dealing not only with an Indo-European Slavic language but the most implausible of them all when reading the second text on the Rosetta Stone? The Proto-Slavic language out of which the FYROMian Bulgarian dialect originates exhibits traces of contact with Baltic, Germanic, Ugro-Finnic and Iranian speakers, all of them attested through multidisciplinary studies in and around north to central parts of Eastern Europe. Furthermore, with regard to plausibility of the s. c. “Macedonian”, as it is called after 1944 (no description whatsoever of the language as “Macedonian” exist in texts predating 19th century) the claim that the “discovered” language on the stone contains features of grammar and syntax which make it identical to the modern day Pseudomacedonian are grossly untenable, since most of these features, including the post-positive article were developed in the FYROM-Bulgarian space only during the last 400-500 years out of the older attested cases, typical for all other Slavic language, including the Old Church Slavonic based on South Balkan Slavic dialects of middle ages. It is impossible that the more simpler article system evolved into the elaborate case system and than reverted spontaneously into analytical article system of the exactly same type.

Obviously, not only that authors cannot explain – and they never tried -the existence of Slavic languages of  Eastern Europe (One is reminded of the Pseudomacedonian theory of deserting Ancient Macedonian soldiers which reached Ukraine and appeared in history later as Slavs) but the absence of any kind of Slavic or-if anachronisms are to be avoided in T & B’s virtual reality, “Slavoid” language either in historic Macedonia or elsewhere in the lands of the Empire left by Alexander, this fact including later Roman/Byzantine Macedonia prior to the richly documented arrival of Slavs. The entire body of texts that may be seen is Greek if the later official usage of Latin is excluded.

The most absurd consequence of the find is that all other demotic texts- thousands of them, documenting over a millennia of  Egyptian history-which are translated according to the principles surrounding the deciphering of the Rosetta Stone, and which produced perfectly logically structured texts, with meaning and coherence expressed in a variety of styles, would prove fake, void and the application of T & B’s methods would supplant the results with thousands of sets of entirely other coherent contents! The absurdity of this proposition to which many professionals and a number of informed laymen have pointed, needs no further proof of its obviousness.

This brief background on the historic and linguistic context regarding the genesis and the territorial area of demotic, the origin of Slavic as well as the Greek character of the Macedonian literacy which apart from fundamentally marginal influences of neighboring Non-Greek Ancient Balkan languages shows no hint of any other collateral language inside Macedonia was necessary to demonstrate the logic behind the impossibility of even grains of truth behind the claims by Tentov and Boševski. What is much more  relevant to the demonstration of the totalitarian character of Pseudomacedonian political protagonist is the reception and the public atmosphere created since the announcement of this discovery, which can be safely termed one of the greatest hoaxes in the history of linguistic and perhaps insofar the single most devastating Pseudomacedonian farce of this decade.

The authors of this ludicrous thesis after their, quite symptomatically, never received qualifiers which media outlets reserve for announcements of breakthrough discoveries in scientific fields, like “allegedly, “according to the authors”, “authors are claiming”. Instead, TV and journals of all genres took their claim not only for granted, but with unprecedented glorification and pompousness. The authors were called on main term news and on talk shows in initial days without invitation of linguists and philologists, being elevated to status of national heroes for breaking “the unknown script”, “discovering our ancient roots”, “proving that we are Biblical nation”. Opposition was suppressed that year: Marija Stankovska – Dzamali, then a Postgraduate of studies in Epigraphy in France, published her expertly opinion in FYROMian newspapers in form of facts coupled with common sense. She was quickly suppressed by “spontaneous” barrage of letters from citizens supportive of T & B’s discovery and was denounced as well as threatened in FYROMomophonic part of the Net. P. Hr. Ilievski, academic of MANU was obstructed by the very same institution to publish a rather lengthy paper (he republished it in 2008 in a -pdf format) explaining and denouncing the political and “patriotic” motives of the authors. In 2006 a concise and detailed expose of the hoax appeared in the peer-reviewed “Istorija”, authored by V. Sarakinski, lecturer at UKIM, but reached a very limited audience. In collectivist fashion, acceptance of T & B’s theory by a marginal symposium of Russian pseudoscientists operating outside any professional framework was promoted as “confirmation by the Russians”, while ecstatic crowds gathered  massively around Skoplje’s “Alexander the Great” airport during each case of Boševski and Tentov return from “congresses” and “seminars” which in true were private gatherings of amateur historians.

These circumstances strongly suggest that there is an action by the Pseudomacedonian authorities to at minimum suppress the truth and allow high penetration of the information sphere in FYROM of what wouldn’t be otherwise issue worthy of a brief tabloid article. It is obviously that any research journalist would find mountains of evidence against virtually every generalization of T & B  simply making online research, excluding consulting conventional publications and asking opinions from certified experts, yet none of them stood against  theory that only a scratch on the surface can demolish. In a surreal twist of events, the entire discovery was several times revamped not by any new discovery – the reader is reminded that T & B never tested their method by translating massively demotic texts others than the one found on the Rosetta Stone-but via cumulative announcements in which present time mode was used in the headlines, including the latest all-pervading campaign in December 2008, which indicates that the “discovery” happened just now, not two years before.

The “Macedonian” Orthodox Church, a schismatic and unrecognized organization which promotes Pseudomacedonian myths-among other those of unbroken continuity of Christianity in FYROM for 2000 (sic) years, FYROMians being a “biblical nation” and Apostle Paul’s mission to Thessaloniki as being directly related to Slavs of FYROM -embraced T & B’s theory with great enthusiasm. The narrative of the news story – indeed, a pickled news story, pulled out of the jar once in a while – is by now firmly embraced by the “Macedonian” people,  a nation that lives in a fascist pseudo-history cherishing as proof of their postulated continuity with Macedonians of Phillip and Alexander. The inclusion of the discovery in speech at the occasion of the „23. October Award“ ceremony by Tome Boševski, which was appointed a headman of the event, makes the theory in a certain sense official, and in the current climate it is likely that voices of opposition, regardless of the origin will be marginalized and crushed. The Rosetta Stone Hoax became the strongest point of convergence of Pseudomacedonian nationalism. The meaningless set of one-liners that passes for a translation of the demotic text, counterarguments against which are redundant at this point, has a level of coherence not very far for what would come out of a random words generator. Yet it is a hymn to thousands of fanatic Pseudomacedonians worldwide. Search result listings give tens of thousands of results for “Rosetta Stone” (“ Каменот од Розета“ – “Kamenot od Rozeta” )in Pseudomacedonian, linking not only to newly added pages but to entirely new ad hoc created sites and this was not a case before 2006. The ultranationalist hysteria in the undisputed land of Nikola Gruevski , the “state of Ancient Macedonians”, triumphed.

Before a conclusion is given, a dilemma that readers may have must be answered. The main question is : how the Rosetta Stone Hoax and its acceptance as a truth carved in stone in FYROM and nowhere else is correlated with Governmental policy? Wouldn’t be much more easily to explain it as a brief trend born out of ignorance of general public on specific details of Egyptology, which has it genesis in existential condition (poor people don’t buy archeology books)? The answer is that apart from the uniformity in reporting by nominally independent media and the lack of opposition among professionals in relevant fields, both of which show the pathology of collectivism (compulsive sensationalism as gratifying to the mob mentality on one hand and instilled fear of ostracism and violence on the other), in the Rosetta Stone hoax one may observe a rich symbolism which filled the preexisting gap in the atmosphere created by elite-imposed identity practices. From the viewpoint of events outside the identity discourse, Ancient Macedonia in the public eye catches attention with creation of visual points-airport terminals, squares, streets and most strikingly-statues (erecting a 15 meters tall statue of Alexander in Skoplje’s center square is scheduled for early 2009). These are metaphorical spoils taken from Hellenism, a reclaimed cultural property which “returns” home, fulfilling an archetypal mythical narrative. The official Pseudohistoriography  projected to the public via prolonged popularization and the educational system cannot function without such complementary signs of the nation-building projection.

But the whole circus of Pseudomacedonism would not represent an integral mechanism without an invention of literature bridging the worlds firmly separated by content, space and time. Pseudolingistical fabrications may only represent a finite number of concepts in comparison with potential productivity of language as an actual and theoretical concept. Regardless of that, The function of bridging the caricature of Ancient Macedonia which exists among FYROMian Slavs is achieved through creation of brief idiosyncratic glosses and phrases. While they cannot be used to extrapolate real history in form of consistent rapport, they provide a false echo of  poetic-sounding, ritualistic past, in a language which sounds recognizably Slavic. Speculative and liberal mind may developed these imagination into impressionistic contours, into escapist landscape. And the described travesty of the Rosetta Stone delivered by two electric engineers, together with works demonstrating Slavic character of the Homeric opus and Vasil Iljov’s immensely popular pseudolingustic attempts to build a “Stone Age Macedonian philosophical system”, represent a perfect starting line. The regime’s guilt is that it let this monstrosity spiral out of control and to actively lend support to its propagation in a small society where the power of action carried from the top via gray, unofficial, informal links and person-to-person dependencies exists on a scale unimaginable and impossible for the post-industrial metropolitan societies of the First World.
The Pseudomacedonian regime cordially opened  the doors to both con-artists and invigorated  the FYROMians public perception of themselves as Macedonians, something that they are not and never were.

Ljubomir Frčkovski’s Statements on the Nature of FYROMian Tyrannical Regime

“Dnevnik”, daily newspaper [FYROM], 16-XII-2008

“The New Brave World” by Ljubomir Frčkovski

“The authoritarian character of the new government in Macedonia* is untwisting through usurpation of basically two human rights and via three instruments for torture. The right to property is under devastating attack, the absolute sacrosanctness of the private property is under pressure of the “organistically” understood nation, represented by the “organization” (VMRO-Vasko), which has a great support in the moment by the nation. In this primitive communitarian concept the rights of the nation are dominant over those of the individual, and they are enforced through threats (real or potential), through the police, DBK (State Security Agency-Vasko) and (unfortunately) the judiciary.”

……….[………]……….

“The catastrophic organistic experience of the Macedonian** politics, against all expectations, will leave little for the future. It will leave behind the devastated, shameful judiciary, which is instrumentalised for their persecution. They will leave the “civility” to rise from its knees. It will have to shake the dust of the organicism from its shoulders, of the quasi “Macedonhood” from Paleolithic times, of being lost in the Universe. The individual rights will have to recover from the strike of the “people’s will” – the fist of VMRO.”

* FYROM
** Pseudomacedonian