The Macedonian Digest

“From the readers for the readers”

Edition 83 – November 2012

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Editor’s Notes

Our Name is Macedonia www.mhrmi.org/our_name_is_macedonia

IN THE NEWS

Western Balkans and EU enlargement: the state of play

By Ulrike Lunacek 15 October 2012

http://www.publicserviceeurope.com/article/2590/western-balkans-and-eu-enlargement-the-state-of-play The enlargement of the EU is in the interests of both sides, but the European peace project will not be complete until the south east of the continent is brought into the fold, writes Ulrike Lunacek The award of the Nobel Peace Prize to the European Union is a timely reminder of the principle of 'cooperation instead of confrontation' that has ended a history of bloodshed in every generation on this continent. And it is also a reminder that the European peace project will not be complete until south eastern Europe is part and parcel of the EU, with its promise of 'never again'. So where do we stand in the enlargement process in the Western Balkans after Commissioner Stefan Füle published the recent progress report? During a 1982 presidential news conference, Ronald Reagan quipped about Russian-American relations that "it takes two to tango". Since then, the phrase has been used regularly to describe any situation in which two partners are by definition equally important to the outcome, such as the EU enlargement process. Enlargement remains in the interests of both the EU and the candidate countries. The governments of current member states need to make the case for the expansion of the bloc more than ever. One lesson from the eurozone crisis is that the accession criteria must be strictly monitored by the European Commission and progress must depend on the candidate countries fulfilling these criteria. This applies notably to Croatia , the next country to join by mid-2013: it must not slow down its reform process with EU accession in sight. On the contrary, for Croatia 's government this final step to EU membership should be used as catalyst for speedily tackling outstanding reforms, in particular in the fields of justice and anti-corruption, the protection of ethnic and sexual minorities, and the domestic prosecution of war crimes. Montenegro is the next country at the negotiation table. In the overall picture it has already achieved much. But there are still some areas of concern, including around the long-standing leader of the country, Milo Djukanovic, successfully returning to the top of his party ahead of yesterday's elections. Corruption is widespread, with the political elite and foreign investors deeply involved. The main problem for Montenegro is that although many laws are being adopted that are in line with the EU acquis, they are poorly implemented. This is why things on the ground do not change enough and legitimate public protests against the political elite are constantly growing. However, some positive elements are that structures have been put

in place to give parliament more oversight and that the negotiating process with the EU will be inclusive of civil society organisations. As for minorities, Roma, Ashkali and Egyptians, people with disabilities as well as the LGBT community – despite changes in attitudes at government level – are still in practice subject to discrimination. And there is still a lack of will to investigate thoroughly cases of physical violence and intimidation against journalists and to demonstrate a strong commitment to a media free of political interference. As for Serbia , which was given candidate status last spring, the commission has not recommended a date for the start of accession negotiations at this stage. I welcome this decision as Belgrade has not yet sufficiently improved its relations with Kosovo. In particular, it has failed to fully implement the agreements on regional cooperation and border control concluded between Serbia and Kosovo under EU facilitation in February. The agreements were the key factor in the decision to extend candidate status but regrettably, the Serbian governments – old and new – have been stalling implementation. The Integrated Border Management agreement was signed just last week, with implementation still a long way off. Normalising the relations between Serbia and Kosovo – which after its declaration of independence in 2008 unfortunately has not been recognised yet neither by Serbia nor by five EU member states – is a prerequisite for the EU Council and commission giving a date for the start of accession negotiations. Normalisation should include a radical change in the intolerable and dangerous situation in the north of Kosovo, where a major part of the Serb population does not accept the government in Pristina despite the opportunity, according to the Kosovo constitution, of having broad autonomy, as Serbs in the south already enjoy. The government in Pristina also still needs to do more to reach out to Serbs in the north and win them over, but even more so Serbia needs to stop its untransparent support of parallel Serb structures in the north of Kosovo. The Serbian government's decision to ban the Pride parade in Belgrade a week ago is also deeply regrettable. Serbia is worth more than the way it treats LGBT people today, but the Pride ban cannot be set aside. I count on Füle to continue condemning negative attitudes and policies against LGBT people, like he did for Belgrade Pride. The commission must keep up the close monitoring of the protection of minority rights in Serbia and all the other countries of the region. As for Kosovo itself, the commission is right giving this newest European state a real and palpable accession perspective with the feasibility study for a Stabilisation and Association Agreement. Indeed, EU member states should follow the commission's proposal and give green light for the start of the SAA negotiations as soon as Kosovo has complied with the necessary benchmarks. Kosovo, nevertheless, needs to improve the functioning of its state institutions and start delivering tangible results in the fight against corruption and organised crime, as well as in establishing rule of law for all its citizens. This means especially that the promised electoral reforms need to be swiftly implemented. In comparison with other Ex-Yugoslav states, which built their new states on ex-Yugoslav administrative structures, experiences and contacts, Kosovo is still behind: capacity in administrative structures is not yet fully developed; the fight against corruption and organised crime at all levels needs stronger efforts and results. But there have also been some important steps forward, and that is why the feasibility study gives a positive outlook for Kosovo on its EU-integration process. In general these three issues – the rule of law, the fight against corruption and the protection of minorities – together with the difficult social and economic situation, are the main challenges for all the countries in the region and need to be tackled more intensively by all governments. In the case of Macedonia , anger is directed against the neighbouring country and EU member state Greece over the naming issue. For the fourth year in a row the commission has recommended opening accession negotiations with Macedonia . The country has been on hold for far too long. It is unacceptable that one country can block the progress of another. The council must now step up the pressure on Greece to remove its veto and allow the opening of accession negotiations. Bilateral disputes should never be misused as leverage to block a country's progress in its path towards the EU. Instead, disputes should be dealt with via an EU arbitrage mechanism. The European Parliament already has called for such a mechanism. My Green colleagues and I in the parliament also believe that a solution to the name issue is close as long as the parties show understanding and flexibility – or as I said in the beginning – it takes always two to tango. The parliament will now adopt its own accession reports over the next few months.

Ulrike Lunacek MEP is foreign affairs spokeswoman for the Greens/European Free Alliance political group in the European Parliament, the parliament's rapporteur for Kosovo and co-president of the Intergroup on LGBT rights

Bulgarian nationalism in action

October 17, 2012 - AFP

Bulgarian fans in ‘monkey chants’ probe SOFIA — Bulgarian fans have been accused of aiming monkey chants at Denmark ’s black defender Patrick Mtiliga during Friday’s 1-1 World Cup draw between the two sides. The Bulgarian sports website www.sportal.bg. claimed that the cries started as soon as Mtiliga, whose father is Tanzanian, came on as a 54th-minute substitute. “I didn’t hear anything during the match. I only heard about it when I got back to the dressing room,” said Mtiliga. “It’s disgusting that such things are still going on. I have been told that the FIFA delegate at the match has noted the incident and that measures will be taken,” added Mtiliga, who plays his club football for Danish champions Nordsjaelland. Friday’s incidents came just a month after Armenia players complained of chants of “gypsies” being aimed at them during a World Cup qualifier which Bulgaria won 1-0. Last year, the Bulgarian football federation was fined 40,000 euros by UEFA after spectators racially abused a number of black England players in a Euro 2012 qualifier.

Albania a depot for all stolen vehicles world wide

Thursday, 06 September 2012

A Ford van today with Albanian license plates from the city of Korca was stolen 13 years ago in Bulgaria . Police is suspicious that its current owner B.B (41) who lives in Podgradec (AL) is the individual who stole the van in 1999. In Albania during the past years, dozens of luxury cars that went missing across Europe were discovered in Albania . The strangest case and the one that caused the most publicity is a Tractor that was stolen in South Africa only to be found in the Albanian village of Maminas , near Drach. The Tractor cost around $6,000 and was sought by international police world wide. Near the end of 2009 police discovered the stolen Range Rover jeep of AC Milan football player Gattuso. The Range Rover was stolen on October 2nd, 2006 and was found in Albania 's capital Tirana using fake local license plates. The vehicle was returned to Gattuso. Macedonian police confiscated a jeep on the Macedonian - Albanian border after a group of Albanians had stolen it in Spain and tried to illegally cross with it in Albania . It turned out the jeep belonged to Real Madrid's star David Beckham. Albania continues to be the black hole of Europe where the rule of law is: there are neither rules, nor laws.

Albanian Dies Stealing Timber

Tuesday, 04 September 2012 http://macedoniaonline.eu/content/view/21765/2/

Albanian citizen Genci Halili (25) died Sunday afternoon in an accident while stealing timber in the Macedonian village of Mislodezda . - Genci and his brother Erion were cutting timber when around 17hrs of that afternoon, one of the logs fell on Genci killing him on the spot. His brother put him on a horse and brought him to Mislodezda, however upon arrival doctors were only able to confirm his death, says Stefan Dimovski, MoI, Ohrid. The Halili brothers hailed from Albania 's neighboring village of Rajce . Due to the tough economic situation in Albania , many of Albania 's poor cross the Macedonian border illegally and steal live stock, cut timber and sell them back in Albania . There has been an alarming number of boats stolen from the Ohrid lake in the past 12 months, according to MoI. Two months earlier, Petrit Lichi from the Albanian town of Librazd lost his life in Bukovo, between Ohrid and Resen while stealing timber with two other Albanians. Similarly to Genci Halili, Petrit Lichi was hit by a large tree branch while cutting down a tree. He too was transported to a local hospital where he was pronounced dead on arrival.

Mass rally in Venice to call for independence from Italy

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worl...rom-Italy.html Two centuries after Napoleonic forces snuffed out the 1,000-year Venetian Republic , Venetians are once again aspiring to become an independent state. Inspired by the nationalist aspirations of Scotland and Catalonia, pro-independence campaigners will hold a mass rally in the heart of the lagoon city on Saturday, calling for an urgent referendum to be held on the issue. Indipendenza Veneta, a newly-founded pro-independence movement, says it expects several thousand people to turn up for the rally. They will be ferried across the Grand Canal in gondolas to deliver a "declaration of independence" to the headquarters of the Veneto regional government. It may sound fanciful, and it will be fiercely resisted by Rome , but activists want to carve out a new country in north-eastern Italy which would comprise Venice , the surrounding region of Veneto and parts of Lombardy , Trentino and Friuli-Venezia Giulia . The "Repubblica Veneta", as it would be known, would encompass about five million people. Recent surveys show widespread support for independence among Venetians, who speak a distinct dialect and feel geographically and culturally distant from Rome . A poll conducted by Corriere della Sera in September found that 80 per cent were in favour of independence. A more recent poll by Il Gazzettino, a local newspaper, found a slightly lower but still overwhelming level of support – 70 per cent. The political movement was formed in May and shortly afterwards presented a petition with 20,000 signatures to Luca Zaia, the governor of the Veneto region. "We have gained a lot of momentum from what is happening in Scotland and Catalonia and things are moving fast," Lodovico Pizzati, the head of the movement, told The Daily Telegraph on Friday. "And we are building on a very strong base – calls for independence for the Veneto region go back to the 1970s. It may sound crazy but I think Veneto will become independent before Scotland or Catalonia ." Mr Zaia has acknowledged the high level of support for independence but said there is no constitutional basis for

Venice and the surrounding region to secede from Italy . The pro-independence activists say they have meanwhile referred their case to José Manuel Barroso, the president of the European Commission. "We argue that our right to self-determination is being violated," said Prof Pizzati, a former World Bank economist who now lectures at Venice 's Ca' Foscari University . Italy 's economic crisis has only exacerbated Venetians' resentment against the central government in Rome . "The economic situation here is really desperate, with the recession hitting small and medium-sized businesses. Meanwhile of the 70 billion euros we pay in taxes to Rome , we get back about 50 billion euros, directly and indirectly. We are losing out on 20 billion euros a year," said Prof Pizzati. After more than a millennia of independence, the Most Serene Republic of Venice, La Serenissima, was invaded by Napoleonic forces in 1797, with the French deposing the last doge. After a few decades under Austrian rule, Venice and the surrounding region was incorporated into Italy in 1866, five years after the unification of the rest of the country.

Huge crowds rally in Spain for Catalan autonomy

http://www.dw-world.de/dw/article/0,,5781961,00.html More than a million people rallied in Barcelona on Saturday to call for greater autonomy for the Catalan region, a day after a constitutional court said there was no legal basis to recognize it as a nation. The ruling also said the Catalan language should not take precedence over Castilian Spanish. The decision came after a legal challenge to the Catalan region's statute of autonomy by the opposition conservative People's Party which favors a unified Spain . The statute of autonomy was approved by Catalan voters in a referendum in 2006. The statute gave the Catalan regional government greater powers in taxation and judicial matters as well as more control over airports, ports and immigration. The court ruled that the term "nation" defining Catalonia in the statute had no legal value because "the constitution only knows one nation, Spain ." Widespread support Saturday's march in support of the statute of autonomy was led by the Socialist leader of the regional government José Montilla. A huge Catalan flag with the slogan "we are a nation, we decide ourselves" was unfurled while the crowd held up thousands of red and yellow Catalan banners. The statute has the support of the vast majority of political parties, trades union and social organizations in Catalonia , where a sizeable minority would like to see the wealthy region break away from Spain . Self-rule powers The statute was one of the first initiatives of the Socialist government of Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero, which took office in 2004. But the opposition conservative claim the statute undermined the idea of Spain as a unified state. It was approved by the parliament in Madrid in 2006 afer it was endorsed by Catalan voters in a referendum. Catalonia is home to around seven million of Spain 's population of some 47 million, and accounts for 25 percent of its gross domestic product.

Author: Nigel Tandy (AFP,dpa) Editor: Sonia Phalnikar

EDITORIALS

Reasons why Macedonia can't have normal relations with Bulgaria

http://macedoniaonline.eu/content/view/21987/49/ Although one can certainly come up with several fold more reasons why Skopje and Sofia have not been able to normalize their relations, here are ten that come to mind right from the start. 1. Macedonians at home spent majority of their WW2 fighting against Bulgarian soldiers. Macedonian partisans engaged the Germans mostly in major battles outside of Macedonia , in other parts of the then Yugoslavia . 2. In 1913 Macedonia was split in 3 parts ( Vardar , Pirin, Aegean ). Due to the split, the remains of one of the greatest Macedonian revolutionaries Goce Delcev (died 1903) found itself on the 'other' side, in present Bulgaria . Official Sofia in 1946 sent Delcev's remains to the rightful owners, the Government of Macedonia in Skopje . Today official Sofia claims him as "Bulgarian". Why give him up if he is your own, and equally important, why claim him 60 years later? 3. Bulgaria while protecting their Jewish minority, was responsible for rounding up and sending to concentration camps the Jewish population from Macedonia and Thrace (present Greece ). Macedonia lost 98% of its Jewish population. All of the gold, art and jewelry was stolen by Bulgarian soldiers and sent to Sofia . Just a fortnight ago (October 7th), Jewish leaders from Israel told the Bulgarian Government in Sofia that "saving your own Jews but murdering others still makes you a murderer". There goes Sofia 's hope that everyone has amnesia. 4. Official Bulgarian census in 1946 listed 252,908 Macedonians living in Bulgaria . Official census in 1956 somehow listed less, 187,789 ethnic Macedonians, concentrated in the Pirin region. In 2011, official Sofia counted 1,600 Macedonians! For the next census, Sofia will follow Athens and claim it has no minorities. 5. When visiting Bulgaria , in particularly major holiday destinations, one is able to view dozens of TV channels from all of Bulgaria 's neighbors. The only channels missing (scrambled) are those from Macedonia . 6. Just like in Greece , Bulgaria too does not allow Macedonians to register a political party and take part in Parliament elections. The Macedonians have taken Bulgaria to Human Rights court in Strasbourg twice, won both times, but still cannot register their party. 7. Bulgaria first recognized Macedonia , at the same time did not recognize the language which automatically created tensions between the two countries. 8. Bulgaria wanted to help Macedonia during the Greek embargo and opened its port in Burgas to Macedonian companies. This nice gesture was conditioned - official Skopje must stop its communication with Macedonians in Bulgaria . 9. After 2000, Bulgaria decided to create a "minority" in Macedonia , Serbia , Moldavia (even Albania ) by issuing passports and citizenships to Macedonians. According to Macedonians and Serbs who have received Bulgarian passports, the entire procedure was done in less than two months involving little to no documentation at all. 10. A typical court case of divorced parents seeking custody of their daughter turned into a circus case because the mother (Spaska Mitrova) had recently received a Bulgarian passport. Mitrova's new passport meant the bombastic arrival of two dozen journalists from Sofia at a small court house in Gevgelija to cover the case and cheer on Spaska Mitrova.

ABOUT MACEDONIA

The crushed salt of Macedonia

http://www.balcanicaucaso.org/eng/Re...cedonia-120674 The crushed salt of Kratovo comes directly from the sun and the wind that kiss the Osogovski mountains, in Macedonia . A journey into the secrets of a family that wants to open the country's first “slow hostel”, distant a three-day horse ride from the Aegean sea a stunning symphony of perfumes and fragrances fills the room. Full, bright notes like peppermint and rosemary alternate with more balanced, humble ones like roasted corn and majcina dusica, hand-picked on the high pastures that adorn the tops of the Osogovski mountains, on the border with Bulgaria . Stevce, sitting on a low oak stool, ceaselessly grinds the large steel pestle in the dibek, the heavy marble mortar where his wife Valya gradually pours fifteen herbs and flavours. Once reduced to a fine powder and mixed with sea salt, they will create the magic of kcana sol, Kratovo's crushed salt. Stevce's blows are so violent that the entire house, over four hundred years old, trembles from the foundations to the ceiling. We are at the centre of the "Catholic neighbourhood" of Kratovo, a fascinating, little-known town in eastern Macedonia . Hundreds of red roofs fringe the sides of an old crater, marked by deep fissures carved out over time by the rivers Tabacka, Manceva, and Babakarina – fractures the townspeople have patched up patiently over the centuries, building thirteen bridges over the abyss. Now sleepy, peripheral Kratovo, 6,000 inhabitants, has a rich past associated with the mines of precious metals that still surround the town. Many communities (Turks, Macedonians, Jews, Ragusans, Venetians, Greeks) made it one of the central hubs of the trade routes that, through the mountains and valleys of the Balkans, used to link the ancient Adriatic republic of Ragusa ( Dubrovnik ) to the Aegean port of Thessaloniki . Today, much of that colourful past is lost (the "Catholics" who left their name to the district, left in the 17th century, gradually followed by the other "not Macedonian" communities), but its signs remain in the high stone towers, built by medieval despots to secure the fortunes extracted from the depths of the earth. And such wealth of nuances is miraculously alive in the kitchen too, where different traditions have created unusual combinations and small magic like the kcana sol. "The kcana sol is born from the sun and the wind kissing the mountains Osogovski, and mixed with the salt of the Aegean Sea ". Stevce Donevski, director of the Kratovo's cave art and Slow Food contact in the area, is one of the few who, with his wife Valya and his son Jakim, keeps this tradition alive. Today, there are about ten families in Kratovo that still produce crushed salt. Of these, only two, including Stevce and Valya, also produce it for the market, especially for some restaurants in the area – the others, only for domestic use. "There are two types of herbs", says Stevce, "some are grown, others – the most valuable – are collected on the slopes of the mountains. Everyone uses different recipes, handed down for generations and jealously guarded, and different proportions of the ingredients". The earliest herbs are harvested in May, the latest in late summer. A long, patient work – some bloom for only a few days a year, and then vanish. Many of the ingredients are hard to find and expensive. Some of the rarest are the povecerinka, a small herbaceous inconspicuous ear, which expands its perfume only at dusk, and the noktarac, a saffron-yellow medicine, once also used to disinfect wounds. "It is especially women who pick the herbs and sell them at the market of the main centres of the region, Kratovo, Probištip, Kriva Palanka", explains Valya, sifting through the dark dust produced by Stevce's rhythmic beat in the mortar. "All the plants are cut with special knives, with blades in wood, to preserve the aromas. They are hung and dried for two weeks. Then, when everything is ready, we proceed to the final stage, made of labour and experience in dosing every single fragrance". First you toast the salt, traditionally imported from Thessaloniki ("a three days' horse ride from Kratovo"), with the katar, an iron hollow cylinder in which the salt is introduced, which turns in a cast-iron stove with the long twisted handle. The process takes a few minutes and it is essential in order to make the salt friable under the blows of the pestle. Similarly, and for the same reason, you toast the corn, locally called kukuruz. The next to gradually disappear in the mortar are peppers (spicy or not), rosemary, basil, peppermint, wild mint, and thyme. And then a kaleidoscope of mountain herbs: smilj, kopar, silina, povecerinka, noktarac. But many

manufacturers keep jealously secret at least some of the ingredients that make their salt unique and unrepeatable. Once scrutinized, the final product is a fine powder of burnished colour, reminiscent of the volcanic rocks that dominate the landscape of Kratovo. What has just been beaten by Stevce has a spicy after-taste and a strong peppermint accent. Crushed salt accompanies all sorts of dishes, from meat to traditional pies called “mantije" to the pastarmajka, a sort of pizza garnished with smoked pork. "The kcana sol, however, is best suited to simple tastes", smiles Valya. To prove it, she and her husband quickly set the rustic table on the ground floor – hard-boiled eggs, sheep cheese, sopska sol (a classic Balkan dish with tomatoes, cucumbers, and onions, covered by a blanket of grated cheese), freshly fried peppers, and baked beans. The kcana sol unleashes its whirlwind of fragrances and spices up every single flavour without covering the simple taste of the dishes. The apotheosis, however, comes with the peta, a small round bread, baked in wood, typical of Kratovo and the surrounding region. With measured, confident gestures, Stevce breaks the bread and pours a few drops of olive oil on the soft, white surface stripped by the blade. And then comes the kcana sol. "There is nothing more humble, and more tasty", says Stevce, grinning while he offers us the peta. Stevce and Valya know what they want. The kcana sol and the ancient world it represents can be preserved only by keeping pace with the times and making them part of an integrated tourist, cultural, and culinary package. A stimulating challenge, but a difficult one, given the economic difficulties of Macedonia , made more severe by a delicate domestic political situation and neighbouring Greece 's veto on the country's possible entry into the European Union over a long-standing dispute on the constitutional name of the country ( Athens believes that " Macedonia " is a name historically pertaining exclusively to Greece ). That's why Stevce and Valya are renovating the old house in the "Catholic neighbourhood", overlooking two of the ancient towers of Kratovo, the Krsteva Kula and the Srezna Kula. "In order to be sustainable, tourism can not be hit-and-run. Enjoying the bridges and cobbled streets of Kratovo, the landscape of the Osogovski mountains, the quietness of medieval monasteries like Lesnovo, the neolithic astronomical observatories of Kokino and Cocev Kamen takes time and the slow pace we have been taught for generations", says an inspired Stevce. In their dream, the house will become Kratovo's first "slow hostel", the starting point to discover the secrets of this ancient, unexplored land. "Our guests, if they wish, will also be able to learn to cook the dishes of Kratovo. And why not, to make the kcana sol", adds Valya. "After all, you cannot say you really tasted the inner soul of our land if you have not tried the crushed salt".

Macedonia celebrates 21st independence anniversary

Skopje , 8 September 2012 (MIA) - The Republic of Macedonia celebrates Saturday its 21st anniversary since the successful referendum in which Macedonian citizens voted for an independent and sovereign state. A convincing majority exceeding 95 percent of citizens who came out at the referendum on 8 September 1991 responded positively to the referendum question - 'Are you in favor of independent Macedonia with the right of its accession in a future alliance of sovereign Yugoslav states?' The referendum was preceded by the Declaration for Independence adopted at the first multiparty Macedonian Parliament on 25 January 1991 . The will of the people for an independent state was upheld with the declaration accepting the results of the referendum on 18 September 1991 in the Macedonian Parliament. The next important step in strengthening of the state was the adoption of the Constitution on 17 November 1991 , which was amended after the 2001 conflict and with the signing of the Ohrid Framework Agreement. The Republic of Bulgaria was the first country to recognise Macedonia 's statehood, followed by Turkey , Slovenia , Croatia , Russia , Bosnia &Herzegovina etc. Macedonia declared its monetary independence by introducing the Denar on 26 April 1992 . The Army of Macedonia was established on 18 August that same year. The international-legal status of the state was definitely confirmed by an acclamation of the United Nations General Assembly on 8 April 1993 , when Macedonia was admitted as the 181st full-fledged UN member. However, due to Greece 's opposition and pressure regarding the constitutional name, the UN accession was carried out under the

interim reference Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia (FYROM). Talks for overcoming of the name dispute are still ongoing under UN auspices. Macedonia thus far has established diplomatic relations with 169 states worldwide and is recognised under its constitutional name by 133 countries, three of which are members of the UN Security Council - China , Russian Federation and the United States . Macedonia throughout its 21-year independence endured many problems and difficulties. A three-digit inflation in the beginning of the 1990s, the Greek embargo, Kosovo refugee crisis and the 2001 conflict were real challenges and threats to a young Macedonian state which hindered its way in accomplishing the strategic goals - strengthening of democracy and integration in Euro-Atlantic structures. The process of approximation of Macedonian legislation with EU's, power decentralisation and defence reforms marked recent years. Despite meeting all criteria for full-fledged membership in NATO at the Bucharest Summit in April 2008, the Republic of Macedonia received only a conditional membership invitation after Greece - due to the name dispute - used the right of veto and blocked the accession. In 2005, Macedonia was granted a candidate country status by the EU and in 2008 the European Commission issued a recommendation for the start of accession talks. The recommendation was repeated last year as well. After the NATO veto, Greece is also blocking Macedonia 's EU integration under a condition - the name row to be settled first. Macedonia celebrates its 21st anniversary in light of the new report from Brussels on the country's progress on the road to European integration, as well as a date for start of EU membership talks. Government organizes spectacular concert in honor of Macedonia 's Independence Day The Government organizes a spectacular concert in honor of Macedonia's Independence Day - September 8, which is to promote the latest Brothers Tavitijan album 'Macedonian heart beats in 7/8', featuring many domestic and Balkan music starts. The programme in honor of the Independence Day also includes a formal academy in the Macedonia Theater and Opera. Igor Durlovski's performance of the national anthem will be followed by the concert, scheduled on Saturday evening at Skopje stadium 'Philip II'. Audience will have an opportunity to enjoy the performances of the greatest Balkan singers: Josipa Lisac, Zeljko Bebek, Hari Varesanovic, Aleksandra Radovic, Boris Novkovic, Nina Badric, Tereza Kesovija, Dado Topic, Aki Rahimovski, Goran Karan, Sergej Cetkovic, Jelena Tomasevic, Antonija Sola, Kaliopi Bukle, Esma Redzepova, Karolina Goceva, Miki Jovanovski Dzafer, Risto Samardziev, Vlatko Lozanovski, Vlado Janevski and Oliver Mandic. The Government earmarked EUR 58,000 in support of the event

MTO Inc. - Press Release #7

In honour of terrorists? The Macedonian Truth Organisation (MTO Inc.) has condemned the recent action of a number of Macedonian Government officials and members of the army, who paid tribute to members of the terrorist organisation known as the National Liberation Army (NLA). In an unprecedented move, and with a complete disregard for Macedonian citizens and their families that fell victim to the terrorist NLA, a monument in its honour was built by the renamed terrorist organisation (NLA) turned political party, Democratic Union for Integration (DUI). Earlier this month, Defense Minister Fatmir Besimi, Minister of Justice Blerim Behgjet, Deputy Prime Minister Musa Xhaferi and Deputy Interior Minister Jalal Bajrami, all from the current Albanian DUI (formerly the terrorist NLA), attended a ceremony in Slupčane to lay wreaths for those that died in their attempt to destabilise Macedonia. In addition, five members of the Macedonian armed forces were in attendance, bringing into question the integrity of the Macedonian military. DUI constitutes a member of the ruling coalition. The actions of these rogue ministers, deputies and military personnel highlights the troubled and hamstrung nature of the political landscape in Macedonia . Celebrating actions of terrorists should never be tolerated by the Macedonian people. When these actions are instigated by the ruling

Government, it is a catalyst for future ethnic conflict and the Government is responsible for this. The MTO Inc. is appalled at this act of sheer disrespect for the Macedonian state and the victims of the terrorist attacks of 2001, and calls for the immediate resignation of all government and military personnel present at the ceremony which honoured a group who committed war crimes against civilians, acts of terrorism, and sought to destroy the sovereignty of the Macedonian state. The MTO Inc. further reiterates its position that the Framework Agreement and all constitutional provisions, acts, commitments, agreements, legislation, regulations, policies and programs emanating from, supporting or consequential to the Framework Agreement are abolished and replaced by a framework of constitutional and statutory law based on inalienable natural rights and corresponding responsibilities, and universally codified human rights mechanisms. The MTO Inc. supports a Macedonian state where the indigenous Macedonian culture, language and identity are respected, form the basis of public life and act as important unifying elements of Macedonian society. The MTO Inc. has distilled the thoughts and aspirations of great Macedonian protagonists of freedom into a definition of the Macedonian Cause. The MTO Inc. supports all endeavours which further the Cause, and invite all to read and consider the implications of a nation committed to justice and liberty. http://www.macedoniantruth.org/forum...nt.php?f=2&a=3 __________________ The Macedonian Truth Organisation is a worldwide initiative established in 2008 to convey the spirit of the Macedonian people.

Амбасадорот на Македонија во НАТО во посета на Авганистан

Советот на Северноатланската алијанса (НАК) во комплетен состав, како и амбасадорите на неколку земји контрибутори во мисијата ИСАФ, меѓу кои и амбасадорот на Република Македонија во НАТО Мартин Треневски, предводени од Генералниот секретар на НАТО Андерс фог Расмусен, престојуваа од 17 до 19 октомври во тридневна посета на Авганистан. Генералниот секретар на НАТО Расмунсен и 35-те амбасадори на аеродромот во Мазар ел Шериф пред полетувањето за Брисел Целта на посетата беше амбасадорите од 35 земји членки на НАТО и седум земји-контрибутори да се информираат од прва рака за состојбите во земјата, за подготовките на авганистанските одбранбени сили да ја преземат комплетната контрола за безбедноста во земјата по повлекувањето на главнината на борбените сили на НАТО по 2014 година, како и да се даде јасна порака на авганистанските лидери дека меѓународната заедница нема да го напушти Авганистан, туку дека мисијата ИСАФ ќе се трансформира во нова улога без учество во воените операции, а меѓународната помош ќе продолжи во нова видоизменета форма. Амбасадорите реализираа богата програма на активности и средби, меѓу кои и со претседателот на Авганистан Карзаи, со врховниот командант на мисијата ИСАФ, генералот Ален, како и со повеќе гувернери на провинции во земјата. Главниот штаб на ИСАФ мисијата со седиште во Кабул повеќе години го обезбедуваат војници на Армијата на Република Македонија кои, според оценките на највисоките воени команданти на мисијата ИСАФ, оваа должност ја извршуваат со многу висок професионализам и одговорност. Амбасадорот на РМ во НАТО Мартин Треневски ги посети прiпадниците на македонската чета во врховната команда на ИСАФ во Кабул и имаше неколку часовна средба со нејзините команданти, при што информираше за најактуелните случувања во седиштето на Алијансата во Брисел, за плановите на сојузниците во оваа операција во која учествуваат вкупно 50 земји членки на НАТО и земји-контрибутори меѓу кои и Република Македонија, за периодот по 2014 година кога ќе престане ангажманот во воени операции и најголем дел од трупите ке бидат повлечени од Авганистан, а одговорноста за безбедноста во земјата ќе ја преземат одбрамбените сили на Авганистан. Мисијата ИСАФ ќе се трансформира во советодавна, а акцентот ќе биде на обука на одбранбените сили на Авганистан, градење на институциите на државата, како и на инфраструктурни и економски проекти.

Вкупно 35 амбасадори кои го посетија Авганистан имаа можност да разговараат и со командантите на регионалните команди на ИСАФ за југот, истокот, западот и северот на земјата при што добија детални информации за состојбите во нивните воени региони. Амбасадорите го посетија и Мазар е Шериф каде во “Регионалната команда Север” на ИСАФ, која е под германска команда, разговараа со повеќе гувернери од северот на Авганистан. Главна оценка од посетата на Советот на НАТО на Авганистан е дека напорите што ги вложува Алијансата и пошироката меѓународна зедница во борбата против талибанците даваат резултати, авганистанската армија е оспособена сама да се соочува со бунтовниците и се поdgotvuva комплетно да ја преземе одговорноста за безбедноста во земјата. Голем проблем преставува мешањето на некои од соседите во внатрешните работи на Авганистан.

ABOUT GREECE

21 Av 5772 August 9, 2012

Golden Dawn Threatens Immigrants

By Special Athens Correspondent Konstantina Triantafillis

The National Herald, Tuesday, June 26, 2012 Translated by Prof. Asher J. Matathias

She meets Melina Skebi quite serendipity at a popular square in Athens . Melina is watching her children alone, and searches for another known person with whom to exchange a few words, while seeking respite from the oppressive heat. She is anxious as she looks around, and I first go pass her in my own quest for a patch of shade. As she observes me distancing myself, she motions for me to come and sit next to her. "Come, sit with me, and talk Greek," as she continues, anxiously surveying her surroundings. "I fear for the appearance of Golden Dawn, and we have a repeat of the same," she continues. I ask her what does she mean, and she describes that Golden Dawn members attacked two women aliens from Albania , whom they assaulted very badly. Golden Dawn's presence has sown fear in public squares and neighborhoods. "There were two women sitting at a bench, talking, watching their children play. A little farther, a group of men, compatriots, had created their own small well. Suddenly, two sturdy women approach the bench and, in a severe tone, demand to know why they converse in Albanian. They, in turn, ask, "And why is this bothering you? We are not speaking to you, but to each other, and bother no one."

Before they could complete their sentence, the two well-built women begin to hit them with fists and kicks. Seeing this, their Albanian husbands run to protect their wives, but, before they could understand well what was happening, more people enter the square, wearing the well-known black T-shirts, holding clubs, and begin to indiscriminately lash out, states Melina, indignant that this occurs without taking into account children playing there at the time. And she asks: Why have we not heard such news anywhere, from none of the media? Why? Who cares for the immigrants, all (legal and illegal) in the same sack, she says. Melina Skebi, a woman about 35, from Koritsa, came to Greece 19 years ago, is married, and is the mother of a 10-year-old. She has been employed in various positions.

"In the beginning, I went to the farms; I attended to children, and then worked in a bakery, until I was finally able to what I always wanted: study in the university, something I could not do in my country. I major in languages and history in the Open University, and I am very happy and proud. This ability to study Greece has given me, to realize my dream. I love and respect this land, and events like those I describe sadden me. Just as I am saddened when my child began to recite the poem My Fatherland's Flag …"

The teacher interrupted him, and sharply chastised him, telling him "the flag is not your nation's, it is our country's. And my child, born in Greece , the land he considers his, did not want to go to school. May his previous teacher, from his former school, be well, for when she heard of my son's refusal to attend, offered to take him back in her class, thus escaping the worst."

Such, and more, spoke Mrs. Skebi of what occurred in the square with the attack by members of the Golden Dawn. Fear has been firmly vested in their souls, for their children, for themselves, and society in general. They hear more anecdotes of racist assaults that daily take place in the whole of Greece , and they become intensely problematical.

*Allow me to tell you, Asher, that you are tragically misinformed about how Greece looks like. Six Turkish operas --- two of them at PRIME TIME --- are shown day after day on Greek TV channels (the top ones, Ant1, Mega and Alpha). In addition, the Turkish pseudo-historical soap opera Sulleyman the Magnificent is being spread by DVDs. The story of Ms. Skebi, who is saddened that her son is not allowed to recite a patriotic poem at school, is anything but characteristic. What should be your concern is the possibility of bankruptcy, not illegal immigrants. Dr.S.H., Haifa , Israel

**We all share this concern and this shame. Marcia Haddad Ikonomopoulos, Museum Director

Greece needs 'zero tolerance' approach to police violence

By Eva Cossé

17 October 2012 http://www.publicserviceeurope.com/article/2601/greece-needs-zero-tolerance-approach-to-police-violence Recent allegations about police abuse of protesters in Greece were saddening but not surprising – and it is vital that the government sends a strong message that it is taking the issue seriously, says Human Rights Watch As a Greek living in London, I was saddened but not surprised to pick up The Guardian last week to read disturbing allegations that police had abused protesters in custody in the Athens police headquarters. The allegations, denied by the police, were that officers beat detainees, forced them to stand naked, burned them with cigarettes, spat at them, and sexually insulted a woman detainee. I was not surprised, though, because police violence in Greece is not new, and justice for the victims is elusive. Since 2005, the European Court of Human Rights has ruled against Greece five times for failing to prevent and punish law enforcement abuse. Most recently, in January, the court found that the 2001 rape with a truncheon of Necati Zontul, a Turkish national, by a Greek border guard amounted to an act of torture. Zontul believes he was singled out due to his sexual orientation. In March, more than seven years after the fact, an Athens appeals court acquitted two police officers of torturing – which under Greek law means causing a serious violation against human dignity – two Afghans detained at the Aghios Panteleimonas police station in December 2004. The officers had been convicted by a first instance court of subjecting the two men to acts of torture, including falanga, a form of corporal punishment in which the soles of the feet are beaten, while they were detained. The appeals court did uphold the two police officers' conviction for violence – but not for torture – against five other Afghans in another location on the same day. The officers reportedly mistreated the Afghan nationals in a house in Aghios Panteleimonas while carrying out a police search for an Afghan who had escaped from custody. The officers were given suspended sentences of 20 months for one and 25 for the other. Police violence during protests is also a problem, with widely reported serious incidents at demonstrations in Athens in May and June 2011, as well as in April of this year. Only one of four investigations opened in July 2011 by the Athens prosecutor's office into allegations of excessive and indiscriminate police use of force, including tear gas, during a June 2011 anti-austerity demonstration has led to charges. Two investigations are still pending while one was closed with no charges brought. Human Rights Watch has also documented abuse by law enforcement officers against migrants and asylum seekers

over the years. In the port city of Patras , in late 2011, we spoke with 17 migrants, including 10 unaccompanied migrant children – that is, children traveling without family members – who told us of police and coastguard abuse on the streets, during sweeps, and in or near the port area during the migrants' attempts to stow away to Italy . Idris H., a 38-year-old Eritrean, told me that police officers assaulted him during a sweep operation in the abandoned factory where he lived with other migrants, a few days before we met in late November 2011. "They asked for my papers," he said. "I said I don't have papers and then they beat me and told me to not come here again. They beat me … I had fallen on the ground and they were kicking me on the hands. I was crying and when I was crying they were hitting me much more." Idris, like so many others, never reported the police abuse because of lack of faith in the institutions and justice system. But in the case reported in The Guardian, the victims have filed a criminal complaint and the Athens prosecutor has opened an investigation. There is no internal police investigation, however. The minister of public order and citizen protection, Nikos Dendias, has said that the courts are handling the matter and that he cannot intervene. International human rights bodies have criticised Greece over the years for not acknowledging the seriousness of the problem of police ill-treatment and have repeatedly recommended setting up a credible, independent and effective police complaints mechanism to investigate allegations of abuse. A new office within the Ministry of Public Order and Citizen Protection to address complaints of police misconduct has not resolved the problem. Though established in 2010, the office is not yet operational and has a limited mandate, able to rule only on the admissibility of the complaints. Admissible cases will be transferred to the relevant disciplinary bodies of the security forces for further investigation, raising questions about the independence of such investigations. No one should be abused, especially by law enforcement officials entrusted with protecting the public. Torture and other forms of ill-treatment are prohibited, and the victims of such abuses should see justice done. The Greek government needs to send a strong message to whoever abuses power by showing zero tolerance for those who engage in such acts. Eva Cossé monitors Greece for Human Rights Watch

How Will the Euro Break Up?

By Martin Hutchinson

August 20, 2012 http://prudentbear.com:80/index.php/thebearslairview?art_id=10698 When even the strongly europhile Economist (August 11

th-17th, pp. 19-22) publishes a lengthy piece on how the euro

might break up, the question must be worth addressing again. For one thing, we should think about how many pieces the euro Humpty Dumpty egg might form when it hits the ground, and what future currency unions might emerge from the wreckage. The question of costs and benefits in a break-up, which The Economist addressed in detail but not necessarily accurately, is another that’s well worth consideration. The Economist begins by asserting that Greek exit from the euro is more or less inevitable, absent gigantic subsidies.

Here I agree; it is not just inevitable, but two years overdue. Had Greece been shoved out of the euro in March 2010, when it first came begging for handouts, announcing that its national accounts had been fraudulent for a decade, the effect on other misbehaving Mediterraneans would have been highly salutary. The Economist, incidentally, indulges in the Winston Churchill “I read Ancient Greek at school so they must be OK”

fallacy, when lamenting that Greece might “sink into the criminal swamp of the Balkans.” That, gentlemen, is a gross insult to the Balkans, in particular to Macedonia, a much poorer country neighboring Greece that has received little or no help from the world, largely because of disgraceful Greek opposition. Currently Macedonia , admirably run since 2006 under prime minister Nikola Gruevski, ranks 69th on Transparency International’s Corruption Perceptions Index, 43rd on the Heritage Foundation’s Index of Economic Freedom and 22nd on the World Bank’s Ease of Doing Business Index, compared with Greece ’s 80th, 119th and 100th respectively. The reality is that whatever the (overrated) glories of Periclean Athens in the fifth century B.C., they have nothing whatever to do with the modern Greeks, alien 6th Century invaders who since their independence from the Ottoman Empire have failed to live up to even the modest Balkan standards of competence and integrity.

The Economist also overstates the bill for Greece ’s exit, putting it at 320 billion euros, about $380 billion. First it assumes the EU would need to give Greece yet another 50 billion euros to tide it over on its exit – an absurd assumption, throwing good money after bad (though as Greece would remain a member of the EU and its GDP per capita would be sharply reduced, no doubt it would gain some of the slush-funds for poorer members that prop up the likes of Bulgaria and Romania). Second, the EU assumes that another 170 million euros of Greek government debt would have to be written off. Again, that is absurdly generous – since Greece would have a GDP of 100-120 billion euros, compared to its current 215 billion, and, after a short interval, a balance of payments surplus, it should easily be able to support debt of 100 billion euros (plus any short-term funding for the transition) making the necessary write-off only 70 billion or so. However, the most serious overstatement of the cost of a Grexit – and the other potential exits – is the likely Greek default on 100 billion euros of Target 2 payment system obligations to the Deutsche Bundesbank and other “surplus” central banks. As discussed in an earlier column, these obligations should have never been allowed to arise. They came about because the eurozone payments system routed euro payments between Greece and Germany through their respective central banks. That’s not entirely unprecedented; payments from Alabama to New York go through the respective Federal Reserve Banks when the two banks concerned don’t have a correspondent relationship. However in the U.S. system and when payments are being made between individual banks, the imbalances are not allowed to build up, but are settled on a periodic basis. The Bank of Greece should have been forced to settle accounts quarterly with the Bundesbank – which would have drained the Greek economy of funds years ago, raised Greek interest rates and prevented the country’s debts spiraling to the extent they did. The reality now however is the Target 2 balances are worthless, whether or not Greece remains a member of the eurozone. Given Greece ’s indebtedness, and the deflation necessary in the Greek economy, it is unimaginable that a Greece that remained a member of the Eurozone could find an additional 100 billion euros, over and above its existing debt, in any finite timeframe. That 100 billion euros is thus not a cost of Grexit, it is a cost that the Bundesbank and the other surplus countries must bear whatever the fate of the euro. The same applies to the gigantic “Target 2” balances between Germany and Italy , Spain and probably France ; they are all illusory. Probably two thirds of Germany ’s 727 billion euros ($850 billion) of Target 2 claims at July 31, 2012 will never be seen again, and will have to be borne by German taxpayers, euro or no euro. For German taxpayers, the single most important reform to pursue is the immediate closure of the Target 2 payments system, and its replacement with a system which includes automatic monthly clearing payments between the central banks concerned. (Even the replacement system should be temporary; once equilibrium has been regained; international payments between two countries using the same currency should be left to private-sector correspondent banking). As for the cost of a “Grexit” over and above costs that must be borne anyway, it is limited to the partial write-off of Greek debt, or about 70 billion euros ($85 billion). That is entirely bearable, and far preferable to the huge economic damage done by leaving Greece as an over-subsidized member of the euro. A similar argument limits the cost of other members leaving the euro, although whether or not they leave, their “Target 2” balances are probably unrecoverable. If Greece had been thrown out of the euro two years ago, the crisis could probably have been stopped there. Portugal and Ireland would have needed bailouts, but the prospect of life with a currency sharply devalued against its neighbors’ would have put the fear of God into PIGGY governments in Spain, Italy and France and made them undertake austerity programs that actually bit. However, we are not in that position, and it thus seems highly unlikely that even a Greece -less euro can remain intact. Of the countries that received rescues last year, Ireland appears to be on the road to recovery; its problem was primarily one of a banking crisis rather than anything structural in the economy itself. Portugal is more doubtful; the latest figures show second quarter GDP declining by 1.2%, rather more than had been expected. On its own, Portugal could probably be bailed out, but if other countries (beyond Greece ) leave the euro Portugal will do so also. Spain ’s GDP also fell in the second quarter, but only by 0.4%. Like Portugal , Spain could probably survive with at most a modest further bailout, but if the egg breaks, Spain will be one of the shards. The two largest problems by far are Italy and France . Italy has failed to address its structural problems, which are primarily those of over-powerful public sector unions. While the replacement last autumn of Silvio Berlusconi by Mario Monti may have pleased The Economist (which sees Italy as remaining in a smaller euro while Spain departs), it has in reality made matters worse because no significant reforms have been carried out and the Monti government has no legitimacy and must be replaced in new elections next March. Since Italy has the highest government debt in the eurozone (now that part of Greece ’s has been written off), it is far more likely than Spain to be the trigger for a eurozone breakup. Even though Italian GDP declined in the second quarter by 0.7%, more than Spain ’s, the markets do not realize this; they currently trade Italy ’s 10-year government debt on a 5.68% yield compared with Spain ’s 6.64%. The markets are wrong. The markets are even more wrong about France, whose 10-year bonds trade at only a 2.16% yield. While France ’s GDP was flat in the second quarter, that does not reflect the damage being done by the new Hollande government. This has reversed the modest reforms in pension age carried out by Sarkozy, has increased the already onerous wealth tax and plans to introduce a 75% top rate of income tax on the rich. Given that most wealthy Frenchmen speak English and often German, this will cause not only capital flight but emigration over the next year, reducing

France ’s tax base and its GDP, and causing a massive government funding crisis. Even if France survives Greece ’s exit from the euro, and the inevitable Italian crisis, it will itself need to leave the common currency within the next year, since there are no funds large enough to bail it out. The obvious euro split would form a “Mediterranean euro” of France , Italy , Spain , Portugal and probably Malta and Cyprus (but not the hopeless Greece .) This would allow the Mediterranean countries to retain much of the efficiency benefits of a multilateral common currency, while gaining trading advantages of a weakening of perhaps 10-15% against the northern euro economies. However, the eurozone’s unhappy history over the last few years has demonstrated that if you don’t trust the governments of your neighbors, you don’t want to be in a common currency with them. At the current time, it would be madness for the relatively well run Spain and Portugal to enter into a currency union with Italy and France , without the counterbalance of Germany . Both Italy and France as currently run would see departure from the euro as providing them room for profligacy, the last thing Spain and Portugal should want to tie themselves to. Equally, if France and Italy left the euro, the Spanish and Portuguese economies are probably not strong enough to remain with the northern euro and suffer a further 10-15% uplift in their exchange rates against Italy , France and the world. Hence a euro split would probably leave Greece in solitary sub-Balkan disgrace (possibly accompanied by Cyprus ), while France and Italy each went their own way, their profligacy weakening their currencies but with nobody else tied to their failure. Spain and Portugal could form an “Iberian euro” and might very well be joined by other small economies who, while reasonably disciplined, find the current euro too strong, perhaps Slovenia , Slovakia , Malta and Ireland . Belgium is a special case; it has very little fiscal discipline but benefits enormously from being at the center of the expanding EU empire – on balance it would probably find its Imperial revenues enhanced by remaining a member of the stronger euro. The remaining euro members – Austria , Finland , Germany , Luxembourg , the Netherlands , and Estonia – would form a relatively compact, well-managed core of members for a strong euro, probably appreciating by 10-15% initially against the Iberian euro and remaining strong against it thereafter. Other strong East European economies with good fiscal discipline, like Latvia and Poland , would eventually join this core, as might Sweden and Denmark , but weaker economies like Bulgaria and Romania would probably never do so. So that’s the probable final score – two separate euros, one stronger one weaker, both fairly well managed, with France and Italy remaining independent as befits their large size and poor fiscal management. Greece , Cyprus , Britain and a few East European countries would remain part of the EU but no longer aspire to membership of a common currency. (The Bear’s Lair is a weekly column that is intended to appear each Monday, an appropriately gloomy day of the week. Its rationale is that the proportion of “sell” recommendations put out by Wall Street houses remains far below that of “buy” recommendations—8% versus 46.5%, according to recent research. Accordingly, investors have an excess of positive information and very little negative information. The column thus takes the ursine view of life and the market, in the hope that it may be usefully different from what investors see elsewhere.) Martin Hutchinson is the author of “Great Conservatives” (Academica Press, 2005)—details can be found on the Web site www.greatconservatives.com and co-author with Professor Kevin Dowd of “Alchemists of Loss” (Wiley—2010). Both now available on Amazon.com, Great Conservatives only in a Kindle edition, Alchemists of Loss in both Kindle and print editions. Views are as of August 20, 2012 , and are subject to change based on market conditions and other factors. These views should not be construed as a recommendation for any specific security or sector. Federated Equity Management Company of Pennsylvania

Z’s Corner

From Greko to Slovene

Grekostani and Slovenesti mean the same thing.

The term G-re ko-s-tan is older than the term S-lo vene-s-t (which evolved later). The "r" sound predated

the "l" (r>l).

The Grekostani were the indigenous peoples of the southern balkans which included the Pelasgians.

The ancient Italic peoples would have been familiar with the term "Grekos" before 1800 BC ( that is

before the arrival of the Hyksos-Israelites, Nubians and other invaders who crossed

the Mediterranean and colonised Pelasgian lands up to the south of Mt. Olympus ).

As such, in the 8th century BC a group of Italic people wrongly named a Eur-African hybrid tribe as "Grekos"!

*The indigenous Macedonians north of Mt. Olympus didn't make the same mistake. They didn't called the

Eur-African hybrids "Grekos", but rather Dannans!

G-re (ko-s-tan) > G-re (vene-s-t). *Greven is a a name of a major Macedonian town.

G-re - vene-s-t > S-lo - vene-s-t > Lives-ra/la - lives-the living-don. Greko > Greven > Sloven are

evolving pre-Christian religious terms which belong to the indigenous peoples.

By A Digest Reader

LOL

Alexander spread Hellenism in the Greek language, not the Slov or Slav or your word :-)

By An Impostor Wannabee

ANTAGONISTS

Risto,

I just finished reading your fake propaganda article titled, "Philip II United the Greeks".

What a crock of shit...

I personally find it sad that the people of your country continue to live a lie, that continues to go around and around through total lack of education and ignorance.

That fact that every university around the world (outside of your country LOL) openly regards Macedonia

and all aspects of it's ancient history as being "Greek" is overwhelming proof of your lies. I have even seen video footage of one of your former prime ministers quoting that your Slavic claims of being the

only true Macedonians, are lies. Made me laugh... but at least one of you is willing to accept the truth.

If Alexander The Great could be here today, he too would laugh at all of you...

The fact is history is well documented, and can never be changed. All the best with your future lies.

Deep down, I think all of your people know the truth.. but the lie has gone on for so long now, that to admit the truth would leave you all with no credibility whatsoever.

Regards,

Terry Savidis.

FEEDBACK

Hi, Risto Some Olympic news for our readers. In the Para Olympic Games a Macedonian lady won Gold in air pistol shooting with a world record. The Chess Olympiad was held in Istanbul in September and Macedonia took 38

th position from 150 participants

improving 11 places from 49th

in the world. Greeceregressed from 21st place to 40

th place behind Macedonia. On the

way Macedonia defeated Italy, 6 wins out of 11 games played. Deddo Mano. Dear Risto, I would like to draw attention to our readers, about Greek Behaviour, they are chameleons, they change their view and attitude every time they are quizzed and cornered. They don't like the truth, but they are ignorant of the truth. Truth hurts, so they consider truth as malicious anti Greek propaganda. They have 1000’s lobbyists around the world to maintain their false identity in the last two hundred years. Dictionaries and encyclopedias are changed under Greek pressure. One example; You have heard of Philipos Dragumis whose father with Povlos Melas, designed the treatment of Macedonians: “fotia kai tsakuri”. Burn and slaughter. The intoxicated Greeks, with the mother of democracy, would not believe that. Philipos Dragumis, last Dragoman of the former Dragumis Turkish high officials in 1948 issued the last memorandum to the Greek government as outlined by Dimitris Lithoxou. He was born in Bogatsko, Kostur, Kastoria, Vogatsko. I wanted to see Bogatsko on the website, population and history. Because of the negative publicity, Greeks forced wikipedia to delete all about Bogatsko. I found the Greek Name was Agios Nikolaos. That vanished too. The only thing about Dragumi’s tribe of 200 years ago is that it was part of the Fanariots (non Greeks) who served the Turkish Rulers, Administrator in Romania , Moldavia . And today they are the true Greeks, opportunists, Servants of Western Imperialism, trying to Bury Macedonia . Da zhivee Makedonia. Драги Ристо, Еден Кокан е роден во Скопје во 1946 година. Во второ одделение имавме предмет со име Природознание. Според програматата на тој предмет, некаде во месецот Ноември имаше дел од статистиката на градот Скопје, А ВО ТОА ГО ИМАШЕ СЛЕДНОТО: ( ова за 1953 год.) Скопје има над 122.000 жители. Од тоа се 35.000 Турци, 15.000 Цигани, 1500 Шиптари, 5 до 6 иљади Власи, срби и други а останатото се Македонци до 65.000. НЕ МОЖЕЛЕ ДА ГО ОСЛОБОДУВААТ АЛБАНЦИ, КОГА ТАА НАЦИЈА ЈА НЕМАЛО ВО 1912 ГОД. Тогаш имало шиптари или арнаути, но не и албанци. А и колкумина биле на број па да станат ослободители. АЈДЕ ГРЕШАМ. Ако грешам, тогаш кои се тие? Немам против, нека се покажат со име и презиме кои се тие што ослободувале град во кој ги немало како жители ниту 100 амилии, а камо ли борци. Не треба многу , треба да се знае дека турската војска, а со неа и администрацијата се повлекла сама без борба. Дедо ми Панче тоа ми го кажуваше , бил очевидец.

Поздрав, Кокан

History

The Kingdom of Lyncus

http://www.macedonia.se/en/Load/65/lyncus_kingdom/

Thucydides (460-400 BC) tells us that Arrhabaeus I, the son of Bromerus, is king of the Lyncestians, the people of Macedonia , and that Lyncestae, Elimiotae and other tribes of the highland country are subjects to Perdiccas II, son of Alexander I, who ruled Macedonia during the time of the Peloponnesian war. We also are informed that Lyncestians were at first independent people, governed as a distinct kingdom. However, after the death of Alexander I in 452, Macedon began to fall apart and Arrhabaeus I, the king of Lyncus is said to have revolted against his sovereign, king Perdiccas II of Macedon in 424 BC. At that time, Perdiccas II was an ally to Brasidas, a Spartan officer during the first decade of the Peloponnesian war, when they, with their combined armies made war upon Arrhabaeus I, king of the Lyncestians, a neighboring people of Macedonia , for Perdiccas II had a quarrel with him and wanted to subdue him. But when Perdiccas II and Brasidas with their armies arrived at the pass leading into Lyncus, Brasidas said that before appealing to arms he should like to negotiate which led to interruption of the planned invasion of the country. Somewhat later, Perdiccas II and Brasidas marched again together for a second time to Lyncus against Arrhabaeus I. Invading the country of Arrhabaeus I and finding the Lyncestians encamped against them, they also took up a position facing them. The armies engaged in a minor battle which resulted in some loss for the Lyncestian party. Perdiccas II then wished to go on and attack the villages of Arrhabaeus instead sitting still waiting for two or three days for the Illyrian mercenaries who were to join Perdiccas II. However, the Illyrians had actually betrayed Perdiccas II and had joined Arrhabaeus I. Then, during the night the Macedonian army fled in the direction of home while Brasidas was left uninformed in danger of attack by Arrhabaeus I and the Illyrians. At the daybreak, Brasidas managed to defend himself, entering the narrow pass further between two hills which was the entrance into the territories of Arrhabaeus I, avoiding a possible defeat, and the same day he arrived at Arnisa, the first town in the dominions of Perdiccas I. The desertion of Perdiccas II from Lyncus violently angered the soldiers of Brasidas and after that Perdiccas II began to regard Brasidas as an enemy.

Herodotus on Thessaly

http://www.sacred-texts.com/cla/hh/hh8020.htm http://www.sacred-texts.com/cla/hh/hh8030.htm

http://academic.reed.edu/humanities/.../hdt/hdt8.html http://classics.mit.edu/Herodotus/history.8.viii.html

The Thessalians demand surrender, and threaten to have the Persians overrun tiny Phocis, the site of the oracle at Delphi. The angry refusal of the Phocians is motivated by hatred of Thessaly, not by Panhellenic

feeling.

Notice the interesting translation: it says that the Thessalians, in the past, were on the Greek side solely

out of their interest ("so long as it pleased us to be on that side"): Bearing then a grudge for both of these things, the Thessalians sent a herald and addressed them thus: "Phokians, we advise you to be more disposed now to change your minds and to admit that ye are not on a level with us: for in former times among the Hellenes, so long as it pleased us to be on that side, we always had the preference over you, and now we have such great power with the Barbarian that it rests with us to cause you to be deprived of your land and to be sold into slavery also. We however, though we have all the power in our

hands, do not bear malice, but let there be paid to us fifty talents of silver in return for this, and we will engage to avert the dangers which threaten to come upon your land." 30. Thus the Thessalians proposed to them; for the Phokians alone of all the people in those parts were

not taking the side of the Medes, and this for no other reason, as I conjecture, but only because of their

enmity with the Thessalians; and if the Thessalians had supported the cause of the Hellenes, I am of

opinion that the Phokians would have been on the side of the Medes. When the Thessalians proposed this, they said that they would not give the money, and that it was open to them to take the Median side

just as much as the Thessalians, if they desired it for other reasons; but they would not with their own will be traitors to Hellas.

31. When these words were reported, then the Thessalians, moved with anger against the Phokians, became guides to the Barbarian to show him the way: and from the land of Trachis

they entered Doris; for a narrow strip of the Dorian territory extends this way, about thirty furlongs in breadth, lying between Malis and Phokis, the region which was in ancient time called Dryopis; this land is

the mother-country of the Dorians in Peloponnese. Now the Barbarians did not lay waste this land of Doris when they entered it, for the people of it were taking the side of the Medes, and also

the Thessalians did not desire it.

32. When however from Doris they entered Phokis, they did not indeed capture the Phokians themselves;

for some of them had gone up to the heights of Parnassos,--and that summit of Parnassos is very convenient to receive a large number, which lies by itself near the city of Neon, the name of it being

Tithorea,--to this, I say, some of them had carried up their goods and gone up themselves; but most of

them had conveyed their goods out to the Ozolian Locrians, to the city of Amphissa, which is situated above the Crissaian plain. The Barbarians however overran the whole land of Phokis, for so the

Thessalians led their army, and all that they came to as they marched they burned or cut down, and delivered to the flames both the cities and the temples:

33. for they laid everything waste, proceeding this way by the river Kephisos, and they destroyed the

city of Drymos by fire, and also the following, namely Charadra, Erochos, Tethronion, Amphikaia, Neon,

Pedieis, Triteis, Elateia, Hyampolis, Parapotamioi and Abai, at which last-named place there was a temple of Apollo, wealthy and furnished with treasuries and votive offerings in abundance; and there was then,

as there is even now, the seat of an Oracle there: this temple they plundered and burnt. Some also of the Phokians they pursued and captured upon the mountains, and some women they

did to death by repeated outrage.

Were Ancient Thessalians bilingual/multilingual? Strabo stated that certain parts of Thessaly were held by

Thracians. Also, there were a few Epirote tribes which were incorporated into Thessaly. It wouldn't be too hard to speculate and propose that Thessalians were a mix of Thracians, Epirotes, Hellenes, and

(perhaps) others.

From the Archives

The Battle for Macedonia

Roger L. Lewis, reply by Peter Green November 5, 1981

http://www.nybooks.com/articles/arch...gination=false In response to: The Macedonian Connection from the January 22, 1981 issue To the Editors: I was puzzled to read Peter Green’s review, “The Macedonian Connection” [NYR, January 22]. He ventures into ancient Greek history and presumes to pronounce judgment on some intricate and controversial issues. He does not,

however, appear to be in command of the necessary professional knowledge. In fact, he has not even seen the books he is discussing. If the reviewer had seen R.L. Fox’s book, he could not help but notice the official stamp of the “Search for Alexander” exhibition and would not have written that the Greek authorities “refused to give the book their official imprimatur, and washed their hands of the author” (whatever that may mean). As for the reviewer’s lacunae in ancient Greek history, one could not enumerate them all. It would certainly require a separate [sic] essay to discuss them. Per force [sic] I shall have to limit myself to a few striking examples. (I cannot help but mention an otherwise minor error which nevertheless surprises [sic] coming from a supposed specialist. Philip never received “an arrow wound in the thigh,” but an arrow wound in the right eye and a sarissa wound in the thigh, which is quite different.) It is possible that the reviewer does not know that the “politically loaded” “six words,” “Macedonia and the Rest of Greece,” in the title of the Symposium, which by implication he ascribes to some sinister and fertile imagination of—to use his own term—”neo-Macedonian propaganda” agents, are the very words that, according to our ancient authorities, were used by Alexander in his letter to Darius after the battle of Issus (Arrian 2.14.4: “Your ancestors invaded Macedonia and the rest of Greece?”) Can he ignore that Macedonia is described as a part of Greece not “in modern political terms,” but in the actual texts of ancient historians and geographers (cf., for instance, Strabo 7. frg. 9: “ Macedonia , of course, is a part of Greece ”)? How can he possibly be unaware of the fact that Demades, far from being an Athenian freedom fighter, was in fact the leader of the pro-Macedonian faction in Athens and therefore should be the last person to be cited as an example of the opposition of the Greek city-states to the “detested rule” of the “alien barbarians”? (On Demades of., for instance, Real Encyclopädie IV, 2703-2704.) Furthermore, his linguistic competence does not appear particularly impressive. The reviewer’s French is not perfect; otherwise he would never have used beau idéal (beautiful, high ideal) instead of bel idéal. I am at a loss to decide whether these errors should be ascribed to innocent ignorance or to deliberate malice. I have not yet completed my reading of R.L. Fox’s book, in order to determine whether the Greek Ministry of Culture made a wise decision in including it to [sic] the exhibition. However, after reading Peter Green’s review, I can now well understand why Time, Inc. never considered commissioning him to write the Alexander book, which was finally proposed to his younger colleague. Roger L. Lewis New York City Peter Green replies: Mr. Lewis generates more heat than light. Let me comment briefly on the points he raises. (i) Regarding Robin Lane Fox’s book (which, whatever Mr. Lewis may think, I read from cover to cover in the line of duty), I’m afraid an official egg-stamp, issued faute de mieux, impresses me less than the remarks of the book’s author in Washington , and the reports of those who discussed the problem with him. (ii) Philip’s wounds: Mr. Lewis may be right about the wound in the thigh (Plut. Mor. , 331 B says a spear, Demosth. De Cor. 67 merely reports that he was “transfixed”), and in fact in my Alexander of Macedon (1974), p. 69, I describe it as a “spearthrust” myself; but this slip, if slip it is, cannot compare with Mr. Lewis’s own suggestion that Philip was wounded by a sarissa, the Macedonian weapon par excellence. Does Mr. Lewis suppose that Philip on this occasion was the victim of some deranged mutineer in his own army? A gross libel on the Triballian tribesman who actually did the job. (iii) Macedonia as part of Greece : here Mr. Lewis either hasn’t read the sources he quotes or is being deliberately disingenuous. Strabo, a lickspittle pro-Roman intellectual writing in the Rome of Augustus, has to deal with a Macedonia that had been a Roman province for a century and a Greece , also long subjugated, that was in the process of becoming one. Politically they came under the same aegis. Yet even so, in fr. 9, he is at pains to emphasize Macedonia ’s separateness from Greece . As for Alexander, what else does Mr. Lewis expect him to claim, not least when writing to Darius? The survivors of Thebes knew precisely what that assertion meant: let Mr. Lewis reread the Athenian orators to remind himself of the other side of the story. Alexander’s assertion has about as much value as, say, a reminder from Leonid Brezhnev that Lithuania forms part of the USSR . (iv) Demades was neither “an Athenian freedom fighter” nor, arguably, “the leader of the pro-Macedonian faction in Athens,” but a crafty opportunist of Laval-like instincts (see the character analysis in my Alexander of Macedon, pp. 78-79 and elsewhere), who flattered Alexander when he was alive (“Macedon without Alexander would be like the Cyclops without his eye”), earned a bronze statue from the Athenians for cooling the conqueror off after the sack of

Thebes, and then insulted Alexander when news of his death came, knowing well what would please anti-Macedonian sentiment. This did not stop his being disfranchised, though, characteristically, he was rapidly reinstated in 322 to talk Antipater out of attacking Athens . Blow hot, blow cold. (v) Linguistic competence: as the translator of many distinguished French authors, ranging from Simone de Beauvoir to J.M.G. Le Clézio, I really do know the difference between beau idéal and bel idéal. If Mr. Lewis will reconsider the passage in question, it may occur to him why I wrote what I did. Nor do I think that a person who in one letter can perpetrate such varied solecisms as “seperate,” “per force,” “suprises,” and “including it to [sic] the exhibition” is in any position to carp. (vi) I too understand, very well indeed, why Time, Inc. never considered commissioning me to write “the Alexander book” (even though my own biography was a working handbook for the exhibition’s organizers), and a nicer compliment to my scholarly integrity I’ve never had. On this issue, one last point. Mr. Lewis is very free with accusations of professional incompetence, not only in matters of language but also as regards ancient history. I have no notion what he may do for a living, but may I say that, on the basis of his performance in this letter, I wouldn’t give him a job as a TA? Posted by TrueMacedonian at http://www.macedoniantruth.org/forum/showthread.php?t=7021

Concerning the non-Greek origin and history of Asia Minor

I have edited/removed some sentences and paragraphs. http://www.freeinquiry.gr/pro.php?id...2f04c9715f5254 The formal education of the current Greek state presents a warped image of Asia Minor, in which the region everything was supposedly Greek and those who were/are "barbarians" invaded it, and were sooner or later 'inoculated with the Greek culture' and Hellenized. So, in the current residents of Greece of Asiatic origin (Pontians) has created the illusion that they are genuine descendants of the ancient Greeks. Present inhabitants of Greece from Asia Minor , however, originate from a medley of Asian tribes who lived in region over the centuries. The connecting links which unite them with the other inhabitants of Greece (eg. Vlachs, Albanians, Slavs), is the common Orthodox Christian faith and the use of Romaika language (Modern Greek), which were imposed during the Byzantine period several times by force. The refugees from Asia Minor to Greece and particularly to Macedonia, have no racial connection to the ancient Greek colonists (eg. ancient Greek colonists created Marseille, but today there are no claims that Marseille is Greek), but are a population medley of Georgians, Armenians, Seljuk, especially Laz, mixed with innumerable other natives. Multinational Asia Minor in antiquity The mixing of peoples and cultures, which has been in Asia Minor, the biggest crossroads of peoples on Earth, not the likes you have seen anywhere in the world. Nobody can say (with certainty) what peoples, what nations inhabited today's Asia Minor . Ancient peoples who lived in the area: Hittites, Phrygians, Mysians, Cimmerians, Bithynians, Cappadocians, Lydians, Pisidians, Lycaonians, Isaurians, Leleges, Carians, Lycians, Ionians, Aeolians, Galatians (divided into three tribes: Tectosages, Tolistobogii, Trocmi) etc. dividing Ancient Greeks in Asia Minor (not called so at the time, this name appeared after the fourth to fifth century AD) in 15 countries, bringing mostly the names of the people who lived in them, which was to the north: Pontus, Paphlagonia, Bithynia, west: Mysia, Lydia, Caria to the south: Lycia, Pisidia, Pamphilia, Cilicia and middle: Phrygian Isauria, Lycaonia, Galatia and Cappadocia. Galatia , for example, was a country already in the third century BC, which was inhabited by Celtic tribes. Later became a Roman province. The residents were addressed in the "letter to the Galatians" of the Apostle Paul. Multinational Asia Minor and the Byzantine and Ottoman period Something similar happened during the later Byzantine period, when the territories of Asia Minor were organized into: East, Armeniakon Thrakesion, Opsikion, Optimatou, Boukellarion, Paphlagonia, Chaldia, Koloneia, Sebasteia, Lykandou, Seleukeia, Kibyrrhaiotai, Cyprus, Samos (included and Smyrna) and Aegean (islands). Backed by professional military forces, composed of Armenians, Syrians, etc. locals. At plateau, the origin of the inhabitants

were Armenian, Syrian or mixed. Following the 7th century. A.D. appeared Arabs, who came up and Istanbul, while, as we will examine in more detail below, were too extensive Slavic settlements to meet population gaps due to wars and plagues. During the 11th century invaded Mongolia , which prevailed under the leadership of Selcuk. After the decline of the rule of Selcuk, Ottoman Turks appeared (osmanli), who in 1453 conquered Constantinople . Later, Anatolia was divided into vilayets of the Ottoman Empire . Here I must make a note: The name Turks is derived from Turany, who lived in Central Asia . Kemal Ataturk was the one that imposed by law, the common name for all Turkish residents of the country in which they live hundreds of different tribes. To say that today's Turkey , they are "pure Turkish" is a phenomenon that is related to our claim that we are "pure Greeks". The more bastard you are, the more insistently seeks blood purity. In this article, the term "Turkish" is used conventionally with more geographical, ethnological despite complexion. then invaded Asia Minor , found established various peoples of Turkish origin, such as Turkmen, who had come from Central Asia . Different ethnos are Laz... Other Asia Minor , but non-Turkish races are Circassians or Circassians, the Iberians (Georgians), Kurds, Roma, Armenians, Jews and others. The Multinational Seacoast For many indigenous peoples provide information Xenophon, Herodotus, Strabo, Diodorus and others. Persian kingdom of Pontus The Kingdom of Pontus (northern coastal part of the Asia Minor peninsula), which the Greeks 'claim', is actually the kingdom of the Persian king Mithridates, which was abolished by the Romans. Had nothing to do with Greeks. The population was in the majority of non-Greek origin. Composed of different tribes, speaking 22 languages. The Romans succeeded in breaking it after long struggles and turned it into a province of the Roman Empire . Gradually, all parts of Pontus were annexed to the Roman Empire . The Christianization of the people started in the 3rd century. The Byzantine Seacoast The period of Roman occupation and the prevalence of Christianity marked the loss of the name "Greek (Hellene)" -which, moreover, in some cases, had acquired religious significance stating the Pagan-and while prevalence of the name "Roman" survives to this day. During the Byzantine period principal people of the region were the Laz, who belong to the same race of Iberian Caucasus. The Laz were Christianized by Justinian (6th century), like the tribes of Colchians, and Tzanata. Population decimation and Significant losses due to epidemics, such as p, x, the great plague of 541/542. Syklonisan pestilence empire and other times, as in 558, the 560/1, the 585, the 602, 746-747 etc. According to calculations, the loss rate of the famine reaches 40% in Asia Minor . Important ethnographic changes during the Byzantine period The largest ethnographic changes suffered Byzantium was after the sixth century, when it became a massive installation of the Balkan Slavs. At the same time, the Arabs made frequent attacks in Asia Minor and not a couple of times, but almost every year for about two hundred years. Several raids reached as the Black Sea , the Aegean , and even Konstantinopol. Whenever invasion was made, killing, looting and taking captives into slavery followed, while the Byzantines/Romans were burning their crops, to deprive the enemy of supplies. Many cities of Asia Minor were entirely destroyed, depopulated, and abandoned. The same applies to the Aegean . Many islands had already been ravaged/depopulated by the middle of the seventh century, when Arab fleet began to dominate the eastern Mediterranean (the conquest of Crete (823-828)). It is not difficult to imagine the consequences of this long process: a large part of Asia Minor had been destroyed and had reduced the population irreparably. He had created a huge demographic gap. Reduced populations indicates the settlement policy of the emperors. Various populations and tribes are used on a large scale for the implementation of this policy (Armenians, Syrians, Slavs, Bulgarians, etc). Farmers and soldiers were urgently needed. The Constans II (7

th century). Slavs moved to Asia Minor in LARGE numbers. Justinian II moved a big number of Slavs to Bithynia .

First was unlucky, because most of them deserted to the enemy, causing the emperor to impose harsh reprisals to their families. (Epiphany: "Diary", ed C. de Boor, Leipzig, 1883, pp. 365). However, we learn that 208,000 Slavs migrated to Bithynia at will during the decade of 760. (Nikephoros Patriarch: "Short History", ed C. de Boor, Leipzig, 1880, pp. 68-9). In the 8th century Syrians settled in Thrace . Among the new settlers, the most important were the Armenians; flow into the empire lasted many centuries. Many settled in Cappadocia and in other parts of eastern Asia Minor , many in Thrace , others in the region of Pergamon. In 578, 10,000 Armenians moved to Cyprus for colonization, given that the island was almost deserted at this time.

("History of the Greek nation," ed "Publishing Athens", Vol. H, pp. 183-4). Multilingualism in Asia Minor There were two official languages spoken in the eastern and western Roman empire : Greek and Latin. The boundaries of each spread is not always clear. In general, however, with the exception of the Balkans, where there was a lot of language mixing, the western part of the empire used exclusively Latin and eastern exclusively Greek, MEANING that these were the languages of administration and educated people. Almost all educated in the West spoke Latin, but a large part of ordinary people do not even speak one or the other language. Constantinople , founded as Latin center in the East, like all capitals, was a melting pot of disparate elements. Among its inhabitants were Illyrians, Italians, Africans, whose native language was Latin, eg even of the Emperor Justinian. Any provincials had settled there and shuttled to commercial or government affairs. Among the many slaves were barbarians. Included many foreign and military units, from the 6th century consisted of either Germans or Huns and others from some of the most hardened provinces, as were the Isaurians, the Illyrians and Thracians. Syrians, Mesopotamians and Egyptians monks, who spoke little or no Greek, flocked to the capital impressing the locals with strange feats of asceticism. The ubiquitous Jews earn their living as craftsmen or merchants. The common Alexandrian, that a simplified form of ancient Greek language at all levels (phonetics / pronunciation, grammar, syntax, vocabulary), was built by the scholars of Alexandria for the bureaucratic needs of non-Greek sages and scholars. Was then introduced lowercase letters and multitone to pronounce and emphasize each word correctly and facilitate to non-Greeks. Christians found ready this International language, 'English' of the time, and made it their own. Note, that the common Alexandrian not spoken by mainly Greek but non Greek-speaking peoples (Jews, Syrians, Persians, etc.). Evolution of the language adopted and used in territory of Greece (that is by Slavs, Albanians, Vlachs etc.). The current Greek, Romeiko, to be precise, is a variation of the Alexandrian (the language of the Gospels, the Fathers of the Church, the hymnology) and not of the primarily Greek of ancient Greeks. Part II - relevant stuff below... http://www.freeinquiry.gr/pro.php?id=2165 Byzantinization, not Hellenization of 'foreigners' Towards the end of the eighth century, the populations were reshuffled so much and so violently, that it is difficult to say which ethnic groups lived in what areas and in what numbers. Often stated that eliminating even painful, the main non-Greek language elements as the Syrians, the Egyptians and the Illyrians, the Byzantine Empire became more homogeneous. It is also argued that those who were not Greeks, Hellenized and gradually absorbed mainly through the Church and the Army, and how something like this happened mainly in the indigenous populations of Asia Minor and the Slavs in the Peloponnese and in other parts of Greece . (Read the "free inquiry": What happened to so many Slavs?) First of all, the very designation "Greek", which we use so freely, is completely absent from contemporary sources. Someone who lived south of Thessaly , could call themselves "Greek", even though they were Slavs, for example. This also applies to residents of other regions, whose names are derived from the name of the province, for example Paphlagonians or Thrakision (from Thrakision Subject in Western Asia Minor ). There was no concept of "Greekness". This process was Byzantinization. Bithynia, for example, as mentioned above, Slavs settled in large numbers at the end of the seventh and towards the middle of the 8th century, some two hundred years later, the Byzantine Armada, assembled in 949 in an attempt to conquer Crete, included Slavs established in Opsikion (administrative name of Bithynia), who had their own leaders. [Constantine Porphyrogenitus, "Exhibition of Ceremonies (De cerimoniis)», CSHB, I, 666, 669]. During the next century, Anna Comnena mentions a town in Bithynia , "Sagoudaous", apparently from the tribe of Sagoudaton, testified in Macedonia in the 7th century. (Anna Comnena: "Alex», xv. 2.4, ed B. Leib, iii, Paris , 1945, 192). Shortly thereafter, the Slav element in Bithynia reinforced by Emperor John Komnino, who set up groups of Serb prisoners near in Nicomedia . (Nikitas Choniates "History", ed J.-L. van Dieten, Berlin, 1975, 16). Serbian villages out even in these places in the 13th century. Posted by Carlin on: http://www.macedoniantruth.org/forum/showthread.php?t=6955

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