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The 2022 Macedonian League Annual Assessment with National Security Advisor Marcus A. Templar

10/13/2022

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In the 2022 Macedonian League Annual Assessment, we talk with Marcus A. Templar for an in-depth analysis of some of the most pressing questions from our audience, including among others: the Turkish government; Russia; the Greek Genocide; the Greek political establishment, and much more.
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"The Turkish MİT and the Russian SVR are "excellently" sending Greece to its demise one piece at a time. In this manner, Greece will disintegrate piecemeal and become easier to be manipulated to its demise. I know how both operate, and this is a warning."
                                  -- Marcus A. Templar

Question:
There has been an uptick of the blurring of the term "Rum
" this year from primarily Turkish sources. Can you explain what the term "Rum" is and Turkish misinterpretation of said term within Turkey.
PictureMarcus A. Templar
National Security Advisor
Macedonian League
Let us start with the term Rum, which puzzles many people. Its origin is found in the Quran. It is the source of the term. "The Romans" is the title of the 30th chapter (sūrah) of the Quran, consisting of 60 verses (āyāt). The term Rūm originates in the word Roman existing during the time of the Islamic prophet Muhammad. It is referred to as the Eastern Roman Empire, aka Byzantium. The title, Roman, is sometimes translated as "Greeks" or "Byzantines," essentially an officially Greek state.

Muslims believe the above was a prophecy fulfilled by the Byzantine Emperor Heraclius, who launched a campaign in AD 622 against the Sassanid Persians in Asia Minor. The campaign started as a Byzantine military counter-offensive resulting in a crushing defeat for the Persians. Muslims cite the above as an example of the miraculous nature of the Quran. (Geisler; Saleeb 2002, 107 and Shanker, 1992, 129).[1][2]

Perversely, the Turks based on a continuous regression line of reasoning starting with the Quran, they made anything Byzantine, i.e., Christian Greek items, institutions, and buildings, became Rum, and anything Rum, built by pagan Greeks remained Rum translated into Roman. Even Greeks under the Ottoman Great State started calling themselves Rum, or in Greek, Ρωμιοί (Romioi), but unfortunately continues even today in the modern Turkish Republic.

The phrase «ἐγῶ Ῥωμιὸς γεννήθηκα, Ῥωμιὸς θὲ νὰ πεθάνω» pertains to the under Ottoman yoke Greeks. Yet it exists even today in their mind. For instance, my father, born within the Ottoman Great State, was a Rum, or Roman, but since I was born in Greece, I am Yunanlı or Greek. This was the explanation I received from one of my teachers from Adana.

However, let us not forget the term Rumeli, "the land of the Rum"; of course, it was a term when Greece was under Ottoman rule, but I have heard many Greeks of the present referring to Sterea Hellas (Central Greece) as "Rumeli." That tells me that the Ottoman thought is still in the minds of some Greeks in modern Greece itself.

To recap, under such Turkish logic, EVERYTHING built, say, between 1500 BCE and today by Greeks (Ionian, Dorians, Aeolian) in areas controlled by Turkey falls under the category of Rum.

So when one visits Ephesus, a city built around 1000 BCE by Greeks, according to the Turks one visits a Roman city. The fact is that the Romans appeared in the area in 129 BC. In that year, King Attalus of Pergamum ceded Ephesus to the Roman Empire in his will, and so Ephesus became the seat of the Roman provincial governor. It is similar to how many ignorant "experts" state "ancient Turkey," as absurd as it is. Nevertheless, the absurdity continues.
​

Question:
It seems that Turkey is working very closely with Facebook to censor certain content. It is now common to see posts that deal with Turkish national security issues, posts discussing genocide, especially when Turkish perpetrators are named like Topal Osman, or posts that compare Atatürk to Hitler in any way are always removed by Facebook or hidden from an audience.
Something positive could happen when people leave their social or political prejudices and everything their grandparents told them about the Turks and Turkey.

However, people must know that Turks work as ONE TEAM for the benefit of Turkey regardless of political views. It is okay for people to enjoy the views of those Turks who want to change Turkey. However, they must keep their eyes on the ball. The MİT (Turkey's National Intelligence Organization) does not employ cub scouts.

Their network is beyond the understanding of ordinary people. Propaganda, bullying, extortion, and a few other ways of persuasion are means employed in the name of Turkism. Nobody is spared. They work like the spy systems of the GESTAPO and NKVD/KGB, but now they go after those who use the Internet.

Turks reward journalists and

  1. social media like Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, Reddit;
  2. social question-and-answers website like Quora and The Onion;
  3. non-academic reference source like Wikipedia and all other Wikis-type social media

with all kinds of bribes and payments maintaining fake accounts managed and staffed by the MİT.

Albanians are slightly different but aim toward the same goal: establishing excuses and propaganda exalting the state, the language, and "race."

​One can easily find who is employed by the MİT by the arguments they present against Greece and in favor of Turkey. Never mind what names and credentials they present online. I had fun with a man with an Anglo-Saxon name who was supposedly born in New Jersey and attended Tufts University with a Master's degree while he attacked Greece using very bad English. Another one was supposedly from Zimbabwe, protecting the might of Turkey until I gave him some facts he could not respond to.

​Turks always have or find excuses to justify any crime the Ottoman Great State and/or the Turkish Republic committed in the name of Pan-Turkism. 
​
Question:
Tell us about the proactive nature of the Turkish MFA via their Embassies and Consulates where Turks abroad are encouraged to call in even the slightest anti-Turkish position they read or hear, whereas the Greek MFA could not be bothered to do the same abroad.
Turks, Skopjans, Bulgarians, Albanians, and Serbs have very proactive foreign policies. They do anything to show the flag. On the other hand, Greeks are very reactive only if they are pressed to do something. They have a mentality of a follower, not a leader. 

When the Turks left Greece, they took away everything good Greece had to offer. Greeks stayed back with the mentality the aghas had imposed on them during the 500-year occupation. “Σφάξε μὲ ἀγᾶ μου γιὰ ν' ἁγιάσω, δὲ βαριέσαι, ὅλοι ἀδέλφια εἴμαστε” are only part of the remnants of Ottoman misrule. It has little to do with Islam. It has everything to do with Pan-Turkism.

A few months ago, Greece delivered humanitarian aid to Odessa. Nobody heard about it, not even the Greeks. If Turkey had done it, the whole world would know about it. Turks know whom to lobby, how to lobby and encourage their lobbyists to do the job they are paying for. When it comes to Turkey, there is no such a thing as wishy-washy partisan politics followed by the Ottoman, "μὰ τί θὰ πεὶ ὁ κόσμος"?

Part of how Turks work is the example of celebrity Dr. Mehmet Öz. He was born in Cleveland, OH, on June 11, 1960. In 1980, he went to Turkey to serve the Turkish Land Forces (Türk Kara Kuvvetleri) as an officer to keep his dual nationality. He was quoted as saying,

"The great thing about America is that you can hold on to whatever heritage you come from," he explains. "We celebrate the different cultures, so I had the privilege, as the son of immigrant parents, to grow up American while staying deeply in touch with my Turkish roots. I have a great deal of family back in Turkey, I lived there for a period as a boy, and I served in the Turkish military, which is compulsory for dual citizenship." (Akman, Terri. "Dr. Oz: On A Mission, The New Wizard of Oz." SJMagazine, December 2011).

Although Dr. Oz's allies blast his critics as "racist and pushing dog whistles," Dr. Oz dodges to answer the question of the Armenian Genocide, and one could easily assume he will do the same regarding the Greek and Assyrian genocides. After all, the Turkish culture has molded him under the doctrine, "Turkey might not always be right; but she is never wrong."

Of course, it is nothing wrong with him serving his home country for whatever reason, except that the reason he gave means that it is crucial to him to owe allegiance to two countries. That holds true for many people except those elected to make laws based on often highly classified information, civil servants, and the military required by law to hold office, necessitating clearance to handle classified information.

These individuals fill out the Standard Form 86, or SF-86, which is nothing less than a whopping 127 pages long. It is packed with questions requiring a very high level of transparency and honesty. Any answers that the investigators consider murky have to be clarified to the satisfaction not only of the investigators but, most importantly, by granting the clearance authority.

According to the late Senator Patrick Moynihan, elected officials automatically receive a clearance because their voters trust them. I do not remember the highest level of clearance they receive based on such a trust. However, those in Congress who participate in select committees must be cleared by the FBI, or perhaps now by the Office of Personnel Management (OPM), to handle Top Secret clearance with access to Sensitive Compartmented Information clearance that is not available to the public.

Because of it, the matter has further implications since it constitutes a national security risk. Dual nationality is a forbidden indulgence for military personnel and civil servants assigned to jobs requiring a security clearance, much more for those in Congress and their aids. After all, these people determine highly classified information and enact laws that directly involve and affect issues about the national security and interests of the United States.

Holding dual nationality, Dr. Oz is a threat to the national interests and security of the United States. He can be easily extorted through his relatives by the very proactive Turkish government and its MİT.

The idea behind one's clearance is based on the level of trust the government has in the person regarding the lifestyle for which he or she might be susceptible to blackmail or coercion. Furthermore, there is the issue with Dr. Oz's dual nationality and celebrity status.

Nevertheless, another question that arises is Dr. Oz's residence. Since he lives in New York, how can he run from Pennsylvania?
​
Question:
How serious is EO 14033 and how can one find themselves on the wrong side of this Executive Order?
Unfortunately, some people have not gotten the memo. Especially those who live abroad although they post their residence in the Balkans. Although the Skopjans are not as active as they used to be, the Albanian diaspora has started their bravado attitude. Most of them live either in Kosovo or Albania.

I remember one Albanian tried to push the Greek name Εὐνίκη (Eunice) as Albanian. After I explained a few things to him, he asked me what I had against Albanians. I responded, "I have nothing against Albanians, but I hate poppycock garnished with malarkey regardless of their source and ethnicity. Give me facts. Do not convey your beliefs as facts to me." But the way he wrote his texts, vocabulary, and grammar made it evident to me that he lived in Australia. So, I asked him how the weather was in Australia. He never responded.

Over the years, several scholars have studied Albanians' genetics, focusing on historical and linguistic facts. However, very few of them did proper research. The argument of Albanians that they are descendants of Illyrians because they live on an Illyrian territory is, at best, childish.
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John Wilkes, The Illyrians, Cambridge, MA, Blackwell (1996, xx)
One may easily assume that everyone in the former Illyrian territory can now claim Illyrian heritage by looking at a map of the regions where the former Illyrian tribes once existed.

One of the best books on the ancient Thracian language group and its relationship to Greek, Dacian, Moesian, and Illyrian is the book written by Vladimir Georgiev (Владимир И. Георгиев, Траките и техният език, Издателство на Българската Академия на Науките, София, 1977).[3] The problem is that Georgiev's 348-page book is in Bulgarian with only one French version. However, he wrote a short academic monograph published "The Genesis of the Balkan Peoples." The Slavonic and East European Review 44, no. 103 (1966): 285–97.

One can read Georgiev's book summary in Kroraina <http://www.kroraina.com/vg/vg.html> or one may access it in JSTOR <https://www.jstor.org/stable/4205776>.

I am offering two paragraphs of Georgiev's monographs for the reader's convenience. They both regard the relationship between Albanian on the one hand and the Dacian, Moesian, and Romanian languages on the other.
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But many linguists and historians, e.g., H. Hirt, V. Pârvan, Th. Capidan, A. Philippide, N. Jokl, G. Weigand, P. Skok, D. Detschew, H. Baric', I. Siadbei, etc. have put forward very important considerations indicating that the Albanians cannot be autochthonous in the Albania of today, that their original home was the eastern part of Mysia Superior or approximately Dardania and Dacia Mediterranea, i.e. the northern central zone of the Balkan Peninsula, and part of Dacia.

​And after he explains facts on the issues in seven points, he concludes,
​
In this way, it has been definitively proved that Albanian is descended from Daco-Mysian. Therefore the primitive home of Albanian is a Daco-Mysian region, probably Mysia Superior (Dardania, Dacia Mediterranea) or western Dacia. This fact enables us to explain the numerous typical agreements between Albanian and Rumanian. Rumanian and Albanian took shape in the Daco-Mysian region; Rumanian represents a completely Romanised Daco-Mysian, and Albanian a semi-Romanised Daco-Mysian.

It seems that the Romans, especially Emperor Trajan, are behind the forced migration of Dacians and Moesians to the lower Balkans along the Adriatic Sea and their partial transfer to the Italian Calabria and parts of Adriatic Italy like Abruzzo. Their descendants are today's Albanians or Arbëreshë (Albanese) in Italy. For the Romans, the defeated enslaved people were a force of cheap labor.

Albanian nationalism started with the Austro-Hungarian Empire's national interests.

Certain Western scholars studying the origins of the Albanians advanced the now discredited hypothesis that the Albanians descended from the ancient Pelasgians. One of them, Austrian linguist Johann Georg von Hahn, in his Albanesische Studien (Albanian Studies) published in 1854, hypothesized that the Pelasgians were the first Proto-Albanians and that the languages ​​of the Pelasgians, Illyrians, Epirotians and ancient Macedonians were closely related. It is beyond my comprehension why a linguist got mixed up with mythology. It would be most appropriate for a historian to do so only to attempt to explain certain historical events or locations. Then, a linguist would compare the phonemes of Albanian speakers to other Balkan people, possibly using various historical events as migrations.

Another event in which Austria silently pushed the existence of Albania was the acceptance of Albanian delegates in the 1878 Council of Berlin.

All this started in the19th century nationalism (Albanian Rilindja), which resulted in the Italian invasion of Greece in the early hours of October 28, 1940, after the Albanian Parliament declared the union of Albania with Fascist Italy.

Albanian nationalism continued under Enver Hoxha and his Yugoslav friends, who deprived Greece of Northern Epirus. When the PM and MFA of Greece Tsaldaris went to Paris in 1947 for the Peace Treaty, he suggested to the Yugoslavian delegation to split Albania. Unfortunately, he went unprepared and was a victim of his ignorance and clumsiness. Before one engages with an opponent, whether on the negotiating table or the battlefield, one must know one's opponent and oneself.

Some "academics" using Kling-Klang etymology and imaginary history went beyond that. Recently, Elena Kocaqi wrote a book in which the Trojan war was a civil war between two Illyrian tribes, essentially making both Greeks and Trojans, Illyrians. The Albanian government supports and indirectly sponsors such extremism under the banner of academic freedom.

Under the title "Austrian Scholars Leave Albania Lost for Words", Besar Likmeta published in Balkan Insight on March 25, 2011, a very caustic article regarding the findings of two Austrian Academics.

"Like a couple of detectives searching for clues, Stefan Schumacher and Joachim Matzinger are out to reconstruct the origins of Albanian – a language whose history and development has received remarkably little attention outside the world of Albanian scholars."[4]

Of course, the issue is not whether Albanians should have a country or not. The point is that Albanian ultra-nationalists using cockamamie ancestry, false linguistic derivation, and invented historical continuity keep shaking the regional stability of the southern Balkans.

We must, therefore, attract the attention of the White House on this; it needs to apply EO 14033.

People investigate phonemes comparing Armenian to Albanian without paying attention to whether they evaluate Albanian of the Caucasus, i.e., Aghwank and Aluank, or Albanian of the Balkans, i.e., Shqip.

Albanians play the whole world like a Stradivarius violin. One advocate and troublemaker is Joseph John DioGuardi, an American certified public accountant and a Republican politician. DioGuardi served in the House of Representatives, representing the 20th Congressional district of New York from 1985 to 1989. He was the first Albanian American voting member of Congress. The family traces its roots to the Arbëreshë (Albanese) minority in Italy, officially established by Mussolini. A former member of Congress had and has ample access to visit and lobby for Albanian causes. He had a lot to do with the bombing of Serbia and the independence of Kosovo.

The importance of Emperor Trajan in the formation of Romania is depicted in the second stanza of the Romanian National Anthem: 
​
Acum ori niciodată să dăm dovezi la lume
Că-n aste mâni mai curge un sânge de roman,
Și că-n a noastre piepturi păstrăm cu fală-un nume
Triumfător în lupte, un nume de Traian.

.------------------------------------------------.

Now or never, let us show the world
That through these arms, Roman blood still flows;
And that in our chests we still proudly bear a name
​Triumphant in battles, the name of Trajan! 

The Roman emperor Trajan conquered Dacia, a land that covers roughly the same territory as modern Romania. As a result, Romania became the land where Roman veteran soldiers could move in and live by getting their homesteads. The Dacians fought the Roman tooth and nail but succumbed to the Roman might in the end.

Trajan and his successors forced the migration of the Dacians and or part of the Mysians (Moesians) to the locations where present-day Albania is and also to Calabria and the Adriatic coast of Italy. To the Romans, it was a case of cheap slave labor.

I am thinking of writing something on the issue.

As I have mentioned before, I was born in a family in which each branch spoke different languages.  Greek was our lingual franca. Thus, I appreciate the existence of all languages. I feel very sad when I find out that a language is extinct. Thank God, Tsakonika is being taught in some schools.

I must stress that live languages develop. Latin itself is a dead language, but it survives in its derivative languages like Italian, Spanish, Romansh, and so on.  What I cannot stand is the falsification of a language's origins as a tool for a nation's false origin and vice versa.
​
Question:
What can be stated about the Russian push for an Exarchy in Africa?
Russia in the 1920's eyed the transfer of the title of the Ecumenical Patriarch from Constantinople to Moscow. So, what Russians do is nothing new. They will succeed because they have on their side the Slavic populations regardless of assurances and the help of a good number of Greeks, especially abroad.

When one researches a matter, asking the wrong questions, surveying the wrong people, using an exclusive collection method, and misinterpreting data results could easily create problems.

Also, one must keep in mind that, at that time, people had limited resources. The standards the Fathers of the Church had placed were as high as they should.

The New Testament had to be God-inspired and canonical, i.e., apostolic origin, have universal acceptance, liturgical use, and consistent message. They took the Old Testament as it was in Judaism. To Christians, the Old Testament constitutes an educator in Christ.

Now returning to the political side of it, Turkey will not let the title go, not because its politicians are in love with Christianity, but because it is a matter of prestige for Turkey. It will never give up the title of Ecumenical out of its soil unless the Greeks, especially of the diaspora, help.

But like all documents written in the past, one must consider the culture of each nation and time. I remember one man could not understand why it took the Apostle Paul six months to travel from the area of Troy to Kavala or Neapolis. I was tempted to respond that he could find an earlier flight. But, no, it is not funny. Such logic creates problems in interpreting older events and deeds.
​
Question:
At the start of the Russian war in Ukraine, Greek and Cypriot politicians made the very bizarre gaffe that the invasion of Ukraine was the first invasion in Europe since WWII. How could that have happened?

As President Biden said, "ignorance has no bounds." Attending classes and receiving degrees do not mean anything unless you can put the knowledge you get into practice. Unfortunately, sheer logic is not something that comes to one's head through schooling. They would be right if they admitted that Cyprus was not a European country at the time or that the Turkish invasion had never happened.

On the other hand, I remember the invasions of the USSR on Hungary on November 4, 1956, and Czechoslovakia on August 21, 1968. So, I put their multi-annual occupation aside. I could add some more, but since the starting point is WWII, it is a matter of opinion whether the starting dates should be in 1945, 1946, 1947, and so on. Of course, the other reason could be quasi-medical; it is called Politically Induced Dementia (PID). Some people would call it cowardice!
​
Question:
What can be said about the outright lack of professionalism within Greek organizations in the diaspora?
Greek organizations are member-driven instead of staff-driven, which encourages false choices.

I happened to have a little experience on the matter, so, I slowly withdrew in early 2000. What annoyed me the most were the unscrupulous demagogues who found fools and told them what they wanted to hear. Also, the businesspeople thought because they run successful businesses, they could succeed in running organizations the same way.

You won't believe how many and how often people take ego trips. Things might work out in Greece but dealing with foreign-based organizations that follow their constitutions and laws may not be as easy or good as politicians hope. In general, people do not know their cognitive limits. Because today it is easy to find something online, everyone has become an "expert" until they face a real expert. Then although they should listen to experts, they argue with them, agitating a reaction that would help them learn something new. Then, they use the information they received from the experts, presenting it as their own. When I face know-it-alls, I do not argue with them. Instead, I let them unveil their unconscious incompetence on a specific subject matter. In English, they are called dumbasses! In Greek, κουτοπόνηροι!

The other problem is that political aides try to please the bosses who run the government of Greece in a transactional manner.

Organizations that take it upon themselves to solve Greece's "national issues" do not have the resources (human resources, financial resources, physical resources, and information resources) to weigh the potential consequences of each decision, including unintended consequences (sometimes unanticipated or unforeseen) of a purposeful action that are not intended or foreseen.

Worse, since politicians of Greece use transactional relationships with the diaspora, they hold the reins on how any such organization would effectively move. They always consider at home voters connected to the organization. Greece has a lot of politicians who care only about the next elections. So, they sacrifice what is good for them and their political party than for the national interests and security of the country. I am slightly paraphrasing Aesop's statement, "after all is said and done, a lot is said, but nothing is done." Greece needs STATESMEN. It has a lot of politicians.

In an organization, one does not manage people; one manages affairs. One leads people, and leading people is not easy.

​The first thing I learned in Political Science and fully agree with is that one cannot run a government of any kind as one runs one's business. But on the other hand, an organization is a government.
​
Question:
​What can be said about the Greek political establishment and their tight Athens-centric grip on the country?
I think the answer I gave above touched on a few things. First, however, let me go to the core of the matter. Greece must change its election laws. I find it appalling and inconceivable that people who live in Athens have the right to be elected in a region where their family descends.

Almost half the country's population lives in the basin of Attica because everything is going on there. Most companies exist, and consequently, most jobs and other opportunities exist in the basin of Attica. So, people from all over the country move to Attica.

Who is behind all this? The same people who have lived in Athens all their lives. Still, they supposedly represent Patras, Euritaneia, Thessaloniki, Chania, Kozani, and what have you. It is why they own houses in Athens.

I know only of one who actually rented during his tenure in government. He was renting a place in Athens. Even his boss was after him because he was working for the people who had placed him in the Parliament. He did what everyone else did not do. He WORKED for the people whom he represented.

A movement had started to transfer the Capital of Greece to Lamia, demographically, a great idea because Lamia is in the center of the mainland. However, I wonder why it has died out. The hydrocephalus of Athens is killing it.
​
Question:
Will Bulgaria and Skopje ever align their modern historical past?
It is hard to tell, but I cannot see this charade continuing. North Macedonia is a simple geographical name turned into a political entity by the communists. Ethnicity is one thing, and allegiance is another. But this now. Then it was a different story. However, this is the Balkans, so "when the legend becomes fact, print the legend" from director John Ford's Western, The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance (1962). It is precisely what the Skopjans do. But I also falter the Bulgarians. They do not tell their people that their language is divided into Eastern and Western dialects. A few months ago, I was talking with a Bulgarian who had no idea about it. She did not know that it took the Parliament of Bulgaria 25 years to decide which would be the official language. In the end, they chose the Eastern dialect in 1899. The Western dialect is still spoken; somehow, Bulgarians call it "Macedonian" as if it is not their language.

At first, these two speeches are the closest languages to the Old Church Slavonic. Western Bulgarian is actually the language that the Thessalonian Brothers Cyril and Methodius using the alphabet they had invented, translated the Bible from Greek to the then Slavic language of Macedonia.

Bulgarians living under Ottoman rule never expressed an individual ethnic conscience in any form. Slowly, however, things changed, and while Bulgaria was independent, those within the Skopjan state were under Serbian linguistic influence until the breakup of Yugoslavia. On the other hand, easterners also had stronger ties with Russia. As a result, their dialect was considered the purest dissociated from a non-Slavic foreign influence. Over and above, Bulgaria had short but firm periods of autonomy and absolute independence on October 5 [O.S. September 22] 1908.

Now, coming to the language. Standard or colloquial Bulgarian does reflect some western features, even though it is primarily based on the eastern dialect. One would contend that it happens due to the notoriety of Veliko Târnovo as the old capital of Bulgaria. Also, the geographical structure has more dynamic financial advancement on both sides of the Stara Planina or Balkan Mountains compared to the Western half of the linguistic domain.

After the communist takeover, the Skopjan language was codified and slowly Serbianized;  in the early 1960s Cyrillic alphabet was established according to the Serbian version of the Cyrillic alphabet.

On the other hand, Bulgaria made a few changes in its alphabet, it could come into an understanding with Skopje to find common ground in revising both alphabets to the point that they could serve both dialects.

Grammatically, the differences between both languages are almost non-existent. But, of course, one cannot stop the nationalists of both sides from telling you otherwise. So, whether the two countries will unite one day, my answer is maybe, but I do not expect the union to be like the one between West and East Germany. I think it will be gradual.

At the beginning of the last century, people's communication was rather impossible. First, we had the telegraph, then the telephone came, and now we have reached the point of not even thinking about reaching someone on the other side of the Earth. I can say the same thing about transportation, as well. Lack of communication and meager transportation made diasporas live in a time warp. Today, such a thing is hardly true.

The reason I mention it is that people from both countries are going to get closer and closer. Since the language will no longer be a barrier, it will help assimilation. The time is here of essence.
​
Question:
Many groups in Greece are now finally calling for one national date for the commemoration of the Greek Genocide. However Greek political establishment is still pushing for an international Pontian Genocide recognition. How do you see this call for a unified NEUTRAL date and what we can learn from the Jews and Armenians in this regard.
At first, the Turkish MİT and the Russian SVR are "excellently" sending Greece to its demise one piece at a time. In this manner, Greece will disintegrate piecemeal and become easier to be manipulated to its demise. I know how both operate, and this is a warning.

It will be a blessing if those who descend from Pontus of Anatolia dispose of the underhanded provocations separating themselves from the rest of the Greeks. In case they have missed it, Pontians are Greeks. There is no parallel to Greek ethnicity. Either they are Greeks, or they are not.

Even people who are not Greeks in origin are proud to say that they are Greeks since they were born in Greece.

As for the date, the Greek government has established September 14 as the date of the Greek Genocide in Asia Minor, and it looks okay to me. The exit of the Greeks from Smyrna took place on September 13; the next day, September 14, is the commemorative date of the Elevation of the Venerable and Life-Giving Cross. Therefore, the government of Greece combined these two days into one.

It will be a blessing if the Pontians who claim to be Greeks learn the etymology and the meaning of the word GENOCIDE and think about it.

GENOCIDE is the deliberate killing of a large number of people from a particular nation or ethnic group with the aim of destroying that nation or group.

In other words, GENOCIDE is an internationally recognized crime where acts are committed with the intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnic, racial, or religious group.

I do wonder in what way the Pontians differ from the other Greeks and why the promotion of a separate Pontian-specific genocide?

Incidentally, a friend sent me this very interesting documentary on Vimeo entitled "Lethal Nationalism: Genocide of the Greeks 1913-1923" https://vimeo.com/ondemand/lethalnationalism/​
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Mr. George Mavropoulos, Director of the Asia Minor and Pontos Hellenic Research Center (AMPHRC), located at 801 W Adams St, Chicago, IL 60607, phone: (312) 964-5120 and the members of the board would be delighted to discuss issues of the Greek Genocide. https://hellenicresearchcenter.org/#AboutTheAMPHRC ​
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Bibliography
Keyes, Nelson Beecher. Story of the bible World in Map, Word and Picture, . New York: C. S. Hammond, 
     1959.
Ptolemy, Claudius. Geography . Edited by J. Lennart & al Berggren. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 
     2001.
Suvorov, Viktor. Inside the Soviet Army. New York: MacMillan, 1982. "The Great Patriotic War of 1941-45."
     Российская военная энциклопедия (Koutchkovo Polje) III (2012).
Георгиев, Владимир И. Траките И Техният Език. София: Институт За Български Език, Издателство
​     На Българската Академия На Науките, 1977.

Endnotes
[1] Norman Geisler; Abdul Saleeb (2002). Answering Islam: The Crescent in Light of the Cross (revised ed.). Baker Books. p. 107.

​[2] Uday Shanker (1992). Internal Unity of All Religions. Enkay Publishers. p. 129.

​[3] Владимир И. Георгиев; ​Траките и техният език (1977 В Георгиев) - [PDF Document] (cupdf.com)

​
[4] ​https://balkaninsight.com/2011/03/25/austrian-scholars-leave-albania-lost-for-words/
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About Marcus A. Templar
Professor Marcus A. Templar is a former U.S. Army Cryptologic Linguist (Language Analyst), Signal Intelligence and All-Source Intelligence Analyst. During his career as a U.S. Intelligence Officer, besides organizational duties, he discharged the responsibilities of a U.S. Army Observer/Controller, Instructor of Intelligence Courses specializing in Deconstruction of Strategies, Foreign Disclosures Officer, and Translator Interpreter of Serbo-Croatian. He is the Macedonian League's National Security Advisor.

​_____
About the Macedonian League
We are an international professional Hellenic advocacy group. Our primary purpose is to advance our interests to informed and responsive governments on issues concerning Greece's national security and territorial integrity. As of 12 February 2019, the Macedonian League's main focus is on the “Prespes Agreement", as this Agreement is a serious national security issue for Greece and the wider Balkan region. The Macedonian League also focuses on exposing and combating anti-Hellenism and analyzing political developments in Skopje.

For more information, follow us on: Website, Facebook, Twitter
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The Effects of Living in a Cave Chained and Facing a Blank Wall All their Lives

3/12/2022

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By Marcus A. Templar, National Security Advisor | Macedonian League
Adolph Hitler wrote in Mein Kampf (My Struggle),
​ 
​
It is not the purpose of propaganda to create a series of alterations in sentiment to please this blasé gentry. Its chief function is to convince the masses, whose slowness of understanding needs to be given time in order that they may absorb information; and only constant repetition will finally succeed in imprinting an idea on the memory of the crowd (Hitler, Mein Kampf, translated into English by James Murphy, February 1939, p. 159-160). ​
PictureMarcus A. Templar
National Security Advisor
Macedonian League

The bottom line is this: If one keeps repeating a lie, people will believe it is true. The whole thing reminds me of the American Wrestling Association (AWA) case. Although everyone knew that professional wrestling was fake, their fans did not care. They continued to watch it even after the AWA finally admitted it. It is a broken record mentality.

Let me start with a misunderstanding that flows everywhere. Those who know of the manner Julius Caesar died are familiar with the statement, "Et tu Brute". But there is not one ancient author, Roman or Greek, to support such an expression.

It is found only in Shakespeare's play, "Julius Caesar," Act 3, Scene 1, line 85 (FTLN 1238), where
Caesar states: "Et tu, Brutè?—Then fall, [he] dies." The above is repeated on and on to the point that almost everyone believes Julius Caesar cried "Et tu Brute" as he fell to his death.

But according to Suetonius who wrote about Caesar's life, Caesar did not say "et tu Brute"; what he said was in Greek, καὶ σὺ τέκνον; (; = ?), which is a free translation meaning, "even you, my child?"

Here is the original.

Atque ita tribus et viginti plagis confossus est uno modo ad primum ictum gemitu sine voce edito, etsi tradiderunt quidam Marco Bruto irruenti dixisse: καὶ σὺ τέκνον;

And here is the translator's adaptation of the original text.
​
And in this wise, he was stabbed with three and twenty wounds, uttering not a word, but merely a groan at the first stroke, though some have written that when Marcus Brutus rushed at him, he said in Greek, "You too, my child?" (C. Suetonius Tranquillus, The Lives of the Twelve Caesars - The Life of Julius Caesar (Divus Julius) the Loeb Classical Library, 1913).

That Caesar and his environment spoke or wrote in Greek is clearly stated in Plutarch's The Parallel Lives - The Life of Julius Caesar, 46, 2 and 66.7. The keyword is ἑλληνιστὶ in the original or "in Greek" in the English translation.

Politics and Truth

The only truth in Politics is perception. The winner is the side that persuades the public for its version of the story. A constant repetition creates a narrative in which the proponents of special interests in the specific matter take advantage and amplify, like a megaphone, a fabrication to achieve their goals and objectives. One could call it propaganda; after all, propaganda means propagation.


                                                       The infamous Greek lobby

Although the term Greek lobby started as a joke in the offices of the U.S. Congress, wishful thinking became a fact in the minds of the Greeks whether they lived in the United States or abroad, including Greece. We had kind of a lobby when the late Archbishop Iakovos was a functional primate. However, Archbishop Iakovos' power and love for Greek issues bothered a few in Greece, especially the Greek American community, forcing him to resign. The chopped Greek Orthodox primacy in America that followed speaks volumes. No, it was not Turkey nor the Ecumenical Patriarchate behind it. It was Greek Americans who did it. A group of affluent Greek Americans was behind the scheme, which they coordinated with politicians of Greece to protect the earlier interests. Thus now, we have NO voice.

The other day, a good friend of mine admitted to me that he discussed with the editor of a major Toronto-based Greek newspaper the issue of the Greek Genocide. The editor told him that my friend's views about the case of the Greek Genocide are dangerous, and he would lose his advertisement dollars if he dared discuss the Greek Genocide. In all likelihood, he'd probably lose funding 
from the Greek MFA as well. The same Greek newspaper claims they pursue all subjects objectively, except the Genocide. That subject is "untouchable" in Toronto."

I have learned in my 30-year service as a U.S. Army Cryptologic Linguist, Lead Senior All-Source Intelligence Analyst, Foreign Disclosures Officer, and Military Instructor on Strategy:

1. Do Not Discount Discipline
2. Excellence is a Habit
3. There is NO 'I ' in Teamwork
4. Readiness is Responsibility
5. Guarantee that something is being done
6. Results Matter

The so-called Greek "lobby" has met NONE of them. 


                                                        The “Macedonians” of Skopje

We live in the age of information, misinformation, and disinformation through public media and social media. It started with the radio and television, and there is an end in sight.

Greece should have taken advantage of it by spreading facts when Yugoslavia associated the Hunza tribe with its "Macedonians" using ANY means possible and disseminated the newly found "truths" via documentaries in the 1960s and 1970s.

We saw and still see the effectiveness of repetition in the case of the Macedonia name dispute. The issue started in the mid-1940s when Federative Yugoslavia put an indirect claim over the Greek region. To contribute to a successful outcome, Yugoslavia named one of its constituent republics "Macedonia," giving the new name international recognition. However, as time passed, constant, fierce, and unrelentless repetition forced the revised history into school books of various countries, including the United States. Yugoslavia's historical poppycock bore fruit as Greece's unparallel sluggard behavior accompanied it. It was behind the success of Skopje, which forced Greece to sign the Prespa Agreement in 2018.


                                                               Turkey and its Army

The Turkish media and government keep disseminating disinformation about Turkey's baseless position regarding the legality behind the militarization of the islands. Thus far, Greece has assisted the Turks in rallying moral support against the "warmongering" Greeks. There is no question that Greece is legally correct under international law. Still, it seems that media and politicians are either ignorant or indifferent. Repetition on the one hand and silence on the other.

What about the myth that Turks are fierce fighters? The tale started in Korea under very militarily questionable criteria dumped journalists with non-military backgrounds and, through repetition, is still alive.

In 1954, a Turkish film titled Şimal Yıldızı after the Turkish Brigade's name, directed by Aıtf Yımaz Batbeki and starring Ayhan Işk, was released, praising the unit's performance.

Here is some reality:
Certain Turkish patrols consistently reported high losses. In general, they preferred to be on the offensive and handled it quite well. They were not as good at defensive positions and indeed never retreated. The Turks, armed and trained by American military advisers, did better than even they had hoped or expected to do. But that does not mean that they did well. Regardless of the so-called accomplishments of the Turkish Army in Korea, the fact is that they had participated in three battles with a fourth assigned a rear-guard duty.

The total number of Turkish troops was 14,936 men who served in the 1st Brigade from 1950 to 1953, with about 5,455 troops in Korea at one time.

In the U.N. offensive and the Chinese counter-offensive, the 1st Turkish Brigade suffered 3,514 casualties, of which 741 were killed in action, 2,068 wounded, 163 MIA, and 244 taken prisoner, as well as 298 noncombatant casualties. This is an indicator of about a 24% casualty rate.

So, achievement always depends on the standard one sets. If the standards are low, anything above that is an achievement.

But such a bad performance did not stop the friends of Turkey from promoting it. For example, in one of the episodes of M.A.S.H. Turkish soldiers were projected as courageous, who face danger and even death with defiance while simultaneously benevolent. Sergeant Attias was a Turkish army sergeant who made a single appearance in the Season 5 episode of the CBS-TV series M*A*S*H titled "Post Op." The part of Attias was played by Argentinian-born actor Zitto Kazann.

As insignificant as it seems, it remained in viewers' sub-conscientious minds.

Also, the Turkish Army, especially its officer corps, lacked experience since their first actual combat was in World War I and the Greco-Turkish war (1919–1922). In addition, Turkey was neutral during WWII, although unofficially was on the side of the Nazis.

We saw the performance of the Turkish military in the invasion of Cyprus in 1974. Forty thousand men of an army with far superior equipment invaded a small country with lightly armed national guardsmen. The lightly armed National Guard of Cyprus immobilized the invading force in the perimeter of Kyrenia's beaches for ten days. Then, after the U.N.S.C. declared a ceasefire and the Greek Cypriot forces stopped fighting, the Turks advanced to the present-day occupied lands. The Turkish air force lost 19 aircraft against no opposing air force and the navy lost two ships against no existing navy. The Turkish ships had collided with each other; the Israelis had fished the sailors out of the water.

This is the case that the Turkish General Staff and politicians have done an excellent job silencing their military ineptness. Yet, f
or a country that prides itself on its mighty armed forces, it is incomprehensible that its political and military leaders are afraid of their own shadows.  Seeing enemies everywhere is paranoia, but they know they precipitate regional instability. It goes to the heart of Turkey's education system, and by that, I mean formal, informal, and non-formal education.

Regarding the bravado tactics of both Tayyip Erdoğan and Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu against Greece, I must stress that those two should consider the fact that what they think their military can do is not what their military is capable of doing.

Being browbeating creatures habitually cruel, insulting, and threatening their neighbor who, solely in their minds, is vulnerable to their whims, helps neither their country nor themselves. Greece is not Cyprus. Of course, they both know it because if they were confident that the Turkish military would have an easy time taking the Greek armed forces without any political or military cost, they would have already done it. The Aegean islands are LEGALLY Greek territory, and since their militarization was legally accepted in 1936 by Turkey and 1947 by the international community, Turkey has NO legal case.

On the contrary, such actions might even earn them the fate of Adnan Menderes, who was accused of orchestrating the September pogrom against Turkish citizens of Greek descent! As a result, he hunged in prison on the tiny island of İmralı just south of the Sea of Marmara and west of the Armutlu-Bozburun peninsula within Bursa Prefecture.


                                                             USSR / Russia

World War II – USSR

Sheer superior numbers of troops do not guarantee a military victory. Instead, other factors contribute to whether a victory translates to success or failure. But here, I must stress that soldiers fight to win the war; politicians are responsible for winning the peace.

Many people will state that Russia was only part of the USSR, so it is unfair to stick USSR's, i.e., communist crimes, to Russia. The fact is that Russia was the driving force behind USSR's sociopolitical and military development.

​Here is the first stanza of the national anthem of the USSR between 1943 and 1991.
​
Russian Text

Союз нерушимый республик свободных
Сплотила навеки Великая Русь.
Да здравствует созданный волей народов
Единый, могучий Советский Союз!

Official Translation

An unbreakable union of free republics,
Great Russia has united forever.
Long live, the creation of the people's will,
The united, mighty Soviet Union!

Fifty-one states signed the Charter of the United Nations on June 26, 1945, which came into force on October 24, 1945. Because of how the UN was set up, the USSR had three UNGA votes.

The Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic (1945–1991) and the Byelorussian Soviet Socialist Republic were among the first countries that signed the United Nations Charter, becoming founding members of the United Nations among 51 countries.

So, the USSR had three votes in the UNGA and occasionally two or even three votes in the UNSC, depending on the UNSC rotation. However, only the USSR had the veto power. Isn't it interesting that out of 15 USSR republics, only Russia became the only heir of the USSR in the UNSC?

Most Russians used to the WWII storyline that, thanks to the will of the Soviet people and the ingenuity of its leadership, overcame the enemy, i.e., Hitler's hordes. There is no doubt that the Soviet people gave their lives at war. There is no doubt that religion contributed to the victory after Stalin weaponized it for his survival. The above is true in some sense. But the ordinary person had never ventured to consider the above, which was summarily constructed and propagated during the periods between the death of Stalin and then the rise of Mikhail Gorbachev. After all, someone had to be blamed for millions of deaths during and after Stalin.

The whole idea is to offer history and the sources that it arrives from with all its glory and shame. There is no doubt that "the victors write history." But the challenge is to expose all facts, so that upcoming generations learn lessons of success and failures to replicate the earlier and reject the latter in the future.

Aiming at knowing the facts, we can discover the truth that the leadership of the USSR and now Russia willfully ignore. First, we must overview some of the most controversial events and battles of the war to single out the cause for failure. We must understand that many have abandoned facts and truth, especially in Russia.
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However, it could be worse had it not been for the military and economic assistance for the West and especially the United States. The allies in the anti-Hitler coalition, which was finally formed in the summer of 1942, aided the Soviet Union in its fight against a common enemy. In addition, the economies of the United States and Great Britain were militarily increasingly rebuilt. In 1942, more than 2,500 aircraft, 3,000 tanks, about 79,000 cars, radio equipment, sonar devices, gasoline, food, footwear, etc., were delivered to the USSR under lend-lease. However, by the end of 1942, the Americans and British had fulfilled 55 percent of the agreed-upon supply programs to the USSR. In 1941-45, the USSR received only 7% of the goods sent from the United States during the war years. The bulk of the weapons and other materials were received by the Soviet Union in 1944-1945 (Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation - The Great Patriotic War of 1941-45, 2012) (translation from Russian to English is mine). [1]

In October 1941 - June 1942, the most significant part of the Lend-Lease supply tonnage (1.42 million tons in total) was metals (about 30%) and products (22%), military equipment was in third place (15%), slightly ahead of oil products (12%). Including British aid, armaments and explosives were roughly equal in volume to products. However, the United States and its allies in the Pacific were at war in December 1941. In addition, Japan forced the British and American industries to restrict their supply options and intensify hostilities in North Africa.

Under the second protocol, the USSR and the Allies signed deliveries in June 1942 (July 1942 - June 1943), two of which were - 3.1 million tons. A third of them were food (24%), metals, military equipment (15%). Oil products, explosives, and equipment filled 7%, 6%, and 5% of the tonnage, respectively.

The most significant deliveries were under the third protocol (July 1943 - June 1944), including 5.75 million tons. However, 30% of deliveries were products as 18% metals, the share of military and transport vehicles decreased to 13%, oil products, explosives, and equipment equalized - 8% each.

Under the fourth protocol, the USSR received another 5.5 million tons of aid before May 12, 1945. This time the share of products and metals was almost equal (21 and 20%, respectively), the volume of oil products (13%) was ahead of military equipment and transport (12% ). The volume of equipment reached 9%. In addition, compared with the second period, the role of transport equipment has increased dramatically (from 1% to 6%).

Eleven million tons of 15.7 million tons of cargo during the war with Germany (more than 200,000 tons arrived before the conclusion of the first protocol), or 70.7%, were received from the second half of 1943 to May 1945.

Stalin was very familiar with the "Murmansk Run" (from 1941 through 1945), the shortest and most direct route that about 40 convoys totaling more than 800 merchant ships used to supply the USSR. About 350 of those ships were under the U. S. flag.

An article published on the science page of
Gazeta.RU by Ekaterina Shutova on March 11, 2016, under the title: How the Americans supplied the USSR with goods: 75 years ago, an act was signed on providing goods from the United States to the allies, offering similar accounts.
​
In total, during the war years, the USSR received 44,000 American jeeps, 375,883 trucks, 8,071 tractors, and 12,700 tanks. In addition, thanks to the United States, the country received 1,541,590 blankets, 331,066 liters of alcohol, 15,417,000 pairs of army boots, 106,893 tons of cotton, 2,670,000 tons of petroleum products and 4,478,000 tons of food supplies (translation from Russian to English is mine)[2]

​In 1963, the Soviet Marshal Georgy Zhukov had admitted the fact that the United States Allies had helped the USSR in its war efforts,
​

When we entered the war, we were still a backward country in the industrial sense as compared to Germany ... Today [in 1963] some say the Allies really didn't help us…, But, listen, one cannot deny that the Americans shipped over to us matériel without which we could not have equipped our armies held in reserve or been able to continue the war … We did not have enough munitions [and] how would we have been able to turn out all those tanks without the rolled steel sent to us by the Americans? To believe what they say [in the USSR] today, you'd think we had all this in abundance!" (Weeks 1970, 94).

The Katyń Massacre

One of the poppycock that circulated a lot by the Soviets was the massacre of Katyń. It is another example of repetition deemed effective in the case of the USSR and Russia's accessory after the fact in the Katyń Massacre.


In April 1943, Nazi Germany's authorities declared the discovery of mass graves in the Katyń Forest. Stalin severed diplomatic relations with the Polish government-in-exile in London after the latter requested an investigation by the International Committee of the Red Cross. The Soviet Union claimed that the Nazis had murdered the victims.

The Katyń massacre was a series of mass executions of nearly 22,000 Polish military officers and intelligentsia in April and May 1940 by the Soviet Union. Specifically, the NKVD (Народный комиссариат внутренних дел or People's Commissariat for Internal Affairs), the Soviet secret police. This shocking crime is known as the Katyń Massacre, after executions within the timberland at Katyń, near Smolensk. In addition, The Russians executed the Polish officers in prison camps at Kozelsk, Starobyelsk, near Kharkiv in Ukraine and Belarus.

The slaughter had started based on NKVD chief Lavrentiy Beria's proposition to Joseph Stalin to execute all Polish officer prisoners of war. The Soviet Politburo under Stalin's grip affirmed such an illegal act.

The total number of murdered individuals, almost 8,000, were officers detained amid the 1939 Soviet invasion of Poland. Over and above that, another 6,000 were police officers. The remaining 8,000 were Polish intelligentsia that the Soviets considered "intelligence agents, gendarmes, landowners, saboteurs, factory owners, lawyers, officials, and priests."

The Polish Armed Forces Officer Corps represented the multi-ethnic Polish state. The slaughtered officers included ethnic Poles, Ukrainians, Belarusians, and Jews, including the chief Rabbi of the Polish Armed Forces, Baruch Steinberg.

After the fall of the USSR, prosecutors of the Soviet Union (1990–1991) and the Russian Federation (1991–2004) conducted a thorough investigation confirming Soviet responsibility for the massacres. However, the commissions refuse to classify the matter as a war crime or as an act of mass murder. Furthermore, the commissions closed the investigation since the perpetrators had already died. The Russian government would not classify the dead as victims of the Great Purge. Under these circumstances, a formal posthumous rehabilitation was deemed inapplicable. In November 2010, the Russian State Duma or Parliament approved a declaration blaming Stalin and other Soviet officials for ordering the massacre. The falsified Soviet version of the events has become known as the "Katyń lie."

However, Russia kept denying responsibility for the massacres till 1990, when the Russian government officially recounted and condemned the NKVD's killings, as the Soviet government's subsequent cover-up and disinformation campaign through repetition.

Under the title" Russia removes memorial to Katyń Massacre in new attack on historical truth," the Kharkiv Human Rights Protection Group explains Russia's determination to erase facts. [3]

Despite the above, here is also the harsh reality of WWII for the Soviet Union, according to Viktor Suvorov.
​
The Soviet forces surrendered to Hitler in regiments, divisions, corps, and Armies. In September 1941, the 5th, 21st, 26th, and 37th Armies surrendered simultaneously and without resistance. In May 1942, the whole of the South-Western Front, the 6th, 9th and 57th Armies, the 2nd, 5th, and 6th Cavalry I Corps, the 21st and 23rd Tank Corps surrendered in the Kharkov [today Karkiv] area. They fought for four days and laid down their arms on the fifth. At the same moment, the 2nd Shock Army capitulated on the North-Western Front. What is more, they then turned their weapons against the Communists. Soldiers, officers, and generals of every nationality of the Soviet Union surrendered, although the Russians were the most numerous, both in numbers and as a percentage of the total Russian population of the country. The Russian Liberation Army was the largest of all the anti-Communist forces, drawn from the inhabitants of the pre-revolutionary Russian Empire, which were set up during the Second World War. By the end of the war, it consisted of approximately one million Russian soldiers and officers, who had chosen to fight against the Soviet Army could have been still larger than this, but Hitler would not give his wholehearted support to Lieutenant-General A. Vlasov, the leader of the Russian anti-Communist movement. With unbelievable short-sightedness, he embarked upon a bloodthirsty campaign of terror against the inhabitants of the territories occupied by his armies. Compared to the liberation and collectivisation campaigns carried out by the Communists, this terror was relatively mild, but it deprived Hitler of any hope of winning the laurels of a champion of freedom.[4] (Suvorov 1982, 145-6).

1941 Purge
​

In May 1941, a German Junkers-52 invaded Soviet airspace and, unnoticed landed safely at the central airfield in Moscow near the Dynamo stadium. The above incident caused a stir in the Kremlin and led to a wave of repression among the military command. It began with layoffs, followed by arrests and execution of the Air Force high command. This fascinating landing in the center of Moscow showed Hitler how weak the combat readiness of the Soviet armed forces was[5] (Sudoplatov, 1977 - translation from Russian to English is mine).

​Here are some of the victims

May 30: People's Commissar of Ammunition Ivan Sergeyev and Major General Ernst Schacht
May 31: Lieutenant General Pyotr Pumpur
June 7: People's Commissar of Armaments Boris Vannikov and Colonel General Grigory Shtern
June 8: Lieutenant General Yakov Smushkevich
June 18: Lieutenant General Pavel Alekseyev
June 19: Colonel General Alexander Loktionov
June 24: General Kirill Meretskov and Lieutenant General Pavel Rychagov
June 27: Lieutenant General Ivan Proskurov

Stalin's political purge was primarily an attempt to eliminate challenges from past and potential opposition groups, including the left and right wings led by Leon Trotsky and Nikolai Bukharin, respectively.

According to official figures, 777,975 executions for political reasons occurred between 1929 and 1953. Of them, 681,692 executions took place in 1937 and 1938. Unofficial accounts appraise the number of Stalinism suppression deaths in 1937 and 1938 at 700,000–1,200,000.

The Red Army Officer Corps' purge was a power play that resulted in Stalin consolidating his power as leader of the Soviet Union. The loss of nearly the entire command structure of the Red Army had substantial adverse effects on the ability of the Soviet Union to win a war.

Such purges, however, could cost the USSR the victory and indeed territory since Stalin eliminated competent people replacing them with individuals loyal to his person, but with inadequate training, skills, and capabilities. As a result, Stalin got the people he wanted to have around, but he almost lost his country. Unfortunately, Putin repeats Stalin's mistakes.


                                                        Conclusion

A consistent reiteration makes a story in which the proponents of uncommon interface within the particular matter take advantage and increase, like an amplifier, a creation to realize their objectives and goals. One may call it publicity; after all, publicity implies engendering.

So, one must be very careful what one obtains through media, especially social media. A reliable source provides a thorough, well-reasoned theory, argument, discussion, etc., based on solid evidence.

Individuals, prisoners of illusions, must free themselves from the cave and realize that the shadows on the wall are not reality. They must recognize and see the higher levels of reality. But, be that as it may, those liberated must offer assistance to the other prisoners of the cave, as Plato suggested. They do not indeed crave to leave their mental prison, their illusory truth effect, for they know no better life.



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Endnotes
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[1] Помощь Советскому Союзу в борьбе против общего врага оказывали союзники по антигитлеровской коалиции, которая окончательно сложилась к лету 1942 г.  Экономика США и Великобритании все больше перестраивалась на военный лад. В 1942 г. по ленд-лизу в СССР было поставлено более 2,5 тыс. самолетов, 3 тыс. танков, около 79 тыс. автомобилей, радиотехнические средства, гидроакустические приборы, бензин, продовольствие, обувь и прочее.  Однако «к концу 1942 г. согласованные программы поставок в СССР были выполнены американцами и англичанами на 55%. В 1941–1942 гг. в СССР поступило всего 7% отправленных за годы войны из США грузов. Основное количество вооружения и других материалов было получено Советским Союзом в 1944–1945 годах» (Российская военная энциклопедия, Великая отечественная война 1941-45 г. в 12 томах. 2012. Москва: Кучково поле. Toм 3, стр.358).

https://encyclopedia.mil.ru/files/VOV/tom2/Velikaya_Otechestvennaya_voina_Tom_2.pdf

[2] https://www.gazeta.ru/science/2016/03/11_a_8115965.shtml

[3] https://www.gazeta.ru/science/2016/03/11_a_8115965.shtml

[4] Viktor Suvorov, Inside the Soviet Army (New York: Macmillan, 1982), 145-6.  The author's birth name is Vladimir Bogdanovich Rezun, born in Barabash, Primorsky Krai (near Vladivostok Russia), Soviet Union.

[5] Павел А. Судоплатов, Спецоперации. Лубянка  и Кремль 1930-1950 годы, ОЛМА-ПРЕСС, 1997 г.  (Pavel A. Sudoplatov. Special operations. Lubyanka and the Kremlin 1930-1950, Olma-Press Publishing House, 1997)

В мае 1941года немецкий  "Юнкерс-52" вторгся  в  советское  воздушное пространство  и,  незамеченный,  благополучно   приземлился  на  центральном аэродроме в Москве возле стадиона "Динамо". Это вызвало переполох в Кремле и привело  к  волне  репрессий  в  среде  военного  командования:  началось  с увольнений,  затем  последовали  аресты и расстрел высшего командования ВВС. Это феерическое  приземление в центре  Москвы  показало  Гитлеру,  насколько слаба боеготовность советских вооруженных сил.

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About Marcus A. Templar
Professor Marcus A. Templar is a former U.S. Army Cryptologic Linguist (Language Analyst), Signal Intelligence and All-Source Intelligence Analyst. During his career as a U.S. Intelligence Officer, besides organizational duties, he discharged the responsibilities of a U.S. Army Observer/Controller, Instructor of Intelligence Courses specializing in Deconstruction of Strategies, Foreign Disclosures Officer, and Translator Interpreter of Serbo-Croatian.

He is the Macedonian League's National Security Advisor.

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About the Macedonian League
We are an international professional Hellenic advocacy group. Our primary purpose is to advance our interests to informed and responsive governments on issues concerning Greece's national security and territorial integrity.

As of 12 February 2019, the Macedonian League's main focus is on the “Prespes Agreement", as this Agreement is a serious national security issue for Greece and the wider Balkan region.

The Macedonian League also focuses on exposing and combating anti-Hellenism and analyzing political developments in Skopje.


For more information, follow us on Website, Facebook, Twitter: 
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The 2021 Macedonian League Annual Assessment with National Security Advisor Marcus A. Templar

9/20/2021

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In the 2021 Macedonian League Annual Assessment, we talk with Marcus A. Templar for an in-depth analysis of some of the most pressing questions from our audience including among others: Skopje dragging its feet in the implementation of the Prespa Agreement; Greece's foreign policy and national security; Greek products as a national security issue; Greek and Greek diaspora media; and, issues that pertain to the Greek diaspora.
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"Politicians of Greece are not ignorant of what it entails to be an influential functional lobby. They do not want us to have one. It suits their personal and partisan interests."

- Marcus A. Templar
National Security Advisor
Question:
We see the Skopje government dragging its feet in implementing the Prespa Agreement. One of the biggest example is the Macedonian[sic] Orthodox Church that is nowhere near implementation. In addition, we recently saw the debacle in the Euro 2020 soccer tournament regarding Skopje's soccer federation name on their jerseys. Has the Greek government failed in keeping Skopje to the task?
PictureMarcus A. Templar
National Security Advisor
Macedonian League
Answer:
I want to make something clear from the start. To avoid willful misunderstandings, by Greeks, I mean the Greeks of Greece. By Diaspora, I mean the Greek Diaspora, which includes myself.


Returning to the question, Skopje is dragging its feet in implementing the Prespes Agreement, which is not a surprise to anyone who understands Skopje's and Athens' strategic cultures. Such a sentiment becomes progressively intense since Skopje and its Diaspora recognize how politicians of Greece think. They understand Greece's strategic culture better than the Greeks themselves.

People who use their hearts to think, instead of their brains, are susceptible. They care primarily for bread and circuses. In addition, they have a mirror image mentality. They believe that others, especially from the Balkans and the Arab states, are like them. They are victims of blandishment, just like children. To counter such a strategic culture which essentially is national behavior, those who indicate concern are misguided in how and what they do. They base their beliefs on delusional motives.

Speaking of delusional motives, both before and after the Prespa Agreement was signed, some Greek organizations in Greece and in the Greek Diaspora invited an irrelevant, self-anointed "genius" mathematician from Greece to enjoy his nonsense, which speaks volumes of the leadership's cognitive state in Greece and in these respective countries as well. So, speaking to fools, a fraudster told them what they wanted to hear.

The challenge is that even when one expects a professional job, one gets disappointed. Without getting into the morality of the matter, Steven John Lalas, an American of Greek descent and former State Department communications officer, got caught by the F.B.I. because of his greed for money and the amateurism of the Greek political establishment and E.Y.P. (i.e. Greece's National Intelligence Service).

Heraclitus of Ephesus said. "τὰ πάντα ῥεῖ καὶ οὐδὲν μένει." It roughly translates to, "everything flows, and nothing stays the same." It seems that Heraclitus was talking to anyone else but the modern Greeks.

A few UNSC decisions call for both parties, Greece and North Macedonia[sic], to comply with the planet's top security body's pronouncements. Reservations, restrictions, or excuses will not do it as there is no language of "hope" in their directives. The Preamble and Article 6 of the Prespa Agreement regard the normalization of relations of both countries as final. Furthermore, Articles 19 and 20 provide directives and remedies for violations, whether "accidental" or intentional.

Since 1830, the country has been looking for a statesman but gets third rate narrow-minded politicians (πολιτικάντηδες ). The country is filled with politicians who are entrenched by cheap means to be elected or stay in office. So, modern Greeks have no choice. Nobody who wants to do something for the people of Greece will ever be elected to office because those of his own party will attack him/her for doing something for Greece, making them look bad.

It is why Greece is where it is. Politicians are those who not only make BAD laws but also apply them very selectively. I remember when C. Karamanlis was working on getting Greece into the European Economic Community (ECC), present-day European Union (EU). The "experts" even made him gay, as if that mattered. Of course, later on, the "experts" reaped the benefits of the EEC/EU. It is called hypocrisy.

Socrates' dictum, "your country is more precious and more to be revered and is holier and in higher esteem among the gods and among men of understanding than your mother and your father and all your ancestors (Plato, Crito 51 a,b – Loeb Classical Library) has become out of fashion or worst, it has taken a hypocritical turn.

As an intelligence professional, I do not care much about what politicians simply say, as much as I care about the result of their utterance and the received perception by others and what they do. An accumulation of small deceptions here and there leads to a big lie in which a country keeps paying and will pay for a long time.

A country's Constitution covers the basic principles and laws of a nation-state. It outlines the government's powers and responsibilities and ensures that citizens have certain rights. Essentially it is a written instrument embodying the rules of a political or social organization.

But here is the issue. Article 28 (2) of the Greek Constitution states,
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"Authorities provided by the Constitution may by treaty or Agreement be vested in agencies of international organizations when this serves an important national interest and promotes cooperation with other States. A majority of three-fifths of the total number of Members of Parliament shall be necessary to vote the law ratifying the treaty or agreement (website: Parliament of Greece – Italics are mine).

When it was time for the Greek Parliament to ratify or reject the Prespa Agreement, Nikos Voutsis, the then Speaker of the Parliament, declared that the matter would be offered to the Parliament for discussion and ratification. Nonetheless, he mentioned that ratification of this Agreement would require a three-fifths majority out of 300 in the Greek Parliament. However, he added, "There is no constitutional provision for 180 votes, but for such a serious matter, the larger the majority will be, the better for all". Unfortunately, it is doubtful that Nikos Voutsis had read and understood Article 28 (2) of the Constitution, which he had sworn to uphold.

On January 25, 2019, out of 300 representatives, 153 voted for the Agreement, 146 against it, and 1 voted "present." The day after the Agreement's ratification, Greece's Alternate Foreign Minister, Georgios Katrougalos, signed the Prespa Agreement's enacted law in the Greek Parliament following Article 35(1) of the Constitution.

W
hat is ironic about the whole thing is that although 146 representatives voted against the Agreement, not one of them protested against the violation of the Constitution.

The vote was unconstitutional since the Greek Constitution requires a minimum of 180 votes in the positive given the provision, "[a] majority of three-fifths of the total number of Members of Parliament shall be necessary to vote the law ratifying the treaty or agreement." Since NOT one member of the official opposition said anything about it, it means that they were ALL in it, including and not limited to N.D., and especially Golden Dawn and any political party in between. All this happened because SYRIZA was the political sacrificial lamb. SYRIZA did what N.D. wanted and what the Golden Dawn was begging for to have something to yell against. In such a manner, all parties would gain more members as being more "patriotic." Right now, we have the Skopjan Church throughout the world, Skopje's football federation and the Skopjan Consul General in Toronto implicated in raising the illegal flag of Vergina, and the government of N.D. is as loud as a fish. We also witnessed two foreign politicians being embroiled in the same issue - one Australian, on purpose, and one Canadian, who was caught unaware.

The majority's affirmative vote followed by the absolute silence of the minority made the Prespa Agreement constitutional and consequently very legal.

To put it another way, Nikos Voutsis, the Speaker of the Parliament at the time, acknowledged that Greece's Basic Law was flawed and too vague to be applied fairly.

The answer to whether a Court, any Court, local, or the International Court of Justice (I.C.J.) having jurisdiction on the matter may revoke the said Agreement is NO.

According to the Vienna Convention on the Law of Treaties (May 23, 1969), entered into force on January 27, 1980, registered with the United Nations, Treaty Series, vol. 1155, p. 331, a diplomatic instrument may not be revoked unless it meets one of the grounds that Article 62 (Fundamental change of circumstances) specifies. The Prespa Agreement does not meet any of the grounds for revocation. Thus, parenthetically, once a diplomatic instrument is in force, it may not be revoked. 

In my article Petition to the Government of Greece dated January 28, 2019, I warned the Greek government about the hurdles it would face. As Suetonius attributed to Julius Caesar on January 10, 49 B.C., "Tunc Caesar: "Eatur," inquit, "quo deorum ostenta et inimicorum iniquitas vocat. Iacta alea est," inquit. [Upon this, Caesar exclaimed, "let us go where the omens of the Gods and the iniquity of our enemies call us. The die is now cast."] (Suetonius, The Life of Caesar, chapter 32, section 1, Perseus Digital Library - Tufts University).

​Question:
In continuation to the previous question then, what would need to happen in order for Greece to ensure its foreign policy obligations are promoted on the international arena in the same manner as other first world states?
Answer:
​The foreign policy of Greece started on a partisan basis, which makes Greek foreign policy extremely complex. Therefore, Greece is in dire need of a national foreign policy that addresses Greece's national interests in every single aspect of them. Such policy must include Greece's natural resources (whether on land, water, or air), but also financial, commercial as trademarks, and intellectual properties, aka copyrights.


To succeed, an organization should not utilize the same persons who developed strategies to implement tactics and employ the same staff to arrange the operation. Nobody is good at everything.

Doctrine is the set of statements an organization acknowledges as exact in an activity domain. Strategy is the process of activity and sequencing commitments steady with the tenet and driven by the one-of-a-kind highlights of an activity space that oblige but do not characterize plans and schedules. A tactic is a unique activity connected in a series of circumstances that acclimate to set criteria. On the other hand, an operation is the means that connects the two ends, i.e., the Strategy with a tactic aiming at the realization of the overall intent.

Writing about the Human Resource Development and the Organization of the United States Army as part of my essay for the postgraduate course of Strategic Leadership, Chapter C (Structure of the U.S. Army), I wrote,
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"In certain occasions, Task Forces are formed in a matrix structure, but the line/staff correlation dominates. In this case, frequently, rank is irrelevant, but skill and experience rule. By this, I mean that a skillful person can be in a leadership position although that position normally belongs to a ranking individual."
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I wrote it from experience. I have seen it happening in a couple of Task Forces that I had participated in and in the Strategic Intelligence discipline. Organizations, especially those with limited resources, would benefit from the above setup.

A team is an entity that reflects its members' common qualities and consensus without eliminating their individuality.

Strategic Leadership is an approach in which one learns the fundamentals of effectively leading people, teams, and organizations. It helps one develop tools to analyze organizational situations. In addition, one knows how to build a conceptual framework for leadership by devising and putting strategies for immediate impact into practice.

The specialization covers the strategic human resource and organizational foundations for creating and capturing value for long-term competitive advantage within a single organization.

Finally, a leadership and management strategy apply everything one has learned to a real-world issue. The immersive and hands-on deliverable will provide valuable practice and create value from the standpoint of potential members with the cooperation of one or more focal firms.

Coming to the politicians of Greece and their advisors, I can easily say that they have not impressed me. They were elected and hired for their connections instead of for their knowledge and skills. The fact that most of them have graduated from fancy universities means nothing before actual knowledge and experience. I have met a few of them. As I have mentioned many times before, a degree from a fancy university does not make one anything. Each individual makes the degree. The people of Greece hope for the best having these "selected" individuals in mind. Hope is good, but it does not solve any problems.

​Question:
Because foreign policy is also be tied to a country's products, what do you think of the issue of Feta cheese as a national concern issue? Bulgarians and Serbians, for instance, sell feta cheese abroad, and nobody in Greece says anything. The same thing is true for Greeks who live abroad who claim that Greeks abroad "can also" make and sell feta cheese even when they make it in the United States, Canada, or other countries. Are they correct?
Answer:
Nations approach constitutions and traditions protecting their political, physical, and cultural identity. They enact laws that aim at the same. What often becomes questionable is their desire to protect the same in practice, or so it seems. It is not rare that politicians seem to maneuver toward partisan gains over the country's benefits and the other way around.

As Thucydides, the ancient Greek realist, stated, "Identity of interests is the surest of bonds whether between states or individuals." The conclusion one draws from Hans Morgenthau's book Politics among Nations: The Struggle for Power and Peace is "The meaning of national interest is survival - the protection of physical, political and cultural identity against encroachments by other nation-states."[1]

The simplest definition I could find regarding "national interests" is the one from Wikipedia below.
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National Interest, often referred to by the French expression Raison d'État (transl. "reason of state"), is a rationality of governing referring to a sovereign state's goals and ambitions, be they economic, military, cultural, or otherwise.

Per Merriam-Webster Dictionary, Raison d'État, or reason of state, is the justification for a nation's foreign policy on the basis that the nation's own interests are primary.

Commerce is part of the national interests of a country.

Let us take the case of Halloumi (Χαλλούμι/Hellim), a product of Cyprus. The European Commission received the official application to register the above names as a Protected Designation of Origin (P.D.O.) for cheese made predominantly from goat milk under the Quality Regulation (E.U.) No 1151/2012 on July 17, 2014. The application covers producers from the whole island and foresees the protection of the name in the two languages, Greek and Turkish. However, the legalities of whether Turkey indirectly may or may not benefit from the registration due to its illegal occupation of the northern part of the island is unknown to me.

However, here is what happened. Halloumi is Cyprus' second-most valuable export after pharmaceuticals. According to official data, the industry has grown between 20% and 22% annually for the past five years. The Ministry of Agriculture says it has now set its sights on penetrating the China market.

In 2019, Cyprus almost lost its rights in the U.K. Here is what happened in the U.K.:

"Then, the halloumi community was dealt a blow when it learned it lost an important trademark in the United Kingdom when Cypriot government officials failed to provide necessary documents in a timely fashion. Instead, a UK-based company that has been producing halloumi successfully secured an annulment of the Trademark Cyprus had in place since 2002. According to an article published in Cyprus Mail, "the Trademark was lost because officials at the commerce ministry passed around a letter from a British court notifying the government of the cancellation application filed by a British company, instead of acting on it. A second letter was forwarded to the company registrar instead of the attorney-general. The British authorities handling the matter were not even given an e-mail address for the ministry."[2]

Returning to Greece, in October 2005, the European Court, a U.N. organization, decided that the Trademark "Feta Cheese" belonged to Greece.

On June 17, 2020, the Ministry of Agriculture of Greece filed a lawsuit against Denmark for infringement of the Greek Trademark and won as a Protected Designation of Origin (P.D.O.). Feta is an "emblematic" Greek product, the ministry of Agriculture of Greece said, adding that Denmark had "refused to cooperate" with E.U. regulations.

Then why does the Greek Ministry of Agriculture look elsewhere when it comes to selling it abroad?

Protected Designation of Origin means that no product made in any other country in the world, not just a European Union state, may sell white cheese as Feta. The ruling applies even if the person who made it is Greek or of Greek origin living abroad. If the cheese is made outside Greece, the cheese is not Feta. The country of origin is important, not the person(s) who made it.

Also, owners of stores that sell cheeses may not advertise white cheese as Feta regardless of how they feel about it or how profitable it is to call it Feta. If the white cheese is NOT made in Greece, it is NOT Feta.

Nevertheless, another issue in regards to feta cheese keeps crawling, going unnoticed. Look at the photograph below.
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Although the company advertises Bulgarian White Brined Goat Milk Cheese in English just above a goat's photograph, it states something different in Arabic. So, to make a point, I copied and translated the texts in Arabic and Persian into English.

In Arabic, on the right, the word Feta as "Authentic Bulgarian Feta Cheese," which is فيتا.

However, the Persian script on the left states "Bulgarian Cheese," the word feta (φέτα) or white are omitted.

I remember COSTCO had once advertised "Israeli Feta."

One of Greece's problems is international companies that promote Bulgarian, Serbian, Israeli, Canadian, Danish or whatever "feta" in any way they can. One of them is P.V. EURO MARKET which does business in European countries but not complying with the European Court by advertising and selling "Bulgarian feta."

Here is the address of the P.V. Euro Market, 4805 W. Pleasant Valley Rd., Parma, OH 44129, United States.

The P.V. Euro Market is a multi-ethnic European market and deli. It was established by the Cvjetićanin family from Serbia, who lives in Parma, Ohio, U.S.A.

Whether Greece will go after the P.V. Euro Market itself or Bulgaria is a matter of legal jurisdiction. The EU, Canada, and the United States have several reciprocal legal jurisdiction agreements. Some of the Bulgarian companies could have been established by various smaller companies outside Bulgaria. It is a matter of research by the legal department of the Greek Ministry of Agriculture.

https://www.pveuromarket.com/AP-Global-Bulgarian-Goat-Feta-Cheese-900g-853553000917-4727/

As one may not sell sparkling wine as "Champagne" unless produced in the Champagne region of France, one may not sell Greek Feta unless produced in Greece. After all, the feta cheese of the Dodona region sets the standards of Feta in the world.

These are some examples of the illegal advertisement and sales precipitated by Bulgaria or Bulgarians abroad. The URL beneath offers paraphs of the full scale of the scam.

https://www.google.com/search?q=bulgarian+feta&rlz=1C1RXQR_enUS937US937&tbm=isch&source=iu&ictx=1&fir=YfVlYXEKx4GzHM%252C_GcVfjI0-j8gEM%252C_&vet=1&usg=AI4_-kQuUstwQx-TSMNX3-TPLwUEXj1afw&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwjRr6CpqvrvAhU9Ap0JHShwC5IQ_h0wAHoECA4QAw&biw=1745&bih=852#imgrc=yAsaeN4e2CPVTM
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Another product with suspicious "Macedonian feta" that appears in the colors of the Skopje flag is this: https://www.dizin.ca/macedonian-feta-cheese-700-gr-doric/ The same goes for a feta cheese sold as other than "Greek feta."

Check out the same Feta at the Krinos URL (posted below). The LEGAL Trademark for Feta is "Product of Greece." One might add any region of Greece one wants as long as the container states "Product of Greece." One may not make Feta in the United States and call it Greek Feta. One must call it White Cheese. It may be regionally made in Macedonia, or Epirus, or the Peloponnese for all I care, but the trademark feta is for a product produced ONLY in Greece. It is not Feta because the person who made it is of Greek descent or was born in Greece but lives outside of Greece. If the cheese is produced outside of Greece it is still White Cheese; no matter who has made it, it is not Feta. In the case of the Canadian-based Krinos company, it is NOT Greek Feta produced by Greeks in Canada. It is a Greek White Cheese produced by Greeks in Canada.

Check the Prespa Agreement articles 1 and 7. Do not be fooled by words such as Doric and Macedonian. Instead, check the country of origin; the color of the containers helps a lot. They reflect the colors of the flag of Skopje. It does not state "Made in GREECE." It states that it is "Made in CANADA", which means that it may not be sold as Feta in any form.

Specifically, here is the statement as found on the Krinos website: Popular in northern Greece and other Balkan countries, Macedonian style feta, also known as Doric Feta, exhibits the unique characteristics of a "double-cream" cheese, containing a low milk-fat content of 22%. Unlike traditional Feta, it has a smooth and spreadable texture, making it perfect as a morning spread during breakfast.

Made in Canada. Gluten and sulphite free. (Emphasis is mine).

Unfortunately, since the Krinos company cares only about profits, it does not bother with details. The Ministry of Agriculture of Greece should.
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The link may be found here:

​https://krinos.ca/products/doric-feta/#:~:text=Popular%20in%20northern%20Greece%20and,%2Dfat%20content%20of%2022%25
Or what about this? This URL shows various "Macedonian style" feta cheese products.

https://www.google.com/search?rlz=1C2RXQR_enUS937US938&tbm=isch&q=macedonian+feta&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwiE2ZHcvf7vAhUJSK0KHX25AcAQ7AkoAXoECA0QCg&biw=1745&bih=852

When I complained to a Greek diplomat in the late 1990s about American newspapers using "Macedonia" to denote Skopje instead of the FYROM, his answer was, "we cannot send letters to the media every time they use the term Macedonia instead of "The FYROM." The result of such a mentality resulted in what is now known as the 2018 Prespa Agreement.

Does Greece genuinely want to have a repetition of it, this time in one of its valuable national interests that affect the pocketbook of its citizens at home?

So I wonder what the excuse of a present-day Greek Ministry of Agriculture, M.F.A., or Commerce Attaché regarding the Feta cheese will be?

Greece must defend its national interests wherever they lie against any violator. They rob Greece blind, but Greeks are on the seventh heaven because people enamor a Greek product, which will not be Greek as long as the "δε βαριέσαι" mentality rules. Unfortunately, many violators are Greeks, owners of companies that make and distribute white cheese, and food stores or supermarkets that sell the white cheese as "Feta" living abroad. They all promote FETA cheese no matter where it was made.

​Question:
Aside from products like feta then, and just generally speaking, is there something you can pinpoint in history as to why Greeks don't really defend the national interests of Greece the way we ought to?
Regarding the defense of the national interests of Greece, I must explain the matter from another point of view. It is part of the strategic culture of the Greeks and as an expansion of Greece's Diaspora.

Greeks and the Diaspora have a very twisted understanding of friendship between states and between individuals. They do not get that one might be friendly to another, but they could be enemies or even neutrals as far as their countries are concerned.

Here is an example. I know Serbian History exceptionally well. In its existence as a Serbian state since the times of Heraclius, I have not read a single occasion that Serbs came to Greece's assistance when Greece needed it. I am not talking about the idiocies of Mavro Orbin's Ragusa (present-day Dubrovnik) chronicle Kraljevstvo Slovena (The Kingdom of the Slavs) or Vinko Pribojević's sermon De Origine Successibusque Slavorum (The Origin and Glory of Slavs).

One does not have to read Byzantine Emperor Constantin Paleologos, Dimitrije Đorđević, Konstantin Jireček, Robert George Dalrymple, aka R.G.D. Laffan, Slavenko Terzić, Spiridon Gopčević, and a few others to understand Serbia's side of friendship toward Greece. It is enough for one to read Stojan Novaković.

Stojan Novaković, among other things, was Prime Minister of the Kingdom of Serbia, minister of education, minister of interior, and one of the most successful and skilled Serbian diplomats, holding the post of envoy to Constantinople, Paris, Vienna, and Saint Petersburg.

He authored several books, one of which is Balkanska pitanja i manje istorijsko-politic̆ke beles̆ke o Balkanskom poluostrvu, 1886-1905 (Balkan Issues and Small Historical - Political Notes on The Balkan Peninsula 1886-1905). Two of the book's leading chapters, "From Morava to the Vardar" (pages 1-60) and "Two Days in Skopje" (pages 61- 115), deal with Serbia's aspirations over Macedonia. He even argued that the dialects spoken in South Serbia (oblasts of Skopje, Bregalnica, Bitola) that later became part of Vardarska Banovina were nothing more than transitional dialects between Serbian and Eastern Bulgarian, otherwise known under the collective name, Torlak.

As for how the Serbs handled issues like the Politis-Kalfov Protocol, the ABECEDAR, and the murderous Komitadjis speaks volumes.

In the case of the Politis-Kalfov Protocol, on the one hand, Serbia had declared that the Slavophones of Macedonia were Serbs, speaking a Serbian dialect. However, on the other hand, it refused to take responsibility for the actions of the Komitadjis, who freely roamed Macedonia, killing anyone who opposed their plans, i.e., the union of Macedonia with Bulgaria. So the Serbs had the pie and ate it, too.

Anytime Serbia appeared to have done something for Greece is only part of a collateral benefit to Greece where Serbia's national interests and national security were the primary goals. When I asked a Greek of the Diaspora to tell me in what way Serbia is Greece's friend, he responded, "but we helped them so much during the Bosnian wars." It did not occur to him that Greece's actions indicated Greece's friendship toward the Serbian state and not the other way around. True friendships are based on mutuality; otherwise, they are one-sided romance.

Alternatively, what about the whole Serbian Army that Greece saved violating its own neutrality, allowed the island of Corfu to become a haven to retreating Serbian Army, saving it either from capture or drowning in 1916. Between February 6 and February 15, 1916, 235,000 Serbian soldiers, including Serbian King Petar I, Кarađorđević (Петар I Карађорђевић), landed in Corfu. Unfortunately, nothing has changed since.

Question:
On July 4, 2021, Proto Thema News had an article that outlined some of the greatest mistakes of successive Greek governments in the Macedonian issue between 1920-1991. This is something you have discussed for years, and it always fell on deaf ears. Is the news article too little, too late? Or, is there an opportunity within the article that the Greek government can learn from?
Answer:
It is a pretty good article, except that the contents do not justify the title. In the 2020 Macedonian League Annual Assessment, I explain more things that Proto Thema has missed regarding Macedonia.

I wonder what the Tsamides (i.e. Cham Albanians) had to do with Macedonia? However, since the authors introduced the issue of the Tsamides into the article, they should have added the amateur way Tsaldaris had handled the issue on Northern Epirus during the Conference of the Peace Treaties signed in Paris on February 10, 1947. Why Albania? Because the Albanian Parliament had declared their country's union with Italy, and Italy declared war on Greece using Albania, i.e., now Italian soil, to attack Greece.

It also includes several historical errors due to oversimplification. The newspaper has used information related to the Macedonian issue in certain areas but has nothing to do with the Greek M.F.A.'s strategic and tactical errors. Instead, the author used such information as a filler.
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To answer your question, "Is there an opportunity within the article that the Greek government can learn from?" my answer is NO. I am not expecting anything better to come out of it since the lifetime of mediocre politicians lasts only as long as the next election. Let us not forget that they are Athenians. They understand the issue of Macedonia much less than I know the function of the black holes in the universe.

By that time, people will forget, and henchmen (κομματόσκυλα) will justify their position with «ὢχ ἀδερφέ, δὲ βαρυέσαι! Δηλαδή οἱ ἂλλοι καλλίτεροι εἶναι;».


Notwithstanding, I wonder why Proto Thema left out the period between 1991 and 2018? In that period, politicians openly sold Macedonia and everything the name stands for to Skopje using the salami slice method.

Perhaps they should have shed some light on why the Macedonian Press Agency (M.P.A.) had lifted the veto over the membership of the Macedonian Information Agency of Skopje in the Association of Southeast European News Agencies in the late 1990s, to start with. Or what about the merger of the M.P.A. with the Athens Press Agency (A.P.A.)? 

Has anyone forgotten about the sudden termination of Dr. Liana Souvlatzi's work around the remains of the temple Of Ammon Zeus in the walled village of Aghormi, about three kilometers east of the town of Siwa, seeking the tomb of Alexander the Great? The Greek government withdrew the funding, and the Egyptian government withdrew the permit. Both governments did it simultaneously. Does anyone see the connection?

Back in 1993, in a few days, the government of Greece managed to give away the name of Macedonia without the knowledge of the people of Greece.


January 22- 26, 1993
  1. Under the Greek prime minister's instructions, Mike Manatos sends a deceitful letter to Pres. Clinton, telling him that Greece was ready to compromise. That happened without giving Clinton a chance to check into the matter. Greece is doomed! http://www.onalert.gr/stories/Ti_kanane_oi_ntopianoi_gia_ta_SkopiaMia_apokalyptikh_omilia_kathhghth

  2. The Greek U.N. Delegation issues a memorandum rejecting the request of the FYROM for U.N. membership. The representatives of the E.U. members of the Security Council (Britain, France, and Spain) submit a plan of confidence-building measures proposing the temporary name "Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia."

  3. President Karamanlis, not knowing Prime Minister Mitsotakis' directive to Manatos and the Greek Delegation to the U.N. (see notes 1 and 2 of January 26, 1993, above), sought a better American understanding of the Greek position. Karamanlis addresses a letter to newly elected U.S. President Bill Clinton. Karamanlis claims that heeding the Greek position is the only way to avert the spreading of the Yugoslav conflict southwards. http://www.macedonian-heritage.gr/timeline.html

When Dora Bakoyanni was the M.F.A. in Greece, she mentioned that Greece had given away 80% of Skopje's demands. A Western European politician suggested a solution to the name the way his country saw it; Bakoyanni responded, "I agree with you, but I will not be re-elected if I do that." Her issue was not that such a move would be wrong for Greece and its national security but that she would no longer remain in the Greek Parliament, a typical politician.

As I had explained a few times in the past, I was not, and I am not fond of, the Prespa Agreement because its language in certain areas is somewhat vague and subject to interpretation. Article 19(3) refers to the International Court of Justice (I.C.J.) for interpreting the text lest a disagreement arise. One must bear in mind that the language of the Agreement is in English. Greek and Skopjan are only auxiliary languages.

That means that if there is a dispute about stipulations on the Agreement, the pertinent authority will seek a solution based on the interpretation of the English text, not its translations. Also, we cannot jump to conclusions because we also lack knowledge of diplomatic correspondence regarding points of clarification of the text.

Politicians are accountable to their constituencies as the people of Greece, using democratic means, chose and choose their government and representatives in the Parliament.

A few years ago, a Greek politician told me that any time he had tried to do something for the people, the attacks against him did not come from the opposition parties, but his own party, his own boss, because by doing his job, he made others look bad.

For as long as the people of Greece vote for miserable and if they are lucky mediocre politicians mainly because the latter are heirs of prominent families and their fifth-rate entourage full of egos, snobbish mirror image, and complete ignorance of the Greek country-side and its challenges, one must never expect anything better. So before anyone believes that their political party is better than others, I have news for them; they are ALL the same regardless of their political ideology. In a democracy, there is no ideology but a platform.

A political platform is a set of positions on political issues used to promote a specific political party or candidate. It frequently takes the form of a manifesto, a carefully worded political document that appeals to voters by addressing a variety of issues that are important to them.

The weakness of the parliamentary institution in Greece is that the same mediocre politicians and their underlings have enacted such election laws that allow representatives of parties to choose their constituencies instead of constituencies to elect their representatives. The language must be such so that it will be impossible for a candidate to bypass the letter and spirit of the law through some legal inventions and innovations.

Let me explain what I mean. Mrs. Dora Bakoyanni was born, reared, and all her life resided and still resides in a suburb of Athens or Athens itself. So in what way did she represent or still represents the people of Chania or Aetoloakarnania?

Mr. George Papandreou, born and reared in St. Paul, MN, U.S.A., represents his paternal origin's voters, although he is a permanent resident of a suburb of Athens. Why?

Mr. Constantine Karamanlis, who was born and reared in Athens and lives in Athens; how can he represent the people of Thessaloniki or even Serres?

They are all PERMANENT RESIDENTS of and own houses in the basin of Attica. Therefore, for all practical purposes, they only represent their own neighbors. Therefore, one should be representing the people of the political district (περιφέρεια) in which one votes.

In the last 30 years, I know of only ONE of the 300 representatives who had rented a place in Athens. All others, whether born in Attica or not, permanently reside in Athens or its suburbs. In this manner, the only ones genuinely represented in the Greek Parliament are the residents of Athens and its suburbs. I would never forget a discussion I had with an older woman in Rhodos back in 1993. She said to me, "we lived better with the Italians." Need I say more?

So, does anyone expect better results with such a wishy-washy political "elite" who reside permanently in Athens and its suburbs representing the needs of the basin of Attica solely and, if lucky, Peloponnesus? I am surprised that Greece is still in one piece, although I wonder for how long!

If the good people of Proto Thema feel that they have what it takes, why don't they direct their attention to the above issue? Alternatively, if they want to gain some prestige of a newspaper with investigative reporting, why don't they investigate the 1974 invasion of Cyprus by Turkey and the contribution of politicians of Greece to it whether they lived in Greece or abroad, hic Rhodus, hic Salta.

Perhaps Proto Thema would like to explain the statement that Con. Karamanlis had made that "Cyprus was far away", which was why Greece could not help the Greek Cypriots.

When Greeks wake up, it will be past midnight.

Question:
An odd conversation still occurs in Greece and Skopje and their respective diasporas regarding how people "want to view" an internationally recognized agreement. Some politicians posture and still claim that they will annul the Prespa Agreement once they come to power in that conversation. Speak to what is an "internationally recognized agreement" against this whole conversation of annulment.
Answer:
The language drafted in Articles 7 (2), 7 (3), and 7(4) of the Prespa Agreement makes clear "that not only the area and people of the northern region of Greece [Macedonia] but also their attributes, as well as the Hellenic civilization, history, culture, and heritage of that region from antiquity to present day differ from the Slavs. The most important point is Article 7(4), which clearly states that the official language of Skopje belongs to the "group of South Slavic languages." The Parties [first party Greece and second party Skopje] note that the official language and other attributes of the Second Party [Skopje] are not related to the ancient Hellenic civilization, history, culture, and heritage of the northern region of "Greece."

The goal of the extremists in Skopje and Skopje's Diaspora is to annul the Prespa Agreement. An annulment of the Prespa Agreement will mean a great deal for Skopje's
goal and objectives. The Prespa Agreement is
FINAL. There is no return to the Interim Accord (September 13, 1995), and any UNSC decisions on the country's name will be null and void. Instead, Skopje will obtain the complete and absolute reversal of what Greece, through amateurish handling, has succeeded in achieving since 1991. Of course, the UNSC will have many things to say, mainly if armed hostilities occur due to such an annulment.

All objectives of the Slavs point to the restoration of the Republic of "Macedonia" and establish all institutions expressly referred to in article 7(2), (4) of the Agreement as theirs "with all the rights, privileges, and honors appertaining thereunto."

Briefly, once the Slavs succeed in nullifying the Prespa Agreement, their next step will be an entitlement to everything about ancient Macedonia as their inherent right. Nobody will be able to stop such an assertion since there would be no Prespa Agreement to disprove Skopje's "inalienable" rights to the soil of their fictitious ancestors and their mythical land of ancient Macedonia as their inherent right.

Once Skopjans succeed in the first step of their objectives, their next move will be ANY other claim that the Slavs would wish to make, including but not limited to private land proprietary rights as they allegedly lost them to the Greek landowners upon the departure of the Turkish forces. I do not even want to touch on military geography and strategic depth that Greece will lose along with any prestige she has.

The problem that I have seen in Greek organizations is that their leadership wants to involve their associations into unfamiliar turfs using a tactic that only those seeking self-aggradation due to hunger for power do. It is a multifaceted issue that people involved do not want to discern that they bite off more than they can chew.

Organizations send letters to officials in the United States or Canada, both of which have no legal standing in the matter. However, the issue is more serious. Reading a few of their published letters, I am not sure whether the presidents of the organizations address them to the readers or the officials.

Nonetheless, the contents of the letters indicate that those in charge have not read the Agreement and have only a superficial understanding of it. Some of them have bad ideas. Others with weak or no arguments resort to cursing those with extensive experience and knowledge of the subject to tell them the truth.

I have mentioned the above because I once questioned the content of a letter directed to the U.S. State Department. The answer I had received made me understand a lot. "If we write the letter the way you are suggesting, the Greeks won't like it." So, the President of the organization addressed the letter to an official of the U.S. State Department, but the contents he/she supplied followed the taste of the Greek readership. But, of course, the Greek readership understands ancient Macedonian history, balls and conventions, dances, claptrap, and fantasy.

N
otwithstanding, on the other hand, the U.S. State Department officials understand regional stability, national interests, national security, instruments of statecraft as diplomacy, military and economic power, and how all these intertwine with U.S. foreign policy and other relevant topics, which seemed immaterial to the authors of those letters. It was the last time I stayed in touch with the organization in question.

People must understand that U.S. officials do not assume Greece is part of the United States, and the Diaspora must understand the same. They are two different countries with their issues and views of what constitutes national interests and national security. The Diaspora must make points that help persuade U.S. officials that both countries' national interests and national security are in conjunction. Although the above applies in the United States, it might not apply in any other country.

Letters must be written to cover a specific issue that the consignee comprehends and can relate to.

The late Nicolas Martis, addressing the international academic community on Macedonia, stated what Henry Kissinger said to a Greek of the Diaspora,
​
"Look, I believe that Greece is right to object, and I agree with Athens. The reason is that I know history, which is not the case with most of the others, including most of the Government and Administration in Washington. The strength of the Greek case is that of the history which I must say that Athens has not used so far with success."

When I had an opportunity to address the Greek Caucus of the U.S. Congress in 2012 at the request of Representative Gus Bilirakis on the issue of Macedonia, the President and Chief Executive Officer of a "Greek" American N.G.O. that supposedly lobbies in Washington sabotaged my lecture, NOT the Skopjans. It seems that someone in his Washington office tipped off the President of the N.G.O., and perhaps after "consultations" with the Greek M.F.A., Mr. Bilirakis' scheduler amazingly was "unable" to find an available room for one hour in the whole U.S. Congress during April and May 2012.

​
Here is what the President of a Greek Canadian organization stated in an e-mail referring to the President of the "Greek" American N.G.O. mentioned above, after the cancellation of my lecture.
​

"He might be one of us, but from what I know from 1 hour of a meeting I had with him, and from what I have been told about him, he is arrogant and irresponsible. Just like ELIAMEP, he wants money and minions under him, all the while towing the party line that the YPEX has told him. It is evident (Saturday, February 18, 2012, 10:44:56 AM)" (Italics are mine).

But this is nothing. I have a few more blatant acts of "Greeks" and ONLY online "patriots," which one could classify between boycott and sabotage, including but not limited to cursing, threats, spoofing, fake webpage, fake Facebook profile, and others. I suppose, if one cannot compete in knowledge, one plays dirty. On one occasion, I had to report it to the Cybersecurity Unit of the local Police, which notified all appropriate authorities in the United States, Australia, and Greece.

People must discern that cultural groups are not equipped or staffed to function as actual lobbies. In the case of the Prespa Agreement, nobody can do anything about it unless they try to precipitate war. However, they should think about it very carefully.

Both Skopjan and Greek Diasporas believe that President Biden issued Executive Order (E.O.) 14033, having their organizations and themselves in mind. I suppose the guilty get angry and defensive against President Biden because they realize that the Russians and Turks duped them. Such thoughts indicate megalomania and narcissism, but not reality. The Washington Post journalist Carol Krucoff wrote, "The greatest obstacle to discovery is not ignorance — it is the illusion of knowledge."[3]

Here is the case of Executive Order (E. O.) 14033, issued on June 8, 2021, by the President of the United States, Joe Biden. The E.O. is nothing more than a direct hit to the objectives of Russian and Turkish activities and their local cronies in the former Yugoslavia, which affect Greece and Bulgaria, given the fact that North Macedonia[sic] has territorial aspirations over Greek lands while culturally is connected to Bulgaria, Serbia, and Albania.

The date of the E.O. gives away what hid behind it. President Biden signed it two days before participating in the G7 Summit. After that, he met with the heads of governments of most of the world's advanced economies: Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, the United Kingdom, the United States. In addition, U.S. President Joe Biden had a bilateral meeting with his Russian counterpart at the eighteenth-century lakeside Villa La Grange, Geneva, Switzerland June 16, 2021.

The North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) held its 31st Summit in Brussels on June 14, 2021. One of President Biden's meetings on the sidelines of the NATO summit was with Turkey's President Erdogan. As a result, the list of disagreements between the two NATO allies was unusually long. The U.S. Intelligence community is fully aware of MİT's activities in Western Balkans, i.e., Bosnia, Kosovo, Albania, North Macedonia[sic], and consequently Greece. However, the bilateral issues discussed privately outnumbered the problems of the official agenda.

Question:
What role has the Greek diaspora media played in disseminating information to Greeks abroad post-Prespes to implement this Agreement?
Answer:
It depends on the media. Two types of printed media exist in my view. First, the printed media that publish articles of various individuals did the best job because they published articles of various people with different perspectives. Thus, the readers had a chance to read different views and, on the matter, decide.

The media that employ journalists and process information through editorial boards did a wishy-washy job playing to their readership to please the Diaspora and the politicians of Greece. But, unfortunately, these are the ones that have received a monthly stipend from the Greek M.F.A.; while they depend on subscriptions, they try to please all sides, an impossible task if they want to be unbiased and exercise in futility.

​Question:
What is your opinion regarding the talk of the resurrection of S.A.E. (the World Council of Hellenes Abroad)? Will it work the second time around, or should the Diaspora chart their independent course?
Answer:
When I read about the World Council of Hellenes Abroad (S.A.E.) back in the early 1990s, I thought it was an excellent idea. I had read that other countries like Armenia, Azerbaijan, Bangladesh, Georgia, India, Ireland, Israel, Mexico, Romania dedicate ministries to their Diaspora. Others like Greece include affairs of their Diaspora within the ministries of Foreign Affairs, while Serbia in the Ministry of Religion and Diaspora.

Nonetheless, as the institution developed, I realized that the Greek M.F.A. was S.A.E.'s driving force and not the other way around following the Constitution, article Article 108 (2), which states that the Council of Hellenes Abroad has its mission "the expression of all communities of Hellenes across the world." Instead of the Diaspora conveying our enduring issues and ephemeral challenges to the Greek M.F.A., anticipating official and unofficial assistance, the Council became the political mouthpiece of the Greek M.F.A. Toward the very end, the transactional nature of the relationship between the Council's leadership and the M.F.A. was apparent. It was something like, "if you want to keep your title and benefits, you will do what I want you to do."

Politicians of Greece are not ignorant of what it entails to be an influential functional lobby. They do not want us to have one. It suits their personal and partisan interests. I remember about 15 years ago, a politician of Greece told the leadership of the Pan-Macedonian Association something to the effect, "the [Diaspora] will not dictate to us Greece's foreign policy."

Nevertheless, the same politician does not have to deal with the United Macedonian Diaspora nor the Turkish Coalition of America. He closes his ears and eyes like an ostrich, and in his mind, the organizations above that roam the United States do not exist.

Such is the foundation that creates the ultra-nationalistic ideals abroad.

The people of Greece and their media do not know, and in the case of the media, they play it both ways lest they lose funding from the government and subscriptions of the public.

Nothing sticks using saliva. A well-functioning lobby requires much money, which the political establishment of Greece expects the Diaspora to pay. Money opens doors to centrally located facilities, high-caliber skilled staff, leading to powerful politicians who could help realize the lobby's political agenda.

In 2011, some people of the Diaspora were interested in starting an independent lobby. So we got together in a suburb of Philadelphia. We held a meeting so that all in the group were on the same page. The concentration of the lobby would be around the "national issues" of Greece.

To me, an appeal for a lobby was about my home country's national interests and national security. Because I understand lobbies and the meaning of national interests and national security, I was given the task to put together all pertinent to lobby requirements on paper and an annual budget.

My budget plan, a total of US $4.8 Million, included renting a centrally located facility, its maintenance, rent of all sorts of top-of-the-line furniture and equipment, choice staffers, and first-rate experts representing each of the lobby's public or foreign policy aims. It totaled five million U.S. dollars. That was only for the lobby to be ready to operate; it did not include any operating expenses such as legal registration fees, parties, trips of themselves and their targets, and other expenses that could easily top the 10 million U.S. dollars per annum.

Nevertheless, here is the issue. As soon as I was tasked with the budget, I received a few suggestions that I considered to demand rather than requests to include certain people in the lobby. So I prepared the grounds for a solemn political pressure team, not nonsense that mocks people's intelligence.

Some of those present gave me a few names with background information irrelevant to the specialized assistance needed for the proposed lobby. Members of the lobby or perhaps the whole lobby must conform with the Foreign Agents Registration Act of 1938 (FARA), as amended.

To start a lobby specializing in Greece's national security and interest issues, a political pressure group needs professionals specializing in pertinent sciences. Some of them are in geology, marine geology, fisheries management, international law specializing in Eastern Mediterranean, marine engineering, military geography, diplomacy, and a few other relevant specialties. Moreover, all of them have to be U.S. citizens.

We do not see the above specialties in the Turkish conglomerations of organizations in the United States because behind their activities is a steadfast government. But, unfortunately, we do not have such a luxury.

One must never discount a fundamental specialty for such a lobby in political science, people who understand government and politics how the U.S. government works, especially the U.S. Congress's function like attorneys specializing in government relations and policy advocacy work to include legislation, political law compliance. The structure of the lobby must be horizontal with a concise vertical top with limited powers. Such an organization provides more operational flexibility due to expanding globalization and perpetual development and evolution of technology. At the same time, it does not depend on one power-grabbing individual who solely cares about his/her self-promotion.

Such a lobby might even need a few more to take care of the Greek political establishment. One must know whom to lobby, where, when, and whether one cares about short gains or long-term benefits.

When one cares about the contents in American textbooks regardless of subject matter, one lobbies the Texas State Board of Education. It is the oldest open secret in the world of education in the United States.


Why is the Texas State Board of Education critical in all 50 States? The Texas Education Agency (TEA) http://www.tea.state.tx.us/ defines the Texas Essential Knowledge and Skills (TEKS). So, suppose the contents of the TEKS contain subjects of science courses as non-science or social studies filled with American jingoism. In that case, these contents become Texas textbook standards. The TEA always supports the State Board of Education (SBOE).

The SBOE of Texas picks textbooks for a state-approved list. Textbook publishers are notoriously weak-kneed. They will adjust the school books they publish to the TEKS.  Only books, which, in the opinion of the SBOE, adequately meet the TEKS, are on the approved list.

Texas is a big buy for textbook publishers, and the publishers do not want to produce multiple versions of their texts. Any of the 1000+ school districts in the state can buy any schoolbooks they wish with their own money. If they want their state to purchase the books, they must choose among books on the approved list. I suspect that no district in Texas wants to buy texts with their own money.

Of course, lobbying members of TEA and SBOE require detective work to find out what each member likes or dislikes, expertise, and money for wining and dining members of the prospective targets. Travel to locations in Greece is part of the task. After all, a trip on a private airplane for a visual presentation of Alexander's the Great city is doubtlessly the best form of education for the members of the above organizations. But, of course, the above is only one of the many matters that the Greek Diaspora is interested in. The inclusion of the Greek Genocide is another one.

As a result of the previous meeting, I started writing the plan for a lobby on June ‎30, ‎2011, and finished it on July ‎18, ‎2012. Thus, I set the foundations of a lobby with the long-term goal to make textbooks friendlier to the Greek civilization, history, culture, and heritage from antiquity to the present day. In addition, I wanted to neutralize, if not eradicate, the root of the problem. This specific lobby had to do with Greek history as depicted by the textbooks in schools of the United States.

Looking around, however, I could not find enough persons with the ability and sincere desire to work as a team instead of a group of power-grabbing individuals whose desire was only to promote their names instead of the cause.

A friend of mine who was present in the meeting told me that the lobby would never occur, "I saw who was present in the meeting." He was correct. So the lobby never got off the ground.

Lobbying is much more than taking photographs before the offices of Foggy Bottom (district in Washington, D.C.) aimed to persuade the membership that the leadership does something.

​
Let me provide the readers with two paragraphs from a book by Joseph S. Roucek.
​
Washington wanted Cyprus to be given to Greece. The British were close to doing this in September 1945, but at least temporarily changed their minds for strategic reasons and because of fears of a Left-Wing government in Athens. This session was not definitely excluded in the future. The State Department also wanted a slight rectification in Greece's favor in southern Bulgaria. Washington's desire was for a grant by Greece to Yugoslavia and Bulgaria of free port rights at Salonica, but international relationships in that corner of the world would have to improve first. The original program, aside from the proposed slight modification of the Bulgarian- Greek border, left Bulgaria her 1939 frontiers, plus southern Dobruja. That was done. (Joseph S Roucek, Balkan Politics. International Relations in No Man's land (Westport: Greenwood Press, 1971), 272).

and
​
The Greeks did not help much, however. They pressed their claims for border revisions at the Paris Peace Conference in a naive and inefficient way; in America, they induced Senator Claude Pepper, through the Greek-American sponge-fishing colony of Florida [Tarpon Springs?], to force through the Senate resolutions that weakened any attempt at a positive United States policy in the Near East (Joseph S Roucek, Balkan Politics. International Relations in No Man's land (Westport: Greenwood Press, 1971), 290).

The last paragraph indicates how sentimental and unprofessional lobbying can reverse a nation's goals and expectations. Kardelj and Pijade of Yugoslavia explain the naïveté of Tsaldaris in their books. [4][5] I would add that Tsaldaris tasted the ingratitude of the Serbs who were present at the Conference. After all, he was the Prefect of Corfu who gave shelter to the Serbian Army without authorization from Athens in 1916.

People should be aware of those who believe they should try because they have nothing to lose. A person who has nothing to lose will help you lose everything you ever worked for. God gave us brains to think, expecting us to use them without a How to Think manual.

Question:
Since you referred to the Pan-Macedonian Association in your previous question: would you consider it a relevant organization or an organization way past their 'best before date.'
Answer:
The Pan-Macedonian Association was established in New York City in 1947 as a cultural, apolitical organization. The organization was open to U.S. citizens of Macedonian origin, their wives, their posterity, and anyone who was a friend of Macedonia.

The purpose of the Pan-Macedonian Association was to develop and foster economic, cultural, and spiritual ties between American and Canadian citizens and Greek citizens while at the same time providing brotherhood and charity to Greek-Americans from Macedonia. Furthermore, the Pan-Macedonian Association was to provide support for the reconstruction and restoration of Greece. In addition, to improve the health and well-being of Macedonians in Macedonia. One must bear in mind that in 1947 the civil war in Greece was in full swing.

Over the years, the association developed and incorporated Women's and Youth Chapters. Besides charitable deeds, the primary purpose as I saw it was to disseminate information regarding the Hellenism of Macedonia and the differentiation of Macedonia from the Slavic part of Yugoslavia with the same name. It used to publish a magazine before the early 2000s, but it was discontinued due to a lack of funds.

Whether the present Constitution and its By-Laws of the Pan-Macedonian Association need to reach the 21st century is up to its membership. Whether the organization continues the path that it has taken during the last ten years also depends on the membership.

We have to realize that the majority of the people of Greece vote for politicians accountable to them. If they keep voting for miserable or even mediocre politicians, we cannot do anything about it. Therefore, whether we like it or not, the Prespa Agreement by its implementation and acceptance by the UNSC as a legally valid diplomatic instrument may never change.

The Skopje Slavs and their Diaspora have the annulment of the Prespa Agreement as their goal, and as their objectives, the total appropriation of everything Macedonian without exception. However, I do not understand why those in Greece and the Greek Diaspora, including the Pan-Macedonian, play to the goal and objectives of the Skopje Slavs.

If people do not like the results, they should not produce the conditions.
​_____​
About Marcus A. Templar
Professor Marcus A. Templar is a former U.S. Army Cryptologic Linguist (Language Analyst), Signal Intelligence and All-Source Intelligence Analyst. During his career as a U.S. Intelligence Officer, besides organizational duties, he discharged the responsibilities of a U.S. Army Observer/Controller, Instructor of Intelligence Courses specializing in Deconstruction of Strategies, Foreign Disclosures Officer, and Translator Interpreter of Serbo-Croatian. 
 
He is the Macedonian League's National Security Advisor.


About the Macedonian League
We are an international professional Hellenic advocacy group. Our primary purpose is to advance our interests to informed and responsive governments on issues concerning Greece's national security and territorial integrity.

As of 12 February 2019, the Macedonian League's main focus is on the “Prespes Agreement", as this Agreement is a serious national security issue for Greece and the wider Balkan region.

The Macedonian League also focuses on exposing and combating anti-Hellenism and analyzing political developments in Skopje.


For more information, follow us on: Website, Facebook, Twitter


​_____
​[1] H. J. Morgenthau,
Politics among Nations: The Struggle for Power and Peace, 2d ed., rev. & enl. New York: Knopf., 1948.

[2] 
Karydes, Megy. “Why Cyprus Is at Risk of Losing Its Precious Halloumi CHEESE Commodity.” Forbes, Forbes Magazine, 22 Feb. 2019, www.forbes.com/sites/megykarydes/2019/02/22/why-cyprus-is-at-risk-of-losing-its-precious-halloumi-cheese-commodity/?sh=41cf21c11a8e.

[3]
 
Krucoff, Carol, " The 6 O'Clock Scholar: Librarian of Congress Daniel Boorstin And His Love Affair With Books", The Washington Post, January 29, 1984.

[4] Edvard Kardelj, Sećanja--borba za priznanje i nezavisnost nove Jugoslavije 1944-1957 (Beograd : Radnička štampa, 1980), 88-88n.

[5] Moša Pijade, Izabrani govori i članci 1941 -1947 (Beograd: Kultura, 1948), 445-456
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A Divided Greek Genocide Sows the Seeds of Greece's Death Warrant as a Modern State

4/3/2021

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In Memory of the Greek Populations of Eastern Thrace, Asia Minor and beyond!

PictureMarcus A. Templar
National Security Advisor, Macedonian League
More than 100 years ago, innocent Greeks were killed or deported in what is known as the Greek Genocide. In Turkey's European region of Eastern Thrace and about a year later in its Asia Minor region, the Ottoman Empire felt the indigenous Greek people were threatening its existence because of their strong culture.

The regime enacted a systematic way of destruction that amounted to Genocide to mitigate the government's problem. In this manner, they aimed to the "purification" of the Turkish culture and Islamic religion.

The Ottoman government sent Greek men of ages 21 to 45 to concentration camps to work for the Turks
. The number of those who died in those camps is unknown. The same governments kidnapped Greek children, forcing them to amalgamate into Turkish society. Cohorts of the same government pillaged and burned to the ground villages. The administration issued orders for deportations of those Greeks living in the areas of the Dardanelles and Gallipoli. Under similar orders, paramilitary organizations sent all Greek inhabitants of the western coastline of Asia Minor to Muslim villages, giving them two choices, to either convert to Islam or be killed. They sent the remaining Greek population to the interior, exposing them to harsh winter, starvation, and privations.

Picture
Refugees after the Smyrna fire, 1922. From the archives of the Greek Genocide Resource Center
The Genocide lasted nine years, from early 1914 to late 1922. Although the criminality of the Ottoman government set out to exterminate the Christian Greek population, it welcomed the collaboration of the Turkish and Kurdish local populations as the caravans of the marching Christians crossed their lands on their way to the unknown, many of them to their death. The Genocide resulted in the loss of 3.5 million Christians - Armenians, Greeks and Assyrians. Although humanity will not affectionately remember the Empire, it will reflect the lives of those lost in the Greek Genocide.


What "separate" Pontian Genocide? Are not the Pontians Greeks?

Etymology, Geography, and History

Εὔξεινος Πόντος [Efxinos Pontos] means φιλόξενος πόντος [filoxenos pontos] or hospitable sea as a euphemism like the Pacific Ocean. Πόντος [Pontos] denotes something sunk. In this case, a sunk piece of land filled with water and quite broad; it is why it is accepted that πόντος [pontos] means "sea." In reality, πόντος [pontos] derives from the verb ποντίζειν [pontizein] or to sink (Liddell–Scott–Jones).

According to D.A. Hardy (1989) and J. Antonopoulos (1992), the Minoan Eruption traditionally took place around 1600. We know that the Thyra (Santorini) eruption took place approximately between 1538 and 1527 BC per Eusebius, Chronicles, 71 & 183. From 1628 BC and 1450 BC, I speculate that the Eastern Mediterranean's geological region suffered a series of changes as tsunamis flooded the land today is the Aegean Sea. Perhaps, the splitting of Olympus and Ossa that created the fertile ground of Thessaly was part of a series of earthquakes and other geological changes that formed the earth as it is in that region today.

On the other hand, the word Pelagos derives from Πέλιον Ἂργος [Pelion Argos] or Old Land. The name indicates that the region of the Aegean was a flatland. Still, some barrier that held the water away from it broke, sunk(?), and the water surged over the land due to some geological changes in the southern part. The story of the "Kabeiri" (also Cabeiri, Cabiri; ancient Greek: Κάβειροι, Kábeiroi) in Samothrace collaborate this. Here is the summation of the story: Just after the waters stopped rising, the Pelasgian inhabitants of Samothrace built an altar in honor of Poseidon, the god of the sea. Now was time for reconstruction, time for reproduction. The incoming waters perished too many lives and property. This flood took place when Deukalion was king of Achaia, i.e., southern Greece. Since then, the inhabitants of Samothrace re-enacted their plight to save their lives. Such a geological change was probably recent to remain in the memory of people.

Genocide, Legal Definition

According to Article 6 of the International Criminal Court (ICC), the definition of GENOCIDE is as follows:
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Article 6 – Genocide

For the purpose of this Statute, "genocide" means any of the following acts committed with intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnic, racial, or religious group, as such:

a) Killing members of the group;

b) Causing serious bodily or mental harm to members of the group;


c) Deliberately inflicting on the group conditions of life calculated to bring about its physical destruction in whole or in part;

d) Imposing measures intended to prevent births within the group;

e) Forcibly transferring children of the group to another group.


Genocide, Etymology

Γενοκτονία (genoktonia, Greek for genocide) originates from the Greek words γένος (genos, "race") and κτείνειν (= φονεύω) (to kill). Since the Pontians are Greek in γένος (race), they cannot be excluded from the Greek ethnos, as if they were a separate ethnicity. One could attribute such an act to either ignorance or contempt for their Greek origin or even egomania and megalomania of the movement's originators and leaders.

Not one conqueror of the Pontic lands ever separated them from Asia Minor. The Greeks named the lands Asia Minor, i.e., Small Asia, as opposed to the Asian continent. As part of general geographical designations, Byzantines divided the Empire into two sectors. One was Ἀνατολικαί Ἐπαρχίαι (Eastern Provinces) which referred to the Asian lands as opposed to Δυτικαὶ Ἐπαρχίαι (Western Provinces), which were the European regions. Ἀνατολικαί Ἐπαρχίαι turned to Anadolu in Turkish, which gives us the westernized modern term of Anatolia. Anatolia College in Panorama of Thessaloniki stands witness to such toponym.

The Anatolia College was established in at Pontic town of Merzifon, which is at the district in Amasya Province in the central Black Sea region, i.e., Pontos. One may find more information at the website of Anatolia College.

​
Here is what the website of the school states.
​
"Anatolia College founded at the Merzifon Seminary with Charles Tracy as President; the students are principally Greek and Armenian, most coming from outside of Merzifon and boarding at the school; the faculty is Greek, Armenian, and American; enrollment soon reaches 115 students."… "[In 1921] Executions by Turks of student leaders and faculty advisors of the Pontus club, the school's Greek literary society; Turkish government orders the closing of Anatolia College; 2,425 students had graduated since 1886." (https://anatolia.edu.gr/en/about/history).

​The school's history does not separate Pontians from Greeks, including Pontos in Asia Minor or Anatolia. It does separate Armenians from Greeks.

Asia Minor is a peninsula. Every region within the peninsula is part of the main. One cannot talk about the Balkan Peninsula, exempting Greece or Bulgaria for that matter. After all, Bulgaria's Haemus or Balkan in Turkish, a lexical borrowing from Persian, gave the whole peninsula its present name. One can find a Balkan Region in Turkmenistan, as well.

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Since the entire peninsula was part of the Ottoman Great State (Devlet-i ʿAlīye-i ʿOsmānīye), aka Ottoman Empire, one cannot even think of separating the Turkish Pontos from Asia Minor under the pretext that it was part of another state. Even if one attempts to invent a country that was part of the peninsula, one may not separate the country, a political entity from the peninsula, a geographical term. "Pontian Genocide", therefore, is a misnomer and nationally dangerous.
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However, we encounter more revisions of history to separate the Pontians from the rest of the Greeks. A separatist-type Pontian movement started in the 1980's by a group led by sociologist Mihalis Haralambidis and historian Kostas Fotiadis. According to historian Vlassis Agtzidis in his article "Η Ομάδα Χαραλαμπίδη-Φωτιάδη και το ποντιακό κίνημα", among the many positions championed by this separatist group, the most detrimental were: the creation of one voice regarding the Pontian Greeks and their issues and the opposition of all other voices; the separation of the Pontian Greeks from the other Greek refugees at all levels; the development of a unique identity with "ethnic" characteristics; the creation of the myth that the Pontian Greeks are still refugees today living on enemy territory (Greece) and Greek institutions being equivalent to Ottoman ones, among others.

The commemoration of May 19, 1919 (established by Haralambidis), was the day that Kemal Ataturk landed in Samsun. It is not the "beginning" of the Genocide in the Turkish Pontos as he and some Pontian federations claim. That is another impossibility.

The first deportations in Turkish Pontos took place three years earlier, in 1916, during the same period when Greeks within the Ottoman CUP government's grasp were systematically slaughtered throughout the Empire.

Greeks of Eastern Thrace were the first to be deported just after the beginning of WWI. Descendants of the town Neos Skopos, Serres, for example, can attest to it. Their original town was Skopos (Greek: Σκοπός; Tukish: Üsküp), just east by north-east of Kırklareli, Kırklareli Province (Turkish: Kırklareli ili), Eastern Thrace. Their distance is only 19 km. So, all Greeks who lived in Skopos were forced to walk to Greece. At that time, Western Thrace was Bulgarian. Both Turkey and Bulgaria fought on the side of Germany during WWI.

What is behind the ongoing separatist revisions? Being a former intelligence officer, I smell a rat.


​Psychology and intelligence

The primary tool of human intelligence agencies is psychology. Their primary tasking is to find what makes the subordinate targets click and how. Intelligence agencies seek to break into as many segments of society as possible, aiming at instigating clashes or cascading wrath and vengeance, in other words, prompting culture wars within a society.
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Intelligence agencies and especially those of human intelligence manipulate their victims' character blemishes as gambling, alcoholism, spousal unfaithfulness, and anything they consider sources for extorsion. They all use psychology to evaluate virtue, like religion, patriotism, regionalism, language, and a few other parts of individual identities by either flouting them or encouraging them depending on the motives, goals, and objectives.

The secret lies with actual knowledge of one's own national strategic culture and the opponent's national strategic culture. To find it, one MUST re-examine, evaluate, understand the perceived cause and effect, and estimate all probabilities. One must also consider the hindsight biases in evaluating intelligence reporting of all biases as information, selection, and confounding, not just one's cognitive and inherent biases while avoiding simplification.  It is significant for one to prevent a mirror image.

Cognitive bias is dangerous because it affects the processing of information. It is crucial to distinguish cognitive biases from other forms of prejudice, such as cultural bias, organizational bias, or bias that marks one's self-interest. Their goal is to divide the people of the adversarial country in any way that would bring good results for their national interests. It is the oldest trick in the book, divide and conquer.

Notwithstanding, the main issue is this. Those who advocate Pontian "separatism" should bear in mind that Military Unit 11135 and the 18th CRI- Central Research Institute of the GRU are excellent in signal intelligence research capability, including research and development in wireless devices, SCADA electromagnetic protection systems. Unit 01168, 27th CRI is a research institute in information technologies and command and control systems.

These agencies also covertly encourage the so-called "Pontian Genocide," which they purposely promote among the Pontian Greeks as separate events from the Greek Genocide.  These Pontian "separatists" allow themselves to become pawns of the MİT and the GRU.  The most prominent voice for promoting a separate international recognition of a "Pontian Genocide" is Ivan Savvidis, the Russian-born Pontian Greek billionaire and personal friend of Vladimir Putin. According to the Moscow Society of Greeks' website, Savvidis is the leader of the Greeks in Russia. Coincidence? Not at all! They work for the Russian intelligence agencies and indirectly for the Turks against Greece, either not seeing the unfolding damage in front of their eyes or not caring.  The bottom line is this.

The advocates of the separate "Pontian" Genocide have unconsciously become intelligence assets of the Russian Foreign Intelligence Service (SVR), the Russian Military Intelligence (GRU), and the Turkish National Intelligence Organization (MİT). The above mentioned intelligence agencies play them like a Stradivarius violin against Greece, Greek national interests, and national security. They want to destabilize Greece.

Although their goals differ, both Turks and Russians work toward similar objectives using the same types of Greeks similarly. They have found the appropriate switch in the people that I have described above. The Turkish and Russian operation assets do not feel that they get played by the above powers' intelligence agencies because the members of the MİT and the GRU (Military Unit 44388) are professionals. The Advanced Persistent Threat (APT) groups are obscure, outstanding, and very active organizations inflicting mayhem on their targets like these Pontians federations and their collaborators.

Some Pontian Greeks are such self-aggrandizers that they are ready to serve anyone who gives them what boosts their ego. They close their eyes to the goal of Turkey and Russia to split the Greeks. They refuse to realize that a divided Genocide plays right into the hands of Turkey and Russia.

Nevertheless, many Pontian federations, supported by Pontos-centric historians and a mathematician who is irrelevant, incompetent and immaterial in the subject, went a little further. They contended that we must never denounce Turkish acts of Genocide because the Greek Army had done the same. They got the "evidence" from the GRU and MİT.

Perhaps an explanation of a few things about articles 58 and 59 of the Treaty of Lausanne is in order.


​Treaty of Lausanne Articles 58 and 59

The governments of Greece and Turkey signed the "Convention Concerning the Exchange of Greek and Turkish Populations" at Lausanne, Switzerland, on January 30, 1923. The Treaty of Lausanne incorporated the Convention.

The Treaty of Peace with Turkey, aka the Treaty of Lausanne, signed at Lausanne on July 24, 1923, was not just between Greece and Turkey. Other signatories of the Treaty were France, the United Kingdom, Italy, Japan, Romania, and the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats, and Slovenes.

Before I proceed, I wish to stress a few points that will enlighten the reader regarding a few provisions in the above-mentioned diplomatic documents.

A constant point that all professional amateur "experts" on the "separate" "Pontian Genocide" keep pointing out is article 59 of Lausanne's Treaty, which they take out of context and, of course, out of ignorance.

Yet, after reading article 58, it does not take much to understand that there was more than meets the eye. According to Article 58, Turkey has no pecuniary claims against any powers except Greece. However, being a "benevolent" victor with an "understanding" that Greece's finances were in disarray, it successfully "persuaded" the Greek negotiators to afford some other accommodations, which we shall see as my explanations unfold.

T
he Treaty of Lausanne prompted the global acknowledgment of the new Republic of Turkey's sway as the replacement legal entity of the Ottoman Empire. As an aftereffect of the Treaty, the Ottoman state's public debt was split among Turkey and the nations that arose out of the previous Ottoman Empire.

Articles 58 and 59 of the Treaty of Lausanne refer to Greece's political instability that followed the Balkan Wars. At that time, Greece had two governments, one in Athens and one in Thessaloniki (the Provisional Government of National Defense, State of Thessaloniki, 1916–1917). A few other events made furthermore Greece's position rather precarious.

Nonetheless, here is the revealing point. Some professional amateurs operating out of their realm have instigated and keep supporting the anti-Hellenic pack in Greece. Some professional amateurs support the anti-Hellenic endeavors of the professional amateurs since the latter have taken upon themselves "to clean the Greek Augean political stables from its garbage," as the website of the Greeks in Moscow states. The question is, on behalf of which foreign intelligence organization do the professional amateurs intend to "to clean the Greek Augean political stables from its garbage"? Knowing how the Russian intelligence agencies work, I can make an educated guess that Putin is behind the project of the Pontian Genocide aided by Erdo
ğan.

The opportunity for Turkey to demand reparations from Greece came from Greece itself as a result of domestic instability and National Schism (Εθνικός Διχασμός), aka "The Great Division" that had started on August 30, 1916, and ended on August 4, 1936, after a series of trials, assassination attempts (1933) and an attempted coup (1935).

In consequence of the above-mentioned political instability, on November 15, 1922, the Greek government held the so-called "Trial of the Six" (Dimitrios Gounaris, Georgios Baltatzis, Nikolaos Stratos, Nikolaos Theotokis, Petros Protopapadakis, and General Georgios Hatzianestis). The verdict came as "guilty of treason." They were all executed on November 28, 1922. Admiral Michail Goudas and General Xenophon Stratigos received a life imprisonment sentence.

Prince Andrew, who was in Corfu at the time, was arrested, tried, found guilty, and sentenced to death a few days later; however, since he held the rank of ex-officio without any military training, his death sentence was commuted to exile.

The whole matter might have raised political notches for some; it was detrimental for Greece and its national security. The court-martial and its outcome gave the ammunition to İnönü to demand reparations for the war's unnecessary prolongation. The excuse of İnönü at the Conference appertained to Greece's acceptance that its Army unnecessarily prolonged the war. It is why Turkey demanded remedies. It was not alleged atrocities.

What did İnönü want in exchange? İnönü sought and received something of a significant strategic military value; it was Karaağaç, the small area of approximately 31 square km west of Edirne on the west bank of Evros.


​"Know the Enemy and Know Yourself"

Notwithstanding, one must know the Turkish psychosynthesis to understand Turkey's motives. Anyone who knows the Turkish way of thinking knows that they are experts in haggling. They have no limits to achieving their goals because they calculate the minor detail of their manipulation of their opponents. "Never mind," and "what the heck" are expressions foreign to a Turk. A signature on a treaty by a Turkish government is only a means to get the country out of the jam and use some flimsy excuse to give it an edge in future negotiations or even justify an invasion.

Turks do not sign treaties that include statements that could be even in the minimum detrimental to their country just for signing. Moreover, they do not care whether a Turkish government of the past had signed a diplomatic instrument. They care only about how diplomatic tools a previous government had signed contribute to their present geopolitical stage. They always do what they feel that they must do for their convenience, citing the country's national security the way they envisage it.

A case in point is the Treaty of Lausanne, and the Ankara Convention of January 4, 1932, between Italy and Turkey for the delimitation of the territorial waters between the coast of Anatolia and the island of Castellorizo. One must always bear in mind that the signatories of the Treaty of Lausanne were more than Greece and Turkey, as I have explained above.
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Article 14 states:

​Italy hereby cedes to Greece in full sovereignty the Dodecanese Islands indicated hereafter, namely Stampalia (Astropalia), Rhodes (Rhodos), Calki (Kharki), Scarpanto, Casos (Casso), Piscopis (Tilos), Misiros (Nisyros), Calimnos (Kalymnos), Leros, Patmos, Lipsos (Lipso), Simi (Symi), Cos (Kos) and Castellorizo, as well as the adjacent islets.

Turkey blatantly violated the Treaty of Lausanne on September 6–7, 1955, known as the Istanbul Pogrom. The event took place about a year and a half after Greece, Turkey, and SFR Yugoslavia signed in Ankara the Agreement of Friendship and Cooperation on February 28, 1953, aka The Balkan Pact. It was a violation of the Treaty of Lausanne.

O
n March 16, 1964, the Turkish Parliament passed a decree leading to one of the most significant and most traumatic episodes of forced migration in its recent history. The course of Turkification had intensified as it turned against the Greek Orthodox (Rum) of Constantinople (Polites) as a pretext of the civil strife in Cyprus. By annulling a 1930 treaty unilaterally, Turkey paved the way to an accelerated expulsion of some 12,500 Greeks within a few months. This number would quadruple over the next two years.

Most of the expelled were Greek citizens. The Rum Constantinopolitan inhabitants, aka Polites, were the oldest residents of this ancient city of Byzas. The latter saw their residence permits being canceled by the most recent authority governing their hometown. They were ordered to leave the country within two weeks, taking only a suitcase weighing no more than 20 kilograms and cash worth not more than 22 U.S. dollars.

As all Greek citizens were deported, their family members of Turkish citizenship also had to follow. With the additional measures of freezing their assets and blocking their business transactions, the Turkish state made sure to increase dramatically the demographic erosion of this previously vibrant urban community. It was a violation of the Treaty of Lausanne.

In the early 1960s, Turkey annihilated the Greek population of the islands Imbros, Tenedos, and Rabbit by using them as exile locations for criminal convicts. It also eliminated Greek language courses to the few Greeks left. It was a violation of the Treaty of Lausanne.

Greece's response was SILENCE.

During the invasion of Turkey on Cyprus using another pretext, Greece's response through the mouth of Greece's new President Constantine Karamanlis was "it is too far."

We all know what happened in the case of Imia in the late 1990s. 
Turkey's plan is straightforward. After it beefed up its western coast with the Aegean Army in 1974, Turkey demanded that the Aegean islands become demilitarized, according to Article 14 of the Peace Treaty of 1947. Nevertheless, although unofficially on the side of the Axis, Turkey was nominally neutral, and because of it, it was not a signatory of the above Treaty. If Greece demilitarizes the islands, it will fall into a trap. Once Greece falls into the trap, Turkey will invade, unpunished, some of the demilitarized islands and then dictate its terms on Greece, in essence, dominating the Aegean Sea for anything Turkey desires. I wonder if all professional amateurs want to see it happen.

According to the proceedings of the Lausanne Conference of 1922-1923, İnönü based his arguments and counterarguments on the 1899 Conference of Hague (883 pages). He had repeated identical statements devoid of fruitful opposing views during the Conference of the Treaty of Lausanne's acceptance to include articles 58 and 59 in the final text of the Treaty.

Another eye-opener is Hague's 1907 Conference (Vol. I, 703 pages; Vol. II, 1086 pages, and Vol. III, 1162 pages). These two conferences produced the Hague Laws and Customs of War on Land (July 29, 1899) and the Hague Convention, Laws and Customs of War on Land (October 18, 1907) with all amendments, annexes, and declarations.

The whole matter was the alleged destruction of civilian properties as a result of necessities of war. The Laws of War consider "perfidy" the use of protected areas reserved for civilians, e.g., civilian houses, hospitals, places of worship, as offensive means, and misuse of the flag of truce by military personnel.

Perfidy constitutes a breach of the laws of war. It is a war crime, as it degrades the protections and mutual restraints developed in the interest of all parties, combatants, and civilians. Turks could have been guilty of such treachery as they defended their home country.

Under the title, "Civilians Taking a Direct Part in Hostilities," Field Manual (FM) 6-27 The Commander's Handbook on the law of the land warfare, dated 2019, the Department of Defense of the United States, explains:
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2-11. The law of armed conflict (LOAC) does not expressly prohibit civilians from taking a direct part in hostilities, but it does provide that civilians who do take a direct part in hostilities forfeit protection from being directly attacked (DOD Law of War Manual, 5.8; consider AP I art. 51(3); AP II, art. 13(3)). Civilians who have ceased to take a direct part in hostilities may not be made the object of attack, but could still be subject to detention for their previous hostile acts. Such civilians generally do not enjoy the combatant's privilege—that is, they do not have combatant immunity, and, if captured, they may be prosecuted for their belligerent acts under the domestic law of the capturing state.

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2-12. Civilians engaging in belligerent acts not only forfeit their immunity from direct attack, they also make it more difficult for military personnel to apply the principle of distinction and thereby can put other civilians at greater risk.

Is it possible that Turkish or Kurdish villagers had engaged in such warfare? It is probable. It is why the Treaty of Lausanne had not included what civilians perceive as atrocities committed by both Greek and Turkish armies. The distinction between legitimate and illegitimate perfidies sometimes blurs. Once civilians commence hostilities against an attacking military group, the latter has the right to defend itself.

The most challenging part is a similar situation in hospitals. An illegal ruse is when a defending military group occupies a building identified as a medical facility and fires from it against the attacking force.

The Big Red One, a 1980 American epic war film, includes such a scene. One of the movie's memorable scenes takes place in a mental hospital complete with throat slashings and inmates walking around unconcerned while fighting within the hospital rages and romantic music plays. As men are killed, one patient picks up a German MP40 submachine gun and begins shooting at everyone in sight, shouting, "I am one of you now! I am sane! I am sane! I am sane!"

If the belligerents of Greek and Turkish forces had bona fide cases of war crimes committed against each other's populations, they would have brought such allegations to the Peace Conference of the Treaty of Lausanne for investigation.

The Treaty of Neuilly-sur-Seine of November 27, 1919, brought by Serbia against Bulgaria, already included such war crimes. So a precedent already existed.

I
 am offering as an example the story of Serbia's case against Bulgaria included in articles 57, 113(3), 119, 120 of the Treaty of Neuilly-sur-Seine of November 27, 1919.

On October 15, 1915, two Bulgarian Armies attacked and overran Serbian military units penetrating the South Morava river's valley near Vranje. They occupied the area on October 22. 1915. Eventually, the Bulgarian forces occupied Kumanovo, Štip, and Skopje. In this manner, they prevented the Serbian Army's withdrawal south to the Greek border and Thessaloniki. At that time, Greece was neutral (Falls and Becke, 1933). Aleksandar Protogerov was the Bulgarian commander of the 3rd Brigade of the 11th Bulgarian Division occupied Štip, which unruly Bulgarian soldiers had heavily looted (Fischer, 1967).

On October 26, 1915, Aleksandar Protogerov ordered the execution of 118 wounded and sick Serbian soldiers who were recuperating at the Štip town hospital. Ivan Barlyo, commander of the local VMRO (IMRO), transported the Serbian soldiers to Ljuboten village and summarily executed them. The above is only one example of Bulgarian atrocities.

One must bear in mind that Todor Aleksandrov commanded the local VMRO (IMRO) band. Later on, Alexandrov's followers emigrated to the United States, Canada, and Australia in the mid-1930s (Pissari. 2013). These are the "Macedonians" that Greeks of the United States, Australia, and Canada have to deal with.

The above Pontian "separatists", following the Russian and Turkish guidance, consider the Greek Army's expedition beyond Ionia's area as an invasion of Greece against Turkey.

To justify their thesis, Pontian federations and their surrogates pushed for bizarre reasoning that defies any logic unless one is mentally incapacitated. Here is their illogical reason. Since Greece had "invaded" Turkey, then Greece had to have committed numerous atrocities. The Mudros Agreement, aka Armistice with Turkey (October 30, 1918), is a simple 2 ½ page document dictating to Turkey what it has to do with its territorial possessions. Such clauses and a few others of a more specific nature are included in the Treaty of Lausanne.

During the pre-Treaty of Lausanne Conference, both the Greek and Turkish sides presented their list of alleged atrocities against the other side starting in April 1921. Information on suspected Greek atrocities derived from the Turkish side without independent collaboration and proper investigation. If the Turkish allegations had legal standing, the Treaty of Lausanne would have stipulated any and all violations of the laws of war at the time.

Under such an assumption, Turkey's violations of human rights, such as Genocide against the Christian populations of Asia Minor, including Ionia, are justified and excused. Fotiadis stated as much in 2019 on Open TV. The above Pontians advocate that the burning of the Greek and Armenian sectors of Smyrna by Ataturk is also justified. Under such a logic, international recognition of the "Pontian Genocide" is warranted according to these groups, but not the Greek Genocide, since Pontians never invaded Turkey, but the Greeks did. Do not attempt to find any logic in the irrational string of thought.

No Greek national or any other Christian minority of Turkey had invaded Asia Minor, including the Pontian Greeks. What was the excuse for the CUP government to commit such crimes? If we want to talk about who invaded whom, then Turks were the invaders starting at the Battle of Manzikert (August 26, 1071).

When I asked a community leader who claimed to be "a Pontian genocide expert" to specify the "atrocities" allegedly committed by the Greek Army that he claimed "invaded" Asia Minor, he referred to article 59 of Lausanne's Treaty, not at a specific act. An atrocity on the battlefield is a matter of opinion that differs in substance between people who know all about it firsthand from those who watch war movies.

The U.S. Field Manual (1956) states:

Among legitimate ruses may be counted surprises, ambushes, feigning attacks, retreats, or flights, simulating quiet and inactivity, use of small forces to simulate large units, transmitting false or misleading radio or telephone messages, deception of 'the enemy by bogus orders purporting to have been issued by the enemy commander, making use of the enemy's signals and passwords, pretending to communicate with troops or reinforcements which have no existence, deceptive supply movements, deliberate planting of false information, use of spies and secret agents, moving landmarks, putting up dummy guns and vehicles or laying dummy mines, erection of dummy installations and airfields, removing unit identifications from uniforms, use of deceptive signal measures, and psychological warfare activities.

During the Battle of Khafji that took place January 29 to February 1, 1991, a column of Iraqi tanks T-55s rolled up to the Saudi Arabian border with their gun turrets pointing backward, a sign of surrender. As Saudi Arabian troops approached them, the Iraqi tanks reversed their turrets and opened fire. Their action prompted air support from a nearby  AC-130 gunship destroying 13 vehicles.

The above act of the Iraqi tanks was an illegitimate ruse of war.


According to Black's Law Dictionary, atrocity implies conduct that is outrageously or wantonly wicked, criminal, vile, cruel, too horrible, and shocking.

However, how many acts of war do not meet the above definition? War itself is a great atrocity. Nevertheless, I KNOW what war is all about. The online "experts" watch war movies instead.

I wish to remind the reader that Greece was legally in Asia Minor under the mandate stipulated in the Armistice of Mudros (October 30, 1918).


​Conclusion

The claim that Pontians merit their Genocide absent from that of the Greeks of Asia Minor shows a separation from reality.

Whether they are uninformed of the etymology and definition of the word "Genocide" or feel an exceedingly conceited regionalism, it demonstrates their despise and contempt for the rest of the Greeks. Their demand that their regional plight is higher in importance than the national anguish indicates shameful hatred of their ethnic roots. The question is, why does he listen to the voice of Greece's enemies to the existential detriment of Greece?

The recognition of a Genocide is awarded to ethnic groups, not toponymic demonyms. Once Pontians demand and accept the recognition of the Pontian Genocide, they declare that they are not of the Greek genos but a separate ethnic group. One either is a Greek, or one is not a Greek. There is no parallel ethnicity to the Greek. The recognition of a "Pontian Genocide" versus Greek Genocide sows the seeds of Greece's death warrant as a modern state.

So, all people enamored by the "Pontian Genocide" had better think twice about what they wish for unless it is precisely what these Pontian organizations and their cohorts desire. It is a simple but firm warning to the Pontians and ALL supporters of the "Pontian Genocide" as a separate event away from the Greek Genocide.

I am finishing with two verses that I dedicate to the devotees of the "Pontian Genocide." They are from the poem Ἀνθολογία τῆς Οἰκονομίας by Georgios Souris (1853-1919) written in 1910:
Σπαθὶ ἀντίληψη, μυαλὸ ξεφτέρι,
κάτι μισόμαθε κι ὅλα τὰ ξέρει.
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Strategic Intelligence in National Security: A Simplified Guide to the Unfamiliar Reader

2/13/2020

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PictureMarcus A. Templar
By Marcus A. Templar

Abstract


The focus of this monograph is to offer a simple understanding to those unfamiliar with the issue of national security as related to disciplines of Strategic Intelligence, the collection of information, its analysis, and exploitation for the benefit of a state’s national security as it fulfills the satisfaction of its national interests.

In his book Espionage and Treason, the late André Gerolymatos articulated the role of proxeneia in Classical Greece (Gerolymatos 1986). The book offers Gerolymatos’ excellent understanding of how diplomatic missions worked and still do. Nevertheless, espionage is a term that covers a variety of actions employed by states for a wide range of reasons and does not cover the full scope of the tradecraft.

The correlation between intelligence and, more specifically, strategic intelligence and national security is coefficient and mutually dependent. This monograph has used the core of a speech under the title Intelligence in Contemporary America that the author had delivered at the Kiwanis Club on December 2, 2019.

What is Intelligence?

The definition of intelligence has troubled many intelligence professionals throughout the years, especially those who understand the full scope of their tradecraft. Even professionals shrink from answering the question “what is the definition of intelligence” and rightly so. Nevertheless, to an intelligence professional who has worked in that specific part of National Security, the simple definition of intelligence is the analysis of carefully collected information free of contaminated and inaccurate material. It includes objectivity independent of political considerations based on all available credible sources and timeliness.

It is true that in some cases, the analyst might seriously consider information collected from dubious informants with sketchy motives or documents of unknown origin because they match some person’s beliefs. It is the case that verification for the accuracy of such information is of great importance. It is not unusual that adversaries intentionally or sometimes unintentionally release essential details of certain subject matter. One may also receive speculative or unreliable information pushed in by politically motivated personnel, most of whom are appointees to please the boss. Conspiracy theories are not part of reliable intelligence. To avoid mishaps, a departmental fusion process exists. Agencies propel the evidence to the Office of National Intelligence, where specific information gets an exhaustive examination that follows by a thorough sanitization.

Knowing oneself and one’s adversary is extremely important in intelligence. A significant advantage of an intelligence officer is not only to know what one knows, but to know what one does not know, i.e., one must attain the psychological stage of Conscious Competence. It is the stage in which one knows what one knows, but most importantly one knows what one does not know.

Sun Tzu, the Chinese general, military strategist, writer and philosopher who lived in the Eastern Zhou period of ancient China, and author of The Art of Warfare, states in Section III, “Attack by Stratagem”, “If you know the enemy and know yourself, you need not fear the result of a hundred battles. If you know yourself but not the enemy, for every victory gained you will also suffer a defeat. If you know neither the enemy nor yourself, you will succumb in every battle” (The Book of War 2000, 80-81).

In Ancient Times

The Book of Numbers

The first recorded example of intelligence collection comes to us from the book of Numbers (Hebrew: Bəmiḏbar meaning "In the desert") is the fourth book of the Tanakh and the fourth of five books of the Torah.

According to the text (chapter 13), Moses sent 12 men to spy on the inhabitants and land north of Kadesh Barnea, which was at the edge of the desert of Paran, where the Israelites were encamping (Numbers 10:12; 12:16). The 12 men journeyed north to Hebron, and from there, they traveled north toward the valley of Eshkol and then the hill country, i.e., around present-day Jerusalem and beyond exploring the territory up to the Heights of Golan near the present-day Quneitra, Syria.

After the scouts had explored the entire land, they returned to Kadesh Barnea where two of the spies, Joshua and Caleb, reported that the area was abundant "flowing with milk and honey, probably a date syrup. The members of the reconnaissance team brought “back samples of the fruit of the land, most notably a gigantic cluster of grapes which requires two men to carry it on a pole between them.” Nevertheless, they also reported that the people who dwelt in the land were strong; the cities were fortified, and also, the cities were huge, but compared to what? Ten out of 12 mentioned that the people of those cities were giants and also reliable, kind of cruel, bogeymen, and hobgoblins. However, the twelve spies cataloged the human terrain, i.e., the inhabiting tribes and the specific locations of their habitation.

Such are the problems an intelligence analyst faces daily since it crucial that one decides what is factual and fictional. What the 10 out of the 12 men had reported about the “giants” is a matter of opinion or a case of exaggeration out of fear or unwillingness to fight them. These were the Israelites who were born in captivity. They had learned to be subservient instead of fighting for their rights. After this occurrence, God punished all of them by keeping them in a place for 40 years so that those who were born in captivity, in Egypt, die and the new generation who was born in the wilderness and free not knowing enslavement were ready to fight and win (Num. 32:13).

The above is the first example of human intelligence of tactical, operational, but most importantly of strategic value. The answers Moses received were enough to assess the risk but also to design the path. Per God’s instructions, Moses assigned the leaders of each tribe to deploy, coordinate, and participate in the tactical on the ground situation.

The team of scouts produced intelligence by querying information repositories and generating reports. The scouts devised methods for identifying factual patterns and trends in available sources of information. They also determined capabilities, vulnerabilities, and probable courses of action of their adversaries. They acquired the psychological aspects of the people and what made them tick.

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They then communicated to Moses and through him possible suppliers, and others to stay abreast of industry or business trends. In this manner, they developed the strategic analysis that became the cornerstone of strategic planning that led the Israelites to the promised land.

Sinon (Σίνων), the Double Agent

As an example of a double agent in the ancient world, but also of selfless dedication to the cause, we take the situation in the Trojan War and the Wooden Horse or as I call it the Greek Horse. His name was Sinon (Greek: "Σίνων"), and he was a relative of Ulysses. Although Homer does not mention Sinon’s name, he does mention the incident with the Horse. Sinon’s name comes to us from Virgil’s book of Aeneid II, 77, but also Quintus of Smyrna. The details of the story appear in Aeneid, book 2, 77, but also in chapter 12 of Quintus of Smyrna in his Post-Homerica.

After Ulysses put the plan down, the task building of the horse was given to an excellent carpenter and skilled boxer (Iliad XXIII) from Phocis, Epeius (Ἐπεύς or Ἐπειός) who told the Greek leadership of the design, the quality and quantity of logs needed for the project. The Greeks went to mountain Ida (presently Turkish: Kazdağı = goose mountain) just southeast of Troy (Turkish Truva) for the timber. Epeius built the horse with a hollow belly so that several warriors could fit in it. We know of the names of 30 warriors who entered the belly of the horse. Epeius was the last one to enter the horse through one of the doors.

After the horse was finished and the warriors entered the hollow horse, the Greek fleet sailed and hid behind the island of Tenedos, but not before they left a wandering warrior at the hills of near Troy. His name was Sinon. Sinon had volunteered for the mission knowing full well that he would be tortured and even killed by the Trojans.

Quintus of Smyrna states that the Trojans woke up in the morning getting ready to attack, but they could not see anyone there except for one man, Sinon, next to the wooden horse. The camp was deserted, and one could see only smoke coming from the Greek campsite. Apollodorus (5.14–5.18) states that Sinon was the one who started the fire only to attract the attention of the Trojans to him.

In the beginning, the Trojans encircled him and gently asked him questions, which he refused to answer. Then the Trojans grew angry and began to threaten him with stabbing. Sinon remained defiant to their threats, not answering their questions. As a means of unfriendly persuasion, the Trojans cut off his ears and then his nose. Finally, under pressure, he told them the pre-rehearsed story, i.e., the Greeks had fled, and they built the Trojan Horse to honor Athena.

According to Quintus of Smyrna (chapter 12), Sinon claimed that Ulysses (Odysseus) wanted to sacrifice him, but he managed to escape and hid in a swamp. When the Greeks gave up looking for him and left, he returned to the Trojan Horse adjacent to the camp. Sinon claimed that out of respect for Zeus, the Greeks stopped looking for him. All the Trojans believe this story, except Laocoön, who, along with his two sons, who were attacked by a giant sea serpent. Following this, believing that Laocoön was assaulted because he offended the gods, the rest of the Trojans began to accept Sinon's fictional story. Feeling bad for Sinon, and fearing the wrath of the gods, the Trojans brought Sinon and the Trojan Horse into Troy. We all know what happened next.

In keeping with another account by Virgil (Aeneid 2: 57- 198), Sinon wandered until he met with three shepherds and surrendered to them. They, in turn, escorted him to Priam, the king of Troy.

According to Virgil (Aen. 2.79) Sinon (Σίνων) was the son of Sisyphus and a grandson of Autolycus, and because of it, he was a relative of Odysseus. He is described in later poems as having accompanied his kinsman to Troy (Tzetz. ad Lycoph. 344; Heyne, Excurs. iv. ad Virg. Aen. ii.).

Alexander the Great – Strategic Intelligence

Alexander the Great put together a coalition of almost all Greek states, except the Laconians who excused themselves as by tradition they had to lead, not follow another force even if it were a Pan-Hellenic expedition against a common enemy. Alexander had inherited a well-trained fierce Army, which combined with the armies of the current powers as Corinth, Athens, Thebes established an unbeatable force. He only needed a carefully crafted strategic plan that exuded the sense of victory suited to a masterful expedition.

Nevertheless, Alexander the Great had already founded the groundwork for a great plan, Strategic Intelligence. Before he moved against the Persians and Medes, Alexander had ample knowledge of what prudent and visionary generals ought to have on their opponents. He possessed the coup d’oeil, the glance that takes in a comprehensive view what one needs to utilize Strategy, Grand Tactics, Logistics, Engineering, and Tactics along with diplomacy in its relation to War (Jomini 2006, 13 & 337). Alexander knew his adversary but most importantly he knew himself.

In the chapter, “Knowledge of the Enemy - Strategic Intelligence” John Keegan explains that,
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Alexander the Great, presiding at the Macedonian court as a boy while his father, Philip, was absent on campaign, was remembered by visitors from the lands he would later conquer for his persistence in questioning them about the size of the population of their territory, the productiveness of the soil, the course of the routes and rivers that crossed it, the location of its towns, harbours and strong places, the identity of the important men. The young Alexander was assembling what today would be called economic, regional or strategic intelligence, and the knowledge he accumulated served him well when he began his invasion of the Persian Empire, enormous in extent and widely diverse in composition. Alexander triumphed because he brought to his battlefields a ferocious fighting force of tribal warriors personally devoted to the Macedonian monarchy; but he also picked the Persian Empire to pieces, attacking at its weak points and exploiting its internal divisions (Keenan 2002 – Emphasis added)

Besides his elite cavalry units known as Companions, his Army (infantry, cavalry, peltasts, which is the modern artillery), and his Navy (sea and riverboat fleets), Alexander the Great brought his staff, court officials and their staff, intellectuals, diplomats/envoys, rhapsodes (ῥαψωδοὶ), harpists; jugglers, flutists, guitar players, tragic and comic actors, physicians, seers, engineers, experts on harbors and water/irrigation, suppliers of food, arms, and equipment, architects, surveyors, mining experts, finance officials, recruiters (troop suppliers), military advisers on elephants.

The artists mentioned above provided the necessary entertainment to the troops and their families, something like the modern “rest and recuperation” (R & R), part of the Morale, Welfare and Recreation activities which is significant for the morale and self-esteem of those involved in the expedition.

Over and above those teams, he had enforced his Army’s top cadre with well-known generals and admirals, and their staff not only to ascertain that the campaign worked unhindered by incidental mishaps but also to establish the basis for possible opportunities transferring his own culture to places that Greeks did not know about or they had heard in countless myths. Nevertheless, most importantly, Alexander expecting a long campaign suggested to the above individuals to bring their families with them. And so, they did. It is no wonder that he demolished the Persian Empire only after five battles, the Battle of Granicus (334 BC), the Battle of Issus (333 BC), the Siege of Tyre (332 BC), the Battle of Gaugamela (331 BC), and the Battle of Hydaspes (326 BC).

From the preparation of his operation, the outcome of his undertaking and written material of Greek and non-Greek authors, we conclude that Alexander did not only pursue the destruction of the beast, i.e., the Persian Empire but besides, he engaged in the expansion of the Greek culture over the Persian Empire and beyond. It is why Alexander had gathered all and any information he could that he needed to start his military expedition. Not only he collected information, which he analyzed it, but also, he exploited the information to his advantage. But that was not all. As he advanced, he kept collecting, analyzed, and exploited new information as was subjected to many social, cultural, but also political challenges while he was prosecuting the war against Persians and Medes. He intended to transform all captured regions from the local culture to Greek.

Unfortunately, Alexander passed away before he fulfilled his plan. Jealousy, greed, ambition, fear, corruption, and malfeasance made Alexander’s heirs of his empire aka Diadochi to undermine each other’s legitimacy to the point that vastly contributed to their demise, their kingdom’s downfall, and consequently the decline of the Greek culture in favor of the Romans.

One must never undermine someone else without thinking about the unintended consequences that could follow because one might ruin oneself, and simultaneously the principle one is prepared to defend or advocate. Political upheavals and machinations as a result of selfish intentions, personal ambitions prove fatal for the country, culture, and, of course, the expected cause, regardless of the projected excuse malefactors offer to cover their innermost objectives.

Levels of Intelligence

Collected Information is divided into three different levels of intelligence value, and it is crucial for intelligence analysts involved in the security of the country to recognize them. Generally, there are three ‘levels’ of intelligence value: tactical, operational, and strategic.

Tactical intelligence primarily deals with the current situation and gives customers the information they need to carry out existing policy initiatives, but for a narrow area. This level of intelligence is intended primarily to respond to the needs of military field commanders of company or battalion strength so they can plan for and, if necessary, conduct combat operations. The area of engagement would equate to a town or even township.

That brings us to the next level up, the Operational Intelligence. Operational Intelligence is where the combined actions or even decisions of larger military units like a Brigade or a Division are affected. Operational Intelligence embraces and coordinates several tactical intelligence areas. Information about a military campaign is of operational intelligence significance. The maneuvering of battalions and brigades is of functional intelligence value. It is like such an operational level would equate to a state or a region. Operational Intelligence is actionable information about specific incoming attacks.

Law enforcement agencies rely on tactical intelligence as they obtain important information through individuals or even networks of informants. It is not unusual that the same agencies involved in a broader range of issues continuously without affecting the national or international stage pass the threshold of operational intelligence.

If the issue at hand reaches the national or international arena, then the matter falls under Strategic Intelligence. Strategic Intelligence is the cornerstone of our country’s national security. It involves an array of already analyzed information, i.e., intelligence, coming from all disciplines of intelligence bracing: Foresight, Visioning, System thinking, Motivating, Partnering.

Strategic Intelligence helps the decision-makers of our country to look ahead. Analysis of collected information at that level stimulates dialogue, not only exchanging arguments and counterarguments but also articulating various propositional approaches, such as claiming, inspiring, admitting or retracting a plan among the policymakers. The outcome of such a communication establishes a future policy that could affect either the national interests or the national security of our country or stability of a region or even the world. Regional and global stability is a fundamental prerequisite for peace between peoples and cultures.

Strategic Intelligence expresses the highest-level planning of political and military objectives dealing with national interests and national security because it has national security and foreign policy implications. It provides the policymakers with the information needed to create a new initiative that carries the country forward. One needs to realize that the products of national security of a foreign country come in direct agreement with our national interests since it contributes to regional and perhaps global stability.

The definition of what Strategic Intelligence is was given by Sherman Kent put in his book titled, “Strategic Intelligence for American World Policy.” He wrote,
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“Strategic Intelligence is the kind of knowledge a State must possess regarding other states in order to assure itself that its cause will not suffer nor its undertakings fail because its statesmen and soldiers plan and act in ignorance.” (Kent 1966, 3. - Emphasis added)

Early American Spy-Masters

Intelligence played a significant role in the birth and survival of the United States, especially during its infancy. For instance, George Washington, the first President of the United States, was a skillful spymaster. As a military officer, he directed numerous spy networks, “provided comprehensive guidance in intelligence tradecraft to his agents, and used their intelligence effectively when planning and conducting military operations.”

John Jay, one of the three authors of the Articles of Confederation who later became Chief Justice of the United States, is considered the first national-level American counterintelligence chief.

Benjamin Franklin was dexterous in covert operations, and during the Revolutionary War, he engaged in propaganda operations while directing paramilitary operations against the British.

Starting the Country

When a people of a region develop confidence in themselves and feel the ability to govern themselves decide to create a country of their own, they usually write the reasons for their decision. Whether they call the document declarations of independence, reports, acts and manifestos is immaterial since all of such statements rise from the same foundation.

In the U.S. Declaration of Independence, Thomas Jefferson stated that people have certain inalienable rights, including Life, Liberty, and Pursuit of Happiness. All Men are created equal. Individuals have a civic duty to defend these rights for themselves and their posterity.

These were the reasons behind the revolution for independence in 1776. They were the values they cherished. Such values gave rise to the goals that the new country ought to have in order to prosper. It took a few years to establish the final set of government starting with the first Constitution, the Articles of Confederation under which John Hanson, a Finn was the first President of the United States with a term lasting only one year. Following the same articles, seven more presidents followed in subsequent years. In 1789, the founding fathers, replaced the Articles of Confederation with the current U.S. Constitution, which was ratified on June 21, 1788, and went into effect on March 4, 1789.

Therefore, the next step for them was how to achieve the goals through sound policies. Here comes the information needed in order to determine the country’s national interests and secure these interests with appropriate institutions that inaugurate the nation’s national security through sound National Security Strategy and National Military Strategy.

The preamble of the U.S. Constitution sets as goals of the American people "to form a perfect Union" aiming at establishing “Justice, ensure domestic tranquility, provide for the common defense, promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity.”

National Interests in the Ancient World

The Story of Jason


The fight for safeguard a state’s goals based of the prevalent values goes back to antiquity and even to pre-historic times. We see that in the old times, Greeks fully understood the meaning of national interests, although they did not have a collective conscience as one ethnos yet to speak about national security.

The story of Jason, the argonaut expedition, and the golden fleece indicates the resources Greeks were extracting from Georgia. In the case of the golden fleece, it was similar to present-day panning; instead a man the Greeks placed in the water the fleece of the ship. The momentum of the creek or river flowing water created electricity on the wool, which attracted the golden nuggets as they were trapped in the moving sand.

Trojan War

The 10-year long war of Greek city-states against the city of Ilion, aka Troy as Homer narrates in his Iliad, was only a segment of a more significant campaign of interests or as we would describe it “national Interests” of Greek city-states at the time. Although the excuse for the expedition was the abduction of Helen, the reality is that Troy dominated and controlled the straits of Dardanelles as well as the proximal interior of the western part of Asia Minor. It is a fact that Greek city-states had expanded their interests by colonizing coastal areas in the Mediterranean Sea, but also most coastal regions of the Euxine (Black) Sea. The whole issue was a matter of trade between the colonies and their home city. It was a fundamental economic concept involving the procurement and trade of goods and services. Evidently, the Trojans hindered such trade and had possibly imposed some toll or even hindered all navigation forcing the Greeks to retaliate.

Nevertheless, the fact is that not all Greeks were affected in the same way. Some were affected by the hindrance of a trade by the Trojans more than others or not at all due to either alliances or diversion of resources. Those who were affected much more than others had figure out was how to unite all Greeks under a common cause creating a formidable alliance.

As a result, the Greeks who were affected sought an excuse that would unite them against the violator of their trading interests, i.e., Troy. Furthermore, the excuse was the abduction of Helen, which bruised the honor of the King of Sparta Menelaos. It was insulting that a Trojan pirate went into the Palace of a Greek king and stole under the king’s eyes his wife, who happened to be a very beautiful woman. Perhaps Menelaos was not as a famous or powerful king, but his brother Agamemnon was.

The matter was of utmost importance for the Greeks considering that the force and determination of the expedition of a united Greek fleet were 29 contingents under 46 leaders accounting for a total of 1,186 ships (Iliad book 2). If we use the Boeotian figure of 120 men per ship, then the count results in a total of 142,320 men transported to Troy. According to Apollodorus, there were 30 contingents under 43 leaders for a total of 1013 ships of several regions of Greece participated. He lists the participating city-states and their demonyms. Somehow, I doubt that Greek states would mobilize such strength against Troy just for the beauty of Helen and the honor of Menelaos.

The Peloponnesian War

The study of the eight books of Thucydides, summarized under the title “History of the Peloponnesian War,” is imperative for those dealing with strategic concepts as is strategic intelligence. He has recorded political and moral analysis of what today we consider the nation’s policies and the intended or unintended consequences of their outcome. The books include 104 passages that refer to 47 elements of Strategy and Public Policy, among them issues of national interest, strategic culture, and national security.

“The Peloponnesian War” offers passages about alliances, appeasement, arms control, balance of power, balance (external), balance (internal), bipolar international system, border disputes, coercive diplomacy, defense planning, deterrence, domino effect analysis, correlation of economics and strategy, expected utility as an incentive for war, fear, and national security policy, force-to-space ratio, geography, horizontal escalation, hostile feelings-hostile intentions, imperialism, domestic and international legitimacy, logistics, loss-of-strength gradient, military discipline, military initiative, military necessity, military tactics, military training, naval power, morale, strategic culture, national interests, misperceptions, neutrality, numerical superiority, overextension, power, prestige, preventive war, principle of concentration of force, principle of unity of command, reputation as a strategic asset, security dilemma, surprise, terrain, unequal growth. It is why Thucydides is one of the most researched and read author of the ancient world (Koliopoulos 2010, passim).

Such passages establish strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats of adversaries. This kind of information helps one to devise methods for identifying data patterns and trends in available information sources. Furthermore, the analyst seeks details to determine changes in adversaries’ capabilities, vulnerabilities, and any probable courses of action.

National Interests in the Modern World

Policymakers aim at defining the national interests of the country by answering several questions and answering them in earnest. Some of the fundamental questions are:
  • What are our national goals?
  • What must we prevent from happening?
  • What should we pursue?

​By far, most national interests include, starting with self-preservation through political independence, not in terms of boundaries, but in terms of policies, flourished economy, and military security. Nevertheless, it requires domestic and regional political stability supported by economic constancy and growth while it is safeguarded by the country’s strategic intelligence that supports its national security.

Stability in a democratic state with fully functioning democratic institutions means a predictable political environment, which in turn attracts investment, both internally and from outside. The resulting virtuous circle of poverty reduction, job creation, increased state revenues, and investment in welfare and education bring benefits to all in society such that a return to violence or chaos is in no-one’s interests.

When a country is already in fiscal troubles due to a series of governmental improprieties, e.g., irrational taxation and unreasonable partisan spending aiming at political causes that regress at least 30 years the last thing the country needs is political instability regardless of how good the reason for instability is, as some people might feel. "These people cannot see the forest for the tree.
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Obedience to the Law constitutes political behavior just as much as contesting elections does. For whether intended or not, the effect of obedience to the Law is to uphold this authority of those who make decisions about what the Law should be, and how it is to be enforced. To uphold this authority is to aid in maintaining aspects of the distribution of power to make decisions for society. Similarly, all violations of the law constitute political behavior; every violation of law is ipso facto a defiance of constituted authority. It threatens the maintenance of the existing pattern of distribution of the power to make decisions for society. If the incidence of violations of law continue to increase, political authority eventually atrophies; that is axiomatic (Ake 1975 – Emphasis added)

I must explain that the argument for stability applies solely to countries with functioning democratic institutions. It does not apply to autocratic and repressive regimes. Regimes that are led by a dictator or one who believes that laws do not apply to him, domestic stability could lead the country to an oblivion more than one way. For instance, Mobutu Sese Seko, an excellent example of a tyrant, political stability, made him filthy rich. He became notorious for corruption, nepotism, and the embezzlement of between US$ 4 billion and $15 billion during his “reign.”

The Kim family in North Korea, a hard-core communist country in which all peoples are only in theory equal, is another of a hereditary line of governing tin-pot-dictators with delusions of grandeur. Any attempt by the administration of the President of South Korea, Kim Dae-jung, to soften the ruler of North Korea, Kim Jong-Il, by proposing the so-called “Sunshine Policy,” had failed. The obstinacy of the North Korean “Great Leader” and the unification the latter had in mind was a politically stable under his terms and rule. In such cases, political stability is a significant liability to human decency, to say that least.

National interests can be based on the following criteria and more: Ideological, moral, legal, religious, pragmatic, bureaucratic, partisan, racial, class-status, foreign-dependency, and others. In some cases, due to populism, politicians apply the country’s national interests based on sentimentality, often unreasonable.

Once the national interests of a country are defined, the government needs to form or/and join alliances with countries that they consider and pursue similar or identical national interests. A good example of countries caring about their own and regional interests in the formation of the European Coal and Steel Community (ECSC). It started as an administrative agency that was established by a treaty in 1952. I was designed to integrate the coal and steel industries in western Europe. The original participating countries were France, West Germany, Italy, Belgium, the Netherlands, and Luxembourg. However, taking into consideration political and economic interests, it developed to the European Economic Community (EEC) and later the European Union (EU).

One must bear in mind that the national goals might change for various reasons as domestic and international circumstances warrant, but the values that founded the country do not; that means that the goals always reflect the values that urged the people to fight for their independence.

Scholars such as Charles Lerche, Abdul A. Said, Vernon Von Dyke, Hans J. Morgenthau, and others have similarly defined national interests. In general, national interests comprise anything a state feels that it is necessary to establish the physical and psychological perimeters of its national security and enhance the welfare of its people. It is a vague definition that requires a lengthy list of needs and wants of the state, which must revisit regularly.

One of the modern devotees of the realist school, Hans J. Morgenthau, wrote “The survival of a political unit, such as a nation, in its identity is the minimum, the necessary element of its interests vis-à-vis other units” (Morgenthau, 1952a, 973).

The Intelligence Process

Individuals


The intelligence analyst gathers information on a specific issue, makes an assessment using an exact intellectual process that transforms a plethora of information into judgments relevant to the formulation of national policies on some issues or topics.

At first, the analyst carefully considers the objective and scope of the assessment. The analyst decides about them on the basis of his background, education, understanding, and any other close association that he might have with the subject matter. If a government official has requested guidance or advice, the analyst concentrates on the issue and articulates his conclusion in a manner that a generalist or an irrelevant person understands it. What is important here is that the analysis as a whole must be free and independent of political considerations.

The analyst must explain the validity of the information and the reliability of his sources. If necessary, he must caveat and express all relevant uncertainties and distinguish between information, assumptions, and judgments. When and where achievable, the analyst incorporates alternative analysis while he establishes relevance to U.S. national security or U.S. allies. In more specific to military cases, he assesses U.S. military operations and capabilities as he assesses the strength and capabilities of adversaries.

Often, the analyst must explain logic and reasoning that led him to crucial judgments, while he must establish “consistency with previous judgments or highlight deviations and justification to protect against factual creep.” Along these lines, he makes accurate judgments and assessments. The analyst never works alone as he seeks and receives advice from his team and joins forces during research and analysis according to time and topic.

On the intellectual side, the standards of an analyst are clarity, relevance, depth, breadth, precision.

It is not unusual that stale, fragmentary, and speculative, and even nefarious and unreliable information is pushed in by politically motivated personnel, most of whom are political appointees to please the boss. Such was the case that led to the invasion of Iraq and a few other adventures (Clarke 2008, passim).

Intelligence Teams

In general, intelligence teams collect information and appropriately interpret it, aiming at concluding the kind of specific information and disseminate it to personnel with expertise in specific disciplines. One-fits-all does not exist in intelligence. It is one of the reasons our intelligence community is compartmented.

Specialized personnel is divided into more specialized management and treatment departments depending on the specialty and geographical area of military interest. Staff is asymmetrically divided into academic disciplines, current needs, experience, and experience in research, analysis, capability, a process utilizing various forms of engagement (productive, inductive, deductive).

To accomplish these tasks, the teams make use of the requisite concentrated information related to research, existing military doctrines, combat, and equipment development and improvements through translations and analyzes that satisfy the potential of multimedia information. Information is collected through geospatial media (satellite and aerial photography), health sources, information collected through interpersonal communication, open sources, signals, scholarly sources, digital networks, financial, cryptanalytical, meteorological, security, and information. Besides, NATO has the "Storm," but also the “Battlefield Information Collection and Exploitation Systems” (BICES) systems.

The analysis of primary data concerns the processing of aggregated information interpreted through a rapid and transparent organization, management, and processing, in order to avoid the accumulation of inaccurate, false, and useless information.

Sources, flow, frequency, quantity, arrangement, and especially the quality of information are taken into account to avoid misleading and misinformation due to emotional and political manipulation.

The credibility of the sources is significant. Rumors, occasions, and conspiracies are always contested. That is why unreliable or questionable sources are not sufficient to establish an event and are treated with great caution when the histories reported are based on entirely hypothetical scenarios.

Finally, team leaders, regardless of grade and grade, meet and put forward partial merging of the conclusions into a general statement. Their focus is on protecting the country's national interests and national security, not protecting the President's political goals. Their oath is to the Constitution and the country against foreign and domestic enemies.

The Intelligence Cycle

I must explain that the process of intelligence never stops. Intelligence professionals call it “the Intelligence cycle.”

The Intelligence Cycle is a concept that describes the general intelligence process in both civilian or military intelligence agencies or law enforcement. The cycle is typically represented as a closed path of activities.

The Intelligence Cycle includes 1. Planning and Direction; 2. Collection; 3. Processing / Exploitation; 4. All Source Analysis and Production; 5. Dissemination/Integration; 6. Evaluation /Feedback.
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This cycle never stops, because one must correct any point that did not work for whatever reason simultaneously considering what domestic or international situations influence activities.

Intelligence and National Security

National Security is anything that directly or indirectly affects or violates vital sovereign rights of a country against, and in such a case, the country must react to defend itself. Since it is psychologically connected to the people of the country, it is irrelevant whether other countries agree or disagree with what the country considers issues of national security.

Although countries still use the old and traditional profession of human intelligence to spy on others and deflect their adversary’s espionage, today they rely heavily on technology, which makes it easy for governmental agencies to predict, detect or deflect. Since the establishment of the National Security Act of 1947 that created the (NSC), the intelligence apparatus of the United States has expanded vertically and horizontally. The NSC is the coordinator of the policies and functions of governmental departments and their agencies that relate to all aspects of national security, one of which is the U.S. Intelligence Community. This expansion includes agencies directly under civilian direction and others under military leadership, although under the control of civilian authorities.

The U.S. Constitution does not explicitly concede a formal responsibility regarding the authority of the U.S. Congress to oversee or investigate the executive branch; it implies a responsibility of the U.S. Congress to oversee an array of enumerated powers (Article I, Sec. 8 and Article II, Secs. 2 and 4). Thus, one of them is the Congressional Oversight of national intelligence. It exists to protect the Constitutional rights of our citizens. We, the people, cannot allow the Executive Branch to manipulate received intelligence for political or selfish reasons. In brief, we cannot allow our country to end up in the same situation it existed before 1776 from which the people of the United States decided to be free. We have elected officials, not hereditary potentates, nor we have autocrats.

Some information may also be based on dubious informers with sketchy motives or leaked or stolen documents of unknown origin because they match some person’s beliefs, or even the potentially flawed perceptions of intelligence agents and analysts. It is precisely the reason why a departmental fusion process exists, and agencies propel the information to the Office of National Intelligence, where specific information gets an examination after it undergoes a thorough cleansing.

Assessments on the future of a country regarding its national security come from unexpected, but very unexpected, but relevant sources. A major determining factor of both the structure and operation of institutions of states is the Infant mortality rate. This is a fact. The United Nations keeps track of the Infant Mortality of the world, and intelligence agencies use the infant mortality rate to ascertain the direction of a country’s future. The higher the infant mortality of a country, the gloomier is its future. Primary medical care, a highly nutritional diet, suitable education and a few other essential services that promote the health and welfare of the mothers are vital for the country’s existence. The logic behind it is simple. If a country cannot or will not provide all necessary attention through its institutions to its children, which are the future, the country’s future is questionable.

From the statistical point of view, starting from 1 for the worst and out of 225 countries, the United States ranks approximately 170th depending on the year. Afghanistan holds the 1st position almost invariably while at the end, Iceland competes with Monaco for the best country with the lowest infant mortality.
  • In 2017 Afghanistan 53.386 deaths per thousand, the United States 5.844 and Iceland only 1.318.
  • In 2000, Afghanistan 91.56 deaths per thousand, the United States 7.263 and Iceland only 3.24.
  • In 1990, Afghanistan 121.584 deaths per thousand, the United States 9.634 and Iceland only 5.293.
  • In 1980, Afghanistan 162.926 deaths per thousand, the United States 13.016 and Iceland only 7.826.
  • In 1970, Afghanistan 203.3 deaths per thousand, the United States 20.524 and Iceland only 12.625.
  • In 1960, Afghanistan 244.266 deaths per thousand, the United States 26.364 and Iceland only 17.305.
  • In 1950, Afghanistan 289.197 deaths per thousand, the United States 31.951 and Iceland only 23.983.

​So, what is “Intelligence”? To a man like me who has worked 30 years in that specific field of National Security, intelligence is the analysis of carefully collected information free of contaminated and inaccurate material. It includes objectivity, which is independent of political considerations based on all available credible sources and timeliness.

National security

National security includes everything that has the potential to endanger our country’s existence or way of life. Public institutions can prevent adversaries from using various means to harm our country or its National Interests. Also, it is the confidence of the citizens of the country in their government and established social, political, legal, financial, and other institutions. Once these institutions cease to exist, the country is considered failed, collapsed, and it is why national security is physical but also psychological.

​The National Security Council of the country must respond, at least, to the following questions:
  • How can we secure our National Interests that we have already achieved?
  • How good is the security of our National Interests?
  • What can we do better?
  • What is our National Security Strategy?
  • Is the National Security Strategy efficient for our present needs?
  • Is the relation of our National Military Strategy in balance with our National Security Strategy? 
  • What can we do to improve both?

​Although countries still use the old and traditional profession of human intelligence to spy on others and deflect their adversary’s espionage, today they rely heavily on technology, which makes it easy for governmental agencies to predict, detect or deflect. Since the establishment of the National Security Act of 1947 that created the National Security Council (NSC), the intelligence apparatus of the United States has expanded vertically and horizontally. The NSC is the coordinator of the policies and functions of governmental departments and their agencies that relate to all aspects of national security, one of which is the U.S. Intelligence Community. The said expansion includes agencies directly under civilian direction and others under military leadership but under Congressional Oversight.
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The U.S. Intelligence Community is composed of 17 organizations:

Two independent agencies


  1. the Office of the Director of National Intelligence (ODNI) and
  2. the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA);

Eight Elements of the Department of Defense

  1. the Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA),
  2. the National Security Agency (NSA),
  3. the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency (NGA), 
  4. the National Reconnaissance Office (NRO), 
  5. Army, 
  6. Navy, 
  7. Marine Corps, and
  8. Air Force.

Seven elements of other departments and agencies

  1. The Department of Energy’s Office of Intelligence and Counter-Intelligence; 
  2. the Department of Homeland Security’s Office of Intelligence and Analysis; 
  3. U.S. Coast Guard Intelligence; 
  4. the Department of Justice’s Federal Bureau of Investigation; 
  5. the Drug Enforcement Agency’s Office of National Security Intelligence;
  6. the Department of State’s Bureau of Intelligence and Research; 
  7. the Department of the Treasury’s Office of Intelligence and Analysis.

Each one of the above organizations and this is true especially of agencies under the Department of Defense, have their branches of specialties. For instance, the Signal Intelligence includes Electronic Intelligence and Communication Intelligence, and each one of them breaks down to their specific technological disciplines. A rather complete list of intelligence gathering disciplines are:

Human Intelligence (HUMINT), Geospatial intelligence (GEOINT), Measurement and signature intelligence (MASINT), Open-source intelligence (OSINT), Signals intelligence (SIGINT), Technical intelligence (TECHNINT), Cyber or digital network intelligence (CYBINT or DNINT), Financial intelligence (FININT). If one adds Cryptanalysis, Meteorological intelligence, Operations Security, Spy satellites, Telecommunications Electronics Materials Protected from Emanating Spurious Transmissions (TEMPEST), and Traffic analysis, Strategic Denial and Deception (D&D) one synopsizes the full scope of intelligence collection.

Let me offer MASINT as an example, so that one understands the complexity of some disciplines of Intelligence.

Measurement and Signatures Intelligence

The Measurement and Signatures Intelligence (MASINT) includes organic sensors that may contain those in everyday use by tactical forces (e.g., radar, electro-optic and infrared, Electronic Surveillance, acoustic, and non-acoustic electromagnetic identification, and may be deployed on air, ground, surface, or unattended platforms). It is, so to speak the CSI of the Intelligence Community. Of course, focusing all disciplines of intelligence to a specific target coupled with information obtained through Human Intelligence, excluding micro-politicking and political appointees subservient to their agendas, our intelligence community is unbeatable.

Quoting from the U.S. Army Field Manual 2-0. Chapter 9, the subdisciplines within MASINT include, but are not limited to, the following:

Radar Intelligence (RADINT). The active or passive collection of energy reflected from a target or object by LOS, bistatic, or over-the-horizon radar systems.

Frequency Intelligence. The collection, processing, and exploitation of electromagnetic emissions from a radio frequency weapon (RFW), an RFW precursor, or an RFW simulator; collateral signals from other weapons, weapon precursors, or weapon simulators (for example, electromagnetic pulse signals associated with nuclear bursts); and spurious or unintentional signals.

Electromagnetic Pulses. Measurable bursts of energy that result from a rapid change in material or medium, resulting in an explosive force, produces RF emissions.

Unintentional Radiation Intelligence (RINT). The integration and specialized application of MASINT techniques against unintentional radiation sources that are incidental to the RF propagation and operating characteristics of military and civil engines, power sources, weapons systems, electronic systems, machinery, equipment, or instruments.

Electro-Optical (E-O) Intelligence. The collection, processing, exploitation, and analysis of emitted or reflected energy across the optical portion (ultraviolet, visible, and infrared) of the EMS.

Infrared Intelligence (IRINT). A subcategory of E-O that includes data collection across the infrared portion of the EMS where spectral and thermal properties are measured.

LASER Intelligence (LASINT). Integration and specialized application of MASINT E-O and other collections to gather data on laser systems.

Hyperspectral Imagery (HSI). A subcategory of E-O intelligence produced from reflected or emitted energy in the visible and near-infrared spectrum used to improve target detection, discrimination, and recognition.

Spectroradiometric Products. Include E-O spectral (frequency) and radiometric (energy) measurements. A spectral plot represents radiant intensity versus wavelength at an instant in time.

Geophysical Intelligence. Geophysical MASINT involves phenomena transmitted through the earth (ground, water, atmosphere) and manmade structures including emitted or reflected sounds, pressure waves, vibrations, and magnetic field or ionosphere disturbances.

Seismic Intelligence. The passive collection and measurement of seismic waves or vibrations in the earth's surface.

Acoustic Intelligence. The collection of passive or active emitted or reflected sounds, pressure waves or vibrations in the atmosphere (ACOUSTINT) or in the water (ACINT). ACINT systems detect, identify, and track ships and submarines operating in the ocean.

Magnetic Intelligence. The collection of detectable magnetic field anomalies in the earth's magnetic field (land and sea).

Nuclear Intelligence (NUCINT). The information derived from nuclear radiation and other physical phenomena associated with nuclear weapons, reactors, processes, materials, devices, and facilities.

Materials Intelligence. The collection, processing, and analysis of gas, liquid, or solid samples.

Over and above the previously stated collection disciplines, one must consider the disciplines of all aspects of Counterintelligence as assembled in Field Manual (FM) 34-60.

Accordingly, when the Intelligence Community of the United States, says “the Russians did it,” it means “the Russians did it,” whether one likes it or not.

Presidential Briefings

The daily Presidential Briefing is part of collective intelligence production and dissemination. It is the result of analyzed information that each agency assembles and disseminates to the ODNI. The ODNI determines what the POTUS must know, and after gathering all 16 one-liners, upholds the most vital information to bring to the attention of the President where selected briefers explain to the President the domestic and global issues of the day in the form of visual aids.

The 21st century began for the United States with rather extraordinary events, which, although directed towards our country, these events have affected the world politically and militarily. While the wars in the Balkans were concluding, the 9/11 attack marked the first remarkable assault on the heart of our country. What followed was the war in Afghanistan and then the invasion of Iraq.

In the last 20 years, the United States has encountered several setbacks in intelligence, not as much because of the rank and file, but because of presidential appointees and politicians who either wanted to please the boss or they considered that some action was needed to show that they were doing something. The only truth in politics is perception, which, by the way, could end up being worse or better than reality.

The emerging challenges and threats of the 21st century are complex and contradictory. They are a far cry from the standard threats we were accustomed to in the past. They are the amalgamation of old antagonisms, ambitions, mingled with advanced technologies having countries or hostile organizations on an equal setting. The prototype of the old times, also known as human intelligence is no longer the only method for a country to learn about their adversaries. Even that type of espionage has changed and has become more sophisticated. It takes 10 to 20 years and sometimes even longer to establish a mutually trusting relationship on both sides. Intelligence collection works based on trust. It is like an alliance or even friendship.

It is why the worst blunder that a decision-maker could make is to treat and implement a well-designed strategic policy as if it were tactical. Everything that was planned and worked for years and years could be destroyed in a matter of minutes. Thus, politicians who relish a short-term gain, they deprive the country and the world of long-term goals, stability, or even long-term solution.

One must always bear in mind that the most significant collection of information and the best analysis in the world means NOTHING if the decision-maker in charge is incapable of understanding facts or unwilling to protect the national interests and, consequently, the national security of our country for a personal gain.

Though, as it happens in our social and business life, our behavior matters also in the international arena as a nation. In politics as well as in foreign relations, our conduct as a country is significant since it tarnishes or enhances our name and reduces or increases our credibility. Intelligence is about planning, while one is ready for the unexpected. Nevertheless, collecting information does not always take place through a cloak and dagger situation. Open sources, like mass media, social media, statistical polls, political or diplomatic receptions, diplomatic instruments, also provide information that trained people can legally gather from free public sources about an individual, organization or country.

An array of websites collects public information about books one checks out of a library, articles in a newspaper or statements in a press release, information in images, videos, webinars, public speeches, and conferences. Collection of information is evident when after research on a matter of interest one keeps receiving snippets exactly on products he had researched in the past with the help of the Internet Protocol address or IP address which offers the actual location of a server or any instrument that requires an IP address.

An IP address information opens the door to the attacker who can use the intelligence created to form a threat model that develops a plan of attack. Targeted cyber-attacks begin with reconnaissance as it happened in 2016, thus testing our readiness to deflect and our resolve by allocating resources to protect our country and its institutions. On the military side, it is passively acquiring intelligence without alerting the target.

Anyone involved in cybersecurity understands how to collect open-source intelligence, which is a vital skill. Whether one defends an enterprise network or tests it for weaknesses, one knows about its digital footprint, which enables one to see it from an attacker’s point of view. Armed with that knowledge, one can go on to develop better defensive strategies.

Conclusion

"Serving in Silence"


Hence as one sees, we collect information, and we advance it to the appropriate persons to start the process and the business of protecting the country. Instead of re-inventing the wheel, I have copied the following from the NSA/CSS website,
​
“In striving to achieve information superiority for the U.S. and its allies, NSA/CSS is committed to providing accurate, useful information and products promptly to all of its customers throughout the government - from the White House to military forces around the globe. To produce signals intelligence, NSA/CSS intercepts and analyzes foreign communications signals, many of which are guarded by codes and other elaborate countermeasures. By providing security solutions for information systems, NSA/CSS protects information infrastructures critical to national security” (Emphasis added)

Those professionals who have spent their lives defending the country must effectively manage stress since besides keeping every secret that they have learned and know, concurrently, they have to live a normal life. They are husbands and wives with families. They cannot talk about their jobs even to their spouses.

They do their duty to the country without ego, devoid of bombast, and with no reward whatsoever. The satisfaction intelligence officers receive keeping their homeland safe is the greatest reward they can ever have.

The Cryptologic Memorial of the Central Security Service (CSS) within the National Security Agency (NSA) pays tribute to those who gave their lives in the line of duty, "serving in silence." It is a reminder of the crucial role that cryptology plays in keeping the United States secure. It also reminds us of the devotion to Duty, Honor, Courage that these individuals exercised to carry out their mission at such a dear price.
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BIBLIOGRAPHY

Ake, Claude. "A Definition of Political Stability." Comparative Politics 7, no. 2 (1975): 271-83.

Chambers, Donald E. Social Policy and Social Programs. A Method for the Practical Public Policy Analyst. New York: MacMillan Publishing Company, 1986.

Clarke, Richard A. Your Government Failed You. New York: Harper Collins, 2008.

Crankshaw, Edward. Khrushchev's Russia. Baltimore: Penguin Books, 1959.

Dearth, Douglas H., and R. Thomas Goodden. Strategic Intelligence. Theory and Application. Second Edition. Carlisle Barracks, PA: U.S. Army War College. Center for Strategic Leadership, 1995.

Djilas, Aleksa. The Contested Country. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1991.

Djilas, Milovan. Conversations with Stalin. New York: Harcourt, Brace & World, 1962.

Djilas, Milovan. "Yugoslavia: The Outworn Structure." New York Times (CIA Directorate of Intelligence), no. XLVII), Reference Title: Esau; 0048/70, RSS N 0.; 1970, 20 November (October 1970).

Dodds, Anneliese. Comparative Public Policy. New York: Palgrave MacMillan, 2013.

Edward R Stettinius, Jr. Roosevelt and the Russians: the Yalta Conference. Garden City, N.Y: Doubleday, 1949.

Edward R. Stettitnius, Jr. Lend-Lease Weapon for Victory. New York: The MacMillan Company, 1944.

Gerolymatos, André. Espionage and Treason: A Study of the Proxenia in Political and Military Intelligence Gathering in Classical Greece. Amsterdam: J.C. Gieben Publishers, 1986.

J.S. Przemieniecki, Eds. Critical Technologies for National Defense. Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, Ohio: Air Force Institute of Technology, 1991.

Jović, Dejan. Jugoslavija - država koja je odumrla: uspon, kriza i pad Četvrte Jugoslavije (1974-1990). . Zagreb: Prometej, 2003.

Kardelj, Edvard. Borba za priznanje i neovisnost nove Jugoslavije. 1944-1957. Sećanja . Ljubljana: Drzavna Zalozba Slovenije, 1980.

—. Reminiscences. The Struggle for recognition and Independence: The New Yugosavia 1944 -1957. London: Blond & Briggs, 1982.

Keenan, John. Intelligence in War. The value – and limitations – of what the Military can learn about the enemy. (Toronto: Vintage Canada, 2002.

Kent, Sherman. Strategic Intelligence for American World Policy. Princeton University Press, 1966.

Koliopoulos, Athanassios G. Platias. Constantinos. Thucydides on Strategy: Grand Strategies in the Peloponnesian War and Their Relevance Today. New York: Columbia University Press, 2010.

Lemkin, Raphael. Axis rule in occupied Europe: laws of occupation, analysis of government, proposals for redress. Clark, NJ: Lawbook Exchange., 2008.

Maccoby, Michael. The Leaders We Need, And What Makes Us Follow. Cambridge, MA: Harvard Business School Press, 2007.

Moore, David T. Critical Thinking and Intelligence Analysis. Washington, DC: Joint Military Intelligence College, 2006.

Morgenthau, Hans J. "What Is the National Interest of the United States?" The Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science 282 (1952): 1-7.

—. Another "Great Debate: The National Interest of the United States." The American Political Science Review 46 (December 1952 ): 961-88.

—. In Defense of the National Interest: A Critical Examination of American Foreign Policy. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1951.

Ristović, Milan D. Dug povratak kući: deca izbeglice iz Grčke u Jugoslaviji 1948-1960. Beograd: Udruženje za društvenu istoriju: Čigoja Štampa , 1998.

Rogel, Carole. "The Education of a Slovene Marxist: Edvard Kardelj 1924-1934." Slovene Studies II, no. 1-2 (1989): 177-184.

Roy Godson, James J. Wirtz. Strategic Denial and Deception. New Brunswick, NJ, USA: Transaction Publisher, 2007.

Shafritz, Jay M. The Dictionary of Public Policy and Administration. Univ. of Pittsburgh: Westview, 2004.

Snell, John L. Illusion and Necessity, The Diplomacy of Global War 1939 - 1945. Boston: Houston Mifflin, 1963.

Trittle, Lawrence. "Alexander and the Greeks. Artists and Soldiers, Friends and Enemies." In Alexander the Great. A New History, by Lawrence A. Tritle, Eds. Waldemar Heckel, 121 - 140. Malden, MA: Wiley-Blackwell, 2009.

Tzu, Sun. The Art of War. London: Arcturus Publishing, 2008.

Waltz, Edward. Information Warfare. Principles and Operations. Boston: Artech House, 1998.

Ристовић, Милан. Експеримент Буљкес - Грчка утопија у Југославији 1945-1949. Нови Сад: Платонеум, 2007.



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1 The author of this monograph is an experienced cryptanalyst, military intelligence instructor and all-source intelligence analyst.  Cryptanalysts, also known as code breakers design, implement, and analyze algorithms solving thus problems. They analyze and decipher secret coding systems and decode messages for military, political, or law enforcement agencies or organizations. One of the primary duties of all-source intelligence analysts is to conduct data gathering operations. Depending on the specific military branch or civilian organization, this may involve collecting unclassified and classified information on potential threats, strategic targets and prepare biographies of persons of interest. Their goal is to inform politicians of the U.S. Government and the Congress, who are generalists regarding vital and critical events that could affect and are influencing the national interests and national security of our nation.
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Intelligence in Contemporary America

12/8/2019

1 Comment

 
Speech given by Marcus A. Templar at the Kiwanis Club on 2 December 2019
PictureMarcus A. Templar
National Security Advisor, Macedonian League
If I were to ask one to name something that constitutes part of national security, by far, most people would mention the military. However, it is much more encompassing.

National security includes everything that has the potential to endanger our country’s existence or way of life. It can be physical or psychological.

National security is the ability of national institutions to prevent adversaries from using various means to harm our country or its National Interests. Also, it is the confidence of the citizens of the country in their government and established social, political, legal, financial, and other institutions. Once these institutions cease to exist, the country is considered failed, collapsed.

Infant mortality is a major determining factor of both the structure and operation of institutions of states. This is a fact. The United Nations keeps track of the Infant Mortality of the world, and intelligence agencies use the infant mortality rate to ascertain the direction of a country’s future. The higher the infant mortality of a country, the gloomier is its future. If a state cannot or will not provide all necessary attention to its children, for example, primary medical care, highly nutritional diet, suitable education and a few other essential services that promote the health and welfare of the mothers, it signifies that the country’s institutions do not work, and the future of the country is highly questionable.

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From a statistical point of view, starting from 1 for the worst and out of 225 countries, the United States ranks approximately 170th depending on the year. Afghanistan holds the 1st position almost constantly while at the end Iceland competes with Monaco for the best country with the lowest infant mortality.

  • ​In 1950, Afghanistan 289.197 deaths per thousand, the United States 31.951 and Iceland only 23.983.

  • In 1960, Afghanistan 244.266 deaths per thousand, the United States 26.364 and Iceland only 17.305.

  • In 1970, Afghanistan 203.3 deaths per thousand, the United States 20.524 and Iceland only 12.625.

  • In 1980, Afghanistan 162.926 deaths per thousand, the United States 13.016 and Iceland only 7.826.

  • In 1990, Afghanistan 121.58 4 deaths per thousand, the United States 9.634 and Iceland only 5.293.

  • In 2000, Afghanistan 91.56 deaths per thousand, the United States 7.263 and Iceland only 3.24.

  • In 2017 Afghanistan 53.386 deaths per thousand, the United States 5.844 and Iceland only 1.318.
​Although countries still use the old and traditional profession of human intelligence to spy on others and deflect their adversary’s espionage, today they rely heavily on technology, which makes it easy for governmental agencies to predict, detect or deflect. Since the establishment of the National Security Act of 1947 that created the National Security Council (NSC), the intelligence apparatus of the United States has expanded vertically and horizontally. The NSC is the coordinator of the policies and functions of governmental departments and their agencies that relate to all aspects of national security, one of which is the U.S. Intelligence Community.

This said expansion includes agencies directly under civilian direction and others under military leadership although under the control of civilian authorities.

Before we deal with the subject of intelligence, we should know the meaning of the word as it is used by professionals. The definition of intelligence has troubled many intelligence professionals throughout the years, especially those who understand the full scope of their craft. Even professionals shrink from answering the question “what is the definition of intelligence” and rightly so.

So, what is “Intelligence”? To a man like me who has worked 30 years in that specific field of National Security, intelligence is the analysis of carefully collected information free of contaminated and inaccurate material. It includes objectivity, which is independent of political considerations based on all available credible sources and timeliness. Having said that, it is not unusual that stale, fragmentary, and speculative, and even nefarious and unreliable information is pushed in by politically motivated personnel, most of whom are appointees just to please the boss.

Some information may also be based on dubious informers with sketchy motives or leaked or stolen documents of unknown origin because they match some person’s beliefs, or even the potentially flawed perceptions of intelligence agents and analysts. It is precisely the reason why a departmental fusion process exists, and agencies propel the information to the Office of National Intelligence, where specific information gets an examination after it undergoes a thorough cleansing.

Collected Information is divided into three different levels of intelligence value, and it’s crucial for intelligence analysts involved in the security of the country to recognize them. Generally, there are three ‘levels’ of intelligence value: tactical, operational, and strategic.

Tactical intelligence primarily deals with the current situation and gives customers the information they need to carry out existing policy initiatives, but for a narrow area. This level of intelligence is intended primarily to respond to the needs of military field commanders of company or battalion strength so they can plan for and, if necessary, conduct combat operations. The area of engagement would equate to a town or even township.

That brings us to the next level up, the Operational Intelligence. Operational Intelligence is where the combined actions or even decisions of larger military units like a Brigade or a Division are affected. It embraces and coordinates several tactical intelligence areas.

Information about a military campaign is of operational intelligence significance. The maneuvering of battalions and brigades is of functional intelligence value. It is like such an operational level would equate to a state or a region. Operational Intelligence is actionable information about specific incoming attacks.

This takes us from operational conditions that take place in multiple areas and start developing a National or Strategic picture, but it could also epitomize the global level. This level is what we call Strategic Intelligence.

Strategic Intelligence is the cornerstone of our country’s national security. It helps the decision-makers of the country to look ahead. Analysis of collected information at that level stimulates dialogue, not only exchanging arguments and counterarguments but also articulating various propositional approaches, such as claiming, inspiring, admitting or retracting a plan among the policymakers. The outcome of such a communication establishes a future policy that could affect either the national interests or the national security of our country or stability of a region or even the world. Regional and global stability is a fundamental prerequisite for peace between peoples and cultures.

Strategic Intelligence expresses the highest-level planning of political and military objectives dealing with national interests and national security because it has national security and foreign policy implications. It provides the policymakers with the information needed to create a new initiative that carries the country forward. One needs to realize that the products of national security of a foreign country come in direct agreement with our national interests since it contributes to regional and perhaps global stability.

​The definition of what Strategic Intelligence is was given by Sherman Kent put in his book titled, “Strategic Intelligence for American World Policy.” He wrote,
​
"Strategic Intelligence is the kind of knowledge a State must possess regarding other states in order to assure itself that its cause will not suffer nor its undertakings fail because its statesmen and soldiers plan and act in ignorance."

The U.S. Intelligence Community is composed of 17 organizations:

Two independent agencies
  1. the Office of the Director of National Intelligence (ODNI) and
  2. the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA);

Eight Elements of the Department of Defense

  1. the Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA),
  2. the National Security Agency (NSA),
  3. the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency (NGA),
  4. the National Reconnaissance Office (NRO),
  5. Army,
  6. Navy,
  7. Marine Corps, and
  8. Air Force.

Seven elements of other departments and agencies

  1. The Department of Energy’s Office of Intelligence and Counter-Intelligence;
  2. the Department of Homeland Security’s Office of Intelligence and Analysis
  3. U.S. Coast Guard Intelligence;
  4. the Department of Justice’s Federal Bureau of Investigation
  5. the Drug Enforcement Agency’s Office of National Security Intelligence;
  6. the Department of State’s Bureau of Intelligence and Research;
  7. the Department of the Treasury’s Office of Intelligence and Analysis.
Picture
This cycle never stops, because one must correct any point that did not work for whatever reason simultaneously considering what activities are influenced by domestic or international situations.

The daily Presidential Briefing is part of collective intelligence production and dissemination. It is the result of one-liners that each department of each agency prepares in the form of a triangle or a pyramid. At the end of the day, each agency assembles its own one-liner page and disseminates it to the ODNI. The ODNI determines what the POTUS must know, and after gathering all 16, one-liners upholds the most vital information to bring to the attention of the President where selected briefers explain to the President the domestic and global issues of the day. Whether or not the President pays attention to the information is out of the control of the Intelligence Community.

The 21st century began for the United States with rather extraordinary events, which, although directed towards our country, these events have affected the world politically and militarily. While the wars in the Balkans were concluding, the 9/11 attack marked the first remarkable assault on the heart of our country. What followed was the war in Afghanistan and then the invasion of Iraq.

In the last 20 years, the United States has encountered several setbacks in intelligence, not because of the rank and file, but because of presidential appointees and politicians who either wanted to please the boss or they considered that some action was needed to show that they were doing something. In politics, perception is the only truth, which, by the way, could end up being worse than reality.

The emerging challenges and threats of the 21st century are complex and contradictory. They are a far cry from the standard threats we were accustomed to in the past. They are the amalgamation of old antagonisms, ambitions, mingled with advanced technologies having countries or hostile organizations on an equal setting. The prototype of the old times, also known as human intelligence is no longer the only method for a country to learn about their adversaries. Even that type of espionage has changed and has become more sophisticated. It takes 10 to 20 years and sometimes even longer to establish a mutually trusting relationship on both sides. Collection employing human intelligence always work based on personal trust. It is like an alliance or but most of the time, even friendship.

It is why the worst blunder that a decision-maker could make is to treat and implement a well-designed strategic policy as if it were of a tactical nature. Everything that was planned and worked for years and years could be destroyed in a matter of minutes.

However, as it happens in our social and business life, our behavior matters. In politics as well as in foreign relations, our conduct as a country is significant since it tarnishes or enhances our name and reduces or increases our credibility. Intelligence is about planning, while one is ready for the unexpected. However, collecting information does not always take place through a cloak and dagger situation. Open sources, like mass media, social media, statistical polls, political or diplomatic receptions, diplomatic instruments also provide information that trained people can legally gather from free public sources about an individual, organization, or country.

This includes sites that collect public information about books one checks out from a library, articles in a newspaper or statements in a press release, information in images, videos, webinars, public speeches, and conferences. On the other hand, an Internet Protocol address or IP address can offer the actual location of a computer or any instrument that requires an IP address.

Such information opens the door to the attacker who can use the intelligence created to form a threat model that develops a plan of attack. Targeted cyber-attacks begin with reconnaissance as, in my view, it happened in 2016, when Russia tested our readiness to deflect and the resolve to pass laws to protect the country and its institutions. The GOP led Senate Select Committee on Intelligence issued a two-volume report dated September 13, 2019, which concluded that Russia was behind the cyber attack of 2016. On the military side, it is passively acquiring intelligence without alerting the target.

Anyone involved in cybersecurity understands how to collect open-source intelligence, which is a vital skill. Whether one defends an enterprise network or tests it for weaknesses, one knows about its digital footprint, which enables one to see it from an attacker’s point of view. Armed with that knowledge, one can go on to develop better defensive strategies.

So as one sees, we collect information, and we advance it to the appropriate persons to start the process and the business of protecting the country. Instead of re-inventing the wheel, I have taken the following from the NSA/CSS website,
​
"In striving to achieve information superiority for the U.S. and its allies, NSA/CSS is committed to providing accurate, useful information and products promptly to all of its customers throughout the government -- from the White House to military forces around the globe. To produce signals intelligence, NSA/CSS intercepts and analyzes foreign communications signals, many of which are guarded by codes and other elaborate countermeasures. By providing security solutions for information systems, NSA/CSS protects information infrastructures critical to national security."

Those professionals who have spent their lives defending the country must effectively manage stress since besides keeping everything that they have learned and know secret, concurrently they have to live a normal life. They are husbands and wives with families. They can’t talk about their jobs even to their spouses.

They do their duty to the country without ego, without bombast, and without any reward; the satisfaction they receive is keeping their homeland safe which is the greatest reward they can ever have.

The Cryptologic Memorial of the Central Security Service within the National Security Agency (NSA) pays tribute to those who gave their lives in the line of duty, "serving in silence". It is a reminder of the crucial role that cryptology plays in keeping the United States secure. It also reminds us of the devotion to duty, honor, courage that these individuals exercised to carry out their mission at such a dear price.

But one must bear in mind that the most significant collection of information and the best analysis in the world means NOTHING if the decision-maker in charge is incapable of understanding facts or unwilling to protect the national interests and consequently the national security of our country.

I want to assure all of you that despite some bad apples, civilian and military rank-and-file personnel are hand-picked for their skills, intellect, abilities, character, and morality. One must live an exemptlatory life in order not just to be included in such an elite bunch of professionals, but the most challenging part is to maintain an excellent way of life until one's death. We take the learned secrets to our graves.

We serve in silence, and we are ready to answer the call to arms in defense of the country’s national interests and national security.

Thank you.

-================

Please see below

                                                                              .-----------.
This is the location of the Russian company Internet Research Agency that manufactures all the disinformation and trolling under the sponsorship of Dept. 44388, i.e., Russian Military Intelligence (GRU). Once the trolls are ready, they are pushed to the public of most countries without exception within the scope of Russia’s national interests and at the expense of the national security of target countries.
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Supplemental to the above-stated MASINT I am offering the following branches of MASINT:

U.S. Army Field Manual 2-0. Chapter 9.

Radar Intelligence (RADINT). The active or passive collection of energy reflected from a target or object by LOS, bistatic, or over-the-horizon radar systems.

Frequency Intelligence. The collection, processing, and exploitation of electromagnetic emissions from a radio frequency weapon (RFW), an RFW precursor, or an RFW simulator; collateral signals from other weapons, weapon precursors, or weapon simulators (for example, electromagnetic pulse signals associated with nuclear bursts); and spurious or unintentional signals.

Electromagnetic Pulses. Measurable bursts of energy that result from a rapid change in material or medium, resulting in an explosive force, produces RF emissions.

Unintentional Radiation Intelligence (RINT). The integration and specialized application of MASINT techniques against unintentional radiation sources that are incidental to the RF propagation and operating characteristics of military and civil engines, power sources, weapons systems, electronic systems, machinery, equipment, or instruments.

Electro-Optical (E-O) Intelligence. The collection, processing, exploitation, and analysis of emitted or reflected energy across the optical portion (ultraviolet, visible, and infrared) of the EMS.

Infrared Intelligence (IRINT). A subcategory of E-O that includes data collection across the infrared portion of the EMS where spectral and thermal properties are measured.

LASER Intelligence (LASINT). Integration and specialized application of MASINT E-O and other collections to gather data on laser systems.

Hyperspectral Imagery (HSI). A subcategory of E-O intelligence produced from reflected or emitted energy in the visible and near-infrared spectrum used to improve target detection, discrimination, and recognition.

Spectroradiometric Products. Include E-O spectral (frequency) and radiometric (energy) measurements. A spectral plot represents radiant intensity versus wavelength at an instant in time.

Geophysical Intelligence. Geophysical MASINT involves phenomena transmitted through the earth (ground, water, atmosphere) and manmade structures including emitted or reflected sounds, pressure waves, vibrations, and magnetic field or ionosphere disturbances.

Seismic Intelligence. The passive collection and measurement of seismic waves or vibrations in the earth's surface.

Acoustic Intelligence. The collection of passive or active emitted or reflected sounds, pressure waves or vibrations in the atmosphere (ACOUSTINT) or in the water (ACINT). ACINT systems detect, identify, and track ships and submarines operating in the ocean.

Magnetic Intelligence. The collection of detectable magnetic field anomalies in the earth's magnetic field (land and sea).

Nuclear Intelligence (NUCINT). The information derived from nuclear radiation and other physical phenomena associated with nuclear weapons, reactors, processes, materials, devices, and facilities.

Materials Intelligence. The collection, processing, and analysis of gas, liquid, or solid samples.

​
​About Marcus A. Templar
Professor Marcus A. Templar is a former U.S. Army Cryptologic Linguist (Language Analyst), Signal Intelligence and All-Source Intelligence Analyst.  During his career as a U.S. Intelligence Officer, besides organizational duties, he discharged the responsibilities of a U.S. Army Observer/Controller, Instructor of Intelligence Courses specializing in Deconstruction of Strategies, Foreign Disclosures Officer, and Translator Interpreter of Serbo-Croatian. 
 
He is the Macedonian League's National Security Advisor.
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World Macedonian [sic] Congress: Barking Up The Wrong Tree

11/7/2019

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PictureMarcus A. Templar
National Security Advisor, Macedonian League
By Marcus A. Templar

In a recent fraudulent press release dated October 26, 2019, the World Macedonian [sic] Congress (WMC) and its accolades misrepresented the festivities of the traditional Greek 'Demetria' Festival from the Greek region of Macedonia as being a Slavic "Macedonian" event. They claim that the Greeks have illegally appropriated the festival from the Slav inhabitants of the Skopjan or 'North Macedonian' republic.

It is evident that the members of the Skopjan diaspora, as indicated by the WMC press release, have perpetually maintained their unconscious incompetence as far as learning about Greece, and Greek culture are concerned. They are not motivated to learn because they have no idea how ignorant they are. If they had the capacity to learn, they would know that the present-day Demetria festival in Macedonia, Greece, is rooted in the pagan past of the Greek people.

Intending to set the record straight, I am briefly citing the story behind the festivities of Demetria.

One of the commemorative celebrations that began during the prehistoric times of the Greek nation is the Cabeiria (Cabiria/Kaviria - Καβείρια), which is the ancestor of the Demetria. The Cabiria was the commemoration of events that followed the great cataclysm that overwhelmed the great valley, the famous Aegean. In Greek mythology, the Cabeiri or Cabiri (Greek: Κάβειροι, Kábeiroi) were a group of mysterious chthonic deities. They were worshiped in a mystery cult closely associated with that of Hephaestus, the god of the underworld. Their worship centered in the north Aegean islands of Lemnos and Samothrace (Herodotus book 2: 51.1-4). They can be identified with 'kallikantzaros' – a malevolent goblin in Greek folk tradition.

The inhabitants of Samothrace attributed the earthquake that sunk the land and allowed the water of the Mediterranean Sea to fill the vacuum, to Cabeiri. People started withdrawing to the top of the mountains as their land kept disappearing under the rising sea levels, seeking refuge to the highest mountain top, named Saos. (Diodorus Siculus 5.47.5). The etymology of the word pelagos or πέλαγος as a designation of the Aegean adds to the story of the said flood. The etymology of Pelagos (Πέλαγος) derives from the words πέλειον ἂργος (peleion argos) which denotes a lowland area flooded with water; "peleion argos" means "old land" as opposed to the word πόντος (pontos) which means "sunk land" (Lexicon Liddell and Scott).

It should be noted that Phillip II, the King of Macedonia met and fell in love with Olympias, the mother of Alexander the Great, during the Cabirian Festivities in Samothrace (Plutarch, Alexander 2.1). This is a fact that any true Macedonian of Greek heritage knows all about.

Later on, in about the 5th century – a couple of centuries before the ancestors of the present-day self-proclaimed "Macedonians" arrived in Macedonia proper (which is actually in Greece) – Christianity and Saint Demetrius replaced the Cabeirians in worship. A witness to the cruel persecutions against the Christians, launched by the pagan Roman Emperor Maximian Galerius, Saint Demetrius was killed in 306 AD. He was recognized by the AD 5th-century as the patron saint of Thessaloniki.

One wonders, why do the Slavs of Skopje and their diaspora keep attacking everything Greek accusing Greeks of appropriating their culture? A transparent mirror image perception is an easy way out.

The only explanation I have is that they intrinsically want to be part of the Greek nation. They have demonstrated this by adopting the regional designation of "Macedonian" and making it an ethnic identifier, perpetually ignoring their Bulgarian heritage!

I would suggest that they keep trying – who knows, perhaps someday the Skopjans might become Greeks? Barking and clamoring while playing the victim card is a sycophantic reaction to the Greeks and it has stopped working.

Through their government, the people of Skopje came to terms with their Slavic origins, relinquishing any and all rights and connection to the ancient Macedonian Greeks and their heritage, as clearly stated in Article 7 of the Prespa Agreement of 2018, that came into force on February 12, 2019.

To be more specific, Article 7 of the said Agreement states:

Section 2. When reference is made to the First Party [Greece], these terms [Macedonian] denote not only the area and people of the northern region of the First Party [Greece], but also their attributes, as well as the Hellenic civilization, history, culture, and heritage of that region from antiquity to present day.

Section 4. The Second Party [Skopje] notes that its official language, the Macedonian language, is within the group of South Slavic languages. The Parties note that the official language and other attributes of the Second Party [Skopje] are not related to the ancient Hellenic civilization, history, culture and heritage of the northern region of the First Party [Greece].

Taking into consideration the aforementioned Prespa Agreement of 2018, we can definitely state that the WMC has been deprived the right to bark. They are barking up the wrong tree!

​About Marcus A. Templar
Professor Marcus A. Templar is a former U.S. Army Cryptologic Linguist (Language Analyst), Signal Intelligence and All-Source Intelligence Analyst.  During his career as a U.S. Intelligence Officer, besides organizational duties, he discharged the responsibilities of a U.S. Army Observer/Controller, Instructor of Intelligence Courses specializing in Deconstruction of Strategies, Foreign Disclosures Officer, and Translator Interpreter of Serbo-Croatian. 
 
He is the Macedonian League's National Security Advisor.

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The Fate of the Earth and Man - A Scientific Essay

9/22/2019

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By Marcus A. Templar

Originally published: May 1990
University 422 - Geology 
CONTENTS

A. Introduction.
B. Main Aspects of Prognostication.
C. Factors of Prognostication.
D. Global Ecology.
E. Future Changes in the Climate.
F. Be Fertile And Multiply; Fill The Earth And Subdue it."
G. Our Future (?).​
PictureMarcus A. Templar
National Security Advisor, Macedonian League
A. INTRODUCTION.

The growing presence of human activity on the biosphere makes the interaction of its various elements and the structure of the Earth's surface increasingly complicated, with some parts of the earth showing signs of a coming ecological crisis. The seriousness of the problem is fully realized practically all over the world. It explains why world geoscience is mainly concerned with the social results of the man-nature relationship and with geographical prognosis. The latter is viewed as the prognosis of both the development of geoscience and the evolution of the Earth's surface, its individual components, and subsystems. Admittedly, geographical prognostication has fallen far short of society's needs for information. Nevertheless, geographers and geologists, increasingly, stand out in the field as it is noted at many international and national conferences.

The following essay deals with the geographic and geologic research in the field of forecasting about “THE FATE OF THE EARTH AND MAN.


B. MAIN ASPECTS OF PROGNOSTICATION.

The most important, and the most complicated scientific problem today, is the prognostication of the future, which we know nothing more that it is sure to come. The unknown is becoming scientifically predictable thanks to comprehensive research. The wider, the fuller, and the more comprehensive the forecasting, the more accurate it will be. It is precisely in our time, with the launching of major joint research projects, that accurate forecasting has become possible. Prognostication has become an area for special interests, for geoscientists, because geoscience is widely departmentalized and complex science, combining the elements of natural and social sciences. In many countries, hundreds of institutes have been set up to carry out prognostication for an extended period. The number of scientific works forecasting the future is growing, too. In most cases, these projections cover prospects for technological progress, for economic and social development over 15 - 20 (or even 25 - 30) years ahead.

The periods of prognostication (set at 15 - 30 years) are mostly connected to research potential for predicting scientific and technological progress. This prognostication serves as a barrier beyond which lie ill-founded, often fantastic speculations. As a rule, prognostication is supported by new discoveries which engulf "the sperm of the future," by new technology, by the continued development of the economy and new social phenomena. To forecast is to make a correct assessment of a new budding phenomenon and to establish which of the scientific ideas is more progressive and forward-looking.

Prognostication has many dimensions with geoscience playing no small part in it. Thus far, little has been done to put geographical forecasting on a solid footing. The year 2000 is still ten years away, but not too far to give us the license not to think about the future of geoscience over the remaining period of the 20th century. It seems that imagination, and, particularly, scientific imagination, is, in this case, a less dangerous thing than its absence. However, by posting the problem of geographical prognostication of the year 2000, we must turn to such formulations as "expected tendencies of development," "possible variants," "tentative deadlines."

Geographic prognostication could be dealt with in three main interconnected aspects:

1. Prognostication of the development of the earth's surface and the utilization of natural resources by society.
2. Development of methods of geographical prognostication.
3. Prognostication of the development of geoscience.


C. FACTORS OF PROGNOSTICATION.

The present state of the natural environment and of the economic growth of the world, the degree of which has been studied and the rate of their utilization has put the spotlight on the three principal factors that will dominate the ecological situation in the year 2000 -the hydroclimatic factor, the anthropogenic factor, and the natural resources factor.

All these factors are important for the following reasons:


THE HYDROCLIMATIC FACTOR creates the most significant regional distinctions in the state of the environment and has the greatest impact on natural phenomena over thirty years indeed, a short period by geological standards. In its hydrological aspect, this factor can be modified easier, and faster than other natural components. The water reserves tend to be more and scarcer, and the water itself more and more polluted, which increases not only the economic importance of the hydroclimatic factor but also its geographic importance. As it is known, the deficit and surplus of water lead to tremendous changes in the natural environment.

Other natural components will also change, even if man's activity is hypothetically counted out. However, these changes will not be so dramatic, as to transform the entire environment even in a small area. Suffice it to say that man's pressure upon a dynamic component such as vegetation will affect large parts only in several decades (a pine forest can be restored to its full size in some 25 to 30 years). However, it does not detract from the predictive role of other components of the natural environment. It seems that different elements of the environment are effective over periods.

It is why it is important to take into consideration not only certain individual tendencies and processes but also the entire complex of geographic conditions which may emerge in the future. The second important predictive factor which will loom large in the year 2000, namely THE ANTHROPOGENIC FACTOR
, has been much spoken of and written about mostly in popular rather than precise forms.

That anthropogenically modified natural environment develops much faster than 'fundamental nature" is a well-known fact. The rapid acceleration of the modification of the environment, new correlations that emerge between the different rates of its many components, also new quantitative proportions of these elements causes the natural environment to rebel, to avenge itself, and lead to a significant number of "chain reactions" in natural complexes. Thus far such acceleration and dynamism of natural processes and the links between them have not been determined in real terms. These are· only approximate indicators of speed for different types of wind and water erosion and some other processes. The question of how man accelerates and modifies geochemical processes (technogenesis) has risen to prominence.

Man-made landscapes are also increasingly moving into the focus of scientific attention. The problem of discrepancy between the rapidly developing technical possibilities of mankind and profligacy about the natural environment (considering the poor and inadequate assessments of the natural conditions) is becoming gradually more acute. In the beginning, the problem of mineral resources gave most trouble to both scientists and practical workers. Now the question of mineral resources has been put aside, with priority given to the problem of quality and quantity of freshwater, to the problems of atmospheric pollution and a sharp increase in radioactivity in all spheres. Next in line is the issue of preservation and reproduction of biological resources.

Every second three people get born on earth - three highly organized creatures. Human activity is becoming not only comparable in size and scope to natural processes, but it is at times even more efficient in a limited area than the latter. The impact of nature transforming the activity of people is so high that it is becoming a source of concern increasingly, stirring them into action to protect the environment in which they live. In this connection, the geoscientists attach great importance to long, less apparent anthropogenic actions that might harmonize with the natural settings, such as the building up of vast areas leaving wide spaces between housing estates. It can also be achieved by "fitting" engineering structures in with the features of the local terrain, by introducing "special ways" of exploitation of natural resources. All that speaks for increasing the significance of indirect methods of environmental development, and particularly of geoscientific methods.

Moreover, finally, the third important becoming a more predictive factor is THE FACTOR OF "RESOURCES.”
To prognosticate the utilization of natural, labor, material, and technological resources, it is necessary to follow the main directions of the growth and distribution of productive forces over a long term and primarily with an eye to the growing population and rapid scientific and technological progress. Besides, a crucial part in this prognostication will most likely be played by our ability to determine per capita indicators for extraction and consumption of natural resources in the country as a whole and its individual areas by the year 2000.

The territorial aspect of redistribution of different resources is paramount in geographical prognostication. It concerns the transportation of fuel, raw material, energy, water, food, synthetic and organic fertilizers, and so forth. Also increasing in importance are the so-called "geographic conveyors" which take stock of biological spatial distinctions and contrasts: climatic, biological and so on.

Conservation, reproduction, and management of natural resources is a complex problem, and it takes more than one way to resolve it.

With all the requirements of industrial production, power industry, farming, transportation, and housing construction taken into account, these must by no means be regarded as geared exclusively to the interests of production. Of similar importance is the prognostication of the role played by the environment in the life of man, in the protection of his health and in providing him with adequate conditions for recreation.


D. GLOBAL ECOLOGY

Human activity puts increasing pressure on the natural environment. It is clear that any precautionary measures and any effort, however small, to improve production only slightly relieve this pressure and do not completely remove the danger of environmental deterioration for the simple reason that even the most streamlined manufacturing process takes vast areas of land and water out of the natural cycle. This fact must be clear to anyone who gives it a serious thought. It does not follow from this that mankind should wind down production. The old thesis "back to nature" has always been reactionary and the struggle for raising the standard of living calls for steady industrialization and urbanization.

However, there is hardly any grounds for thinking that man's impact on the biosphere and individual biocoenosis will inevitably lead to deterioration of nature. To get a clear picture of this fundamental problem, one should try to understand what a “real” ecosystem is and what a "bad" ecosystem is, what a "good" biocoenosis is and what sort of biocoenosis could be considered a "bad" one. It is hard to answer this question, although intrusively we all understand the difference between the two. In my opinion, a good biocoenosis must meet the following basic requirements:

a) The biomass of all basic links of the food chains is significant. The excess of the phytomass over the zoomass typical of anthropogenic landscapes is not very much in evidence. It assures the synthesis of a large amount of oxygen and the synthesis of a vast number of products of both vegetable and animal origin.

b) The enormous amounts of biomass suggest high biological productivity. The result of "productivity multiplied by the biomass" tends to a maximum. It makes it possible to quickly recoup losses of the biomass at separate trophic levels as the result of accidental, or deliberate external influences. It is particularly important since a large quantitative biomass does not assure the high compensatory activity of biological systems.

c) The structure of the scheme as a whole and heterogeneity of individual trophic levels assure the stability of biocoenosis by a wide range of external conditions. The highest perfection of homeostatic is typical not only of the populations of dominant plant species but an ecosystem as a whole. The maintenance of a biocoenosis in the state of dynamic balance assures the homeostasis of its inanimate inhabitants, including the hydrological status of a given area, and the composition of the atmosphere.

d) Metabolism proceeds at a very rapid pace. Reduction draws into the natural cycle the entire biomass produced by a biocoenosis over several annual cycles. It assures maximum speed in the biological self-purification of the system.

e) The highest degree of productivity and stability of an ecosystem is characterized by its resiliences, by its ability to change the structure of the system rapidly and to effect quick evolutionary transformations of the populations of dominant species. It helps maintain the biocoenosis in an optimal state even when the environmental conditions change.

If the biocoenosis meets the above requirements, there is every reason to consider it “safe" regardless of whether it is developing in natural, or in simulated conditions. Thus it follows that the most important task of global ecology is to work out measures that would help develop good biocoenosis in the conditions of anthropogenic landscapes. On the other hand, this point of view makes it possible to assess the volume of permissible pressure on the environment. If the biocoenosis can sustain itself (as a system) in an optimal state, this means that the degree of anthropogenic pressure does not exceed the potentialities of biological systems, and does not undermine their homeostatic capacity. There are serious theoretical grounds for assuming that this system of assessments coincides in practical terms with medico-sanitary evaluations. The quality of a biocoenosis is a much more sensitive indicator of the state of the environment than any other indicator.

E. FUTURE CHANGES IN THE CLIMATE.

The research carried out by some climatologists and geologists over the past several years suggests a warming-up of climate within the 50 years in consequence of combined action of natural temperature fluctuations and the greenhouse effect of the growing concentration of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere due to the burning of fossil fuel. The conclusion that the climate will warm up shortly is based on the idea of the high sensitivity of the thermal status of the earth to changing concentrations of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere. It is also contingent on the assumption that the present trend of the growing consumption of fossil fuel will continue present pace over the next several decades.

Natural temperature changes. The modern trend in natural temperature changes has been described with a high degree of accuracy. Measurements of meteoroidal elements give a detailed picture of fluctuations of climatic (including thermal) conditions in the northern hemisphere over the past 100 years. They show that the end of the 19th century was relatively cold and that warming marked the 20th century of which was at its peak in the 1930s and 1940s. After that, a cooling-down period set in to continue to this day. A study of meteorological data for the southern hemisphere shows that south of the equator climatic changes over the past 100 years have recurred with the same regularity and within roughly the same parameters.

These global temperature variations have been accompanied by an alternate rise and drop in the rate of glaciation. In all mountain lands and the Arctic islands, the end of the 19th century saw an expansion of glaciation.

The first half of the 20th century was marked by a recession of glaciers which were at their nadir in the 1930-1940s. In a later period, glacier alimentation began to improve, which led to their stabilization and expansion. In some mountain lands, most glaciers showed considerable growth.

Significantly, both the data yielded by meteorological observations, which can be applied globally and the data on the fluctuation of glaciers cover short periods of' extrapolation within the past hundred years. Most of the other methods of paleoclimatic reconstruction give but incomplete and at times confusing information in which local factors sometimes distort climatic tendencies.

Greenhouse effect. Another component of future temperature changes reflects the effect that anthropogenic factors have on the environment, and amongst them, according to the consensus of climatologists and geologists, the concentration of dust and CO2
in the atmosphere. Changes in the temperature of the air, which are linked to variations in the transparency of the air due to dust, stay within the range of 0.2-0.4° C. Simultaneously, the rise in the concentration of carbon dioxide has by now exceeded the average air temperature by 0.5o C. It is widely believed that the second factor is chiefly responsible for the anthropogenic rise in temperature.

F. "BE FERTILE AND MULTIPLY; FILL THE EARTH AND SUBDUE IT."

The forms and dimensions of man's geochemical activity attach tremendous significance to the future of new geochemical phenomena and processes connected with human endeavor. The human race has geochemically intervened in the environment, notably the problem of the cultural geochemical landscape.

The following are the principal types of such intervention:

1. Today mankind is extracting at an increasing rate colossal amounts of chemical elements totaling millions, or even billions of tons of useful minerals a year. In scope such activity is comparable to many natural geochemical processes).

2. Man's agricultural activities are rated, for the amount of matter drawn into circulation and for the output of goods, by a similar order of magnitude.

3. Worldwide activities linked to engineering work, mining and construction result in the dispersal and transportation of large masses of matter whose volume comes to no less than 1 cu. km. every year, which is comparable to denudation by rivers. ~

4. Numbers measure the transposition of matter linked to both irrigation and soil drainage in the same order of magnitude.

5. Humanity uses all the known chemical elements; Man concentrates and uses their radioactive isotopes and creates new
transuranian elements which do not occur in nature.

6. Man changes the ways and forms of migration of atoms; accelerates their movement; creates substances charged with energy, and therefore unstable on the earth's surface.

7. The latter leads to a secondary dispersal of elements over the face of the earth and makes humanity extract and obtain new substances on a vast scale.

8. Some products of technogenesis are obtained and synthesized for secondary dispersal (fertilizers, toxic chemicals, and so on).

9. Various by-products and industrial waste (gas, smoke. sewage water) also enter the process of active dispersal. The radioactive fallout from atomic explosions gets dispersed worldwide. The concentration of radioactive strontium over the entire surface of the earth in the temperate and subtropical zones of the northern hemisphere has increased three-fold and even four-fold compared to its level in the southern hemisphere and the high (polar) latitudes.

10. In its total technogenesis forms technogenic industrial and agricultural landscapes. The expanding technogenic migration of elements is increasingly changing the face of our earth.

All this shows that technogenesis is a special, active and complex geochemical process which is manageable only in part.


G. OUR FUTURE (?)

The group of technogenic adjustments which includes processes of interaction between society and nature which at present lead to abrupt and mostly irreversible changes in landscapes. These processes are called constructional, technogenic readjustments. These readjustments are used in prognostication as an important indicator whereby ecological- economic regions are distinguished and mapped.

The following are constructional technogenic readjustments:

1. Desertification. It occurs in arid climates with recurring seasonal dry spells and even periods lasting several years. The total area affected by this process is significant and continues to grow at the annual rate of 50-70 thousand sq. km.

2. Destruction of landscapes by erosion. Prevalent in humid and semi-arid climates in woodless and deforested areas with dissected relief and loose deposits. Erosion has affected large areas; in the eastern parts of the United States, for example, erosion has set in over 13% of plow-land, in Argentina 22%, in Uruguay 15%, and so forth.

3. Deforestation. Occurs in areas that were originally woodland. The deforested area is growing all the time. In the equatorial forests of South America, about 4-5% of the total reserve of timber is cut down every year, threatening their destruction in some 20-25 years.

4. Atmospheric oxidation of landscapes. Prevalent in territories with a high concentration of industry, also in areas lying in the path of transfer of air masses. The oxidation of landscapes is a complex of processes linked to the technogenic emission of oxides of sulfur, nitrogen and other compounds created by the burning of fossil fuels. It is furthermore linked to their transport and precipitation in the form of acid rain which has an unhealthy effect on all components of landscapes (growing acidity of the soil and surface water, depression, and destruction of plants and aquatic life).

5. Photochemical smog: Occurs primarily in urbanized areas, also tropics, subtropics and in the southern regions of the temperate summer), especially in the northern Mediterranean, California and with similar climatic conditions.

6. Cryogenic processes. These are on the increase in permafrost areas as the result of the freezing and thawing out of perennially frozen grounds due to the destruction of soil and vegetation through mining operations, construction work and the use of industrial facilities, the building of roads and pipelines.

7. Oil pollution. Occurs primarily in the world oceans, in off-shore waters of the shelf zone. On land, it occurs at sites of oil extraction and transportation.

8. Pollution of streams. Widespread in countries with a high concentration of industry and intensive agriculture with a massive run-off from farm fields. The highest concentrations of pollutants occur in the lower reaches of big rivers, coastal areas, and static lakes. The pollution of streams and other water bodies is a very complex combination of physical and chemical processes linked to the migration, decomposition. Moreover, precipitation of a vast assortment of pollutants - domestic, industrial and agricultural waste - carried into streams.

9. Total technogenic effect. It is an indicator which shows the intensity of the combined effect of technogenic processes on the natural environment. It has been worked out by mathematical conversion of the amount of energy generated per unit of space into tons of reference fuel per 1 sq. km a year.

The types above of constructional readjustments do not cover the full range of problems. The shortage of factual material has prevented me from examining hydro-engineering and some other constructional readjustments (salination, urbanization, land subsidence, and so on). Whether something is going to be done timely to save our planet depends on how fast and how effectively the human race reacts.

Of course, this is only for the future!

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Bibliography

Burdakova, Iralda. "The Ecology of a Megalopolis." Soviet Life
, April 1, 1990: 40.

Claiborne, Robert. Climate, Man, and History.
New York: W. W. Norton, 1970.

Commoner, Barry. "Why Environmentalism Has Failed." Greenpeace
, Sep-Oct 1989.

Gilluly, James. Principles of Geology (4th Ed.).
San Francisco: W. H. Freeman, 1975.

Gorbachev, Mikhail. Global Forum on Environment and Development for Survival.
Pravda, January 20, 1990.

Kondracke, Morton. "The Future Energy Crisis." The New Republic
, n.d.

Matthews, William. "Chemically Speaking." Army Times
, April 16, 1990.

Obrhel, Jiří. "Vzajemne pusobení živeho a neživeho v biosfere (Mutual action of animate and inanimate in the
               biosphere)." In Uvod do Paleontologie (Introduction to Paleontology),
Praha: Státní pedagogické nakladatelství
               (SPN),, 1975, 221 - 262.

Paulsen, Monte. "Ten Myths about Our Environmental Crisis." Casco Bay (Maine) Weekly
, January 4, 1990.

Wagner, Robert. Environment and Man.
San Francisco: W. W. Norton, 1975.
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The 2019 Macedonian League Annual Assessment with National Security Advisor Marcus A. Templar

7/28/2019

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In the 2019 Macedonian League Annual Assessment, we talk with Marcus A. Templar for an in-depth analysis of the Prespa Agreement.
Picture
Marcus, the Prespa Agreement is now reality. Before we discuss the agreement briefly explain the number of MP's that voted for the agreement in the Greek Parliament. Why didn’t we see the three-fifths requirement for this issue, as required by the Greek Constitution? And, what do you make of all the noise that followed and sensationalist views in the Greek media?

It is fashionable in today’s world for people to treat logic as the enemy and truth as an inconvenience. Everyone has strong opinions in areas that are out of their academic or professional background. Comprehension is compromised because they base their faulty knowledge on preconceived notions that support their ideology, their beliefs, or what they wish to prove. Nobody seems to remember that in 2008, when Mr. K Karamanlis was the Prime Minister, and Mrs. D. Bakoyanni was the Minister of Foreign Affairs, Athens was discussing the name “Upper Macedonia” or even “New Macedonia” for the FYROM.

For a year now, people bicker about the wrongs of the Agreement and how it can be reversed. I have yet to see anyone’s thoughts on how it is going to be implemented and the future of the region. Under such a mentality, the Agreement becomes the proxy action for one’s decision. As a result, the first question asked is usually “how much did they pay you”? The same individuals see others as they see themselves. Having a very educated opinion that differs from one’s preferred solution and expressing such a view does not mean that one is a “traitor,” “sold” or “paid,”; furthermore, it does not mean what one is talking about.

Should the Prespa Agreement have been ratified by three-fifths of the number of Representatives? Of course, it should. It is an issue of Greece’s core National Interest. In Greece, Constitutions and laws do not mean much, if anything. Nonetheless, there exists a precedent set already by the political elite of Greece and over the years accepted by the people of Greece as they keep voting to office people of similar or identical mindsets. In this manner, the Greek public has legitimized the roots of the political instability. Disinformation runs rampant for the benefit of a political party or the populist “guidance” of political hacks regardless of their partisan orientation. The Greek public even allows actors of third countries to purposely agitate extremist elements on both political sides, aiming at creating havoc. Through this confusion they generate a negative perception against anything that would benefit the country. In reverse they generate a positive perception of the political hacks of one ideology or another.

In your opinion, which parts of the Prespa Agreement give you cause for concern and could such a concern lead to the invalidation of the agreement?

There are some parts in the Prespa Agreement that make sense and others that I see as a compromise. However, one part, the nationality of the people of that republic, I find ill-advised. However nothing makes the Agreement invalid. It is a legally valid diplomatic instrument and in addition it has set the precedent of expression of nationality in international law by using the expression “Macedonian/citizen of the Republic of North Macedonia,” The nationality of the country should have been “North Macedonia” period.

There is NO rule in international law that nationality has to be in an adjectival form. If that is the case, it should have been “North Macedonian”. U.S. passports denote as nationality “The United States of America.”

There is NO rule that passports need to have the “Nationality” clause on them. For instance, the passports of the “Socialist Federative Republic of Yugoslavia” had NO reference to nationality whatsoever. However, logically speaking with the bearer of a U.S. passport which nationality would one expect him to be? There is a very logical explanation for it. The possession of a passport of a particular country makes one a national of that country.

The issue of stateless persons is different since they are not issued a passport, but travel documents according to the “Convention relating to the Status of Stateless Persons” of September 28, 1954, under the aegis of United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR). It looks like a passport and Identification Card. A stateless person is someone “who is not considered as a national by any State under the operation of its law.” Usually, stateless persons are those refugees who cannot reach the home country in order to receive a passport.

Whether or not one holds passports of three different countries is irrelevant. One may enter a country using only one passport. Also, it makes no difference to the Immigration Officer of any country, whether one obtained the passport by natural birth or through a naturalization process. The Officer’s job is to check whether the passport is genuine.

In essence, then, all this chatter we hear in Greek media and by certain groups about nullifying the agreement because of a concern like nationality or parliamentary procedure or, even, the ratification process itself has no substance...

Let’s look at the facts. The Interim Accord of 1995 never saw the light of day in the Greek Parliament, but we don’t remember ANY of the elected officials complaining or the same radical elements of the Greek public protest. The same is true for the media. Others demand the nullification of the Agreement knowing full well that the Agreement is final and may not be revoked, but it is safe to make noise for personal promotion.

Both the Interim Accord and the Prespa Agreement are equally binding, and of equal significance. The issue of ratification of both diplomatic instruments by the Parliament of Greece is irrelevant since the first one is already implemented and the second is in force as of February 12, 2019. Under the norms of international law, both are considered ratified, and the gears have started working, the moment they were implemented. Such norms apply to the Prespa Agreement, as well.

The Prespa Agreement was ratified by votes 153 for and 146 against.

“In addition to the 145 SYRIZA MPs, the deal was supported by independent MP and Minister of Tourism, Elena Koundoura (formerly of ANEL), ANEL MP Thanasis Papachristopoulos (who is expected to be expelled from the party following the vote), Deputy Minister of Civil Protection (and former ND minister) Katerina Papakosta, leader of the Democratic Left Party (DIMAR), Thanasis Theocharopoulos (whose decision to back the agreement led to the dismantling of the coalition between DIMAR and PASOK), and three MPs of the centrist party To Potami – leader Stavros Theodorakis, Spyros Likoudis and Yorgos Mavrotas” (Neos Kosmos, Prespa agreement ratified by the Greek Parliament 26 January 2019).

From the beginning of the SYRIZA/ANEL government, everyone blasted only SYRIZA. I wonder, why while SYRIZA was negotiating, the ANEL were silent waiting for the outcome of the negotiations? Nobody can tell me that Kammenos and the rest had no idea that negotiations on Skopje’s name were in full swing. The same goes for all the hypocritical political parties which now are against the Agreement.

Staying on this subject, since ratification, we have seen a remarkable uptick in "experts" discussing the revoking of the Prespa Agreement. Often, it seems that these "experts" are playing on emotions over facts. Can you explain to us, what will happen if Greece or Skopje takes such unilateral action to nullify the Agreement?

The Prespa Agreement went into force on February 12, 2019, according to the Secretary-General of the United Nations. That date is the end of some activities and the beginning of others referred in the Agreement.

The so-called “experts” understand the issue of diplomatic instruments much less than I understand the existence of a universe before the Big Bang. I have yet to see experts on International Law and Diplomacy with personal first-hand knowledge of the issue, suggest this Agreement could be nullified for any legal reason. If miraculously the agreement is revoked, the country whose government cancels it will face severe consequences – I hope that the country is Skopje.

Regardless of the country, a withdrawal from this Agreement will bring it in direct contempt of the International Court of Justice. The jurisdiction of the International Court of Justice (ICJ) is compulsory because Greece at the time of the adjudication disallowed the jurisdiction of the ICJ only in cases of military action; it should have been in cases of Greece’s national security with prejudice under terms and conditions that Greece would determine herself. National Security is the safeguard of Greece’s national interests and transcends sources and methods that are not restricted to military operations. To put it bluntly, the legal department and/or the politicians of Greece’s MFA had blundered back in the 1990’s. At that time, they saw only the obvious physical aspect of national security disregarding the psychological characteristics of the matter. It is the modern case of the drunk Archias’ statement, "serious business for the morrow" aka «ἐς αὒριον τὰ σπουδαῖα» (Plutarch's Lives/Pelopidas, 10:9).

I had mentioned the issue to a couple of politicians of Greece explaining and proposing a change, but the first one was too busy getting reelected and the other one had no power to propose it. Finally, the modification of the particulars of compulsory jurisdiction of the International Court of Justice came about when the Samaras-Venizelos government was in power. Nobody had re-visited the issue of jurisdiction until after Skopje had filed its grievance against Greece. Issues of national interests and national security must be revisited often depending on geopolitical circumstances and definitely when issues of geostrategy arise.

Withdrawing from the Prespa Agreement will constitute contempt of the UNSC decisions of 1993 and of the ICJ which along with the UNSC declared that Greece and The Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia had to follow such decisions. One must bear in mind that the whole name issue started because of Greece. Whether such an objection was justified or not was and is immaterial to both the UNSC and ICJ. After all, in 1993, Prime Minster, Con. Mitsotakis representing Greece declared that Greece was ready to compromise accepting names as North Macedonia, Upper Macedonia even New Macedonia. In the eyes of the political world Greece was the instigator of the problem by not accepting the name Macedonia. Also, at that time the Balkans were at war and in 2001 the Albanians took up arms against Skopje. Any rejection of the Agreement by Greece will most likely precipitate another armed insurgency in Skopje with the Albanian sector seceding creating a political and economic instability in the region. Such an insurgency would open the gates of hell for Greece unable to stop refugees who once in Macedonia will make it ethnically worse than 1903.

Unless one lives on another planet, one knows that Russia has been trying very hard to dismember the EU and NATO; it is why it feeds the ultra-nationalists (whether fascists or national socialists, i.e., Nazis) by any means, including but not limited the Russian Orthodox Church. Any such upheaval will invite NATO and Russia to a political and information warfare, i.e., cyberwar that could end up in some hot incident with unexpected consequences. But then do not forget Turkey, which is seeking trouble.

It is nice if one is openminded instead of using only tunnel vision.

The inclusion of specific provisions in the Prespa Agreement makes no sense to me, the enclosure of others follow the norms of international law and precedent, and while the insertion of others favor Greece. Looking back at the history of the Slavic population of the Republic of Skopje, I find some provisions of the Agreement need stronger guarantees than they provide (e.g., Articles 3.4, 8.1). In both cases, the parties leave the matter of enforcement to the benevolence and perhaps compassion of their governments. Of course, such stipulations are standard in normalization cases, but regarding Skopje, they are not sufficient. There is an issue of trust.

Most people, including ALL the “experts,” have read the Agreement as if it were a symbiotic arrangement between two ethnic groups, the Slavic and the Greek; instead it is an agreement between two countries. One must bear in mind that, unlike the Greeks in Greece, the Slavs are not a majority in the country that according to the Agreement takes the name “North Macedonia”[sic]. The Republic of Skopje is a multicultural society in which the Slavs are a “majority-minority”. By “majority-minority” I mean that although they constitute the majority of the population against the Albanians when all other ethnic groups are put together, they are a minority.

The Prespa Agreement is the result of Greece’s disagreement over the name of the Republic of Skopje, not Skopje’s independence or existence. The Convention of Montevideo of 1934 is evident in this. Article 3 of the Convention states, “The political existence of the state is independent of recognition by the other states.” That means that Skopje as a State existed whether anyone had recognized it or not. That was a de facto recognition. A de facto recognition of Skopje said that Greece was represented in Skopje by the Liaison Office, not by an Embassy. Under the current de jure recognition, Greece is represented by an Embassy.

Allow me to regress a little bit. Greece’s objection to the name on the grounds of its national security and the stability of the region was an automatic obstacle to Skopje’s petition to join the United Nations. Skopje could not ascend to UN membership for security reasons. Then the representatives of the EU and permanent members of the Security Council (Britain, France, and non-permanent member - Spain) submitted a plan of confidence-building measures proposing the temporary name “The Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia” without flag raising privileges. The UNSC only then recommended Skopje’s membership to the UN General Assembly (UNGA) which voted unanimously to admit it on April 8, 1993. In the meantime, the current Prime Minister of Greece Constantine Mitsotakis advised the newly elected President of the United States on January 26, 1993, that Greece was ready to compromise on the name issue. Later he revealed that the name of Skopje would be composite and suggested that could be “North Macedonia” “Upper Macedonia” or even “New Macedonia” because in ten years nobody will remember the name Macedonia.

The problem is that in International Law, once the bird gets out of the cage, it does not return to it.

On February 12, 1993, UN forces had already deployed in the territory of Skopje to prevent another regional war. The fact is that the Agreement resulted from the Security Council resolutions 817 (1993) and 845 (1993), and were witnessed by Matthew Nimetz. That alone is enough for one who understands the contemporary political reality. One must bear in mind that the permanent members of the UNSC with veto power are: China, France, Russia, the United Kingdom, and the United States of America. These countries are those who count, and they had sanctioned it.

The Interim Accord of 1995 was designed to afford both countries and the region Confidence-Building Measures which, essentially means it was intended in giving the countries space and time aiming at a slow but gradual in-house cleanup on both sides. The Greek team never took Skopje seriously, treating that state with pity while simultaneously leaving national interests and the national security of Greece unprotected. The Greek side let Skopje run the show leaving the door open to Skopje’s radicalism.

The Communists of Skopje bred the plan of deceit since 1939 basing it on faulty logic and cunning political views. Skopjans weaponized the ancient history of Macedonia (that had nothing to do with any of the Slavic tribes) as a tool for the distraction of the Greek population, and their populist politicians, and still do. Meanwhile, the Skopjans worked (and continue to work) in a similar style that Boris Sarafov had pioneered in 1902. At that time, while Bulgaria supplied the VMRO in its insurrection against the Ottoman Empire, it sent Boris Sarafov to western capitals to win the hearts and minds of high societies and indirectly governments, through propaganda.

However, in 1902, not one Greek thought that the history of ancient Macedonia was the root of the Bulgarian aggression in Macedonia. Not one Bulgarian from within or outside the Principality referred to ancient Macedonian history. Misirkov, the so-called father of Macedonianism, never uttered a statement that connected the Slavs to the ancient Macedonians. After all, he knew better. He was born in Pella and attended a Greek school.

The development of a “Macedonian” society out of the Bulgarian culture started as gradual Bulgarian expansionism, both in the Principality and Macedonia that grew out of a conflation of religion, language, and ethnicity, incorporated into a Bulgarian nationalism while simultaneously Pan-Slavism had been nurtured. However, then, something very thought-provoking happened. The previous convergent state transpired into a dichotomic condition. On the one hand, it enhanced the emergence of a “Macedonian” regionalism out of a Bulgarian background. In turn, the “Macedonian” regionalism espoused Communism as an advocate and vector of equality among the conglomeration of ethnicities of the Ottoman-held region of Macedonia in hopes of gaining their desired objective.

Meanwhile, the Bulgarians of the Principality faithful to their nationalistic sentiment employed every opportunity and privilege that the autonomous political status within the Ottoman Empire afforded to them, and consequently they deployed propagandists to Western European societies seeking assistance in overthrowing the oppressing Ottoman government and replacing it with a “legitimate” Christian lord. Of course, both sides used means of deception aiming solely at achieving their coveted goal, the land of Greek Macedonia. Thus, although the methods of both groups were different, the goal was the same.

Effectively, through the Interim Accord, Greece negotiated anything that proprietarily belonged to her, such as the name Macedonia and Article 7.3, while it allowed Skopje to keep anything it inherited from Yugoslavia, (Interim Accord, Article 12), and also, anything else Skopje’s communist past had provided to it as a matter of precedent. The language of specific provisions in the Interim Accord allowed non-governmental institutions as well as Skopje ultra-nationalistic organizations internally and externally to propagandize against Greece, its culture and inheritance.

The Prespa Agreement, although bilateral, has regional range and one could argue global consequences. It falls under the auspices and mandate of the UNSC for the political side, and after the decision of the ICJ for the legal side, neither State may withdraw from it. Article 3 of the Prespa Agreement solidifies the matter.

I have heard arguments from the “experts” like, “how come the United States had withdrawn from the Convention on Climate Change? Greece could do the same”. The answer here is simple. The people who said such a thing have NOT read the Convention and what it is about. It is a narrow–minded way of seeing things. The Framework Convention on Climate Change (Paris, 30 November to 11 December 2015), provides a stipulation for withdrawal in Article 28. However, Article 20. 9, states, “The provisions of this Agreement shall remain in force for an indefinite period and are irrevocable. No modification to this Agreement contained in Article 1(3) and Article 1(4) is permitted.”

Also, the Prespa Agreement is not voluntary. It derived from the obligation that both parties undertook under the Security Council resolutions 817 (1993) and 845 (1993). Unlike the Municipal Law, which commonly is known as Domestic Law that is based mostly on statutes designed to the particularities of each country, International Law is based on enacted “treaties, international customs, general principles of law as recognized by civilized nations, the decisions of national and lower courts, and scholarly writings, which create many precedents and norms.”

Addressing the specific question, some people believe that if Greece withdraws from this Agreement (I have no idea how), the countries automatically will regress to their Interim Accord. The Interim Accord, which as the word “Interim” alludes to is a Preliminary Agreement between two countries in dispute. They are interconnected.

According to Article 1 of the Prespa Agreement, “[t]his Agreement is final and upon its entry into force terminates the Interim Accord between the Parties signed in New York on 13 September 1995”. That means that Interim Accord is dead – the safety net is gone.

The Interim Accord was never designed nor intended to be the staging point from which the two countries could retreat each time the public opinion on either side nitpicks and waivers its national political choices du jour. Only in the game of Monopoly, one can go backwards – the UNSC is not Monopoly.

Greece’s withdrawal from the Agreement will precipitate celebrations in Skopje and its diaspora. Skopje would return to its “Republic of Macedonia” name while simultaneously getting rid of anything that the Prespa Agreement restrained it from doing; the blame game starts, and every single country in the world will recognize it as Macedonia and eventually Greece will do the same. Domestic instability in Greece could produce mobs who will find and lynch all those who led the country to its potential demise. Skopje will retain all, and everything it inherited from Tito’s Yugoslavia, mainly any bilateral agreements Greece and Yugoslavia signed on June 18, 1959, which includes the Free Zone in Thessaloniki (see Article 12 of the Interim Accord and Article 13 of the Prespa Agreement). Moreover, finally, Turkey will be free to exploit the situation to the fullest. The above is not pure rhetoric – it is genuine.

Returning to the matter of the language, the Agreement on Border Facilitation of June 18, 1959, allowed nationals on both sides of the borders to cross for one day, shop or see relatives without a passport or visa. Political refugees and those communists who committed war crimes in Greece were exempted. Nevertheless, identity cards issued by the Yugoslav side had information printed in Greek, Serbo-Croatian, and “Macedonian” languages. Those given to Greek nationals, the identifications cards included only the Greek and Serb-Croatian languages. The above constituted an indirect, but undisputable recognition of the “Macedonian” language under international law. When you see something wrong, and you do not correct it, you have just accepted a new reality.

As it is now, it is up to Greece to allow or restrain Skopje’s usage of the Free Zone in Thessaloniki. After Greece’s withdrawal from the Prespa Agreement, Skopje could easily demand applicability of the Law of the Sea Article 62.2 “Utilization of the living resources,” Article 69 “Right of land-locked States” and Article 70 “Right of geographically disadvantaged States.” Also, Skopje could easily invoke the Declaration Recognizing the Right to a Flag of States Having no Sea Coast, co-signed in Barcelona April 20, 1921, by Greece and the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats, and Slovenes. Skopje, as an heir of that kingdom, has the right to build its commercial fleet. Also, Convention on the High Seas of 1958, Article 3 refers to states with no coast, e.g., Skopje, have the right to their merchant fleet if they so choose. Such merchant fleet will have the same rights and privileges as the merchant fleet of the littoral states. Whether Skopje is capable of doing it or not is irrelevant at this point.

Greece will not be able to do anything to stop Skopje or Turkey and why not Albania and Bulgaria because it will be the pariah of the world and has NO independent professional lobby in Washington DC to somehow help. I would not expect anything from a “lobby” where members are self-deceived patting themselves on the back. For as long as governments of Greece finance such a "lobby" they choose to include docile people who depend on money but also favors from politicians. The fact is that not one Greek politician wants to see us politically dynamic and united. Not one.

One MUST always bear in mind:

International Law supersedes Municipal Law (aka Domestic Law);

If it’s a treaty or an agreement, especially those that include recognition of international frontiers, it is irrevocable;

If the diplomatic instrument is in force, it is considered ratified. There is NO way back. The Prespa Agreement is in effect as of February 12, 2019.

​In your opinion, what will the next 5 to 10 years look like because of the Prespa Agreement?

It is impossible for anyone to predict the future in general and the outlook of countries, especially the prospect of the region. Nonetheless, I could easily say that I foresee a border adjustment in the area; the question is whether it is going to occur in ten or 20 years from now, what form it is going to have.

I do expect changes in the Republic of Skopje. Whether such changes would be gradual through a series of legislative processes or impetuous as a result of political mishandling of given situations. Only time will tell. It will be an issue of geopolitical and geostrategic necessities of the time. The world political climate is drastically changing, and it will become worse; a mixed bag of populism, sensationalism, and egocentricity diminishes leadership skills among governing behaviors. Education, foresight, and vision will become more and more a thing of the past, giving way to “what is in it for me” attitude of emulously ambitious individuals.

I do feel that as soon as the Albanian population of Skopje becomes the majority of the country, it will hold a referendum for self-determination sanctioned by its own Albanian led government. The foundation for that will be Article 1.3.b of the Prespa Agreement. The next step will be Ilirida as Albanians of Skopje call their region and will unite with Kosovo. Whether these two Albanian led governments will unite with Albania will depend on their citizens and not on the citizens of Albania. The latter culturally has fallen behind as a result of very long-term isolation. Catching up with the Albanians of the former Yugoslavia will take some time. Although international law allows self-determination of a region under certain conditions, it does not permit the region’s secession from the parent country.

Greece, on the other hand, had better be careful, leaving the mentality of «Ωχ, αδελφέ, δε βαριέσαι. Όλοι περαστικοί είμαστε από αυτόν τον κόσμο• μήπως οι άλλοι είναι καλλίτεροι; όλοι αδέλφια, Χριστιανοί είμαστε» leaving it to someone else, or they might not have a country to call home. I fail to see why only Greeks are the bleeding and compassionate hearts.

As it concerns the region, it is time for the Balkan Peninsula to start emphasizing its geostrategic prominence by initiating an international system of waterway/canal (Axios - Morava Rivers) from Belgrade to Thessaloniki for commercial use, diminishing thus the already corroded importance of the Straits and consequently of Turkey. Such a system would allow all countries of Central Europe and the Black Sea to use the Seaport of Thessaloniki as the entrance to the Mediterranean Sea, to Gibraltar, and Suez (Templar 2014). Economic growth is always the window to prosperity. That is what makes people happy.

And, a question specifically for us in the diaspora...will the Greek and Skopje Slav diasporas ever reconcile their differences? What will need to happen for this reconciliation to take place?

To begin with, Diasporas are easier to galvanize than those who live in the home countries. Diasporas tend to keep traditions to resist assimilation by other cultures. Perhaps not much at present because of communications, but in the past, they lived in a time warp. Those of the diaspora that often travel home are milder than those who were born abroad or rarely visited their ancestral land.

Slowly a reconciliation will happen, when all con artists from both sides wise up and find another way to make a living than bilking financially the naïve and emotionally disturbed individuals, save a deplorable incident, they will reconcile their differences. Greeks have to be vigilant. Greeks by culture forget easily; Slavs do not. It will take about 100 to 150 years with the right education to achieve it. It is not love for the country as the extremists proclaim; it is sick egocentricity because whatever has happened, it had not in the fashion they wanted it to happen. Instead of oil, they rub salt on the wounds of the past. When both extremists understand that their home countries must live in peace, then reconciliation will transpire. I am NOT saying it will be easy, but it is a must.

However, for now, we have to deal with political Pharisees, whom St. Matthew suggested to “Stay away from them. They are blind leaders. Moreover, if a blind man leads another blind man, then both men will fall into a ditch” (Gospel of St. Matthew, chapter 15, verse 14).

Although you are very well known in political circles in Greece, why do you think successive Greek governments have never asked for your advice or help?

Politicians of Greece of ALL parties seek and receive advice only from those they know to agree with their shenanigans. One could call such people wishy-washy. Such people are those who somehow depend on various governments of Greece either for monthly income to “promote” the interests of Greece and the Greek culture abroad, but also those who have properties in Greece which somehow happened to have some fiduciary facilitation. Anytime something big is going on in Greece, one sees the same people are sought for advice. Even a downright stupid one would have assessed the perpetual failings of such policy. When one sees the advice one gets from the same people, it is wise to change advisors. However, such a thought would impede the mutual “understanding” of both parties.

About 12 years ago, it was suggested that I help Greece on the issue of Skopje’s name dispute. The message that came from the Greek Embassy in Washington, DC, was, “Μα, αυτός μας βρίζει.” Sidetracking the fact that at that time, social media was nonexistent except e-mails, it seems there were a good number of “well-wishers” that passed my e-mails to the Greek Embassy. Nonetheless, to my knowledge, nobody from the MFA questioned themselves “why” was I cussing them? Had they done something for the benefit of Greece, I would not say anything wrong; I would have applauded them. Mrs. Bakoyanni, Dei gratia Prime Minister Con Karamanlis, was selling Greece to Mr. Milososki, one centimeter per day.

However, political parties in Greece have no national legislative agenda that boosts the standard of living of the Greek populace nor have they a foreign policy that supports and galvanizes Greece’s national interests and national security. The last two institutions are based on the goals the declaration of independence of Greece had set in 1822. Goals or reasons that Greeks declared their independence in Epidavros in January of 1822 were Justice, Personal Freedom, Ownership, and Honor. These goals cannot and have not changed. The [s]elected politicians of the Greek spectrum are those who have not changed their mindset. They still operate under the mentality that the Sultanate allowed them to govern the rayas. The people of Greece have only changed masters from the Sultan to the local kodjabashis and hospodars who from first-tier slaves to the Sultan now they are first tier slaves to their ego and personal prosperity. Moreover, to succeed in their endeavor, they bribe their constituents, awarding them with government positions (θεσούλες) as if the loyalty of the people is to the party and its representatives instead of the country.

I have talked to a couple of politicians who in my personal belief have earnestly tried to do something for the country. Their predicament was that people based on political contacts and connections expected a special treatment to the detriment of others who did not have the privilege to know someone.

These people and their “yes men” entourage have only one goal. When they are in opposition, the only aim they have is to remove the governing party from power. Conversely, when they are in government, their task is to stay in government. So, it comes down to this: it makes NO difference who governs. They govern the same way no matter what the political party. They do anything to achieve such goals. Such is the ONLY policy they have and goes across the political spectrum. Also, the hiring system has nothing to do with merit. It has everything to do with who knows whom.

When I see someone thinking about the national interests and national security of Greece in earnest, I will help, provided I am asked to help, not by a specific political party in power, but to help Greece.

One must keep in mind that politicians have shaped the mentality of the Greek people through the education they’ve enacted. To understand the mindset of the Greek politician, the same politician who “educates” the people of Greece, one must read the book, The Education of a Russian Statesman, the Biography of Nicholas Karlovich Giers, by Charles and Barbara Jelavich, Berkeley: University of California, 1962. The Introduction of Part 2 of the book is especially relevant to the behavior of the Greek politician of today.

Here are a couple of segments found on page 125 of the book above:
​

“However, for the political future of the principalities [Walachia and Moldova], the social system inaugurated under this rule was far more significant than the immediate economic effect of Phanariote corruption. The Greeks in their dealings with the local inhabitants duplicated in tone and performance the attitude which their Moslem overlords adopted toward the subject Christians. Contemporary travelers in the principalities were appalled by the atmosphere of the courts and the "pure despotism exercised by a Greek prince who is himself, at the same time, an abject slave." (William MacMichael, Journey from Moscow to Constantinople in the Years 1817, 1818 (London: John Murray, 1819), p. 107)”.

“The Phanariote princes were overbearing and arrogant toward their subordinates. To make their own fortunes and to meet the payments to Constantinople, they sold the offices under their control and exacted extraordinary taxes and contributions to the fullest extent of their power. Corruption, initiated at the top, extended down to the lowest levels of administration. Since all offices were sold, the holder of any position tried to recoup his losses from those below him. Moreover, even among the few most powerful families, no common accepted standards of conduct existed.

“In the words of a member of a great Phanariote family, Nicolas Soutzos: "[How] to prevail over its competitors and [how] to achieve this, [and] to employ insidious means whose use was only encouraged by the Turks, was the constant occupation of the Greeks of the Phanar: a ceaseless struggle whose stake was always their fortune and often their life." (the original text: "L’emporter sur ses compétiteurs et pour y parvenir, employer les moyens insidieux dont l'usage n'était que trap encourage par les Turcs, telle était la constante occupation des Grecs du Phanar: lutte incessante dont l' enjeu était toujours leur fortune et bien souvent leur vie." Nicolas Soutzo, Memoires du Prince Nicolas Souizo, Grand Logothete de Moldavie, 1798-1871 (Vienna: Gerold, 1899), p. 4.”

Last year the Macedonian League publicly sought the stability of the Greek government. Some agreed. Many fought against the position and attempted to skew our call for stability. Explain the need for stability of the Greek government.

At first, I must explain that the Macedonian League's call for political stability took place about six months before it was announced that a final agreement between Skopje and Athens had taken place. One of the very relevant politicians of Greece thought that I was in favor of Skopje’s name that would include the word “Macedonia.” I gave him a couple of names that I would go for, as Central Balkan Republic, South Slavonia. However, I knew in my heart that it would be impossible because of the position of the Greek MFA since the party of New Democracy (2004–2009), which not only had accepted a name that would include “Macedonia” with a geographic designation, but also Mrs. Bakoyanni (Feb 15, 2006 – Oct. 7, 2009) was entertaining the idea that any name would be for “international use only”.

Greece has seen a lot of instability. Since 1821, Greece had three civil wars, five bankruptcies, a few political upheavals, which had resulted in The National Schism. The latter brought the defeat of the Greek Army in Sangarios River and Afion Karahisar the reasons behind the loss of Smyrna. Another one of the political upheavals in the 1960s brought the seven-year dictatorship (1967-1974) to the stage which was followed by the tilting of Greece, dangerously I might add, to the left. The organization ΑΣΠΙΔΑ (Αξιωματικοί Σώσατε Πατρίδα, Ιδέα, Δημοκρατία, Αξιοκρατία), which until late 1980 was treated as a total lie which was used as an excuse for the 1967 dictatorship. Of course, nobody was talking about the involvement of Andreas Papandreou. In reality, the whole affair was very accurate.

In the middle of March of 1967, at the call of Ενιαία Δημοκρατική Αριστερά (ΕΔΑ) in silent cooperation with Ένωση Κέντρου (ΕΚ), farmers brought tractors, threshing machines and other farming equipment and other vehicles coming from all over had effectively sieged Thessaloniki. Brigadier General Andreas Erselman of the III Army Corps was ordered to send armored units to open all roads leading to Thessaloniki. About one month later, the Colonels took over. I had just turned 19.

Consequently, I do not want to see Greece suffering the consequences of characters with limited understanding of the present world. Tunnel vision is not a way of seeing the world. They should take a few steps back and then they can see. All the clueless individuals lead movements!

My birthplace has suffered enough in the hands of irresponsible politicians since the assassination of Count Ioannis Kapodistrias in September of 1831. The last thing Greece needs at this point is a bunch of egomaniacs who in the name of their pseudo-patriotism are ready to throw the country into chaos and even bloodshed destroying the crumbs of prosperity and dignity the people of Greece have left with, in order to get the desired results for their kicks.

The fact is that the political leadership of the country regardless of political leanings and social capital with their silence have sanctioned the auction of the national interests and endangerment of the national security of Greece since 1950 and especially since 1991. They cared more about their political party and ideology than the welfare of their country.

Greece’s adventures start in the mindset of its citizens who when they enjoy the fruits of corruption, forget that they will pay for their choice in the future. However, when it is time for them to pay, they forget their past choice claiming that it is not their fault. There is a Greek word which encapsulates the behavior of individuals that use no common sense, who instead, repeat the same mistakes many times over while maintaining an attitude of self-righteousness. It is up to the reader to figure it out.

The issue of the Macedonian State goes back to 1924 and specifically regarding Skopje it retrogresses to November 1950 and the normalization process of Greece with Yugoslavia. For those who now scream foul it is too late. Where had they been ten, twenty, or even twenty five years ago? I was yelling “national security,” and their answer was “Alexander the Great was Greek.” I still have the e-mails.

Finally, we also need stability in the diaspora. I received the following message from Melbourne. It refers to the issue of the Melbourne University Macedonian [sic] Student Society - MUMSS and their alliance with the Turk and Albanian students against anything Greek.
​
“Unfortunately, all the good and intelligent members of the community have been disheartened, blocked and have moved away from the Greek Community. Most who get involved have no experience in lobbying. The ones involved with the community are mainly professionals who have a Greek background and want to promote themselves and then the Greek culture. In comparison with the Skopjan lobby groups in America, Australia and Canada, they have been able to sway politicians' minds and made them support the Skopjan narrative. Look at the fine inactivity by our NUGAS, AMAC and Pan Mac organisations in Australia. They still have not taken any action or even made a statement, regarding the Skopjan Student university association!

I suppose they [Greek organizations] are in winter hibernation!

Anyway, dear sir, it will be up to the individuals to take on the might of the Turkish, Albanian and Skopjan Lobby groups head on."

​I concluded with the following statement [to him]: “If
I were to write a book on IMRO and Skopje, leading to the Prespa agreement, I would call it:
Greece’s path to the Prespa Agreement:
A centennial journey through endless governing ineptitude,
political arrogance, institutionalized ignorance and widespread gullibility.
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Petition to the Greek Government

3/8/2019

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Marcus A. Templar, National Security Advisor | Macedonian League
PictureMarcus A. Templar
National Security Advisor, Macedonian League
Due to the rapid developments following the ratification of the agreement between Greece and the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia on the final and official name of the latter, I appeal to all competent authorities of Greece to keep at all costs what remains of the name Macedonia, its derivatives and whatever implies such a name.

This appeal is of direct and pressing importance for the prevention of abuses, denunciations and other deliberate offenses, particularly from the diaspora of Skopje which, as they show things, intends to follow the old tactics of the challenges and to attract world public opinion that the "Macedonians" passed in the hands of the Greeks. Already there has been such propaganda in Greece.

This appeal publicizes a simple path to address the continued harassment of Greeks abroad, especially those from our Macedonia.

Neither the present nor future governments of Greece should ever relax the oversight and enforcement of the contents of the Prespes agreement.

Regardless of the content of articles 4, 5, and 6 of the agreement and in order to avoid unpleasant, distressing and irritating incidents that the diaspora of Skopje intend to cause, especially in Australia, I would suggest to the Greek government to take some necessary measures in hopes that they will not leave anything to chance.

It is very wise that Greek representatives abroad listen to what the Greek diaspora has and will have to say. When I visited Australia in 2010 for a series of lectures, the Greek diaspora complained that the appropriate department of the Greek MFA was indifferent ignoring their warnings. The Greek diaspora knows the Skopjan diaspora much better than the officials of the Greek MFA. I know from personal experience that the latter have no idea how Governments in other countries work, although they are the first to opine about on the topic making suggestions.

I would respectfully recommend to the pertinent Minister or the designated Department to create a section either by itself or within the Department A3 of the Ministry dealing with the country and the diaspora of Skopje with seriousness and responsibility. The Skopjans in the diaspora have already begun to attack anything Greek in violation of the provisions of articles 4, 5, 6, 7 and 8 of the agreement in an effort to deprive the right of Greek organizations to include the name Macedonia and mislead the unfamiliar with the issue population of countries they live in claiming that the name Macedonia and its derivatives represent the Slavic history and heritage exclusively.

I predict legal challenges and similar harassment of Greek organizations on the part of organizations and individuals within the diaspora of Skopje through foreign governmental agencies and even judiciary.

​As odd as it may seem, it would be wise to inform the head of Greek diplomatic missions of all countries, and particularly those who have extensive Skopjan diaspora on the contents of article 7 (history, language, heritage, and so on). The recent photo and other indicate how seriously the articles 7 and 8 are taken into consideration by the Skopjan diaspora.

​It is also a reasonable argument for the Greek diplomatic missions to collect and to systematically report to the competent authorities of Greece all breaches of the final agreement (Agreement of Prespes) instigated by the diaspora of Skopje, as well as by representatives of the Government and of Church. The latter is the most likely source of violations. Also, the same service should be watching the movements of "The National Aegean Macedonian Council of Australia", which is a branch of the "World Macedonian Congress," as well as the organization of the "United Macedonian Diaspora." The last one is in alliance with the Heritage Foundation located in Washington, DC.

The entire content of irredentism that under the Prespes Agreement prohibits could easily be duplicated abroad and spread to the diaspora of Skopje. Although local laws of each country protect freedom of speech, it does not mean that actors inciting violence should be protected under the cloak of the same.

About similar activities of Greek organizations, I want to reassure the politicians of Greece that the Greek organizations are harmless. Bark a lot, but they do not bite.

Although the diaspora of Skopje is extraordinarily organized and active, on the contrary, Greek organizations are extremely busy fighting among themselves about who is going to be the Supreme President, what title s/he should have, and which of the organizations involved in the fight should be the prominent within the Greek diaspora and representative of all other organizations.

Also, all extraneous people of the diaspora who «know» everything regarding the "national issues" of Greece although they know absolutely nothing about Greece’s “national interests” and consequently “national security” of Greece, nor understand their true meaning and how they are formed, get together in radio and tv shows to discuss them. At the end of such appearances, the person who swears nastier and yells louder emerges more “Patriot” and of course the “winner.” They who laugh at this nonsense are considered "traitors".

Whether diplomatic officials abroad or officials of the Greek Ministry of Foreign Affairs or generally politicians of Greece are responsible for the ultimate inertia and inaction of Greece regarding the name issue, is an internal matter of the Parliament and the Ministry and it does not involve anyone outside the political world. What counts is that the diaspora needs the help of the home country and not its slap.

Be wise the MFA to take preventive measures to avoid nasty complications in the future. We have been tired with the "Oh, man, don’t bother me - we are all brothers." Something like this applies only to the Greeks, not to the Skopjans. They do not have such expressions in their speech.

About Marcus A. Templar
Professor Marcus A. Templar is a former U.S. Army Cryptologic Linguist (Language Analyst), Signal Intelligence and All-Source Intelligence Analyst.  During his career as a U.S. Intelligence Officer, besides organizational duties, he discharged the responsibilities of a U.S. Army Observer/Controller, Instructor of Intelligence Courses specializing in Deconstruction of Strategies, Foreign Disclosures Officer, and Translator Interpreter of Serbo-Croatian. 
 
He is the Macedonian League's National Security Advisor.
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The Macedonia naming dispute, the mass rallies and the hoodlums – The genie is out of the bottle

1/25/2019

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PictureMarcus A. Templar
National Security Advisor, Macedonian League
By Marcus A. Templar

Political rallies in a democracy are nothing new or unusual, and not illegal. People have the right to express their views peacefully. What I saw the other day was anything but a peaceful political rally.

Organizing a political rally is not an easy task. In general, one must consider obtainment of permits, ensure publicity, ascertain the projected presence of attendees, secure the procurement of visual effects such as appropriate slogans, flags, sound and lighting systems. One must acquire bullhorns for use by designated “cheerleaders” who are responsible for announcing certain slogans on the subject matter and in the case on the Greekness of Macedonia. In addition, the organizing committee is in control to appoint someone to be the Master of Ceremonies (MC) of the rally who would introduce the speakers. The committee should establish that all written scripts of everyone’s remarks (including of the MC) are reviewed, and have an extra copy of all comments about the subject at hand. Also, it is wise to line up backup speakers in case of emergencies. It is advisable to procure transportation mainly busses to avoid unnecessary traffic in and around the area of the rally but also to avoid any inconvenience of the attendees who come from various points of the general area to the specific location.

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Two significant factors that I would consider as necessary are the traffic marshals and the legislators. The first ones, the traffic marshals are needed to discharge the duties of directing the crowds before, during, and after the rally. It is much advisable to disperse vests preferably yellow with the distinctive insignia of the rally. The responsibility of the traffic marshals includes, but not limited to the control of the crowds from overreacting, and worst, being carried away to violent and unfortunate events. The presence of the marshals is also crucial mainly to avoid the crowds taken advantage by thugs whose designated job is to disrupt the rally and become the center of attention with atrocities that would convert a peaceful rally to an out of control mob. The last, but not least measure is to visit beforehand the legislators who sympathize or even empathize with the cause at hand. Bring them with you, if it is achievable. Appoint them as ad hoc speakers, if it is possible. Most importantly persuade the legislators whose district is the area that the rally takes place to be present.

I only saw some photographs and videos of the political rally of January 20, 2019. It was disappointing at best, disgusting at worst. The organizing committee considering only the purity of the purpose of the rally left almost everything to chance. They should know better. In the last years, it happens anytime a political rally takes place, especially when it has to do with issues of national interests and national security. Don’t they remember what happened at Prespes during the signing of the Agreement?

In this case, the demonstrators were divided into two camps. Those who participated to express their patriotic feelings and the hoodlums, about 30-50 of them who went to the location only to create trouble and havoc. I wonder, what did they think they were going to achieve? The only thing they succeeded in doing was to tarnish the goals of the rally.

The hoodlums were organized and equipped with gas masks, face masks, and some of them with helmets. They were supplied with rocks, paint, flares, fireworks and other objects. Those with the flares had to have very thick gloves to handle the flares since flares get extremely hot seconds after they are lit.

The thugs weaponized the patriotic feelings of the crowd trying to get into the Parliament. I read somewhere that some of them are members of Parliament. If it is the case, and there is evidence to that effect, I hope they are deprived of their parliamentary immunity and charged as common criminals.

One might ask whether the organizing committee put on a façade of a peaceful, patriotic demonstration using these goons to do their dirty work. If that’s the case, the whole thing is a sad comedy perhaps even a nightmare with all patriotic Greeks as they were used as its background actors. However, then, why should the children suffer from the effects of the tear gas? It raises the question, “since the police have used tears gas in the past, why did parents take their children to the political rally?” People should refrain from taking young children to political rallies since they are easily susceptible to trauma.

I am not impressed with the handling of the situation by the police. The police reacted as amateurs, and according to some they acted as if they were collaborators of the attacking hoodlums. I heard that the government had deployed 1,500 policemen. Where were they and doing what? It gave rise to conspiracy theories that the police were in cahoots with the hoodlums. I do not know whether it is true or not; however, what I know is that, in the past, any time the police had arrested a few of the troublemakers they were ordered from higher authorities to let them go. The police know who the scalawags are, but because of political connections, nothing happens to them. As a result, these thugs not only do not learn, but they are emboldened knowing that they are untouchables

"These people here are asleep."

If one thinks that the problem with the name started in 1991, one has no idea what one is talking about. In international law the genie must stay in the bottle; if the genie is out of the bottle, the genie is out of the bottle. Regardless of how one feels about it, there is no return.

It is time that people stop seeing the situation from a partisan prism. Greece is in a bad position because of negligence, indifference, and mainly political tribalism which has positioned it above the country. Such behavior is blamable; it will haunt the country for a long time to come.

Since 1950, ALL political parties, old and new, of ALL political persuasions are equally responsible for the present mess. Each one of them set a stone in the foundation of the problem or contributed by mixing the cement. They had created one problem after another, and then they kicked the can for the other party to deal with it, and the other, and the other and now we are where we are.

The demonstrators demanded that Greeks should hold a referendum on the name issue. I hate to say it, but it is too late. That could happen immediately after Skopje had announced their referendum in 2008 just after Greece had blocked Skopje from membership to NATO; it was the time that the Parliament of Greece was convened to revise the Constitution. Why didn’t the New Democracy Party change Article 44 paragraph 2 of the Constitution to allow voters to demand a referendum? Where were the “super-patriots” at that time? Why did the same people close their mouths when Mrs. Dora Bakoyanni was selling Macedonia to Milososki one centimeter at a time? At that time Constantine Karamanlis was the Prime Minister, and Dora Bakoyanni was the Minister of Foreign Affairs.

Furthermore, where were they after the same people realized that Greece gave away the name of Macedonia to the Slavs through the Interim Accord of 1995? I had suggested that we staged demonstrations before the diplomatic missions of Greece; I was turned down flat. Where were these “super-patriots”?

On February 26, 2006, I wrote the article A Lesson on Democracy which was published by the Website Hellenic Communication Service of Christos and Mary Papoutsy. When one reads the article one understands that indifference, negligence, procrastination, and sloppiness do not pay. As a good friend of mine put it, “This immature or infantile or – at the very least – an adolescent way of handling serious issues is becoming a Greek trademark. Where are those heroes, those scrupulous, self-sacrificing patriots who once did everything out of love for Greece?”

I am closing with a quote from a book I have started writing. It refers to the situation in Athens during the Macedonian Struggle.


Such conduct of the MFA, unfortunately, is nothing new. Indifference, negligence, procrastination, and sloppiness employed by the Greek political elite and the bureaucrats of the Greek Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MFA) only impeded the work of the Greek resistance against the Bulgarians in Macedonia. Besides, such an attitude gave the impression to the Great Powers that the Greek population of Macedonia was non-existent since the only ones fighting for freedom were the Bulgarians.

The behavior and reaction of the Greek political elite between 1878 and 1904 were at best inexcusable. To this effect was Pavlos Melas’ message to Bishop Karavangelis “I have read your report at the Ministry [of Foreign Affairs]. These people here are asleep. What can I do?” The importance of Macedonia was remarked by Pavlos Melas to George Sourlas, the principal of a school at Nymphaion, "Macedonia is the lung of Greece; without it, the rest of Greece would be condemned to death."

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Is it a Dialect or is it a Language?

12/13/2018

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Marcus A. Templar, National Security Advisor | Macedonian League
PictureMarcus A. Templar
National Security Advisor, Macedonian League
It has come to my attention that a few Skopje surrogates in Greece headed by Alexandra Ioannidou wrote an article of some type back in February 2018 insisting that the FYROM Slav speech is a language, not a dialect. The codification of an oral or written speech is a philological issue that follows a political decision. Linguistics deals with the vernacular of speakers of a specific region, a town, or even a neighborhood.

What is the difference?

Usually, I would not care about this, but when I read lame arguments from people who are educated in cognate fields of linguistics as philology and even applied linguistics in order to promote their political pro-Skopje affinities under the cloak of science I perceive it as a personal attack on my intelligence. A true linguist knows that in a strict linguistic sense of the word there is NO difference between a language and a dialect. In order to support their views, Alexandra Ioannidou has brought up scientific issues of pronunciation in hopes that they raise a winning argument to support their political views. The author’s angle was philological at best with a fig leaf of linguistics under the burqa of politics.

The text below is for the benefit of those who might have gotten confused by the politically motivated nonsense of the people in question. I am giving an example of an issue in a more familiar setting to the Greeks.

The ancient Athenian grammarian Aristeas codified the Greek language, and to my knowledge, the whole process lasted about 20 years (285 -265 BC). At that time, over the Greek-speaking world, one would hear Ionic, Doric, and Aeolic as the primary forms of speech, but also the Doric Koine, Northwestern Doric, Attic Koine, and their linguistic offshoots.
i

The Macedonian Greek King of Egypt Ptolemy II sponsored the language codification project for strategic cultural and political reasons. Geostrategically speaking, a river and sea thoroughfare offer means of communication with other cultures develop trade, grow the economy, foster language promotion that in turn stimulate the foundations of cultural expansion advances people’s education. In essence, the sky is the limit of what individuals and societies can do.

Over the years, the product of Aristeas’ assignment developed to the point that the Greek language became the beacon of enlightenment to the world. One of the results of such colonization gave rise to the Latin alphabet as the result of such use of the language and culture of the colonists from Euboean town of Cumae (
Κύμη), the spread of Judaism and Christianity, the emergence of the Cyrillic Alphabet.

Then darkness came to the land, the Ottoman Turk oppressed education in the local speech. It lasted until 1830. Governor Capodistrias ordered the establishment as Greece’s literary language the Koine dialect, which was already codified. In 1976, the vernacular was declared the official language of Greece, having incorporated features of Katharevousa and giving birth to Standard Modern Greek, which is used today for all official purposes and in education. That was also a political decision.

Instead of re-inventing the wheel, I chose to copy the opinion of the famous author and true linguist, Mario Pei.

Politically speaking, one might answer that a language is what is officially accepted as the national form of speech, a dialect what does not have such acceptance. This definition would eliminate as languages such tongues as Welsh and Breton, while Lithuanian and Lettish, not having been languages under the Tsars, would have become languages with the creation of the Lithuanian and Lettish Republics at the close of die First World War, and then would again have ceased to be languages as soon as these nations were absorbed by the Soviet Union.

From the literary standpoint, one might say that a language is a form of speech that has given rise to a literature, a dialect one that has not; this would establish Sicilian and Neapolitan, Ozarkian and Brooklynese as languages, while it would eliminate Sardinian and most of the languages of the African and Native Americans.

A third reply is that there is no intrinsic difference between a language and a dialect, the former being a dialect which, for some special reason, such as being the speech-form of the locality which is the seat of the government, has acquired preeminence over the other dialects of the country.

Actually, there is no clear-cut reply to the question. Even linguists shrink from answering it, and rightly. When a language is examined under the microscope, it is found to be infinitely diversified. There is one form of cleavage and stratification along social and cultural lines, which leads to the infinite gradations of standard tongue, vernacular, slang, cant and jargon. There is also a local, geographical division which extends not merely to regions and sections of a country, but also to towns and quarters of towns. Some linguists go so far as to assert that each speaker may be said to have a dialect of his own, as evidenced by the fact that his friends can identify him by his speech (Pei 1949, 46).

Whether a speech is a dialect or a language is always a matter of the criterion one uses. Alexandra Ioannidou chose the political criterion concluding that “Macedonian” is a language, not a dialect.

My background

Before I proceed, let me explain my linguistic background. I was born in an extended family of four languages with Greek being the fifth language as lingua franca. I learned the speech of the Bitola – Prilep, which to me is one of the South Eastern Linguistic Bulgarian group of dialects, from my maternal family from the day I was born. It was my first language, which I heard from my dearest mother. The first alphabet I learned was the Serbian based Cyrillic alphabet of Skopje even before the Greek kindergarten. As far as my mom was concerned, she spoke Srpski or Serbian as she used to call her speech. Why Serbian?

To begin with, at the time of my mother’s birth the region of the FYROM was called South Serbia. Blazhe Koneski standardized the language under the auspices of the Marxist government of Yugoslavia. It was a philological product for political expediency.


The Past

Misirkov suggested that the new country, Macedonia, as visualized by the Socialist fighters of the VMRO and later resolved by communists should recognize the central dialect as its literary language. He did not suggest that the government assign the task to a pro-Serbian linguist who would take it away from the original tongue. I have no idea what happened to the – Шо праиш? Aрнo! (Sho prajish? - Arno!” (How are you? Well!) of the Prilep-Bitola dialect. It has been replaced by the Serbian – “Kako si? – Dobro”. This is only one small example of how Koneski had fixed the new “language.”


However, the language started as part of the Western Bulgarian group of dialects, and through the intervention of politicians, it was navigated towards Serbian away from the original speech. I would never forget my mother telling her first cousin in the 1960s, “What have you done to our language? In a few years, we will not be able to communicate any longer”.

The explanation of whether the language that my mother spoke was called Serbian or Macedonian exists in the annals of the Illyrian Movement. Dragutin Rakovac, author and publicist with degrees in law and philosophy, wrote a fascinating observation in his short essay entitled Mali katekizam za velike ljude (Small Catechism for Grown Men), in which he remarked, and I am translating,


The names of peoples and languages may not and cannot be invented. The Croat, Serb, and Slovene names would, all else being equal, have the greatest right to the common appellation for our language and literature. These three names are hereditary in southwestern Slavia, as the names of the three main branches of the southwestern Slavic people. But we know that a brother does not tolerate a brother's supremacy and experience teaches us that a Croat will never accept a Serb or Slovene name; a Serb will never accept a Croat or Slovene name, and neither will a Slovene accept a Croat or Serb name. (Dragutin Rakovac, Mali katekizam za velike ljude, Zagreb: Illyrian National Press of Dr. Ljudevit Gaj, 1842, p. 16) -- Translation is mine.

Members of the Illyrian Movement knew who the South Slavic tribes were. How is it possible that they missed the Macedonians and their distinct language? That movement gave rise to Yugoslavism and later to the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats, and Slovenes. As it is apparent, ethnicities as Bosnian, Montenegrin, and Macedonian were missing. It was before Communism started implementing The National Question as the tool serving the national interests of Russia under a different administration.

In the sixth paragraph of the Resolution of the Comintern dated 11 February 1934 is stated, “The chauvinists of Greater Serbia, referring to the presence of Serbian impurities in the language of the local Macedonian population, declare this population as one of the tribes of the single Yugoslav nation-state and forcibly serve it.” The tribes the resolution had mentioned were Serbian, Montenegrins, and “Macedonians.” They all spoke the Štokavian dialect during the Kingdom of Yugoslavia.

Alexandra Ioannidou also mentioned something about phonemes and alphabets. There is a difference between the standardized alphabet, which in theory represents the phonemes of a language, and the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA). The standardized alphabet of any language is part of philology, although letters, in theory, represent phonemes. The International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA), is part of linguistics of that language, but it is not part of philology. Such an alphabet concerns the phonemes of a speech in any conceivable way regardless of how they are presented in the standardized alphabet. For instance, if we take the Greek language, we see that the alphabet does not include letters reflecting the sounds of λ, ν, μ, π, in λαλιά (lj), νιάτα (ŋ), μιά (ɱ ), ποιός (πχ). We can have the r flat or roll, and yet we use only one letter for both. Something similar one can say about the letter L that is known as dark L at the end of a word or light L at the beginning of a word. What can we say about the Pelasgian remnants found in the Greek language as σσ, ρρ? They exist, but their sounds are questionable.

I would expect some candor over the political poppycock from someone who pretends to be a philologist, even in Russian. Such a philologist remind me of a Croat teacher in DLI who insisted that Croatian and Serbian are different languages; then a Bosnian Muslim came into the discussion noticing that Bosnian was a completely different language from the other two. A young Muslim woman from Ženice, Bosnia told me, “Now that we have a country; we have our own language, Bosnian.” Furthermore, their governments of the former Yugoslavia had certified interpreters for communication among themselves. It is ridiculous.

Thus according to the specifications of Alexandra Ioannidou, a country has to have its own language. As late as 1920, an attempt was made to coin the term Unitedstatish to describe the language of the American Union (Pei 1949, 298). This means that if the U.S. Congress had succeeded in passing the law, the official language of the United States would not have been English, but Unitedstatish
language!!! Under the same logic, Americans, Canadians, Australians, Irish, and all other people whose governments have imposed on them English do not have their own language. We have to push for Austrian and Swiss languages. I do not even want to touch the issue of Spanish, French, Portuguese, and a few others. My goodness, billions of people are mute! Are we serious? It is the ultimate extreme of nationalistic inferiority.


Some “linguistic” examples from my life

In the Slavic languages ​​of the same group, in particular, the distinction between languages ​​is more difficult than anyone can imagine. People can easily communicate after they dismount from their nationalistic high horse.

Nevenka was a Serbian refugee who lived at the UN housing at the Votsi area of Thessaloniki. She and my grandmother had befriended each other after an accidental encounter. All the years of friendship, Nevenka used her Serbian jekavski dialect while my grandmother spoke her native Bitola-Prilep-Veles dialect.

In my life, I have attended meetings of Serbs discussing matters with Bulgarians by using the kje (ќ) speech as they had mentioned, i.e., the Bitola-Prilep-Veles dialect. In my presence Croats from Zadar, Dalmatia spoke in ikavski with Serbs from Vojvodina in ekavski of the Što dialect. I have attended conferences and meetings of the people of Yugoslavia back in the 1970s and 1980s. Every single speaker spoke in his or her dialect. They just used the vocabulary of their preference without any problem of understanding each other and that included the Slavonic months that Croats use.

When I attended the U.S. Army certification course of translator/interpreter, one of our teachers was a Croat from Bosnia, one from Montenegro and one from Serbia.

In 1968, near the White Tower of Thessaloniki, where the touring coaches are parked, I spoke Serbian to a group of Slovak tourists who came to see the birthplace of the great brothers Cyril and Methodius. We did not have a communication problem.

In the late 1970s and before I joined the U.S. Army, two women, and I were talking as going to work at Sears Tower in Chicago. One of the women spoke Russian, the other one Polish, and I spoke Serbian. We had no problem communicating.

In 1973 waiting for the train for Zagreb at a Train Station platform in Trieste, Italy, I was speaking Croatian to someone thinking that he was a Croat. As we saw the train coming, the man asked, “Where did not you learn such excellent Bulgarian?” I was stunned. He explained to me that he was a Bulgarian diplomat. He thought I spoke Bulgarian as an educated Bulgarian would. We had spoken for approximately 20 minutes, and yet we never realized that we spoke different languages, both Slavic of the South Slavic group.

In 1984, as a valedictorian student of my Czech Class at the Defense Language Institute, Monterrey, California, I gave my speech in Slovak, not in Czech. To this day, I am the only one who has done so. Nobody had any problem understanding it. I spoke about the city of my birth Thessaloniki and the contributions of its two children (Sts. Cyril and Methodius) to the Slavic enlightenment. Its title was Solún, nevesta Termy (Thessaloniki, the bride of Therme).

In 1993 while in Sofia, I used my maternal dialect of Bitola – Prilep communicating with my Bulgarian collocutors as if we spoke the same language, we actually did speak the same language! I had attended my Sunday liturgy in Bulgarian; no sweat.

I know a woman who works as a cashier in a grocery store nearby; she is from Petrich, Bulgaria. One day I spoke to her in the central Skopjan dialect, per Misirkov. She said to me that my Bulgarian reminded her of her grandmother. To me, it was a compliment.

Politics is Perception

Nevertheless, the issue that Alexandra Ioannidou has raised is not linguistic; it is philological, which means very political. They have made evident that their concern was strictly political as they allied with gods and demons defending not their own country’s national interests and national security, but the adversary’s national interests acting as Skopje’s fifth phalanx and proxies.

Politics is perception. The nationalistic overtones as Alexandra Ioannidou and the Skopje surrogates put it, had to do with slogans like Η Μακεδονία είναι μία και είναι ελληνική. Such slogans perhaps facilitated more Skopje’s positions internationally than strengthening Greece’s rights. Although I fully understand the meaning of “Macedonia is one, and it is Greek,” because I have read Strabo (Ἐστι µέν οὖν Ἑλλάς καί ἡ Μακεδονία), billions of people around the world might have thought that the Greeks wanted to annex Skopje. After all, the republic of Skopje is known to be called “Macedonia” all over the world for 30 years now.

The idea was not to hide into our shell ignoring the world, nor was it a psychological mirror image of the world, i.e., since we see it our way, everyone else sees it likewise. The whole idea was to win both the hearts and minds of the world. Slogans that emanate nationalistic and expansionistic overtones as historically correct, as they were, hindered our objective. A very slight change in the wording would make the essential vital difference. Perhaps, the organizers should consult people who understand advertising and how the market works to prepare slogans that sway people to their destined target.

Nevertheless, I would not be hastened to blame the demonstrators whose region and indeed the country are under attack for the failure of the organizers (leadership and sponsors) of such demonstrations. To me, it is a patriotic sentiment expressed in a misguided mode. In the article by Alexandra Ioannidou, I had not read anything that condemned the truly irredentist slogans, maps, photographs by the WMC, UMD, and other Skopjan Organizations. I am not even touching the issue of Skopje’s official violations of articles 2, 3, 4, 6.2, 7.1, 7.2, 11.1 of the Interim Accord or pre-Agreement if you wish, which include the antiquization project regardless of the intended purpose, always according to Skopje.

As I started writing this paper, Skopje’s Prime Minister has already violated Article 4.3 of the Prespes Agreement (The ink is not dry yet.), article 6.2 of the Interim Agreement, and the Article 2.4 of the UN Charter.

I do agree with Alexandra Ioannidou that the acronym The FYROM was stupid, but not for the reasons they think. It is downright stupid knowing how International Law works.

Greek diplomacy should have known better. The termination of the acronym, i.e., Macedonia gave the right to Skopje to maintain it in the final name. It was also the name responsible for the whole world to call Skopje, Macedonia. It was not an accident that Mr. Vasilakis a fine diplomat and negotiator back in the 1990s had started pushing for the name Republic of Macedonia (Skopje) under the precedent principle of Republic of the Congo (Brazzaville) and the Democratic Republic of the Congo (Kinshasa). The argument was simple, “since Greece had accepted the word Macedonia in the Interim Agreement, it shall accept it in the final name. International Law is based on the principle of stare decisis; once a country accepts something, it establishes a new reality even if in the future the new reality proves impractical or detrimental to the country at hand leading to various troubles or being impossible for it to carry on without further complications. We all see the complications now.

The other issue is that people tend to simplify official names of countries that look complex, names such as United States of Brazil, United States of Mexico, and United States of America to respectively Brazil, Mexico, and America. They did the same with Skopje’s stupid acronym.

Many years ago, I read an article of Nova Makedonija in which a journalist was asking, “Who has ever heard a country to adopt the name of its Capital?” The journalist, had never heard countries such as Mexico and Panama that took their name from their Capital. Both cities, Mexico and Panama, preexisted the countries and their names.

Greek blogs very irresponsibly did everything possible to fall for any sensationalist trash prepared by the propaganda experts of Skopje and its diaspora that read online pushing people to react taking away the attention of the Greek population from the real issues of national interests to one shoddy information or another. The sensationalist trash of the Greek blogs, in reality, was a manufactured compost.

Finally, Greek Mass Media recklessly filtered the thoughts, mouths, and hands of those few Greek Vouleftes who wanted to mention something sensible away from the rubbish of their party line. As if they were scandalmonger tabloids, the Mass Media seeking political dirt in order to improve their ratings and revenue started calling such Vouleftes undignified and pejorative names as “dolphins” who wanted to take over the leadership of a Party even when the so-called leadership stank. Obviously, for these media, Article 60.1 of the Greek Constitution is subject to lavatory use.

Misirkov and Today’s Reality

Misirkov, the so-called Father of Macedonism, wrote a book On Macedonian Matters, and some articles and essays. One of his essays and two articles in addition to the book are pertinent to this article.

One of these essays On the Significance of The Moravian or Resavian Dialect for Contemporary and Historical Ethnography in the Balkan Peninsula offers scientific argument that Alexandra Ioannidou in Greece forgot to mention. It is about the Resavian dialect the phonemes of which coincide with the central dialect of the FYROM.

Although the book On Macedonian Matters originally was published in the late autumn of 1903, there are certain words and expressions that suggest some redactions, at least three times. One emerged after 1914. The second redaction occurred after May 1919, i.e., after the formation of the Third or Communist International Association aka Comintern and the third modification ensued after July 1924, i.e., publication of the III Communist International, Fifth Congress Resolution on National Question in Central Europe and Balkans - The Balkans: Macedonian and Thracian Questions.

The above book and the two articles published in Mir in 1925 expressed one and one thing only. The separation of Macedonia from Bulgaria that Misirkov advocated had nothing to do with the existence of the Macedonian people as I am explaining below. Misirkov advocated the separation of Macedonia from Bulgaria in order to stop Bulgarian ideological interference in Macedonia that Misirkov did not like. I am quoting him,

To avoid copying them blindly and transplanting socialism into Macedonia instead of nationalism, as the Internal Macedonian Revolutionary Organization has done. By divorcing our interests from those of Bulgaria we will be saved from aping the merciless acts of the Bulgarians and from having to accept their assurances that Bulgaria is our benefactor and Russia our greatest enemy; thus we will also develop a critical attitude towards our own actions and those of others (Misirkov 1970, 111-2).

Misirkov used the phrase “Macedonian people” in the sense of a Slavic ethnicity, but he recognized the fact that in Macedonia other ethnicities existed, e.g., using the same demonym. Any time he wanted to clarify who were the Macedonians he was writing about, differentiated his “Macedonian” compatriots and of course himself as “Macedonian Slavs” (27 times).

As the Comintern was concerned, Hristo Andonov-Poljanski, a historian and former rector of the University of Skopje, gave the following explanation regarding the definition of the Macedonian people, “In Comintern papers, the expression Macedonian people cover all populations that inhabited the region of Macedonia. That is, all the inhabitants of Macedonia, irrespective of ethnic origin, constituted the Macedonian people” (Hristo Andonov-Poljanski. 1981, v. 2). Such a definition is also evident in Misirkov’s book in which he wanted to see Macedonia as a country with the Macedonian Slavs as its dominant ethnicity and the central Macedonian dialect its literary language for all Macedonia.

He also explained that on March 12, 1925 (Macedonian Nationalism) the Macedonian Slav intelligentsia was scientific in thought, Macedonian in conscience. The first term means that the Macedonian Slav intelligentsia was revolutionary socialist or communist if you wish and the second one means that the revolutionary socialist or communists were compelled to follow the edict of the Comintern issued about nine months earlier.

However, since Alexandra Ioannidou brought up certain phonemes to prove her philological points using some sketchy phonemes, here what Misirkov read into one of the meetings of the St. Petersburg Ethnographic Society and afterward printed in the journal Живая старина (Live Antiquity) of the Society VII Edition; III and IV Sections; V, 482-485 and also in the Bulgarian Review, V, volume I, September 1898, 121-127.

Bearing in mind the role that language plays in the classification of different tribes and larger units, as nations, I draw attention to research that I have done in the South Slavic transitional dialect between the Bulgarian and Serbian languages and currently very important because of the historical ethnography of the Balkan Peninsula. I mean the Moravian or (according to the Karadzić) Resavian dialect, to which more than two-thirds of all the Slavic population in Serbia speak.

The Moravian dialect covers the entire southern, eastern, and central Serbia to the River Kolubara and the tributaries to the left of the River Ibar. [The Moravian dialect] is very near to both Shopski and Skopjan speech indicating the ethnicity of the modern Moravian peasants. Also, taking into account the prevalence of the relationship of the spoken word, the latter understand the speech of those mentioned within the borders of the medieval Serbian kingdom. It seemingly gives us knowledge of the ethnicity of the Slavic tribes, which composed of the kingdom.

Here is what Misirkov articulated:

Instead of the Old Slavonic also known as the Old Bulgarian nasal sound ь as in ръкa, мъка, път the nasal sound converts to y ( = u) as in рука (ruka = hand), мука (muka = torture), пут (put = road).

The voiced л (L) does not exist anymore and instead of l turns into u, e.g., from влк, ябълка, вълна to vuk (wolf), yabuka (apple), vuna (wool).

Old Slavonic dark sounds ъ and ь are replaced by the sound 'a,' which, when it is not emphasized is pronounced on more or less between а and ъ, e. g.: пожаревац and пожаревъц.

Instead of the Old Slavonic шт (sht) and жд (zhd) the sounds of ћ (ć), i.e. between ts and ch; it is a voiceless alveolo-palatal affricate, and ђ (đ pronounce dz - дz), which people older than 30 years of age pronounce it softer, almost palatalized as к and г in кь, гь or к' and г') (Translation is mine).

Based on the above features of the Moravian dialect, its proximity to Bulgarian is higher than to the Serbo-Croatian language. The use [of the Serbian language] at the western limits of the medieval Serbian kingdom, the absence of accurate data on the existence of Serbs in the territory of [modern day] Serbia specifically those speaking the Moravian dialect until the founding of the kingdom of Nemanjić, and finally, because there is indirect evidence pointing at the absence of Serbian tribes in the area of Morava, I came to the following conclusion.


1. That the modern Serbian Slavs from Moravian speech are closer to Bulgarian Slavs than to Serbo-Croats,

2.
That the ancestors of the Moravian Slavs were closer to those Slavs, which afterward formed the Bulgarian nation;

3. The medieval Slavic kingdom founded by Nemanja enlarged but his successors called Serbians was formed by tribes closer to those Slavs, which was initiated Bulgarian kingdom than to Serbo-Croatian tribes

4. That in the Serbian kingdom only the Nemanja dynasty was Serbian.

Misirkov, Importance of Resavian or Moravian dialect of Contemporary and historical ethnography of the Balkan Peninsula, Saint Petersburg, 1897.


The readers can draw their own conclusions. Misirkov continued,

“these principles should guide us in creating our literary language and orthography. These principles entail:


1) The adoption of the Prilep-Bitola dialect, as the central dialect in Macedonia for the purpose of creating a literary language equally different from Serbian and Bulgarian.
2) The adoption of a phonetic orthography with letters as used in this back and with minor concessions to etymology.
3) The collection of lexical material from all the regions of Macedonia”. (Misirkov 1970, 202).

Regarding the speech Misirkov stated,


Each national language has its history and its contemporary variants, dialects, sub-dialects, etc., and our language is no exceptions. The history of our language shows that the present variants are derived from older ones, which is proof that they originate from a common Macedonian language, and that Macedonian comes from the South-Slav group, and so on. On this basis, one may determine which variant or dialect in any particular period was most used in the written language.

The history of Macedonian, like the history of other languages, shows that any dialect, regional variant or accent may be used in literature. The privilege any dialect or regional, accent may enjoy through being made the vehicle of literature as historians of the language might say is not granted on the basis of any aesthetic superiority it may have, but for purely practical considerations, i.e., as a result of historical and cultural circumstances (Misirkov 1970, 194)

Thus when Misirkov mentioned that the Macedonian Slavs could not understand the Bulgarian literary language what he meant was that they could not understand the Eastern dialect of the Bulgarian language. The Eastern dialect employs free intonation and in general sounds like Russian while to long e of the Western dialect becomes
ya in the Eastern dialect.

That is (W) mléko = (E) mlyáko = milk. Under such circumstances, any illiterate, uneducated, or untrained Macedonian Slav was bound not to understand the new literary language.

I could easily contribute some truly linguistic information regarding the pronunciation of the letter ѫсъ aka юсъ большой (big yus) in Russian after its abolition from modern Cyrillic. Although it is not written anymore, it does affect the pronunciation of words that used to include it. This is only the pronunciation in areas mainly of Bulgaria and the FYROM, but also the region of Pirot. The original spelling was
зѫбъ (tooth) and мѫжъ (man) although the pronunciation of the same letter differed. The actual pronunciation of the words зѫбъ (tooth) and мѫжъ (man) in the modern era is зъб, мъж, заб, маж, зуб, муж, зôб, мôж, зоб, мож, зêб, мêж, зъмб, мънж, замб, манж, зôмб, мôнж in different regions of Bulgaria, the FYROM, and Serbia transcending political boundaries.

One cannot judge the linguistic family of a speech and its relationship to other vernaculars by its vocabulary or even by the philological codification, but by its grammar and syntax. Notwithstanding, the literary language of the FYROM grammatically is identical as all Western Bulgarian dialects whereas its vocabulary has been “improved” by insertion of Serbian, Greek, and even Polish words in order to make it a language separate from both Bulgarian and Serbian. If such a move is not political, I have no idea what is.

Alexandra Ioannidou and Skopje’s surrogates in Greece got a chance to mock the Greek public since very few Greeks know the philology and linguistics of the Skopjan Bitola-Prilep-Veles dialect. Alexandra Ioannidou actually in her effort to describe the grammar and syntax of the FYROM literary speech she described the grammar and syntax of ALL Western Bulgarian dialects, but she coined it as “Macedonian.” In their mind, such a criterion makes the Skopjan dialect, a language. Whom are they kidding?

The arguments they have brought could buy them a bravo among the linguistically ignorant people. If we apply identical criteria to Greece, each village and town in Greece along with cities like Athens and Thessaloniki would end up having about 10 to 20 dialects each and not one of them could reach the point of a language unless the government of Greece designates which of them will be Greece’s literary language. That is a political criterion, not a linguistic one. Greece did the same at the beginning of 1982. Indeed each of us has his or her dialect.

Phonological differences make one speech different from another and in this case the grammatical or phonetic differences are in general the characteristics which one may apply or attributed on all of the Western Bulgarian linguistic group that includes more than 30 dialects. We could easily add the transitional dialects or the Torlak group.

Let me add something else that Misirkov wrote:


Hence one ethnic group does not choose a name for itself, but the neighbouring ethnicities make up a name for it, and the [said] ethnic group adopts it. It is the most common and very natural thing that one’s ethnic name first occurs in one of its neighbouring ethnic groups. So, the neighbouring ethnic groups are related like a godfather and a godchild (Misirkov 1970, 168).

I wonder why didn’t Skopje want Greece to baptize their ethnicity? If it were up to me, I would have baptized the country as Yugoslavonia, which would apply as the nationality to all citizens and
Slaviani for the ethnicity of the Slavic population per Misirkov (Misirkov 1970, 168).

Alexandra Ioannidou and the Skopje surrogates in Greece missed Misirkov’s book and essays preferrering Skopje’s absurdities only because they want to support Skopje’ positions, not of their birth country.


Conclusion

I found the explanations of Alexandra Ioannidou and Skopje surrogates in Greece very political, perhaps somewhat philological, but not at all linguistic. As far as linguistics is concerned, what the Skopje surrogates in Greece wrote was,

                                               Από την πόλη έρχομαι και στην κορφή καν' έλα
                                         Ν' ανοίξω το μπαστούνι μου να μην βραχεί η ομπρέλα.


As one of the greatest minds of all times put it, “It is no mark of a man's intelligence to be able to confirm whatever he pleases: but to be able to discern that to be true which is true, and that to be false which is false, is the mark and character of intelligence” (Swedenborg 1912, 334).

If Alexandra Ioannidou and the Skopje surrogates in Greece are behind the recognition of the Macedonian language as referred to in Article 1.3c of the Prespes Agreement and whether the same people had influenced the process or deceived as volunteered experts the Greek negotiators and the political world, the only conclusion one reaches is that Greece lacked negotiating strategy and experts. The country was led like sheep to the slaughter.

I only hope that Skopje keeps violating the Agreement to the point that the blame game starts and the UNSC forces take some action against Skopje. With the present crop in the Greek Parliament regardless of political party, I cannot see any future government taking Skopje to the International Court of Justice (ICJ) requesting cancellation of the Agreement by pressing for the International Law Commission to investigate based on Article 2, paragraph 4 of the UN Charter or other pertinent articles of the Vienna Convention.

The question I have is, how is the Greek government going to implement the Agreement. As it is drafted is bound to fuel domestic instability considering the irredentism promoted by external third parties and extremist groups, it undermines Greece’s national interests, and leaves Greece’s psychological aspect of national security undefended; it is a clear threat to Greece’s stability. Usually, a country in psychological disarray seeks solace in some positive aspects of the tragedy. I have no idea what kind of a solace one can reap from the Agreement of Prespes.

Biographical Note

Marcus A. Templar is a Slavicist and former Code Breaker, and Principal Subject Matter Expert in Signal and All-Source Intelligence Analysis serving the U.S. Intelligence Community over 30 years. During his Intelligence career, he has supported U.S. intelligence operations on a national level and served as a professor of Intelligence and National Security Courses in U.S. Intelligence Schools.

His academic research includes the political ideology of Bulgarian intellectuals after the Commune of Paris and the effect of their ideology to the establishment, development, and activities of the Internal Macedonian Revolutionary Organization (IMRO) aka VMRO. The research also examines the organization’s activities in order to create a communist regime of Bulgarians in Macedonia at least 20 years before the founding of the USSR. More specifically, his work analyzes the relationship and interaction among members and factions of the organization (IMRO) with contemporary political, pan-Slavic movements and governments, as well as the organization’s political and terrorist activities.

Academically he is intrinsically interested in matters of national security, public governmental policy, and strategy.

Professionally he has been involved in the Order of Battle, Military Doctrine, and Strategic Culture of Turkey, Ukraine, as well as Counter-terrorism in the Horn of Africa.

________
iFor details on the ancient Macedonian dialect of the Greek language family read, https://www.academia.edu/23581922/Hellenic_Migrations_and_Katadesmos_A_Paradigm_of_Macedonian_Speech


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Turkey's Political and Economic Future under Erdoğan

7/30/2018

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Marcus A. Templar, National Security Advisor | Macedonian League​
PictureMarcus A. Templar National Security Advisor,
Macedonian League
The Hellenic Cultural Commission sponsored a Panel Discussion on July 25 in Atlantic City, New Jersey.   The panel discussion transpired during the Convention of the Family Supreme Convention of the American Hellenic Educational Progressive Association (AHEPA). 

​The moderator of the panel was Mr. Lou Katsos, and the participants in the discussion were Professor Alexander Kitroeff, former Ambassador Karolos Gadis and I. The subject of the discussion was, "Turkish Irredentism and the Finlandization of Eastern Mediterranean."

As it is known, Finlandization is the process or result of being obliged to favor, for economic reasons, or at least not to oppose, the interests of a great power as in the case of Finland the interests of the former Soviet Union despite not being politically allied to it.

The panelists suggested and discussed several points of view from historical, political, diplomatic and psychological aspects of Turkey and its present leadership especially of President Recep Tayyıp Erdoğan. Some of the opinions expressed below were also communicated during a radio program and individual conversations.

The core of the discussion was Erdoğan and the new Turkey as he has envisioned it and to implement his vision, even before he took an oath as President, he issued a published a 143-page dictum changing the operation of every single Ministry and other agencies under the Ministries. After that, Erdoğan continued issuing decrees after decrees making the Republic of Turkey, a fully functional dictatorship that Ataturk would be jealous and the Sultan disgusted. 

Controlling all political life, Erdoğan could essentially become President for Life whose psychopathic cruelty would make François Duvalier, also known as Papa Doc, of Haiti a Cub Scout. This man fundamentally holds an unchecked wicked authority as Russia’s Vladimir Putin and Hungary’s Viktor Orban. They all used democracy to expand their influence in the same manner that the Communists had done in the past.

But Erdoğan’s vision for Turkey is magnificently ambitious and costly. Because the Straits are getting shallower and narrower, Erdoğan is determined to open a canal from the Black Sea – five km from Baklalı - to the Sea of Marmara – Küçükçekmece 25 km west of Istanbul; the name of the canal is, Canal Istanbul.  Erdoğan is determined to make the canal the rival of Suez and Panama. Erdoğan has brushed aside legal, environmental, and budgetary questions to make the canal a central plank of his re-election bid on June 24. The Financial Times has quoted Erdoğan saying, “One of my first projects in the new era will be to start building Canal Istanbul”… “There may be a Suez somewhere, a Panama somewhere else, but with Canal Istanbul, we will send the world a message.” (Financial Times, Ayla Jean Yackley, May 29, 2018)

The problem is monetary. When Erdoğan announced the Canal in 2011, the estimated cost was 13 billion U.S. dollars. Today it has increased to 15 billion U.S. dollars, and by the time the project ends its price could reach the 20 billion U.S. dollars.

Also, Erdoğan wants to build at least one runway, long enough to take care of taxiing needs of such a military aircraft as an F35. However, it always depends on specific variants as whether Turkey will be trusted to own such an aircraft, the capability for such a heavy and costly aircraft to maneuver (turn, climb, run), the specific models of the aircraft (traditional takeoff/landing versus vertical takeoff/landing), guns, and a few others. With a price tag of $94.6 million U.S. dollars each for only the basic F35A, the price for a more advanced model of F35 could increase its cost to 132.44 million U.S. dollars.

If we add the above sums to Erdoğan’s grand plan regarding the Istanbul Airport, we can quickly add the cost of 12 billion U.S. dollars. The idea is the improvement of the airport by adding six runways across a strip-like land. It will take about a decade to complete with the projection of making the busiest airport not just in the region, but also on the planet. The projected number of passengers could hit the 200 million people annually.

However, in a global economy, which is afflicted gradually by worries from an unfolding trade war to higher oil prices, Turkey could be very close to comfort. Turkey’s economy is 22nd in the world below that of the state of Illinois, which is 20th, and Russia, which is 13th in the world. Starting a business is not an easy venture, but including family in the governments is unwise. In a country whose finances constitute a bubble ready to burst it is the worst thing anyone wants to do; yet, Erdoğan has installed Berat Albayrak as the Finance Minister, who is a businessman and politician, but also his son-in-law. 

The question is whether Erdoğan will listen to his relative or he will tell his son-in-law to implement his personal policies. “It is abundantly clear that the president’s whim will appraise all future strategic decisions taken about anything in Turkey, and the new cabinet will function purely as a rubber-stamping forum,”… “The only constraints set to be imposed on Erdoğan are those likely to derive from bond and currency markets, which may inhibit any overtly reckless economic policymaking” (Bloomberg Businessweek, Onur Ant, July 10, 2018).

The changes in the function of the government are expected to have a severe impact on Turkish assets. It is assumed that “Turkish assets to remain under pressure unless policy measures address the country’s high inflation and external dependence. The central bank has not raised rates enough like some other countries given the government’s focus on GDP growth rather than inflation or currency stability” (Gopalakrishnan, DBS Bank). On the other hand, Turkey is likely to face many challenges ahead, as it’s running a massive fiscal deficit but “don't have savings to fund it.” 

Also, Erdoğan was the one who decided Turkey’s monetary policy, keeping the Central Bank of the Republic of Turkey captive. He has recently prevented constraints attempted by the Central Bank. In the last two years under Erdoğan’s control of monetary policy helped the Turkish voters to do better by offering cash bonuses and other bribing methods. But Turkey has had extraordinarily relaxed both monetary and fiscal policy, which created a variety of issues: The Turkish lira has declined, the inflation rate is in the area of 12% although the target was 5% and also Erdoğan’s restriction of the Central Bank’s independence. Sitting on interest rates while opting for a monetary policy that prioritizes growth over controlling its inflation is a real problem.

Nevertheless, the voters preferred the man who as Mayor of Istanbul had cleaned the city even if their first choice was a bit shaky is an understatement. Democracy in Turkey suffers since its inception oscillating from the Socialists of Ataturk to the right wing Islamists of Erdoğan, and that includes about 1.5 million who live abroad most of them in Germany.

The burst of the economic bubble and the consequent implosion of the present political survival of Turkey is not a matter of supposition, but a matter of time.

About Marcus A. Templar
Professor Marcus A. Templar is a former U.S. Army Cryptologic Linguist (Language Analyst), Signal Intelligence and All-Source Intelligence Analyst.  During his career as a U.S. Intelligence Officer, besides organizational duties, he discharged the responsibilities of a U.S. Army Observer/Controller, Instructor of Intelligence Courses specializing in Deconstruction of Strategies, Foreign Disclosures Officer, and Translator Interpreter of Serbo-Croatian. 
 
He is the Macedonian League's National Security Advisor.

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The 2018 Macedonian League Annual Assessment with National Security Advisor Marcus A. Templar

7/12/2018

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In the 2018 Macedonian League Annual Assessment, we talk with Marcus A. Templar for an in-depth analysis of the Macedonia Name Issue; the Greek political establishment; Greek diaspora affairs and our future.
Picture
Not taking into account the recent Prespes Agreement, where did the Greek political establishment go wrong on domestic and foreign policies, especially as it concerns the “FYROM Name Issue?”

The answer is simple, EVERYWHERE!
 
Modern Greece does not have a clear, coherent national goal. The national objectives of the Greek revolutionaries as expressed at the Declaration of Independence, Justice, Personal Freedom, Ownership, and Honor, over the years have become irrelevant as politicians interpret these goals as part of their personal, not national aims. They have the mentality of the kodzabashis, i.e. the appointed heads of village councils, and the Phanariot hospodars, i.e. the masters who ruled the Rum millet as a second governing tier. This mentality has overshadowed the spirit of the 1821 revolution. 

​Like the Phanariots of the old times, who “sold the offices under their control and exacted extraordinary taxes and contributions to the fullest extent of their power.  Corruption, initiated at the top, extended down to the lowest levels of administration” (Jelavich, 1962). Nikolaos Soutzos expressed decadence of the Greek political crème de la crème as follows, “The prevalence over their competitors and their dominance through the use of insidious means, which the Turks highly encouraged, became the constant pursuit of the Phanariots. It was an incessant struggle, especially when the stakes were linked to their fortune, and often their life." (Soutzo, 1899, 4).  
​

PictureMarcus A. Templar, National Security Advisor,
Macedonian League
But the kodzabashis the headmen of the enslaved Greece, were not any better. They had prolonged the enslavement of Greece and through their spiritual offspring continue to ensure the maintenance of their Ottoman mentality. This time the terminology and the names are different, but not the narrative. Nothing has changed since. Expressions such as «Ξες ποιος είμαι
εγώ, ρε;» or «μία θεσούλα στο δημόσιο,» «το μέσον» and a few other similar expressions explain why Greece is a mentally Ottoman province. The political elite of Greece and their cohorts govern the country as if they are the hospodars, kodzabashis, and kaymakams of the estate. The sad part is that Greek voters have entrusted them and preserve them with their vote. No matter which party is in government it controls the country through the use of advertising funding in the media. Not only have they managed the country, but they also restrain the diaspora using the same method. No wonder nothing happens in Greece.  
 
The problem is that the above “masters” have downgraded the social education of the Greek nation by indirectly bribing the means of formal, informal, and non-formal education. Such a downgrade benefits the crème de la crème of the Greek ruling society. Under this downgraded learning, patriotism has turned into nationalism and sometimes ultra-nationalism, and hard-core communists give lessons on something they do not understand – democracy. 
 
Only those who understand the full meaning of Socrates’ Crito can fully comprehend the meaning of homeland.  Greeks have lost the ideals of their ancestors and the direction that those ideals could lead the country into the 21st century and beyond.  Democracy does not work when people think only of themselves and not the general good.  Also, people in Greece did not learn and have not learned how to think.    
 
The lack of articulate national goals has resulted in Greece’s lack of coherent national interests. It is why Greece is deprived of proper foreign and domestic policies. Thus Greece has partisan interests which are reflected in foreign and domestic policies. If a country does not arrange a national path for the future it cannot develop a strategy to achieve any goal. Greeks think emotionally based on stories that only those who believe what they read in the “National Enquirer” would believe.
 
Since 1829, Greece’s foreign and domestic policies revolve around personal interests, direct and indirect reward of the political elite which is reactive, not proactive, to external pressures, movements, events, and circumstances that feed decision-making and behavior of its politicians.
 
It is said that possession is nine-tenths of the law. This adage means that ownership is easier to maintain if one has possession of something, or difficult to enforce if one does not. In the case of Skopje, Skopje possesses the name “Macedonia” since 1943 as a constituent republic within Marxist Yugoslavia with full government structure whereas Greece had Macedonia as an administrative unit and often the Press of Athens would call it Northern Greece. Even now, the Athenian Press continues to call Macedonia Northern Greece, never mind the cop-out they give when asked. I understand that in using Northern Greece the Athenian government meant Macedonia and Thrace; however, as Northern Greece or later as Macedonia-Thrace, Macedonia did not have the international exposure that Skopje had.
 
Yugoslavia started having indications and warnings of political upheavals in 1990. The 14th and last Congress of the League of Yugoslav Communists took place on January 20-22, 1990, the Slovenian and the Croatian delegations left during the Congress. That move by the delegations should have been a warning that something serious was going to happen. By May of 1991, despite the draconian efforts of Vasil Tupurkovski to keep the Republic together, the Socialist Federative Republic of Yugoslavia was over.  Greece as a neighboring country directly affected by any political and military turmoil should have monitored the situation and it should have assessed the fallout of any mishap in a wide range of possibilities that could affect the region, especially Greece. 
 
The following would hit Greek politicians on the head – on January 3, 1992, and during the informal meeting that took place in Athens between Greek and FYROM experts, the talks were deadlocked because of the insistence of Skopje delegates not to discuss the name of their country. That should have been a very serious indicator and warning of things to come. However, as we say in Greek «πέρα βρέχει» and «τα βόδια μου αργά». On January 26, 1993, six days after Pres. Bill Clinton took office the Greek Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs sent a letter to the new President stating that Greece was ready to compromise with Skopje on the name issue. Greece surrendered before the first shot of the war was fired. The same man stated later that in 10 years nobody would remember Macedonia. 
 
Most Greeks and especially politicians and their advisors do not know the national strategic culture of Greece’s neighbors. Greece’s present electoral system does not help either. Most politicians and their advisors not only don’t know Greece’s neighbors but worst of all, they don’t know Greece. They do not care what occurs north of Thebes and south of Corinth. If they knew Greece’s neighbors and Greece itself, the issue of Skopje’s name would not exist at all. But nobody cared. What kind of impression should one form when people in Rhodes say that they lived better under the Italians?
 
I have talked with a few diplomats and politicians of Greece, and was shocked by their naiveté. They could not even distinguish the difference between how many countries have recognized the FYROM, in general, from those countries that have recognized Skopje under its so-called constitutional name. Skopje keeps promoting that about 130 nations have recognized them, which means nothing. About ten years ago, they claimed something similar until it was revealed that out of 110 or so countries, only 78 of them had recognized them as “Republic of Macedonia.”
 
So they should have three numbers.
 
1) How many countries have recognized the FYROM?
 
2) How many countries have recognized the FYROM as “Macedonia”? Was it a bilateral or erga omnes recognition?
 
3) How many countries have recognized the FYROM under its provisional name?  
 
Clearly, the Greek MFA has no idea because Greece does not have a functional intelligence process within the MFA. The A3 is as busy as the Maytag repairman under the principle «δε βαρυέσαι» and «ωχ αδερφέ.» The less they know, the better it is for the boss! He can always truthfully say, “nobody told me”. They are supposed to be professionals; it is their job to know.
 
What is happening today, reminds us of what had happened in 1902. The Bulgarians had sent Sarafov, a Supremist, to Western Capitals to push for the Bulgarian cause over Macedonia. 
 
The Greek government was asleep then as it is today, including the Greek people! Pavlos Melas wrote to Bishop Karavangelis, «Διάβασα τήν ἐκθεσί σου στο ὑπουργεῖο. Μά ἐδῶ κοιμοῦνται. Τί νά σοῦ κάνω ἐγώ;»  Moreover, the weapons (Gras, Mauser, Mannlicher-Schönauer) were transported to the Bulgarian komitadjis in Macedonia by Greek mule drovers or αγωγιάτες, so that the Bulgars can fight against and kill Greeks in Macedonia.
 
On at least one occasion, one of the chief komitadjis, Vasil Tsakalarov, went in person to Athens to buy weapons. There’s no difference today. Skopje has its fifth phalanx in the Greek Parliament itself.
 
I remember one diplomat had mentioned that Skopje would change its name, as did Myanmar which changed its name from Burma. When I told him that Myanmar was Burma’s ancient name and asked him to name the old name of the FYROM region; he could not even come up with Paeonia.
 
While Skopje governments implemented the strategy of protraction as they negotiated under the Turkish model of negotiation, it simultaneously bolstered excuses for Greek politicians to procrastinate, as they wanted to avoid signing a treaty on the name that would make them and their party appear as betraying Greece.
 
While this was taking place, Skopje threw ashes into the eyes of the Greek people, entertaining the thought of being descendants of the ancient Macedonians who miraculously were not Greeks. ALL subsequent governments of the FYROM used denial and deception via non-state and illicit actors working in the background and successfully persuading foreign governments to recognize them as “Republic of Macedonia.” The FYROM diplomacy was and is extraordinarily active on the name issue and recognition of the state as “Macedonia.” They’ll do anything to show their flag!   
 
In contrast, Greece employed extremely dormant and reactive diplomacy lacking a strategy of deterrence with tactics of a courteous, but fatalistic policy. Even the reactive tactics of Greece’s foreign policy proved to have been through an entirely personal lens of her politicians and diplomats who cared more about pleasing their bosses than doing their job by committing to their homeland and protecting the national interests of Greece.
 
Under such peculiar circumstances, the answer to your question is “Greece went wrong everywhere,” starting in 1951, the year Greece had recognized Marxist Yugoslavia. Would the same politicians direct negotiations of their real estate in a similar manner as they have negotiated the future of one-quarter of Greece’s land and indeed Greece’s future territorial integrity? 
 
The fact is that all governments of Greece, and by their silence the politicians of Greece, have created the problem that Greece has in the form of a self-inflicting wound. Some countries in the world had or still have names such as the Federal Republic of Brazil, Socialist Federative Republic of Yugoslavia, Federal Republic of Germany, and United States of America. These countries were or are known under the name portrayed last: Brazil, Yugoslavia, Germany, America. What did, if anything, the Greek MFA think that the popularized name of “The Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia” would be? Patagonia?
 
They only looked at the official name of the country, not the popular name that people would be using, especially when we all know people do not care about official names, not even diplomats. Didn’t they know that while Greece would be in its usual lethargic state, Skopje would launch any power in the world to achieve what it wanted and still wants?

Some would argue that during the second century AD, the Romans had called the region of the FYROM, Macedonia Secunda or Salutaris. Doesn’t this justify the present name of the republic?
 
The argument that the area of the FYROM was called Macedonia Secunda (or Macedonia Salutaris) and this justifies the present name of the Republic is very weak.
 
To begin with, depending on the time and type of Administration in the Roman Empire, provinces used to change names as well as borders. On one occasion, we see Macedonia starting just north of Stobi excluding Skopje which was in Dardania, and continues south of Lamia, leaving for Epirus a slice of land from Dyrrachium to Messolongi. Romans called south Greece, Achaea, and we had two lands named Epirus: Epirus Vetus and Epirus Nova. Another mess with names comes to us from what are today France, Belgium, and Northern Italy. There we see Gallia Belgica, Gallia Narbonensis, Gallia Lugdunensis, but in other times we know the name Gallia Lugdunensis and Gallia Narbonensis as Celtica while the toponym Gallia is found as Gallia Cisalpina and Gallia Transalpina around Switzerland. At that time one also finds Palaestina Salutaris or Palaestina Tertia and Galatia Salutaris and so on.
 
The whole naming of a region had to do with whether the administration was in the hands of the Emperor or the Senate. It is also immaterial because not one Macedonian King had named the region of the FYROM as Macedonia. Alexander the Great and his Greeks had reached India, China, and Uzbekistan, but none of these can claim to be ‘Macedonia’.
 
It is true that King Philip VI of Macedonia had conquered the area up to about the Shar Mountains, but he never changed the name of the region and did not move any Macedonians from Macedonia to Paeonia and Dardania. So, the ethnicity of the local population from Paeonian and Dardanian never changed ethnically to Macedonian Greek.
 
Romans had occupied some territories of Alexander the Great and his Diadochi and they also occupied almost all of Europe. They did not change the human terrain of the regions they occupied. They had local garrisons and used Latin as their lingua franca of their wide Empire. 
 
Another example is the Ottomans who ruled the area of the Western and South Balkans for about 500 years. They could not alter the local populations even though they settled Turks in the occupied regions and some of the locals changed their religion to Islam.  They succeeded in changing the religion of some Slavs like those in Bosnia, who were mostly Serbs, but these people remained Slavs. Muslims of Bosnia are proud of their Slavic heritage and they are first to claim it.
 
Conquest does not mean occupation with resettlement. On the contrary, when the Byzantine Emperors resettled about half a million Slavs from Macedonia to Bithynia the resettled Slavic population amalgamated with the indigenous population.Over the years and after numerous political and ethnic fusions, the Slavs ended up Turkified (Türkleştirme). That means what actually happened is exactly the opposite of what the FYROM Slavs advocate.

Although the Prespes Agreement is not a done deal yet, what are the national security implications for Greece if the final name of the FYROM includes “Macedonia?”  Are its ethnically diverse citizens of the republic going to be recognized as “Macedonians?”
 
The final name of the FYROM is significant not just to Greece’s national security and territorial integrity but is also essential to the national security of all countries adjacent to FYROM, including the stability of the Peninsula and the Middle East.   
 
The issue of the country’s name is different from the subject of the ethnicity of its citizens. What is important is the name of the ethnic group of the Slav people who have no ethnic surname. According to international norms, nationality follows the name of the country regardless of the actual or perceived ethnicity of the person. Holders of passports of multiethnic nations as the United States, Canada, Australia, etc. see the name of the land next to “Nationality.” Thus, the issue comes down to one segment of the FYROM citizens who until November 29, 1943, were considered as part of the Serbian nation along with Montenegrins. This is evident from the Comintern Resolution of January 11, 1934.
 
Thus if we assume (without taking into account the Prespes Agreement) that the country’s final name is Povardarie, then the passports of Povardarie will indicate as “Nationality: Povardarie,” even if the bearer is ethnically Albanian, Turk, or Greek. In general, ethnicity of individuals is something personal. On the other hand, the ethnicity, language, and heritage of the Slavic population as far as I am concerned should be ‘Jugosloveni’ or South Slavs. This better reflects their slavic heritage, which constitutes an ethnic and linguistic transition zone between Bulgaria and Serbia.
 
It is a thorn in the whole agreement. The government of the FYROM cannot say on one hand that they are Slavs, but on the other, they call themselves “ethnic Macedonians.”  Even Misirkov did not call them “ethnic” Macedonians; He made sure he mentioned them as Slavs. ‘Macedonians’ for Misirkov was a regional name and applied to all people of Macedonia regardless of ethnicity.By “Macedonian people”, Comintern meant all the people of geographic Macedonia regardless of ethnicity (Hristo Andonov-Poljanski. 1981, v. 2). 
 
I am not even touching the issue that the region of the FYROM became officially “Macedonia” in 1900. I consider myself a Macedonian of Greek heritage since I was born within the geographical area of the ancient kingdom. Who are these people to take away my right to call myself a Macedonian?  
 
I would push for the name “Central Balkan Republic” or “Jugoslavonija”, or better “Povardarie”. It is an existing name within the FYROM and all its people are very familiar with it. It is also a name of the Bishopric of Veles and Povardarie.

Let’s stay on the previous topic and focusing only on the Slavic population of the FYROM, why is the issue of ethnicity, language and heritage so contentious for both sides these days?
 
The Interim Accord was only about the name of the country. Here’s my argument that Greeks do not know their neighbors. 
 
What about the National Anthem of the FYROM, which is being played outside of the country as well? Nobody thus far has answered this simple question: How can the state change its name “Macedonia” but keep its national anthem intact? Does anyone in Greece know its lyrics? The first verse calls the nation “Macedonia” (Today over Macedonia, the new sun of Freedom is being born).
 
Has anyone in the Greek MFA thought about it? Or are they going to conveniently claim that the national anthem is a domestic issue as are the ethnicity, language, heritage and all other derivatives of “Macedonia”?
 
The claim that the “Macedonian” language was recognized by the UN in 1977 is absurd.  The UN recognized Taiwan, a country with a vital economy, since the 1945 San Francisco Conference. The country was a Charter member of the UN. Despite such a status, Taiwan was expelled by the General Assembly of the UN on October 25, 1971. It was unrecognized for political reasons. The issue of recognition of a language by the UN is not linguistic, but political; it may and can be unrecognized. The question is whether Greece has ever recognized anything “Macedonian”. We are referring to one-quarter of purely Greek land, not the ciftlik of Nasreddin Hodja.
 
Typically, the issue of ethnicity, heritage, and language are issues of domestic use, but  in this case, they are very important. When Greece signed the Interim Accord, the people responsible should have known better. They messed up due to their ignorance and personal convenience, so they can’t expect others to get the snake out of its den. And, what about the last failure? Whose fault is it? This has been going on for 75 years, however, the Greek political elite keep governing like ostriches. 

We have seen many Greek organizations demand that Greece withdraws from negotiations altogether. Let’s say the recent Prespes Agreement fails, what would happen if Greece withdraws from future negotiations with the FYROM on the name issue?
 
My first recommendation is that all Greeks who follow the moves of the FYROM Slav diaspora should stop imitating them. They are nonsensical and their goals are different from the aims of Greek people. This idea of withdrawal from the talks started by the Skopje diaspora about ten years ago and I was hoping that Skopje under Gruevski had listened to them. I was thinking, “get more rope to hang yourselves,” but unfortunately it did not happen. 
 
I have read some Greeks are calling for such a thing. It shows how little these people understand the international political scope of the issue.
 
In answer to your question, Greece could withdraw from the negotiations if the issue were bilateral. It would be with little or no political cost for the country. Skopje has tried to make it bilateral in the past; and luckily Greece fought against it. This is one of the correct things Greece has done on the issue. 
 
On a bilateral basis, the Interim Accord would be null and void making the erga omnes and inclusion of the name in the FYROM’s Constitution irrelevant and illogical. Every single country would recognize the FYROM as “Macedonia” leaving Greece on its own. The FYROM would get into the EU and NATO and in every organization it wishes, since the name issue would not exist. Greece would have to deal with Skopje being alone and without international support. I do not believe that any Greek wants such a thing.
 
All those people who want Greece to withdraw from negotiations because it cannot give the name Macedonia to the Slavs, in fact, become agents of Skopje on the issue because they’re thinking with their heart and not their head. I would say the same thing for those who want Greece out of the EU and NATO. They think that Russia will help Greece. That might be true, but knowing the foreign interests of Russia one of those interests is the Ecumenical Patriarchate and its move from Constantinople to Moscow. Such is the goal of Russia. Russia will also help its Pan-Slavic friends, which means that Thessaloniki will go to the FYROM and Kavala will become part of Bulgaria leaving Alexandroupolis to Turkey.
 
If this is what the Russophile Greeks want, then their wish will materialize. It should be known that since Aleksey Mikhailovich, father of Peter the Great, Russia’s main national interest is to support its goal for World supremacy and consequently Russian domestic and foreign policies reflect just that. This explains why the Russian Patriarch was absent from the Synod in Crete a few years ago although the preparation for the Synod had started about 35 years earlier.
 
The Vatican Newspaper, Il Osservatore Romano, had indicated that if the Patriarch of Moscow attended the Synod, the Orthodox Church would split because of the demands of the Russian Church. Their argument is that they lead 350 million Orthodox faithful whereas the Ecumenical Patriarch leads only about 1,500 souls. Such a statement indicates that the Patriarch of Moscow does not consider the Patriarch of Constantinople as Ecumenical, but only a local bishop with a limited flock. In reality, an Ecumenical Patriarch includes all Orthodox faithful of the World including the Russians; it is why he is called Ecumenical, not because of the number of his direct followers.
 
Greeks should be careful what they wish for regarding the Russians because they might get it. Then they will not be able to blame others, but themselves. International law is not case law or statutory law, but a common law. To quote Wikipedia, “The defining characteristic of “common law” is that it arises as precedent. In cases where the parties disagree on what the law is, a common law court looks to past precedential decisions of relevant courts, and synthesizes the principles of those past cases as applicable to the current facts.” In the case of treaties, the precedents seek answers from previous similar treaties. The UN is in possession of such treaties.   
 
Some international norms, precedents, and guarantees regulate international talks and treaties as they are incorporated into the set of rules generally accepted as binding in relations between countries, aka international law. 
 
Greece is not in a position of prestige because the people are disunited and the political parties deal with their micro-political scheming issues, just as the kodzabashis did two hundred years ago. Greece is only a European country geographically speaking. It is progressively becoming worse in a disappointing way.

Some erroneously believe that the name issue is a uniquely Greek issue. But, that is not the case. Explain how other countries deal with similar issues of shared regions.

Let me start by saying that many countries in the world share regions. Luxembourg, for instance, shares the French prefecture with the same name. Vojvodina (Serbia), Romania, and Hungary split the region of Banat. The Flemish, i.e., Dutch-speaking part of Belgium is the continuation of the Netherlands, and the French-speaking is a continuation of France.  The name Great Britain goes back to Britany in France; both names go back to the Bretons, a Celtic tribe. There are two European regions with the name Galicia, one in Spain and one in Eastern Europe. Hungary, Croatia, and Serbia share the territory of Baranya or Baranja. Let us not forget Thrace. 
 
The name is not the problem. The United States has a state named New Mexico, and Mexico has a state called Baja or South California. I can go on with similar examples.  
 
Let’s go a little bit further than that. The most striking element of the National Anthem of the Netherlands is at the end of the first stanza. It states, “The prince of Orange I am; afraid of nothing; I have always remained loyal to the king of Spain.” It is a remnant of the Napoleonic Wars, but I have not heard any Spaniard claiming the Netherlands.  Therefore, the whole matter goes to the mentality of the people of the south Balkans.   
 
The name of the region of FYROM as Macedonia is the result of political events:

  • Some intellectuals participating in a convention in Belgrade in 1865 envisioned the Balkan Federation in a politically socialist basis, not in a religious sense as Rhigas Pheraios had done many years before.
 
  • The Berlin Conference of June 1878 deprived Serbia of expanding west although Serbia received other means of compensation from Austria. Serbia thus extended south, a move that conflicted with the territorial aspiration of Bulgaria even after its territorial folding. Bulgaria had maintained its national ambitions long after its defeat in the Berlin Conference. It moved its Capital to Sofia (1879), annexed Eastern Rumelia (1885), which the Berlin Conference had made an autonomous territory within the Ottoman Empire. To balance the domestic political scene, the current Bulgarian government also made the Eastern Bulgarian dialect its literary language (1899).
 
  • Communism took advantage of the Bulgarian expansionist foreign policy and proceeded with a strategy that even if Bulgaria were not directly involved, she would have a lot to say on the Federation of Macedonia and Thrace. 
 
I have translated the three primary documents that are related to Macedonia; the six-page 1924 “May Manifesto”; the nine-page III Communist International, Fifth Congress - June 17–July 8, 1924 "Resolution on National Question in Central Europe and Balkans,” which includes the Macedonian and Thracian Questions. I have also translated the three-page Comintern Resolution 11 January 1934 “The Macedonian Question and the Internal Macedonian Revolutionary Organization - United (IMRO-U)”.
 
When the three documents are studied, one understands that the main objective was a federal Macedonia and Thrace under the administration of the communist IMRO. It is obvious that the word “nation” in those documents referred to a multicultural nation-state or a nation as in “United Nations,” not an ethnic one. Such multicultural nations were the answer to the Communist “National Question.”

Based on your experience, what is the driving force behind the FYROM’s irredentist claims on the northern Greek province of Macedonia? Using past examples how could these irredentist claims serve to affect Greece’s national security.
 
Briefly put, the driving force is the territorial expansion over Macedonia by military occupation; it cannot be done otherwise. Their strategy hides this fact behind the imaginary issue of the so-called human rights of “Macedonians.” They do it because they think in a Court of Law such nonsense prevails; it does not. They see other cases of legitimate minority complaints around the world, the intervention of great powers in setting new borders and they hope they can identify themselves with such matters. But to do it, they employ deceiving and criminal means. Photoshop is one of the methods they employ. The bottom line is that they cannot Photoshop facts.
 
For the second part of the question the answer is that they work with two domestic Greek groups – the communists of Greece who still support Comintern’s resolutions under the doctrine “Comintern might not have been right, but it was not wrong”, and the ultra-right wing who believe that they are the only ones who care about Greece. Most members of these two groups do not even know the modern history of Greece and how Greece’s political instability has affected the country so far. Both groups live in a parallel universe.
 
The brief history of Modern Greece is as follows:
 
Greece declared independence in 1821 (officially on January 26, 1822, in Epidavros). However by 1827, while fighting the Turks, Greeks engaged in two civil wars while the Turko-Egyptian Ibrahim was threatening to suppress the revolution. After its independence in 1829, the first political parties that sprang up were the "Russian," "English" and "French," while the newly established country was already bankrupt.  Nicholas Karlovich Giers of the Asian Section of the Russian Foreign Ministry stated the following regarding the assassination of Capodistrias: “the assassin, Mavromichalis, belonged to one of the most distinguished families of the region, who looked with envy upon [Capodistrias] rise. The only thing that has changed since then are the names of the political parties, not the mentality of the Greeks. Personal ego, especially among those disqualified to speak, feeds Greece’s political instability.
 
The “Μαύρο '97” or “Ατυχής πόλεμος του 1897” (Eng: “Black ’97” or the “Unfortunate War of 1897”) took place because of people’s wishful thinking instead of weighing up reality and waiting. The result of that war was an Ottoman military victory after which Greece ceded small parts of Thessaly to the Ottoman Empire. It would be nice if people read the background of the war and the full outcome to understand that ultra-nationalistic overtones brought Greece to humiliation and bankruptcy. The embarrassment came when the commander of the Ottoman Army stated ostentatiously that he was ready to march to Athens and drink coffee on the Acropolis. Thankfully the Great Powers of Europe intervened stopping the Turks from advancing south of Olympus.
 
That was not enough. Following this, we had the National Schism between 1914 and 1917. The National Schism set the foundations for the foolish overconfidence of an unprepared, almost defunct Army to at least control Ionia and a government to lay claim on Constantinople. Instead of being satisfied with whatever the ally victors had given to Greece, they wanted more. They proceeded to capture and destroy Ankara. The Battles of Sakarya and Dumlupınar (26–30 August 1922) brought Greece to reality. Ionia was damaged, and Constantinople was lost. Turks still remember the date of their victory.  August 30 every year is the date of military promotions and new positions.
 
Due to National Schism, the loss of prestige and non-existent political will, Greece could not even enforce the Autonomy of Northern Epirus. 
 
In the case of the Greek-Italian War (1940-1941), Greece was a clear victor delivering to the Allied Powers not only a physical victory but also a tremendous moral victory; it was the first Allied victory they so badly needed. One must consider the defeat of the UK at the beaches of Dunkirk, Belgium, and the annihilation of France by Germany that rendered the Maginot lines a simple hurdle. For that decisive victory, Greece was awarded the Dodecanese.
 
Despite the prestige that Greece had enjoyed, due to securing the first allied victory in defeating an Axis power, the domestic instability, and fanfare during the WWII Peace talks in Paris (1946-1947) was responsible for Greece losing Cyprus. The United States wanted to pass Cyprus to Greece. However, the domestic turmoil in Greece and the usual fanfare and bogus claims of some Greeks from Florida brought the intention of the United States in the open and found stiff resistance by the Soviet Union and the UK.
 
Between 1966 and 1967, Greece was in political turmoil changing governments as often as people change their shirts. I witnessed it firsthand. I still remember the blockade of Thessaloniki by land about a month before the coup of April 21, 1967. Communist-led farmers had closed the co-capital of Greece from all nine land connections. I was in Thessaloniki, and I know what happened. Such domestic instability led to the revolt of April 21, 1967. Following seven years of uncertainty, another coup, dual at this time, took place. The first one resulted in the displacement of the Papadopoulos regime. The new military government, feeling that it was their “patriotic” duty to unite Cyprus with Greece launched a coup in Cyprus under the EOKA fighter Sampson giving the excuse to Turkey to intervene to “protect” its minority. The Greek Generals and the “inactive” politicians behind them should have known better. Turkey wanted to do the same in 1962, but its invasion was averted by the United States. The situation worsened because in 1964 the United States wanted to see Cyprus united with Greece under certain conditions (Acheson Plan). Both Archbishop Makarios and the Greek Prime Minister George Papandreou rejected it because the plan included “a sovereign Turkish base on the island that would limit enosis and give Ankara too much say in Cyprus’ affairs”.
 
Between 1829 and the present, Greece has gone bankrupt five times each time bringing the nation into further instability; as if the political instability was not enough. Uncertainty in Greece means calamity for the country. It will be beneficial for Greece if her people start thinking in these logical terms.

Now to the hot topic on everyone's mind lately: the "North Macedonia Agreement” at Prespes. What are your views on this Agreement?
 
This Agreement goes far beyond the scope of the Interim Accord of 1995, which only applied to the name of the country. It seems that the FYROM’s negotiators seized this opportunity during negotiations. The Greek side should have refused to negotiate anything more than the name of the country. It seems however, the Skopje’s negotiators got the hint that Greeks were easy prey from the manner Mrs. Dora Bakoyanni had negotiated and accepted the adjective “Macedonian” as ethnicity, language, and heritage. Actually, at that time, she had accepted and pushed the name to the Greek American diaspora not as erga omnes, but “for international use” claiming that it was the same thing. Actually, Mr. Panagopoulos or Panagiotopoulos, I do not exactly recall, of the Greek Embassy in Washington was the bearer of the news. The Greek side should stick to its guns and refuse to talk about issues that were not included in the Interim Agreement. Bulgaria was not stupid to have done so.
 
Having said that, I was hoping that it would not be an Agreement, but a Treaty. I am against this Agreement for a number of reasons especially the fact that it does not clearly address the false informal and non-formal education that the FYROM diaspora disseminates to themselves and their posterity, including the influence of their Church.  In addition, I have a problem with the FYROM diaspora that injects hatred in their offspring against the Greek nation. It offers lip service to such a vital issue. 
 
To me, the most important issue is that it is NOT a Treaty, but an Agreement. Although in international law, there is no real difference in validity, they do differ in the manner that the two are handled and the level of their standing. The difference is often the number of votes needed in a country’s Parliament to ratify an Agreement or a Treaty.  As Greeks know, although the Interim Accord was ratified by the Parliament in Skopje, the Simitis government never brought it to the Greek Parliament for ratification because it was an Accord or Agreement. The problem I always had is, although the governing party was silent on the issue, the official opposition was silent as well. Agreements do not have to be brought for ratification. It is true that it was a command of the UNSC, the law enforcement body of the United Nations, but it should have still been offered to Parliament for discussion and ratification. Mr. Papoulias would have had a lot of explaining to do. 
 
Coming to the present issue, Nikos Voutsis, the present Speaker of the Parliament, declared that the matter will be offered to the Parliament for discussion and ratification. What is unclear is that he mentioned ratification of this agreement will require a very large majority in the Greek Parliament. “There is no constitutional provision for 180 votes, but for such a serious matter, the larger the majority will be, the better for all”. Really?
 
What exactly does the Article 28.2 of the Greek Constitution stand for? It states,  
 
“Authorities provided by the Constitution may by treaty or agreement be vested in agencies of international organizations when this serves an important national interest and promotes cooperation with other States. A majority of three-fifths of the total number of Members of Parliament shall be necessary to vote the law ratifying the treaty or agreement (website: Parliament of Greece).
 
Mr. Voutsis is the Speaker of the Parliament, but he has no reading comprehension.  The whole article 28 deals with international law, but he cannot find the reason for legal approval of a treaty or agreement?
 
As for the Agreement itself, between 1950 to 2015, Greece, directly and indirectly, gave up about 80% of what the FYROM wanted. The name “Macedonia” was given indirectly in 1950 when Greece established a Consulate General in the Capital of the People’s Republic of Macedonia. The mere establishment of an official Greek diplomatic office within the former Yugoslavia implied an indirect recognition.
 
So in essence, the negotiations between the FYROM and Greece did not start subject to a clean slate. International law is common law based on precedent unlike Greece's domestic law, which is based on statutes. Thus as time passed since the 1951 normalization of relations between Greece and the Socialist Federative Republic of Yugoslavia, SFRJ, Greece kept giving away or recognizing institutions and agreements. Also, by ignoring developments on the Macedonian issue, even as a side effect, such acts kept accumulating. Thus by 1995, Greece had already given about 50-60% of what they wanted as fait accompli. Most of the time under the upsetting procrastination and indifference expressed by «ωχ, αδελφέ» «δε βαριέσαι», «ε και τι έγινε», «και ποιος θα το μάθει;». According to the former MFA of Greece, Dora Bakoyanni, by 2010 Greece had already awarded Skopje 80% of what it sought by constantly giving in. Thus, Skopje had no incentive to allow Greece to receive the remaining 20%. Holding to the already possessed 80%, it negotiated the remaining 20% adhering to the dictum “what is mine is mine, what is yours is negotiable.” It has been Skopje’s traditional approach to the name issue since 1991(Templar, August 28, 2014).
 
Upon reading the entire agreement, the deficiencies were evident as if it were put together by a group of 15-year-old high school students who wrote their individual pieces and compiled the agreement without even reading it.
 
The agreement covers legal issues at the government level. It offers lip service to how legal definitions and provisions would be used by the people of Greece and its Macedonian Greek diaspora. It provides ethnic cover for the Macedonian Slavs, but it does nothing to protect the regional identity of Macedonian Greeks like me. As the diaspora of the FYROM has embraced the Macedonian national identity, they will have a very solid stance to declare that they are rightfully Macedonians. Nobody among the common international community would care about the Agreement, nor that their history has nothing to do with THE ancient Macedonians. The so-called experts in the Greek MFA have started an inferno that will die when the Macedonian region of Greece gets incorporated into ‘North Macedonia’. The geniuses of humanity from the ‘Republic of Athens’ have NO idea whom they are dealing with. They should come to Australia next year to learn a thing or two and leave their conceit back in Greece. 
 
Some parts of the Agreement make sense, but others do not; their vagueness will hurt Greek national interests but mostly the relations of our diaspora. Making the FYROM Slavs “Macedonians” even under the definition that Misirkov offered in his book On Macedonian Matters deprives the Macedonian Greeks of their true Macedonian Heritage. Other provisions nullify or even contradict stipulations of the same article or muddy other articles of the agreement. 
 
In general, Article 3, for instance, reinforces the Peace, Friendship and Mutual Protection between Serbia and Greece signed in Thessaloniki on June 1, 1913, by the Greek ambassador to Belgrade, Ioannis Alexandropoulos, and the Serbian ambassador to Athens, Mateja Bošković; it is known as the Koromilas - Bošković Protocol. Under article 3, Skopje accepts the borders of 1913.
 
Then we jump to the issue of citizenship or legal nationality.  Article 1.b in the Agreement is unacceptable.
 
The Agreement offers two meanings in the term "nationality". In international law, the term nationality is a loose term of citizenship. American passports for instance bear as nationality “United States of America”; it does not state “American”. In the case of this agreement, the two parties should have done the same; on the issue of nationality, the name of the country should be written, not the adjective Macedonian as it refers to ethnicity in article 7. That would have prevented part of the future headaches.
 
The agreement sees all citizens of the FYROM as “Macedonians” from the scope of a community of descent. So according to this agreement, the FYROM is 100% Slavic, but also North Macedonian. Thus the people of FYROM are given a choice, the Slavs are Macedonians in nationality, but the rest of them are North Macedonians. The problem from the point of international law is simple. There are two countries, one is Macedonia with its own nationals and the other one is North Macedonia with its own nationals. But how can citizens belong to a country under the name Macedonia that does not exist?

Coming to the issue of history, it correctly deprives the Slavs of any part of Greek history. However, the real issue was not, is not, and will never be ancient history as most Greeks believe. There is nothing in the history of the Slavs that connects them to ancient Greek history. Misirkov born in Pella knew extremely well who and what the ancient Macedonians were. He had never mentioned ancient history at all.
 
The history myth started in 1936 in Melbourne from the followers of the Bulgarian General Mihajilov and it continued later by their posterity under the thought, "if we are Macedonians, we must be descendants of the ancient Macedonians; otherwise what kind of Macedonians are we?" It was based on faulty logic and stories that their grandparents told them. 
 
Some historians doubt that the ancient Macedonians were Greeks on various pretexts, but not a single historian connects the Slavs a historical continuity to the ancient Macedonians, not one. Nobody considers the sermon of Pribojevic and the Book of Orbini as historical theses.
 
But the issue is very different from what the agreement addresses. Even if the FYROM had signed treaties that excluded the name Macedonia in their name, language, ethnicity and heritage the morons of VMRO-DPMNE, their Golden Dawn type (and there are plenty of those), will still claim ancient Macedonian ancestry. I had a numerous conversations with Hungarians and Croats of the Golden Dawn type and I could not believe the absurdities they said.
 
But what concerns me is not only the combination of the entire Article 1, Article 7 (paragraphs 2, 3, 4) and Article 8 (paragraphs 1, 2, 5), but in particular, Article 8.5. 
 
As previously stated, I wonder if anyone in the A3 has ever read and understood the national anthem of the FYROM. The agreement does not indicate anything of the kind.  Despite the explanations in article 7, the agreement considers the country to be “Macedonia” and treats it as such, since it does not touch its national anthem. If everything is erga omnes, the FYROM under the name “North Macedonia” cannot have a national anthem that pertains to Macedonia, which is a region of Greece. 
 
In addition, what exactly does paragraph 7.5 mean in relation to Article 7 as a whole?
 
The main concern is, who will be scientists and experts from the Greek side that will negotiate the history of Greece, including ancient history, and the history of the Macedonian struggle? If the Minority Research Center (KEMO) and the Hellenic Foundation for European and Foreign Policy (ELIAMEP) get involved in “negotiating” the agreement, then:

  • a) All the Vlach-speaking Greeks of Krushevo, that is the victims of Ilinden, will be renamed "ethnic Macedonians"
 
  • b) the Internal Macedonian Revolutionary Organization (EMEA) will be proclaimed an "ethnic Macedonian Liberation Movement" with philanthropic and benevolent intentions, forgetting their terrorist acts of the “Boatmen” and the “Miss Stone Affair”
 
  • c) Pavlos Melas, the Metropolitan Germanos Karavangelis and so many other Greeks who gave their blood for Macedonia will be called "terrorists"
 
  • d) The approximately 30,000 kidnapped children from all over Greece will end up being boy scouts going camping with the blessings of their parents 
 
One must always bear in mind that even though the Agreement states the preservation of Greek history within Greek contexts, it does NOT explicitly and unambiguously state that ancient Macedonian history is an integral part of Greek history.
 
Do not assume that this is implied by the wording of the Agreement. Such an issue can be resolved by the exchange of letters between the Foreign Ministers of Greece and Skopje. Exchange of letters is a regular institution in diplomatic services.
 
What makes it particularly intriguing is Article 8.
 
Article 8.1 cannot be clearly understood. What I have not yet understood is the issue of Article 8.1. This article is an exact copy of Article 7.3 of the Interim Agreement. It is the same article that helped Gruevski and others steal Greek history and transplant it to their Slavic country. Why did they put it back, particularly when Article 8.5 exists? Have there been no lessons learned by the MFA?
 
8.2 Gives the government in Skopje six months to consider whether the statues are historical or not. What have they done so far?
 
8.3 In this article, the last paragraph allows any Slav to make copies of whatever Greek they want (e.g., Sun of Vergina) and sell them anywhere. These copies can be in clothes, flags, etc. Its prohibition under Article 8.3 applies only to the government and any organizations affiliated with the Skopje government, either directly or indirectly. Unless I have missed something, it does not apply to the private sector. This means that the spread of Skopje can follow their own drummer.
 
8.4 This is standard practice in the official gazetteer. It is no longer Solun or Monastiri in official documents. But this is normal for all official documents. Names used in the interior of a country are preferred by names used abroad. These names will be used in the list of UN names, i.e., gazetteer.
 
As for Article 13, it deals with the former Serbian> former Yugoslavian> current Serbian Free Zone at the harbor of Thessaloniki. Greece has already passed part of the same Zone to Skopje.
 
Never mind the explanation of Article 7. Greek-Australians should prepare for the fight of their lives. Greece has ensured that they and their offspring will be fighting against the FYROM Slav diaspora for as long as they live. 
 
The negative side of this agreement is that the Greek diplomatic corps, following the official line of the Agreement, will assist the FYROM Slav diaspora, declaring that the Slavs are actually Macedonians and the Macedonian-Greeks are just Greeks who live in Macedonia. The Slavic diaspora is not interested in the agreement or the emphasis on different historical context and cultural heritage. This Agreement actually strengthens their effort to “explain” why they are Macedonians.
 
Until now, the FYROM Slav diaspora only had academics side against them. Even Badian and Borza were clearly stating that the modern “Macedonians” could not claim a historical continuity with the ancient Macedonians. Now they have the official political side stating that they can be called Macedonians, because they moved to Macedonia during the 6th-7th centuries, and their name comes from their habitation. It gives them a regional, not a sanguine disposition but it still gives them the historical name. It clearly states their Slavic origin and it does the same with their language and heritage. 
 
I’m assuming that according to Article 15, visitors from the FYROM to archaeological sites will follow the rules of the Ministry of Culture that only certified guides will explain any and all historical facts related to the site. This must apply especially to the students, who until now they had their own “learned” teachers to explain.
 
From the composition of the Agreement, it looks like after the negotiating teams finished their job, someone took a superficial glance over the Agreement and approved it, without considering possible redundancies or conflicting statements in different sections. To put it bluntly, the Agreement was rushed kicking the tin away for others to get the snake out of its den. Eventually, and I suspect sooner than later, the snake will prove to be a gargantuan komodo dragon with lethal saliva.
 
As it is, the Agreement needs many explanatory notes and exchange of official letters like the ones that accompanied the Interim Agreement, but very few people know about those letters.
 
When one regresses to 1822, the connection to issues associated with the problems that Greece has becomes apparent. Political expediency, along with ignorance of the real world outside of Athens, is the source of all evils created by Athens. Because the creators of the problems are either incapable or politically unwilling to solve them, they turn around and ask for foreign help, whilst simultaneously releasing their partisan henchmen to tacitly “inform” the public that the Germans or the Americans are behind all of Greece’s calamities. Of course, they are behind them – their own boss had asked them to help.
 
For the sake of Greece’s survival, the Greek MFA needs to understand that Greece is far beyond the real estate between Thebes, Sounion, and Corinth – Athens is not Greece; it is simply part of Greece. Greece includes all of us who expect guidance and enlightenment from our home country, but all we get is a luminous darkness of corruption, conceit, and indifference that amounts to political immaturity.
 
The way politicians govern Greece is reminiscent of the Phanariots of Wallachia and the kodzabashis of the Sultan. The Sultan is dead, but their spirit lives on in the Parliament of Greece.
 
They better go back and re-write this Agreement before it is too late to save Macedonia.
 
​If you were tasked with changing something in the Constitution of the Hellenic Republic, what would it be?
 
Oh, that’s easy. We have to try to at least keep the politicians honest:

1. Residence
All elected officials shall physically reside within the district they are elected and represent for at least 10 years before they register their candidacy. Such a clause shall apply to all elected officials including the leaders of all political parties in the Parliament without exception. They shall be Greek citizens by birth or naturalization. No elected official shall be allowed to hold any other nationality but Greek. It also applies to residents of the diaspora unless the law changes to allow representatives of the diaspora in the Greek Parliament.  

* Explanation: As it is today if a person from the diaspora wants to run for office in Greece this person will have to follow the same rules that apply to all residents of Greece who want to be elected in the Parliament.

2. Nationality
Civil servants no matter how high or how low in rank or position shall have only Greek nationality. Such a requirement shall apply to all and any military personnel with any kind of Security Clearance. If such personnel have dual or multiple nationalities, the same personnel shall renounce all foreign nationalities before they enter the service or force. As the New Testament states, "No one can serve two masters. Either you will hate the one and love the other, or you will be devoted to the one and despise the other.”

3. Referendum
a. The Parliament will decide on issuing a notice of a referendum concerning specific matters within its sphere of competence by a simple majority vote of the total number of Representatives. The decision of the majority of voters in a referendum shall be adopted on condition that more than half of the total number of registered voters had voted. 

b. The Parliament will be obliged to issue a notice of a referendum if one is proposed by at least, say, 5% of the registered voters. The decision made in such a referendum will be binding.     

4. The President of the Republic will be elected directly by the people
The President of the Republic will be elected in general and direct elections, by secret ballot, for a single six-year term. The President of the Republic shall physically reside for a minimum of ten years within Greece at the day s/he is elected to office. The President of the Republic shall be a national of the Hellenic Republic by birth and only of the Hellenic Republic even if she/he resides abroad.  A person may be elected President of the Republic if over the age of at least 40 on the day of the election. A person may not be elected President of the Republic if, on the day of the election, he/she has not been a physical resident of the Hellenic Republic at least ten years in a row. Owning property in Greece while physically living abroad does not qualify one as being a physical resident.  
 
Greeks in Greece and in the diaspora held rallies on the “Macedonia” name issue sporadically. Some of these rallies were quite large, but the question remains: was there a message attached to those rallies or did the outside world penalize the message and Greece along with it?
 
Many messages used in those rallies make sense only to Greeks; however, they give the wrong message to foreigners with no understanding of the issue. Either the organizers do not seem to care, or they feel like isolating people who genuinely care about Greece. People have to understand that what makes sense to us is not necessarily a useful tool to spread our message. ‘One message fits all’ is the wrong concept. We can satisfy our pride and our ego, but simultaneously sacrifice our message or play it smart and spread the right message without over-dramatization, sensationalism, and ultra-nationalism.
 
To foreigners, slogans such as “Macedonia is Greek” sounds like it hides an ultra-nationalistic message with an expansionist connotation against the FYROM. Strabo said, “Indeed, Macedonia is part of Greece”; however, one must consider that at his time Greece was only a geographical term under the Romans; it was not a country. The Hellenic Peninsula was divided into two administrative segments, one of which included Macedonia.
 
In my view, people who prepare advertising should take Strabo’s statement and present in a way that the word “Macedonia” does not refer to the FYROM in any way and form, but to Greece. Something like “Macedonia is already a part of Greece”; “No state with the name Macedonia”; “Macedonia IS in Greece”; something like that would be more effective and to the point. People should stop thinking emotionally and start thinking strategically. People in the advertising industry are genuinely creative.   
 
I love Greece, I truly do, but loving something or someone does not mean I have to be blind; it means I should face reality and distinguish between what is right and wrong. I cannot restrict my mind of the truth whilst ignoring facts. It is said that love is blind; however, it does not have to be senseless.
 
People have the right to hold rallies and they should. In a democracy, it is the right and obligation of the citizens to petition their government. However, the same demonstrators and especially their leadership must debilitate all elements who misdirect the tide of the demonstration whether they come from the extreme right or extreme left. Leaders are responsible for anything that takes place in protests. About ten years ago, I suggested that we demonstrate before Greek diplomatic missions, not in front of foreign government buildings but I was turned down flat. Ten years later, they decided to do it, but it's too late. Even when I had suggested it, it was late; now it is much worse.     

Australia, USA, and Canada are home to an extensive Greek diaspora. However, we are a diaspora divided especially on advocacy. Why is this?
 
We are divided because those in leadership not only undermine each other but also don’t know what they are doing.  Others accept bribes from subsequent Greek governments about 25 to 35 thousand U.S. dollars monthly under the guise of promoting Greek causes or advertisement. This is true for some well-known Greek NGOs and mass media of the Greek Diaspora. Since it is an issue pertaining to all Greeks, where is the voice from key Greek American NGOs? They are silent on the matter of Macedonia because they are probably on the take.  
 
In some cases, those who think of themselves as superior homeland patriots are in fact so irrational that they end up collaborating with the FYROM Slavs without even realising it. Some go as far as getting their supporters to troll both Greeks and Slavs online and to exchange absurd nonsense as if they were Karagiozis (Karagöz) and Hatzivatis (Hacivat). The fact is the Sultan hung them both. More recently these ‘patriots’ have even put people’s lives in danger by “outing” some of our FYROM Slav supporters in the diaspora who work for the Greek cause. These trolls consider these public outings as an “achievement.” However, it never occurred to them that the people they have outed may be providing very useful information to Greece. A nation cannot survive with such people and is doomed to fail.
 
How can the Greek diaspora create advocacy groups when they have such members? One does not find this kind of behavior in the FYROM Slav camp.
 
Ultimately, intelligent Greeks of the diaspora become non-inclined towards involvement in such destructive organizations.

How would you describe the FYROM Slav diaspora organizations and the methods they employ to get their message heard not only within their community but also in the public sphere?
 
From the efficiency of their work, they are very well-organized with discipline and attention directed toward their goal not at each other. Their lobby works under a strategy that employs professional experts in disciplines where the lobby needs to spread the word. Their experts are not FYROM Slavs and they often resort to proxy struggle just like the VMRO in the early 1900s.
 
Also, FYROM Slavs have money, and the methods they employ are put together professionally. The coordination of tactics as part of a strategic purpose is apparent.  Their community takes “guidelines” from both Skopje and Ankara - Turkey is helping them a lot and supports them unquestionably. Not one of the members of the various groups would dare disobey it. When it comes to “Macedonia” they face it with religious reverence. It is exactly why the FYROM is where it is. Additionally, they don’t troll each other, nor divulge or out their sources, or attack each other, because they take the issue seriously.

Going back to the Greek diaspora, you are an advocate for the creation of a Greek lobby. Many in the diaspora already believe that there are Greek lobby groups at work to protect the interests of both the diaspora and to lobby their respective governments. What are the facts on this issue?
 
The myth about the Greek lobby started after the invasion of Cyprus by Turkey. As I understand it, a couple of Greek restaurant owners went to the U.S. Congress to talk to their Congressman about the invasion. As they were leaving the office, someone asked who these men were; one of the present office workers said “the Greek lobby.” More or less, it is how the myth started.   
 
Well, if so many lobby groups existed, Greece would not have been continuously on the receiving end. Since Greece never had a lobby, most Greeks do not know what a lobby is, what it needs to operate, nor the amount of money involved. Greeks are also tribal. They do not have the national unity necessary to address domestic and national security issues. I have been attacked as a pro-Skopje Slav only because my last name is not Greek. If they take the telephone book of, say, Athens, they will be surprised how many so-called Greek names are Arabian, Persian, Turkish, Slavic, Albanian, etc. A name ending such as “-is” does not make a name Greek, by the way. A name ending in “-oğlu” which is a possessive genitive of oğul (son) cannot be purely Greek. Papazoğlu, for instance, is purely a Turkish name. The Greek word for a priest is “ἱερεύς,” not papas. Papas is remnant of Greece’s Ottoman past. In Turkish “papaz” means “Christian priest.”
 
Skopje has only ONE national issue, their survival as a state. They have Turkish-trained personnel on issues of lobbying and their experts listen to professional advice. In the United States, lobbyists for other powers are required to register as Foreign Agents (FARA). The President of the UMD is a designated Foreign Agent. Additionally, the Ministry of Culture of the government of the FYROM, has for 10 years now employed people full-time to work solely on articles published in Wikipedia promoting the “Macedonian Heritage” of the Slavs turned “ethnic Macedonians”. 
 
Greece on the other hand has five national security issues; (Macedonia, Northern Epirus, Thrace, EEZ, and Aegean Air Space) and two national topics (Cyprus, and the Greek Genocide). Each one of them needs a separate lobby. 
 
The reason why we don’t have a lobby is because the political establishment of Greece does not allow it and does everything possible to subvert, sabotage, and weaken any attempt for a valid and honest lobby. Secondly, those who want to lead a lobby do not have any idea what a real lobby entails – dreams don’t count. Lobby means M-O-N-E-Y and expertise (love for the homeland or I want to help are fine, but they do not count as expertise). Just to open its doors for example, an active lobby requires a minimum of three million U.S. dollars. The operating costs reduce as the organization depreciates its assets but salaries and other operational expenses need to be factored in. If this sum seems exorbitant, one must start working in a Cost Accounting manner and without discounting any costs. 
 
A lobby is a fully organized operation consisting of adequately staffed and equipped teams with a single scope tasking that does not lose its peripheral vision. A team is a group whose identity reflects the consensus of its members without suppressing their individuality.
 
A lobby needs teams of experts, groups of professionals with expertise in the specific cause they advocate without interference or meddling in the business of other teams.  The experts are dedicated to their field and they do not need to be of Greek descent.  Each of the lobby teams consist of experts on specific subject matters, as geologists, national security experts with a specialty in geostrategy, experts in avionics, attorneys specializing in international law, diagnosticians, analysts, strategists, tacticians, operationalists, a lot of full-time staffers; but most of all, a lobby needs famous spokespersons in the community they operate and FUNDING.
 
Lobbies are connected to foundations or nonprofit public policy organizations using all forms of mass and social media and mass communication to influence a government or individual politicians. They demonstrate that the public demands a particular action. Such is the advocacy side of the lobbies that works overtly through lectures and presentations. 
 
A real Greek lobby requires serious funding because our multiple causes have been neglected or marginalized for a long time. The number of personnel required for a lobby can be anywhere between twenty to thousands; it always depends on what the aim and objective is. A few years back, I met someone who worked for a lobby as a Human Resource Manager, but the lobby in my opinion was insignificant. Yet she still had close to 100 personnel on her payroll. Not only do we have no lobby in Washington, but we don’t have appropriate people to lead such a lobby. All those who lead numerous Greek organizations have no understanding what a true lobby is, no appropriate training, no suitable contacts, and lack leadership ability.
 
Lobbyists are naturally accountable to their supporters who usually remain anonymous; it is why professional lobbies work quietly and behind the scenes using covert techniques. 
 
On the public relations side, a simple garden party with a politician today will cost a lobby about US$400-500,000 in the United States. The only Greek-American firm registered in the United States as a public relations firm is Manatos and Manatos. This firm was charging US$300,000 for garden parties about ten years ago.  
 
Most organizations of the Greek diaspora that I’m aware of are organized under the scope of cultural, societal, or educational societies with appropriate by-laws. Their part-time leadership, boards, and sometimes paid employees, lack what it takes to undertake the duties of a lobbyist. Unfortunately, they seek ‘lobbyists’ among themselves, restricting any possible expertise in the realm of the Greek diaspora.  Such mentality hinders the achievement of goals. The people who believe they currently lead a lobby are unaware that they do not have the suitable skills and information to deliver what is required. Titles, academic standing, or military and social eminence do not provide what it takes to operate and lead a political or national security lobby group, nor do they provide appropriate methods and strategies to achieve set goals. 
 
Those involved, do not understand what a lobby is nor its definition. The most critical part of lobbying is an affinity for the cause, not lust for it. Affinity lends itself to using logic, but passion raises emotional ties which are counterproductive. What one loves to do does not mean that it is the right thing to do.  
 
However, the problem within the Greek diaspora is more profound.  When irresponsible people spread the news that they are lobbyists while they do nothing near lobbying, they raise expectations by throwing ashes into the eyes of those who hope that someone is doing something. If they were honest about it, people would not have such expectations, and they would take the issue seriously trying to do something to fill the gap instead of being complacent. 
 
Others believe that educated people know what they are doing. To begin with, it is a faulty assumption. Let us take a teacher. There is a difference between teaching a five-year-old from teaching a 60-year-old. It is worse when a teacher of English is trying to teach English as a Second Language to foreigners. In my Turkish language class, for example, there were three engineers from Turkey teaching us Turkish as a Second Language. It was a farce. 
 
Another way of looking at the knowledge and expertise required for an effective lobby is like this. The human body and a house use plumbing. The gastroenterologist and the plumber do similar jobs.  They both take care of the plumbing, the first one of the human body and the second one of the house. The question is simple; would you visit a plumber to perform a colonoscopy?
 
I remember a Greek Cypriot professor of Political Science who teaches in the UK claiming that he knew a lot about Turkey. When he read my paper on the Strategic Culture of Turkey, he said: “I did not know all these details.” I am sure others would have presented a different set of details on the same subject. A lobby needs eloquent people to control the ground, spin the media, have credibility, sponsor a think-tank, neutralize the opposition without criminal means, control the web, and have access to government offices.
 
Most of the issues Greeks have arisen from targeting the wrong audience. They keep preaching to the choir. The message to the Greeks and non-Greeks can never be the same. They make videos in Greek explaining to the Greek audience that the ancient Macedonians were Greeks. Why? If the Greek audience does not know that, why are we attacking the FYROM Slavs for their historical ignorance? Why don’t the same people make a video in the language that the FYROM Slavs understand? What about in Serbian or even Russian? I am sure there are a few of Slavic descent who are willing to do it for a fee. They can even dub the voice. They can just narrate without showing their faces. It is exactly why a true lobby needs money. But who has the intelligence to think about it? According to Mr. Philip Christopher, President of the International Coordinating Committee – “Justice for Cyprus” (PSEKA), Turkey has spent US$102 million to professional lobbying firms such as Gephard, Livingston, Dole, Wexler, etc. Turks seek experts regardless of their ethnic background. Greeks look for people of Greek background. That alone limits the choices that Greeks have.  
 
In saying this, I want to clarify that I am not a lobbyist and will never be one. I do not have what it takes to be a lobbyist. I can organize a lobby without any outside interference and I can task the necessary research with a team of true researchers; that is what I can do.
 
We cannot end this interview without discussing our organization. Why has the Macedonian League resonated with so many people young and old? We see it from the constant communication and the enthusiasm of our followers. We see it with foreign government officials who follow us seeking answers to the name issue. What does the Macedonian League offer that other Greek organizations don't?
 
We are a small group of professionals specializing in various disciplines. Since its inception, our website and social media has remained and will remain clear of sensationalist articles with unproven “facts.” We welcome articles from professionals that have something to do with Greece’s domestic and national security issues. All of them pass through the editorial board. We have several professional editors who check the accuracy and the tone of articles.
 
What people like is the thoughtfulness behind the maintenance of our website and our social media sites. It is why foreign governments and intelligence agencies are our followers. It is only for a mature following and for people who want to learn something. It is precisely why the Australian Institute of Macedonian Studies (AIMS) has honored us with the Research Fellowship. People have noticed that anything we do is based on facts and not rumors or hallucinations.
 
It also depends on your readership. We do not care about spreading nonsense to gain readership. From the beginning we decided to keep our website content of high quality caliber and we stayed focused on the national security of Greece. Quality is always better than quantity. From a personal perspective, I’ve had many opportunities in life to follow popular movements and webinars. I did not do it because of the people I had to deal with and the direction the webinars would take. My father fought against fascists, Nazis and Communists and I would not forgo his example. I would never allow myself to be used by people who seek my knowledge on the matter to promote their pre-existing beliefs or political ideology.
 
Marcus Templar, your closing thoughts. Seeing that the global Greek community is extremely unhappy with this ‘Agreement’, going forward, what is the best way to protect Greece’s national security interests, and undo some of the damage done so far?

Well in closing, I wish that the governments and the people of Greece had woken up in 1990 regarding the name issue. Some Greek politicians have a problem with Skopje taking the name “Macedonia” as part of its final name, but I wonder where they had been since then? The demagogues who now take advantage of the issue could easily create social and political upheavals in the country by using toxic populism.
 
Having said that, the following course of action will help undo damage done so far:

  • Firstly, people whose education, employment and expertise have nothing to do with issues of political science (foreign affairs, national security, etc.) should stay out of these issues because they are unskilled in the craft. Imagine how senseless it would be if I got involved in their profession whether they were engineers, physicians, teachers of literature, etc? Serious issues are not for kafeneion discussion and Politicial Science is not kafeneion politics.
 
  • Secondly, establish Professional Lobby groups; one to lobby Greek politicians and others to lobby governments of the countries they live in.
 
  • Thirdly, hire a legal team of experts in international law to look into protesting and consequently annulling the present Agreement between Athens and Skopje under any or all of the following: 
 
                 – Ultra vires;
                 – Misunderstanding, fraud, corruption, coercion in accordance with Articles 46–53 of the Vienna
                    Convention on the Law of Treaties;
                 – Contrary to peremptory norms.

Then re-negotiate an Agreement based on the findings of the Legal Group and this time assign diplomatically relevant and politically competent negotiators instead of international nation-nihilistic organizations. The name of the multi-ethnic country must be Modern Yugoslavia or Yugoslavonia. The Nationality (which is a loose term of citizenship) must follow solely the name of the country and its Slav nationals should be designated as South Slavs speaking a South Slavic, with South Slavic Heritage. 

  • Fourthly, employ full-time multilingual personnel, dedicated to maintaining Greek-related content on Wikipedia in more languages than Greek. Never underestimate the influence of Wikipedia on people especially on children.
​
  • Finally, implement all the changes to the Greek constitution that were proposed in the report above.
 
Marcus Templar, The Macedonian League wishes to thank you for your genuine and in-depth analysis in presenting the causes and consequences of this serious national security issue.
 
Your academic and strategic insights are vital to the future direction and success of the Greek position on the Macedonian issue.

​--

About Marcus A. Templar
Professor Marcus A. Templar is a former U.S. Army Cryptologic Linguist (Language Analyst), Certified U.S. Army Instructor of Intelligence Courses, Certified Foreign Disclosures Officer, Certified Translator Interpreter of Serbo-Croatian, SIGINT / All-Source Intelligence Analyst. He is the Macedonian League's National Security Advisor.

​To read all his papers, please click here.

About the Macedonian League
We are an international professional Hellenic advocacy group. Our primary purpose is to advance our interests to informed and responsive governments on issues concerning Greece's national security and territorial integrity. 

The Macedonian League's main focus is on the “Macedonian name dispute”, as this dispute is a serious national security issue that threatens the territorial integrity of Greece.

The Macedonian League also focuses on exposing and combating anti-Hellenism and analyzing political developments in the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia.

For more information, follow us on: Website, Facebook, Twitter

Department of Communications
Macedonian League 

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Fear, Honor, Self-Interest

6/28/2018

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New York, NY | Originally published on: June 28, 2014
Speech held at Pan-Macedonian Association USA event

PictureMarcus A. Templar, National Security Advisor,
Macedonian League
I am sure everyone in this room has heard of Thucydides. His analysis of the political reality behind the military operations of both camps during the Peloponnesian War made him known as the father of the Realist Political thought. The same thought that war colleges around the world teach and analyze. 
 
Reasons behind the Athenian defeat in the Peloponnesian War

Thucydides states that the three greatest events related to the Peloponnesian War were fear, honor, and self-interest. 

Regarding fear, Thucydides indicates that the growth of Athens pushed Sparta to launch the war.  On the other hand, Pericles paid tribute to the dead soldiers delivering the most famous statement, “any place is the tomb of prominent men; they are honored not only by columns and inscriptions in their own land, but in foreign nations on memorials graven not in stone but in the hearts and minds of people.”[i] 

As Thucydides put it, the personal self-interest and the personal gain of those in power was the reason that Athens was driven to oblivion. Other historians, orators and politicians have collaborated Thucydides assessment on issues of private gain versus public interest and political flattery versus frankness and honesty. Pericles died in 429 BC, long before the end of the Peloponnesian War, and he was fortunate enough not to see the shameful end of the Athenian hegemony. 

According to Xenophon, Athens surrendered to Sparta in 404 BC, and its allies surrendered soon after.  The capitulation stripped Athens of its walls, its fleet, and all of its overseas possessions. The Athenian hegemony was over. Sparta’s allies, especially the Corinthians and the Thebans, demanded that Athens should be burnt to the ground and all its citizens enslaved. However, the Spartans, magnanimous as they were, refused to destroy a city that had done a good service at a time of great danger to Greece, alluding to the Persian Wars.[ii] 

In 13 paragraphs, Thucydides enumerates what caused the Athenians’ failure. Malcolm Heath has summarized the reasons behind the failure, as follows:

a) Pericles' successors pursued projects which would bring honor and self-interest to the individual if they succeeded, but which would damage the city's war-effort if they failed; they did this out of private ambition and for private gain. 

b) Pericles' unique position meant that he could speak his mind to the people. His successors, because they were competing with each other for political influence, had to say what the people wanted to hear. 

c) The Sicilian expedition was defeated primarily because the Athenians at home did not provide adequate support to those in the field; this was a result of private quarrels in pursuit of political pre-eminence. 

d) Even after the defeat in Sicily, Athens contrived to hold out against an apparently overwhelming coalition of opposing forces, until internal dissensions brought it down; in other words, the city defeated itself.[iii]

Two and a half millennia ago, political animosities, bickering, self-promotion, and especially philarchy were the reasons behind the Athenian defeat in the Peloponnesian War. 
 
That was then. This is now. Examining the present situation is disheartening, not just in Greece, but here as well.

Copying the politicians of ancient Athens, the present politicians have brought the country to the brink of destruction not only for money, but also for personal glory. We have similar problems within the diaspora with flatterers who are concerned more about their self-promotion and their inclusion in supercilious circles both abroad and in Greece.

Greece has at least seven equally important issues of national security, national interest, and also cultural unity, i.e. Aegean, Thrace, Macedonia, Epirus, Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ), Cyprus and Greek Genocide. Although not obvious, they are all vital to the existence of Greece and the Greek ethnos. They are vital in importance because they are directed toward the territorial integrity of Greece, its national security and national unity. 
 
NATO and Skopje

Regressing to NATO’s past, we deem that the reasons for its expansion were accidental owing to the disintegration of the Warsaw Pact in 1991. It was not the result of a strategic plan, but the consequence of political spontaneity.  The disintegration of the Warsaw Pact compelled the Alliance to change its role.  NATO has evolved from a strictly defense organization to a framework of stabilization of a suddenly unstable geopolitical situation in Eastern Europe.

The emerging European Union was in no position to offer reassuring security, and so only NATO could soundly fill the void. The Eastern Bloc countries felt induced to join an Alliance that would secure their newly freed lives from communism. There was no way of preventing the spontaneous feeling of the former Warsaw Pact countries toward the only Western institution that could simultaneously assure their security and help them democratize. However, the unintended consequence of this spontaneous surge brought about an evolution, an unplanned transition that the Alliance had never before envisioned. From a static, defensive force, it changed to an expeditionary force, which in practice means that from a defensive alliance it became a security alliance.

Before the fall of the Wall, NATO accepted countries based on their geopolitical location and their geostrategic importance. After 1989, NATO changed the rules in order to reflect the new reality. Because the membership to NATO is voluntary, before a country joins the Alliance the new members have to adhere to all democratic principles as a matter of fact, not as a matter of fiction. And although the world has changed due to a proliferation of weapons and new technologies, making possible the specter of chaos and mass destruction in any of our capitals, the fact remains that future members must abide by the rules of the membership. The present situation is very different from the situation the Alliance was facing before 1989. 

The understanding of how NATO brings stability to a region is based on false premises. Yes, it does bring regional stability, but only when each of the allied countries are already domestically stable, which is the result of democracy. Establishing stability within a country that fosters bad governance or lack of democracy is not NATO’s job; it never was.

The stability that NATO provides its member states is not domestic, but regional. If NATO intervened in the domestic affairs of country members, it would be in violation of the UN Charter.[iv] That is why NATO wants the candidate members to fully adhere to the set pre-conditions and criteria before they join the Alliance. Three countries adjacent to the FYROM are members of NATO, which means that Skopje cannot claim these countries are its enemies as it is incomprehensible that Skopje would want to join an enemy camp. Consequently, Skopje is fully protected from inimical forces.

We are opposing Skopje’s membership to NATO because Skopje is domestically unstable. That is Skopje’s own fault.  Skopje cannot enact dictatorial laws such as the suppression of a free press, treating people of dissenting opinions as traitors, inciting intra-ethnic hatred, openly provoking its NATO neighbors, and then expecting NATO members to put out the fire that a quasi-dictator has started for his own glorification, fueling nationalism and hatred toward the adjacent NATO member countries. Such a Cold War mentality cannot be justified under any circumstances. 

NATO is proud of the democratic values of its members and respects their independence. That is why the system of consensus was implemented. It is the manifestation of equality among member states. The West, and especially NATO, must insist on democracy in the Republic of Skopje, which in turn would bring regional stability. Regional stability will not exist without democracy, lack of which is the root of the problem.

The whole idea that NATO needs the Army of the FYROM is at best ludicrous. The Republic of Skopje has an army of 8,000 men. Of them, 2,000 operate various posts in the Ministry of Defense, diplomatic and other services. Of the remaining 6,000, only 1,000 are fighting soldiers considering that for every fighting soldier five to seven other soldiers are needed to support one soldier. It is incomprehensible that NATO is so desperate for soldiers that 1,000 soldiers poorly trained and equipped would make any real difference.    

Regarding the name issue, the notion that Skopje has spread around is that pressuring their country to change its name is unheard of. It is unheard of only because all governments, including the Greek, keep silent. After the collapse of the Austrian Empire on November 12, 1918, the National Assembly of Austria officially declared the “Republic of German-Austria”. Between that day and September 10, 1919, the new republic operated under the name of German Austria. The song "German Austria, you wonderful country" (Deutschösterreich, du herrliches Land) became its new national Anthem. 

The final Peace Treaty of St. Germain en Layé of September 10, 1919, officially dissolved the Austro-Hungarian Empire, which, however, although the victorious allies including the United States, under article 88 of the Treaty guarantying the independence of Austria, “refused to allow Austria to use its first choice name for the new republic – German Austria. The link with Germany was not accepted by the Allies and the new state had to adopt just ‘Austria’.”[v] Thus Austria changed its name from German-Austria or Deutschösterreich to Austria or Österreich.

This fact has set the precedent for Greece's insistence on the name issue and it has a legal basis in international law. Any name of the FYROM that includes Macedonia implies future union with the region of Macedonia of Greece. Selective amnesia is not an excuse for anyone, although it is pandemic among politicians. 

Need for a Professional Greek Lobby

According to reports, members of both Chambers of the U.S. Congress support Skopje’s bid to NATO membership because they have found the Greek arguments on the issue of Greece’s objection to Skopje’s membership to NATO as presented by their “Greek friends”, “incomprehensible”. As a Greek, I find this situation completely unacceptable. That and similar incidents only prove that the Greek lobby is a myth. These so-called lobbyists did not have the knowledge, or the critical thinking, to connect the name issue between Greece and the FYROM to the name issue of Austria just after the end of the First World War.

We must understand that all the organizations that pretend to be part of the Greek lobby exist to make money.  And if in their pursuit of self-interest they help on the sidelines any Greek national security issues, they market their promoted achievements as if those issues were their real target. The same lobbyists are also extraneous to the real issues behind the invasion of Cyprus then and the Macedonia name dispute currently. They only see the façade of the political upheaval because seeing the substance is out of their reach and understanding.

Real lobbies keep petitioning the U.S. officials by speaking in a language that members of the U.S. government understand, i.e. regional cohesiveness, crisis management, collective defense, regional stability and cooperative security.  The Greek so – called lobby keeps following the “Alexander the Great was Greek” narrative.  This is not a serious counter-argument aimed at Skopje’s exclusion from the Alliance! U.S. legislators do not care about Alexander the Great. They care about the present and the future, not ancient history.

An excellent indication of what American politicians are after was demonstrated when Joe Biden, the U.S. Vice President, visited Cyprus to confer about stability, and urged a solution to the issue of the Turkish occupation of the island. He further expressed the interest of the United States on the issue of energy, calling Cyprus a “strategic partner”.  “Strategic partnership” is a formal alliance between two commercial enterprises, and in this case the American Vice President himself identified the Cypriot Exclusive Economic Zone and, consequently, the Israeli and Greek Exclusive Economic Zone to be of national interest to the United States. Since no Greek official, nor Greek organization, have ever made the correlation of the Exclusive Economic Zones of Cyprus, Israel, Egypt and Greece to be of national interest to the United States, Mr. Biden did.

The EEZ offers Greece a wonderful opportunity to resolve its financial difficulties, and to provide revenue to modernize its economy. Yet Greece is still thinking about declaring the EEZ. This situation has been going on since 1982—over 30 years!  One must know that the EEZ does not require any recognition by any government. Greece just has to declare it in accordance to the Law of the Sea Convention. 

We must help the U.S. officials understand that by supporting the FYROM they do not help the people of that country, nor do they help the region’s stability. The Skopje regime has disenfranchised all ethnic groups through undemocratic means while it seeks to not only destabilize Greece and the region, but to fragment Greece, the only proven ally the United States has in the Balkan Peninsula.    

Thus currently, the officials of the FYROM are getting two conflicting messages coming from the two sides of the Atlantic. One message is discouraging coming from NATO, but the other is optimistic for the Republic of Skopje. The discouraging message is that they have to change the name of the country if they want to see a NATO membership. The EU Parliament has already sided with Skopje mainly because of a pro-Turkish faction of the UK and the cooperation of some Greek elements.

The encouraging message for Skopje’s lobby and friends, which monetarily and morally Skopje supports, is making progress by pushing the concept of victimization of the FYROM by its NATO neighbors, especially by Greece. The emotional and intellectual appeal of Skopje has swayed supporters, even of the Greek caucus in the U.S. Congress.

Greece’s foreign policy is complex because of the way it was originally fashioned and subsequently has developed. The first political parties of Greece were serving interests other than Greek. The liberal English Party, the liberal French Party, and the conservative Russian Party dominated the Greek politics for almost half a century (40 years). The whole scheme of things was and is fundamentally based on whims of individual ministers and the understanding of their often impertinent advisers, who do whatever they want in accordance with their own political ideology, which is the only criterion for which they were hired for the job. In October 2010 in Brisbane, Queensland, a lawyer who had studied in Thessaloniki told me, “The Greek foreign policy lacks cohesion”. 

The government of Greece, through the mouths of its ministers, has oftentimes declared that the Pan Macedonian Association cannot make Greece’s foreign policy. I would fully agree with such a statement as long as it was true. But it is not true. Greece’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs not only does not make its own foreign policy, but it has encouraged NGO’s such as ELIAMEP and KEMO to make foreign policy for Greece, which has been anything but national. Any and all solutions these NGOs have offered were and are against the national security of Greece and, of course, its territorial integrity. If those organizations can make Greece’s foreign policy, so can we!  

Greek American NGOs along with some of Greece’s elected officials have already declared their support for the 1934 Comintern’s decision in favor of the existence of a [quote]“Macedonian nation” [unquote], the same Slavic nation which looks toward the incorporation of the Greek region of Macedonia under the Stalinist slogan of “eternal friendship” and “brotherly love”. According to Vladimir Bogdanovich Rezún, a former Officer of the Soviet Military Intelligence, 60 million citizens of the USSR were shot out of “brotherly love” and “eternal friendship”.  We saw its implementation against East Germany in 1954, against Hungary in 1956, and against Czechoslovakia in 1968.  The number of border clashes between the USSR and the People’s Republic of China (PRC) are too many to enumerate.  Nikita Khrushchev even mentioned that the USSR was at the brink of war with China during the Stalin era.

Just as appeasement and docility did not stop Germany’s expansionism that brought about WW II, no one should expect that appeasement and docility toward Skopje or Turkey, for that matter, would stop them from materializing their national goal.

Even if an issue at hand is of a little value by itself, or it is hard to hold, its surrender under pressure would create a reputation of admitted weakness. Appeasing one’s opponent encourages him to think that one is weak. This is how Hitler perceived the illusions of appeasement that both Edouard Daladier of France and Neville Chamberlain of the UK had afforded him. On August 22, 1939, when Hitler was about to launch his attack against Poland, he reassured his Commander-in-Chief, “Our enemies are little worms; I saw them at Munich”. This should be a wake-up call for the devotees of “brotherly love” and “internal friendship”. 

Politicians often state that we should look forward, not back. We fully agree with them and it is exactly why we rely on our experience in order to protect the future of Greece. We are opposing the name Macedonia in any form for Skopje’s final name. This is looking forward. If we do not take the matter seriously, the future of Greece, and specifically of Macedonia, will be murky and perhaps even bloody. That is what we need to avoid. 

The existence of our home country is in very real physical danger because of ideological experiments of its incompetent politicians. We cannot afford such experiments anymore. Since the Turkish invasion of Cyprus, we have encountered Greek American public relations groups antagonizing each other and indeed actively opposing each other. These are not lobbies. Real lobbies with a common cause do not work fighting each other. When opposing groups find a common area of interest and can present a united front, they are extremely effective. Yet nothing like that happens. Instead, personal self-interest, self-promotion, name recognition, and money among other benefits have developed as the main reason for the existence of these groups. I understand that they are businesses aspiring to make money, but they should not proclaim themselves as defenders of Greece’s rights and interests. They are not.

We need to counter not just Skopje and Ankara, but anyone and everyone who wants to harm the natural and traditional friendship between Greece and the United States. We need close cooperation in order to deal with the strategic multi-faceted security challenges of the 21st century, which are more demanding than ever before.

But here is the problem. According to the U.S. State Department, Greek Americans constitute about 3 million people. What does it say to you that we are 40 years behind the Turks and 10 years behind the Skopjans, which have a negligible diaspora. 

We keep reacting to trivial matters instead of acting according to a strategic, but flexible plan. For as long as we keep reacting instead of actively defending our positions, we end up playing into the hands of Ankara’s and Skopje’s proxies; and while they distract us with triviality, they are free to do their intended work without hindrance from us. This must stop!      

SKOPJE HAS A DYNAMIC AND EFFECTIVE LOBBY; GREECE DOES NOT. THOSE WHO THINK THAT WE HAVE A LOBBY DO NOT KNOW WHAT A LOBBY IS.

The Greek American diaspora, and indeed Hellenism in general, is in need of a real honest to goodness reliable political pressure group that would fight and represent our views.  We must launch an ACTIVE DEFENSE. We must reiterate to the U.S. officials the contribution of values that the West lives under because of Greece and the military support that Greece gave to the West since its independence. We must stress that Greece has clearly impacted NATO’s cooperative security, and we must present Greece as the pillar of military readiness.  We had better be serious on our approach to issues of national security.

Letter writing by heads of organizations do not have the impact that letters written by a massive individual involvement do. Entreaty, wishful thinking, and false expectations are not part of professional lobbying. Access to U.S. government officials and members of the U.S. Congress, knowledge of the subject matter in all facets both academically and practically, money to contribute to the campaigns of politicians and anything that would give the ability to sway politicians who oppose one’s cause are part of a successful lobby. 

We cannot afford to start training impertinent amateurs only because they think they have already formed a lobby.  We need an advocacy group; we need a political pressure group; we need a lobby.  Please, be careful. I am not advocating that we should start a lobby. We have no adequate expertise on issues of national security, geology, marine geology, ocean drilling and, of course, we have no access to the right places. What I am advocating is the initiation of a series of “Active Defense” fundraisers that will allow us to hire a lobbying firm with pertinent professionals who understand issues of national security and have access to the right people in the U.S. government.

We need professionals who totally understand the issues. I would like to see well-funded research institutes and think tanks staffed by political science professionals and cognate disciplines producing serious discussion papers, reports, articles and books and organizing conferences as part of the unified effort in the promotion of our national security issues.

We need to create academic chairs and publish serious books in telling the world about the Greek Genocide. These activities must not and should not be subject to political exploitation from the left or the right, nor should they be subject to the whim of each Greek political party in charge.

Greece needs political leadership that is visionary and defends its national interests and national security above all. Unfortunately, I do not see this emerging from the current crop of political leaders and political parties. Therefore, we, the Greek Diaspora, must shoulder the responsibility to organize ourselves in order to accomplish what we must.  We can no longer rest on the achievements of our ancestors. We must add our own contributions to the world. 

We must actively engage the mainstream media of the world, the social media, search engines, and other important publications. These resources of mass communication and dissemination of information have been neglected for too long. We have to change that. We have to lobby the present and all future governments of Greece demanding that they change their priorities or they had better prepare for a perilous outcome. The world lives in the year 2014 looking at the future, not in 1914 looking at 1830. The ostrich syndrome does not work anymore. We must take lessons from the past if we want to see a better future. It is either do or be the losers. 

I am asking that the Pan-Macedonian Association to assume the leading role in the formation of a Pan-Hellenic Active Defense Foundation with the sole purpose of creating a political pressure group independent of any and all organizations. I am asking all Greeks and our non-Greek friends, regardless of the country of residence, regardless of political persuasion, whether business people, financiers, journalists, scientists, and others with pertinent expertise, to come together in support of such an effort.  Jews and Armenians have an excellent lobbying arm, which we could learn something from. 

We lack a flexible, realistic and implementable long-term plan prepared in a manner that makes sense.  We need a plan that is the result of a collaborative effort, not just the efforts of one person or a small group of people. We are in need of a plan that is part of a continuous, frequently reviewed and updated process. It should directly involve everyone accountable for implementing it. The plan should also involve everyone in the organization at some stage, either directly or indirectly. The purpose of involvement is a way to secure a deep understanding and commitment. We need different means of communication, not only among ourselves, but also with the people whom we want to influence.

The Pan-Macedonian Association necessitates access to an online advocacy program such as Capwiz or Nationbuilder, or something similar in order to meet the 21st century needs. As part of our needs, a broader participation of all Greeks is our obligation. We must bring together all disenfranchised Greeks, especially the Youth, using electronically induced membership and electronically connected teams through social media or through instant messaging services that provide text, voice, and image communication in a friend-to-friend context such as Skype,Google Talk, Face Time, Viber, etc. Planning requires people who are more writers and coordinators, not a know-all, end-all of the effort. In order to have a successful operation, a team needs planning to succeed. Planning cannot be done by just one person. 

This plan should be oriented toward the younger generations, which expect our guidance, not our control. We must engage our younger members to navigate the Pan-Macedonian Association to a future that makes sense to them and responds to the present and the future needs of our cause.  Instead of telling them what to do, we had better listen to them and guide them when they ask for help. I hope the leadership of the Pan- Macedonian Association will initiate such an endeavor.

Finishing, I want to leave you with one more thought regarding what Greece can do in order to neutralize a few of its opponents.    

A Possible Economic Project

Clausewitz considered war to be a political instrument, a continuation of political intercourse, a carrying out of politics, by other means. Although this is still true, it is not anymore absolute. Today we must redefine “war”, because it is not always an instrument of political prevalence by violent means. It can also mean prevalence by peaceful means such as world markets, economic growth, renewable resources, and progressive innovations. The series of the means that Clausewitz implicitly cited are resources that promote markets, markets that bring growth, growth that generates money, money that stimulates infrastructure, infrastructure that builds stability and stability that fosters security; but all of them necessitate democracy and political will. 

These measures bring the necessary funds into the country along with the proper political will to enact and enforce robust legal rules that promote domestic stability. They are all the foundation of a solid national security with high morale and pride for one’s country, or patriotism. A country that is built on such concrete grounds would not have a problem in its military sector. Politicians must understand the link between the military and the market because the peaceful economic growth converts into a sound national security structure in a military sense.

So, with these things in mind, let me leave you with a thought. We all know the importance of the Exclusive Economic Zone in the Eastern Mediterranean Sea. What if we do something that would accentuate the importance of the region? Just imagine the potential of Thessaloniki if the appropriate authority in Greece proposes a plan for a canal [=διώρυγα] from Thessaloniki to the Danube. If the FYROM does not go along with it, then have the governments of Serbia, Croatia, Bosnia, Slovenia, Hungary, Austria, the Czech Republic, Slovakia, and Germany explain a few things to Skopje. Even Kosovo, Romania and all the countries of the Black Sea, without exception, could benefit from such a canal. I want to see that Greece initiates such works! Technology exists and the tangible and intangible benefits of such a project outweigh the costs over a forward period with great potential financial return to the countries involved.

I am suggesting a canal similar to the Erie Canal that has united the Lake Erie with New York City. Think of the impact that such a canal would have to commerce, business, and finances in the region, especially if one adds the sea thoroughfare. 
 
Ladies and gentlemen,

We must modify the meaning of the triptych “fear, honor, and self-interest” not just to Greece’s favor, but also to the region.  We need to eliminate the fear from Greece’s neighbors, bring back the honor of our ancestors, and work together to secure Greece’s interests through democracy, growth and stability.

This is how I see it; if you agree, then it’s up to you to do something.

Thank you,

-----


Remark: If there is political will, there can be at least three canals [διώρυγες] that could facilitate the transportation of merchandise from one place to another.
1. One from the Gulf of Strymon to the Gulf of Thermai.
2. One from the Gulf of Thermai to FYROM to Serbia to Danube
3. One from the Gulf of Strymon through Bulgaria to Danube. There is always the possibility of one more canal from Alexandroupolis to Svilengrad to Varna.
 
One must always consider issues of environment such as wetlands.

-----

[1] “ἀνδρῶν γὰρ ἐπιφανῶν πᾶσα γῆ τάφος, καὶ οὐ στηλῶν μόνον ἐν τῇ οἰκείᾳ σημαίνει ἐπιγραφή, ἀλλὰ καὶ ἐν τῇ μὴ προσηκούσῃ ἄγραφος μνήμη παρ’ ἑκάστω τῆς γνώμης μᾶλλον ἢ τοῦ ἔργου ἐνδιαιτᾶται.”  (Θουκυδίδης Περικλέους Ἐπιτάφιος, Βιβλίον Β' ΜΓ')
[2] Xenophon, Hellenica, 2.2.19-23
[3] Malcolm Heath, “Thucydides’ Political Judgment”, Liverpool Classical Monthly, 1990, Monthly 15 (1990) 158-160.  It regards Thucydides II, 65. 
[4] Chapter I. article 2. para 7
[5] http://www.historylearningsite.co.uk/treaty-st-germain.htm
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Observations on Misirkov’s “On Macedonian Matters”

4/13/2018

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Marcus A. Templar, National Security Advisor | Macedonian League​
PictureMarcus A. Templar National Security Advisor,
Macedonian League
Introduction

Misirkov’s extensive biography provides a view as the author understood the overall political reality in Europe and particularly in the Balkan Peninsula during his time.  It is also necessary for the reader to bear in mind the alongside creeping progress of the Pan-Slavic movement and the awakening of the Slavdom, i.e., regions of Slavic linguistic and cultural traditions who lived in Central, Eastern and Southeast Europe outside of the Russian boundaries.

The Roman Catholic Church started and sanctioned the Pan-Slavic movement as it brokered the marriage of Sophia Paleologue to Ivan III in 1472, supporting the theories of Vinko Pribojević, and Mauro Orbini, and authorized the voyages of Juraj Križanić to Russia silently endorsing his actions.  Also, Russia’s foreign policy on the Balkans, which Peter the Great had established, continued uninterrupted and contributed to Misirkov’s life of movement or resettlement from one political jurisdiction to another.  It is worth noting that while in Belgrade attending the teacher’s academy, Misirkov befriended some future members of the VMRO as Petar Pop-Parsov, Dame Gruev.

Misirkov

Misirkov was born in the town of Aghoi Apostoloi or Holy Apostles of the Pella Prefecture, Macedonia, Greece on November 18, 1874.  The town of Aghoi Apostoloi is adjacent to the ancient Capital of Macedonia, Pella.  Not only he attended the Greek elementary school of his village under the Ottoman rule, but also he could physically see the ruins of the ancient city.  He knew the history of Macedonia much better than the modern Slav inhabitants of the FYROM and its diaspora do today.  He could read the inscriptions chiseled on the stones and the language of the ancient population of Macedonia, which was Greek.  It is why Misirkov never invoked the ancient Macedonians as his ancestors, but he always referred to himself and his compatriots as Macedonian Slavs. 

The only person with the name Alexander whom Misirkov mentioned is Alexander Obrenović (1876-1903), who became king of Serbia at the age of 13 and assassinated at the age of 26. 

As a charter member of the “Macedonian People’s Science and Technology Association, ‘Sveti Kliment’ ” (Saint Clement) along with the Chuparov brothers from Papradishte (Veles), Misirkov published the Македонский голос (Macedonian Voice) in Russian.  Later the society changed its name to “Macedonian Slav Literary Society, Sveti Kliment.”  It is notable that although they could name the Association after St. Cyril, they preferred to recognize Saint Kliment, Saint Cyril’s disciple one of their own who became the first Bulgarian Bishop.  The leadership of the association knew that Saint Cyril was Greek.  The fact is that Misirkov never mentioned anything that would indicate even remotely the appropriation of Greek history.  The adjective “Macedonian” was regional according to Misirkov (1974, 159). He used the term Macedonian as the Greeks use it today, a regional connotation.

Misirkov’s book

The language Misirkov used in his book was not the Central Slavic dialect of Bitola – Prilep as he had suggested that should become the literary language of the Macedonian state he had proposed, but instead, he used the vernacular Bulgarians spoke in his vicinity at that time.  The dialect maintained archaisms of the literary standard of the southern dialect of the Old Church Slavonic language from which Bulgarian dialects evolved.

The current region of Macedonia is a product of political alchemy that started in the mid-1800s and continued in 1940s. Present geographic Macedonia is far more extensive than the great kingdom of Macedonia. Only a tiny part of their legendary kingdom fell within Serbia and Bulgaria because of the 1878 Conference of Berlin that caused the quarrel between those two countries. The Conference had deprived Serbia of enlarging west and Bulgaria from expanding south and west.  While Serbia envisioned her presence south, Bulgaria moved her Capital from Turnovo to Sofia in the hope that one day she would gain the lands that the Conference had taken away.  Their rivalry and their war of 1885 turned the lands of ancient Dardania and Paeonia into Macedonia by 1900 (Novaković 1906).

Misirkov was an intellectual but also an indecisive ideologue who wrote expressed his emotions over pragmatism, an individual who kept changing his ethnic allegiance while maintaining his loyalty to the region of Macedonia.  By that, I mean that although Misirkov vacillated from being a Bulgarian of Macedonia or a Macedonian Slav who despised the Bulgarians of the Principality, while he remained a provincial Macedonian.

Lazar Koliševski, a prominent communist politician of Marxist Yugoslavia, explained, “The book appeared at the end of that year, but because of the intervention by greater-Bulgarian circles in Sofia the entire edition was destroyed at the printing works. Only very few copies remained. After that Misirkov had to leave Sofia and went to Russia for the third time” (Kolishevski 1980, 236).

To Misirkov, Macedonian people were all residents of Macedonia irrespective of their ethnic background.  When he was referring to his ethnicity the term he used was Macedonian Slavs. His exact thoughts are capsulated in the sentence, “The emergence of the Macedonians as a separate Slav people is a perfectly normal historical process which is quite in keeping with the process by which the Bulgarian, Croatian and Serbian peoples emerged from the South Slav group.” 

But because Misirkov was cognizant that the Macedonian people transcended ethnicities, and simultaneously his people had no ethnic name, he further wrote,
Is it possible now for the national unification of the Macedonians, when in Macedonia there are a lot, not just one ethnicity, and when there is no single Macedonian Slav nation?[i]

As for the nameless Slavs of the Balkans, Misirkov suggests the following. 
“And so, one people [narod or ethnic group] can be without an ethnic name for a long time if there is no other ethnic group nearby and if there is no need for that [nameless] ethnic group to make a distinction using a specific ethnic name. That means that an ethnic group does not choose a name for itself, but the neighbouring ethnic groups make up a name for it, and the [nameless] ethnic group adopts it. It is the most common and very natural thing that one’s ethnic name first occurs in one of its neighbouring ethnic groups. So, the neighbouring ethnic groups are related like a godchild and a godfather”.

Misirkov identified himself and his Slav compatriots as being South Slavs, i.e., descendants of the original invading the region nine Slavic tribes.

Misirkov spoke like a man who knew about the Comintern and its 1924 Resolution on Macedonia and Thrace because he said to his closest and friends before he died, "I regret that I did not foresee federalism."

Also from other essays, Misirkov had published, e.g., The Macedonian Culture (1924), it is noteworthy that he was familiar with the work of Ziya Gökalp.  While in On Macedonian Matters Misirkov refers to Bulgarians as Mongols, in The Macedonian Culture he refers to “Turanian Bulgarians,” an association of Bulgarians to the Turks brought up by Gökalp in Thessaloniki in 1911. The fact is that not one Turkic tribe is Turanian. The story of Turan is Persian and refers to the son of a Persian king, and has nothing to do with Turks (Templar, November 15, 2015).

I have examined the two existing versions of the book that claim to be copies of the original text: a)  On Macedonian Matters, Sofia, Printing House "Liberal Club," 1903 and b)  On Macedonian Matters, State Book Publishing House, 1946.  I compared both to the English translation of the book contingent upon the copy from Skopje (On Macedonian Matters, 1974).[ii]

How original is it?

The most striking evidence of inconsistency regarding Misirkov’s book is the conflict between the name of the Capital of Imperial Russia, Petrograd and the time of publication, 1903.  The toponym Petrograd that appears in Misirkov’s book is something I have kept to myself since I read the book many years ago.  It is interesting that some new publications of the same book have attempted to “correct” the older edition by replacing Petrograd with Saint Petersburg; however, they cannot reverse facts.

The Capital of Imperial Russia was officially named Saint Petersburg on May 27, 1703. It kept the name until August 18, 1914, one day after Russia had declared war against Prussia and the Austro-Hungarian Empire.  The Czar changed the name of his Capital to Petrograd believing that the new name was more Slavicized than the previous German sounding name.  About ten years later, as consequence of the Russian Revolution and Lenin’s death, the city was renamed Leningrad on January 26, 1924.

How was it possible for Misirkov to have published a book in 1903 anticipating the toponym of the Russian Capital that would appear 11 years later between August 18, 1914, and January 26, 1924?

The answer to the above question comes to us from the forward of the Skopje edition of the “original” Book.  The forward of the 1946 edition published in Skopje starts with a very interesting heading, foreword to the 2nd Edition, which points to a modified version that appeared 43 years after the first one.  The author of the introduction does not explain who and when had redacted the Second Edition of the book and neither he explains who took care of it before it ended up at the Skopje City Library titled “Brothers Miladinov” (Библиотека Браќа Миладиновци).  However, consistent with the note by the Journal for Slavonic Philology of the Serbian Academy of Sciences, Institute of Serbian Language, the person who technically changed the orthography was Bozhidar (Dare) Dzhambaz (Божидар (Даре) Џамбаз).[iii] He also wrote the forward of the book reflecting his contemporary political views with tainted rationalizations.

Misirkov had probably redacted and published the version of the book available today during Stamboliski’s government (Agrarian National Union, 1919-1923) in Sofia, an ally of the Bulgarian communists.  Aleksandar Stamboliski had officially declared in the Bulgarian Parliament that he was “neither a Bulgarian nor a Serb,” but a South Slav or “Yugoslav,” as a declaration of his beliefs for a Balkan Federation.  The other possibility is that Misirkov had republished the book in either Kishinev, Bessarabia (Moldova) or Odessa, Ukraine between 1918 and 1923.

The original Cyrillic Alphabet comprised 44 letters which were subject to contemporary local dialectal needs.  As phonetics keep changing linguists keep creating alphabetical innovations.

Although not a linguist, Misirkov had created his phonetic soft sign, a simple ‘ (apostrophe) that he added next to letters  Г, К, Л, Н, instead of the traditional Ь. Also, he employed the use of i instead of І or Ї. The apostrophe was postpositional to particular Cyrillic letters (Г, К) converting them to Г’, K’ that arguably gave rise to new letters Ѓ, Ќ.  Regarding the Л’, Н’ for some reason ignored the already existing in the Serbian alphabet thanks to Vuk Stefanović-Karadžić’s innovation (Л + Ь = ЛЬ => Љ and Н+ Ь = НЬ => Њ).  

That could have something to do with the dubious change of the letter “i” of the original book to the letter j in the version of Skopje, i.e., from известiа to известjа or “notice, notification, report.”

Although both versions claim to be copies of the original, a trained eye can detect alphabetical discrepancies in the content of both texts. Thus immediately one wonders, how many unique copies exist out there?  For instance, the spelling of the Bulgarian version seems genuine as compared to the Skopjan version since the redactor admitted his action.  However, while the Bulgarian edition claims that the “Liberal Club” published the book in 1903, textually, it agrees with the Skopje version released in 1946 while both versions bear same toponymic inconsistencies.

Misirkov wrote the preface of his book just before he published the original version and Blagoja Korubin contributed to Misirkov’s biographical summary at the end of the English translation.  One gathers that Misirkov composed the first three chapters from a collection of shorter essays that he had previously written and read in the “Macedonian Slav Literary Society, Sveti Kliment” in Saint Petersburg, the Capital of Imperial Russia.  He recited the three chapters at the Sveti Kilment society between August and November 1903.

The final version of the essays, which constitute the first three chapters of the book, are:
 
1. What we have already done and what we ought to do in the Future?
2. Is there a need for Macedonian national scientific and literary societies?
3. National separatism – the basis on which we have been developing and on which we shall continue to develop?
 
Before he sent the above essays to Sofia for publication, Misirkov added the following articles, which he placed as the last two chapters in the book. 

4. Can Macedonia turn itself into a separate ethnographic and political unit? Has it already done so?  Is it doing so now?
5. A few words on the Macedonian literary language.
 
Misirkov arranged and managed to send the manuscript to Bulgaria, through his revolutionary socialist, i.e., communist friends in Sofia had the book published by the Printing House “Liberal Club” in 1903.  

The Translation of the book into English.

In the 1800s, Macedonia was changing to the direction Bulgarians had resented.  Rayko Ivanov Zhinzifov (Райко Иванов Жинзифов), a Bulgarian educator, and poet from Veles published his essay "Prospect" in the Russian journal "Brotherly Labor," Moscow, 1862, p. 38-58.  He stated in a regretful tone in his essay, "In villages and cities, Bulgarian youths are using more “Greekisms” on a daily basis as "kalimera” (good morning) and "kalispera" (good evening).”  Zhinzifov wrote his observations 31 years before the establishment of the VMRO, an organization that through extortion, murder, and coercive persuasion intended to establish its government over Macedonia by the 1934 Resolution of the Comintern.

Being fair to Alan McConnell, the Australian translator, even if he had translated the text very faithfully aiming at the spirit rather than the letter of the version the redacting committee of the book had a lot to do with the political direction of the text.  It is evident that the translation into English is a product of an ideological redaction that confirmed the bias of the institution. 

Let us see a couple of the issues that the translation addresses as the translator wished to express his political beliefs and financial interests.  It makes a significant difference in understanding the name issue and the behavior exerted by the FYROM nationalists. 

The English version translates the word tatkoina (modern ascription: tatkovina) as a country.  The word country is more of an independent state under a fully functioning government with internationally recognized boundaries.  In 1903, Macedonia was not a state, but part of the Ottoman Empire. Considering that at the time, Macedonia was under Turkish rule until 1912, the definition tatkoina that Misirkov implied was either birthplace or native land.

Another word is the noun narod.  The English version translates the word narod as a nation.  Not only narod does not mean a nation, but also the word nation has a dual sense: a) an ethnic group and b) a state.  Nevertheless, narod implies folk, society, who are not necessarily related.  Misirkov as an initiated communist, he followed the party line, which he deemed emblematic.

Conversely, natsiya or a nation in the communist sense is a historical community of people that come into existence with the formation of a common territory, common economic ties, a standard literary language, a general character, and specific cultural features that constitute its identifying traits.  A nation as a community of descent is a tribe (Stalin 1934, 8; Stalin 1975, 11; Lenin 2002, 197).  In the specific case of Macedonia, the expression Macedonian people or makedonski narod also covers the non-Slavic populations inhabiting Macedonia, i.e., Greeks, Albanians, Turks, Jews, Roma, etc.” (Hristo Andonov-Poljanski 1981, v. 2, 181).

Misirkov used националност or “nationality” to refer to “ethnicity,” which, by the way, appears only four times in his book.  A related word is the adjective народен, народна, народно as in народна песна or folk song.  The English translation of the book has the adjective as connoting national.  Such a translation disregards the fact that most often songs and dances are regional as it is the food, especially in a mixed society of Misirkov’s Macedonia.  I would have translated narodna as folk, people’s an adjective with plural meaning as in the Federative People’s Republic of Yugoslavia or Federativna narodna republika Jugoslavija. The Slovenian title of the same was Federativna ljudska republika Jugoslavija, which makes clearer as it translates the word narodna to ljudska an adjective of the noun in plural ljudi or људи or люди or “people.”

Toward the end of page 120 of the English version, Misirkov referred to the Macedonian “job.”  The Macedonian “job” was a Bulgarian attempt to bulgarize all Christian Macedonians, their ethnicity notwithstanding.  Anastas Yankov, a communist Bulgarian colonel of volunteers from the village of Vassileiada (Zagorichani), led a battalion strength band aiming at the revolt of the people of the region of Kastoria in 1902.  He issued a proclamation calling ALL Macedonians regardless of their ethnic origin “historical heirs” of the great glory of Macedonia, naming “the great Alexander of Macedon,” “the brave king Samuel,” and “the marvelous Marko Kralyevich.”  He further stated that all the above had Macedonian blood flown in their veins mixing all regional Macedonians as if they were of one tribe (Ristovski 1999, 207).  Yankov and other Bulgarians had asserted that Alexander the Great and Aristotle were Bulgarians (Brailsford 1906, 103, 105, 121, 122; Allen Upward 1908, 163).  “He [Yankov] died as the leader of a detachment in engagement with the Turkish army in 1906 at the village of Vlakhi”, Melnik, Bulgarian region of Pirin (Khirurgia, Vol XV, No 12, Sofia, 1962, pages 1118-1122 in JPRS: -18,462-, 1963, 1)[iv].

Misirkov also clarified that the slogan “Macedonia for the Macedonians” referred to all inhabitants of Macedonia, not just the Slavs of Macedonia.  While mentioning the Committee, i.e., VMRO, Misirkov stated, “The revolution must be the work of all Macedonians or at least the majority of them so that it can be identified as a popular revolution.  All ethnicities should be represented in the committee itself or at least most of the ethnicities.  The intelligentsia of these ethnicities needs to assist each other while each of them should undertake to popularize the idea to their people (Misirkov 1946, 7- translation is mine).

In its present form, Misirkov’s book is not the original edition nor is it immaculate of political innuendos.  Nevertheless, Misirkov does often stress the fact that Macedonians were not just the Slavs of Macedonia as Skopje propagates, but all inhabitants of the then Ottoman region as both resolutions of the Comintern of 1924 and 1934 promoted.

The text of the book has been altered, and its interpretation is guided to the point that it misguides the reader away from the intended disposition of the author; to what degree the redaction transpired is unknown.  We can only speculate that the original text was more radical than the present version; perhaps the tone was too sharp for the government of the Principality of Bulgaria in 1903.  Regardless of the apparent discrepancies, both versions (Skopje and Sofia) are similar indicating that they are products of the same second edition. 

Conclusion

One could use On Macedonian Matters as a historically and politically useful book, at least as intended by the author’s point of view.  Unfortunately, the Slavs of Skopje use the same book to rationalize their nationalistic bias by twisting words, disregarding common sense and willfully reversing distasteful to them passages.  Such a selective and discriminating discernment leads to statements and actions of denigration of Greece and her symbols.

In 1990, Greece informed Slobodan Milošević that the republic of Skopje should stay independent if its people wished it.  In 2001, the FYROM reached dismemberment to the point that a Parliamentary Slavic delegation visiting Athens asked to unite politically with Greece in a confederation; it was the only viable solution, still is, in case the FYROM disintegrated.  Greece kept the FYROM together.  On the business and finance side of national security, about 280 Greek businesses operate in the FYROM employing thousands of people, pay taxes, and stabilize the FYROM economy.  Greek Foreign Minister George Papandreou said “an international peacekeeping force was needed…  We have an immediate interest. There are many Greek companies that have invested substantial funds in this country" (CNN.COM/World; Leaders gather for Macedonia[sic] talks, June 13, 2001).

Disparaging the reality that the FYROM exists and survives, because of Greece and Greeks, is unwise.  It indicates weak intellect and absent acumen; in plain language, it suggests a brain of an 11-year-old going down to 5-year-old.

Endnotes

[i] From the FYROM text:

Зар и возможно ли јет сега националното објединуајн’е на македонците, кога во Македонија имат многу, а не једно националност, и кога немат једна оддел'на македонцка словенцка нација?

[ii]
  1. „3а Македонцките работа“, София, Печатница „Либералний  Клуб“, 1903.
  2. „3а Македонцките работа“, Државно книгоиздателство на Македонија, 1946.
  3. “On Macedonian Matters”, Macedonian Review Editions, Skopje, 1974.
​
[iii]  
Српска Академија Наука, Институт за Српски Језик Јужнословенски Филолог, Повремени Спис за Словенску Филологију, XVIII Књ. 1—4 (БЕОГРАД, 1949 — 1950).

[iv]
JPRS:  The United States Joint Publications Research Service is a government agency which translates foreign language books, newspapers, journals, unclassified foreign documents and research reports. Approximately 80% of the documents translated are serial publications.  JPRS is the largest single producer of English language translations in the world.  More than 80,000 reports have been issued since 1957, and currently JPRS produces over 300,000 pages of translations per year. In its early years JPRS concentrated heavily on scientific and technical material from communist countries. Gradually coverage has broadened to include more non-scientific materials (See: Open Source Enterprise (OSE).

About Marcus A. Templar
Professor Marcus A. Templar is a former U.S. Army Cryptologic Linguist (Language Analyst), Certified U.S. Army Instructor of Intelligence Courses, Certified Foreign Disclosures Officer, Certified Translator Interpreter of Serbo-Croatian, SIGINT / All-Source Intelligence Analyst. He is the Macedonian League's National Security Advisor.

​To read all his papers, please click here.

About the Macedonian League
We are an international professional Hellenic advocacy group. Our primary purpose is to advance our interests to informed and responsive governments on issues concerning Greece's national security and territorial integrity. 

The Macedonian League's main focus is on the “Macedonian name dispute”, as this dispute is a serious national security issue that threatens the territorial integrity of Greece.

The Macedonian League also focuses on exposing and combating anti-Hellenism and analyzing political developments in the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia.

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Department of Communications
Macedonian League 

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Fallacies and Facts on the Macedonian Issue

3/8/2018

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Marcus A. Templar, National Security Advisor | Macedonian League​
Second Edition
Picture
​Certain fallacies are circulating among the diaspora of the FYROM especially since their home country’s independence on September 8, 1991.

​The present paper disputes all known fallacies by presenting facts.

Fallacy #1

The inhabitants of the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia (The FYROM) are ethnic Macedonians, direct descendants of, or related to the ancient Macedonians.


Fact #1

The inhabitants of The FYROM are mostly Slavs, Bulgarians, and Albanians. They have nothing in common with the ancient Macedonians.

Dr. Eugene Borza, a historian of Classics in his academic paper  "Macedonia Redux," in The Eye Expanded: life and the arts in Greco-Roman Antiquity, ed. Frances B. Titchener & Richard F. Moorton, University of California Press, 1999, 255, has stated on the matter,

“If the claim is based on ethnicity, it is an issue of different order.  Modern Slavs, both Bulgarians and Macedonians[sic], cannot establish a link with antiquity, as the Slavs entered the Balkans centuries after the demise of the ancient Macedonian kingdom. Only the most radical Slavic factions – mostly in the United States, Canada, and Australia – even attempt to establish a connection to antiquity… Politics in the Balkans transcends historical and biological truths”.

The assumption of Slavs of ethnic consanguinity between them and the ancient Macedonians has been refuted long ago by testimonies of The FYROM’s officials:

a. The former President of The FYROM, Kiro Gligorov declared, “We are Slavs who came to this area in the sixth century … we are not descendants of the ancient Macedonians” (Foreign Information Service Daily Report, Eastern Europe, February 26, 1992, p. 35).

b. Also, Mr. Gligorov proclaimed, ”We are Macedonians, but we are Macedonian Slavs. That’s who we are! We have no connection to Alexander the Greek and his Macedonia… Our ancestors came here in the 5th and 6th century” (Toronto Star, March 15, 1992).

c. On 22 January 1999, Ambassador of the FYROM to the USA, Ljubica Achevska gave a speech on the present situation in the Balkans. In answering questions at the end of her remarks, Mrs. Acevshka articulated, “We do not claim to be descendants of Alexander the Great … Greece is Macedonia’s[sic] second largest trading partner, and its number one investor. Instead of opting for war, we have chosen the mediation of the United Nations, with talks on the ambassadorial level under Mr. Vance and Mr. Nimetz.” In reply to another question about the ethnic origin of the people of FYROM, Ambassador Achevska stated that “we are Slavs and we speak a Slav language.”

d. On 24 February 1999, in an interview with the Ottawa Citizen, Gyordan Veselinov, FYROM’S Ambassador to Canada, admitted, “We are not related to the northern Greeks who produced leaders like Philip and Alexander the Great. We are a Slav people and our language is closely related to Bulgarian.” He also commented, “There is some confusion about the identity of the people of my country.”

e. Moreover, the Foreign Minister of the FYROM, Slobodan Casule, in an interview to Utrinski Vesnik of Skopje on December 29, 2001, said that he mentioned to the Foreign Minister of Bulgaria, Solomon Pasi, that they “belong to the same Slav people.”

Fallacy #2

The Macedonian Greeks are of the same ethnic group as the “Macedonians” of The FYROM.


Fact #2

The Macedonian Greeks are NOT of the same ethnic group as the "Macedonian" Slavs of The FYROM. The Macedonian Greeks are just that, Greeks who live in or originate from the region of Macedonia. They are the only people that by heritage, can be called Macedonians. Macedonian ethnicity did not and does not exist. The term “Macedonian” is not ethnic, but regional; even Misirkov agreed to it (Misirkov, Skopje, 1970, 159). 

Fallacy #3

Ancient Macedonians were a tribe similar to the Greeks, but not Greek themselves.


Fact #3

Ancient Macedonians were one of more than the 230 Hellenic tribes, sub-tribes, and families of the Hellenic Nation that spoke more than 200 dialects. For more information see Herodotus, Thucydides, Titus Livius, Strabo, Nevi’im, Ketuvim, Apocrypha (Maccabees I, 1-2). It was not until 1945 that the Slavs have challenged their Hellenism for expansionistic reasons.

Fallacy #4

Ancient Greece was a country, a legal entity, as we understand it today.


Fact #4

No. In ancient times Greece was not a country. Hellas (Greece) was first recognized as a nation state or legal entity as we understand it today in 1830. From the beginning until that time, the term Hellas was only a regional term or an administrative area whose borders were changing depending on the needs of the Roman, Byzantine, or Ottoman Empires.

Fallacy #5

There was one ancient Greek language, and the ancient Macedonians spoke Macedonian, not Greek.


Fact #5

Linguistically, there is no real distinction between a dialect and a language without a specific factor. People usually consider the political factor to determine whether a particular kind of speech is a language or a dialect. “Politically speaking, one might answer that a language is what is officially accepted as the national form of speech, a dialect what does not have such an acceptance” (Pei 1966, 46). The name of the language of a country depends on the name that the government of a state calls it. Many countries do not include provisions in their Constitutions naming specifically an official language, e.g., Greece, USA.

Since the Pan-Hellenic area consisted of many small city-states or tribal states one might argue (Attica, Lacedaemon, Corinth, etc.), and more important states (Molossia, Thesprotia, Macedonia, Acarnania, Aetolia, etc.).  It was common knowledge at the time that the people of all those states used different speech, but it was a matter of what presently we call dialects of the same language, i.e., Hellenic or Greek. The most advanced of all Hellenic dialects was the dialect of Attica (Athens) or Attic. When people state “ancient Greek language” they mean the Attic dialect and any comparison of the Macedonian dialect to ancient Greek is a comparison to the Attic dialect. The difference between Macedonian and Attic was like the difference between Low and High German. Nobody doubts that both are Germanic languages, although they differ from one another. Another excellent example of a multi-dialectal linguistic regime is present-day Italy. The official language of Italy is the Florentine, but ordinary people still speak their dialects. Two people from different areas of Italy cannot communicate if both speak their particular dialect, and yet they both speak Italian. Why should the Hellenic language be treated differently?

At that time, Greeks spoke more than 200 Hellenic dialects or languages, as the ancient Greeks used to call them. Some of the well-known idioms were Ionic, Attic, Doric, Aeolic, Cypriot, Arcadic, Aetolia, Acarnanian, Macedonian and Locrian. Moreover, we know that the Romans considered the Macedonians as Hellenic speaking peoples. Livy wrote, “…The Aetolians, the Acarnanians, the Macedonians, men of the same speech, are united or disunited by trivial causes that arise from time to time …” (Livy, History of Rome, b. XXXI par. XXIX). The Aetolians and Acarnanians were Hellenic tribes. On another occasion, Livy writes “…[General Paulus] took his official seat surrounded by the whole crowd of Macedonians … his announcement was translated into Greek and repeated by Gnaeus Octavius, the praetor…”. If the crowd of Macedonians was not Greek-speaking, the Romans would not translate Paulus’ speech into Greek, but into the native tongue so that people would understand (Livy, History of Rome, b. XLV, para XXIX).

The Macedonian dialect was an Aeolic dialect of the Western Greek language group (Hammond, The Macedonian State, p. 193). All those dialects differ from each other, but never in a way could that one person not understand the other. The Military Yugoslavian Encyclopedia of the 1974 edition (Letter M, page 219), a very anti-Hellenic biased publication, states, “… u doba rimske invazije, njihov jezik bio grčki, ali se dva veka ranije dosta razlikovao od njega, mada ne toliko da se ta dva naroda nisu mogla sporazumevati.” (… at the time of the Roman invasion, their language was Hellenic, but two centuries before it was different enough, but not as much as the two peoples could not understand one another). What the encyclopedia did not explain is that currently, the Greek language did not exist. Furthermore, the Greek the reference insinuates is the Attic dialect. Thus, in fact, the comparison was not between the Macedonian and the Greek, but between the Macedonian Aeolic based with the Attic, a daughter so to speak of Ionic dialect.

After the death of Alexander the Great, the situation changed in the vast empire into a new reality. Ptolemy II, Philadelphos (308-246 BC) the Pharaoh (king) of Egypt realized that the physical unification of the Greeks and the almost limitless expansion of the Empire required the standardization of codification of the already widely used common language or Koinē. Greek was already the lingua franca of the vast Hellenistic world in all four kingdoms of the Diadochi (Alexander’s Successors). It was already spoken, but neither an official alphabet nor grammar had yet been devised.

Alexandria, Egypt was already the Cultural Center of the Empire in about 280 BC. Ptolemy II assigned Aristeas, an Athenian scholar, to create the grammar of the new language, one that not only all Greeks but all inhabitants of the Empire would be able to speak. Thus, Aristeas used the Attic dialect as the basis for the new language. Aristeas and the scholars who were assisting him eliminated the Attic idiosyncrasies and added words as well as grammatical and syntactical rules mainly from the Doric, Ionic, and Aeolic dialects. So, they standardized the Hellenic language, called Koine or Common.

The language was far from perfect. Non-Greeks encountered difficulties reading it since there was no way to separate words, sentences, and paragraphs. Also, they were unable to express their feelings and the right intonation. During that time, Greek was a melodic language, even more, melodic than Italian is today.

The system of paragraphs, sentences, and punctuation were the result of continuous improvement and enhancement of the language with the contribution of many Greek scholars from all over the World.

There were a few alphabets employed by various Hellenic cities or states, and these alphabets included letters specific to the sounds of their particular dialect. There were two main categories, the Eastern and the Western alphabets. The first official alphabet omitted all letters not in use any longer ( Ϡ sampi, Ϙ qoppa, H heta (served as consonantal function and a letter), Ϻ san, Ϝ digamma also known as a stigma in Greek numbering) and it presented a 24-letter alphabet for the new Koinē language. However, the inclusion and use of small letters took place over a period of many centuries after the standardization of the Koinē.

After the new language was completed and codified, the Jews of Egypt felt that it was an opportunity for them to translate their sacred books into Greek since it was the language that the Jews of Diaspora spoke. So, on the island of Pharos, by Alexandria’s seaport, 72 Jewish rabbis were secluded and isolated as they translated their sacred books (Torah, Nevi’im, Ketuvim, etc.) from Aramaic and Hebrew to the Koinē Greek, the newly created language. It is known as the Septuagint translation. The Koinē evolved, and in about two to three centuries it became the language that Biblical scholars call Biblical Greek. In fact, only those who have studied the Attic dialect can understand the difference between the Septuagint Greek and the Greek of the New Testament. It happened about 265 BC.

Although the Koinē was officially in use, ordinary folk, in general, continued to speak their dialect, and here and there one can sense the insertion of elements of the Attic dialect in various documents such as the New Testament. The Gospel according to St. John and the Revelation are written in perfect Attic. The other three Synoptic Gospels were written in Koinē with the insertion of some Semitic grammatical concepts (i.e., the Hebrew genitive) and invented words (i.e., epiousios).

The outcome is that today in Greece there are many variations in speech; of course not to the point of people not understanding each other, but still, there is a divergence in the Greek spoken tongue. Today the Hellenic language accepts only one dialect, the Tsakonian, which is a direct development of the ancient Doric dialect of Sparta. The Demotic is a development of mostly the Doric sound system, whereas the Katharevousa is a made-up language based on the Classical Attic. Presently, the speech in various areas of Greece somehow differs from each other, and sometimes an untrained ear might have difficulty understanding the local speech. Pontic and Cypriot Greek are excellent examples of such cases to the unacquainted listener. Tsakonian dialect, the descendant of the Spartan Doric, is almost impossible to understand if one is not familiar with it. It is the only dialect accepted by the Academy of Athens. 

Over the years, Macedonia had several names. At first, the Macedonians gave the land the name, Emathia, after their leader Emathion. It derives from the word amathos, amathoeis meaning sand or sandy. From now on, all of its appellations are Greek. Later it was called Maketia or Makessa and finally Makedonia (Macedonia). The latter names are derived from the Doric/Aeolic word “makos, (in Attic “mēkos) meaning length (see Homer, Odyssey, VII, 106), thus Makednos means long or tall, but also a highlander or mountaineer. (Cf. Orestae, Hellenes).

In Opis, during the mutiny of the Macedonian Army, Alexander the Great spoke to the whole Macedonian Army addressing them in Greek (Arrian, Anabasis of Alexander, VII, 9,10). The Macedonian soldiers listened to him, and they were dumbfounded by what they heard from their Commander-in-Chief. They were upset. Immediately after Alexander left for the Palace, they demanded that Alexander allow them to enter the palace so that they could talk to him.

When this was reported to Alexander, he quickly came out and saw their restrained disposition; he heard the majority of his soldiers crying and lamenting, and was moved to tears. He came forward to speak, but they remained there imploring him. One of them, named Callines, whose age and command of the Companion cavalry made him preeminent expressed as follows, “Sire, what grieves the Macedonians is that you have already made some Persians your ‘kinsmen’, and the Persians are called ‘kinsmen’ of Alexander and are allowed to kiss you, while not one of the Macedonians has been granted this honor” (Arrian, Anabasis of Alexander, VII, 8-11).

The previous story reveals that the Macedonians were speaking Greek since they could understand their leader. There were thousands of them, not just some selected few who happened to speak Greek. It would be unrealistic for Alexander the Great to talk to them in a language they supposedly did not speak. It would be impossible to believe that the Macedonian soldiers were emotionally moved to the point that all of them were lamenting after listening to a language they did not understand. There is no way for the Macedonians to have taken a crash course in Greek in 20 minutes so that they would be able to understand the speech simultaneously as Alexander was delivering it.

Furthermore, the Macedonians wore a distinctive hat, the “kausia” (καυσία) (Polybius IV 4,5; Eustathius 1398; Arrian, Anabasis of Alexander, VII 22; cf. Sturz, Macedonian Dialect, 41) from the Greek word for heat that separated them from the rest of the Greeks. That is why the Persians called them “yauna takabara,” which meant “Greeks wearing the hat.” The Macedonian hat was very distinctive from the hats of the other Greeks, but the Persians did not distinguish the Macedonians because the Macedonian speech was also Greek (Hammond, The Macedonian State p. 13 cf. J.M. Balcer, Historia, 37 [1988] 7).

“On the mountainsides of the Himalayas and the Indian Caucasus and under Pakistani and Afghanistan jurisdiction lives a tribe whose people call themselves Kalash. They claim to be the descendants of Alexander the Great’s soldiers who for various reasons were left behind in the depths of Asia and could not follow the Great General in his new conquests. Having no contact with the outside world for almost 23 centuries, they are entirely different from any other neighboring nations.

Light-complexioned, and blue-eyed in the midst of dark-skinned neighbors, their language, even though it has been affected and influenced by the many Muslims of nations speaking different languages that surround the Kalash tribe, still incorporates vocabulary and has many elements of the ancient Greek language. They greet their visitors with “ispanta” from the Greek verb “ασπάζομαι” (greetings) and they warn them about “heman” from the ancient Greek noun “χειμών” (winter). These indigenous people still believe in the twelve Olympian gods, and their architecture resembles very much the Macedonian architecture (National Herald, “A School in the Tribe of Kalash by Greeks,” October 11, 1996)”.

Michael Wood, the British scholar in his In the Footsteps of Alexander the Great (p.8), quotes the following statement made by a Kalash named Kazi Khushnawaz:

“Long long ago, before the days of Islam, Sikander e Aazem came to India. The Two Horned one whom you British people call Alexander the Great. (sic) He conquered the world and was a very great man, brave and dauntless and generous to his followers. When he left to go back to Greece, some of his men did not wish to go back with him but preferred to stay here. Their leader was a general called Shalakash [Seleucus]. With some of his officers and men, he came to these valleys, and they settled here and took local women, and here they stayed. We, the Kalash, the Black Kafir of the Hindu Kush, are the descendants of their children. Still, some of our words are the same as theirs, our music and our dances, too; we worship the same gods. This is why we believe the Greeks are our first ancestors”. (Seleucus was one of the Generals of Alexander the Great. He was born in 358 or 354 BC in the town of Europos, Macedonia and died in August/September 281 BC near Lysimathia, Thrace).

The Kalash today worship the ancient Greek gods and especially Di Zau [Dias Zeus], the great sky god. Unfortunately, their language died out only in Muslim times. It is further evidence that Macedonians and Greeks spoke the same language, had the same religion and the same customs.

Accusations of Macedonians being barbarians started in Athens, and they were the result of political fabrications based on the Macedonian way of life and not on their ethnicity or language. (Casson, Macedonia, Thrace and Illyria, p158, Errington, A History of Macedonia, p 4). Demosthenes traveled to Macedonia twice for a total of nine months. He knew very well what language the Macedonians were speaking. We encountered similar behavior with Thrasyboulos. He states that the Acarnanians were barbarians only when the Athenians faced a conflict of political interest from the Acarnanians. The Macedonian way of life differed in many ways from the southern Greek way of life, but that was very common among the Western Greeks such as Chaones, Molossians, Thesprotians, Acarnanians, Aetolians, and Macedonians (Errington, A History of Macedonia, p 4.) Macedonian state institutions were similar to those of the Mycenean and Spartan (Wilcken, Alexander the Great, p 23). Regarding Demosthenes addressing Philip as “barbarian” even Badian an opponent of the Greekness of Macedonians states “It may have nothing to do with historical fact, any more than the orators’ tirades against their personal enemies usually have.” (E. Badian, Studies in the History of Art Vol 10: Macedonia And Greece in Late Classical and Early Hellenistic Times, Greeks and Macedonians).

Fallacy #6

Ancient Macedonia was a nation state as we presently understand it.


Fact #6

Before Phillip II, Macedonia was divided into typical small city-states having adopted the same concept of internal civic structure as the southern Greek city-states. Each Macedonian city-state or area had its main city and government. Philip II united the Macedonian city-states by instituting and establishing a Homeric style of a Kingdom, maintaining the infrastructure of the smaller city-states with the various kings paying tribute to the king of all Macedonia. We know this from the fact that at one time the king of Lyncestis (present-day Bitola – Florina) was Alexander III. The point that has to be made clear is that a man’s first loyalty was to his city, not to the King of Macedonia. (Hammond, The Macedonian State, p. 9).

Fallacy #7

Over the years the ancient Macedonians disappeared.


Fact #7

The ancient Macedonians did not disappear; over the years they were amalgamated with the other Greeks did among themselves. 
  
Fallacy #8

If the ancient Macedonians were Greeks, why then was Alexander I, the king of Macedonia, named Philhellene (lover of Greece)? This title is bestowed only to foreigners.


Fact #8

The king of Macedonia, Alexander I, was named Philhellene by the Theban poet Pindaros for the same reason Jason of Pherrai and Euagoras of Cyprus were called Philhellenes (Isocrates 107A, 199A). The title Philhellene in ancient times meant Philopatris (lover of the homeland) or just put “a patriot” (Plato, Politics, 470E; Xenophon, Agesilaus, 7, 4), which is why Alexander the Great did not touch the traditional house of Pindaros when he ordered his soldiers to burn Thebes.

Fallacy #9

The ancient Greeks had a Greek or Hellenic national conscience, but the Macedonians proved that they were not Greeks because they destroyed Greek cities.


Fact #9

Greece is a peninsula, which lacking geographic continuity fostered alienation of individual tribes not only in the general sense but also in a narrower sense. That explains why the ancient Greeks did not have a collective national conscience which is why they were warring against each other. The Macedonians destroyed or burned cities belonging to other Greek City States for the same reason the Athenians, the Thebans, and the Spartans battled one another.

The Peloponnesian War authored by Thucydides, the first and foremost scientific historian ever, explain all about Greeks fighting each other and the reasons behind the authorship of this book. The Melian Dialogue in the same book (Thucydides V, 84-116) explains a few more things besides the result of that debate.

According to Xenophon (Xenophon, Hellenika Book II, chapter II, sections 19-20) at the end of the victorious for Sparta Peloponnesian war, Spartan allies Thebes and Corinth suggested that they burn the city of Athens. Spartans being magnanimous refused to do so.

I am offering information on a few more battles as the Battle of Helos that took place in circa 1213 BC, 20 years before the Trojan War (1193-1183 BC), the Battle of Leuktra (371 BC), the two Battles of Mantineia (418 BC and 362 BC).

They knew that somehow they were related, but localism and tribalism were much stronger than an ethnic Pan- Hellenic one. Ancient Greeks, of the Hellenic mainland, were united before an enemy attack that could endanger their freedom and welfare. This fact was displayed anytime the Persians attacked the Hellenic lands. Greeks from Ionia and Aeolia (present-day Aegean shores of Turkey), however, were mostly Persian allies in opposition to the Mainland Greeks.

It was common practice for various Hellenic states to form political/military alliances with each other and against each other, but they did not develop ethnic partnerships. There are plenty of such partnerships in the ancient Hellenic world.

A few centuries went by until the Greeks began developing a national conscience. The Greeks had achieved the completion of a national conscience by the time Justinian was crowned the Emperor of Byzantium. Very few ancient Greeks, such as Pericles, Demosthenes and Phillip II of Macedonia had the vision of a united country, but each one wanted to see his state as the leading force of such a union. Pericles dreamed of it, Demosthenes advocated it, but Phillip II materialized it. Also, the Macedonians had shared religious practices and customs as the Spartans.

Fallacy #10

The ancient Macedonians were one of the Illyrian tribes.


Fact #10

At that time, Illyrians lands were much to the north beyond the River Shkumbin. Although there is a lot of evidence (mostly indirect) regarding the language of the ancient Macedonians, there is one piece of evidence offered by Polybius in book XXVIII, paragraphs 8 and 9, where it states that the Macedonians were using translators when they were communicating with the Illyrians. It means the Macedonians and the Illyrians did not speak the same language. For instance, Perseus, the Macedonian king, sent Adaeus of Berroia (who spoke only Greek) and Pleuratus the Illyrian, as a translator (because he spoke the Illyrian language) on a mission to the Illyrian king Genthius (169 BC). Pleuratus was an exile living in Perseus’ court. Moreover, there is evidence that the Illyrians and the Macedonians were vicious enemies.

On the contrary, Macedonians and the rest of Greeks did not need nor use any translators.

Fallacy #11

Many of the Greeks living in Greek Macedonia are refugees that came to Macedonia during the First World War and especially during the 1920’s and 1930′ from Turkey, the Middle East, Georgia, Russia, Ukraine, and Bulgaria.


Fact #11

It is very accurate that a good number of the Greeks living in Greek Macedonia are refugees from various Middle Eastern countries. However, it is also true that these Greeks are descendants of those ancient Greeks, including ancient Macedonians, who either colonized multiple areas of what presently are Russia, Ukraine, Georgia, Bulgaria, Turkey, the Middle East, or followed the greatest General of all times, Alexander the Great. These Greeks just came home after at least two and one-half millennia of spreading the Greek spirit, culture, language, and civilization. Mother Greece made her lands available to her returning and thought to be lost offspring. It was the least she could do. After all, they had every right to come home, just as the Jews did and they are still going back to Israel.

Fallacy #12

Sts. Cyril and Methodius were Slavs, and that is the rationale why they are called “the Apostles of the Slavs” and also “the Slav Apostles.”


Fact#12

The term “Slav Apostles” or the “Apostles of the Slavs” does not mean that the two brothers were Slavs. St. Thomas is called “the Indian Apostle,” but we all know that he was not an Indian. He merely taught Christianity to the Indians. The Greek brothers from Thessaloniki taught Christianity to the Slavs, they gave them the alphabet (presently called Cyrillic), and they translated the sacred and liturgical books of Christianity into the Old Church Slavonic, otherwise known as Old Bulgarian.

Pope John Paul II in his Encyclical Epistles of December 31, 1980, and June 2, 1985, while he was commemorating the two brothers, affirmed the fact that both were Greeks from Thessaloniki.

Professors Ivan Lazaroff, Plamen Pavloff, Ivan Tyutyundzijeff and Milko Palangurski of the Faculty of History of Sts. Cyril and Methodius University in Veliko Tŭrnovo, Bulgaria in their book, Kratka istoriya na bŭlgarskiya narod (Short History of the Bulgarian Nation, pp 36-38), state very explicitly that the two brothers were Greeks from Thessaloniki. The late Oscar Halecki, Professor of Eastern European History, in his book Borderlands of Western Civilization, A History of East Central Europe (chapter Moravian State and the Apostles of the Slavs) agrees with the authors of Kratka istoriya na bŭlgarskiya narod.

Fallacy #13

The present-day emblem of the right wing VMRO-DPMNE party and other ultra-nationalist organizations in the FYROM is the lion. This lion is the same lion that Alexander the Great is depicted wearing above his head imprinted on some old coins.

Fact #13

There is nothing in common between the lion used by the right wing VMRO-DPMNE party and other ultra-nationalist organizations in the FYROM and the lion’s skin Alexander the Great wears as depicted in some coins. The FYROM’s lion is the Bulgarian lion, which is depicted in the Bulgarian Coat of Arms.

Alexander’s lion is the lion’s skin that Heracles killed in Nemea, which is one of the 12 deeds executed by the mythological hero. The lion skin that Alexander the Great wears signify his genetic relationship to Heracles (Hercules). There is an unpublished inscription from Xanthos dating from the third century BC (cf. Robert, Amyzon, 1,162, n 31) where the Ptolemies refer to their Ancestors as “Herakleidas Argeadas” (Errington, A History of Macedonia, p 265, n 6).


Fallacy #14

In other coins we see Alexander the Great having two horns on his head, and this signifies that he was an evil man.


Fact #14

In the Middle Eastern tradition, a horned man meant that he was dominant. Darius in his letters to Alexander the Great called him, Zul-Al-Kurnain or Double Horned one. Thus the horns on Alexander’s head means that he was recognized as most influential.

Fallacy #15

After the battle of Granicus, Alexander sent the Athenians 300 full suits of Persian armor as a present, with the following inscription: “Alexander, son of Philip, and the Greeks, except the Lacedaemonians, dedicate these spoils, taken from the Persian who dwell in Asia.” J. R. Hamilton in a note on this event states, “Given the small part, which the Greeks had played in the battle the inscription [with the omission of any mention of the Macedonians] must be regarded as propaganda designed for his Greek allies. Alexander does not fail to stress the absence of the Spartans.”


Fact #15

J. R. Hamilton’s assumption is unconvincing. Alexander the Great had no reason to please anyone because the troops from South Greece were only 9,400, and as he admits, they only played a small part in the battle. Being the master of the expeditionary force and ignoring his Macedonians while exalting the “foreign Greeks,” Alexander would have faced the same angry Macedonians that he was confronted with in Opis when he appointed foreigners (Persians and Medes) to high ranks and offices in his Army and administration. However, none of the Macedonians complained about the inscription after the battle of Granicus because they considered themselves included in it.

The fact is that Alexander the Great considered himself and his Macedonians, Greek. He claimed ancestry on his mother’s side from Achilles and his father’s side from Hercules (Heracles). His ancestor, Alexander I, stated that he was Greek (Herodotus, Histories, V, 20, 22; VIII, 137; IX, 45).

The Macedonians themselves were Greek speaking peoples (see: Papazoglu, Makedonski Gradovi, p 333 and Central Balkan Tribes, p 135; Casson, Macedonia, Thrace and Illyria, pp157-162; NGL Hammond, The Macedonian State, pp 12-15 and 193; Cavaignac, Histoire générale de l' Antiquité, i, p 67; Hoffman, Die Makedonen, p. 259; Errington, A History of Macedonia, p 3; Yugoslavian Military Encyclopedia 1974 “Antička Makedonija”; Hogarth, Philip and Alexander, p.5, n 4), Urlich Wilcken, Alexander the Great, II pp 23 and 24, Botsford, Hellenic History, p 237).

Some of the scholars mentioned above initially were not sure about the Greekness of the Macedonians (i.e., NGL Hammond). Newly discovered artifacts and monuments that were excavated indicating the Macedonians were Greek made them admit their previous error. NGL Hammond explains the reason why scholars like Badian do not consider the Macedonians Greeks in his book, The Macedonian State (page 13, note 29). Hammond states that most recently E. Badian in Barr-Sharrar (pp 33-51) disregarded the evidence as explained in A History of Macedonia (NGL Hammond and G. T. Griffith, 1979 pp 39-54).

Borza wrote concerning Demosthenes, "Only recently have we begun to clarify these muddy waters by realizing the Demosthenes corpus for what it is: oratory designed to sway public opinion in Athens and thereby to formulate public policy. The elusive creature, Truth, is everywhere subordinate to its expressive servant, Rhetoric" (Borza1990, 5).  Demosthenes was using a political attack on his enemy and was not referring to the Macedonian speech.

In response to Demosthenes’ political accusations, Aeschines reminded the Pnyx, i.e. the Parliament of Athens, that Philip’s father, Amyntas, was invited as a Greek to sit at the Peace Conference of Greek States of 371 BC which took place in Sparta because as a Greek “he was entitled to a seat.” Amyntas participated through an ambassador and voted in favor of Athens. The relevant text is as follows:

For at a congress of the Lacedaemonian allies and the other Greeks, in which Amyntas, the father of Philip, being entitled to a seat, was represented by a delegate whose vote was entirely under his control, he joined the other Greeks in voting to help Athens to recover possession of Amphipolis. As proof of this, I presented from the public records the resolution of the Greek congress and the names of those who voted (Aeschines, On the Embassy, 32).

All names, whether members of the royal family or not, including names of other simple Macedonian citizens, i.e. Kallinis (Arrian, Anabasis of Alexander, VII par 11), Limnos from Chalastra (Plutarch, Parallel Lives of Famous Greeks and Romans, chap. Alexander) and all toponymies in the area of the Macedonian homeland were Greek. The Macedonian homeland included the city-states of Imathia, Pieria, Bottiea, Mygdonia, Crestonia, Bisaltia, Sintiki, Odomantis, Edonis, Elimea, Orestis, Eordea, Almopia, Lyncestis, Pelagonia and Macedonian Paeonia. Macedonian Paeonia is the part of Paeonia which lies south of the narrow pass at the area of Demir Kapija (The FYROM).

Fanula Papazoglu indirectly agrees with the concept of the above borderlines stating, “… it is often forgotten that ancient Macedonia occupied only a relatively small part of the Yugoslav Macedonia” (Papazoglu, Central Balkan Tribes, p. 268). Papazoglu’s two maps at the end of her doctoral dissertation (Makedonski gradovi u rimsko doba, Skoplje, 1957) portray only Macedonian territories under Roman rule.

Macedonia conquered the already Hellenized Paeonia in 217 BC under King Philip V, 106 years after the death of Alexander the Great. Any map that incorporates Paeonia into Macedonia before that year is utterly false. The conquest did not in any way alter the ethnic demography of the Paeonia.
 
All inscriptions and artifacts excavated, including those in Trebenište and Oleveni near Bitola, are in pure Greek. With a few exceptions, the only time one sees non-Greek names and toponymies is in areas that constituted the expansion of Macedonia, i.e. Paeonia, Thrace, etc. Any non-Greek names, words or toponymies found in the Macedonian homeland are remnant of Thracians, Phrygians or Paeonians that used to live there before their expulsion by the Macedonians.

Participation in the Olympic Games was unequivocally and unquestionably a function that only athletes of strictly Hellenic origin could partake. Archelaus had won in the Olympic and Pythian Games (Solinus 9, 16) and Alexander I had also won in the Olympic Games (Herodotus, Histories, V, 22).

It is stated by Herodotus (Histories VIII, 43) that some Peloponnesian cities inhabited by Lacedaemonians, Corinthians, Sicyonians, Epidaurians, Troezinians, and Hermionians and that except Hermionians all others were of Dorian and Macedonian blood. The above people were living in cities located in Peloponnesus, which makes the Macedonians as Greek as the Dorians.

The answer as to why Alexander sent the 300 full suits of Persian armor to goddess Athena, goes back to the battle of Thermopylae and all events that followed. But for one to understand it better, one has to know the story of the battle of Thermopylae.

The Persian Army and Navy, headed by Xerxes, won the battle against the 1300 Greeks (1000 from Phocis) lead by the 300 Spartans whose commander was Leonidas. It is essential for one to note that the Persians were victorious only when a local Greek, Ephialtes, betrayed a secret passage to the enemy who came from behind and thus surrounded the few Greeks. It is also important to know that according to Lycourgos’ laws, Spartans were not allowed to leave the battlefield for any reason, nor they were allowed to follow anyone in the battle. That’s why the Spartans did not follow Alexander against the Persians.

Herodotus (Histories b. VIII, 114) tells us:
 
“… the Spartans upon the urging of the Oracle of Delphi sent a messenger to Xerxes demanding reparations for the death of Leonidas. The man who obtained an interview with Xerxes said to him: ‘My lord, King of the Medes, the Lacedaemonians and the house of Heracles in Sparta demand satisfaction for blood, because you killed their king while he was fighting in defense of Greece.’ Xerxes laughed, and for a time did not answer…”

The royal house of Sparta (Herodotus VII, 204), and the royal house of Macedonia (cf. Fact #13) both claimed descent from Heracles (Hercules). Taking into consideration all of the above, we conclude that Alexander the Great, being victorious at the battle of Granicus, sent 300 full armor uniforms to goddess Athena who was also the goddess of war, and in this way, he AVENGED the 300 Spartans who died defending Greece.

Conclusion:

An abundance of information regarding the ancient Greek past comes to us from the Greek Mythology. Unfortunately, Mythology cannot be a dependable source since it cannot furnish accurate details which would help us reconstruct the Hellenic past. However, it does not mean it is entirely useless either. It elucidates through symbolism truths leading us to the right path while searching for historical facts through written or unwritten monuments. Such monuments are the only ones accepted by historians in their attempt to unlock hidden elements that hold the key to the reconstruction of the past of all Hellenic group of nations.

Countries are products of historical events, which is why they are born and die. Ethnicities are another matter. It takes a very long time to evolve. The same is true for appellations. Ethnicities cannot be given birth and receive names according to their political whim, as it is the case of the FYROM. Even Misirkov agrees with it (Misirkov, Skopje, 1974, 167).

The present-day Hellenic nation is the result of the social, civic and linguistic amalgamation of more than 230 tribes speaking more than 200 dialects that claimed descent from Hellen, son of Deukalion. The Hellenic nation is blessed to espouse in its lengthy life great personalities such as politicians, educators, soldiers, philosophers, and authors. They have all contributed in their way to the molding of their nation. They are the result of natural maturity and a consequence of historical, social, civic, linguistic and political developments that have taken place in the last 4,000 years.

“When we take into account the political conditions, religion, and morals of the Macedonians, our conviction is strengthened that they were a Greek race and akin to the Dorians. Having stayed behind in the extreme north, they were unable to participate in the progressive civilization of the tribes which went further south…” (Wilcken, Alexander the Great, p 22). Most historians have assessed the Macedonian state of affairs similarly. The Macedonians were a Hellenic group of tribes belonging to the Western Greek ethnic group.

The Macedonians incorporated the territory of the native people into Macedonia and forced the Pieres, a Thracian tribe, out of the area to Mt. Pangaeum and the Bottiaiei from Bottiaia. They further expelled the Eordi from Eordaia and the Almopes from Almopia, and they similarly expelled all tribes (Thracian, Paeonian, Illyrian) they found in areas of Anthemus, Crestonia, Bysaltia and other lands. The Macedonians absorbed the few inhabitants of the above tribes that stayed behind. They established their suzerainty over the land of Macedonia without losing their ethnicity, language, or religion (Thucydides, II, 99). They also incorporated the lands of the Elimeiotae, Orestae, Lyncestae, Pelagones, and Deriopes all tribes living in Upper Macedonia who were Greek speakers, but of a different (Molossian) dialect from that spoken by the Macedonians (Hammond, The Macedonian State, p. 390). Then, living with savage northern neighbors such as Illyrians, Thracians, Paeonians and later Dardanians, the Macedonians physically deflected their neighbors’ hordes forming an impenetrable fence denying them the opportunity to attack the Greek city-states of the south, which is why they are considered the bastion of Hellenism.

The evidence above shows that the ancient Macedonians were one of the Hellenic groups of tribes speaking a Greek dialect and having the same institutions as the Spartans and especially the Greeks of the Western group of nations. Thus, the fallacies emanated from the FYROM and its diaspora are vigorously repudiated.

About Marcus A. Templar
Professor Marcus A. Templar is a former U.S. Army Cryptologic Linguist (Language Analyst), Certified U.S. Army Instructor of Intelligence Courses, Certified Foreign Disclosures Officer, Certified Translator Interpreter of Serbo-Croatian, SIGINT / All-Source Intelligence Analyst. He is the Macedonian League's National Security Advisor.

​To read all his papers, please click here.

About the Macedonian League
We are an international professional Hellenic advocacy group. Our primary purpose is to advance our interests to informed and responsive governments on issues concerning Greece's national security and territorial integrity. 

The Macedonian League's main focus is on the “Macedonian name dispute”, as this dispute is a serious national security issue that threatens the territorial integrity of Greece.

The Macedonian League also focuses on exposing and combating anti-Hellenism and analyzing political developments in the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia.

For more information, follow us on: Website, Facebook, Twitter

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Melbourne Macedonia Rally: Chris Moutzikis, Director of Pan Macedonian Melbourne, reads letter from Marcus A Templar

3/1/2018

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From the February 25, 2018 "Rally for Macedonia" in Melbourne, Australia
PictureMarcus A. Templar National Security Advisor,
Macedonian League
The FYROM diaspora had developed the notion, “what kind of Macedonians are we if we cannot claim ancestry to the Macedonians of Alexander the Great?”

-- Marcus A. Templar








​Speech by the Macedonian League's National Security Advisor, Marcus A. Templar, read out by Chris Moutzikis, Director of Pan-Macedonian Melbourne: 

  
To begin I would like to read out a message from Professor Marcus Templar that provides a very brief synopsis on the FYROM Name issue.

Professor Marcus A. Templar is:
  • a former U.S. Army Cryptologic Linguist,
  • Certified U.S. Army Instructor of Intelligence Courses,
  • Certified Foreign Disclosures Officer,
  • Certified-All-Source Intelligence Analyst.
  • He is the Macedonian League's National Security Advisor and,
  • one of the world’s foremost experts on the subject, and
  • an authority on geopolitical analysis and recent history of the Balkan region.  

My dear Australian friends,
 
The issue of the final name of the FYROM is not a matter of ancient history. History is in the past, and it is indisputable. It is a matter of national security for Greece as well as stability, territorial integrity and peace for the Balkan region. Allow me to provide you a very brief synopsis of the FYROM name issue:
 
The failure of Russian diplomacy to establish a dominant satellite state in the southern Balkans at the Council of Berlin, transformed into the impetus to do so after the complete control of the communist forces that established the Soviet Union in October 1917.  The new Russian-led government realized that to spread the communist ideology and encroach as many lands as possible for the benefit of the Soviet Union; the state had to continue the foreign policies of Imperial Russia. Such a foreign policy meant for the south Balkans that, the national interests of Bulgaria were identical with national interests of the Soviet Union.
 
In 1919, the Central Committee of the Soviet Union created a body that would be tasked with the spreading of the communist ideology worldwide through a series of indoctrination.
 
Krste Petkov Misirkov, a Bulgarian socialist, published a book in Sofia, Bulgaria, titled On Macedonian Matters in 1903. That book either was edited or even revised between August 1914 and the end of 1923. In this book, Misirkov referred to the Slav population of the region of Macedonia as Macedonian Slavs or sometimes “Macedonians” explaining on page 159 that the term was regional, not ethnic. It is the same name that Greeks who live in Macedonia have been using for centuries and still use today. There is NO Macedonian ethnicity; it never was. Ethnically, ancient Macedonians were Greeks as are over 4M Macedonians currently residing in the Greek province of Macedonia and throughout the world. But let’s keep focus on the present.
 
During the Fifth World Congress in mid 1924, the communists Comintern issued a lengthy resolution titled “Resolution on National Question in Central Europe and Balkans”. The resolution declared the establishment of the “Balkan Federation” to be created in the region of Macedonia from territories of Yugoslavia, Bulgaria and Greece. The communist so called “liberation” of Macedonia from the clutches of the capitalist West would be achieved by vigorous “support of the national revolutionary movements of loyal communist forces who would terrorise and agitate for the formation of independent republics”, which then would unite into one communist state. The people of the region of Macedonia were all inhabitants of those lands regardless of their ethnic background or religion.
 
Moving forward to The 11 January 1934 A  Resolution was drafted in Moscow under the title “The Macedonian Question and the Internal Macedonian Revolutionary Organization - United”. Its purpose was the reinforcement of the previous resolution (1924). While section I recognized the so called “Macedonian” nation not as a community of descent, or ethnicity if you like, but as a political entity or a state, to use the words of the communists Comintern. In section II of the resolution, the communists Comintern appointed the government of the state to a Slavic Organisation transforming into a nation-state. As for the people in the region of Macedonia, according to the Communists were, again, all inhabitants of those lands regardless of their ethnic background or religion. Section II of the resolution referred to the governance and indoctrination (or brainwashing) of the people mentioned above.
 
It is remarkable that not one of the above documents referred to a “Macedonian people” as a community of descent, i.e., a nation in an ethnic sense. On the contrary, the main goal was the appropriation of lands which would be ceased by the communists and indoctrinated later by the Slavs.
 
At first the communists of Skopje attempted to connect themselves to the ancient Macedonians, but they were turned down by the Yugoslav communists as their claim was “deceptive.” Simultaneously, Yugoslav communists were adamant, “We cannot recognize you as a national distinction” i.e an ethnicity.
 
In fact, there is no explicit recognition by any legal authority in the Marxist Yugoslavia of an ethnic group called “Macedonian”. For Yugoslavia, the Macedonian ethnicity developed in the same manner that the Montenegrin ethnicity did, implicitly.
 
It is in this spirit which Kiro Gligorov, the first FYROM President, addressed your (Australian) FYROM diaspora, making it clear to them, who refused to accept the facts with respect to their Slavic ancestry. According to Historian Eugene Borza, “Modern Slavs, cannot establish a link with antiquity, as the Slavs entered the Balkans centuries after the demise of the ancient Greek Kingdom of Macedonia… Only the most radical Slavic factions – (mostly from the comfort of affluent) United States, Canada, and Australia – even attempt to establish a connection to antiquity[…] Politics in the Balkans transcends historical and biological truths” said Borza
  
The Marxist government of Yugoslavia let the so called “Macedonian” ethnicity develop only to use it as a tool for further expansion. Such a seemingly preposterous ethnogenesis could establish a birthright of Slav people over the land of Greek Macedonia with the port of Thessaloniki as its prize. Thus, the concept of Pseudomacedonism was developed.
 
The FYROM diaspora had developed the notion, “what kind of Macedonians are we if we cannot claim ancestry to the Macedonians of Alexander the Great?” Under monetary, non-monetary influence, and political extortion of its diaspora, politicians of the FYROM at first entertained the thought of their “blood relationship” to the ancient Macedonians. However, as the time passed, this pure wishful thinking developed to a staunch belief and beefed up by distortion, twisting and manipulation of historical facts turned into irredentism or rather expansionism.  Since the independence of the FYROM, Greece has confronted and endured aggressive predisposition to include but not limited to:
  • demographic manipulations,
  • forgeries of history, and
  • relentless disinformation,
especially from the FYROM ultra-nationalistic diaspora.
 
If one desires regional stability and peace in the Balkans, one must help eradicate the source of the evil; stop assisting the verbal and tangible provocation of the FYROM diaspora in the world. 
 
Sincerely Yours,
Marcus A Templar.
 
For a more academic account of this and other insightful articles and information from Professor Templar, please visit macedonianleague.org.
 
Chris Moutzikis continues with his own speech...

So, ladies and gentlemen we see from Professor Templar’s synopsis on this issue that the legacy of cold war politics is the emergence of pseudmacedonism and that has created a very volatile situation in the Balkan region, putting its people on a course of conflict.
 
A recent survey conducted in Skopje (capital of the FYROM) by the Institute for Democracy “Societas Civilis” showed that 61% of the multi-national residents of the republic accept the change of the republic’s name, of these 44% accept a new name that does not include the Greek name of “Macedonia”.
 
While in recent times pseudomacedonism was heavily propagated by the previous corrupt and ultra-nationalist Gruevski government, the people of FYROM have finally elected a government, whose leadership are showing signs of progression and willingness to repair their country. They appear to be dismantling the pseudomacedonian policy the previous government so vigorously applied spending billions of Euros on a project that transformed Skopje’s city centre into a kitsch, Disney land type of ancient Greek park. All the while inflation was rampant, unemployment soaring, and the state being rejected from joining global institutions that would guarantee their security and put them on the road to prosperity.
 
In the bid to transform public opinion, many of its leaders and influential personalities have acted responsibly and followed the example of their first President Gligorov and former Prime Minister Ljupko Georgievski in distancing themselves from pseudomacedonism.
 
FYROM is desperate to enter NATO and the EU and Greece is ready to support their euroatlantic aspirations once they drop pseudomacedonism and their expansionist propaganda. 
 
Unfortunately, we are not immune to the conflict in this wonderful and peaceful country of ours -Australia and particularly in the world’s Most Liveable City-Melbourne.
 
The growing sentiment against pseudomacedonism in FYROM has not reached their diaspora, who in the comfort of their well-functioning state, stable employment and economic prosperity, prefer to support proponents of pseudomacedonism. Despite their Slavic heritage, which they should be very proud of, they prefer to parade around as descendants of Alexander the Great and other ancient Greek historical figures. Unfortunately, here in Australia, such supporters are more militant and would not hesitate in provoking anyone that challenges pseudomacedonism even to the point of intimidating and threatening violence. Regrettably this behaviour has raised its ugly head In Melbourne last Sunday morning when some FYROM Ultra-nationalists pasted racist and very offensive posters at a Greek Orthodox Church. The posters proclaim their expansionist agenda at the expense of Greek, Albanian and Bulgarian territory while using images of the star of Vergina (a Greek national symbol) and Alexander the Great. Another had an image that desecrates the Greek flag with some very racist and derogatory terms that captioned the image. This behaviour is reminiscent of the 90’s where tensions grew so high between our communities that it lead to violence and fire-bombing of churches and other community property. The windows of the Pan-Macedonian Hellenic Centre in North Fitzroy, still display the bullet marks. As recently as yesterday this building was once again vandalised by ultra-nationalist thugs. We are confident that our outstanding police force is on top of this dangerous situation and will prevent matters from escalating.

We have had enough of this rubbish and remind the Greek Government that they have no right to negotiate the use of our Hellenic name and offer future ultra-nationalist governments of FYROM the opportunity to reintroduce Pseudomacedonism.
 
We declare here today that:
  • We call upon our Australian compatriots to support its Greek-Australian community’s rightful stance against those negotiating the use of the Hellenic name of “Macedonia” to be part of a composite name of the FYROM.
  • We let the mainstream Australian media know that we are deeply disturbed and offended by their unjustified persistence in referring to FYROM as “Macedonia” in contrast to UN resolutions and our federal government's policy.
  • We have had enough of being discriminated against by media and many quasi government organisations that refer to FYROM as simply “Macedonia” and the Slavs of FYROM as “Macedonians” We respect the right to self-determination but others right to self-determination does not mean that our rights should be infringed upon.
  • To raise community awareness of the inherent injustice flowing from Australia's FYROM community who usurp Greek history and aspire to expand into Greek territory. 
  • We want to co-exist and live in peace in this wonderful multicultural society of ours without constant provocation and threats from ultra-nationalist thugs.
  • To call for the recognition of human rights of indigenous Macedonian ethnic Greeks living in the state of FYROM.

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UMD: Inciting Nationalism through Spinning and Whining

2/17/2018

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Marcus A. Templar, National Security Advisor | Macedonian League​
PictureMarcus A. Templar National Security Advisor,
Macedonian League
One of the most challenging questions in Political Science is: What is the difference between patriotism and nationalism?  The distinction between them is somewhat confusing, although they differ in origin. They are both political and appeared in the 18th century with the emergence of nation-states.

Patriotism originates from one’s citizenship. One is proud of the country one has pledged allegiance to and is ready to defend the national rights and interests of one’s country.

Nationalism derives from one’s ethnic identity sometimes with positive implications. A revolt or insurgency of people occupied by another nation-state is an act of a noble nationalism, mainly when the uprising or insurrection succeeds, i.e., revolution.  Such examples are the American Revolution 1775-83 and the Greek Revolution, 1821-9. After independence, the same people turned to patriots because they defended their country against its enemies. So there is a correlation between virtuous nationalism and patriotism.

This paper focuses on the issue of the incendiary side of nationalism, which considers one’s ethnic or national identity is more significant in destiny than any other ethnicity, or that one race is superior as in Hitler’s National Socialism.  To indicate the superiority of one’s race over another, nationalists demean anything or anyone for what other people stand.  And to support their views individuals resort to the employment of immoral or illegal means.  The difference between being proud of your national origin and believing one’s race is superior to any other is clear enough.

People who underestimate, belittle, derogate, minimize, deflate, disparage, depredate, and so on indicate malicious, wicked nationalism.  Here are a few examples of dangerous nationalism:

PicturePhoto credit: Associated Press
The Cultural-Information Center in Skopje defames the Greek flag and Greece by positioning the Greek flag on a marquee, which instead of the cross brandishes the swastika. To express their deep feelings against the symbol of Greece and to draw sympathy, the organization added a family depicted as refugees who left Greece because of the Greeks. What they did not explain is that these “poor” refugees had left Greece on their own volition during the civil war (1946-9). What is significant is that instead of condemning such an act of hatred based nationalism, the Gruevski government justified it as an indication of freedom of speech. Therefore, the Gruevski government became an accomplice. ​

PictureThe FYROM Slav comedy troupe 'Solza e Smea'
during their Canada / USA tour
Click to enlarge picture
In another form of hateful nationalism, one sees the same Greek flag on a marquee in Skopje displayed on a T-shirt, but instead of depicting the family of refugees, it flaunts a gesture made by holding up the middle finger with the others folded down essentially saying, ''up yours.” 

​There are a plethora of other irredentist slogans, photographs, and maps brandished at parades of the ethnic Slavs at home and abroad and also social media manifestly living in a time warp, not in reality of 2018.

PictureClick to enlarge picture
But the fish stinks from the head. On December 13, 2016, the Macedonian League condemned the swastika t-shirt incident online.

Mr. Meto Koloski is an attorney and the President of the United “Macedonian” Diaspora, headquartered in Washington, DC, United States. In supporting his home country’s strategic culture and national goals, his organization exhibits inciteful nationalism.  In his infinite wisdom, he tweeted under the photograph of the above T-shirt, “Since when did Greeks become a race?” 

Click here to view this incident directly on Twitter.

PictureClick to enlarge picture
The same desecrated Greek flag featuring the swastika is seen on a poster that was taped on the doors of the Greek Orthodox Parish "The Presentation of Our Lady to the Temple" in Balwyn North, Victoria, Australia.

The poster depicts the swastika coloured in blue with a felt marker, the same middle finger gesture that was featured on the t-shirt above and, as is visible, also contains a few choice phrases towards Greece and Greeks.

In the video below, dated February 6, 2018, Mr. Koloski claims that his home country must not compromise anymore since it has done everything possible to satisfy Greece’s demands. Primarily, Mr. Koloski does not see why the FYROM should make more concessions other than those it has already made.  He opposes to any change of the FYROM’s final name, and he thinks it violates the rights of the “Macedonians”. He noticeably adheres to the nonsensical sermon of Fr. Vinko Pribojević according to whom “all the ancient heroes of Thrace, Macedonia, and Illyricum were Slavs. Alexander and his generals, Aristotle, scores of Caesars, and Saint Jerome, were Slavs. And bellicose Mars was himself born among them [Slavs]” (Banac, 1988, p.71). ​    
In the above video it is evident that Mr. Koloski over and above the confusion he has about the difference between patriotism and nationalism, he is also ignorant about the difference between ethnic identity and national identity.

As the former Senator Daniel Patrick Moynihan once stated, "Everyone is entitled to his own opinion, but not to his own facts." So, let us see the facts.

1) The UN admitted the FYROM on April 7, 1993, only after the latter amended its Constitution to meet the minimum required qualifications per UN Charter, Chapter II – Membership.   The FYROM was found to be in violation of articles Article 2 (7) on noninterference on the domestic affairs of other states.  Yes, the FYROM was admitted to the UN on April 7, 1993, but only after Greece had allowed the membership of Mr. Koloski’s home country. Despite popular belief, the UN is a closed club, which requires the consensus of its member states.

The UN Security Council (UNSC), is the most important body within the UN. It is the law enforcement authority. According to the Charter, the UNSC has four purposes:

     a) to maintain international peace and security;
     b) to develop friendly relations among nations;
     c) to cooperate in solving international problems and in promoting respect for human rights; and
     d) to be a center for harmonizing the actions of nations.  

​Membership of a state is granted only at the recommendation of the UNSC (Chapter II, Article 4.2). All members of the United Nations agree to accept and carry out the decisions of the Security Council. While other organs of the United Nations make recommendations to member states, only the Security Council has the power to make decisions that member states are then obligated to implement under the Charter.

​Since the UNSC found sufficient evidence to address Greece’s national security concerns, it mandated the negotiations for the change of the FYROM’s name. The map below tells all. It goes to the intent, not just the letter. Such a map is an indication of expansionism and irredentism.

​The irredentist map below was designed by Bulgarian “ethnographer” Vasil Kŭnchov in 1900 to serve the hegemonic interests of the Bulgarian Principality as the basis for its later independence by making almost all the population living within the territory of what he considered to be Macedonia, Bulgarians (green background). The map included Mount Olympus within Macedonian territory.  The VMRO modified the map slightly and later, Marxist Yugoslavia added the region of Prohor Pcinski into Macedonia for political reasons, a modification that was relished by the VMRO which added the area surrounding the lakes Ohrid and the Prespas. Below left one sees the original map of Vasil Kŭnchov and to the right the enhanced map by the VMRO making all Bulgarians, Macedonians.  ​​
Picture
Ethnic Map of the newly designed geographic Macedonia according to Vasil Kŭnchov in 1900
Picture
The enhanced map of the VMRO making all Bulgarians, Macedonians
The letter S/1995/794 from the Secretary-General addressed to the President of the Security Council, dated 13 September 1995 with Annexes I to IX explains the reasons behind all changes that the FYROM had to implement. The modifications were necessary for the FYROM to meet the minimum standards required for the maintenance of regional stability. They are the heart of all modern day organizations that the FYROM was and is desirous of joining.
 
The UNSC through S 817/1993 unanimously approved the accession of the new state to the UN under the provisional name ‘Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia’ (the FYROM) but without flag hoisting rights, since the flag was one of the issues of the dispute. The UNSC further considered the name dispute capable of influencing the good neighborly relations and peace in the region and invited the co-chairmen of the International Conference on the Former Yugoslavia (ICFY) to offer their good services towards the settlement of the dispute. The intended agreement transpired in the interest of world peace, regional stability and good neighborly relations which is one of the fundamental obligations for membership in the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE), another UN organization.  The same is true for accession into NATO and the EU.
 
The above is not a concession, but an obligation, a requirement that applies to all member states. If the FYROM does not agree with the obligations of membership, it is free to leave the UN. Member states must demonstrate a commitment to and respect for the norms and principles of the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE), including the resolution of ethnic disputes, external territorial conflicts including irredentist claims or internal jurisdictional disputes by peaceful means. 

2) As the result of the FYROM’s UN membership and acceptance of the rules of the UN, on May 14, 1993, the Council of Europe granted the FYROM the special guest status, with no voting rights. Having completed a round of separate talks with the Foreign Ministers of Greece and the FYROM, the ICFY co-chairmen Cyrus Vance and Lord Owen handed the two parties a draft agreement on ‘Friendly Relations and Confidence Building Measures.’
   
On June 18, 1993, the UN Security Council, through it resolution S 845/1993, recommended the Vance-Owen proposals as a ‘sound basis’ for the settlement of the Athens-Skopje dispute and urge the two parties to resume negotiations.  Both countries agreed to continue talks bound by their signature.    
 
As a result, both countries entered into the Interim Accord (Sep 13, 1995). It is remarkable that nationals of the FYROM engaged in an assassination attempt against Mr. Kiro Gligorov, the republic’s first president.  It indicates the level of the lack of respect for law and order in the FYROM and its diaspora.  
 
Regarding the final name of the FYROM, why don’t they follow the advice of the “father of Macedonism,” Misirkov?  What Misirkov states in his book is, “An ethnic group can be without an ethnic name for a long time if there is no other ethnic group nearby and if there is no need for that ethnic group to make a distinction using a specific ethnic name. Hence an ethnic group does not choose a name for itself, but the neighboring ethnic groups make up a name for it, and the ethnic group adopts it. It is the most common and very natural thing that one’s ethnic name first occurs in one of its neighboring ethnic groups. So, the neighboring ethnic group is related like a godfather and a godchild”.[i]  
 
As for the ratification of the Accord, since both parties had expressed their intention to the UNSC to implement the Accord and proceeded to it, further sanction by the competent authority of both countries was not necessary. The intent to negotiate for a peaceful solution of the issue sufficed. The New Democracy Party, the official opposition of the Greek Parliament, did not object to the implementation.  An accord or agreement is not a treaty. In International Law, as Mr. Koloski is aware of, the implementation of the Accord equals ratification. After all, all documents about the Accord had been duly registered with the Office of the Secretary-General of the UN.

3) The two amendments that the FYROM was directed by the UNSC to incorporate into its Constitution resulted from the legal language used in the official text under cover of which the FYROM implied,

a) The eventual implementation of its national goal by its strategic culture, i.e., the annexations of territories from each of its neighbors.

(Click pictures to read description)
(Click here to view more provocative, anti-Greek pictures on our Facebook page)
Perhaps Mr. Koloski could explain the meaning of the lyrics of the song “Izlezi Momce.”
Излези момче

Излези момче право на тераса
и поздрави ја Гоцевата раса
кренете раце високо горе
наше ќе биде и солунско поле​
Get out young man
​
​Young man Get out to the balcony
and greet the countrymen of Gotse [Delchev]
raise your hands up high [Macedonian O-greeting]
The region of Thessaloniki [Greek Macedonia] will be ours.

​What they do not understand is that the negotiations were imposed by the UNSC, because the Constitution of the FYROM and the behavior of its governing mentality do not meet the minimum standards for membership in the UN.

The Interim Accord was MANDATED by the UNSC. If the FYROM does not comply with the UNSC mandate, then it will be out of the UN (UN Charter, Chapter II, Articles 3 to 6). 
 
All the above bear witness to the aggressive ultra-nationalism that the UNSC was aware of and sided with Greece.  Greece is right.

b)  Although Skopje alleges that it only seeks equal rights for its Slavophone minority, essentially it seeks privileges.  The Slavophone minority with Skopje national conscience in Greece per census and elections under free EU sponsorship is only about 6,000, i.e.,  0.000521739 of the total population of Greece. They all already enjoy the benefits of equal rights as citizens of the EU. Only the Sultan guaranteed ethnic privileges to his loyal subjects. Skopje has no right to demand privileges for its people when it simultaneously refuses to grant equal rights to its 40-45% Albanian minority soon to become the majority in the country.  

However, if in the opinion of the UMD, neither the EU nor NATO guarantees equal rights to all citizens in their member states, one wonders why the FYROM wants to join such “untrustworthy” organizations? 
 
Furthermore, such demands are reciprocal. What is the reason that subsequent governments of the FYROM follow the norms of the Marxist government of the SFRJ not allowing competent agencies of the EU to conduct a free census of the population including, of course, minorities? Perhaps someone is willing to explain what happened to the 2011 census.
 
As claimed by the Serbian State Board of Statistics, in the region of the present day FYROM, the 1921 census numbered Greeks to be 41,597. In 1931 the Greeks were 44,608. The Germans conducted their count in the same area in 1941. They found that 100,000 out of a population of 800,000 people 12% were Greeks. In 1949 the capital alone had 30,000 Greeks. The census of 1951 counted the Greeks be 158.000;, 25,000 were native Greeks (Bitola area), 100,000 Vlach speaking Greeks, 3,000 Greek Saracatsans and 32,000 Greek political refugees.  Because of these numbers, the authorities of Skopje forced about 100,000 to declare themselves “Macedonians” or Vlachs who, according to the authorities, were not Greeks (Stojković, 1952, 29).
 
It is remarkable that Marxist Yugoslavia published in a separate official census of 1981, a modification of the 1921 census above from 41,597 to 2,000 Greeks, while simultaneously the 1931 figures shrank the Greek community to 1,000 from the factual 44,608.   Thus in line with the fake census, instead of the population increasing between 1921 and 1931, the Greek community decreased by 1,000. There was no explanation for such a loss (Beograd: Savenzni zavod za statistiku, 1982).
 
Mr. Kiro Gligorov, former President of the FYROM, stated that the Greeks in his country amounted to 100,000 people in 1990, but somehow the present bureau of statistics in the FYROM wants only 442 Greeks in the country.  Where do the Greeks stand in the factual demographics?      
 
In his book On Macedonian Matters, Krste Petkov Misirkov describes his fellow ethnic Slavs as Macedonian in a regional sense, not descendants of the ancient Macedonians.[ii]  Besides, Misirkov states, “official recognition must be won for the Macedonian people; in all official documents and certificates the designation “Macedonian” must be introduced for all persons of Slav origin in Macedonia.” [iii]

Because of Misirkov’s clear explanation, the emblem of the purely ancient Macedonian Greek dynasty (Herodotus, Book I, p. 56) and the name “Macedonian” do not belong to the Slav population of the FYROM, which, by the way, does not live within ancient Macedonian territory. They are ethnic SLAVS residing in the regions of ancient Paionia and Dardania. Perhaps the Edicts of the Ashoka or Asoka the Great, an Indian emperor of the Maurya Dynasty could shed some light on the matter of the ancient Macedonian ethnicity. Asoka had recorded the facts as he saw them.
 
“Now it is conquest by Dhamma that Beloved-of-the-Gods considers being the best conquest. And it (conquest by Dhamma) has been won here, on the borders, even six hundred yojanas away, where the Greek king Antiochos rules, beyond there where the four kings named Ptolemy, Antigonos, Magas and Alexander rule, likewise in the south among the Cholas, the Pandyas, and as far as Tamraparni”. (Trans. Ven. S. Dhammika, Edicts of the King Asoka, Kandy Sri Lanka: Buddhist Publication Society, 1994) https://www.cs.colostate.edu/~malaiya/ashoka.html
 
Even Dr. Eugene Borza, a historian of Classics in his academic paper  "Macedonia Redux," in The Eye Expanded: life and the arts in Greco-Roman Antiquity, ed. Frances B. Titchener & Richard F. Moorton, University of California Press, 1999, 255, has stated,
 
“If the claim is based on ethnicity, it is an issue of different order.  Modern Slavs, both Bulgarians and Macedonians[sic], cannot establish a link with antiquity, as the Slavs entered the Balkans centuries after the demise of the ancient Macedonian kingdom.  Only the most radical Slavic factions – mostly in the United States, Canada, and Australia – even attempt to establish a connection to antiquity… Politics in the Balkans transcends historical and biological truths”.
 
Those who believe that the judges of the Olympics accepted the king of Macedonia for political reasons, they might try to explain the participation and twice victorious Macedonian named Theagenes from Thassos, Macedonia, who competed at the 75th (480 BC) and 76th (476 BC) Olympiads and won in boxing and Pankration, a sort of modern kickboxing/wrestling (Pausanias VI, 6; 11,15; Plutarch 811D).  The reader must have in mind that Theagenes’ victories occurred before Alexander I was allowed to participate.  The mere fact that Macedonians were allowed to compete in the Greeks-only Olympic Games makes the Macedonians Greeks.  Was Alexander the Great a Macedonian? Of course, he was, as Pericles was an Attican and Leonidas was a Laconian, and George Washington was Virginian American.
 
In the ancient times, the lower part of the FYROM was Paionia inhabited by Paionians, a Thraco-Illyrian tribe, whereas the region of Skopje was part of Dardania, Illyria populated by Dardanians. Only the area of the Greek region of Macedonia was inhabited by Macedonians, a bona fide Greek tribe. But even if one theorizes that the ancient Macedonians were not of Greek stock, it does not make the Slav inhabitants of the FYROM Macedonians. As for the absurdity that the Macedonians did not speak Greek, not one of the Greek tribes spoke Greek in the sense of present-day Greek language.  Greek tribes numbered more than 230 speaking more than 200 dialects including the Macedonian, which was one of the Aeolic dialects. Macedonians of Upper Macedonia spoke a Molossian dialect, which fell into the Northwestern Doric group of dialects. So when the Slavs of the FYROM argue that Macedonians did not speak Greek, their argument begs for the definition of Greek language before 285 BC. It was the year Aristeas the Athenian grammarian was commissioned by Ptolemy II, the Greek King of Egypt, to formulate the Koine or Common Greek by the Attic dialect.        

4) The renaming of the Skopje International Airport and Friendship Highway was forced on the Skopje government by their membership’s obligations toward the OSCE requirements, which are the foundations of both EU and NATO.  The previous government, by raising new issues that did not exist before, tried to upgrade its negotiating leverage by adding bogus matters to be resolved. It is an old trick, but it does not work anymore. Too many organizations and too much is at stake on the outcome, so nobody eats it.
​  
Since Macedonism was created to unite the Slavic citizens of the FYROM under a common, but false banner, what is going to happen when the catalyst does not exist anymore?

The historical forgeries in the form of naming highways, buildings, institutions followed by relentless disinformation were an apparent provocation, and an attempt to establish the Slav inhabitants of the FYROM as Macedonians by birthright is evident. The renaming of anything the Gruevski government had rechristened to ancient Greek personalities by far it is not a concession, but a return to historical reality.
 
What is important here is the fact that inflammatory nationalism in the FYROM comes from its diaspora, which parenthetically has the right to elect and be elected in their home country.  This point should alarm a few people because the overcharged members of the ultra-nationalistic FYROM diaspora could conceivably hold the highest offices in Skopje influencing their views and thus creating an unwanted instability in the region or even undesirable calamity even in the world. The world is aware that most of such disasters started with local or regional conflicts.
 
The Future
 
For the sake of humanity, the cancer of Macedonism needs much more than a couple of aspirins to heal; it requires an excision. Competent authorities of the EU need to re-visit the contents of school books of the FYROM and ascertain that all maps and any irredentist materials are taken out of classrooms and public libraries. Children are too young to judge unproven theories and hypothetical situations.  Also, the final treaty on the name of the FYROM forces the latter to do the same in schools sponsored by its diaspora and churches sponsored by its Church. Enough toxicity harbors in the hearts of the Slav citizens of the FYROM.  
 
The differences in cultural and historical backgrounds between Greece and the FYROM complicate the process of a civilized, peaceful settlement of disputes and the identification of the interests of each country following the dissolution of Yugoslavia. Twenty-seven years after independence, the FYROM chose the path to intransigence on issues that evolved after 1878 and developed with the establishment of communism in the USSR.
 
One would expect that the FYROM’s revanchist behavior on territorial claims over lands that were never theirs as a result of a euphoric recall on a theoretical national, ethnic, and historical basis would give way to reason and reality. On the contrary; in the last 27 years the FYROM slowly but resolutely keep instilling violence and unjustifiably revanchist inspirations to its posterity poisoning their offspring in a row of absolute nationalism while simultaneously advocating an ethnicity that does not belong to the Slavic population. One must consider that in the last century their alleged ethnic identity changed four times. 
 
Such differences interfere with the political dialogue contingent on logic and reason. One must consider the fact that about 250 Greek-owned businesses operate in the FYROM providing employment and income to a country that hates them. However, these relations must be rebuilt on the original foundations of equality and a free-market economy away from exclusive nationalism that promotes hatred, especially when such a hatred depends on the miserable racial and historical criteria of a past that never was.
 
The Balkans need new meaningful forms of cooperation that adhere to the principles of the OSCE. In the interest of Greece and the FYROM, each country must explore possible opportunities of trade and economic cooperation.  Just imagine the potential of a Thessaloniki-Skopje-Belgrade (Danube) canal (Templar, June 30, 2014).  All the countries of the Black Sea, without exception, could benefit from such a canal. The technology exists, and the tangible and intangible benefits of such a project outweigh the costs over a forward period with great potential financial return to the countries involved. Think of the impact that such a canal would have to commerce, business, and finances in the region, especially if one adds the sea thoroughfare. To utilize these opportunities, both countries should seriously try to restore a high-level political dialogue with substantive topics that could include the FYROM’s ascension to NATO and the EU. Only frank conversations on outstanding issues can influence official discourse. 
 
The Balkans require seriousness and responsibility; Mr. Koloski and his kind are a thing of the past and they must be repulsed. This form of nationalism must become obsolete, and the deleterious education on all levels at the FYROM must end.  The mentality of 1893 (VMRO) and 1943 (Jajce) must stop.
_____
[i] The text in the original language and alphabet states,
 
Исто така, iеден народ долго можит да бидит без народно име, ако на близу од него немат друг народ, от коi шчо ке требит тоi да се разликуат со оддел'но народно име. Но тоа народно име, не си измисл'уат народот сам за себе, ами со него го велит саседниiот народ и тоi од него си го земат. Значит наi природно iет народното име за iеден народ да се поiаит у iеден саседен со него народ. Саседните народи iеден кон друг, значит, се iауваат во вид на нунко и кум. (Misirkov, Skopje, 1974, p.166).

Misirkov uses the word narod, which means an ethic group, a people, a nation in a sense of community of descent, λαός. 

[ii] The text in the original language and alphabet states,

 
Името македонец прво се употребуаше од македонцките словени, како географцки термин за покажуаiн'е на своiот происход. Тоа име iет обшчо известно на македонците словени и сите со него се именуваат (Misirkov, Skopje, 1974, p.159).

[iii] The text in the original language and alphabet states,
 
“во официiално признааiн'е на македонцката народност и во внесуаiн'е во нофузите и друзите официiални документи на лица от словенцки произлез од Македониiа името „македонец" (Misirkov, Skopje, 1974, p. 58).​

About Marcus A. Templar
Professor Marcus A. Templar is a former U.S. Army Cryptologic Linguist (Language Analyst), Certified U.S. Army Instructor of Intelligence Courses, Certified Foreign Disclosures Officer, Certified Translator Interpreter of Serbo-Croatian, SIGINT / All-Source Intelligence Analyst. He is the Macedonian League's National Security Advisor.

​To read all his papers, please click here.

About the Macedonian League
We are an international professional Hellenic advocacy group. Our primary purpose is to advance our interests to informed and responsive governments on issues concerning Greece's national security and territorial integrity. 

The Macedonian League's main focus is on the “Macedonian name dispute”, as this dispute is a serious national security issue that threatens the territorial integrity of Greece.

The Macedonian League also focuses on exposing and combating anti-Hellenism and analyzing political developments in the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia.

For more information, follow us on: Website, Facebook, Twitter

Department of Communications
Macedonian League 
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A Synopsis of the FYROM Name Issue

2/15/2018

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Marcus A. Templar, National Security Advisor | Macedonian League​
Picture
​The antagonism between Serbia and Bulgaria compelled the earlier to expand south after 1878 and the latter to envision its expansion west. Both countries sowed the seeds of the present day problem. Neither of these two actors, Serbia and Bulgaria, considered the facts on the ground, which was much more complicated than the simple labeling of either Serbian or Bulgarian ethnicity.
 
The Bulgarians extended the term Macedonia to the area of the former Western Bulgarian Empire (present-day FYROM) just north of Macedonia proper. The Serbs, to counter the renaming of the land, extended the term Old Serbia to the south calling it South Serbia.

At present, about 90% of the ancient Macedonian kingdom is within Greece.
​
​The failure of the Russian diplomacy to establish a dominant satellite state in the southern Balkans in the Council of Berlin in 1878 transformed into the impetus to do so after the complete control of the communist forces that established the USSR in October 1917.  The new Russian-led government realized that to spread the communist ideology and encroach as many lands as possible for the benefit of the USSR; the state had to continue the foreign policies of Imperial Russia. Such a foreign policy meant for the south Balkans that, the national interests of Bulgaria were identical with national interests of the USSR. The goal of the USSR was the establishment of a Greater Bulgaria, and if the plan failed due to external pressure create a new state that would serve the national interests of both Bulgaria and the USSR.

On March 4, 1919, the Central Committee of the USSR created a body that would concentrate to the spreading of the communist ideology worldwide through a series of indoctrination, but also an effort to solve the issue of the national question which had haunted the new state vis-a-vis the Marxist ideology.

​Krste Petkov Misirkov, a Bulgarian socialist, born in the region of Greek Macedonia published a book in Sofia, Bulgaria, titled On Macedonian matters in 1903 (Misirkov, Skopje, 1974). That book either was redacted or even revised between August 1914 and the end of 1923. In this book, Misirkov referred the Slav population of Macedonia as Macedonian Slavs or Macedonians explaining on page 159 that the term was regional, not ethnic. It is the same name that Greeks and others who live in Macedonia use today. There is NO Macedonian ethnicity; it never was. Ethnically, ancient Macedonians were Greeks.

During the Fifth World Congress transpired in June-July 1924, the Comintern issued a lengthy resolution titled “III Communist International, Fifth Congress - June 17 - July 8, 1924 "Resolution on National Question in Central Europe and Balkans”. In the first section under the title “Macedonian and Thracian Questions”, the resolution declared the establishment of the “Balkan Federation” to be created regarding Macedonia from territories from the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats, and Slovenes (later Yugoslavia), Bulgaria and Greece.  Regarding Thrace, the resolution called for the secession of Thrace from Bulgaria, Greece, and Turkey. Both, Macedonia and Thrace, would be included in the “Balkan Federation”. The “liberation” of Macedonia and Thrace would be achieved by vigorous “support of the national revolutionary movements of the oppressed peoples of Macedonia and Thrace for the formation of independent republics”, which then would unite into one communist state. The Macedonian and Thracian people were all inhabitants of those lands regardless of their ethnic background or religion.

The 11 January 1934 Resolution was drafted in Moscow under the title “The Macedonian Question and the Internal Macedonian Revolutionary Organization - United (IMRO-U)”. Its purpose was the reinforcement of the previous resolution (1924) while section I recognized the Macedonian nation not as a community of descent, but as a political entity or a country per glossary of the Comintern. A nation as a community of descent per Comintern was a tribe. In section II of the resolution, the Comintern appointed the government of the nation to the Internal Macedonian Revolutionary Organization (IMRO) aka VMRO transforming the nation into a nation-state, always per the Comintern glossary. As for the Macedonian people, according to the same lexicon were, again, all inhabitants of those lands regardless of their ethnic background or religion.  Section II of the resolution referred to the governance and indoctrination of the people mentioned above.

It is remarkable that not one of the above documents referred to a “Macedonian people” as a community of descent, i.e., a nation in an ethnic sense. On the contrary, the main goal was the appropriation of lands which would be “liberated” by the communists and indoctrinated later by the IMRO.

The communists of Skopje attempted to connect themselves to the ancient Macedonians, but they were turned down by the Yugoslav communists as their claim was “deceptive” (Katardjiev, Skopje, 1986, 376-377).  Simultaneously, Yugoslav communists were adamant, “We cannot recognize you as a national distinction” (Katardjiev, Skopje, 1986, 381-382).

In fact, there is no explicit recognition by any legal authority in the Marxist Yugoslavia of an ethnic group called “Macedonian”. For Yugoslavia, the Macedonian ethnicity developed in the same manner that the Montenegrin ethnicity did, implicitly.

Such was the spirit which Kiro Gligorov, the first FYROM President, used making clear to representatives of the FYROM Australian diaspora that refused to accept the facts (Gligorov, Skopje, 2000, 354).  According to Historian Eugene Borza, “Modern Slavs, both Bulgarians, and Macedonians[sic], cannot establish a link with antiquity, as the Slavs entered the Balkans centuries after the demise of the ancient Macedonian kingdom… Only the most radical Slavic factions – mostly in the United States, Canada, and Australia – even attempt to establish a connection to antiquity[…]  Politics in the Balkans transcends historical and biological truths” (Borza,1999, 255). 

The Marxist government of the Federative People’s Republic of Yugoslavia (FPRJ), later known as the Socialist Federative Republic of Yugoslavia (SFRJ) let the “Macedonian” ethnicity develop only to use it as a tool for further expansion. Such a made up ethnicity could establish a birthright of a Slav people over the land of Greek Macedonia and the port of Thessaloniki as its prize.

The FYROM diaspora had developed the notion, “what kind of Macedonians are we if we cannot claim our ancestry to the Macedonians of Alexander the Great?” Under monetary, non-monetary influence, and political extortion of its diaspora, politicians of the FYROM at first entertained the thought of their “blood relationship” to the ancient Macedonians.  However, as the time passed the pure wishful thinking developed to a staunch belief and beefed up by malfeasance and manipulation of historical facts turned into irredentism.  Since the independence of the FYROM, Greece has confronted and endured belligerent predisposition to include but not limited to demographic manipulations, forgeries of history, and relentless disinformation, especially from the FYROM ultra-nationalistic diaspora.
 
If one desires regional stability and peace in the Balkans, one must help efface the source of the evil; stop assisting the verbal and tangible provocation of the FYROM diaspora in the world. 

About Marcus A. Templar
Professor Marcus A. Templar is a former U.S. Army Cryptologic Linguist (Language Analyst), Certified U.S. Army Instructor of Intelligence Courses, Certified Foreign Disclosures Officer, Certified Translator Interpreter of Serbo-Croatian, SIGINT / All-Source Intelligence Analyst. He is the Macedonian League's National Security Advisor.

​To read all his papers, please click here.

About the Macedonian League
We are an international professional Hellenic advocacy group. Our primary purpose is to advance our interests to informed and responsive governments on issues concerning Greece's national security and territorial integrity. 

The Macedonian League's main focus is on the “Macedonian name dispute”, as this dispute is a serious national security issue that threatens the territorial integrity of Greece.

The Macedonian League also focuses on exposing and combating anti-Hellenism and analyzing political developments in the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia.

For more information, follow us on: Website, Facebook, Twitter

Department of Communications
Macedonian League 
​​

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Ignorance is the Mother of Impudence

1/27/2018

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Marcus A. Templar, National Security Advisor | Macedonian League​
PictureScreenshot of the Neos Kosmos article "Nationalism vs. Nationalism"
It is unfortunate that the newspaper Neos Kosmos of Melbourne published the article “Nationalism Vs. Nationalism - What did we learn from Sunday's anti-FYROM rally?” by Nikos Fotakis on 25 January 2018 equating Greek patriotism to Slavic Nationalism.

It is evident from the article that the author picked and chose only specific negative issues that had allegedly transpired just because he relished them on a personal level instead of pointing out the goals and the purpose of the demonstration in Thessaloniki. In this manner, the author acted as a surrogate for the state instead of maintaining a demeanor of accepted norms of professional journalism.

Also, the pro-Skopjan article in hopes to balance the reality of the demonstration to the nonsense of a patriotically challenged Greek government averaged the number of participants to appear as fair and balanced. People who are genuinely familiar with Thessaloniki know exceptionally well the capacity of the areas the demonstration occurred by comparing it to the 1992 million people rally.

It is abhorrent for a newspaper which supposedly serves the Greek community in Australia to attack in essence Greek national security interests by stating that the patriotism of the Greeks is equal to the nationalism of the Skopje Slavs. If the writer is incapable of distinguishing the difference between the two human traits and their relation to their country, he should not get involved in areas he does not understand.

The demonstrators expressed their feeling to keep what is theirs whether it is land, history, heritage, and language. On the other hand, the Skopje Slavs strive to fulfill their irredentist national goal, i.e., the eventual claim and annexation of Macedonia to their Slavic state. How can these two be the same?

About Marcus A. Templar
Professor Marcus A. Templar is a former U.S. Army Cryptologic Linguist (Language Analyst), Certified U.S. Army Instructor of Intelligence Courses, Certified Foreign Disclosures Officer, Certified Translator Interpreter of Serbo-Croatian, SIGINT / All-Source Intelligence Analyst. He is the Macedonian League's National Security Advisor.

​To read all his papers, please click here.


About the Macedonian League
We are an international professional Hellenic advocacy group. Our primary purpose is to advance our interests to informed and responsive governments on issues concerning Greece's national security and territorial integrity. 

The Macedonian League's main focus is on the “Macedonian name dispute”, as this dispute is a serious national security issue that threatens the territorial integrity of Greece.

The Macedonian League also focuses on exposing and combating anti-Hellenism and analyzing political developments in the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia.

For more information, follow us on: Website, Facebook, Twitter

Department of Communications
Macedonian League 

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Addressing the Cancer of Macedonism by Marcus A. Templar

1/19/2018

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Marcus A. Templar, National Security Advisor | Macedonian League​
PicturePhoto credit: Marcus A. Templar
National Security Advisor, Macedonian League
​Call me superstitious if you want, call me suspicious if you so desire; I would even accept the rebuke as being a pessimist, but in this case, I want to declare that I do not want to be right openly. Treaties never mean a solution, unless one believes in Santa Claus and the Tooth Fairy. A solution denotes something final; treaties are temporary lasting until the parties want or the next problem appears. A Treaty with Skopje could be signed by the end of 2018 ONLY if the parties have already agreed to all points relevant to their national interests.
 
The FYROM has already a name that its Church uses, Povardarie. It is the name of the central area of the country located in the region of the ancient Paionia. It is the name of one of the FYROM Dioceses that expands from north to south alongside the river Axios [Vardar]. Perhaps it should be the basis for negotiations.
 
Whether the FYROM will include or exclude the name “Macedonia” or whether the derivatives of “Macedonia” are connected with formal or informal institutions, language, ethnicity, religious, heritage is somewhat immaterial under the scope of a treaty. A treaty might cure the symptoms, but it will ignore the causes of an infectious disease which is entirely ignored by Greek politicians, and they are instigated by the Slav politicians and even the Church of the FYROM. Politicians are the root of the problem, and through negotiations, they should be directed to address the cancer of Macedonism.
 
One must also consider the side effects of the issue on both sides. The less likely an agreement is achieved, the more critical the side-effects are; we all have witnessed them. Often side-effects that continue to flow from the negotiating process they could materialize and may be used to vindicate more careful negotiations.
 
To those unfamiliar to national security and how countries negotiate, the question that arises is not the treaty itself, but the containment of side-effects as propaganda, intelligence, espionage, deception, cyber-operations, verification and adjudication, the impact of the agreement on third parties and a few others. Negotiations cover future relations of governments, but leave the side-effects of such ties utilizing ambiguous language, as it is article 7.3. of the Interim Agreement raise more problems that contain.
 
The governments of both countries invoking the role of specificity must concentrate on solving all residual disagreements avoiding any carry-overs for future negotiations unless they are willing to gradually normalizing their relations. Greece will have to maintain the same leverage that she has at present, no final comprehensive treaty means no membership in international institutions.
 
Politicians understand domestic pressure, or they lose their political position. Demonstrations, lobbying, bringing matters of ethics, and even questioning their patriotism should apply. My question is why all these years since 1992 no events have transpired? If these demonstrations are for the sole purpose to destabilize the domestic political scene, the reasons are misguided. Greece needs domestic stability regardless of who governs since who governs was never an issue; how they govern is.
 
Some people might not consider the present political situation as being stable. However, the validity of such an assessment depends upon the criteria used to measure the servility to their political affinities. Such people do not serve the goals of the nation but their own.
 
I just hope the Greek government will not rush to sign a treaty that would look good to some who are ready to declare victory, but in fact will be the beginning of a nightmare and adventures to generations to come.
 
Politicians who pretend to be the saviors of Greece, before they sign anything MUST remember that the national goal of the FYROM Slavs is the “liberation” of Macedonia proper. I am not he who had made such a profound statement. It was the man who gave his life for Macedonia, Pavlos Melas. He said to George Sourlas, the director of schools at Nymphaion, "Macedonia is the lung of Greece; without it, the rest of Greece would be condemned to death."

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Official Language or Catastrophe

1/15/2018

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Marcus A. Templar, National Security Advisor | Macedonian League​
PicturePhoto credit: EPA
In its first reading on November 15, 2017, lawmakers of the FYROM voted 66-41 in favor of the bill that would allow the language of any minority larger than 20% in the country to become one of the official languages of the country. Of the 66 deputies, 27 belonged to minority communities (one abstention).    
 
As background information, the language issue regresses to the armed conflict between Albanians and Slav-led Army in 200-1 which resulted in the Ohrid Agreement. The Ohrid Agreement was hammered down by Javier Solana and George Papandreou out of which, the Albanians would not only defeat the Slav led Army, but the country would disintegrate.
 
Before the Ohrid Agreement emerged, the Slav government appreciating the impending danger worked simultaneously in two different directions to play it safe.
 
At first, the FYROM government requested help from the EU which moved fast with Javier Solana and George Papandreou. At that time, the Slavic speaking newspapers in the FYROM praised the efforts of the two men that kept the country together.
 
Concurrently, the President of the Assembly (Sobranie) Stojan Andov had authorized a parliamentary delegation of Slav deputies to visit the offices of the Socialist Party of Greece (PASOK) to request Greek help in case the FYROM disintegrated. At the time PASOK was in power in Greece. The delegation met with Mr. Beglitis seeking among other things Greece’s consideration for a federation with the remaining territory of the FYROM.  The Slav parliamentary delegation had requested teachers to teach the children of the FYROM Greek, Greek language books, and money to finance such a project.
 
Because of the above conflict, the FYROM was forced to amend Article 7 of its Constitution by expanding its restrictions on the locality. While the article had declared the Slavic language being the only one in the country, Amendment V had made the language of any minority above 20% in the country an official language.  Specifically it the amendment states, “Any other language spoken by at least 20 percent of the population is also an official language, written using its alphabet, as specified below.” 
 
The first law the Skopje Assembly passed on the matter reflected the new reality, but that proposal was flawed. It granted the right only in areas where the minority was larger than 20 percent of the population. That law was unconstitutional although the UMD never complained.   
 
Per the VMRO-DPMNE the bill upon passing into law "deepens the differences” between the two main ethnic groups.  They believe that "Bilingualism will create legal chaos. It will create inefficient institutions that will be lost in the translation, instead of being of real benefit to the citizens".  However, such arguments are unfounded as countries like Belgium and Luxemburg function just fine. After all, the FYROM started as a multicultural society, and it should grow as such.  That was the message of the Ohrid Agreement.  
 
Nonetheless, here is the real nightmare for the FYROM.  Considering the demographics of the 2002 census and the death and birth rate of the Slavs and the Albanians the population of the FYROM will shift in 2033 for the Albanians as they will dominate over the Slavs (Slavs 44.71% versus Albanians 45.29%). Following the same trend in 2044, the difference will spread with Slavs 36% and Albanians 54%.  Since the 2002 census occurred under considerably questionable conditions, neither of the two main ethnic political parties was interested in contacting the census in 2011 which was canceled by the VMRO-DPMNE led FYROM government. 
 
Manipulation of statistics is nothing unusual for the FYROM and its Marxist past. For instance, according to the State Board of Statistics in Belgrade the 1921 census in the region that presently is the FYROM, the Greeks numbered to be 41,597; in 1931 census indicated that 44,608 Greeks lived in the same area. In 1949, Skopje alone had 30,000 Greeks. Also In 1948, the Bulgarian population in the FYROM was 61,140.  
 
However in 1981, miraculously the above statistics faded away reappeared as follows:  The 1921 population of the Greek in the FYROM region came down to 2,000, the population and the one of 1931 went down to 1,000 without explaining what happened in those ten years to the missing Greeks.  As for the Bulgarian population it almost disappeared from the 1948 population of 61,140 to only 1,000 in 1981. It does mean that the number of the actual people had changed, but it says that in 1981 the Yugoslav Marxists re-visited the old statistics turning them to more politically convenient numbers (Stojković 1952, 29). Not one person in the world who understands statistics can accept round numbers as factual.

A new census is essential because it will answer three crucial questions.
  1. The first question is, how many people live in the FYROM because of the constant migration abroad.
  2. The second question is, how do the people live in the republic? 
  3. The third competing question is, what are their practical social, economic, regional problems, so the government apply appropriate public policies?
 
The constituency of VMRO-DPMNE and DUI should stop being obsequious to their extreme right ideology as a factotum to political parties denying reality in their home country. A new census could bring unbearable news, but it is a must.  Javier Solana summed it up very well saying, "In 2001, we were talking about being at the brink of a catastrophe; and now, in 2008, we are talking about being a candidate for the European Union.  This is a great success." The FYROM should either cope with the multicultural reality or face catastrophe.

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Greece and the FYROM are close to signing a permanent treaty on the name of the latter. The Macedonian League's National Security Advisor's letter to Foreign Minister Nikos Kotzias

11/29/2017

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Picture

Nikos Kotzias
Foreign Minister
Hellenic Ministry of Foreign Affairs

1st Vas. Sofias Av.
106 71 Athens, Greece



​Dear Mr. Kotzias,

As the time has come that Greece and the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia (FYROM) are close to signing a permanent treaty on the name of the latter, Greeks of Greece, but also the diaspora need your assurance that you are going to preserve Greece's present and future national interests in the form of inclusion in the treaty of all derivatives of the word "Macedonia" even as a composite name. One must discern the political, linguistic, and social norms in Yugoslavia, the parent state of the FYROM before proceeding to an agreement for agreement sake.

The Macedonian ethnicity was never explicitly recognized by the Marxist regime of the Federal People's Republic of Yugoslavia and later the Socialist Federative Republic of Yugoslavia. The recognition was gradual and implicit primarily by the people of Yugoslavia and then by the federative government of the constitutive republic of "Macedonia," who did not belong to any of the other ethnic groups inhabiting the republic. It was the result of a simple default. All derivatives of the word Macedonia evolved similarly.

The expression "Slavs of Macedonia" developed to "Macedonian Slavs" to "Macedonians", since they were the only inhabitants of Macedonia deprived of an ethnic appellation (Misirkov 1974, 159). To avoid any confusion, the Comintern used the expression Macedonian people (Македонский народ) as meaning the people of Macedonia regardless of ethnicity (Hristo Andonov-Poljanski 1981). Regarding the Macedonian nation (Mакедонская нация), Comintern recognized a state governed by the Internal Macedonian Revolutionary Organization (Comintern Resolutions of 1924 and 1934). It follows the model of the United Nations. i.e., countries; Comintern never recognized a community of descent.

But we have to ask the question, what kind of a final name is in the Greek national interests -- the dynamic, the stable, the solid one or the one struggling with all sorts of problems destabilizing the region? An unsuitable name could be the one struggling with all kinds of problems destabilizing the region. Another critical question is, what is the “new” Skopje is going do with the institutions its diaspora created and all of its past governments supported? This issue includes all institutions, not only within the country but especially abroad including but not limited those within Greece. It also requires a balanced and responsible approach.

Without the right approach, the current positive direction of the process of normalizing the relations between the two countries might turn into its contrary, leading to the undermining of regional stability. Existing instruments for supporting the balance must not be shattered but modified by the demands of the age. They must be utilized to strengthen security and stability and improve relations between states instead of being viewed as the veneer of a bad treaty. Greece has the normative leverage to enforce its final determination of a political or a practical decision with appropriate anticipatory consequences of a proposed course of action that would bear on concerns where the advantage is probably a factor.
 
Dear Sir,                   
The making of a stable self-controlling national culture and a peaceful region is undoubtedly a difficult task. Once the aftershock of the previous strategic culture begins to subside, the FYROM must start to reconsider the identity of its Slav populace and through public encouragement and education provided that the incentives become a top-down approach short and precise in no uncertain terms. In an eternal Macedonia, only one ethnicity can reside, the Greek.
 
Thank you for your time.

 
Marcus A. Templar
National Security Advisor
Macedonian League
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Yugoslavism and the National Question

11/21/2017

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Marcus A. Templar, National Security Advisor | Macedonian League​

​The state is not "abolished." It dies out. This gives the measure of the value of the phrase "a free people's state," both as to its justifiable use at times by agitators, and as to its ultimate scientific insufficiency; and also of the demands of the so-called anarchists for the abolition of the state out of hand (Engels 1877).
PicturePhoto credit: Marcus A. Templar
National Security Advisor, Macedonian League
The matter of Yugoslavism is neither new nor straightforward. The idea behind it appears in 1796 as part of a wish for frequently commercial purposes.  Yugoslavism developed and spread mostly on a linguistic basis in 1832, and it grew to a nationalist association between 1835 and 1849 along with the Pan-Slavic movement. One could argue that Yugoslavism was an offshoot of South Slavic Pan-Slavism.

Yugoslavism would ebb and tide without specific intervals and in 1918 because of necessity Yugoslavism settled into one state with three related Slavic tribes, the Serbs, the Croats, and the Slovenes.  It is why the first Yugoslavian state was named after those tribes.  Montenegrins and Macedonian Slavs were Slavs within the Serbian tribe regardless of their historically different paths. The appellation of the region between the city of Niš and the borders with Greece reflected the view, South Serbia.

King Alexander II of the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats, and Slovenes dreamed of unifying the three Slavic tribes into one South Slavic unitary state, on the principles of the united Yugoslavian spirit, but his assassination in Marseilles killed the dream as well.

Bulgarian fanatics of the right wing of the Internal Macedonian Revolutionary Organization (IMRO) and followers of Vančo Mihajlov (Vancho Mihailov) detested the idea, conspired with Mussolini’s Italian and Hungarian fascist governments abolished the concept of a unitary Yugoslavian state.  That was the end of first Yugoslavia.
​
King Alexander’s successor was his son Peter who was only 11 years old. Thus, Alexander’s cousin Paul became the regent starting the era of the Second Yugoslavia. Prince Paul’s regency was somewhat democratic and more Yugoslavian in spirit compared to King Alexander who was more of a Serb and autocrat.

Although when the WWII broke up, Yugoslavia declared neutrality in 1939. Italy and Hungary allowed Croatia's nationalists the use of their territories for their terrorist activities. Prince Paul’s democratic values and in the name of Yugoslavian unity gave in to pressure by the Croats accepting the Maček - Cvetković agreement which materialized (August 23, 1939), which in essence destroyed the pre-war Yugoslavia.

However, in 1941 just before Germany attacked Greece through Bulgaria, the Yugoslavian government of Prince Paul signed the Axis Tripartite Pact but with reservations regarding Yugoslavia’s sovereignty during the war, no request for military assistance or use of Yugoslavian territory for military purposes (J. B. Hoptner, 1962).

The Special Glossary of the Comintern
 
Because of its Marxist foundations, the SFRJ developed its legal glossary, which sometimes conflicted with international law and norms.

​Statism (etatizam) is the principle or policy of concentrating extensive economic, political, and related controls in the state at the cost of individual liberty. In SFRJ, statism was something negative opposing to self-management. Yugoslavia was a socialist state, but not in the sense of traditional socialism. The Constitution of 1974 not only added 42 amendments to the 1963 Constitution but also defined in its Preamble the constitutional system of the country as a “unique socialist self-management basis”.  According to Chomsky, socialism should create alternative institutions that would be the basis of a community of workers who would then supervise their fates and their bodies, and their free associations to develop different types of general communities. Such was the self-governing socialism of Yugoslavia (Svijelto, January 1, 2014). Yugoslav self-management was ideologically opposite to Soviet state-socialism, which primarily was statism, as well as the interwar kingdom’s unitary state.

The Leaders of the SFRJ called the governing party the “League of Communists of Yugoslavia” (Savez komunista Jugoslavije, (SKJ)) in 1952, to indicate the difference of the Yugoslavian state Marxist origins from those of the USSR.

Nation (nacija) signified the constitutive nations (konstitutivne nacije) of Yugoslavia (Serbs, Croats, Slovenes, Muslims, Montenegrins, and “Macedonians”) by the Marxist line, which denoted a legal entity identical to modern “nation-state”. A nation as a community of descent is a tribe, consistent with the theory of Frederick Engels. The Marxist glossary determines that a nation is a community of common interests and needs with common vision for the future; it consists of groups of unrelated ethnicities with a specific territory and a common language needed to achieve a consistent communication. At this stage, a government is nonexistent, though, the moment the nation launches a government, it transforms into a nation-state. (Rosdolsky, Summer 1965, II; Nimni, Fall 1989, 305). 

Even Georgi Dimitrov had a problem with such a differentiation, but he would not dare to bring the issue up before Stalin mumbling “a nation and the people are not identical” (Hadjinikolov et al., 1949; Savova, 1982).[i]

Furthermore, Dimitrov conceded that Macedonians were a separate “people”, only pointing out in private that Marxist theory differentiated between “people” and “nation”.  Such subtlety was unnoticed, as publicly and continually confirmed that all Macedonians should be united in the eponymous Yugoslav republic.  This was the principle adopted by the Tenth Plenum of the CC on 9-10 August 1946.  When the BRP(K) [Bulgarian Workers' Party (Communist)], leaders are resolved to support the policy, already in progress, of “macedonizing” the inhabitants of Macedonia.  In addition to setting up Macedonian-language libraries and schools, a census was carried in December 1946 in which the Communist authorities forcibly registered the population as Macedonian rather than Bulgarian” (Baev. n.d.; Issussov, 1991 in Stankova, 2010).  

​People (narod) is a group of working ordinary people (folk, Volk, λαός, κόσμος) who lived within a nation, regardless of their ethnicity, since the latter was against the Marxist theory. In the case of Macedonia, Macedonian people meant all people of Macedonia regardless of ethnicity (Hristo Andonov-Poljanski. 1981, v. 2)
​
Nationality (narodnost) in SFRJ indicated ethnicity, a term used to describe the unique status of non-constitutive nations. The status of those nationalities did not fulfill the complete characteristics to form a nation. These were the same national minorities (nacionalne manjine), like Albanians, Hungarians as were previously named.

The same was true in the USSR.  "Nationality" in the Soviet Union did not mean "citizenship", as is usual in many other countries. In all Soviet “questionnaires for work or applications for education, and in all passports (until the passport reform of 1976), there were two entries: "Citizenship" (which could be "Soviet," "Hungarian," or "British") and "Nationality" (which could be "Russian," "Ukrainian," "Jew," "Uzbek," "Tadzhik," "Tatar," "Armenian," "Bashkir," and more than a hundred others) (Medvedev 1979, 57n).

Conversely, International Law defies nationality as a loose term of citizenship. It is the reason why countries manifest as the nationality of the bearers the country of which they hold citizenship.
 
However, to avoid confusion, passports of the SFRJ had no reference to nationality whatsoever as for the term conflicted with the internal political definition of nationality.

Those above also applies to the United States and the UN. Before an act of the U.S. Congress made them citizens, American Indians were sometimes referred to as “noncitizen nationals.”  The UN Universal Declaration of Human Rights (1948) states [in article 15 (1)] that “everyone has the right to a nationality” and [in article 15(2)] that “no one shall be arbitrarily deprived of his nationality.”  Nationality is of cardinal importance because it is mainly through nationality that the individual comes within the scope of international law and has access to the political and economic rights and privileges conferred by modern states on their nationals. At no time, nationality is synonymous or interchangeable with ethnicity. U.S. passport holders can see that in the place of nationality is The United States of America. 
 
Comintern and Macedonia
 
Since the establishment of the Third Communist International or Comintern on May 6, 1919, the newly established political tool put as its primary task to solve the National Questions of the world. The aim of the Comintern was not the creation of a Macedonian nation in the form of ethnicity; Comintern’s objective was the creation of a nation-state populated by the Macedonian people, which included ALL inhabitants who lived in the geographical region of Macedonia as Bulgaria had “defined” in 1900 with the map of Kunchov. Bulgaria’s definition of Macedonia included all lands of the area of the Pirin Mountain, the region of South Serbia (contemporary FYROM) and the entire Greek region of Macedonia. Some Bulgarian ultra-nationalists even included the Serbian Šumadija.

The failed Vienna Manifesto of 1924, gave rise to the resolution of the Fifth World Congress of the Comintern (June 17 - July 8, 1924).  The latter issued its first declaration on the “Resolution on National Question in Central Europe and Balkans”. One of the concerns of the Congress was “The Balkans Macedonian and Thracian Questions”.
 
The Fifth Congress of the Comintern believed that the problems of Macedonian and Thracian National Questions could be solved “only by the Balkan Federation of Communist Parties, by directing it into the channel of the proletarian revolution in the Balkans”. The Congress noted “with satisfaction that the Sixth Conference of the Balkan Communist Federation decided on the toned solution of this important question. The Congress considers the slogans formulated at the Sixth Conference of the Balkan Communist Federation - "For a United and Independent Macedonia," and "For a  United and Independent Thrace," as entirely correct, and truly revolutionary”.

​Almost identical was the Resolution of January 11, 1934, which established and recognized the Macedonian nation-state, not a community of descent as it is the popular belief. The state of Macedonia was inhabited by the Macedonian people regardless of ethnicity, under the IMRO government, i.e., the Balkan Federation.  One of the characteristics of the above resolution is that it alludes to the fact that Slavs of Macedonia were part of the Serbian tribe stating,
​
​The chauvinists of Greater Serbia, referring to the presence of Serbian impurities in the language of the local Macedonian population, declare this population as one of the tribes of the unitary Yugoslav nation-state and forcibly dominates it (Comintern, 1934).

The statement above referred to the Serbs who kept adding into the language of the local Slavic dialects of South Serbia words, grammatical and phonetic forms foreign to the speakers. As for the impurities, it refers to those transitional dialects as Novaković had perceived. Three of those dialects belong to present-day, FYROM.

Marxist Yugoslavia

​The Third Yugoslavia was the Federative People’s Republic of Yugoslavia that established in the mountains of Bosnia (Bihać and Jajce) with Tito’s concept of Brotherhood and Unity (Bratstvo i Jedinstvo).  Josip Broz Tito and Edvard Kardelj, his No 2 man believed that Marxist theory of “the state” could materialize at a time that it was already dead in the USSR and was dying in the West a slow death. 

At the founding Congress of the Communist Party of Serbia on 11 May 1945, Tito said:
​ 
​With the Bulgarians, we are trying, and they are trying as well, to make our relationship of brotherhood and unity firm. We have deeper ambitions with the Bulgarians, and we have wanted to realize them, but the English and the Americans have not allowed It. Fine; we shall not (do it) now. However, no one can stop us in this. We are Slavs, and they are also Slavs, and they have always been in the hands of reaction. It is up to us, the Yugoslav Communists, to develop the consciousness that we need to live with the Bulgarians in the closest relationship so that between us and the Bulgarians there should be no greater contradictions than between Serbs, Croats, and Slovenes. We shall act so that the Bulgarian people will be happy, as we shall be too when we unite in a country of the South Slavs (Tito, 1945).

In February 1945 in Yalta, Stalin had given his word to both Roosevelt and Churchill that Greece would fall under the influence of the Anglo-American political sphere. Because of that, no Macedonian federation could or would include Greek territories, although he did not have any objection if Yugoslavia “swallowed” Albania (Djilas 1962, 143, 182). The last thing Stalin wanted was to be seen as untrustworthy.  Although it was imperative to Stalin that he was perceived as a man of his word, he had no choice. In 1948, the reality was that the USSR’s mortars were not by anyone’s wildest imagination a match for the United States’ nuclear bomb. With no help from Moscow, the efforts of Yugoslavia proved fruitless (Templar 2014).

The friction between Tito and Stalin created a new reality. Moscow not only would not look unreliable to the West but also it cared about warm water ports without restrictions, something that was impossible to do due to the Straits regime and the fact that both Greece and Turkey were members of NATO. Thus, the only available warm water ports were Croatia’s ports. Yugoslavia was not a member of the two political worlds; one would argue that it was the leader of the Third World.

Kardelj introduced the idea of self-management, which he took from the Paris Commune (1871). The difference was that in the case of the Paris Commune everything the workers had done was voluntary. In the case of Yugoslavia’s self-management was imposed on the people by the government. Furthermore, Kardelj introduced the easing of anything had left from the already weak central government.  He along with the whole leadership of the League of Communists of Yugoslavia directed the country toward the final stage of communism.  He imposed two competing, but mutually exclusive paths, the loss of social domination of the state over individual citizens while simultaneously he pushed for the socialization of the government, which, however, was linked to the strategic developmental culture of the country.  Those two paths opposing each other collided resulting in the slow disappearance of the nation-state.

Since the conception of Communism, its more significant challenge was the National Question. In the Balkans, the staunch Bulgarians in Macedonia organized the Internal Macedonian Revolutionary Organization (IMRO), and through it, they repeatedly attempted to solve the Macedonian Question by their political interests. While they were striving to establish a “Peoples Republic of Macedonia” they did it in two ways parallel to each through either: a) an armed insurrection, and b) diplomacy using the assets of the Principality pretending they were fighting for “mother Bulgaria” and the Exarchate. Between their founding moment and the establishment of the USSR, the IMRO fought to institute a Macedonian nation-state, i.e., a Macedonian nation in the Marxist connotation governed by their organization.

​While Bulgaria gave up the idea of the realization of the Balkan Federation, Marxist Yugoslavia pursued the fulfillment of the Comintern’s resolutions. Later in 1944, with the Yugoslavian Communist Party in power, the Macedonists did precisely what they had wanted to do in 1939. The People’s Republic of “Macedonia” within the Yugoslav federation was a fact.

The active assistance of the Greek Communist party was indispensable. “On March 1, 1949, Radio Free Greece broadcast the resolution of the Second Plenum of the NOF central council on February 2, 1949.  According to the NOF resolution, NOF will mobilize all its available resources, social and human… (and) It will declare the Union of Macedonia into a complete, independent, and equal Macedonian nation within the Popular Democratic Federation of the Balkan peoples” (Kousoulas 2016 ). The AVNOJ [ii] Yugoslavia did anything possible to accommodate its expansionistic foreign policy under the spirit of Marxist ideology’s self-determination covering national goals designed by Stojan Novaković toward the end of the 19th century, an exit to the Aegean Sea.

The Serbs envisaged at expanding south and the Bulgarians west. Such conditions produced a rivalry, while the Bulgarians for historical and linguistic reasons tried to establish that the Slavs of South Serbia were Bulgarians, the Serbs tried to prove not what these people were, but what they were not. It is noteworthy that Novaković attempted to win the propaganda battle by scheming, stating,
​
​The Bulgarian literary language develops to a more Western Bulgarian speech.  They [the speakers] say it is because their voice is more apparent and [their speech is] closer to their Slavic roots.  We can say [in response] that these dialects are either equal to, or they are, en masse, the residue of the Serbian dialects, so that many of them strictly taken, fall into that great and full transitional zone between the Serbian and Bulgarian (Novaković, 1906).

When he realized that scheming did not work, he returned to the good old diplomacy. For both the Serbs and the Bulgarians, the issue of was not the toponym of the area, but the ethnic origin of the Slavic population of the federal republic of “Macedonia”.  For instance, Slavs, not ethnic Montenegrins inhabit the region of Black Mountain or Montenegro speaking a Serbian dialect, not Montenegrin.

As Misirkov put it,​
​
So, the central Macedonian dialect is equally far from both the Serbo-Croatian and Bulgarian literary language and can be observed as something different and distinct from either of them. That means that we found a neutral dialect in the south-Slavic chain of dialects. Now we need to decide if that neutral dialect stands alone with a distinct color from the other dialects, or if there are other dialects with the same color, or a color closer either to the central Macedonian dialect, or to the eastern Bulgarian dialect, or to the Serbian language of Vuk Karadžić. It is easy to see that all dialects that surround the central Macedonian dialect are much closer to it than to any of the central dialects of the other South Slavs (Misirkov, 1974).

​In the Kingdom of Yugoslavia, the present day area of the FYROM was considered part of South Serbia and its Slav inhabitants Serbs. Their Slavic dialect was not a problem since Serbian includes some dialects, by some accounts a transitional to Bulgarian group of about ten dialects known as Torlak.
 
Misirkov has already determined the national identity and Slavic origin of the “Macedonians” of the FYROM. In his book On Macedonian Matters, he mentioned the “Macedonian Slavs” 18 times, referring to himself and his compatriots as Slavs 88 times, and stated 14 times the adjective Slavic while describing a noun or pronoun associated with their Slavic origin and identity. Misirkov always used the designation “Macedonian” as a demonym or local identifier. He stated that they belong to the “Slav national family” (Misirkov 1974, 84). Misirkov should know; he was born in Pella, the Capital of the Macedonian Kingdom.  He further stated, “This means that there is Slav population in Macedonia but not a Serbian or Bulgarian population (Misirkov 1974, 165).

However, there is the matter of the word “nation” in Misirkov. The only time he used the word “nation” was this: “Is it possible now for the national unification of the Macedonians, when in Macedonia there are many, not just one ethnicity, and when there is no separate Macedonian Slavic nation?” Even here, Misirkov used the word “Nation” as a nation-state, a country. Translations of Misirkov’s book refer to the word “nation” instead of “people” despite the fact that the author used “Narod”. It seems that the translators either were ignorant of the dual meaning of the word, or they did it on purpose.
 
Not once Misirkov had mentioned any ties of the Macedonian Slavs to the ancient Macedonians. The authorities of the kingdom of Yugoslavia, the League of Communists and President Gligorov did the same.
 
Ethnic Groups in Marxist Yugoslavia
 
Montenegrins under the original Yugoslavism were included in the Serbian ethnicity. Their Serbian dialect is Eastern Herzegovinian (along with Zeta), which is identical to the Serbian of Bosnia. Because of the geographical differences and their proximity from the “metropolitan” Serbia, Montenegrins developed their historical reality, which however gave the impression of an ethnic duality in their national identity. The Greens (Zelenaši) who adhered to nativism and the Whites (Bijelaši) who claimed Serbian heritage. Milovan Djilas (Đilas), a Montenegrin himself, felt that Montenegrins were ethnically Serbs, but by nationality Montenegrins (Pijade 1948). They did not need explicit recognition since they were part of the three south Slavic “tribes”.

The Council of Berlin passed Bosnia and Hercegovina to the Austro-Hungarian Empire initially for administrative purposes; it created an antagonism between Serbia and Bulgaria vying to gain control of the region of present-day FYROM. The Sandžak area had remained under Ottoman control isolating Serbia from the natural ports of Montenegro.

The recognition of the Muslims as a distinct ethnicity was explicit. The Constitution of Yugoslavia was amended to list "Muslims" as a separate ethnicity and a constitutive nation. Before this recognition, Aleksandar Ranković, the third most powerful man in Yugoslavia after Josip Broz Tito and Edvard Kardelj, had criticized the use of “Muslim” as an ethnic denomination because “Muslim” is a religious denotation, not an ethnic.

Marxism was the basis for the establishment of Socialist Yugoslavia as interpreted by Aleksandar Rankovic and later by Edvard Kardelj. Although many people blame Tito as the creator of the new philosophy, Tito himself clarified, “Titoism as a separate ideological line does not exist ... To put it as an ideology would be stupid .... it is simply that we have added nothing to Marxist-Leninist doctrine. We have only applied that doctrine in consonance with our situation. Since there is nothing new, there is no new ideology. Should Titoism become an ideological line, we would become revisionists; we would have renounced Marxism. We are Marxists; I am a Marxist, and therefore I cannot be a Titoist (Dedijer, 1953).                                         
Excluding Greece, the outcome of WWII gave the communist parties of the Balkans the opportunity to set the foundations of the Balkan federation, oscillating between the socialist and communist understanding of such a union. The difference is that in the socialist view the territories of each country would remain the same forming a gradual rapprochement of existing communist regimes. In the communist view, Macedonia would establish a new state while the rest of the “socialist” countries would form the Balkan Soviet Socialist Federation. The last one would include Greece with its borders in Thessaly.
 
The issue of the national identity of the Slavs of Skopje was entirely different. Between 1941 and 1944, because of the occupation, the distance, but also the somewhat hostile feelings because of the Serbian rule during the interwar era communication with organized communist units of resistance was nearly impossible. The defection of the entire organization of the Macedonian Communist Party and especially its leader Metodi Satarov to Bulgaria in 1941 created problems to the cause of a cohesive communist Yugoslavia. One of the issues was the possibility that the area of Macedonia would pass to Bulgaria once the war was over regardless of the legal jurisdiction over South Serbia of the pre-war Yugoslavia.

The national identity of the Slav people of Skopje was always a problem in the past. SFRJ faced the same as Novaković, and the Kingdom of Yugoslavia had done beforehand. The Slavic people who arrived in the region around AD sixth and seventh centuries and ended up migrating to the Asia Minor had neither endonym nor exonym except for the Slavic names of the so-called Seven Slavic tribes all of them belonged to. They never used a collective name and since  they were mostly mixed with Bulgarians and Serbs in the past their name remained insignificant (Toynbee, 1973; Ninić, 1989; Kostelski, 1952; Treadgold, 1998; Ćirković, 2008; Živković, 2008; Lemerle, 1965).

During the WWII, the issue of Macedonia directed toward the cooperation of the Bulgarian, Yugoslavian, and Greek Communist parties regarding the Macedonia National Question, a favorite child of Marxism.  The upgrade of the Macedonian people to the Macedonian ethnicity was gradual and well planned. 

The original Marxist ideology never created an ethnic group outright. Milovan Djilas explained, “[N]either Marxist literature nor anywhere else could I ever find an explanation of the difference between “people” and “nation”.  For Stalin, the “nation” was the product of capitalism with given characteristics, but “people” are “the workingmen of a given nation, that is, workingmen of the same language, culture, and customs”. Stalin also admitted that Lenin introduced the definitions of both words in the book on “Marxism and National Question’ and although Lenin knew Marxism, Stalin did not (Djilas 1962, 156-7).  The Comintern followed Marxism to the letter because Frederick Engels was explicit in his views on the natter (Engels 1884). 

The creation of ethnic groups was gradual and based on ordinary people’s understanding, which had nothing to do with Marxist ideology. Briefly put, local and national figures of the communist parties slowly but surely developed implicitly misinterpreted twisted ideology promoting their nationalistic agendas at the expense of the original ideology.

The Anti-fascist Assembly for the National Liberation of Macedonia supported the idea of a united Macedonia, a plan that went back to the Fifth World Congress of the Comintern; however, they also pushed the existence of a Macedonian nationality something that not part of the Marxism. They willfully misinterpreted Engels’ theory and followed Misirkov’s suggestion, although partially, as well. Also, ASNOM declared “Macedonian” to be the official language of the region, although at that time it did not differ at from the Western Bulgarian, which was spoken west of the line Nikopol (Nikopolis) - Goche Delchev (Nevrokopi). Also, the League of Communists of Yugoslavia encouraged the creation of Macedonian Institutions, Macedonian Literature and Art and in the 1960s standardized the language, which had little to do with the language Misirkov had mentioned. The development of a Macedonian national identity enacted a significant part along with Slovenia in the public policy toward Yugoslavia’s national relations. They both acted as a balance to the Serbian and Croatian political colossuses.

Macedonianism is rooted deeply in the soul of the Slavs reaching points that no other group has reached before and without any evidence or proof that they have direct lineage from the ancient Macedonians.  Misirkov mentioned of a “Macedonian job” (Misirkov 1974, 119). Misirkov alluded to the Bulgarian Army Colonel and Supremist Anastas Yankov who in 1902 went with a reinforced Bulgarian Army Company to Kastoria to urge Bulgarians into an uprising; he issued a proclamation in which he called all Macedonians regardless of ethnicity and creed to rise against the Ottomans. In a concoction of historical personalities and events, he promoted “the glorious” Alexander the Great, “the brave” King Samuil and “the beautiful Pan-Slav” Prince Marko Kraljević, as having “Macedonian blood [running] in their veins”. One must have in mind that Alexander the Great was Greek, King Samuil was Bulgarian, and Marko Kraljević was Serb.
​
​It is ironic that during the Macedonian Struggle the Bulgarian komitadjis did not recognize the Greek character of Macedonia even though it was inhabited by the descendants of Alexander’s the Great Macedonians.  At the instructions of Imperial Russia and its Pan-Slavists, the Bulgarians refused to recognize the birthright of the Macedonian Greeks to their land (Ballas, 1962).   

The followers of Vancho Mihailov’s ethnic philosophy who lived and still live mostly in the United States, Canada, Australia and consist of the most ultra-nationalist elements of Macedonianist philosophy. They still give an oath by placing their hand on a knife and pistol both placed on the Bible, although of the opinion of some “experts” the Bible is not required their клетви (kletvi) or oath. Basing their views of Yankov’s preaching, but also sheer logic faithful to the doctrine of “we cannot be without deriving our ancestry from the ancient Macedonians” started drawing membership and influence over their population abroad founding the foundations for ancestry and birthright over the land of Macedonia. Bulgaria had a lot to do with it.    

Evangelos Kofos brings an excellent example depicting the extent of irrational and scientifically baseless assumptions, wishful hypotheses, and misrepresentations of facts by the FYROM Slavs, and although the official version does not adopt these ruminations, it does accept them by keeping silent (Templar 2008).

From Melbourne, Vic, Australia
“… [O]nce we become Slavs we automatically lose any significance as descendants of the ancient Macedonians....  By calling ourselves Slavs we legalize this robbery by the Greeks [of the ancient Macedonians]....  If we remain silent, we will remain Slavs, and as Slavs we have no legal right to anything Macedonian…" (Kofos 1993, 336).


Andrija Radović’s suggestions to the communists of the linguistic sacrifices of the Croats in the name of a South Slavic unity were also ineffective. In Radović’s opinion, what the Macedonists wanted was ethnocentric and wrong. As Vulić built his arguments on ancient history, Radović, a staunch unionist of Serbia and Montenegro, based his assertion on the compromise that the Croatian “Illyrian Movement” successfully advocated for the name of a united South Slavic state (Yugoslavia). The Croats had accepted the Štokavian/-ije dialect as their own language instead of the Zagreb Kajkavian, choosing a unifying factor over a divisive one, while the Macedonists favored the opposite (Katardzhiev 1986, 381-382 in S. Sfetas 2009, 281-297). The fact was that the Croats had adopted the Slavonian Ijekavian, a sub-dialect of the Što dialect of the Serbo-Croatian language as their literary language giving up the “Kaj proper” dialect, which is spoken in the areas between Zagreb and Hungary. Croats living in South Slovenia and western Croatia speak the south Slovenian Kaj whereas the Dalmatian Ikavian is spoken in Dalmatia, northwestern Herzegovina, and central Bosnia. The Ča dialects (Ča – jekav, Ča – ikav, Ča - ikavo-ekavian, Ča – ekav, Što - Čakavian – Ikavian) are spoken in Istria and the islands of the Adriatic Sea.
 
The National Question according to Kardelj
 
The USSR, the People’s Republic of China, and the SFRJ were the only countries that established communist rule without external assistance. The emergence of Kardelj as the innovator and proponent of Marxist theory blended with the issues that emerged during the Paris Commune shaped the fourth Yugoslavia. Kardelj and his cohorts started experimenting the “constitutive concept,” which regulated six constitutive nations (interpreted in the Marxist sense) inhabited by five constitutive narodi or peoples and as of 1968, by six narodi. In the constitutive concept, one considers reality, as is, a de facto situation, whereas in the regulatory concept one takes the reality as a guide for research the matter further.

The Federative People’s Republic of Yugoslavia (FNRJ) (later the Socialist Federative Republic of Yugoslavia (SFRJ)) aka AVNOJ Yugoslavia was neither a federal nor a confederal state. It was a federative state with federal “units” forming a federative association. The word “federative,” in the parlance of AVNOJ Yugoslavia, meant a political status, which was looser than a confederation, but simultaneously united as a unitary nation-state. It means that in the same concept, each of the “units” or republics were considered independent nation-states voluntarily joined for the benefit of the people of the South Slavic commonwealth. It was something like the suggestion found in the first two verses of the Soviet national anthem but with a switch. [iii] 

The difference was that the Soviet Union was created around Russia, whereas Yugoslavia had nothing genuinely centralized. The borders of each federal “unit” were never demarcated, which created problems and the war in 1991, the year that the state had died out.
​
The boundaries of the federal units in federative Yugoslavia are not the boundaries of separation but the boundaries of a merger.”  However, what was a “federal unit”?  According to Tito, “a federal unit is not a braid of small states; the federation is more of an administrative character, a character of free cultural and economic development (Filipovic, 1977).

Indeed the federal “units”, i.e., republics were quite independent of each other and quite autonomous the greatest autonomy enjoyed by the federal republic of “Macedonia”, with their ministries save the defense to a point, monetary system, and foreign affairs, which belonged to the federative government.  The framers had conceived Yugoslavia as a union of free, independent, and autonomous states having as their common goal the happiness of the Yugoslav people as they cooperated for the common good. 

Under the Constitution of 1974, the Yugoslav federative state was a
​
state union of voluntarily united peoples and their socialist republics as well as the socialist autonomous provinces of Vojvodina and Kosovo which are within the Socialist Republic of Serbia, based on the authority and self-management of the working class and all working people and the socialist self-management democratic union of working people and citizens and equal peoples and ethnic groups.

As a soldier serving in the Greek Army at Polykastron, Kilkis, I often listened to radio stations in Yugoslavia. They were all public stations. Each radio station played the anthem of its choice to close the program of the day. Radio Belgrade played the national anthem “Hej Slaveni, Radio Skopje used “Denes nad Makedonija” and Radio Sarajevo preferred “L’ Internationale.”
  
The matter went downhill with a barrage of amendments that to the Constitution of 1963 unconsciously aiming at the disintegration of the federative republic.  All these amendments were included in the Constitution of 1974.

The Constitution of February 21, 1974, among other things, included all the amendments which were accumulated during the period after the Constitution of April 7, 1963, while it introduced the consent of all republics and provinces in policymaking, including the decision to amend the Constitution. The latter defined the self-management interest of the communities comprehensively, but with a slight twist although closer to the communism as the Paris Commune had implemented. The Constitution emphasized and articulated the protection of self-management rights and government property as if it belonged to the Society. The new version of the Constitution introduced the position of the social defender of self-management and social property.

On April 22, 1977, a legal provision was added making the National Anthem “Hej Sloveni" ("Hey, Slavs") the official anthem of the Republic as well as the Coat-of-Arms, Flag.  The Yugoslav state got its anthem only towards the end of its existence.

As if the above changes were not enough, the reform of the Yugoslav state continued with Amendments I-VIII which were adopted on July 3, 1981, contain the principles on collective labor and some administrative issues. These amendments were followed by Amendments IX-XLVIII, which were adopted on November 25, 1988, expanding the basis for the single Yugoslav market changing some rights of the loose Confederation.

Added to that, the modifications in the 1974 Constitution treated the two autonomous territories of Vojvodina and Kosovo as equal to the six units. Thus the loose confederation found itself with eight “units” and nine Presidents of equal value since an additional post in the collective presidency was created to accommodate the “Yugoslavs,” an “ethnicity” for anyone who for whatever reason did not want to belong to a specific national group. That was the arranged solution to the eternal national question of the Marxist state. The government in Belgrade did not have real powers, and that was obvious during the meeting of the nine heads of the “units” whom to be elected the position of the head of state had to receive the minimal support of the majority, i.e., five votes. That regardless whose turn for the post it was. That brought the end of Yugoslavia in May 1991.

The passports of AVNOJ Yugoslavia did not include any statement of nationality since the word nationality within Yugoslavia had a different connotation from the one used in international law. Internationally “nationality” is a loose term of citizenship. In AVNOJ, Yugoslavia meant, a group of people belonging to a constitutive federal unit. 

Kardelj established the institution of “Public Defense and Social Self-defense” (Opštenarodna odbrana i društvena samozaštita) as Yugoslavia evolved.  It empowered the federal republics to have an Army of their own.  Thus, each republic had a government with standing reserve troops ready to defend their own territory.  However, if one adds to the aforementioned the right of the federal republics to self-determination including the right to secede as restrictive the implementation of the right as it was, it created the basis for the disintegration of the federative state even if that meant war between the federal republics. 

Without getting into ideological details of AVNOJ Yugoslavia, the founders proved to be excellent idealists, but politically naïve and inexperienced. They created the impasse that pushed AVNOJ Yugoslavia to its extinction. The AVNOJ leadership experimented the validity of the Marxist theory as they understood it, and while they unraveled the theory, they kept modifying concepts without considering clashes produced by such modifications with already existing public policies.
 
Conclusion
 
It would be naïve for one to believe that the ideological naiveté that led to the political implosion of Yugoslavia was the only factor leading to the dismemberment of the country. Other internal and external factors also contributed to the withering away of the state. However, the loss of the political cohesion was the fundamental issue. All this time the USSR was sawing the Yugoslav state by supporting various extremist groups of the Yugoslav “units” abroad. An adage states, “Be careful when you are digging a grave for someone else. You just might be digging it for yourself”. The USSR found out about it.

AVNOJ Yugoslavia collapsed because of the manner the state was put together, the theory of Engels and let evolve accordingly.

Thereafter, the disintegration of SFRJ was not a matter of supposition, but a matter of time. Yugoslavia does not exist anymore because the “union” was imposed from above. On the other hand those states the people of which were mostly homogenous populations or they are truly formed out of the will of the people last. 

​“The state is not ‘abolished’. It dies out”.

______________________________________

​[i] Marx and Engels generally used the word "nation" in its English and French meaning to designate the permanent population of a nation-state. The term "nationality," however, was used in its Central and Eastern European denotation, to designate an ethno-cultural community that had not achieved full national status because it lacked a state of its own (Rosdolsky, 1965, 337).

In Marx' and Engels' works, "nationalities" will either become "nations" by acquiring a state of their own (Poland, Ireland), or alternatively they are said to be "historyless peoples" (Geschichtslosen Völker), national communities that lack "historical vitality" because of their inability to consolidate a national state. For Marx and Engels, these "non-historical nationalities" are intrinsically reactionary because of their inability to adapt to the capitalist mode of production. This is because their survival is only guaranteed in the old order; so, by necessity, they have to be regressive to avoid extinction.

Consequently, modern nations are for Marx and Engels what we today call "nation states": ethno-cultural and linguistic communities with their own state. Nationalities are ethno-cultural and linguistic groups not developed into full nations because they lack their own state. This model of national formation is greatly inspired by the historical development of the French and, to a lesser extent, the British case, which by nature of being "the most advanced nations" must serve as a model for "less developed" national communities (Nimni, fall 1989).

[ii] AVNOJ is the Serbo-Croatian acronym for Antifašističko veće narodnog oslobođenja Jugoslavije or Anti-Fascist Council for the National Liberation of Yugoslavia. It was the political umbrella organization of resistance against the Axis, established in Bihać on November 26, 1942.

[iii]  Due to historical reasons, Russia aka Русь (Rouss) acquired several names always keeping the name Русь or Rus’.  The final “s” being soft. Such names are: Beликая Русь, Малая Русь, Белая Русь, Красная Русь / Червоная Русь, Чёрная Русь, Новая Русь. Grammatically speaking the adjective preceding Русь is feminine nominative singular. That makes the noun Русь feminine, as well.  http://www.aif.ru/dontknows/eternal/1156456
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