Sir,

Regarding ‘Macedonia name dispute inspires exotic idea‘:

It is not true that “Macedonia is recognised as the country’s constitutional name by all EU countries except Greece”.

In addition, it states that “most Europeans find the Greek position puzzling or irrational”. It is impossible to know exactly what most Europeans think. No-one can read minds.

I would like to draw attention to past violent conflicts over this exact issue.

1. “The Department would appreciate any information pertinent to this subject which may come to your attention. Department of State”. (U.S State Department Foreign Relations Vol. VIII Washington D.C. Circular Airgram – 868.014/26 Dec. 1944) http:// tinyurl.com

2. “And whether bulgarian consciousness exists in Macedonia, this is a historical legacy. We’re now writing our history. We can’t write that until 1940 we were Bulgarians and after 1940 Macedonians.”

3. http://www.life.com/image/50774476; http://www.life.com/image/50774469; http://www.life.com/image/50774470.

4. Krste Crvenkovski (president of the Central Committee of the Union of Communists in the Socialist Republic of Macedonia) to Todor Zhivkov (First Secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Bulgaria) – May 19, 1967. http://tinyurl.com/y2n846j

5. Many prominent IMRO members aligned with the Axis for the sake of “united Macedonia”. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ivan_Mihail…
 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ohrana

 http://nationalpride.files.wordpress.com…

6. FYROM nationalists used to freely self-identify as ethnic Bulgarians a century ago.

FYROM national hero Krste Misirkov said: “We are Bulgarians, more Bulgarians than the Bulgarians in Bulgaria themselves [...] And, anyway, what sort of new Macedonian nation can this be when we and our fathers and grandfathers and great-grandfathers have always been called Bulgarians?”
 http://www.misirkov.org/kpm_zmr_eng.htm

7. “The creation of the ‘Macedonian’ nation, for almost half of a century, was done in a condition of single-party dictatorship. In those times, there was no difference between science and ideology, so the ‘Macedonian’ historiography, unopposed by anybody, comfortably performed a selection of the historic material from which the ‘Macedonian’ identity was created. There is nothing atypical here for the process of the creation of any modern nation, except when falsification from the type of substitution of the word ‘Bulgarian’ with the word ‘Macedonian’ were made.”
(Denko Maleski, Minister of Foreign Affairs of FYROM from 1991 to 1993 in an interview to FYROM newspaper Utrinski Vesnik; 16 October, 2006)

8. 19th century census data from the region.
 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Demographic…

9. Conflicting ethnic narratives of FYROM politicians (today they portray themselves as direct descendants, thus implying that ‘Macedonia Greece’ is occupied. Ten years ago they claimed the opposite).

10. ‘We do not claim to be descendants of Alexander the Great’ (FYROM Ambassador Ljubica Acevshka in speech to US representatives in Washington on 22 January, 1999).

11. ‘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’ (FYROM Ambassador to Canada Gyordan Veselinov in an interview with Ottawa Citizen newspaper, 24 February 1999).

12. “We are Slavs who came to this area in the sixth century [...] We are not descendants of the ancient Macedonians” (Kiro Gligorov, FYROM’s first president, to Foreign Information Service Daily Report, Eastern Europe, 26 February 1992).

13. The ancient and modern region of Macedonia are not the same. FYROM is situated primarily in ancient Paoenia.
 http://macedonia-evidence.org/obama-lett…

14. What about the identity rights of Macedonians in Greece? What if FYROM nationalists claim to be “ethnic Athenians” next? Do Greeks have no identity rights?
 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Greek_Maced…

15. What about the countless “united Macedonia” references being spread by FYROM nationalists?

Demitri

Private citizen