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The Little Book of BIG Greek Lies

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The Little Book of BIG Greek Lies The Little Book Of BIG Greek Lies By Risto Stefov The Little Book Of BIG Greek Lies Published by: Risto Stefov Publications Toronto, Canada All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording or by any information storage and retrieval system without written consent from the author, except for the inclusion of brief and documented quotations in a review. Copyright 2007 by Risto Stefov e-book edition 2 Index Index...................................................................................................3 PREFACE ..........................................................................................4 Introduction........................................................................................5 BIG Greek Lie # 1 - “Modern Greeks are direct descendents of the Ancient Greeks”.................................................................................6 BIG Greek Lie # 2 - “The Koine Language is Greek”.......................9 BIG Greek Lie # 3 - “The Ancient ‘Greek gods’ were Greek” .......12 BIG Greek Lie # 4 - “There is no such thing as a Macedonian” .....16 BIG Greek Lie # 5 - “Greece is an ethnically homogeneous nation” ..........................................................................................................19 BIG Greek Lie # 6 - “Greeks are a superior race” ...........................22 BIG Greek Lie # 7 - “Greece is a Democratic State” ......................24 BIG Greek Lie # 8 - “Tito created the Macedonian Nation” ...........27 BIG Greek Lie # 9 - “Macedonia is Greek”.....................................29 BIG Greek Lie # 10 - “Greeks claim no Macedonians, Turks, Albanians or Vlachs live in Greece today”......................................32 BIG Greek Lie # 11 - “Macedonian Monks Kiril and Metodi are Greek” ..............................................................................................36 BIG Greek Lie # 12 - “Greek-Macedonians” ..................................42 BIG Greek Lie # 13 - “No Macedonians Exist in Macedonia” .......45 BIG Greek Lie # 14 - “Macedonians are Slavs”..............................48 BIG Greek Lie # 15 - “Greeks are Hellenes”...................................54 BIG Greek Lie # 16 - “The Macedonian Language does not exist” 57 BIG Greek Lie # 17 - “The Ancient Macedonians were Greek” .....61 BIG Greek Lie # 18 - “Philip II United the Greeks”........................67 BIG Greek Lie # 19 - “4,000 years of Greek Civilization” .............70 BIG Greek Lie # 20 - “Macedonia was liberated in 1912, 1913”....77 Conclusion .......................................................................................82 A Macedonian ..................................................................................83 DECLARATION .............................................................................86 NOTES.............................................................................................88 Bibliography.....................................................................................99 3 PREFACE There is no ethnic Macedonian originating from Greece today who doesn’t know what “Greece” and “Hellenism” means to the Macedonian people. Macedonians know exactly how Greece was created and how Greeks were made out of Macedonians. One must look no further than their own village or family to see the process of “Hellenization” at work. Back in Greece I grew up with children whose relatives were Macedonians, today these same children as grown adults swear they are Greeks related to the “ancient Greeks”. Macedonians know exactly how Greece and Greeks were created and have no problem with that. The problem is while “Greeks” are created out of Macedonians, the Macedonians themselves are being robbed of their heritage and identity. The Greeks see no problem with Macedonians volunteering or being forced to accept an artificially imposed identity but will not accept the fact that Macedonians exist. These are some of the conditions under which Macedonians have to live within Greece. The series of articles published on the website www.maknews.com called “From The Little Book of BIG Greek Lies” began as a joke. Inspired by Dedo Kire they were designed to bring humour to the tragic Macedonian condition. Thank you Dedo Kire for the idea, your input and support. The real surprise however, was the vast amount of attention the articles received, not just from Macedonians, but also from Greeks who saw the articles not as humourous but as “a horrible thing to do” not because they were not true but because they were “airing Greek dirty laundry” in public. This series of articles has generated more feedback than all my articles put together. I received e-mails with criticisms that ranged from me being called “a dirty liar” to being threatened with bodily harm. 4 Introduction Our apologies to the Greek people if they find this book offensive. Our objective here is NOT to create tension between the Macedonian and Greek people but rather to highlight the problem that exists within the Greek State and its institutions. As long as the Greek State denies our existence as Macedonians with rights and privileges, we will continue to publish these kind of books. To those numerous Greeks who wrote me to ask “Why are you doing this?” referring to why I wrote the series of articles “BIG Greek Lies”, I say this: For nearly a century we Macedonians have reasoned with you Greeks, defending our Macedonian identity and pleading our case to your governments to level the playing field for Macedonians in Greece without success. We asked that you “Recognize the Macedonian identity in Greece!” Give the Macedonians rights to be Macedonians and to speak their Macedonian mother tongue! And all we received from you is “There is no such thing as Macedonians!” You try to explain our existence by calling us “Paleo-Vulgary” (ancient-Bulgars), “Slavs”, “Skopjans”, “Fyromians”, “Gypsies”, “Tito’s creation”, etc, etc. In other words, every time Macedonians ask for their rights, Greece is quick to deny them, insisting that Macedonians don’t exist and treating Macedonians as second class citizens without even the least basic of human rights. So, the real question is “Why are YOU doing this?” The “Little Book of BIG Greek Lies” is an eye opener for the readers who don’t know much about the life of minorities inside Greece and the real identity of the living Greeks of today. The twenty “BIG Greek Lies” presented here reveal the “Greek Hypocrisy” and the Greek attitude towards its indigenous people and its minorities. To my Greeks opponents I say this: “You had it your way for nearly a century with plenty of opportunity to make things right. Now it’s time for you to reflect on your 19th century creation and see what it has done, not only to the Macedonians but also to all the other cultures it has destroyed in the name of ‘Hellenism’”. Let the airing of Greek dirty laundry begin! 5 BIG Greek Lie # 1 - “Modern Greeks are direct descendents of the Ancient Greeks” (The greatest victims of Greek lies are the Greeks themselves) How can a region in the Balkans where modern Greece is located today, which has been open to a multitude of invasions, conquests and settlements, remain homogeneous and untouched for two thousand seven hundred years? Ironically, as the Greeks claim, how can modern Macedonia, a region neighbouring modern Greece be so heterogeneous that it has completely lost its original identity? These are questions that every Greek should be asking! Ever since Philip II of Macedonia conquered the ancient City States at the conclusion of the battle of Chaeronea in 338 BC, the region south of Olympus has been without borders and open to all kinds of invasions and barbarian settlements. How can one call a people of 2,300 years ago “Ancient Greeks” since the word “Greek” was not coined until after the Roman conquests, approximately 600 years after the establishment of the City States and approximately 150 years after they were conquered by the Macedonians? If you were to say “the ancient Canadians living on their lands 2,000 years ago” you would be ridiculed and told “there were no ancient Canadians” and the people to whom you are referring who had once lived on the lands of present Canada had nothing to do with the Canadians of today! Yet, everyday you hear the word “ancient Greeks” and you don’t bat an eye! Why is that? It is also well known that the ancient City States were never united politically and never established themselves as a single state. In fact they existed politically independent from one another and fought each other for economic dominance of the region. The name “Greece” was imposed on the modern Greek Kingdom by the Great Powers Britain, France and Russia. Modern Greeks call themselves Hellenes (Ellines) and their state Hellas (Ellas), a name borrowed from the past which neither describes the elements of a nation or those of an ethnicity. By using the name “Greek” to refer to both the ancient and modern people, the Greek state falsely implies descent for the modern Greeks from the ancients. By using the name “Greece” to refer to both the ancient and modern states, the Greek State is falsely implying; 6 (1) continuity between the ancient City States and modern Greece, and (2) that there was some sort of political unity between the ancient City States themselves where one did not exist. In reality the words “Greece” and “Greek” were popularized by modern 19th century writers. There
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