Why the Macedonians are not "Slavs"?
Macedonia's former president Kiro Gligorov
in the Toronto Star on March 15, 1992 said: "We are Macedonians but we
are Slav Macedonians. That's who we are! We have no connection to
Alexander the Greek and his Macedonia. The ancient Macedonians no longer
exist, they had disappeared from history long time ago. Our ancestors
came here in the 5th and 6th century (AD)."
In an interview with the Ottawa Citizen,
Gyordan Veselinov, Macedonia's Ambassador to Canada said: "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" and that "there is some confusion about the
identity of the people of this country."
As unbelievable as it may seem, these
Macedonian politicians are actually wrong on this issue. Here are the
major reasons why today's Macedonians are not "Slavs" or "Slav
Macedonians" but direct descendents of the ancient Macedonians:
1. First, Gligorov and Veselinov are not historians, but politicians. History
should not be written by politicians but should be left to the
historians.
2. The Macedonian historians do not support the claim that
today's Macedonians are "Slavs" who came in the 6th century. The latest
book "THE
DESCENDANTS OF ALEXANDER THE GREAT OF MACEDON - The arguments and
evidence that today's Macedonians are descendants of the ancient
Macedonians", puts an end to the "Slav" claim.
3. This "Slav" claim was an old communistic propaganda influenced by Russia
and Yugoslavia during the period while Macedonia was part of communist
Yugoslavia (1945-1991) and both Gligorov and Veselinov were taught this
line of the then official history, which was dictated by Slav Russia and
Slav Serbia
(Yugoslavia). However, this "political history" is now
outdated.
4. The roots of the Macedonians are in ancient Macedonia in Europe since
8th century BC, not in Ukraine.
This is the reason why they do not call themselves
"Slavs", but have
continuously called themselves Macedonians for centuries,
ever since that 8th century BC to today.
5. Historical
evidence (unknown to Gligorov and Veselinov of the communist school)
shows that
the
Macedonians
have called themselves "Macedonians" in every century since
Alexander, both before and after the coming of the Slavs in
Macedonia in the 6th century.
It is the Slavs that were assimilated into the Macedonians, not
wise-versa, and the Macedonians continued to call themselves to this
day what
they are - Macedonians.
6. And most convincing of all is
the fact that a
genetic research had proven that the Macedonians are not Slavs
but are direct descendants of the ancient Macedonians.
7. The Macedonians in
the Republic of Macedonia, and the Macedonian minorities in Greece,
Bulgaria, and Albania, continue to proudly call themselves
"Macedonians" and
consider the "Slav" label an insult and racial slur.
The western press was literary bombarded by mails, faxes, and emails
from outraged Macedonians who despised being called "Slavs" during
the Albanian aggression on Macedonia in 2001 and always voice their
discontent when anyone tries to re-label them into anything else but
what they are.
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