Ιστορικές Αλήθειες ...

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Ως απάντηση σε ένα "άκομψο" άρθρο της Washington Post τον Μάρτιο 2001,
εστάλη η ακόλουθη επιστολή από τον Κο Αχιλλέα Παπαρσένο, απο το τοπικό
Γραφείο Τύπου της Ελληνικής Πρεσβείας.

Σας το παραθέτω γιατί περιλαμβάνει δύο σημαντικά ιστορικά στοιχεία σχετικά με όσα, σήμερα βιώνουμε. Την ημερομηνία εγκατάστασης ανθρώπων στα γειτονικά εδάφη και,
τον καταμερισμό των Μακεδονικών εδαφών ανάμεσα σε εμάς και τους γείτονες.

Έτσι, για να γνωρίζουμε γιατί μιλάμε και, πώς πρέπει να μιλάμε...

Φιλικά
Πάνος & α/α Αλέξανδρος (όχι ο Μέγας ... εντάξει...!).




TO: THE WASHINGTON POST
Letters to the Editor
REF: Alexander The Great's Macedonia

Saturday, March 31, 2001;


What on earth was your paper thinking when it connected Alexander the Great to FYROM, the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia ["What on Earth?," March 24]? Because of his enormous appeal, Alexander the Great was claimed by many as their own, but to imply that he was an ancestor of the present-day inhabitants of FYROM is baseless.

The Slavs who live there arrived in the 7th century AD, 1,000 years after the death of Alexander, who came from the northern Greek kingdom of Macedonia, the Greek word for "Land of the Tall."

Alexander was as Greek as the southern Greeks were, spreading the Greek language and civilization throughout his vast empire and leaving nothing but Greek footprints everywhere he went in his short life. Except for a narrow strip in the south, FYROM's territory has never been part of ancient Macedonia.
Further, this state never existed before 1945, when it was created by Marshal Tito as one of the constituent republics of communist Yugoslavia.

The name Macedonia, which our neighbor has adopted, denotes a wider geographic -- and not ethnic -- area, extending over Greece (51.5 percent), FYROM (38.5 percent) and Bulgaria (10 percent). During the Balkan Wars of 1912-13, Greece liberated its province of Macedonia from the Ottoman rulers and did not conquer foreign territory.

Why should we care about ancient history? Because a distortion of history is the tool of the irredentism and nationalism that we need to eliminate from the Balkans.

That is why Greece -- in talks with its neighbor and strategic partner FYROM under the auspices of the United Nations -- continues to seek a mutually acceptable name that will differentiate this new Balkan state from the northern Greek province of Macedonia, the birthplace of Alexander the Great.

Achilles Paparsenos
Press counselor at the Embassy of Greece.




ΥΓ: Προσωπικά σε ευχαριστώ Αχιλλέα ...


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