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TOP 20 BIG GAYREEK LIES FROM HELLASS
BIG Greek Lie # 1
"Modern Greeks are direct descendents of the Ancient Greeks"
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.
THE BIG GREEK LIE: "Modern Greeks are direct descendents of the ancient Greeks"
There were no "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.
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).
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;
(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 are no ancient maps or references with the words "Greece".
The Romans may have made some references to the ancient people living in Sicily as "Grecos" but they referred to the region south of Olympus as Achaia.
During the Ottoman era the people living south of Olympus called themselves Romeos (Romans).
Greece is a newly created state which never existed before the 19th century. The Kingdom of Greece, occupying the region of Morea, present day Peloponnesus, was created for the first time in 1829. Between 1829 and 1912 the Greeks enlarged their territory to present day Greece, by conquering Epirus, Thessaly and 51% of Macedonia.
At its inception Greece stated out with a small population of less than one million people, most of whom were Albanians, Slavs and Vlahs with a small minority of other ethnicities. By the time Greece conquered Epirus and Thessaly, its population grew to three times its original size. In 1907 it registered a population of 2,600,000. After it conquered Macedonia and exchanged populations with Turkey, its population tripled. In 1928 Greece registered 6,200,000 people. 1,100,000 of them were Christians, refugees from Asia Minor.
After the Treaty of Lausanne in July 1923, and after the population exchanges with Turkey, Greece declared itself homogenous consisting of 100% pure Greeks with a very small Muslim but ethnically Greek population.
It is estimated that after Macedonia was conquered, occupied and had some of its population evicted, more than one million Macedonians still remained and were included among the Greeks.
According to Greece however, there were no non-Greeks left in Macedonia after its population exchanges. Also, according to Greece, the ancient Macedonians were extinct, killed off by the Slavs around the 6th century AD during the so-called Slav invasions.
So the question that begs to be asked here is, "What nationality were these million or so people who remained in Macedonia and became part of Greece?" Many Greeks would argue that they were Bulgarians!
If that were the case, then how can the modern Greeks claim purity and homogeneity if at least 16% of its population in 1928 was non-Greek? What about its Vlah, Slav, Albanian and Turkish elements? Clearly they are not Greeks, let alone being direct descendents of the ancient Greeks?
Even this small argument shows that there is something "fishy" about these Greek claims.
For over a century and a half Greek State institutions, organizations and individuals have been making unproven and unfounded allegations that the modern Greeks are direct descendents of the ancients. To this day they have shown no evidence to prove their claims. In fact the opposite is true. There is ample evidence that proves that this particular modern Greek claim is an outright BIG Greek lie.
This exact issue was tackled by Historian John Shea in chapter 4 of The Great Ethnic Mix of Greece, pages 77 to 96, in his book "Macedonia and Greece, The Struggle to Define a New Balkan Nation". Among other things, John Shea proves that even the ancient people were not homogeneous.
"It has been estimated that in classical times the number of slaves in Attica was roughly equal to the number of free inhabitants, or around 100,000. In Sparta there was an even greater proportion of slaves, and most of them, the helots, were Messenians. While the slaves of Athens were a wide racial mix and therefore less likely to unite on the basis of a common language, these Messenian helots of Sparta all spoke Greek, and had a kind of group self-consciousness. Thus they presented 'special problems of security for their Spartan masters, whose numbers were constantly on the decline.' Changes in the ethnic composition of Greek city-states are illustrated by the comments about the case of Piso. Piso, who had been the recipient of an unhelpful decision by a vote of the Athenian city assembly, 'made a violent speech in which he said that the latter-day Athenians had no right to identify themselves with the great Athenians of the days of Pericles, Demosthenes, Aeschylus, and Plato. The ancient Athenians had been extirpated by repeated wars and massacres and these were mere mongrels, degenerates, and the descendants of slaves. He said that any Roman who flattered them as if they were the legitimate heirs of those ancient heroes was lowering the dignity of the Roman name.' Such historical ideas make it clear that even two thousand years ago the notion of ethnic purity amongst the Greeks was difficult to sustain. The ethnic mix continued over the next two thousand years. As Nicol has observed, 'The ancient Greeks were, after all, of very mixed ancestry; and there can be no doubt that the Byzantine Greeks, both before and after the Slav occupation, were even more heterogenous'." (Pages 83 and 84, John Shea, Macedonia and Greece, The Struggle to Define a New Balkan Nation)
And there you have it!
THE TRUTH: The modern Greeks are not only NOT direct descendents of the ancients, but their Greekness is a myth, a modern 19th century creation.
BIG Greek Lie # 2
"The Koine Language is Greek"
In BIG Greek lie # 1 we showed that there were no "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.
In a similar manner we will show that the Koine language was not exclusively Greek as Greece would have us believe.
The Koine language made its way into Macedonia a little before Philip II's time. Poorly worded and misspelled inscriptions written in Koine were found in the Macedonian capital which indicates that the language was not well understood and was just making its way there.
The roots of the Koine language may have started in one of the more progressive City States, most probably Athens, but by the time it made its way to the Eastern Mediterranean, it had become the language of administration and commerce, common to all Mediterranean nations.
In Macedonia, Koine was strictly the language of the educated and was used by the court administrators and the international merchants.
By the time Koine arrived in Macedonia it was already the "lingua franca" of administration and commerce in the Eastern Mediterranean world.
Koine in those days was like English is today. In Europe for example, counties have their own languages which they use to communicate at home, but internationally they use English to communicate with other countries.
Alexander the Great was the first to take Koine out of the Mediterranean world to Asia, Africa and other worlds he conquered.
The real heroes for Koine's success were Alexander's successors the Antigonids, Selucuseds and the Ptolemies. It is well known that the Ptolemies did not only insist on using Koine but they refused to learn any other language including those of the people they ruled.
Cleopatra VII was the only Macedonian sovereign from the Ptolemaic dynasty who broke the Ptolemaic rule and learned several languages including Egyptian.
The Koine language was so deeply rooted in the old Macedonian empires that even after they were conquered by the Romans it continued to flourish. Koine was spoken by Roman intellectual even in Rome. Almost all ancient literary works were written in Koine
Let's not forget that throughout the Macedonian and Roman periods Koine, in spite of its popularity with the educated and elite, it remained a language of Administration and commerce. Koine was never a language of the common people.
While Koine served its purpose in the administrative and commercial circles, other languages, languages of the people, simultaneously also flourished in parallel but in their oral form until they were later codified by Christianity.
After the Roman empire split into East and West, Koine again resurfaced and replaced Latin as the administrative language of the Eastern or Pravoslav empire.
Koine remained active and served the administration and commerce of the Pravoslav world for over a millennium.
Interestingly, Koine also became the administrative and commercial language of the Ottoman Empire and continued to exist in a commercial and administrative capacity during Ottoman rule as it did during Pravoslav rule. .
By Islamic law, Muslims were not allowed to travel outside of their domain, handle public funds or speak foreign languages. The Ottomans employed Christians to administer foreign affairs, banking and trade with the outside world. And yes you guest it, the Christians continued to employ the Koine language throughout Ottoman rule as they did during Pravoslav rule..
The keepers of the Ottoman administrative and commercial services as well as the rulers of the Christian world inside the Ottoman empire were known as the Phanariots.
The Phanariots were the Christian educated and professionals middle class or the bourgeoisie of the Ottoman world. They were people from various nationalities from every corner of the Eastern world. They were the clerics, the translators (dragoman), the merchants and the captains of ships and of industry and they all spoke Koine. They were called Phanariots because they lived in a district of Tsari Grad (Constantinople or Istanbul) known as the Phanar.
In the 19th century, during the Ottoman decline, the Phanariots were much in favour of toppling the Ottoman administration. The idea was to overthrow the Ottoman Sultan and his Muslim rule and replace it with Christian rule. Unfortunately, the Great Powers did not favour the idea and it failed. After that, the Phanariots worked closely with the Great Powers to establish the Greek Kingdom.
Even though the people of the newly established Greek Kingdom were of many different ethnicities including Albanians, Vlahs, Slavs, Turks, etc, each with a unique language and culture, the Great Powers instilled upon them the idea that they were the descendents of the ancient people who lived in that region over two millenniums ago.
After nearly a decade of contemplation as to which language to use, Greek authorities finally decided to adopt the Koine language as the liturary language of their new nation. They disregarded all vibrant and living peoples' languages in favour of the ancient administrative and commercial Koine.
Unfortunately, after two millennium of evolution, the modern version of Koine contained many foreign elements and proved distasteful to the Greek purists who wanted a pure language which was close to those of the ancient City States.
After nearly a century of using Koine, the purists finally got their chance to replace it. Their new choice was an old dead Attic language used by the ancient Athenians 2,500 years ago. The Greeks called their new language the Catharevoussa for its linguistic purity.
Unfortunately, this language had been dead for two thousand years and the Greek literary world which was used to the bastardized impure Koine, found it very difficult to understand and impossible to express emotion. Its use was finally terminated in the 1970's in favour of the bastardized Koine (Dimotiki).
For those Greeks who insist that all ancient Greeks spoke a dialect of the same language, here are some simple and common everyday words in English, Ancient Attic and Modern Koine;
English Catharevoussa
(Ancient Attic) Dimotiki (Koine)
Horse
Ipos
Alogo
Donkey
Onos
Gaidaros
Hen
Ornitha
Kota
Goat
Ega
Gida (Katsika)
Kid (baby goat)
Erifi
Katsiki
Bread
Artos
Psomi
THE TRUTH: The Koine language belongs to all the Eastern Mediterranean people and not just modern Greece.
Modern Greece took the Koine language, which by right belongs to all the Eastern Mediterranean people, for itself and now calls it Greek.
Just because Greece adopted Koine as the literary language for its modern nation, it does not make it exclusively Greek. Koine evolved as the language of administration and commerce in the entire Eastern Mediterranean and as such belongs to all the people in the Eastern Mediterranean world.
If anyone should claim credit for Koine's effectiveness and long survival it should be the ancient Macedonians who insisted on using it for centuries.
BIG Greek Lie # 3
The Ancient Greek gods were Greek
(Modern Greeks believe that those who spoke Greek
and believed in the Greek gods were actually Greek)
In this article we will show you that the so called Greek gods were not really Greek at all.
We often read in books, see movies and hear stories about the so called mythical Greek gods but have we ever stopped to think what makes these deities Greek? Are they Greek because they originated where modern Greece is today? Are they Greek in a national sense? Are they Greek because the Ancients that lived in the region where modern Greece is today wrote about them? How are they Greek?
The word Greek before the word gods implies that there is a relationship between Greek and gods which means that in some way these gods belong to Greece or the Greeks. Since these gods are not associated with other Mediterranean people such as the Macedonians, Paeonians, Illyrians, Thracians, Phrygians, Lydians, Carians, Lycians, Paphlagonians, Cappadocians, Cilicians, Picidians, Pamphylians and others, in a similar manner, who also celebrated and believed in them, then one is led to believe that these gods must be exclusively connected to Greece and the Greeks
The question is how?
Among several sources we consulted, Microsofts Encarta encyclopedia under the heading Greek Mythology had an explanation but this explanation did not enforce the idea that the so called Greek gods were actually Greek.
According to Encarta, mythology in written form appeared for the first time in the literary works of Hesiod and Homer around the eighth century BC. Homer, as we know, produced the famous works the Iliad and Odyssey and Hesiod produced the poems Theogony. Both authors in their respective works talk about the various tales and legends associated with ancient deities. Hesiod, however, according to Encarta, takes a step further and introduces a larger number of myths that include deities that are not mentioned by Homer. Hesiod, in Theogony, who talks about the creation of the world, the birth of the gods as well as their adventures, NEVER ONCE mentions Greek or any other name derived from this word!
Similarly, Homer in his works the Iliad and the Odyssey, considered to be reliable sources for the so called Greek Mythology and the Greek gods, NEVER ONCE mentions the word Greek or any other name derived from this word!
So again, how are these so called Greek gods Greek? Perhaps the authors who wrote about them were from the region where modern Greece is today?
According to Carlos Parada, an internationally recognized researcher and expert on mythology, the following authors have contributed to the so called Greek mythology;
Author %
Contribution Lived in
/ Ethnicity Year Apolodorus 19 Alexandria
/ Unknown * 2nd Cent. AD Paucsanias 12 Lydia
/ Lydian Hyginus 12 Rome
/ Unknown (Spanish?) 1st Cent. AD Homer 8 Asia Minor?
/ Unknown 8 Cent. BC? Ovid 6 Rome
/ Roman 43BC-17AD Nonnus 5 Egypt
/ Egyptian 5th Cent. AD Hesiod 4.6 Boeotia
/ Boeotian ** 8th Cent. BC? Diodorus Siculus 4.4 Sicily
/ Sicilian 21 BC Virgil 4 Mantua Italy
/ Roman 70 and 19 BC Quintus Smynaeus 3.3 Statius 2.6 Rome
/ Roman 1st Cent. AD Antonius Liberalis 2 Rome
/ Roman Valerius Flaccus 2 Rome
/ Roman 1st Cent. AD Apollonius Rhodius 1.8 Alexandria
? Unknown 3rd Cent. BC Dionysius of Halicarnassus 1.5 Caria
/ Unknown 1st Cent. BC Euripides 1.5 Attica
/ Athenian ** 480 BC Plutarch 1.3 Boeotia
/ Boeotian ** 46 AD Herodotus 1 Caria
/ Carian 484-425 BC Pindarus (Pindar) 1 Thebes
/ Boeotian 518-438 BC Parhenius of Nicaea 1 Aeschylus 0.5 Aristophanes 0.4 Caimachus 0.4 Cicero 0.3
* Highest probability - Macedonian
** From Ancient City States south of Mount Olympus where Modern Greece is located today.
From the table above, we can see that the vast majority of works about the so-called Greek mythology and the Greek gods were in fact written by NON-GREEKS or by authors of unknown origin/ethnicity.
If the authors who wrote about them were not Greek then perhaps the legends of the so called Greek gods originated somewhere in the lands of modern Greece?
Unfortunately, that is not true either. According to Herodotus, many of the elements of the so called Greek myths associated with the Greek gods were borrowed from foreign religions, mainly from the Pelasgi who in turn borrowed them from the Egyptians. (There are some scientists today who believe the Pelasgi lived in the lower Balkans, including Macedonia and were the ancestors of the Slavs).
However, let as not just take Herodotuss word. Lets examine the mythological deities themselves starting with the supreme god Zeus.
According to the Grolier Encyclopedia, Zeus is a celestial deity of Indo-European origin symbolically associated with the sky. Poseidon, the elder brother of Zeus, is also a deity of Indo-European origin. Apollo, on the other hand, is an Asian deity from the Asian shaman cults, imported from Siberia.
The following is a list of deities and major mythical figures commonly referred to as Greek gods and Greek mythical figures who are believed to be of non-Greek origins;
:
Deity/Major Figure
Origin
Source
Rhigmus
Thracian
Carlos Parada
Diomedes
Thracian
Carlos Parada
Phineus
Thracian
Carlos Parada
Tereus
Thracian
Carlos Parada
Rhesus
Thracian
Carlos Parada
Alcon
Thracian
Carlos Parada
Memnon
Ethiopian
Carlos Parada
Alcyoneus
Ethiopian
Quintus Smyrnaeus
Alexipus
Ethiopian
Quintus Smyrnaeus
Clydon
Ethiopian
Quintus Smyrnaeus
Laomedon
Ethiopian
Quintus Smyrnaeus
Mmeneclus
Ethiopian
Quintus Smyrnaeus
Nychius
Ethiopian
Quintus Smyrnaeus
Thalius
Ethiopian
Quintus Smyrnaeus
Andromeda
Ethiopian
Carlos Parada
Cepheus
Phoenician
Carlos Parada
Europa
Phoenician
Carlos Parada
Pelops
Phrygian
Carlos Parada
Agenor
Egyptian
Carlos Parada
Belus
Egyptian
Carlos Parada
Midus
Phrygian
Carlos Parada
Opis
Phrygian
Carlos Parada
Aura
Phrygian
Carlos Parada
Proteus
Egyptian
Carlos Parada
Egeria
Italian
Ovid
Hora
Roman
Ovid
Janus
Roman
Carlos Parada
Juturna
Roman
Carlos Parada
Penates
Roman
Carlos Parada
Tantalus
Paphlagonia
Carlos Parada
Orchamus
Persia
Carlos Parada
Pyramus
Babylon
Carlos Parada
Thisbe
Babylon
Carlos Parada
Dido
Cartagenan
Carlos Parada
Nicea
Indian
Carlos Parada
Phoenix
Arabian
Carlos Parada
Hypnos
From the Black Sea region
Carlos Parada
Muses (9)
Macedonian
Carlos Parada
Dionysus
Macedonian (Brygian)
Grolier Encyclopedia
For details on the above, see Donski, pages 146 to 173, The Myth about the so-called Greek Mythology, in his book The Descendants of Alexander the Great of Macedon.
From the table above, we can see that a large number of deities and important mythical figures have purposely or unwittingly been misrepresented. Clearly they are not of Greek origins
And finally, perhaps the so called Greek gods were Greek because they were exclusively celebrated by the ancient people who lived south of Mount Olympus where modern Greece is today?
That too, I am afraid is not true. The mythical gods, referred to as the Greek gods, were common to most ancient Mediterranean nations and cultures. They were as much universal to the ancient world as Christ and Christianity is universal to our modern world.
THE TRUTH The Ancient Greek gods were not Greek at all! In fact, referring to them as Greek gods would be a myth in itself.
It is more appropriate, truthful and precise to call them Mediterranean gods than it is to call them Greek gods. After all, they were celebrated, revered and feared by many more nations and cultures north, east and west of Mount Olympus than they were south of Mount Olympus. And that is the truth.
Sources
Greek Mythology. Microsoft Encarta 98 Encyclopedia, USA, 1998.
Aleksandar Donski, The Descendants of Alexander the Great of Macedon, The Arguments and Evidence that Todays Macedonians are Descendants of the Ancient Macedonians. Shtip, 2004.
Carlos Parada, Geneological Guide to Greek Mythology. Philadelphia: Coronoet Books, 1993.
The Columbia Encyclopedia. Third Edition, New York: Columbia University Press, 1963.
Grolier Encyclopedia. Navato: Grolier Electronic Publishing Inc., 1995
BIG Greek Lie # 4
There is no such thing as a Macedonian
(Modern Greeks are conditioned
to believe that Macedonians do not exist
In this article we will show you that Macedonians do indeed exist, not only in the Republic of Macedonia but also in Greece, Bulgaria, Albania, Canada, Australia, the USA and in every remote corner of this planet.
This BIG Greek lie is my favourite because I can relate to it from personal experience. I am not referring to my experience in Greece, I am talking about my experience in Canada. One could not say they were Macedonian to a Greek inside Greece without severe consequences!
Being an immigrant teenager in Canada, and speaking English with an accent, I was often asked for my nationality, more often by Greeks. It seemed like there were no barriers to torment against Macedonians anywhere.
The conversation/interrogation which many Macedonians, especially those from Greece, will relate to usually went like this;
"Are you Greek?"
No I am not!
" What are you?"
Macedonian!
" What is that? There is no such thing!"
(They would not even say the word "Macedonian".)
After a few run-ins with the Greeks I began to develop anxiety about revealing my nationality.
Unlike you modern Greeks who were artificially created in the 19th century by Hellenizing and assimilating a variety of other ethnic groups; Vlahs, Albanians, Turks, Macedonians, Anatolian Turks and more recently Georgians, Russians, more Albanians and others, we the Macedonians are a real nationality and have been Macedonian since our great, great, great grandfathers can remember.
Unlike your modern Greek great grandparents who spoke anything but Greek, our great grandparents all spoke Macedonian.
Our language which we call Macedonian is a living vibrant language, a language we learned from our mothers unlike your language, the ancient dead Koine, which your government resurrected and taught you in school.
Before the Republic of Macedonia codified the modern Macedonian literary language, Macedonians all over geographical Macedonia spoke a variety of beautiful dialects. Macedonians living in Greece and Bulgaria, which those states refuse to recognize, still speak Macedonian in their original dialects.
Unlike the Greek language which is spoken by only about ten million Greeks, Macedonian is a Slavic language which belongs to a large family of languages spoken by about six-hundred million people throughout Eastern Europe. The fact that this language is so widespread shows that it has survived for many millennia and has been passed on orally from generation to generation.
Modern scholars and scientists believe that the Slavic language has its roots in prehistory. A number of ancient inscriptions deemed undecipherable have recently been successfully deciphered by linguists Vasil Iliov, Anthony Ambrozic, Sergei V. Rjabchikov and others, by using the Slavic languages which indicates that these languages have been around a lot longer than previously thought. Even Alexander the Great may have spoken Slavic. It is well known that Alexander spoke at least two languages. We know one was Koine and the other was a language indigenous to Macedonia labeled "unknown" by Greek historians.
Since no Macedonian or foreign archeologist has even been allowed to dig in Greek occupied Macedonia or examine any archeological findings unsupervised, we can't verify what other language Alexander the Great spoke.
Greek archeologists cannot be trusted to factually report findings, especially those findings that don't agree with the Greek Government's "politically correct policies".
If Greeks refuse to acknowledge the existence of "living and breathing Macedonians" what makes you think they would acknowledge the existence of artifacts that do not agree with their political ideology? Aren't they the same Greeks who destroyed every speck of Cyrillic (Macedonian) inscription from every single grave stone and church icon in Greek occupied Macedonia in order to erase everything that is Macedonian? Are they not the same Greeks who torched and burned every single Slavonic book and bible and banned the Macedonian language and made it illegal to speak?
The question that begs to be asked is NOT whether Macedonians exist or not but, "Why do Greeks deny the existence of Macedonians?"
I have often asked that question and to this day I have not been able to get an honest answer. I believe those Greeks who deny our existence genuinely don't know themselves why they do it. They have been conditioned from a very young age to believe that somehow Macedonians are a threat to their own existence.
I have often heard expressions like, "they will do anything to take our Macedonia away from us" but to this day, I don't know who "they" are. Sometimes "they" are the "Bulgars", other times "they" are the "Communists" and sometimes "they" are "the bad people" like myself.
I have repeatedly stated that I was born in Greece and am a Greek citizen of Macedonian descent and yet to this day no Greek has acknowledged that. They keep ignoring what I say and go back to calling me "Skopjan" and treating me as if I was born not in Greece but in a totally different country. (I use myself as an example here but my situation is identical to tens of thousands of Macedonians who were born in Greece after 1912, after Macedonia was occupied by Greece.)
Why is it so hard for Greeks to accept the fact that Macedonian live in Greece?
1. It is a well-known fact that Greece occupied about half of Macedonia's territory in 1912-1913. The other half was occupied by Serbia and Bulgaria.
2. It is a well-known fact that Macedonia was already fully populated by Macedonians when it was occupied.
3. It is also a well-known fact that Macedonians became Greeks by force.
Is it not possible then that some of those Macedonians who were forced into becoming Greeks actually don't want to be Greeks?
Well my Greek friends, there IS such a thing as a Macedonian. In fact there are many of us living throughout the entire planet. Our history goes back to about 1,000 BC when the word Macedonian was first coined. I can't say with certainty that we are direct descendants from those early Macedonians but I can say that there is a high probability that we are not only the descendants of those pre-historic Macedonians but also the descendents of all those who overran and conquered our Macedonia.
Before the nineteenth century, most Macedonians lived in geographical Macedonia. Nineteenth and twentieth century turbulence such as the breakup of the Ottoman Empire, a number of uprisings inside Macedonia, the two Balkan wars, the partition of Macedonia, WW I, WW II, the Greek Civil War and Greek, Bulgarian, Serbian and Albanian oppression, have all contributed to the displacement of many Macedonians. Many left their homeland and went wherever they were welcome. More recently displaced Macedonians as well as political refugees and willing immigrants have been concentrating in Canada, Australia, the USA and Europe where they endeavour to preserve their culture and make their revival.
Greeks can deny our existence as much as they like but that doesn't mean that we don't exist.
----------
Sources:
http://public.kubsu.ru/~usr02898/sl45.htm http://www.carantha.net/anthony_ambrozic.htm http://www.unet.com.mk/ancient-macedonians/lac_a.htm http://www.mymacedonia.net/aegean/hellenization.htm