In his “War of Statistics

[slasa]

A response to an article which can be found on the below link:
http://www.macedonian-heritage.gr/do...hailidis98.pdf

In his “War of Statistics: Traditional recipes for the preparation of the Macedonian Salad”, Iakovos Michailidis falls well short of providing an objective and truthful analysis where it concerns the statistical data on the population of Greek-Occupied Macedonia prior to WWII. Facts are deliberately avoided or misrepresented, yet we amazingly find this article being a part of the author’s Ph.D “thesis” for submittal to the Aristotle University in Greece. To begin with, the title of the article speaks of a Macedonian “salad” (mixed populations), quite ironic one would think considering the fact that at every opportunity modern Greeks claim Macedonia to have been “Greek” and only “Greek” for the last 4,000 years till today, yet just over a 100 years ago it was a “salad”, how are these two opposites reconciled by the modern Greeks? They are not. Such paradoxes are merely ignored or written off as inaccurate when the piece doesn’t fit the artificial “Greek” puzzle. The bias is hard to miss in the author’s writing, for example, the rather humorous comment regarding the protection of minority rights in the new era being “probably less for humanitarian reasons than for diplomatic exigencies”, is a clear indicator of his unwillingness to acknowledge the very real human rights issues surrounding the minority question in modern Greece, where monitoring groups such as the NGO’s he seems to consider insignificant have made explicit reference of the suppression of ethnic feelings that don’t correspond with the modern “Greek” identity. The author attempts to pass off the Macedonians, or Slavic-speaking minority, in Greek-Occupied Macedonia as “Greek”, yet provides no hard facts on why these Slavic-speakers must have been “Greeks”, and the main point of the article seems to be with the intent of only creating more confusion rather than clarification. To be sure, statistics on the Macedonian population of southern Macedonia vary in not only the names of the people but in their numbers as well, this, however, is largely due to foreign influence and propaganda, emanating mainly from the neighbouring Balkan states. The main “evidence” used by modern “Greeks” is based on the number of adherents to the Patriarch Church, not on the local language of the Macedonian population. Wether unwittingly or not, the author admits that had language been the defining factor, the “Greeks” would obviously end up on the losing end, or as he so nicely worded it, “pushed to the corner”, therefore the majority of “Greeks” writing on the subject used the so-called, or perceived "national consciousness" of the Macedonian population in order to strengthen their argument. Although the author states “the term "Patriarchist" did not necessarily mean "of Greek consciousness" nor the term "Exarchist" always identify with the term "Bulgarian minded”, he also places the “evidence” of the “Greek view” in a contradiction by stating that the “Patriarchist Slav-speakers, i.e. Those who had remained firmly attached to the Ecumenical Patriarchate, were believed to have purely Greek sentiments and were accordingly classified as 'Greeks'”. So the Macedonians who were not with the Exarchate due to their dislike of the Bulgarians were automatically “believed” to have had “purely Greek” sentiments? The author is a victim of the same hypocrisy he speaks unfortunate of in his own article. Is an Irishman or a German who is a firm adherent to the Roman Catholic Church “really” a Latin-Italian? According to “Greek logic”, the answer would have to be yes, hence, we are essentially expected to believe that everybody, Macedonians, Greeks, Bulgarians, Albanians, Vlachs, were all “Hellenes” before the creation of the Exarchate Church. Completely unrealistic. Many “statistics” given by the Bulgarians and Greeks are based on church records, manipulated as they are, and not on the actual feelings of the people, who were seldom asked or considered when it came to drawing up statistics regarding their “national consciousness”. In the statistics, unless otherwise specified, one could be sure that the term “Greek” represented the Orthodox Patriarch, while the Slavic-speaking and Bulgarian-dominated Exarchate was viewed simply as a schism by many outsiders and insiders alike. The author also fails to make mention of others such as the Greek Ion Dragoumis who clearly states that the people of Macedonia who rejected both Greek and Bulgarian propaganda simply call themselves Macedonians. He also has no trouble in basing his studies on “Greek” scholars who claim the number of “Greeks” in Macedonia solely on the amount of Patriarch Church adherents. Being an adherent to a particular church in times when one of your own is not allowed to exist does not make you the same nationality as the church language nor its name, many attempts were made by Macedonians to establish their own church and this is well documented, unfortunately each time the enemies were too great in number. It must be asked, how, if one is not a Greek-speaker and does not identify with the culture pertaining to that language, could they be “Greeks” by national consciousness simply via church affiliation? Logic does not allow for the unrealistic notion that “Greek” consciousness in those times was simply being a member of the Patriarch Church, how would a Slavic-speaker ever believe he is an “ethnic Hellene” if he does not know a word of the Greek language? On the one hand we are led to believe that the Macedonian peasants had no affiliations yet on the other, to support the modern “Greek view” there are claims that they “felt Greek” regardless of the aforementioned. If we reverse the roles we could ask if a Greek-speaker can be non-Greek in “national consciousness”? This surely cannot be, when the tables are turned the absurdity of the notion “Slavic-speaking ethnic Greek” becomes much clearer. A modern Macedonian, a descendant of people who have the native Macedonian language and culture, can only be as Greek as he could be American, or Australian, or any other place they hold citizenship which falls within borders foreign to his ethnicity. Those of whom have been brainwashed or soldout, and consider themselves "pure Greeks", can only be seen in the same comedic light as a Macedonian from America or Australia claiming to be a descendant of Abraham Lincoln or Captain Cook respectively.

The author makes it a point to mention how shaky the terms used for the Macedonian people were, yet he seems surprised when the Macedonian natives adopt their own name, MACEDONIANS. He ignores the Greek Census of 1928 which speak of ‘Macedonoslave’ (Macedonians) and even the famous Greek “Macedonian-fighters” (ironically named as most were not even native to Macedonia) of 1904-1908, such as Pavlos Melas, who clearly stated that the local people identified their language as ‘Macedonian’. Instead, the author claims that the "Bulgarians" were
"mutated overnight" into Macedonians[/i]. The Macedonians were not mutated, they fought for their freedom, rights and recognition as an individual people with a distinct language and culture during WWII and they agreed to enter into a federal Yugoslavia as an individual republic on equal footing with the rest of the republics such as Serbia, Croatia, Slovenia, etc. It was recognition long in the making, and it was not given on a silver platter, it was fought for and earned after over a century of struggle. Instead of making outrageous claims about a matter he has obviously not studied in depth, the author should instead look within and ask wether the Romans (the identity used by modern Greek-speakers for 2,000 years) were “mutated” into “Hellenes” (the name adopted by Greek-speakers after the creation of the modern Greek state in the first half of the 19th century) overnight? Before the creation of the Exarchate all Slavic-speaking persons within the Ottoman Empire were officially viewed as Romans (often termed as Greek by westerners due to the Orthodox affiliation, but known by the ancestors of the modern native Greek-speakers of the 19th century and prior as “Romaika”) due to the Turkish system of recognizing religions as “millets” or “nations”, are we to believe that all of those Slavic-speaking “Romans” are “Hellenes” by default after the creation and expansion of the modern Greek state in the 19th and 20th century? There is no parallel to this modern “Greek” absurdity with any other Balkan nation, and as such it would have helped the author’s cause to at least show a few examples of Slavic-speakers declaring as ethnic “Hellenes” or better yet, Greek-speakers declaring as ethnic Macedonians or ethnic Bulgarians. Somehow it is gathered that these parallels do not count and are not accepted by the modern Greek scholar, and the people of Macedonia are hence neglected, thought of as somehow “incapable” of choosing their own identity, despite their many manifestations of self-declaration in the name of the Macedonian nation. This is the typical double standard game played by most modern Greeks, particularly those writing on the Macedonian subject, who have a tendency to twist the facts in their desperate attempts to keep the Macedonian question clouded. An interesting point made by the author is that prior to the Balkan Wars “all statistics were biased” (indeed, even till today they are still biased), yet he has no problem basing his thesis on these inaccurate figures and then drawing “conclusions” from them. In fact, he supports his own statistical analysis with “unofficial, confidential and unpublished” data gathered by “Greeks” themselves. He states, in a matter of fact way, that Greece, Bulgaria and Serbia “had” to secure and enlarge their “ethnic grips” in Macedonia, the question remains however, why? Why did they “have” to? Why were not the Macedonians given a chance to prosper independently without the brotherly smother of their greedy neighbours? Would things have been different had Macedonia gained her independence first or at all during the 19th century? There is no doubt that they would have been. "In 1913 the Carnegie Committee appointed to investigate the crimes committed during the Balkan Wars tended to adopt Professor Ivanoff's statistics, while in the interwar period, in 1926, the League of Nations accepted without any reservation the Greek views as presented by Pallis…………..Most of them today reproduce, probably out of ignorance, the Slavic school". Ignorance, meaning the Greek view is enlightenment? What the highlighted sentence above shows is the unreliability of “official” sources produced for a particular event, such as the Carnegie Committee favouring the “Bulgar view” and the League of Nations preferring the “Greek view”, most neutral sources speak of the Slavic-speakers as being the dominant people in Macedonia in terms of numbers, and most of these Slavic-speakers had a Macedonian identity, which in realistic terms was equally as valid as the Greek and Bulgarian identities, despite the confusion caused by the church affiliations, propaganda and declarations made by some historical figures in pressured times. Apart from the typical barrage of manipulated facts which are well expected when coming from “Greeks” that are anti-Macedonian, the author Michailides deliberately misinforms reader’s of his Ph.D article with the following statement, "In a later study in 1929, i.e. After the Greek and Bulgarian emigration had been completed and the ethnological composition of Macedonia had changed utterly, Pallis changed the number of 77,000 "Voulgarizontes" to 82,000 "Bulgarians", probably to match with the 1928 official census". A BLATANT LIE. The 1928 census of Greece clearly states there are only 20 Bulgarians but over 80,000 Macedonianslave (Macedonians) in Greek-Occupied Macedonia. The “official” view of the Greek Government represented in the statistics does not correspond with the view from the ground however, and people such as Pavlos Melas are the best testament to that, because they were there with the Macedonians, they saw their eagerness to be just Macedonians, they saw their self-determination of nationality and language. The writer goes to great pains to demonstrate how the Slavic-speaking people in Greek-Occupied Macedonia were of an insignificant number and were rebaptized from “Bulgarians” to Macedonians “overnight”, yet the fact that in 1925 the Greek Government published a primer for the Macedonians of Greece called ‘Abecedar’ and stated that it was written in the “Macedonian dialect” does not seem to be important in his “thesis”. The audacity to state that his “thesis” is “not to question the right of self-determination” after all that he presents as “evidence” only proves his contradicting and narrow approach to the matter which is seen all over his article. This “Ph.D” schoolboy should go back to the library, open a dictionary, look up the word ‘objectivity’, and then try and realize why he failed to mention the following facts below about the Macedonian population in Greek-Occupied Macedonia during the period in question in his so-called “thesis”.

Population Statistics
1899 - Nikolaides, Macedonian Slavs; 454 000 - Greeks; 656, 300
1928 - Census Greek-Occupied Macedonia, Macedonian Slavs; 80, 789 - Greeks; 1, 165, 553

Both of the above population statistics are obviously are in favour of the “Greek view”, however it is at least clear evidence of Greek recognition towards the Macedonian nation. The Greek Nikolaides recognized the Macedonians as a distinct group of people in his proposed population statistics for the whole territory of Macedonia in the late 19th century, and he called them “Macedonian Slavs”. The 1928 Census was taken after Greek gains from the Balkan wars in Macedonia, Thrace and Epirus, and the completion of the population exchange which took place between Greece and Turkey, with about 1,500,000 Christians being swapped for 800,000 Muslims, the former going to Greece from Turkey and the latter going to Turkey from Greece. It was conducted by Greek officials, its honesty therefore immediately comes into question as the Greek Government and the Greek Church have long been fond of practicing assimilation, with force if need be, on its many minorities. The so-called census reveals that there are more Orthodox Christian Turks than Muslim Turks, where is this sizable minority today one wonders? The overwhelming majority of Bulgarians and Albanians are recorded as Muslims, and there are over twice as much Macedonians on the census as there are Bulgarians and Albanians combined. Both Bulgarians and Albanians are small in numbers in Greek-Occupied Macedonia. The census of course is manipulated by the Greek officials who were running the process, and it also records the Macedonians as ‘Macedonoslave’, recognition at least for the ‘Macedonian’ name, people and language in Greece, a fact in history no Greek of today can deny. Sadly, today none of these ethnicities are recognized in Greece, instead, the Greek Government continues to suppress its minorities and deny them their basic human right of self-determination. In Greece today, the usual “census” simply claims that of the population 97% are Orthodox, 2% are Muslim and 1% other, a country in obvious denial about the real ethnic origins of a large proportion of its citizens. The 1928 Census of Greece show that the Macedonians are almost entirely Orthodox Christians and live mainly in Greek-Occupied Macedonia, with a small number in Greek-Occupied Thrace and a sprinkling of others in various parts of Greece.

Documents pertaining to the Macedonians from Greek-Occupied Macedonia

…..he speaks Macedonian, Kottas (Konstantin Kote Hristov)………….
Pavlos Melas, letters, 1897-1904

……………….there are not many Greeks in Macedonia……………….
The king of Greece after the occupation of southern Macedonia by the Greek Army, 1912

Occasionally, all of a sudden a village woman would step out and start swearing in her own difficult Macedonian language, then, our soldiers would surround her and offering her money would demand bread, wine, brandy or oil. But what we invariably got in return was a stereotype word like the one the first Slavophone villager, his head bent down, whom we had met outside the village of Negus, had addressed to us. All the way to the outskirts of Salonica and further on, to the town of Lerin, wherever we went we heard the same melancholic answer to all our demands: “No, we don't have any!”
Spiros Melas, The Epopee, first published in 1952, Acropolis, 1912-13

On my arrival to Salonika, the idea of the Greek peasants and the people on the actual difference between the Greek Orthodox Church and the Bulgarian schismatics was rather shaky. I realised this because whenever I asked them, what they were – Romaioi [ i.e Greeks] or Voulgaroi [Bulgarians], they stared at me incomprehendingly. Asking each other what my words meant, crossing themselves, they would answer me naively: ‘Well, we’re Christians – what do you mean, Romaioi or Voulgaroi?’
M. Avgerinos, Makedonika Apomnimonevmata, Athens, 1914

The Greeks will not admit the Slav language in Churches or schools; the inhabitants of Macedonia are in the great majority Slavs; they call themselves Macedonians, and what they desire and what we ardently desire for them is an autonomy under European control…….The only hope I can foresee is in strong autonomy, which neither Greeks nor Bulgars nor Serbs would dare attack; then the Macedonians, who are really intelligent and docile when they are well treated. Would peacefully develop this beautiful fertile country... Surely Europe will not leave Macedonia under people whom the Macedonians hate, and whom they will continually fight.......
Sister Augustine Bewicke, St Paul’s Hospital – Salonika, Peace Conference (British delegation), January 4, 1919.

What we have before us is a primer entitled Abecedar, meant for use in the schools that are to be opened in Greek Macedonia and Western Thrace for the needs of the Slavophone population. This primer will be used to teach the children of the Slavophones in Greece. It was written in the Macedonian dialect and printed in the Latin alphabet.
Nikolaos Zarifis, Eleftherion Vima, 19th October, 1925

Everybody should understand, that we cannot endlessly change the family name suffixes -opoulos into -opovich, then into -opov, or in the reverse direction, and that the mind should be free and the will of the individual fully respected.
Ioannis Sofianopoulos, Pos ida tin Valkaniki, Athens 1927

At the time when Greek sovereignty was established over Macedonia, it was estimated that 57,4% of its population were 'foreign elements' and that the Greeks constituted 42.6% of the inhabitants, which is probably exaggerated because in the survey of 1912, for obvious reasons, many inhabitants of Macedonia were entered as Greeks, even though they did not hold themselves as such... It should not be forgotten that the minority that weighed the heaviest on the ethnologic scales of Macedonia was the Slavophone population.
A. Aegidis, I Ellas horis prosfiges, Athens 1930

It has been 18 years since the liberation of Macedonia. In this period we have had many governments from various parties, but we have not seen a systematic state policy with respect to the national question, so extremely important for the Psychological and linguistic assimilation of those who speak a foreign dialect, particularly the Slavophone inhabitants of Macedonia………In the 'foreign language' areas nothing has really changed with respect to the language since the liberation of Macedonia. These areas have remained faithful to their dialect and to customs alien to the Greek. I even dare say that the people of certain Macedonian areas have reinforced their earlier national feeling instead of losing it.....
Vasilios Vizas, People's Deputy from Kozhani, Eparhiaki foni, Kajlari, 16th November, 1930

Serres - The town square was covered with leaflets with revolutionary proclamations calling upon the soldiers to straggle for a solution to their problems and against the beastly reign of terror. Officers imprisoned the soldiers who read the leaflets... The most barbarous methods were used against us Macedonians, soldiers of the 6th Heavy Artillery Regiment. The majority of us are illiterate, we do not know Greek and therefore we frequently do not understand their orders. The officers tried to teach us to read and write, but their efforts were abandoned too soon and were performed so improperly than none of us learned anything.
Rizospastis, Greek Communist Party (KKE). April 15, 1934

Voden - Here, in Voden, and in our whole district, in the heart of Macedonia, here where we Macedonians do not know any other language but our own Macedonian, various agents of the Greek capitalism force us to speak Greek. Consequently, they threaten us constantly with expulsion to Bulgaria, they call us Komitajis, expropriate our fields which we have drenched with our sweet just to produce a piece of bread. In addition, they deprive us of the freedom which our fathers won after many years of struggle in which they gave their lives for the liberation of Macedonia. We live under the yoke of Greek capitalism, literally as slaves. In the elementary schools, the young children who speak their own language are beaten every day. Particularly here in Voden, the henchman and fascist Georgiadis beats the children if they speak their Macedonian tongue.
Rizospastis, Greek Communist Party (KKE). June 6, 1934

Lerin - It has been some time now that the whole bourgeois press launched a campaign against the Macedonian people. It represents a part of the fascist and military measures which the Government of Tsaldaris carries out in its orientation towards an increasingly brutal oppression of the people's masses in Macedonia. The Chief of the Security Forces here, Karamaunas, whenever he meets us on the streets threatens us with the words: "You are Bulgarians and if by any chance I discover any sort of organized movement, I will beat you without mercy and than I will deport you." We Macedonians should rise with greater courage and by means of increased activities should reject this campaign because it brings us an even more brutal oppression, starvation, misery, and war.
Rizospastis, Greek Communist Party (KKE). June 8, 1934

Another problem which the Government keeps ignoring in its declarations is the question of giving the minorities in Greece rights equal to those of the native Greek population. This refers in the first place to the Macedonian people. Anyone who has travelled through Macedonia must have felt the specific pressure exerted on the Macedonians. They have been strictly forbidden to have their own schools, speak their own language or practice their own customs. As a result, the people are getting organized and ready to fight for their rights, in which we can't but support them. The winning countries in the Great War and the League of Nations sanctioned the right for the self-determination of oppressed nations. And we also grant this right to the Macedonian people…………………….
Stelios Sklavenas – Communist Leader in Greece, Parliamentary speech, 1936

Swearing at old men and women in the street or dragging them through police stations solely because they do not speak Greek can be done only in an unjust regime, which transfers the responsibility for the current situation from the history and the state to innocent individuals.
Sotirios Kodzhamanis, National questions, Salonika, 1954

Bulgaria and Greece, as well as Serbia, sent soldiers to Macedonia in order to change the national affinity of the local population………………….A large percentage of the farmers in Macedonia spoke a Slavonic dialect, using a lot of Greek and Turkish words; however, the essence of the dialect was Slavonic. The Slavo-Macedonian dialect was the dominant language in many areas in Macedonia………………the majority of the Slavophone Macedonians decided to rise against the Turkish tyranny and the injustice of the Metropolitans, and in an autonomous and independent Macedonia to build political and national equality…………..
loannis Kordatos, Istoria tis neas Ellados, vol.5, Athens 1955

Although ethnic Macedonians in northern Greece make up a large minority with their own language and culture, their internationally recognized human rights and even their existence are vigorously denied by the Greek government. Free expression is restricted……………a large number of ethnic Macedonians are reluctant to assert their Macedonian identity or to express their views openly. Ultimately, the government is pursuing every avenue to deny the Macedonians of Greece their ethnic identity.
Human Rights Watch – Helsinki, Denying Ethnic Identity – Macedonians of Greece, 1994.


Modern Greeks should wake up to the reality of the situation; the Macedonian identity, culture, language and state exist and will continue to do so. The Macedonian nation is equally as valid as any other nation, and it is proud of its history.



MACEDONIA FOR THE MACEDONIANS