[ALBSA-Info] On Macedonia

Wed Jul 17 18:09:04 EDT 2002

Subject:  Illinois Senate Declares Ancient Macedonians are Greeks! And a Passionate Response by a Macedonian American!

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State of Illinois
92nd General Assembly
Legislation

Senate Sponsors:
GEO-KARIS.

Short description: 
ANCIENT MACEDONIANS-HELLENES 

Synopsis of Bill as introduced:
Proclaims that the ancient Macedonians are Hellenes and that the

inhabitants of the northern province of Greece, Macedonia, are their

Hellenic descendants.

Last action on Bill: RESOLUTION ADOPTED

Last action date: JUN-01-02

Location: Senate

Amendments to Bill: AMENDMENTS ADOPTED: HOUSE - 0 SENATE - 0

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http://www.legis.state.il.us/legisnet/legisnet92/srgroups/sr/920sr0446.html

92_SR0446

LRB9216991BHbh

1 SENATE RESOLUTION

2 WHEREAS, Philip of Macedonia, his son, Alexander the
3 Great, and his tutor, the philosopher Aristotle, were born
4 and raised in the Northern Province of Greece, Macedonia; and

5 WHEREAS, The language and culture of the ancient
6 Macedonians, the ancestors of the inhabitants of northern
7 Greece of today, were Hellenic; and

8 WHEREAS, The Macedonians, like the rest of the Hellenes
9 in Antiquity, believed in the 12 Gods of Olympus and
10 participated with their fellow Hellenes in the Olympic Games;
11 and

12 WHEREAS, Pella, the palace where Alexander the Great was
13 born, and Vergina, the burial site of the Macedonian kings,
14 are all located in Northern Greece; therefore, be it

15 RESOLVED, BY THE SENATE OF THE NINETY-SECOND GENERAL
16 ASSEMBLY OF THE STATE OF ILLINOIS, that for all of the above
17 reasons, we proclaim that the ancient Macedonians are
18 Hellenes and that the inhabitants of the northern province of
19 Greece, Macedonia, are their Hellenic Descendants; and be it
20 further

21 RESOLVED, That the history of Ancient Macedonia has been
22 Hellenic for 3,000 years and continues to be today; and be it
23 further

24 RESOLVED, That a suitable copy of this resolution be
25 presented to Dr. Antonios Papadopoulos, the Mid-Western
26 District Governor of the Pan-Macedonian Association, Inc.

[ Top ] 

-------------------------------------------------

Re: Ancient Macedonians are Greeks
State of Illinois General Assembly - Resolution 92_SR0446

Letter by Metodija Koloski
July 11, 2002

Source URL: http://maknews.com/html/articles/koloski.html

Governor George H. Ryan (governor at s...),
Senators, and Members of the House of Representatives of the State of 
Illinois:

Regarding Resolution 92_SR0446 made by the State of Illinois General 
Assembly declaring that the "Ancient Macedonians are Greeks."

As an American citizen of Macedonian origin I am writing to convey my 
disappointment over Resolution 92_SR0446 adopted by the Illinois Senate 
General Assembly on June 1st, 2002.

The Macedonian identity has given rise to many controversies and debates. 
Did the State of Illinois even bother to study the Macedonian Question 
before making such a ludicrous resolution?

The Modern Greek claim -- that the ancient Macedonians were Greek -- is 
politically motivated and is not supported by historical evidence. This 
political mythology was created in the late 19th century to advance 
territorial claims against Ottoman Macedonia. In its current incarnation it 
is used by Greece as an excuse to discriminate against its Macedonian 
minority.

Ancient Macedonians were among the peoples that lived between northern 
Greece (Thessaly) and Thrace in the Balkans and were considered by the 
classical Greeks as "non-Greek Barbarians" that could not participate in the 
Greek Olympic Games. Herodotus wrote that "Macedonians" were "Dorians" and 
were never admitted to the Greek community. They did not speak Greek but 
another language presently unknown of which only proper names remain; 
nowadays, they speak a Slavic language.

There is a large gap between ancient and modern times. Macedonia has been a 
kingdom, as well as a province under Rome, Byzantium and the Ottoman Empire. 
It is true that the ancient Macedonian capital of Pella has been located in 
northern Greece since Macedonia's partition in 1913. However, this does not 
make the ancient Macedonians Hellenic or Greek. Consider that the Modern 
Greek State itself was only formed ca. 1829 and even then under a Bavarian 
monarchy.

But who is the State of Illinois to pass a resolution proclaiming the 
ancient Macedonians to be Hellenes? Has the Senate tested the blood of the 
today's Greeks and compared it with the bones of the ancient Macedonians?

Recent genetic research, -- "HLA genes in Macedonians, and the sub-Saharan 
origin of the Greeks" (2001) -- has established that Greeks exhibit a 
sub-Saharan origin whereas Macedonians are related to the older 
Mediterranean sub-group and, more to the point, do not show a close 
relationship to Greeks (1).

Allow me also to mention the struggle facing the Macedonian minority in 
Greece. Following the Balkan Wars of 1912-13, Greece annexed half the 
territory of Ottoman Macedonia and instigated a policy of denationalization 
(ethnic cleansing) and forced assimilation of the indigenous Macedonian 
population (2).

It is widely known that Greece refuses to acknowledge the existence of any 
national minorities or even minority languages (2). These difficulties still 
persist in Greece as highlighted by the US Helsinki Commission hearing of 
June 2002 (3).

The Greek government will ultimately have to recognize that there is a 
distinct Macedonian ethnic identity.

The Illinois General Assembly's recent resolution, however, is nothing short 
of a hate crime denying Macedonians their ethnic identity.

With all due respect,

Metodija A. Koloski -- a first generation American of Macedonian descent - 
e-mail: mkoloski at h...

References:

1 - Abstract, HLA Genes in Macedonians and the Sub-Saharan Origin of the 
Greeks. http://maknews.com/html/articles/hla_genes.pdf

2 - Rainbow - Political Party of the Macedonian Minority in Greece - 
http://www.florina.org

3 US Helsinki Commission Hearing, June 2002 
http://www.csce.gov/briefings.cfm?briefing_id=219


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