| Hellenism and its Intended ObjectivesAugust 4 2000 at 8:50 PM
No score for this post | ssmak (no login) |
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Hellenism and its Intended Objectives
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Hellenism as a national policy of the Greek state, aimed at strengthening the socio- cultural ethnogenesis among the Greeks, is an acceptable form of unifying theme. As a rallying point for Greek culture, its basic premise rests on the assumption that Greeks share the same language, same religion and same traditions. Greek religion, Greek language and Greek nationality are the three fundamental fluid components whose constructs are inextricably interwoven into a single entity - the Greek ethnos. This "unifying" thought is highly promoted by the Greek government, widely practised by the clergy, and supposedly, readily accepted by the masses.
Based on Greek government's assertions that in Greece there are no ethnic minorities, one ought to ask the following question:
Assuming that Greece is homogeneous country, one populated by Greeks only, may we inquire as to how was this apparent "purity" achieved? Was this "purity" accomplished through the national policy of Hellenization? And lastly, was this process of Hellenization voluntary one, or was it painfully forceful one. Did Greeks ever asked the Macedonian population if they wanted to forgo their own traditions? To stop using their mother's tongue? Or to change their Macedonian church services with an alien Greek one? Did they ever consider if these Macedonians wanted to remain at their own cities and villages?
The truth is that the process of Hellenization practised in Aegean Macedonia, was a national Greek policy aimed at forcefully changing the Macedonian population into Greeks. It was a policy aimed at eradicating anything Macedonian. It was a policy based on racism then, and it is a policy based on racism today. Hellenism is racism, pure and simple.
To what extent has Hellenism being carried out in Macedonia and what implications did it have on Macedonian political/religious awakening? Please read the following passage lifted from Ferdinand Scevill's book "History of the Balkans", p.303- 304.
"....Another charge commonly flung at the clergy concerns the policy of Hellenization. The patriarch and the members of his immediate circles were Greeks, passionately Greek, and did not scruple to use their immense power to further the Greek national cause at the expense of their Slavic and Romanian fellow-rayahs.
Not only were the prelacies reserved exclusively for Greeks, but systematic warfare was made upon all languages other than Greek in the hope of suppressing their use within the organisation. Not content with gradually eliminating the Slav languages from the religious service, the Greek rulers persecuted Slav seminaries and libraries by closing the former and scattering and even ruthlessly applying the torch to the later."
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| | Author | Reply | Tsefeta
(no login) | Yia to Ellinas apo to Zhelevo..No score for this post | August 11 2000, 11:32 PM |
Medieval Scripts and Slavic Literacy in Macedonia
The beginnings of the medieval Slavic manuscripts creation in Macedonia are evident into the epochal work of the Salonica brothers SS. Cyril and Methodius. Since Cyril had written the first Slavic alphabet - Glagolitic, they translated the first liturgical books from Greek into Old Church Slavic before their departure for the Moravian mission.
The real efflorescence of the Slavic literacy and culture in Macedonia emerged at the end of the 9th century and the beginning of the 10th century when St. Clement and St. Naum, the disciples of the Salonica brothers, performed their activity in Ohrid. St. Clement founded the first Slavic University (Ohrid Literary School) and performed blooming enlightening and literacy activities including over 3.500 students.
Since then, an imposing cultural and historical heritage has been created in Macedonia significant not only for the Macedonian history, civilization and culture, but also for the Slavic and world ones.
The first preserved Slavic manuscripts were written in Glagolitic alphabet (9th-11th century) and after the 11th century Glagolitic and Cyrillic alphabet were parallelly used.
The Slavic manuscripts, created on the territory of Macedonia during the 12th century, were with religious and educational contents and written in Church Slavic. According to the lingual features they were characterized by the use of the lingual peculiarities of Macedonia (Macedonian redaction). The manuscripts were rich in their contents, forms and ornaments.
The manuscripts were created and preserved through centuries in the Macedonian churches and monasteries, but they also were copied, researched and distributed. A great number of them had been preserved and nowadays found in many European archives and libraries (St. Petersburg, Bologna, Sofia, Belgrade, Sveta Gora etc.). Some of them are kept in the Republic of Macedonia. After the Second World War the Macedonian State and the established institutions (The Archives of Macedonia, The National and University Library "St. Clement of Ohrid", The Institute for Old Church Slavic Culture) have taken intensive measures for research, preservation and presentation of Old Church Slavic manuscripts.
The Slavic manuscripts were systematically examined, prepared and published by a great number of eminent scientists (Vladimir Moshin, Blazhe Koneski, Lidiya Slaveva, Vangeliya Despodova, Radmila Ugrinova-Skalovska, Vera Stoychevska - Antich, Mihaylo Georgievski etc).
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(no login) | More information for the Gerkomani of ZhelevoNo score for this post | August 11 2000, 11:42 PM |
CULTURAL AND NATIONAL LIBERATION MOVEMENT OF THE MACEDONIAN PEOPLE
(end of the 19th - beginning of the 20th century)
The spring of the national revival of the Macedonians was manifested at the beginning of the 19th century. The main advocate of the Macedonian conscience was the middle class, organized into parishes practising different forms of local self-management. In that respect the Macedonian intellectuals excelled, led by the teachers. During the 60s and 70s the process of national cognizance emerged as a perpetual struggle of the Macedonian middle class for exclusion of the Constantinople Patriarchite representatives and their replacement with the Macedonian ones. Introduction of the Macedonian language into churches and schools was advocated, as well as the renewal of Ohrid Archbishopric as Macedonian independent church. The first printing houses were opened, textbooks and books were written in Macedonian with Old Church Slavic features.
A large number of Macedonian national and cultural revivalists compiled folk songs and created literary and didactic works in local dialects as an affirmation of the Macedonian cultural and national conscience. Among them the most eminent were Yoakim Krchovski, Kiril Peychinovich, Yordan Hadji Konstantinov - Djinot, the brothers Dimitar and Konstantin Miladinov, Kuzman Shapkarev, Grigor Prlichev, Parteniya Zografski and Gjorgjiya Pulevski.
The continuity in the development of the Macedonian conscience was slowed by the ecclesiastical, educational and governmental propaganda of the neighbouring monarchies - Bulgaria, Greece and Serbia. They tried hard to assimilate the nationally revived Macedonian people by means of founding schools and churches and sending teachers and textbooks. The Macedonian people led by the intellectuals opposed the foreign propaganda. Anti-Patriarchite and anti-Exarchate movement was manifested on a massive scale in Macedonia. In the 90s of the 19th century Teodosie, the metropolitan of Skopje, was leading the struggle against the Greek Patriarchite and the Bulgarian Exarchate advocating the establishment of the Macedonian independent church i.e. the renewal of the Ohrid Archbishopric.
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(no login) | Gerkomanite ne ke klade oum?No score for this post | August 11 2000, 11:51 PM |
MACEDONIA DURING THE BALKAN WARS AND THE FIRST WORLD WAR
(1914 - 1919)
In 1912 the Balkan states - Serbia, Bulgaria, Greece and Montenegro formed an alliance in order to expel the Turkish administrative and military authorities from the Balkans. After expelling the Turks from Macedonia during the First Balkan War (1912/13), the occupation interests of the allied countries towards Macedonia caused another war among the allied states - The Second Balkan War (1913). Consequently, it wasn’t taken into consideration the prospective autonomy of Macedonia. The aspiration of the neighbouring countries were advocated by the Great Powers which protected their own interests.
Taking into consideration the Bucharest Peace Treaty of August 1913, the partition of Macedonia was executed resulting into hard and long-term consequences concerning the uniqueness of the ethnic tissue of the Macedonian people and the territorial entity of Macedonia. In accordance with the Treaty, Greece has grabbed the Southern Macedonia with the coast (Aegean Macedonia), Serbia - the Northern and the Middle Macedonia (Vardar Macedonia) and Bulgaria - the Eastern Macedonia (Pirin Macedonia) This partition caused new and more emphasized national, political, economic, cultural and economic oppressions of the Macedonian people.
The representatives of the Macedonian people, organized into the Macedonian colony in St. Petersburg, sent memoranda and appeals to the government of the Great Powers, Balkan states and to the European public asking to prevent the partition of Macedonia and her constitution into a liberated and independent state within the ethnic and geographical limits.
During the World War I the Macedonian people suffered occupations, military destructions and partitions. Serbia recruited forcibly 53.000 Macedonians, Bulgaria - 33.000 and Greece - 20.000. The bandits’ actions and the military clashes between Serbia and Greece, on the part of Entente and Bulgaria, on the part of the Central Forces concerning Macedonia, especially the great military operations on the Macedonian territory, were the cause of hard consequences for the Macedonian people. The both - occupiers performed requisition and plunder on the national treasure, practisized mass forced labour, deportation and repression. The Macedonian people offered different forms of resistance: hiding goods, desertion from the military units, passing in the underground etc.
During the war a great number of towns and villages such as: Bitola (Monastir), Seres, Lerin (Florina), Dojran etc., suffered terrible. Famine, wasteland and contagious diseases prevailed in Macedonia.
The new partition of Macedonia offered the Macedonian people larger national and political oppression.
The Macedonians abroad, organized themselves into political organizations and associations, sent appeals and memoranda to the government of the Great Powers, the Paris Peace Conference and the World publicity, acquainting them with the conditions and the endeavours of the Macedonian people asking for solution of the Macedonian national and governmental question. They clearly declared to the world that the Macedonian people are determined to constitute Macedonia as a free, united and independent state on the Balkans.
The activity of the Macedonian associations in Switzerland, united into a General Council was significant. They asked the governments of the Great Powers to give the Macedonian people the opportunity of self-determination and independence according to the "Fourteen Points" of the American president W. Wilson.
The Macedonian emigration in Bulgaria, represented by the revolutionary leaders of Seres, in 1918 issued a Declaration asking for an autonomy of Macedonia within her ethnic and geographic borders as an equal members of the Prospective Balkan Federation. In 1919 a group of Macedonians established The Provisional Agency of the former VMRO, led by Gj.Petrov, D.Hadji Dimov, M.Atsev and others. The Agency sent an Appeal endeavouring the establishment of the independent Macedonia as a state of neutral status under the international protectorate. The Agency sent a delegation at the Paris Peace Conference.
In 1917 the Macedonian intellectuals of St. Petersburg, led by D.Chupovski, founded a Macedonian Revolutionary Committee endeavouring the establishment of the Balkan Democratic Federative Republic, in which the Republic of Macedonia, independent and united, would be an equal member of the federation.
These appeals of the Macedonian people and its political representatives were not taken into consideration by the international factors. Notwithstanding some propositions of Italy and Great Britain concerning the autonomy of Macedonia, at the Paris Peace Conference (1919) the interests of the Balkan states and the Great Powers were expressed. The Macedonian question was treated as a question of minority and a new partition of Macedonia among the kingdom of SHS (Yugoslavia), Greece and Bulgaria was executed.
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