The Macedonian Question

(ANA-MPA) - A group of some 200-plus prestigious academics, for the main part historians and Classicists teaching at the most renowned universities in the world - including the likes of Oxford, Cambridge, Princeton, Stanford, Vassar, College de France and hundreds of others in the United States and Europe - have sent a letter to U.S. President Barack Obama asking him to intervene to "clean up the historical debris" left by the previous U.S. administration's policy on the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia (FYROM).

According to those signing the letter - including widely read authors on ancient Greece and Alexander like Paul Cartledge, Steven H. Rutledge and Robin Lane Fox - Skopje's claims to a Macedonian descent of its Slavic population and its "misappropriation" of Alexander the Great as the country's national hero are a "subversion of history".

"On November 4, 2004, two days after the re-election of President George W. Bush, his administration unilaterally recognized the "Republic of Macedonia." This action not only abrogated geographic and historic fact, but it also has unleashed a dangerous epidemic of historical revisionism, of which the most obvious symptom is the misappropriation by the government in Skopje of the most famous of Macedonians, Alexander the Great.

" We believe that this silliness has gone too far, and that the U.S.A. has no business in supporting the subversion of history," the letter posted on the website Macedonia Evidence (http://macedonia-evidence.org) reads. It goes on to list the substantial historical and archaeological facts that debunk Skopje's assertions.

The letter, dated May 18th, also notes that such "misuse implied unhealthy territorial aspirations" even in the early 19th century and that it was clearly "not a force for historical accuracy or stability in the Balkans".

"We call upon you, Mr. President, to help - in whatever ways you deem appropriate - the government in Skopje to understand that it cannot build a national identity at the expense of historic truth. Our common international society cannot survive when history is ignored, much less when history is fabricated," it concludes.

An initiative begun by Stephen G. Miller, Professor Emeritus of Classical Archaeology at the University of California, Berkeley, the website was continuing to collect the signatures of scholars in support of the letter, with the original 200 having grown to a list of 237 by May 25.

(The Earth Times) - Athens on Monday condemned an attack on a group of Greek tourists in neighbouring Macedonia, saying such acts did not serve to improve already tense relations between the two countries. The tourists were travelling in five buses in the city of Ohrid when they were reportedly attacked by about 30 Macedonian nationalists who threw stones and sticks at them. Two of the tourists were injured.

Reports said the attackers damaged the buses which had travelled from northern Greece and spray painted "United Macedonia" and "Alexander the Great" on the vehicles.

"These types of actions deter proper communication between the people," said Greek Foreign Ministry spokesman Giorgos Koumoutsakos.

The tourists were visiting Macedonia during a celebration over three days of the start of Lent.

Greece and its northern neighbour have been in a dispute over the latter's name since 1991, when Macedonia declared independence from Yugoslavia and was admitted to the United Nations provisionally as the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia (FYROM).

Athens says the name Macedonia implies territorial claims on its own northern province, also called Macedonia, where Alexander the Great was born.

It has called on Skopje to adopt a name such as "New" or "Upper Macedonia," but no mutually acceptable solution has been found.

Skopje prefers the name Republic of Macedonia.

The issue of the name has halted Skopje's bid to join NATO. Macedonia had hoped to receive an invitation to join the alliance earlier this year along with Albania and Croatia, but Greece blocked the move.