Friday, June 08, 2012

The most popular political party in Greece denies the Macedonian identity

The most popular political party in Greece denies the existence of one of the oldest identities in the world – The Macedonian identity

Under normal conditions political points can be gained through promotion of human rights and freedom. But in Greece, political points are collected by spreading hatred towards everything that is Macedonian – reports Marija Kotovska, Macedonian correspondent in Athens.

This time, such an attempt is not made by some ultra radical party such as Golden Dawn, but by the "pro-European" New Democracy - the party that despite SYRIZA is the biggest favorite for the upcoming elections.

This time, once again, the target was the Macedonian minority living in Greece and their political party "Rainbow".

For Sofia Vultepsi, MP from New Democracy, the representatives from "Rainbow" say that even Goebbels would be jealous of the anti-Macedonian propaganda she is promoting. In her latest column, Vultepsi is criticizing one of the political parties that are cooperating with "Rainbow" and support them in terms of the rights of the Macedonian minority here in Greece, in order to discredit them before the upcoming elections.

And while the leader of New Democracy, Samaras, until recently openly expressed his conquering aspirations towards Macedonia on the state television, in her column Vultepsi accuses the members of “Rainbow” for alleged irredentism towards Greece.

- "Rainbow" is reproducing the irredentist propaganda of Skopje. They speak of "Aegean Macedonia", arguing that "Aegean Macedonia" is under Greek occupation. They run in Brussels in different international organizations and are in constant communication with "Amnesty International" and "Greek Helsinki monitor"- this MP writes in her column.

Pavlos Vaskopulos, who is part of the “Vinozito” leadership, immediately rejected those allegations for irredentism.

But in the column, Vultepsi raised another very important and well-known fact – the fact that Greece and New Democracy are not just having problem with the constitutional and historical name of Macedonia. They also deny the existence of the Macedonian identity - from the language to the nationality. Throughout the column, she writes for alleged Macedonians.

Writing that "Rainbow", among the other, are seeking to introduce teaching classes of Macedonian language in Lerin (Florina), Voden (Edessa), Kostur (Kastoria), Kutlesh (Vergina) and Solun (Thessaloniki), she says that the Macedonian language, the language that represents the base of first written Slavic language - Old Slavic, is artificial and fictitious. Besides this heavy insult to all the Slavic speaking nations, she also send a clear message – that they do not recognize anything Macedonian.

If New Democracy wins the upcoming elections, this message should be very well remembered by the Macedonian opposition and international "friends" when once again, they try to force the thesis that the problem was only the name, not the identity.

From Athens, Marija Kotovska - correspondent for the Macedonian Radio and Television and Netpress agency

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Dealing with the Greeks and Greek gov. is wast of time. Will be 100 years since Macedonian was divided and still we struggle for our rights. We have to sue the countries who support Greece and the countries who actually did divide Macedonia. The blame is more the power counties at the time then Greece. Today, we Macedonia must be united and continue to demand our rights. Thank you