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On Wed, 29 Apr 2009 15:23:31 -0700 (PDT), ADR <...@yahoo.com
On Apr 28, 3:26 am, pavel <...@yahoo.com
Pavel,
In relation to the articles that you have posted, I have send the
following letter to "Der Spiegel"
Dear sir/madam:
I am writing in reference to the articles by Walter Mayr that appeared
in the March 19, 2009 issue of your magazine and covered the ongoing
dispute between Greece and the F.Y.R.of Macedonia (FYROM). I was
astonished that a magazine as prestigious as yours produced such a
biased report in which most of the sources quoted are based in FYROM
and no opinion by the vast majority of Greeks in support of the Greek
position was ever sought, presented or analyzed. From the article, it
appears that the Greeks are mindless nationalist morons who do not
understand the finer complexities of the situation. Mr. Mayr neither
spared the facts in support of his thesis nor did he even exercise a
modicum of logic in his analysis.
I would like to provide a full answer to the pernicious article by Mr.
Mayr. However, I would only highlight some of his main gaps in
logic. He quotes the current Greek PM, Konstantinos Karamanlis (who
is actually a Macedonian) for stating that "there never was a
Macedonian minority in Greece". For Mr. Mayr, this is a clear
indication of how unreasonable the Greek position is. He fails to
even comprehend that Greece has 2.7 million Macedonians, the
inhabitants of its largest province, the vast majority of which
identify as Greeks and oppose the claims emanating from FYROM.
Greece has never denied the existence of slavonic-speaking
Macedonians. In fact, there are many excellent works on this
population by many senior members of the Greek Academia. Thus, Mr.
Gruevski is totally disingenuous as quoted by Mr. Mayr (although,
knowning the rhetoric of Mr. Gruevski, I think that the word "slavic"
was added by Mr. Mayr). Greece and the vast majority of Greeks would
love for the politicians and the nationalist fringe in FYROM to
identify as "Slavic Macedonians". However, Mr. Mayr knows (and has
studiously concealed) that neither Mr. Gruevski nor the nationalist
fringe in FYROM would ever willingly adopt the designation of "Slavic
Macedonians". Quite the contrary, they insist of identifying
themselves purely as "Macedonians". Not only they do so, they
actually deny such designation to the 2.7 million inhabitants of the
Greek province of Macedonia, which not only I but my ancestors called
home for many centuries. I, and many of my fellow Macedonians find
this an outwardly hostile and offensive position. We do not have any
quarrels with "Slavic Macedonians" but we do indeed have a quarrel
with those who insist of depriving us of our identity.
In addition, Mr. Mayr probably knows the nationalist hysteria
unleashed by Mr. Gruevski, the rants about "Greek occupation" and
"partition", the "Macedonization" of facilities in FYROM, the erection
of statues of famous ancient Macedonians in the cities, etc, etc, but
instead he chooses to chastise the Greek government which has offered
a number of reasonable compromises, none regarded as acceptable by the
nationalist groups that Mr. Gruevski represents.
Der Spiegel has done its readers a great disservice allowing Mr.
Mayr's article to be published without any editorial controls and the
appropriate balance. I hope that in the future, Der Spiegel would
exercise better control and provide a more balanced coverage of a very
important issue.
Yours sincerely,
Anastassios D. Retzios, Ph.D.
San Ramon, California, USA
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