Tribune Excerpts

The following article appeared in the April 2006 Edition of the Macedonian Tribune

Canadian Voice: Greeks Should Consider Reading Plato and Aristotle
By George Koroloff

As most of you know, the human rights of Macedonians in Greece, Bulgaria, Albania and Serbia have been trampled upon for many decades. The Greek government has been especially harsh and unjust in its treatment of its Macedonian minority. Greece, which is supposedly the cradle of democracy, fails even in every respect to exemplify its great and enlightened thinkers – Plato and Aristotle – who gave birth to the concepts of democracy and the meaning of a good citizen and a good man.

Greece has been a member of the EU since 1981. It continues to disparage its Macedonian minority and refuses to recognize it. It refers to Macedonians in derogatory terms calling them Slavophone Greeks or Skopjans, terms considered to be derisive. My forefathers came from the portion of Macedonia currently occupied by the Greeks, and we certainly did not and do not regard ourselves as Slavophone Greeks or Skopjans. We are Macedonians and yet the Greek government's official policy is one of national homogeneity and, as history has shown, any resistance has been met with harsh consequences. The Greek government will not entertain the concept of multi-culturalism.

In Children of the Bird Goddess, an outstanding book by Kita Sapurma and Pandora Patrovska, the systematic racism of the Greek government is accurately and poignantly set out as follows:

"The racism which envelops the Macedonian people in Aegean Macedonia has primarily focused on the suppression of language and identity in order to maintain territorial acquisition. It has become an ideological means to assist exploitation and denationalization. This policy results in systemic discrimination and denial of basic human rights such as self-identification.

The dehumanization is validated by the argument that you are not Macedonian; you do not have a culture, language or a name, so in fact, you do not exist and therefore there is no oppression. There is a sad irony in the fact that by claiming a Macedonian heritage, language, and name, the Macedonians are seen as the villains whose actions are somehow threatening to Greece. This is a classic condition of oppression culture, in that the oppressor claims to feel violated by the oppressed. By claiming the process is actually occurring to themselves, the Greek government's aim to validate the need for continuing the oppression." (Page 162).

The Greek government will simply not entertain any sort of concept of multi-culturalism, which has the inherent right to self-identification but rather espouses a form of anti-multiculturalism where any sort of basic human rights are trampled on. This is especially disturbing to me as a citizen of Canada, which has extended its multi-cultural arms to all nationalities in the world.

In Toronto, the same Greeks who proudly display their pride in their Hellenic background refuse to allow us to proclaim our pride in Macedonians in Greece. However, the Macedonian diaspora will not give up.

As Macedonians, we rely on the truth and on the concepts of the "good citizen" and the "good man" as set out in the greatest book ever written other than the Holy Bible. The book I am referring to is Plato's The Republic. It should be required reading for every Greek official.

Perhaps if they read and comprehend what mankind's greatest philosopher and thinker said they would change illogical and spiteful policies. The Macedonian diaspora must unit, stand behind and support the quest for the human rights of Macedonians. We owe that much to our predecessors who died for a free and independent Macedonia. The MPO continues to strive for a free and independent Macedonia.