About Macedonia

The geographical region of Macedonia exists since antiquity, but the people who inhabit it arrived in it at different times. The Greeks and Albanians have lived in the region for as long as there are historical records; the Slavs, Turks, and other people, arrived later (in the AD times). Since many people love to claim ancient Macedonia for themselves, I prepared the following map, which shows the kingdom of ancient Macedonia superimposed over modern borders of nations. Ancient Macedonia is shown in two periods: at the time of Classic Greece (~450 BCE, pink color), and at the time of Alexander’s death (323 BCE, green color). In the latter case, only part of the kingdom is shown (it extended as far to the east as modern western India).

An Open Letter to My Northern Neighbors

Dear nationals who insist to call yourselves — and only yourselves — “Macedonians”:

Why do you deny this right from me?

I am a Macedonian. At least, that’s what I want to call myself. I was born in Greek Macedonia, specifically in the city of Edessa, and so I identify myself as follows: an Edessian, a Macedonian, a Greek, a Balkan, and a European. Do I have this right? Do you grant me this right?

Aren’t you the champions of the idea that people must have the right to determine by themselves what they want to be called? Yes, right? Then why do you deny that I, too, am a Macedonian?

Some of you (alas, a few only) might claim that, no, you don’t deny this right from me. But you do! Otherwise why do you want to call your country simply the “Republic of Macedonia”? Why do you deny placing a geographical qualification in front of the name of your country, such as “Rep. of Upper Macedonia”, or “Rep. of New Macedonia”, or any other term that shows that you are not the only Macedonians? Why do you want to exclude me, usurping my and many of my compatriots’ Macedonian identity?

What is it that you want when you refuse to place an epithet in front of your Macedonia, such as Upper, or New, etc.? What is it that you have in your minds? Is it that you want to say that we, Macedonian Greeks, are “wrongly” there, in a place that “really” belongs to you?

If not, if you sincerely don’t have aspirations to make the land of another nation your own, then you must accept a geographical epithet in front of the name of your country. Otherwise you are not sincere, but duplicitous.

If yes, if you sincerely believe that you are the only, the “true” Macedonians, then please consider the following:

The word “Macedonia” — yes, the name that you think epitomizes your national identity — linguistically is of Greek origin. Its etymology is as follows: The inhabitant of the ancient “Makednon”, in ancient Greek is “Makednos” (e.g., see Herodotus, Histories, book 1, §56: “Μακεδνόν καλεόμενον”). The root “Mak-” comes from “makos” (μάκος), the doric-Greek form for “mekos” (μήκος in Attic Greek), or “length” (in both ancient and modern Greek). In short, “Makednos” meant a “tall person”. In modern Greek, “makrys” means “long”. The same root is the source of the English prefix “macro-”, which modifies many words to mean long (macro·biotic, macro·instruction) or large (macro·cosm, macro·molecule).

Hello?

Alexander’s name — yes, the same Alexander (“the Great”) whose name you employed recently to name your international airport — is also of Greek origin. “Alexander”, a name that to you appears entirely opaque, is made of two parts in Greek:

• “Alex-” is a prefix, meaning “protector”; thus we have words in modern Greek such as “alexisfero” (“bulletproof”, protecting from bullets), “alexikeravno” (“lightning rod”, protecting from thunderbolts), and “alexiptoto” (“parachute”, protecting from falling).
• And “-ander” comes from Greek “andros”, the genitive of the word for “man” (“andras” in Greek: άνδρας). Homer starts The Odyssey thus: “ándra moi énnepe moûsa polýtropon...” i.e., “Tell me, o Muse, of that ingenious man...” etc. In English, the root “andrο-” passed into words such as “androgynous”, “android”, “Andrew”, and a few more.

In short, “Alexander” means: “Protector of men”.

But every other known ancient Macedonian name is of Greek origin, too! For example, take the name of Philip, Alexander’s father, who started the expansion of the ancient Macedonian nation. That’s Greek, too. In Greek (“Philippos”), it consists of two parts:

• The prefix “philo-”, which means “having an affinity to”, or “be a friend of”. This root passed into English words such as “philosophy”, “philanthropy”, and even “Philadelphia” and “Philippines”.
• And the suffix “-ippos”, or “horse”. This root passed into Latin as “hippo-” (the initial h is the rendition of the pronunciation of the Greek “rough breathing mark”), and thence into English words such as “hippopotamus” (lit.: “river-horse”) and “hippocampus”.

“He who loves horses”, that’s what “Philippos” means in Greek.

You, my neighbors, are mostly either Slavs (64.2%), or Albanians (25.2%). The rest of your ethnicities are few in proportion (Turks 3.9%, Gypsies 2.7%, Serbs 1.8%, and others: here is the source). Now, the Albanians know very well where they came from: they were there since forever. (Homer refers to Skeria, which is nearly the way Albanians call their country: “Shqiperia”.) For this reason, your people of Albanian origin are not so hot about the name “Macedonia”: they know it’s not theirs, they don’t identify with it. But those of you who are Slavs, obviously you must know that your ancestors descended from the north of Europe and arrived in the region some time between the 6th and 7th centuries AD. That’s a whole 1000 years after Alexander’s death! What kind of relationship can you possibly have with the ancient Macedonians?

You are saying that people should have the freedom to choose a name for themselves. Yes, but as long as this name is not already in use by others, who feel offended by your insistence to have exclusive rights to it. My unlimited freedom is my neighbor’s oppression. If I am in a bus with other people I don’t have the freedom to start smoking, for example, because my smoke will bother some non-smokers. My freedom stops where the other person’s freedom starts. Same with nations, and your assumed freedom to choose a name: choose whatever you want in our Balkan Bus, but don’t choose something that oppresses your neighbors, or that makes them feel you’re eyeing a piece of their land!

You are bragging about the large number of other countries who recognized you as the “Republic of Macedonia”. Of course. Those other countries cannot care less about the sensitivity of Greeks in this issue, because they never confronted a situation such as the following:

• the Americans, for example, finding out that the Mexican peninsula of Baja California declared itself independent from Mexico, and proclaimed its name to be... guess what: the “Republic of California”; or, some other random region in the world calling itself the “Republic of America”;
• the British, realizing that suddenly there are some people who want to call their newly founded country the “Republic of England”;
• the Germans, being confronted with the possibility that some autonomous region of another nation wants to be called the “Republic of Bavaria”;
• the French, contemplating the implications of some neighboring piece of land being named the “Republic of Bretagne”;
• the Italians, being astonished after learning that some people called their country the “Republic of Tuscany”;
• the Dutch, figuring out that suddenly a nation wants to call itself the “Republic of Holland”;
• the Chinese, who don’t have to imagine anything, because there is already a nation that calls itself the “Republic of China” — otherwise known as “Taiwan”; astonishingly, the Chinese, in their infinite wisdom, already recognized you as the Republic of Macedonia;
• the Turks, people of another infinitely wise stock, who did as the Chinese, but one day might (but really) have to face the “Republic of Kurdistan” at their south-east borders; or the “Republic of Anatolia” somewhere else (and then to be stunned and scream to all directions because Greece rushed to recognize Kurdistan!);
• ...and so on and so forth, for practically every nation in the world.

(Note: the above list does not imply that all the mentioned countries have recognized the “Republic of Macedonia” as such.)

Now what do you think? Is everybody free to choose a name for themselves, disregarding others?

Peace,
One of your southern neighbors, a Macedonian by birth.