From an article by the herald tribute, which can be read in its entirety here
"ATHENS, Greece: Greece's foreign minister on Thursday accused neighboring Macedonia of trying to distort history, following reports the tiny country's main airport would be renamed after an ancient Greek warrior-king.
Dora Bakoyannis said the Macedonian Cabinet's reported decision to name Skopje's Petrovec airport "Alexander the Great Airport" could damage Macedonia's bid to join the European Union and NATO.
"This behavior is not consistent with the rules of good neighborly relations," Bakoyannis said. "It does not serve (Macedonia's) aspirations" for EU and NATO membership.
EU and NATO member Greece is locked in a 15-year dispute with Macedonia over the country's name, which Athens says implies territorial claims on the northern Greek province of Macedonia. Athens also accuses Macedonia of hijacking ancient Greek history. (...)"
I think that this is not at all good news. The bad handling of the name issue has lead to even worse decisions, and now it seems that there is no will at all for a compromise.
What i find more distasteful is not so much the fact that FYR Macedonia is still trying to present itself as related to ancient Macedonia, but that it appears to be actively willing to base itself on the history of ancient Macedonia, much like other nations in the region claim descendance from ancient kingdoms.
However the slavs reached the balkans only in the dark era of the medieval times, many aeons after the people who lead the campaign against Persia.
I am wondering if such a fabrication of history is potentially very detrimental to the entire fabric of a society, and so if in the future FYR Macedonia will have to face more problems due to it, apart from the obvious thorns in the prospect of becomming part of the EU.
Although of course it would be drammatic to claim that greeks living in the greek part of Macedonia (of which i am one as well) are anything near direct descendants of ancient macedonians, it is in my view even more bizarre to hear such a claim by slavic people, who shared neither language nor culture with the hellenistic empires.
"ATHENS, Greece: Greece's foreign minister on Thursday accused neighboring Macedonia of trying to distort history, following reports the tiny country's main airport would be renamed after an ancient Greek warrior-king.
Dora Bakoyannis said the Macedonian Cabinet's reported decision to name Skopje's Petrovec airport "Alexander the Great Airport" could damage Macedonia's bid to join the European Union and NATO.
"This behavior is not consistent with the rules of good neighborly relations," Bakoyannis said. "It does not serve (Macedonia's) aspirations" for EU and NATO membership.
EU and NATO member Greece is locked in a 15-year dispute with Macedonia over the country's name, which Athens says implies territorial claims on the northern Greek province of Macedonia. Athens also accuses Macedonia of hijacking ancient Greek history. (...)"
I think that this is not at all good news. The bad handling of the name issue has lead to even worse decisions, and now it seems that there is no will at all for a compromise.
What i find more distasteful is not so much the fact that FYR Macedonia is still trying to present itself as related to ancient Macedonia, but that it appears to be actively willing to base itself on the history of ancient Macedonia, much like other nations in the region claim descendance from ancient kingdoms.
However the slavs reached the balkans only in the dark era of the medieval times, many aeons after the people who lead the campaign against Persia.
I am wondering if such a fabrication of history is potentially very detrimental to the entire fabric of a society, and so if in the future FYR Macedonia will have to face more problems due to it, apart from the obvious thorns in the prospect of becomming part of the EU.
Although of course it would be drammatic to claim that greeks living in the greek part of Macedonia (of which i am one as well) are anything near direct descendants of ancient macedonians, it is in my view even more bizarre to hear such a claim by slavic people, who shared neither language nor culture with the hellenistic empires.
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