November 20, 2009

Come take a ride in Tito´s time Machine 14

Come take a ride in Tito´s time Machine – Part 14 – MASS MEETING OF MACEDONIANS

Risto Stefov

November 20, 2009
If we "must" believe that Josip Broz Tito (May 7, 1892 - May 4, 1980), the Yugoslav dictator, along with the Communists, "invented" the Macedonians then we must also believe that Tito possessed a "Time Machine" because in this series of articles we will show you that the Macedonians existed way before Tito´s time.

Fearing that Tito might show up early again, the next day I got to the hiding place bright and early and entered the Delorean´s trunk so I would be out of sight. It seemed like hours had passed before I heard voices. The entire team showed up together. Tito hates to wait so he must have had the team assemble early in the morning and left for the Delorean after everyone was there.

I wondered if Tito had discovered that TrueMacedonian was missing after the team had left the previous night? Then I overheard TrueMacedonian explain that the only reason he had stayed behind was because he was anxious to read parts of his book as soon as possible. And of course he didn´t exactly lie about that except for the fact that it was me and not him who was reading the book.

"Next time you feel like doing that it wouldn´t hurt if you let me know!" Tito declared as he slammed the Delorean´s door and began to adjust the time machine dials. "We are going to Vienna, April 7, 1902," he said as he pushed the time activation button.

The next day the following article appeared in The New York Times;

"MACEDONIANS WELL ORGANIZED

Have Even a Postal System of Their Own – They Have Received Donations from Abroad.

London Times – New York Times Special Cablegram

LONDON, April 8. – The Macedonian revolutionists are not concerned in regard to the convenience of Europe, says the Vienna correspondent of The Times. Sarafof (the Macedonian leader) deliberately says that it is beyond the power of Austria or Russia to interfere.

The correspondent says that Sarafof´s methods strongly resemble those of the anarchists, as they consist of terrorizing the defenseless population while the Turkish troops are carefully avoided.

The revolutionists are admirable organized, having even an efficient postal service of their own. They have received donations from foreign sympathizers, and are likely to do more mischief before they are suppressed." (The New York Times, April 8, 1902)

The team was back and off again this time to Sofia, Bulgaria, to February 15th, 1903, where many Macedonians were expected to gather. I didn´t realize how many that could be until I read the following clip the next day;

"MASS MEETING OF MACEDONIANS

SOFIA, Feb. 15. – A mass meeting of 10,000 Macedonians was held here to-day to protest against the action of the government in dissolving the Macedonian Committees in Bulgaria. The meeting demanded the re-establishment of the Macedonian societies and the judicial punishment of individual offenders.

It is reported that warrants are out for the arrest of Boris Sarafof, Yankof, and other Macedonian leaders.

Sarafof is said to be now in Macedonia organizing a revolt. Several arrests of Macedonian leaders have been made in provincial towns. The government will prosecute the arrested men." [/quote] (The New York Times, February 16, 1903)

Ten thousand Macedonians in Bulgaria? Did Tito "create" that many Macedonians in one day? And were they "ethnic" or "geographical" Macedonians? Let´s see how the Greeks will handle this one?

If Macedonians did not exist and if all these people were ´ethnic´ Bulgarians as the Greeks like to claim, and if they were fighting for a ´Greater Bulgaria´, then why did the Bulgarian government have them arrested, I wondered as the team came back and was off again, this time to Geneva, to March 1st, 1903.

The next day the following short article appeared in The New York Times;

quote] "SEVERE FIGHTING BETWEEN TURKS AND MACEDONIANS.

Turks Repulsed With Heavy Loss Near Monastir – Sultan´s Reform Order Regarded as a Trick.

LONDON, March 2. – The Geneva correspondent of The Daily Chronicle telegraphs that news has been received there of an engagement between Turkish troops and bodies of Macedonians and Bulgarians near Monastir.

The Turks suffered a repulse. After the fighting thirty-two dead and many wounded were found." (The New York Times, March 2, 1903)

Bravo Tito, you managed to insert the words ´Macedonians and Bulgarians´ in the same sentence! I would very much like to see how our Modern Greeks today are going to explain this one. How many lies will be told to cover up the original Big Greek Lie?

Speaking of Big Greek Lies, after the team departed for the night I came out of the Delorean´s trunk and discovered a crumpled piece of paper on the ground. I smoothed it out and found it was a photocopy of a page from a book.

TrueMacedonian must have left it behind for me to find, I thought as I began to read it.

Here is what it said;

"Argolida has been continuously settled since ancient times. Since the Mycenaean era, it has been under the continual occupation of successive empires and states, from the city-states of ancient Greece through Rome and Byzantium, the Venetians, Ottomans and finally the modern Greek state. Successive waves of conquerors and immigrants have all left their mark. Today the area is widely considered to be the heartland of modern Greece. The revolution that lead to the founding of the modern Greek state in 1821 was centered in the Peloponessos, and Nauplio became its first capital. Since then, the construction of Greek national identity has tended to efface processes of social differentiation. The institutions and ideology of the Greek nation-state have sought to project an unproblematic narrative of Greek history stretching back to ancient times (Herzfeld 1982). Despite these efforts, however, it is difficult to document a continuous lineage of ´Greek´ identity. Instead what we find is a history of confrontation, contradiction and assimilation among contentious social groups and ethnic identities.

The notion of a ´Greek´ identity in the modern sense is itself in large part a creation of the movement towards statehood. It was not until the nineteenth century that the term came to describe a homogenous ethnic group in the modern sense. Instead, the peoples of the Peloponnessos, including Argolida, made up an intricate mosaic of ethnicities and languages. In Argolida dialects of Albanian, Greek, Turkish and other local languages were spoken (Andromedas 1976). From the Byzantine Empire and onwards, religion was an important marker of social identity. The Byzantines were Greek speakers, but they associated the Greek language with Christianity rather than ancient Greece, and in fact ethnically defined themselves as ´Romans´, a term carried over to the Ottoman Empire as ´Rum´ meaning Orthodox Christians." ("Blood and Oranges Immigrant Labour and European Markets in Rural Greece", by Christopher M. Lawrence, page 12)

At the bottom of the page there was something handwritten which read;

IKNT-C-U-4-4-TO-5-DYS-

It didn´t take me too long to realize that this was not the ISBN number of the book but rather a coded message for me which I read to mean: I can´t see you in the next four to five days. I assume because of the previous day´s incident Tito might have been getting suspicious of TrueMacedonian being up to some of his own ´extra curricular activities´ after the missions. So I gather he was going to ´lay low´ for the next four to five days, just to throw off any suspicions, which was fine by me.

To be continued.

Other articles by Risto Stefov:

http://www.maknews.com/html/articles.html#stefov

http://www.americanchronicle.com/authors/view/3446

Many thanks to TrueMacedonian from http://www.maknews.com/forum for his contribution to this article.

You can contact the author at rstefov@hotmail.com

No comments: