BIG Greek Lie 2

BIG Greek Lie 2 - The Koine Language is Greek

(Modern Greeks are victims of their own making)

By Risto Stefov

[NOTE: Our apologies to the Greek people if they find these articles offensive. Our objective here is NOT to create tension between the Macedonian and Greek people but rather to highlight the problem that exists within the Greek State and its institutions. As long as the Greek State denies our existence as Macedonians with rights and privileges, we will continue to publish these types of articles.]

In BIG Greek lie # 1 we showed that there were no "Ancient Greeks" since the word "Greek" was not coined until after the Roman conquests, approximately 600 years after the establishment of the City States and approximately 150 years after they were conquered by the Macedonians. In a similar manner we will show that the Koine language was not exclusively Greek as Greece would have us believe.

The Koine language made its way into Macedonia a little before Philip II's time. Poorly worded and misspelled inscriptions written in Koine were found in the Macedonian capital which indicates that the language was not well understood and was just making its way there. The roots of the Koine language may have started in one of the more progressive City States, most probably Athens, but by the time it made its way to the Eastern Mediterranean, it had become the language of administration and commerce, common to all Mediterranean nations.

In Macedonia, Koine was strictly the language of the educated and was used by the court administrators and the international merchants.

By the time Koine arrived in Macedonia it was already the "lingua franca" of administration and commerce in the Eastern Mediterranean world.

Koine in those days was like English is today. In Europe for example, counties have their own languages which they use to communicate at home, but internationally they use English to communicate with other countries.

Alexander the Great was the first to take Koine out of the Mediterranean world to Asia, Africa and other worlds he conquered. The real heroes for Koine's success were Alexander's successors the Antigonids, Selucuseds and the Ptolemies. It is well known that the Ptolemies did not only insist on using Koine but they refused to learn any other language including those of the people they ruled. Cleopatra VII was the only Macedonian sovereign from the Ptolemaic dynasty who broke the Ptolemaic rule and learned several languages including Egyptian.

The Koine language was so deeply rooted in the old Macedonian empires that even after they were conquered by the Romans it continued to flourish. Koine was spoken by Roman intellectual even in Rome. Almost all ancient literary works were written in Koine

Let's not forget that throughout the Macedonian and Roman periods Koine, in spite of its popularity with the educated and elite, it remained a language of Administration and commerce. Koine was never a language of the common people.

While Koine served its purpose in the administrative and commercial circles, other languages, languages of the people, simultaneously also flourished in parallel but in their oral form until they were later codified by Christianity.

After the Roman empire split into East and West, Koine again resurfaced and replaced Latin as the administrative language of the Eastern or Pravoslav empire. Koine remained active and served the administration and commerce of the Pravoslav world for over a millennium.

Interestingly, Koine also became the administrative and commercial language of the Ottoman Empire and continued to exist in a commercial and administrative capacity during Ottoman rule as it did during Pravoslav rule. .

By Islamic law, Muslims were not allowed to travel outside of their domain, handle public funds or speak foreign languages. The Ottomans employed Christians to administer foreign affairs, banking and trade with the outside world. And yes you guest it, the Christians continued to employ the Koine language throughout Ottoman rule as they did during Pravoslav rule..

The keepers of the Ottoman administrative and commercial services as well as the rulers of the Christian world inside the Ottoman empire were known as the Phanariots. The Phanariots were the Christian educated and professionals middle class or the bourgeoisie of the Ottoman world. They were people from various nationalities from every corner of the Eastern world. They were the clerics, the translators (dragoman), the merchants and the captains of ships and of industry and they all spoke Koine. They were called Phanariots because they lived in a district of Tsari Grad (Constantinople or Istanbul) known as the Phanar.

In the 19th century, during the Ottoman decline, the Phanariots were much in favour of toppling the Ottoman administration. The idea was to overthrow the Ottoman Sultan and his Muslim rule and replace it with Christian rule. Unfortunately, the Great Powers did not favour the idea and it failed. After that, the Phanariots worked closely with the Great Powers to establish the Greek Kingdom.

Even though the people of the newly established Greek Kingdom were of many different ethnicities including Albanians, Vlahs, Slavs, Turks, etc, each with a unique language and culture, the Great Powers instilled upon them the idea that they were the descendents of the ancient people who lived in that region over two millenniums ago.

After nearly a decade of contemplation as to which language to use, Greek authorities finally decided to adopt the Koine language as the liturary language of their new nation. They disregarded all vibrant and living peoples' languages in favour of the ancient administrative and commercial Koine.

Unfortunately, after two millennium of evolution, the modern version of Koine contained many foreign elements and proved distasteful to the Greek purists who wanted a pure language which was close to those of the ancient City States.

After nearly a century of using Koine, the purists finally got their chance to replace it. Their new choice was an old dead Attic language used by the ancient Athenians 2,500 years ago. The Greeks called their new language the Catharevoussa for its linguistic purity.

Unfortunately, this language had been dead for two thousand years and the Greek literary world which was used to the bastardized impure Koine, found it very difficult to understand and impossible to express emotion. Its use was finally terminated in the 1970's in favour of the bastardized Koine (Dimotiki).

For those Greeks who insist that all ancient Greeks spoke a dialect of the same language, here are some simple and common everyday words in English, Ancient Attic and Modern Koine;

English / Catharevoussa (Ancient Attic) / Dimotiki (Koine)

Horse / Ipos / Alogo

Donkey / Onos / Gaidaros

Hen / Ornitha / Kota

Goat / Ega / Gida (Katsika)

Kid (baby goat) / Erifi / Katsiki

Bread / Artos / Psomi

THE TRUTH: The Koine language belongs to all the Eastern Mediterranean people and not just modern Greece.

Modern Greece took the Koine language, which by right belongs to all the Eastern Mediterranean people, for itself and now calls it Greek.

Just because Greece adopted Koine as the literary language for its modern nation, it does not make it exclusively Greek. Koine evolved as the language of administration and commerce in the entire Eastern Mediterranean and as such belongs to all the people in the Eastern Mediterranean world.

If anyone should claim credit for Koine's effectiveness and long survival it should be the ancient Macedonians who insisted on using it for centuries.

You can contact the author at rstefov@hotmail.com

Macedonians in Greece - Time Amanac

Time Amanac 2010 - Countries in the world - Greece, page 287

Тајм Алманах 2010 - Земји во светот - Грција, стр 287

"... Популација (2008): 11.239.000 ... Етнички групи (2000; неофицијален извор; владата тврди дека нема етнички малцинства во Грција) ... Македонци 1.8% ..."

BIG Greek Lie 1

BIG Greek Lie 1 - Modern Greeks are direct descendents of the Ancient Greeks

(The greatest victims of Greek lies are the Greeks themselves)

By Risto Stefov

[NOTE: Our apologies to the Greek people if they find these articles offensive. Our objective here is NOT to create tension between the Macedonian and Greek people but rather to highlight the problem that exists within the Greek State and its institutions. As long as the Greek State denies our existence as Macedonians with rights and privileges, we will continue to publish these types of articles.]

How can a region in the Balkans where modern Greece is located today, which has been open to a multitude of invasions, conquests and settlements, remain homogeneous and untouched for two thousand seven hundred years?

Ironically, as the Greeks claim, how can modern Macedonia, a region neighbouring modern Greece be so heterogeneous that it has completely lost its original identity?

These are questions that every Greek should be asking!

Ever since Philip II of Macedonia conquered the ancient City States at the conclusion of the battle of Chaeronea in 338 BC, the region south of Olympus has been without borders and open to all kinds of invasions and barbarian settlements.

THE BIG GREEK LIE: "Modern Greeks are direct descendents of the ancient Greeks"

There were no "Ancient Greeks" since the word "Greek" was not coined until after the Roman conquests, approximately 600 years after the establishment of the City States and approximately 150 years after they were conquered by the Macedonians.

It is also well known that the ancient City States were never united politically and never established themselves as a single state. In fact they existed politically independent from one another and fought each other for economic dominance of the region.

The name "Greece" was imposed on the modern Greek Kingdom by the Great Powers Britain, France and Russia. Modern Greeks call themselves Hellenes (Ellines) and their state Hellas (Ellas).

By using the name "Greek" to refer to both the ancient and modern people, the Greek state falsely implies descent for the modern Greeks from the ancients.

By using the name "Greece" to refer to both the ancient and modern states, the Greek State is falsely implying;

(1) continuity between the ancient City States and modern Greece, and

(2) that there was some sort of political unity between the ancient City States themselves where one did not exist..

In reality the words "Greece" and "Greek" were popularized by modern 19th century writers. There are no ancient maps or references with the words "Greece".

The Romans may have made some references to the ancient people living in Sicily as "Grecos" but they referred to the region south of Olympus as Achaia.

During the Ottoman era the people living south of Olympus called themselves Romeos (Romans).

Greece is a newly created state which never existed before the 19th century. The Kingdom of Greece, occupying the region of Morea, present day Peloponnesus, was created for the first time in 1829. Between 1829 and 1912 the Greeks enlarged their territory to present day Greece, by conquering Epirus, Thessaly and 51% of Macedonia.

At its inception Greece stated out with a small population of less than one million people, most of whom were Albanians, Slavs and Vlahs with a small minority of other ethnicities. By the time Greece conquered Epirus and Thessaly, its population grew to three times its original size. In 1907 it registered a population of 2,600,000. After it conquered Macedonia and exchanged populations with Turkey, its population tripled. In 1928 Greece registered 6,200,000 people. 1,100,000 of them were Christians, refugees from Asia Minor.

After the Treaty of Lausanne in July 1923, and after the population exchanges with Turkey, Greece declared itself homogenous consisting of 100% pure Greeks with a very small Muslim but ethnically Greek population.

It is estimated that after Macedonia was conquered, occupied and had some of its population evicted, more than one million Macedonians still remained and were included among the Greeks.

According to Greece however, there were no non-Greeks left in Macedonia after its population exchanges. Also, according to Greece, the ancient Macedonians were extinct, killed off by the Slavs around the 6th century AD during the so-called Slav invasions.

So the question that begs to be asked here is, "What nationality were these million or so people who remained in Macedonia and became part of Greece?" Many Greeks would argue that they were Bulgarians!

If that were the case, then how can the modern Greeks claim purity and homogeneity if at least 16% of its population in 1928 was non-Greek? What about its Vlah, Slav, Albanian and Turkish elements? Clearly they are not Greeks, let alone being direct descendents of the ancient Greeks?

Even this small argument shows that there is something "fishy" about these Greek claims.

For over a century and a half Greek State institutions, organizations and individuals have been making unproven and unfounded allegations that the modern Greeks are direct descendents of the ancients. To this day they have shown no evidence to prove their claims. In fact the opposite is true. There is ample evidence that proves that this particular modern Greek claim is an outright BIG Greek lie.

This exact issue was tackled by Historian John Shea in chapter 4 of The Great Ethnic Mix of Greece, pages 77 to 96, in his book "Macedonia and Greece, The Struggle to Define a New Balkan Nation". Among other things, John Shea proves that even the ancient people were not homogeneous.

"It has been estimated that in classical times the number of slaves in Attica was roughly equal to the number of free inhabitants, or around 100,000. In Sparta there was an even greater proportion of slaves, and most of them, the helots, were Messenians. While the slaves of Athens were a wide racial mix and therefore less likely to unite on the basis of a common language, these Messenian helots of Sparta all spoke Greek, and had a kind of group self-consciousness. Thus they presented 'special problems of security for their Spartan masters, whose numbers were constantly on the decline.' Changes in the ethnic composition of Greek city-states are illustrated by the comments about the case of Piso. Piso, who had been the recipient of an unhelpful decision by a vote of the Athenian city assembly, 'made a violent speech in which he said that the latter-day Athenians had no right to identify themselves with the great Athenians of the days of Pericles, Demosthenes, Aeschylus, and Plato. The ancient Athenians had been extirpated by repeated wars and massacres and these were mere mongrels, degenerates, and the descendants of slaves. He said that any Roman who flattered them as if they were the legitimate heirs of those ancient heroes was lowering the dignity of the Roman name.' Such historical ideas make it clear that even two thousand years ago the notion of ethnic purity amongst the Greeks was difficult to sustain. The ethnic mix continued over the next two thousand years. As Nicol has observed, 'The ancient Greeks were, after all, of very mixed ancestry; and there can be no doubt that the Byzantine Greeks, both before and after the Slav occupation, were even more heterogenous'." (Pages 83 and 84, John Shea, Macedonia and Greece, The Struggle to Define a New Balkan Nation)

And there you have it!

THE TRUTH: The modern Greeks are not only NOT direct descendents of the ancients, but their Greekness is a myth, a modern 19th century creation.

You can contact the author at rstefov@hotmail.com

The Macedonian Question - "Macedonia"

"We have many times heard from the Macedonists that they are not Bulgarians but Macedonians, descendants of the Ancien t Macedonians..." - The Macedonian Question - Petar Rachev Slavejkov, published 18th January 1871 in the "Macedonia" newspaper in Constaninople

"Многу пати сме слушале од Македонистите дека тие не се Бугари туку Македонци, потомци на Античките Македонци..." - Македонското прашање - Петар Рачев Славејков, објавено на 18ти јануари 1871 во "Македонија" весник од Константинопол

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