How important can the history of a country be for its citizens?
Well in Greece there is no limits to how important it is to protect the historical heritage.
Two weeks ago around 600.000 people gathered in Thessaloniki in Northern Greece to protest against the fact that neighbouring country F.Y.R.O.M. north of Greece uses the name Macedonia.
The Greeks believe that their neighbors are trying to steal a part of their national heritage in order to create a national identity. Furthermore they do believe that it is wrong that they neighbors calls themselves Macedonians since they arrived to the region around 800 years after Alexander the Great reigned the region.
For the story there is a statue of Alexander the Great both in Thessaloniki and in Skopije(the capital of F.Y.R.O.M.), since both countries claims that he belongs to their history.
The reason why the name conflict is experiencing a new tension is that F.Y.R.O.M. is in talks for a membership in NATO and in E.U. which is something that Greece is blocking only because of the name.
On the other side of the border, there is also a big part of the population that prefers to stay out of NATO and E.U. and instead keeping Macedonia as the name of their country.
Two weeks after the first demonstration around 2 million people participated today(4th of February) in the demonstration in Athens. As the first demonstration in Thessaloniki the Athenian demonstration has as target to demand that the name Macedonia is Greek and only can be used for the region Macedonia of Greece and not for the country that calls itself by the very same name.
What is your opinion about these two demonstrations? Can you understand the determination of the Greeks in protecting their historical heritage?
I think that if the Macedonians would like to call their country Macedonia instead of the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, they should be allowed to. It is their country after all. I can however, understand the Greek people’s frustration (2 million is quite a statement).
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It is very complicated since the emotions of both populations are involved. And somehow it is as you say, tough to tell people what they are allowed to call themselves, though the choice of name is a bit sensitive.
Not easy to say what the correct outcome will be.
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We shall see in a little bit what the outcome is.
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The outcome shouldn't be far away. Erdogan stated he is in favor of FYROM, but on the other hand Erdogan is not the king of diplomacy these years.
I do believe that the most important thing should be to increase the quality of life for the citizens rather than fighting for a name. Many youngsters are leaving Greece these years.
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Clearly Macedon is now Macedonia, and not at all Greek, similar to how Troy is now Turkish and not Greek.
Macedonia and Greece both have compelling cases for Alexander belonging to them. He was culturally Hellenistic for sure.
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When it comes to history the feelings are playing a central role in this part of Europe. The problem is that feelings never are acting in a rational way. But if the current situation is bad for the countries and the citizens you might as well try to defend the past. My personal opinion is that it is important to look forward and create a great future rather than looking backwards remembering the past. Alexander the great would probably have as much in common with the current Greeks as the Vikings would have in common with the current politically correct Danes.
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Great point about looking forward not backwards.
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That is the only correct thing to do. History is important to read, especially when there are lessons that we can learn from and things we should avoid happen again. But it is in the past.
I think the we should learn from the previous generations, but always try to develop.
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Good post, I am a photographer, it passes for my blog and sees my content, I hope that it should be of your taste :D greetings
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Thank you for your comment. I will have a look at your blog.
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