Dispute Over Macedonia

In response to “Greeks Keep Macedonia a Phantom Nation,” by Carol Williams, May 27:

If somebody started using the name “Los Angeles Times” and started impersonating you by laying claims on your history and your symbols and traditions, you would be very upset too. This is the case with the Greeks who are protesting the use of the name “Macedonia” by the Bulgarian-speaking people of southern Yugoslavia led by Kiro Gligorov, who formed the new nation with Skopje as its capital.

The Greeks rightly consider the name Macedonia as the Trojan horse that will be used to confuse people who are not knowledgeable of the area’s history and thus create more instability and even bloodshed.

The Greeks are extremely sensitive because this is the latest artifice used by these people to gain access to the Aegean Sea. Greece was invaded by them three times in this century. During World Wars I and II, Bulgaria sided with the Germans, then occupied northern Greece using terror and all other means of force to turn Greek Macedonia into a Slavic-speaking province. Then, after World War II, the communists under Tito invented the Macedonia state, counterfeited history by falsely claiming these were the descendants of the ancient Macedonians, and promised support to the Greek communists if they in turn consented to form a Macedonian state that included most of northern Greece. For the last 50 years, the communist propaganda of Tito and Gligorov has built up a mythology calculated to “liberate” the “Macedonians of the Aegean” and form a state which includes most of northern Greece.

This new nation could live peacefully with its neighbors if it truly renounces the communist mythology of expansionism and abides by the conditions for recognition as a state set down by the European Community nations: a) choose any name other than Macedonia, and b) renounce all territorial claims on neighboring states.

PETER DEMOPOULOS

Los Angeles