We take our national heroes seriously January 3, 2007
Posted by grhomeboy in HMN>GreeceNews, HMN>Politics.trackback
The following post is from the Blogger News Network and is very much related to our previous post entries concering Greece’s warning to FYROM for naming their Skopje airport as “Alexander the Great”, a Greek National Hero and a ancient heritage as well as legacy to modern Greeks. Our related posts can be read under the categories “News Greece” and “News World”. We also have posted Alexander’s The Great biography and links for those history-savvy of you, under category “Arts History Mythology”.
Readers will also notice that the author of this BNN’s article (which looks more like a comment to our opinion rather than an article) is linking to one of our earlier posts we mentioned above (dated december 30th, 2006).
The post from BNN carries same title as used above. How true! We take our National Heroes seriously, here in this part of the world, in Greece, the birthplace of Democracy and the Western Civilization!
“QUOTED” This post was written by trojan0505 on 3 January, 2007 (10:14) | All News
While the rest of Europe is going for cultural suicide by relativating themselves out of existence, no such thing it likely to happen soon to the Greeks. Last week the website of Hellenic Television reported that the Greek Foreign Minister Dora Bakoyiannis had sent a “stark message to Skopje” with regard to the new name of Skopje Airport, “Alexander the Great”. She added ominously that “Moves bound to be misunderstood must be avoided”. This calls for a clarification. It is an uphill struggle, but let’s try the (very) abbreviated version.
A small Slavonic tribe, inhabiting a patch of land in the Balkans, have been trying to carve out a national identity ever since early Byzantine times when they first arrived on the European scene, together with a number of other Slavonic peoples. At first they were co-inhabiting an area of Greece, well-known for their native sons Philippos II and Alexander the Great, called Macedonia. The people as well as the patch they lived on, by curious twists of history moved to and fro between Greece, Bulgaria and Serbia. It was once part of the Byzantine Empire, then of the Ottoman Empire after Constantinople was conquered by the Turks; later it became a constituting part of Yugoslavia.
Historians are writing about a concept long forgotten, something causing Brussels to break out in a rash, but at some stage in history not that long ago, of utmost importance: the national identity. The descendents of the little Slavonic tribe still do not have one, which is a bit crass after almost two millennia (give or take a century). They didn’t want to become Bulgarians and they certainly weren’t Serbs (being another tribe altogether), so they simply invented themselves an identity, trampling in the process on the Greek one. Hence Mrs Bakoyannis caveat: “Moves bound to be misunderstood must be avoided”. Having been lumbered with the official name FYROM (Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia) courtesy of the Greek government, Skopje must know Athens isn’t kidding either.
Those with empathy for historical figures that are known to have cried out in desperation “the Balkans, one damned thing after another” or “some damned thing in the Balkans” (the accounts vary), will be glad to know that Serbia is holding general elections on 21st January, after which the ultimate fate of Kosovo, what the Serbs consider their heartland, will be a hot topic again.
Whatever the outcome, consider yourselves under notice that national heroes are taken seriously in this part of the world. “UNQUOTED”
The link to BNN is > http://www.bloggernews.net/13523
