A response to Telegraph British Travel edition about Macedonia

Dear editors and journalists,

I am writing about your article:  https://www.telegraph.co.uk/travel/destinations/europe/articles/hiking-in-macedonia/

where you are claiming that Alexander the Great was not Greek and that Greece not existed as a nation at 4th century BC, which shows that you completely ignore ancient history and culture.
Not only Alexander the Great (III), but also his ancestor, Alexander the 1st (498-454 BC.) was Greek and participated in the Olympic games (the first Olympics is traditionally dated to 776 BC), claiming his origin of Argos from the Timenides tribe.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alexander_I_of_Macedon
https://www.ancienthistorylists.com/greek-history/top-10-important-events-of-ancient-greece/
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_Greece
https://www.khanacademy.org/humanities/world-history/ancient-medieval/classical-greece/a/greek-culture
You can also read the following article about the name issue:

Makedonian name, culture, history is only Greek for more than 2.500 years

and any other claim from our Slav neighbors is fake that creates only problems between the 2 countries and the whole Balkans.

We want to live peacefully with our neighbors (FYROM), but the experience of the last years proves that, sacrificing our name and history has the opposite result, because:

you cannot live peacefully with a neighbor that claims the name of your family, history and property.

The last years we are watching a ridiculous and shameful comedy in Skopje, of harsh violation of historical, cultural data and the right of a region (Greek region of Macedonia) to have its obvious own ancient history and identity.

The problem is that FYROM claims, through the right of self-determination, the rights of its neighbor (Greece), to the name, to its own territory and history. The base of these claims is that the ancient Makedonians didn’t speak the Greek language and were not Greeks, so FYROM, that named itself Makedonia and living in a part of the ancient Makedonia, is the real descendant of the ancient Makedonia and can claim its history, land, culture and glory.

In this video, the first president of FYROM says very clear that: “the people of FYROM, we are Slavs that we came in this area in 6th century AD, (more than 1.000 years after the ancient Macedonians) and we don’t have any relation with them: https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=13&v=9-huPB71OLY .

While in this video (https://www.newsit.gr/politikh/skopiano-apantisan-oti-o-megas-aleksandros-itan-ellinas-kai-exasan-23-000-eyro-vid/2404564/ ), in one TV game, in Great Britain, are saying that Alexander the Great was not Greek, but Macedonian (showing at the same time the flag of Skopje), born in Pella (which was and is still is a Greek prefecture) at 356 B.C.(while the Slavs came to our neighborhood after 1.000 years).

Besides this, all the facts are proving the identity of the ancient Macedonians, a few of them:

·         All the known Macedonians had pure Greek names (kings, army officers, writers … https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_ancient_Macedonians ), like: Alexandros (this is his original Greek name) the Great himself and all his family [Filippos – father, Olympias – mother, Thessaloniki – sister (not Solun as Slavs say)] and his teachers: Leonidas (his uncle), Lysimachus and the philosopher Aristoteles (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alexander_the_Great ).

·         Moreover, only Greeks can pronounce correctly all these absolutely Greek names and can understand their meaning.

·         All the written evidences in coins, inscriptions, statues, books, letters are only Greek.

·         The era after the death of Alexandros the Great, called Hellenistic. Why?

·         The origin of the Makedonian empire is the Greek province of Pella, where the palace and most of the tombs are lying.

·         The 12 gods of the ancient Greece, were placed in Makedonia on the mountain Olympus (if Makedonia was not assumed as Greek territory, the Greeks shouldn’t place their gods there and let the Makedonians to participate in Olympic games).

·         Aristoteles the great Greek philosopher and teacher of Alexander the Great was born in Stagira, Chalkidiki, which geographically is located in the heart of Makedonia, his name, language and work was purely Greek .

After all, for everybody, who has good knowledge of ancient history, is more than obvious that the origin of the Ancient Makedonians was Greek and only Greek [because the most important fact which determines the nation is not the borders (that can change through the years) but the culture and language]. Here is a link, where recognized history professors explain: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8l4OHLf-yP0 , https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=35t2jeXx3dA 

Claiming that the culture and history of ancient Makedonia belongs to Skopje, is like claiming that Bavaria is Brazilian inheritance and Leonardo da Vinci was Japanese.

If you want more info from me or you want to comment my email you can reply to this.

thanks 

Stratos Chatzikefalas