Smart Peace Blog

Hi there, it’s me again, Heather Roberson, co-author and protagonist of the graphic novel Macedonia: What does it Take to Stop a War?

I’d like to take a moment to address the several comments and e-mails I have received recently that resemble this one that landed in my email box a couple days ago:ethnic Macedonians??

is this a joke?

i come from greece

the northi part of greece
which is called macedonia
particularly i was born in serres town
my parents was born also there too
am i only greek or i am macedonian also?

I expect such comments. However, I did not expect the following incident:

A couple months ago, I was at the University of Chicago giving a lecture. There I visited a photography exhibit of Macedonian places of worship, taken by the historical preservationist, Pance Velkov.

I found the exhibit defaced. The introductory plaque, which originally read, “Pance Velkov, a Macedonian,” was scratched out and over it written, “Pance Velkov, a Slav.“ Where had been written “Republic of Macedonia,” was scratched out and, in its place, “F.Y.R.O.M.“ My friend sighed, “We have a lot of problems with Greek harassment here.”

A little background:

When Macedonia declared independence in the early 1990s, it named itself “Republic of Macedonia.” This was natural, considering that most of the people living there consider themselves to be Macedonians, had been living in the Republic of Macedonia as part of Yugoslavia, and had been engaged in a national struggle as Macedonians long before that.

However, the very idea of a “Republic of Macedonia” agitated Greece, which claimed that this represented an attempt to take over the historic region of Macedonia, much of which exists in modern-day Greece. (It remains unclear how Macedonia could pose a threat to Greece, with its robust military and its EU/NATO membership, but xenophobia is rarely based on logic, I find.)

There were also disputes over pan-Macedonian symbols that the new Republic of Macedonia seemed to be co-opting for its own exclusive use.

For instance, their first flag looked like this:

The Greeks argued that this flag, showing the Star of Vergina, which had been placed on the coffin of Philip the Macedon, was an affront to all things Hellenic and so held up EU recognition of Macedonia, saddled Macedonia with the unwieldy “Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia” moniker that is currently used at the UN, and even levied, in 1994, a devastating economic blockade on Macedonia.

It lifted the blockade the next year, after Macedonia changed its flag to look like this:

But the arguing over Macedonia’s name continues, with Greece now offering up alternate names like “Republic of Upper Macedonia.”

And just as importantly, Greece has continually denied the existence and rights of its own Macedonian minority. If you are interested in this, you can read the Human Rights Watch report on the subject, entitled, “Denying Ethnic Identity: The Macedonians of Greece.”

Now, while that’s probably too much or not enough background, we can all see that we (meaning, me) have stepped into a heated identity conflict. So let me address the question at hand: Do ethnic Macedonians exist?

I would argue that they do exist, just as much as any ethnicity exists. And how do I know? Have I tested their DNA? Time-traveled centuries back to canvass the region?

I obviously haven’t. And I don’t need to.

Ethnicity isn’t about shared DNA, or about how people were referred to 500 years ago. It is about a shared sense of identity and culture. The Macedonians certainly have that. The fact that they say they have that means they have that.

Furthermore, isn’t it a little disrespectful to tell people that they are wrong about who they are?

In my humble opinion, the first step towards Peace lies in trusting people to decide who and what they are. The only time an outsider should get involved in defining someone else’s identity is when that identity brings harm to someone or something else. (For a brilliant article on such negotiations, click here.)

And now, to answer the last part of the writer’s question:

am i only greek or i am macedonian also?

Honestly? I would say that, if you are a person living in a region with a long history of armies and peoples tromping across it, you could be a lot of things. You could be a lot of things, all at once, and not even know it. You could think you are one thing and be another entirely.

But it’s not nice to tell people who they are and it’s especially not nice to tell people they are wrong about who they are. So, whatever you say is fine with me.

(Stay Tuned.)

This entry was posted on Monday, February 25th, 2008 at 9:18 pm and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.