Yes but we won't be allowed to enter Egejska Makedonija. A belgian TV crew did a documentary on Macedonia and travelled to Egejska Makedonija and were hassled at the border and were followed by the police for the whole trip there. You might remmeber this it was on SBs a few years ago.




ACKO

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Replying to:

"Whats more he was from Kozani, a prefecture well south of the regions of Lerin (Florina), Kostur (Kastoria) and Voden (Edessa) where it is well recognised the vast majority of the population is of 'non Greek descent'"




Are you for real? Maybe you have been consulting your great fiction writer Ted Yannas or Yanov (name seems to change when it suites him)? Where is this statement recognised? In FYROM? In Melbourne?




Having lived in Florina for a while let me tell you maybe 5-10% are of non Greek descent, and believe me the majority of Greeks in Florina detest the attempts made by the so called 'slav/confused macedonian' minority to put claims on territories rich in hellenistic and Byzantine culture.




Why don't you get on a plane and go find out for yourself Kostur. Do you know where the name Kostur is derived from? Let me know.


S.

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Replying to:

I must note that not all 'Greeks' are the same.




I remember an occasion when an elderly man overheard me speaking to someone about my origins. He looked at me and said:


(we conversed in Makedonski, but for the benefit of those 'new Greeks' out there who were not taught Makedonski by their grandparents I will repeat the conversation in English)


Old guy: Do you speak Macedonian?


Me: Yes.


(I noted he had a shocking accent)


Me: I note your strange accent. Where are you from?


Old guy: Greece


Me: But you are nonetheless an ethnic Macedonian, from Aegean Macedonia?


Old guy: No I am 'Greek'. I come from the Kozani region, where my family settled as refugees from Asia Minor following the Balkan wars. During the Civil War in Greece, I fought alongside the ethnic Macedonians, and after the Civil War I fled with a large group of ethnic Macedonians to Czechoslovakia. Living in Czechoslovakia with them I too learnt to speak Macedonian.


Me: Are there more ethnic Macedonians or more ethnic Greeks in Kozani?


Old guy: Probably fifty-fifty




Such real life accounts are obviously hush-hush in Greece today. But it was interesting that a self declared ethnic Greek told me how he had been taught Macedonian by living and suffering together with the Macedonians. Whats more he was from Kozani, a prefecture well south of the regions of Lerin (Florina), Kostur (Kastoria) and Voden (Edessa) where it is well recognised the vast majority of the population is of 'non Greek descent'

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Replying to:

No they didn't drop it because the like it but because they were forced. Greek police used to listen if people were speaking Macedonian and would punish the ones that spoke it.




The newest example is that a person that is from the great children exodus, the children that were ofrced to leave Egejska Makedonija, who is a gread humanitarian and has received creditation from the international red cross was not allowed to enter greece becaue he was born in Egejska Makedonija. This is just one example of hundreds and hundreds that have happened on the greek border. Why is this I ask you? What does the greek government want to hide?




ACKO

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Replying to:

"There is little doubt that 100 years ago both my ancestors and yours (I trace my ancestry to Kostur) spoke the same native tongue and shared exactly the same culture and traditions. Over the last 100 years your family has acquired a new language and a strong sense of national conscious brought by the southern colonisers"




A new language?? I don;t think so buddy - they maitained the language that they were always speaking in the region. The most commonly used language in the region was Greek and they continued speaking it. Unlike what you have stated they did not drop one language in preferance of another. As for the Southern collonisers as you call them - you are sadly mistaken as Macedonia did not have to be colonised as it was already flourishing with Greek culture and a sence of Greek ethnicism.