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The Weekend Neos Kosmos : 9 February 2019
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DIGITAL.NEOSKOSMOS.COM THE WEEKEND NEOS KOSMOS | SATURDAY 9 FEBRUARY 2019 25 OPINION Does freedom of speech qualify as treason? MARY SINANIDIS Correcting Kiesling Why did Neos Kosmos bizarrely give Brady Kiesling a podium to spew his unprincipled patronising nonsense? I would bet if you asked a thousand random Greeks who this foreign nationalist was not one of them would have ever heard of him.To address the many errors in the "Brady Kiesling' narrative that appeared in Neos Kosmos on 2 February. "Macedonia" is a meme, an abstraction, with as many meanings as there are people who have ever admitted the concept to their mental universe." Pure post-modernist analogising garbage. Macedonia is a specific place in Greece and Hellenic culture themes are not a "meme" (a term which can mean virtually anything). Using such logic any ethnic group or nationality could be downgraded to simply "meme". America is just a "meme' - ergo since Mexico is part of the region of America. Mexicans can lay claim to George Washington. Ergo they can encourage "United America". America is just a meme right? Mexico is smaller and posed no threat to US right? (same argument used with Skopjians) Would the US nationalists like Mr Kiesling tolerate Mexicans if they behaved like Skopjians on this issue? Would they claim that America is just a region? Of course not. They would be just as hostile at Mexicans for using term "America" to usurp their history and promote irredentism as Greeks are of Skopjians. Ptolemaios, mapped Macedonia in accordance with Roman administrative convenience And there is a Macedonia USA too - which Greeks never objected to. Again Mr Kiesling uses weak ad-hoc analogies ratter than deal with the issue at hand - Greek cultural patrimony. Thus, in the late 19th century, "Macedonia" was a usefully neutral geographic term for a generously vague region. More garbage. The borders of the vague "region" Mr Keisling described are a fiction of his vivid imagination. No jurisdiction has ever existed with this 'region' name. Just because so many foreign nationalist incompetently claimed ancient Paeonia 'Macedonia" does not make it so. Rome conquered the UK. Yet foreign nationalists do not typically consider England part of the region of Rome. As a famously Greek name, it also served the irredentist purposes of independent Greece quite nicely. The alternative to calling the local slavic dialect and people "Macedonian" was to call them "Bulgarian." The former Yugoslavians called themselves Bulgarian back then. Their so called "Macedonian" national heroes... Gruev, Dechev, Misirkov, IMRP, self-determined ethnic Bulgarian "Macedonians" (Macedonian in regional not ethnic sense much like a Greek in Turkey is not an ethnic Turk because they happen to live in Turkey) But not because the Republic of North Macedonia poses, now or ever, a threat to Greek territory or national identity. Pure lies. Mr Kiesling claims to speak for ancient history but "can't even report modern history correctly. Skopjians have been promoting "United Macedonia" for years. And lets not forget the US government itself refused to recognise Skopjians as "Macedonians" in 1944 precisely because they saw them as a threat to Greece.It is not Greece that is unprincipled on this Macedonia issue. It is American nationalists like Mr Kieslng Also fascinating is how Mr Keisling frames Greek identity as a "national" identity rather than ethnic identity. Does Mr. Keisling equally claim Jewish identity in Israel as a "national identity" and argue Hamas has dibs on ancient Jewish history because Israel is just the name of a vague region? I suspect not. "The "success" Greek nationalists can look forward to if they succeed in defeating the Prespes agreement will be to have in a few decades the rotting corpse of a failed state on Greece's doorstep." Framing Greeks as "nationalists" (the majority of which oppose the deal as poll after poll shoes) is incredibly offensive. Dare I say it Mr Keislying is antihellenic. The only 'Greeks' who aren't 'nationalists' in his eyes are ones willing to commit ethnic suicide to hide the mistake of foreign nationalists that claimed Skopjians are "Macedonians". "Greeks" that couldn't care less about ancient Hellenism . Far leftist "Greeks" that claim irredentist Slavs are "Macedonians" (shades of civil war). But is genocide – to eliminate the minds in which the offending meme resides – really necessary? According to Mr Kiesling "Macedonian" is just a "meme". Now suddenly he contradicts his own argument by slandering Greeks that oppose calling Skopjians as "genocidal"? Here is another narrative. Skopje's foreign apologists brought into the argument that we are not "real' Greeks when they decide to recognise Skopjians as "Macedonans" then flip-flopped on their own alleged principles when Skopjians suddenly start claiming to be the founders of the Hellenistic period.This was effective- ly endorsement for a subtle form of ethnic cleansing of Greeks!. Unfortunately the far left in Greece is filled with unprincipled antihellenic cowards that would do anything to avoid conflict with foreign nationalists. Rather than call out the foreign nationalist bigots that evaded over Skopjians behaviour... extreme left cowards buckled to foreign pressure and agreed for FYROM to be renamed "Macedonians". The Prespes agreement will not end this issue anymore than the 1995 agreement ended this issue. VMRO, whose supporters make up more than half of Skopjians, will ignore the agreement. They will continue to promote ancient Macedonian fantasies and irredentism. They have no incentive to stop because all the foreign nationalists that recognized them as "Macedonians" failed to condemn their behaviour. . Where are Neos Kosmos allleged "journalists"? Too busy congratulating themselves for "Greek" leftists committing treason on behalf of Skopjians? Yes. Treason. The Greek left once again has set itself down the path of conflict with other Greeks (shades of civil war). Neither I, nor millions of other Greeks, will call Skopjians Macedonians just because an incompetent commie agreed to it. This puts far leftist "Greeks" on a collision course with the majority of the Greek people on behalf of foreign nationalists that claimed obvious frauds in Skopje "Macedonians". AKA treason. Any 'Greek' that claims Skopjians are "Macedonians" is Greek in name only. Given the pro-Skopjian articles Neos Kosmos publishes you leftists are clearly suffering an identity crisis but bizarrely still claim yourselves 'Greeks'. Name withheld Democracy knows no political faction - and it is based on fundamental rights and ideals, including freedom of speech. At Neos Kosmos, we value democracy and are proud to have roots in the country where it was born. We view ourselves as a platform for robust debate and constructive dialogue, and we respect and welcome all viewpoints and defend their right to be heard on our opinion pages whether we agree with them or not as long as they are expressed in civil language, do not defame anyone and are backed by valid arguments. We are humbled by the plethora of articles that have graced our pages, and have been penned by lecturers, diplomats and people from all walks of life. But more than anything we value the views of you, our ordinary readers, whether through emails or on social media to give us feedback and valued advice. Nothing gives us greater pleasure than reading your letters, and hearing your feedback on issues that interest you. We are curious and want to know what drives you, motivates you and also focus on the challenges that you face. Our goal is to empower you, to let your voices be heard and establish our paper as a foundation for people to make connections and discuss issues of concern to the Greek community around the world. Movements within a community can only happen with honest communication, and we are proud of our role in facilitating this. Neos Kosmos has never shied away from getting out front, allowing people to speak up, working to challenge convention and bringing about change. And historically, we have worked towards bettering the lives of the diaspora - and have even received awards for it. But when you challenge the status quo to create a movement of people tightened through free and open speech, you're bound to be criticised. In fact, if you're not criticised, it means you're filtering down messages and not fostering real dialogue. You may be called a heretic. You may be accused of treason. And in some countries you may be executed. Luckily in Greece and Australia, open debate is not a crime. Mary Sinanidis is the English Editor of Neos Kosmos. Do you have a story to tell or an opinion piece that you'd like to see on our pages? Send these to editor@neoskosmos.com. au
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