Greek Coercive Diplomacy Against Macedonia

By Dusan Sinadinoski

Greece’s threat to block Macedonia’s Euro-Atlantic integration may turn out to be another
Balkan nightmare that no one wants. Greece is currently engaged in a well orchestrated yet
reckless diplomatic assault on Macedonia over the name issue which could only lead to major
political unrest in Macedonia; one that can easily engulf the rest of the Balkans. On one hand, if
Macedonia doesn’t give up it constitutional name and Greece succeeds to block Macedonia’s
Euro-Atlantic integration that will certainly lead the country into major political crises. On other
hand, if Macedonia gives up on its name in exchange for a membership in NATO and European
Union, then Macedonia will be faced with national identity crises that will threaten the existence
of the Macedonian state. In either case, a collapse of its political institutions will be certain to
follow by severe consequences. The resulting political nightmare in Macedonia will have a
visible affect on NATO, the European Union and the United States. They will be faced with a
choice of either succumb to Greek pressure by allowing a destabilization of Macedonia and deal
with the consequence later, or preserve Macedonia’s integrity and thereby assuring peace and
stability in the entire Balkan region.

Ever since the Republic of Macedonia became an independent country, Greece has relentlessly
pursued Macedonia’s political demise. Greece effectively blocked the United Nations from
admitting Macedonia under its constitutional name and forced the country to use interim name of
Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia. As a means to force Macedonia to give up its name,
Greece imposed an economic blockade in the early 1990s. This blockade coupled with UN’s
willingness to appease Greece could have been contributory factors to the Macedonian ethnic
unrest of 2001. But these attacks on Macedonia are not just political and economic. What is so
unimaginable in today’s Europe, especially when the country prides itself as being a cradle of
democracy and supposedly fully integrated into the Western world, that Greece’s smear
campaign against Macedonia benefits from a tacit consent! For instance, the Greek government
doesn’t refer to the citizens of the Republic of Macedonia by their inherited name “Macedonian”
but calls them skopians instead, after the name of Macedonia’s capital city of Skopje. Thus to
make sure that Macedonia has no second thoughts of Greece’s resolve on the name issue, Greece
not only blocked once Macedonia’s accession to NATO in 2008 at the summit in Bucharest,
Romania but continues to make further threats until Macedonia accepts a Greek compromise. To
make their threats seem more credible, Greece is now challenging Macedonia’s membership in
the European Union. No doubt that these types of Greek blackmail and ethnic prejudice are
calculated to wear down the Macedonian side into a submission.

The diplomatic intensity by which Greece has assaulted the Republic of Macedonia to give up its
name can only be understood through Greece’s national obsession with the Megale Idea, literary
translated as “grand idea”. This idea was first introduced in Greek thought back in 1797 in a
published manifesto by Rhigas Pheraios, a Greek politician, as a justification to expand the
Greek state into territories which were perceived to be geographically and historically Greek. In
the early 20th century Prime Minister Venizelos, Greece’s most famous politician, further defined
it to mean “Greece on two continents and five seas”, apparently alluding to the lands inhabited
by ancient Greek city states and the Byzantine Empire.
Megale Macedonian Implication Dusan Sinadinoski

But for the Greeks, the Megale Idea is not just a land grab. It is understood to mean that anyone
who lives in any of the places which they consider to be historically and geographically Greek
then such people are also Greek by race. Thus all Turks, Macedonians, Vlachs, Jews, Gypsies,
Albanians and others who “comprised” the Greek lands were also Greeks by race, whether they
knew it or wanted it. In a sense, just as Plato’s ideal form is represented through its particular
shapes, the Megale Idea seems to parallel it since all particular Greek territories are nothing but
essential parts of the Megale Greek Union. Henceforth, ancient Greece continues to exist now as
a union formed from the historic and inherent Greek parts. So it is precisely this perceived unity
of Greek lands and people into one eternally integrated whole that not only gave rise to Greek
nationalism of the early 19th century, but it also helped define Greece of today. From the Greek
perspective, as it seems to follow, the “truth” is that Macedonia is historically and intrinsically
Greek and it can only exist today as a part of the Megale Greek union.

Considering that even today Megale Idea is still a powerful nationalistic ideology used as a
cohesive tool to keep all of Greek “parts” together, it is understandable why the Greeks are so
paranoid about the name “Macedonia”. The greatest fear for Greeks is that if they lose on the
name issue then they will see it as beginning of the end of the Megale union of the Greek parts.
So, if Macedonia goes, according to the domino theory, so does Epirus, Thrace, Cyprus and any
other endangered Greek part. However, this perceived threat to the contemporary Greek state
does not arise just from the fear of loosing those parts but from a far more menacing fear of
loosing the grip on the Greek “historical truth” under which all those “parts” were brought
together. Breaking up of the Greek union is not a very pleasant thought for the Greeks to
contemplate; just like it wasn’t pleasant for the Serbs loosing Kosovo. For Greece, loosing to
Macedonia on the name issue will lead to questioning of the very foundations of their state, the
sacred Megale Idea. It is no wonder that Greece can’t envision any other outcome other than
winning on the name issue.

But the Greek claim of the eternal union Between Greece and Macedonia has two major faults.
First, for Greece to claim a historical and natural union between present Macedonia and the
ancient Greek city-states would require proof to show a continuous and successive Hellenic
identity of Macedonia. It is a fact of history, however, that Greece itself has over a two
millennium gap of continuous and successive existence that brings to question of what is a Greek
national identity in the first place. When the Romans conquered and ruled the Greek city-states
for more than seven centuries, the political, cultural and economic dominance of the Hellenic
city-states completely diminished. Athens, for instance was reduced to a village of barely two
thousand people at the 19th century. Following the collapse of the Roman Empire, the new
Byzantium Empire was such a mix of cultures that it totally obliterated any cultural and ethnic
distinction in favor of the Christian Orthodox identity. However, if any perceived unity between
Greeks and Macedonians can be claimed by the Greeks before the Turks conquered these two
countries, such unity would have been definitely lost during the long and brutal Ottoman rule
that lasted for more than four centuries. Thus after two millenniums of foreign domination, it is
very difficult to maintain that the historical and cultural make up of the Greek people was not
augmented beyond recognition in the first place, let alone believing that a very questionable
unity between the Greeks and Macedonians could have survived under those historical
conditions. In fact, during the Turkish occupation even the Greeks referred to themselves as
romanois rather than Greeks. It seems very obvious that the Greek historical and cultural

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continuity was so severely disrupted that any claim of the survival of the perceived unity
between ancient Greeks and the current Macedonians is nothing but a wishful thinking.

The second problem which makes the Greek argument unattainable that Macedonia is an
essentially Greek part is that the term “Macedonia” has changed over time. Ancient Macedonia
of Philip II and Alexander the Great was quite different than the Roman province of Macedonia.
Ancient Macedonia occupied the land north of Mt. Olympus and roughly half of the current
territory of the Republic of Macedonia, while the Roman province included the entire territory of
Republic of Macedonia, the Greek Macedonian territories, parts of Albania to the West and parts
of Bulgaria. After the Romans, the Serbian medieval Kingdom of Macedonia occupied the
territory roughly corresponding to the current borders of the Republic of Macedonia. But the
current usage of the name Macedonia is mostly associated with the Ottoman province of
Macedonia from the late 18th to the early 20th century; a territory which more or less
corresponded to the Roman province of Macedonia. Therefore, Greece has no historical right to
lay a claim on Macedonia as being Greek because history shows that the name “Macedonia” was
not a rigid geographical region that was uniquely associated with Greece.

So do all of these persistent but dubious claims that a historic unity between Greece and
Macedonia is really needed to preserve the underlying cohesiveness of the Megale union? That
may or may not be the case, but the Greek blocking of Macedonia’s Euro-Atlantic integration
appears to be nothing short of making sure that the Republic of Macedonia surrenders all
Macedonian historical inheritance to Greece. Macedonia’s future, no doubt, is tied to Euro-
Atlantic community and the country has no other option but continue to strive for an eventual
membership in those organizations. But for Macedonians to exchange the constitutional name of
their country for a membership in NATO and European Union amounts to nothing less than
loosing their national identity. It is hard to imagine that without strong national identity
Macedonia, as a newly developed democracy, can effectively function as a sovereign state. More
importantly, the country’s political stability will be challenged from many directions, both from
outside its borders and from within as well. Therefore, it seems beyond anyone’s expectations
that Macedonia, as small as it is, will voluntary agree to a self-extinction. Moreover, the
Macedonians justly feel that their national identity derives from the name of their country and it
is not up for negotiations. To Macedonians, their beloved Macedonia is their historical and
cultural inheritance and Greece has no rights to make demands on Macedonia.

Keeping Macedonia indefinitely away from NATO and European Union will almost certainly
cause an ethnic rift between the Macedonians and its large Albanian minority. The Albanians
may read into it as the West is writing off Macedonia as a failed state and use it as a pretax to
demand federalization of Macedonia. The political squabbling among the Macedonian political
parties as to who was to be blamed will further add to the country’s instability. Macedonia’s
political will may be crushed to the point where people could no longer feel that their
government could defend them. The breakdown of its fragile democratic institutions will
unavoidably create situation where the future will be desperate and gloomy. Thus politically
weakened, Macedonia’s national interest could be compromised by the powerful internal and
external political adversaries and that could inspire the militant nationalist to take matters into
their own hands. Such a chaotic situation may require an intervention by NATO and European
Union just to keep the country afloat.

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Megale Macedonian Implication Dusan Sinadinoski

To make the situation even worse, all of Macedonia’s neighboring countries have either
territorial claims against Macedonia or some other unresolved issues. Bulgaria, a recent member
of both NATO and EU, has recognized Macedonia under its constitutional name but still
staunchly denies the existence of a separate and distinct Macedonian national identity. Bulgaria
has made no secrets of her desire to “reeducate” the Macedonians of their Bulgarian past.
Albania continually publishes maps of Greater Albania which quite openly include the entire
Western Macedonia, including part of the capital Skopje, as part of their expanded territory. Now
that Kosovo is an independent state, there is a not so secret desire to split Western Macedonia
and form a new Albanian state of Iridia. Sometime later, this new state could request to unite
with Kosovo on the grounds that those areas were once parts of the Roman province of Dardenia
to which Kosovo is staking a claim. Also, considering the fact that Macedonia was once part of
Greater Serbia, it would be unreasonable to expect that Serbia would stand still and watch from
outside while Bulgaria and Albania are breaking up Macedonia into pieces. It is also hard not to
imagine Greece being on a sideline here without some sort of hidden territorial agenda. All of
this points out that the disintegration of Macedonia may trigger reintroduction of a new round of
19th century Balkan nationalism.

If there are doubts that this scenario may not be possible, just take a look at the Balkan’s disputed
territories and one will better understand why there are no friendly neighbors in this part of
Europe. It is a well known fact that Greece and Turkey are mortal enemies over Cyprus, religion,
history, disputed territories and score of other issues. Greece and Bulgaria pretend to have no
open question but that is only a lull of convenience since the Macedonian question remains an
open sore between these two neighbors. The same is true of Bulgaria and Serbia. These two
countries have fought many battles over disputed territories but they are still itching from the
scars of the First and Second Balkan wars over Macedonia. Another pair of Balkan mortal
enemies are Bulgaria and Turkey. Similarly, it can be said with overwhelming certainty that
Serbia and Albania will never be friends as long as those two countries exist. Last but not least
belligerent, Albania has territorial claims against every country it borders including Greece,
Macedonia, Montenegro, and Serbia via Kosovo. Although not neighbors, Albania and Bulgaria
have overlapping territorial claims over Macedonia. The only exception here is the historical and
religious kinship between Greece and Serbia but this holly alliance isn’t unified on the name
issue. Therefore, as the events following the disintegration of Yugoslavia provide clear lessons,
any of these antagonists could start the fire of Balkan nationalism that could very quickly engulf
this part of Europe.

Countries like Russia and Turkey may not have overt geopolitical interests in Macedonia but the
fires of nationalism there cold present them with opportunities to influence the politics of the
larger Balkan region. If trouble starts in Macedonia, will Russians stay aside, arbitrate or agitate?
Will Russia help Bulgaria or Serbia? Given the Russian interest in the Balkans and the
geopolitical locations of these two countries, it is very likely that the history of Macedonian
question to repeat itself. Of course Macedonia itself is of no interest Russia but Macedonia is of
national interest to Bulgaria and Russia once before delivered Macedonia to Bulgaria. Certainly
Russia for her favor will expect something in return from Bulgaria, that being commensurable
with the price Bulgaria is willing to pay for Macedonia. In addition to Russia’s potential Balkan
ambitions, not to be ignored is the growing economic and political appetite of Turkey. The Turks,

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only a few hundred kilometers from their border, would love to restore their political foothold in
Macedonia for reasons of their own. One of Turkey’s possible reasons for returning to the
Macedonian question could be to keep Greece, Serbia and Bulgaria at bay. Another could be to
get closer to their Muslim brethrens in Bosnia.

Taking into account the above scenario and the Greek resolve to endure in its demand, the
question that arises is whether Europe and the United States can allow Macedonia to become a
failed state? If this possibility does not cause an immediate concern, can Europe afford to have
another failed state next to a quasi Kosovo state with a large and overlapping Albanian
population? If this seems like a real hair-raising scenario, then the political decision makers in
Brussels and Washington ought to rethink the entire Macedonian question. Allowing it to burn
indefinitely, it can’t be ruled out for certain that Albania, Bulgaria, Kosovo, Turkey and Russia
wouldn’t turn this Greek diplomatic blunder into a Megale political calamity.

It is a high time for Europe and United States to rethink their perception of contemporary
Greece. They can’t loose sight that modern Greece is not born out of the noble and graceful
Hellenic world of antiquity. To the contrary, Greece as we know it today was created from the
crumbles of the Byzantine and Ottoman empires. Culturally and politically modern Greece is as
much of a Balkan country as is Serbia, Bulgaria or Albania. It is a stone throw away from Middle
East but it is centuries away from Western Europe. Greece is no more a cultivating ground of
democratic virtues today than any other Balkan country. The Megale Idea is as much of a carrier
of the infectious virus of ethno-chauvinism, a Balkan type of ethnic nationalism which extols its
own culture at the expense of their neighbors, as is Bulgaria, Albania or Serbia.

Macedonia’s choice of whether to give up their name and become a part of European Union or
keep the name and be locked out from Europe amounts to the same devastating effect: in either
case Macedonia’s future as a sovereign state will be very seriously challenged. There is no doubt
that an unstable Macedonia in the middle of the Balkan Peninsula can easily become a raging
vortex which could lead to catastrophic consequences. But Greece has a choice of rethinking the
validity of Megale Greek union and become a stabilizing factor in the Balkan region or to
continue with its aggression against Macedonia and deal with Megale Macedonian unrest next to
her border. The European Union and the United States could step in from the sidelines and exert
their political muscles to help Macedonia to overcome the Greek coercive behavior. They could
convince Greece of the right solution and settle the name dispute or appease Greece and deal
with the Macedonian question indefinitely. The European realpolitik unambiguously points out
toward a stable and prosperous Balkan region and it could only be accomplished if the Western
successfully integrates the Republic of Macedonia in the Euro Atlantic community.