The webpages of state organizations are not self-evidently concerned with irredentism. What they have to say they say in the proper way, and that is what they are mainly interested in. There are no multiple references to the country’s ‘glorious past’. It is true that when it comes to display than one might have feared. Conversely, they make an attempt to be modern in conception and function and to resemble the webpages of better-developed states. Even the pages of local government organizations do not look permeated with hyped-up irredentist sentiments, or even with plugging a more progressive policy than the one adopted by the official state. The same goes for the parties – even for IMRO-DPMNE, which is trying to prove that today’s party is the direct descendant of IMRO of the early twentieth century.62 Public sector bodies by and large do not often make irredentist references on their pages: one thinks of the Macedonian Information Agency (www.mia.com.mk), the Emigration Office (www.emigration.com.mk), or the State Archives(www.archiv.gov.mk).
Only when we get away from the webpages of FYROM’s state organizations does the picture begin to change. Two categories are worth mentioning in this connection: NGOs, and Slavmacedonian expatriates.
The most important NGO is the Macedonian Human Rights Movement International (www.mhrmi.org). Its headquarters are in Toronto, Canada and it is mainly concerned with formulating accusations against (primarily) Greece and (secondarily) Bulgaria and Albania. The accusations are of violation of the human rights of the minorities in those countries. The
reports contained on the MHRMI site are reproduced by all the webpages promoting FYROM’s irredentist propaganda, including the websites of many NGOs, voluntary organizations, and private individuals. Most of the articles are taken from the Helsinki Watch on Greece page(cm.greekhelsinki.gr/index.php), which is continuously brought up to date from European and Greek databases. The most important pages with texts of this sort are those of the Macedonian Human Rights Committee of Melbourne and Victoria,63 of the United Macedonian Diaspora,64 and of CMHRC, the Canadian Macedonian Human Rights Committee.
It might be claimed that these are routine pages of NGOs fighting to turn Balkan society into civil societies. But this seems not to be the case. Reading more closely between the lines, the only reports that the pages in question host are those of international and other bodies and organizations which relate to Slavophones in Greece, the Rainbow Party and related topics; they do not include any information about minorities or about human rights within FYROM.65 And their policy is in every case one of maintaining and archiving reports to the detriment of Greece – no matter if some of the charges have been shown in the course of time not to be well founded, or have been altered.
The United Macedonian Diaspora (http://www.umdiaspora.com) deserves special mention. Founded in Washington D.C. in 2004, its aim is to operate as a decision-influencing centre. Its basic goals are the unity of Slavomacedonian expatriates; recognition of the constitutional name of FYROM; human rights of minorities consisting of Macedonians; investment in FYROM; FYROM’s entry into the European Union and into NATO; and improvement of bilateral relations between FYROM and the USA.
The World Macedonian Congress and the United Macedonians are the major spokespersons for Slavomacedonians abroad. They maintain a strong presence on the Internet. The WMC writes its texts mainly in Slavmacedonian, whereas the UM mainly uses English. Their pages are a long way from the moderation of FYROM’s state organizations. They engage in an overtly aggressive policy against Greece and Bulgaria, and cherish the idea of a Greater Macedonia. The UM, in particular, is a favourite arena for Risto Stefov, the man who feeds most of the irredentist Slavomacedonian propaganda webpages with his own writing.66
Besides the above, there is a large number of Slavomacedonian expatriate organizations in Canada, Australia, and certain European countries, all maintaining Internet websites. Their pages are sometimes signed with the organization’s name, and at other times signed with emotive names from the historical past, such as ‘Goche Delchev’ or ‘Ilinden’. The material they host comes first and foremost from their own events and protests; secondarily it is made up of selected details about the identity of their country of origin and its history. This material is normally scrappy and artless, and the impression it makes on the visitor to the site is limited. If the Macedonian Question is what you are interested in, you would do better to go elsewhere.
The Canadian Macedonian Historical Society deserves special mention as well.67 This body mainly works offline, but it has a competent presence on the Net. Its webpage promotes the Society’s own events, but also hosts in their entirety all events taking place in Canada that have to do with the Slavomacedonian issue. It also holds lectures, and it maintains a library and a bookshop selling books on history and social anthropology. These reflect the opinions of the Slavomacedonian diaspora and have invariably been published outside FYROM.
The most effective propaganda pages, however, are those kept up by private individuals. Several of these are so full and well-designed that they must surely be maintained with substantial donations from various state organizations in FYROM, if not from diaspora communities. Or they may simply be due to the abilities of highly competent and highly active individuals dedicated to promoting the Slavomacedonian cause.
Thus there is www. makedonija.info which belongs to Bill Nikolov, president of the Macedonian Human Rights Movement International, and www.oscchima.com which belongs to Risto Stefov, a familiar name since his texts are recycled on numerous Slavomacedonian websites. Five sites – mymacedonia.net, historyofmacedonia.org, maknews.com, www.macedon.org, and macedonia . org – contain no information giving a clue to the identity of their owner, leaving the field wide open for speculation.
When all is said and done, the number of texts that promote irredentist propaganda is not large; they simply recycle material from the many sites that act as information depots. Instances are Macedonia News, http://www.makedonika.org/html/history/html, www.makedon.org, www.unitedmacedonians.org,History of Macedonia and the Macedonian Nation, Macedonia FAQ, and WWW-VL: History: Republic of Macedonia History: former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia: Republika Makedonija | Skopje, Strumica, Vardar River.
How do all these sites communicate with each other, though? Do they have some specific intercommunication schedule? The answer is probably no. However most Slavomacedonians active on the Net do take part in a variety of Slavomacedonian forums that exist , mainly for expatriates. The most important of these is http://groups.yahoo.com/group/RMDigest/, which has a direct link to the Reality Macedonia site. Only a small number of members may be taking part in these forums, but most of them have sites of their own, so that every scrap of news or information will be passed on, to find its place – not automatically, but almost always – on many of the Slavomacedonian webpages, thus increasing its effect.
06-16-2007, 02:18 AM
In fact this small hack group pretty soon will show what is she capable of, again. 
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