When did the Slavs first come to the Balkans?

[ΒΗΣΣΑΡΙΩΝ]

Originally Posted by christov

You know, every nation has lunatics, but they don’t represent the official opinions.

I absolutely agree !

As for the Slavs, being a Pontian, I have always heard good things about Russians. The reason is that Russia was like Germany to the Pontians : It was the land of Orthodoxy on one hand and chances to make a small fortune on the other. Pontians used to migrate to Russia for the above reasons. All Greeks living in Russia were well to do. In Yalta, before 1917, the mayor was a very rich Greek named Fountoukidis, who had changed his name to Fontof in order to make no difficulties to the Russians.

When the Soviets prevailed, Pontians suffered a lot under Stalin, that is true.

Objectively, the Russians, despite entering the European society a bit late, have produced some Mathematicians, Biologists, Poets, Painters, Composers, Writers, Physisists etc that are between the giants of European Culture. Poles and Czecks have made contributions, too. So, I really wonder where is the problem of being a Slav.

[slavicwolf]

it true that this is an idea of the diaspora maks. did you guys know that the instigator for the vergina sun as the official flag of the republic of macedonia in 1992 was a australian macedonian by the name of Risto Altin? i think he is from the aegean part where most macedonists come from.

[Truth Bearer]

The skopjians from Australia and Canada were already using the Vergina Star as their symbol from the early 80's Slavicwolf.Mind you before that they had no idea about a Star or Vergina.

[slavicwolf]

i know they were using the flag thats why mr altin was influential in its offical use in 1992.

[Christov]

Originally Posted by ΒΗΣΣΑΡΙΩΝ

Objectively, the Russians, despite entering the European society a bit late, have produced some Mathematicians, Biologists, Poets, Painters, Composers, Writers, Physisists etc that are between the giants of European Culture. Poles and Czecks have made contributions, too. So, I really wonder where is the problem of being a Slav.

Not quite true about the Russians entering the European society a bit late. I don't want to go into deteils, but remember all the wars, Napoleon, etc. I also don't see any problem being a Slav.

[Paulos Melas]

An interesting anthology http://www.greece.org/themis/macedonia/resmacedonia.htm

Quote

14. "We are Slavs who came to this area in the sixth century... we are not descendants of the ancient Macedonians."
[FYROM'S President Mr. Kiro Gligorov, Foreign Information Service Daily Report, Eastern Europe, February 26, 1992, p. 35.]



15. "We are Macedonians but we are Slav Macedonians. That's who we are! We have no connection to Alexander the Greek and his Macedonia. The ancient Macedonians no longer exist, they had disappeared from history long time ago. Our ancestors came here in the 5th and 6th century (AD)."
[FYROM'S President Mr. Kiro Gligorov, Toronto Star newspaper, March 15, 1992]



16. "We do not claim to be descendants of Alexander the Great." "We are Slavs and we speak a Slav language."
[FYROM'S Ambassador in Washington, Mrs. Ljubica Acevshka, 22 January 1999]



17. "It should be remembered, to begin with, that there is no Macedonian race, as a distinct type. Macedonians may belong to any of the races of Eastern Europe or Western Asia, as, indeed, they do. A Macedonian Bulgar is just the same as a Bulgar of Bulgaria proper, the old principality, that in October, 1908, at Tirnova, was proclaimed independent of Turkey. He looks the same, talks the same, and very largely, thinks the same way. In short, he is of the same stock. There is no difference, whatsoever, between the two branches of the race, except that the Macedonian Bulgars, as a result of their position under the Turkish government, have less culture and education than their northern brethren."
[Arthur Douglas Howden Smith, "Fighting the Turk in the Balkans: An American's Adventures with the Macedonian Revolutionists", 1908, p. 4-5]

Unquote

[Paulos Melas]

As you can see the educated skopians acknowledge that they are slavs unrelated to the ancient macedonians who were of course greek, and independent sources identified skopians as " Macedonian Bulgars" thus Bulgars nonetheless