Read Kolbe and Voskopoulos

Erol Rizaov

All these years, for almost three decades, is how long  the blockade of the future of Macedonia have lasted and the impediment to its development in a modern democratic state, and the question that troubled me the most was whether there will be a leader, a statesman, a respected figure, a leader, the father of the nation, who will create a critical mass and ambient around himself to accelerate the historical processes that lead to Europe and towards the Europeanization of Macedonia. In that I saw the solution on how to save ourselves from the curse that does not allow us to move forward, although the majority of citizens of my homeland dream with eyes wide open of Macedonia as a European state, an equal member of the EU and NATO.
What is the force that prevents historical processes caused by the clear determination of the overwhelming majority of citizens of a country that has suffered so much? How can it be only on this small piece of land that the scientific validity do not apply, while it is confirmed in all the turbulent historical events, which says that when big promises, revolutions, and wars occur great leaders and statesmen appear to lead the country to the goal. Whether the events create historical figures, or the figures create historical events, science has its own criteria to determine the facts and place the individuals where they belong, sooner or later. Unfortunately, in spite of the tectonic changes that were created, surprisingly, in a peaceful manner, without a single victim, the political and social economic order changed and became an independent state that was an incredible and unpredictable event. Of course, I am not saying that there are no deserving figures, but our recent history is already filled with taboos, since science and the motherland have not yet recognized their founders of independence, as it was with Ilinden 1903 and the Anti-Fascist war, AVNOJ and ASNOM 1941-1943-1944.

People in this science will say that historic distance is necessary. Indeed, but there is a distance from Ilinden 1903 and from ASNOM in 1944, to some extent from the referendum on independence and what happened in 1991. 27 years have passes since the Independence Day, which is not a short time to clarify exactly all the key events without bias, and to determine the role and merits of the individuals who have accelerated, or stopped the historical processes and caused great damage. When we see selectivity and ideology, acting and counterfeiting, the false testimonies of the events to which we are direct witnesses and participants, then, it is discovered where the great confusion in the consciousness of the Macedonian comes through the course of his history. Historical forgeries from the 19th and the 20th centuries, at the height of the creation of the Macedonian national consciousness, but later the amnesia of the only major victory in history in the Anti-Fascist War, and finally repeating the same mistake after the establishment of the first modern parliamentary state in 1944 with ASNOM and with lies and populism during the past 27 years of independent Macedonia, such a disaster was made in the minds of people where in the clash of ignorance and emotion, we only received a pityful product of amorphous mass and dough for kneading living people.
In the infestation of almost identical propaganda throughout the history of Macedonia in the past hundred years, it is particularly terrible and dangerous that explode whenever there is a chance to make a historic step forward. Today, again at the end of the second decade of the 21st century, when we are one step away from Europe, a great wave of populism and primitivism floods Macedonia with the same vastness. Macedonians are being recruited in all armies fighting against each other to stop Macedonia on its way to the future. In this cacophony and media moral and professional debacle, there are several bright lights that illuminate the dark side of in the attempts to prevent Macedonia from using the chance to become a European state created for the first time after declaring independence, in accordance with Western democracy. The departing generations will feel just a bit of the long process of benefits, but the next generations will be able to join their peers from Europe in competition without Balkan frustrations and without inferiority.
Such two strong lights that illuminate that path and clarify our frustrations and natural dilemmas of historical deposits and propaganda these days I saw in the texts of Kica Bardzieva Kolbe published in Deutsche Welle and translated in several websites and social networks and in the TV Nova interview with Pavlos Voskpoulos Filipov, leader of the Rainbow movement in Greece, a well-known figure in the Macedonian and Greek public who bravely opposes Greek nationalism. Both Kica Kolbe and Pavlos Voskopoulos, I do not by chance, seem to best determine the substance of the Agreement with Greece, both are children of the sufferers of the historical events in the Civil War in Greece that rose above hatred and perceived the European dimension of the compromise. Here’s what our great writer Kolbe says: When a country feels that its national identity is threatened, it is often a symptom that its narrative is not sufficiently coherent. A truly clear national identity and a truly clear national narrative should never feel threatened by the identity of a neighboring country. Why then do Greece and Bulgaria fear of losing what they call only their history? Because, apparently, they believe that the history of the Balkans is not over. That the geostrategy of this part of the Balkans can still create new war conflicts. The Yugoslav wars have confirmed this fact. This is a fact that should be imagined by every self-aware Macedonian citizen. Never in the past has Macedonia been an actor in defending its historical and national narrative. In the Agreement, this narrative, as we know it from the last seventy years, has only been internationally confirmed and protected. The Macedonian narrative, the collective cultural memory also receives international legitimation with the Agreements with Greece and Bulgaria. In the past, the international community for the Macedonian memory was the only executor of the agreements after the military defeats. Now it is the first time for the Macedonians to guarantee their freedom. Why? Because Macedonians were asked for the first time in history to say who they are and what they are. For the first time, Macedonians protected their story in the name negotiations – the Macedonian story. Regardless of whether it could have been protected and defended better than it was, it is a fact that the main Macedonian narrative has been preserved….
What was the collective memory of Macedonians so far? Which narrative was anchored in self-consciousness, if not the one of the “historic victim” Macedonia? Namely, when impartially observing the history of the territory of Macedonia, the collective memory of the Macedonians was so far only a memory of defeats….
Pavlos Voskopoulos, on the other hand, in an interview with TV Nova says: The prefix North does not mean any challenge to identity. We do not think it affects the national identity at all. We believe that Macedonian national identity is guaranteed everywhere in the world. The whole world recognizes it and we know this as well. Greece and Bulgaria have an internal problem with the Macedonian issue. When it comes to national identity there will be no problem, but we also want to point out that we are trying to look forward and create peace for the next generations… The agreement clearly mentions the Macedonian language and this is a major blow to the average Greek. This is a great breakthrough and the first dissolution of the nationalist ideology in Greece, and it is therefore a major problem for a medium Greek to accept Macedonian language. These two points in the agreement, the Macedonian nationality, or the citizenship and the Macedonian language are a problem for the average Greek who is not informed and educated to know what they are about. The very agreement, in these two points, is shock and a blow to the Greek nationalist ideology. This gives the Greek Liberals and Democrats the advantage to recognize a different understanding of Macedonian heritage than what they have learned in schools.

If you do not have enough pebbles to assemble the mosaic for your dilemmas and determination of the way that Macedonia should go, in order to reach the goal, read Kolbe and Voskopoulos, I assure you that you will not regret it.

Views expressed in this article are personal views of the author and do not represent the editorial policy of Nezavisen Vesnik