When Slovenia declared its independence in 1991, it issued a banknote depicting an Austrian throne of the fourteenth century. Austria immediately accused Slovenia of an infringement upon its history and its symbols and demanded that the banknote be withdrawn. The Slovenians complied.

Under the circumstances, how should Greece react, given the fact that FYROM - as attested by its new school textbooks for 1992-3 - appropriate the whole of Macedonian history which is a cherished element of the Greek national and cultural identity?

The Hellenistic period (335-30 BC) was created by Alexander the Great and his Greek Macedonian diadochi, and was so named because it was, during that period, that the Hellenic culture was diffused throughout the world. It brought new scientific, philosophical, and religious ideas that dominated the world for centuries and influenced the development of all cultures. Can these achievements, by any stress of imagination, be attributed to the... ancestors of FYROM? Their ancestors came into the area centuries after that period.

The Russian historian Avraam B. Rankovitch (of the Soviet Academy of Sciences), in his book, Hellenistic Period, p. 285, writes: "The culture that was fostered in the Hellenistic period also burst the bounds of the Hellenistic world. This culture, which was later inherited by the Roman Empire, Byzantium, and the peoples of the East, exercised a significant influence on the culture of the modern era".

Consequently, the falsification of Macedonian history is not an affront to the Greeks alone, but to the world civilization, as a whole.

In June 1992, Dr. Henry Kissinger, as a self-respecting historian, made a statement in Paris in which he described the history of Macedonia as the strong weapon that justifies Greece's inalienable right to the name of "Macedonia".

My book The Falsification of Macedonian History, reveals the extent to which Skopje has falsified Macedonian history. I believe that there is irrefutable evidence from the works of ancient Greek writers, the Old and the New Testament, Jewish writers and thousands of Greek inscriptions found on Macedonian territory. They all attest to the Hellenic identity of the ancient Macedonians. This was very well known in the ancient world, as shown by the fact that the Macedonians participated in the Amphictyonies and in the Olympic Games.

Among other acknowledgments regarding the value and validity of my book, I was honored by the former Chancellor of Germany, Mr. Helmut Schmidt and the former President of France Mr. Valery Giscard d'Estaing. (see Document No 13)

As I pointed out in a letter to President Clinton on November 20, 1993 the creation of the "Republic of Macedonia" is an act of hostility against Greece for the following reasons:

1. it constitutes an illicit usurpation of the name, the history and the cultural heritage of Greek Macedonia;
2. it denies the "Greek character" of Greek Macedonia and, thus, encourages the aggressive pretensions against Greek territories;
3. it interrupts the continuity of Greek history, given that, from 337 BC the Greeks at Corinth (A< HREF="doc14.html">see Document No 14) made first Philip and later his son Alexander (not, certainly, Mr. Gligorov's ancestors) their King and Commander-in-Chief in the war against the Persians.

It is everybody's duty to research and confirm the truth of these assertions. Ancient Macedonia, as a constituent element of Hellenism, is the very cornerstone of modern Western civilization, an arena of desperate battles for freedom and democracy; in particular the international centers of science and learning, have an obligation towards the free people to present the truth, the fundamental prerequisite of democracy.

The following Macedonian Greeks set their seal on the history of Greece, Europe, and the whole world:

1. Philip of Macedon, who established the Macedonian Kingdom as a great political power and urged on by the Athenian Isocrates, was the pioneer of the European idea. "Argos is the land of your fathers". Isocrates, To Philip XII, 32 (Loeb, G. Norlin);
2. Aristotle, the scientist and philosopher whose work will always influence research and knowledge;
3. Alexander the Great, the most stupendous historical figure ever, who influenced the course of world history tremendously. Alexander was the first ever to talk of peace and fraternity between all peoples (Plutarch's On the Fate and Virtue of Alexander and Holzner and Arrian) and the first to speak out against racial discrimination (Arrian and Martis' Logos).

   "Alexander gave a general feast, sitting himself there, and all the Macedonians sifting round him; and then next to them Persians, and next any of the other tribes... And Alexander prayed for all sorts of blessings, and especially for harmony and fellowship in the empire between Macedonians and Persians. They say that those who shared the feast were nine thousand, and that they all poured the same libation and there of sang the one song of victory" Arrian, Anabasis of Alexander VII, 11, 8-9 (Loeb, F.C. Babbitt)