On May 10, 2013, the National Post, one of Canada’s largest newspapers, published an article by Bert Archer titled “Yours to conquer: Macedonia is in the midst of an Alexander The Great rebranding.” Click here to read that piece.
Jim Daikos, Director of United Macedonian Diaspora (Canada), sent a letter to the editor in response to this article, and the letter “Call it Macedonia” was published in today’s National Post. Below is the letter, which can be found online by clicking here.
Call it Macedonia
Re: Yours To Conquer, Bert Archer, May 11.
While it is wonderful that Bert Archer enjoyed his trip to Macedonia, allow me to point out a few things.
First, the country is not the “former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia (FYROM),” but rather the Republic of Macedonia, or simply, Macedonia. Canada calls the country Macedonia as a matter of policy. And then-British MP David Cameron once quipped, using “FYROM” is the equivalent of calling Greece “the former Ottoman Possession of Greece.”
In fact, Macedonia is much older than Greece, and its borders have changed dramatically over those millennia, particularly in Alexander’s time, when it included the Republic of Macedonia and much more. As for the ethno-geographical Macedonia as defined over the last few centuries, this territory includes parts of present-day Albania, Bulgaria, Greece, Kosovo, Serbia, and the Republic of Macedonia, all of which are places where the Macedonian people call home.
The modern republic is most certainly “the real Macedonia,” and the Macedonian people are indigenous to all Macedonian regions.
Jim Daikos, United Macedonian Diaspora (Canada), Toronto.