One thing I have always had an avid interest in is Ancient and Modern history. I have always found it fascinating. Everything including the rise and fall of empires.

Growing up with a Macedonian heritage it rubs off on you to notice the famous ones there and think why do others know and talk about them still with interest today.

With the Balkan Wars that happened in modern times we learned about briefly at school, for the most part it was basically a few Balkan nations that were fighting with each other for possession of Macedonia. In essence it was a territorial and resource power play, and not for the benefit of the Macedonian culture or the people.

So like all historical stuff I look at, I keep in mind that its the victor that always tells the story and I just scoured through a lot of chronological facts without looking at the biased narrative and left it at that.

Then I thought why and how were these Macedonian people in this predicament today any why are they so vocal about freedom. And thats when you delve into ancient times and look at the events from then to figure it out.

Macedonia since ancient times has always been the same people and culture and a defined and distinct region, as opposed to neighbouring greece which comprised of just some scattered though significant cities here and there.

Macedonia was mentioned in the bible. Two of Jesus Apostles stayed there for a time, and helped lay the foundations for christianity.

It is Ohrid (old name was Lyknidos) Macedonia back then that was the home town and birthplace of the Cyrillic Language. Kiril and Methodius were Macedonians. Many nations have adopted it including Russia but i digress.

You look at the ancient great empire and wonder how it came and how it fell apart. The first famous Macedonian I heard of was Alexander the Great. Everyone knows him. Thats a given.Then when you delve into it deeper you see how brilliant his dad Philip II of Macedon was as a king. Im like who is he noone talks about him, whats his part in all of this. Then you see the foundations he set up, built an army, brilliant general and leader and tactician, won strategic battles from threats to his people, diplomatic and stabilised Macedonia and made it the dominant power in the area and that literally paved the way for his sons success.

I have come to the conclusion Alexander the Great was a raving lunatic, sure he was a brilliant warrior, but all the pros thanks to his dad. Sending him away, akin to boarding school to broaden his mind and learn from famous greek philosophers. Macedonian military training etc.

His dad had been advised to father a pure Macedonian heir due to Alexander being a loose canon, Philip gets stabbed tragically by a greek coward at some open unarmed civil ceremony, and dies. Alexander quickly ascends to the throne. Does some conquering towards to east. Orders the assassination of Philips Macedonian wife and son. He dies from malaria. And a downward spiral for the empire kicks in.

Then you look at the last 1000 years of Macedonian history. Four hundred years of Roman occupation, then 500 of Ottoman, then a 100 under Yugoslavia with the latter being the most reasonable and harmonial even though some resources were taken for the greater good of the empire. Thats why Serbs and Maso have a kindred bond. They always got along with each and have (still) respect for each other.

Then when Yugoslavia broke up, Macedonia was the only one to claim independence peacefully.

The Aegean Macedonians got the worse deal, they were either forced to identify as greek, or killed, or thrown out. Theres a time after the balkan wars where greece, mind you never in ancient or modern history did they ever claim conquer or occupy macedonian territory, ever. it took the great powers in the 1900s to dissect and hand it to them. basically started renaming the people, towns, banned the practice of macedonian culture language and such and there was a time not sure how many tens of thousands of aegean macedonian children were detached from their parents and scattered all over europe to get them out of the region either in fear they would be killed or it was a forced relocation by the greeks.

I don’t understand the hatred the greeks have always had for macedonians, there and globally, the name disputes, the famous people ownership, the territories and such. Both nations were screwed and subdued under recent ottoman rule, even back then they were known as the turkish province of yunanistan, they only got freedom themselves a century plus ago too. Buying all macedonidan internet names and spreading misinformation and propaganda. youtube videos where you couldnt openly debate with them democratically because they screened and pre-approved every user post and only allowed favourable ones within their ethos. Birthplace of democracy huh? heh. They need to divert their hate and stop stealing history – which they muddied but with time it is all being rectified. Philip was born in aegean, thats the birthplace of macedonian kings and noble tombs in ancient times, and the only time it has been greek owned was since the Treaty of London. One hundred years of hell ago.

Makes sense why Alexander was mental, his mom was a greek. Its in the genes.

I’ll also take a quick stab at them here. They claim they were the birthplace of democracy. Yet they owned slaves and its in the writing they have famously stated in ancient times that macedonia was a place you could not get a slave. Thats because macedonians never owned slaves. Ever. They were proud hard working self sufficient people. The current greek flag is a rip off of the the British East India flag of the time. Greek royalty is nothing but imported bavarian royalty. Hellenic is a modern term attached to them by others with a vested interest, not an ancient term they used themselves. Modern greeks do not share the same dna traces as everyone else in the balkans. We're all linked to some degree but the modern greeks have direct links to ethiopian dna. This was discovered some time ago by Spanish scientists. Therefore modern greeks cannot be descendants of ancient greeks if i use their own logic. Ancient greek mythology is predated by Ancient Egyptian mythology. Ancient greek scholars studied in Egypt too so you can understand who they plagiarised when you compare and contrast both.

There are macedonians in a secluded pakistan himalayas area right now. The main ones to note are the Hunzi. They are the descendants of people that were left there during the alexander the greats famous conquest into south asia and couldnt make it back due to injury, tiredness or whatever reasons and decided to stay and live there.

They speak and have retained the old macedonian dialect which for the most part is similar and understandable to some degree. They identify as macedonian. The croquet patterns are akin to traditional macedonian patterns passed down through the generations. Sure some of the people look slightly pakistani but that comes with the territory and intermixing over 2000 years in the area. They have retained all aspects of macedonian language traditions and culture though. Check their dna though and compare it to ours, dna doesn’t lie and I assure you wont find a hidden greek souvlaki in it.

Just a fyi, the ancient greek language had some weight back then, just like the English language has in current times. Just remember, even though you and me know the English language today (read and write it), it does not mean we are English, per se. That's the distinction i would like to offer modern turkish greeks and their claims.

This article is dedicated the late Eugene Borza. He was highly regarded academically as the leading expert on ancient macedonian history.