I concur.
And on that note, we should both agree to keep discussion here in this thread, restricted to Alexander the Great's ethnic-racial, cultural and linguistic affiliations.
Alexander the Great was the Greek King of Macedon...right ?
Alexander was Slavic of course
How ? in what way Slavic ?
Alexander was Sarmatian.
Not Slav then! - Old Sarmatian-language modern-day equivalent is spoken by the Alani in Ossetia, Caucasia!
Sarmatian name and parallel with it- Thracian name.
Thracian was different to Sarmatian-language - Spoken by two different-distinct people-groups!
This nonsense must stop - Alexander the Great was the Greek King of Macedon. Macedonians always self-Identified Greek. Macedonians exist in the same place walking and talking Greek-style from since the days of King Karanus 778-808 BC. Macedonians have always been Greek-speaking Hellenic-peoples for >3 Millenniums now.
FYRoM is not Macedonia and the peoples there are Slavic, in genous, and in speech. Actually, FYRoM is Paeonia in ancient-geographical terms, and then Dardania north from Skopje.
The arguments for FYRoM being Macedonia geographically, are weak when confronted with the historical evidence. Stronger arguments exist which place FYRoM inside Paeonian-Dardanian territory, and if we are to believe in the idea that the peoples there have never moved, or been shifted, are native, and indigenous peoples to their lands, then those facts would make them descendants of Paeonians south of Skopje, and Dardanians north from it.
On this basis, the Macedonian name is not suitable for FYRoM...not for place-name not for peoples-name. Those who seek to impose the Macedonian name on Slavic-peoples living on Paeonian-Dardanian lands, do so from politicial Ideological perspectives.
FYRoM is not Macedonia geographically, it is Paeonia, and then Dardania north from Skopje...The peoples of FYRoM if native and indigenous, autochthonous peoples of the land, should be given the opportunity to learn about the history of Paeonia and Dardania, rather than the imposed political historical curriculum taught there, which teaches a narrative nobody accepts outside of FYRoM.
The antiquisation efforts undertaken by the Makedonists in FYRoM, to place them on an equilibrium with Greece over cultural and hereditary rights to the ancient-Macedonian legacy, has proven to be a bit of an embarrassment for them, for there are no valid reasons for the peoples there to be Idolizing King Philip of Macedon or his son Alexander the Great, the way they do in Skopje. The reason they do it ofcourse, is to antagonize the Greeks, to watch Greeks squirm at their antics...the thrill they derive from watching Greeks get uptight is worth it for them because they know - only Greeks have legitimate claims to the historical legacy of ancient-Macedon. So FYRoM stands alone in the world - shoved-up a siding, kept at a distance, at arms length, because what they have done to Hellenism has repulsed the EU, UN, USA, NATO and the International academic community. These bodies do not give FYRoM a second look anymore.
The peoples of FYRoM are Slavic for 1,400 years now, and Macedonian, for just 69 of them...from since the creation of the Peoples Republic of Macedonia in 1945.
The peoples of FYRoM have been speaking Bulgarian for 1,400 years and Makedonski for just 70 of them...from since the creation of the Makedonski-language in 1944.
The Draguvites-tribe and the Berzites-tribe are FYRoM's closest Slavic relatives, their ancestral-forebears, but they hardly get a mention in the history and heritage of this young, fledgling, recently established Balkan country.
From since the top-end of the 6th Century AD until now, many years have passed...for 1,333 of those years, the peoples of FYRoM were perfectly happy to affiliate to the Bulgarian ethnos. For 1,332 of those years, they spoke Bulgarian and self-Identified the same. There is no mistake, no confusion and no doubt, the peoples of FYRoM are Slavic in all the ways that matter!
When FYRoM's Slavic ancestors first settled the Greco-Roman world, they did not come in as Macedonians...they came in as Draguvites and as Berzites, along with the Sagudates, the Velegizites, the Zagorites and the Ezerites, and many more besides.
It took a long time for the Slavic-tribes to form nations in their own right - the first such entity to do so was Bulgaria. In all their dealings with Slavs, the Medievil Byzantine Emperors always referred to them as
Vulgari meaning Bulgarians. The oldest known Slavic Nation in the Haemus Greek peninsula is Bulgaria.
On the other hand - The peoples of Macedonia in Northernmost Greece have been Centum-Greek speakers for >3 Milleniums and Hellenic for the same!
Macedonians have always been Centum-Greek speaking Hellenic-peoples - a regional historical people-group of ethnic-Greek stock - What does FYRoM have to do with Macedonians ?
Newly formed emerging country's do have the sovereign right to call themselves by whatever name they like, see fit, and is of the peoples choosing, but common-sense dictates that it must be done within a framework which does not deprive others from their own self-determination rights. In the FYRoM case, the Slavs there want to use the Macedonian name for self-Identity, in the ethnic-racial sense, and in the cultural-linguistic sense...when it is known that Macedonians already exist as a regional historical people-group of ethnic-Greek stock - Macedonians have existed in the same place as self-determined Greeks from since the days of King Karanus 808-778 BC.
Macedonians are self-determined Greeks for more than 3 milleniums - FYRoM's [ex-Yugo] Slavs from since 1945, and under the strictest coercive influences of the Communist-Slavist regime that ruled over WWII wartime Yugoslavia.
In FYRoM live brainwashed indoctrinated Serbo-Bulgarian speaking South-Slavs who see themselves as Macedonians and ancient-Macedonians as Slavs - bred that way...bred for purpose!
We have all seen how the Slavic-speaking peoples of FYRoM try to pass themselves off as Macedonians. They attempt crudely, to usurp the Macedonian-name for self-Identity and for self-determination purposes even though it is known they are Slavic, from Serbian and Bulgarian stock.
The lands North of Mount-Barmous and Mount-Orbelos is where ancient-Paeonia lay, where the ancient-Paeonians once lived. To their South, they faced the Greeks from Macedonia, and to their North, they faced the Illyrians from Dardania...where Kosovo is geographically situated today. Paeonia was a country that was peopled by NoN-Greeks. King Phillip II of Macedon, Alexander the Greats father, took control of Paeonia in 359 BC and Hellenized the area over the course of time.
Historians today consider the Paeonians an intermediate peoples, somewhere between Thracian and Illyrian. They, along with the Hellenes formed the 3 autochthonous root-races that peopled the Haemus peninsula. Thracians, Illyrians and Hellenes with their sub-groups, sub-sets and derivatives peopled the Haemus peninsula during antiquity - Paeonia is the place where they blend amalgamate and coalesce. Paeonians had their own ethnic- language before Hellenization but after 359 BC, they learned to walk like Greeks and talk like Greeks, courtesy of King Phillip of Macedon. It remained this way until the coming of the Slavic-tribes when under the sheer weight and numbers of the newcomers, the now Greek-speaking Paeonian Greco-Romans had no choice but to Slavicize.
So FYRoM's [ex-Yugo] Slavs do have a history and a past in the Haemus [Greek] peninsula...not as Macedonians though, but as Paeonians. The [[E1b1b][J2]] genes they carry prove native autochthonous status to the Haemus - they speak Slavic but look Mediterenean. They do not look like Polish-Slavs or Russian-Slavs.
Thracians, Illyrians and Hellenes - in any combination, formed the ancient-peoples of the Haemus...elements from them, remnants of them, can still be found in the modern-peoples inhabiting the Haemus. If it is true, that all of us stem from same common Haemus gene-pool, then we owe it to the ancient-Greeks who brought us together under Hellenisms cultural-linguistic space and influence.
Paeonians were neither Hellenic nor Slavic - they just learned to walk that way and talk that way! FYRoM's roots and ethnogenic origins stem from Paeonia, not Macedonia.
Greeks legitimately claim historical and cultural-linguistic continuity from the ancient-Macedonians - something which was not given proper consideration in FYRoM when they opted to use the same Macedonian name for their own self-Identity. That the peoples there have been calling themselves Macedonians for a long time is given, but they have been doing that unjustly and inappropriately, and through a prism of filters...blocking-out all the Hellenic connections to Macedonia using state apparatus on approved state-sponsored censorship. It is forbidden there in FYRoM to use the Hellenic term next to the Macedonian one, for fear of association.
FYRoM's right to freely choose a name for self-Identity and for self-determination purposes was, up to a short while ago, supported by politicians the world over, until it was pointed out to them, first by historian scholars of the classics, and second, by demographers of the Haemus [Balkan] peninsula - there is nothing Macedonian in FYRoM, not the land, not the peoples. Total self-determination should mean differentiation for FYRoM! The name they covet for self-identity must be different enough to distinguish them from Hellenic Macedonians...who are by definition, a regional historical people-group of ethnic-Greek stock.
The name dispute between FYRoM and Greece has lots to do with politics, but more to do with history. Historian scholars of the classics are simply not prepared to rewrite the Western-Worlds long established cultural historical narrative to accomodate FYRoM's homegrown ethno-genesis story...the way some Western politicians were prepared to do. Some Western politicians were prepared to award FYRoM the Macedonian-name for sovereign state-name, nationality, language and ethnicity...but for the concerns of the Greeks and the objections of historian scholars of the classics.
