It is also odd how this article does not make any reference to modern day FYROMian culture. Albeit young, one might ask why is modern day FYROMian culture forcefully being swept aside by Prime Minister Gruveski? This nationalist government is doing more to undermine the development of FYROM than he is doing to help develop it, a little food for thought perhaps.

Regardless of the weak and lacking factual arguments made in this article one point should be made, that no matter what attempts FYROM makes to try and prove its case they will have to eventually come to the negotiating table and solve this issue.

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To Andy Plukov: I would like to respectfully ask if you were born in Greece as well. Because from what you have written I can only interpret that you are not which then begs the question how do you know first hand the assimilation tactics used by the Greek government to deny the existence of (pseudo) ethnic Macedonians in Greece?

"In 1912-13, through two brutal regional wars, Macedonia was forcefully partitioned among Greece, Bulgaria and Serbia. The Macedonians were subject to qualified genocide and many were driven from their land"

Where on any geographic map did FYROM exist during this time or for that fact on what historical map did FYROM exist? The modern statehood of FYROM did not come into being until 1991. The Kingdom/city-state of Macedonia has little if anything to do with the modern state of FYROM perhaps a comparison of apples to oranges is being done here, not to sure.

On the point of 1912-13 I question what historical and factual evidence exists to even bother to claim genocide. This article is so devoid of serious historical reference that it is at best an opinion column for the New York Times. Lets take a quick look at this period: lets not forget that the first Balkan war was against the then dominant Ottoman Empire which controlled much of today’s FYROMian territory and was at the front steps of Bulgaria, Serbia (or Yugoslavia) and Greece, once the Ottomans were ousted Greece rightfully took back the territory it had lost. The second Balkan war was against the Bulgarians to stop their aspirations for territorial expansion into Greece. Funny how this article sums everything up with a couple of lines

Revisionist history is a wonderful thing apparently because Dr. Eugene Borza of Pennsylvania State University and Dr. Ernst Badian of Harvard seem to believe that FYROMians are direct ancestors of Alexander the Great. WOW! Are these individuals ignorant or is it just me? This I will not even bother to comment on as I can see they have an outlandish view of historical fact, but then again that is after all revisionist.

These academics play off irredentism as though it is some sort of pseudo-claim. Come on! One begs the question: "If it is a pseudo-claim and holds no ground then why does FYROM officially teach its children that there is such as thing as Aegean Macedonia and that this region is rightfully there's?"

I find this article so comical it is best served to be published in the funny papers of local universities world wide for intelligent and objective readers to have a laugh over. "A matter of fundamentals"? Please! If it is a matter of fundamentals why does article fail to even make mention of Greece's right to protect its own culture. It is a shock, once again, how the author and editors of this article missed the point that more than 300 academics world wide are officially supporting Greece's stance; and NO they are not all Greek.

I have never seen such an in-depth, accurate analysis of the Macedonian-Greek problem.

As an ethnic Macedonian whose parents were born in Greece, I know firsthand the brutal assimilation tactics used by the Greek government to deny the existence of ethnic Macedonians in Greece. The issue of the name “Republic of Macedonia” is nothing more than an extension of Greek policy that began over 100 years before the Republic of Macedonia was formed as part of Yugoslavia in 1944.

Ethnic Macedonians have struggled for centuries to establish their own independant country; we will not be stopped by “name calling” from Greece.