The deal just got ratified by the Greek parliament completing all the stages for its implementation putting an end to a long-standing dispute.
For those who do not know I joined this forum back in 2007 in order to discuss the Macedonian Dispute first and foremost. I remember it was 2005 and I was on my third year at university in England when I switched on the news and witnessed the US in a total policy u-turn since the 1940's recognising this state as 'Republic of Macedonia' and fully adopting its anti-Greek narrative. During those years the Iraq war was raging, the Yugoslav wars were almost about finished and the US was building its largest European military base across the borders of Kossovo and FYROM spanning both. 2005 was also the year that Greece signed with Russia the South-Stream Corridor agreement which has been put on ice since 2011. Alarm bells started ringing in my head about what I perceived to be an imminent attack on the Greek nation and its national interests. 4 years later and only 1 year after Greece vetoed FYROM's application to NATO in 2008, the Greek nation would go financially bankrupt. Back in 2005 I decided to join online forums to speak up for these issues, needless to say that I have passed by almost every single online community that exists eventually making my home at a forum that was called macedoniaontheweb.com. There I came across Greek scholars who were very educated, concise and all-round good people, some of them are members of this forum such as Akritas, Anothroskon and others. The majority of us were Maniot people and we were for all intents and purposes very patriotic people. I recall there was a Greek born Turkish propagandist going by the name of Megalommatis that was scouring forums as well as publishing newspaper articles against the Greek position and I made it my mission to chase that character online and address his wild claims. That took me to various places, but most importantly it brought me here. I joined this forum to address one his threads:
The Anti-Macedonian Hysteria of the Neo-Nazi Greeks.
This forum had a very varied and diverse community of posters and that intrigued me, soon afterwards I abandoned my home forum and became a full-time member of this community instead.
As a member of macedoniaontheweb.com I met a person from Skopia, a PhD student of History named Vasil Gligorov who decided to make an
official notary certified statement in Skopja that addressed what he considered to be ultra-propaganda. Soon afterwards he was imprisoned and then taken to a mental hospital in North Macedonia, we became alarmed and informed the Greek parliament who put this into its agenda for discussion, a delegation of Greek journalists went to Skopjia to enquire leading to Vasil's release from the asylum.
For me personally this is the end of an era and I am very happy that we managed to come to an honourable solution that addresses our
national concerns. I look forward to the conclusion of other disputes frozen in time, such as the unification of Cyprus and the Aegean Dispute.
A brief history of various threads from the past:
viewtopic.php?p=1710106#p1710106viewtopic.php?f=5&t=93689&start=40viewtopic.php?f=28&t=76503viewtopic.php?f=28&t=105774viewtopic.php?p=1398855#p1398855viewtopic.php?f=43&t=84278&p=1367422#p1367422
EN EL ED EM ON
...take your common sense with you, and leave your prejudices behind...