Macedonia - An Imaginary Country - The Soros Connection

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Source: Antiwar

 

AN IMAGINARY COUNTRY

…After all, the classification of “Macedonian” as a separate language, unique to itself, like English French, and German, is quite a stretch: it is more like a regional dialect, one with Serbo-Croatian and Bulgarian influences (both of which, like Macedonian, are written in the Cyrillic alphabet). Indeed, as far as the Bulgarians are concerned, there is no such language as “Macedonian,” but only a dialect of Bulgarian: the Serbo-Croatian speakers in Macedonia proper hold a similar view.

The fragility of this linguistic nationalism is, furthermore, exacerbated by the historical reality that no such country as “Macedonia” has had a separate existence since the days of Alexander the Great: its resurrection by Tito and the Yugoslav Communists was merely a crude attempt to intervene on the Communist side in the Greek civil war. This, however, has not deterred “Macedonian” nationalists from determinedly averring their linguistic and cultural uniqueness, and fiercely defending their (largely imaginary) national identity. Against the genuine cultural chauvinism of the Albanian fanatics, however, the faux nationalism of the “Macedonians” is a weak reed bending in a strong wind.

 
…THE SOROS CONNECTION

The make-believe country of Macedonia is a Yugoslavia in miniature: with all the built-in problems of the latter even more deeply embedded in its origins. Its first President, Kiro Gligorov, was a longtime Communist bureaucrat who served under Tito and, like Milosevic, made the transition to the post-Communist political scene.

Unlike old Slobo, however, Gligorov obtained the invaluable support of billionaire speculator and international do-gooder George Soros, who literally bailed out Macedonia with a generous loan and became the country’s de facto ambassador-at-large, lobbying for international recognition in the face of an embargo declared by Greece. The Greeks, it seems, feel threatened by the country’s very name, Macedonia, which is the same as Greece’s northern province, and some aspects of the Macedonian constitution, couched as it is in irredentist language: when the Macedonian government published a textbook showing a map of “Greater Macedonia,” including large chunks of Greece, Athens was not amused. In a [January 23]1995 New Yorker profile of Soros, the special relationship between Soros and the Macedonian model of “multiculturalism” was explored:

“Nowhere has Soros put more energy and money into bolstering a government than in Macedonia. “George is the savior of Macedonia,” his friend Morton Abramowitz declared. And the Macedonian representative in Washington, Ljubica Acevska, says of two separate Soros loans of twenty five million dollars, ‘People found it difficult to believe. The opposition said, ‘A country does not help you- why would an individual help you?’ Remember, twenty-five million dollars in Macedonia is like billions here… the fact that Soros did it helped the government a great deal.’”

 
A PATTERN EMERGES

 

Isn’t it funny how, mixed in with the irony and tragedy that is the theme of the Balkan story, we also have another theme: George Soros, the eccentric billionaire who has made his life’s work a crusade against what he calls “unrestrained capitalism” and yet is widely seen as the least restrained of all capitalists. Aside from writing books attacking the alleged “dangers” of laissez-faire capitalism, Soros was also one of the most effective and relentless advocates of US military intervention in the Balkans. The Soros-funded Balkan Action Council brought together the top warmongers in both parties, and among the intellectuals, mobilizing public opinion behind the idea of US intervention on behalf of the allegedly victimized Kosovars: Soros personally spoke out in support of the Kosovo war, utilizing his considerable influence with such Clinton era figures as Strobe Talbott on behalf of the War Party…

 

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