Ancient Toponymies renamed by Slavs

Occasionally one of the FYROM propagandists’ habbits is to bring the claim that Greeks renamed cities of Macedonia from their original names.  So lets examine the opposite claim. Toponymies of FYROM’s regions/cities/villages/rivers and find out as many renamed ancient toponymies from Slavs we can get.

1. Skopje

Even skopje its a changed name since it was originally founded by Dardanians as Skupi.

2. Debar

Another changed name. The first recorded document mentioning Debar is the map of Ptolemy, dating around the middle of the 2nd century, in which it is called Deborus.

3. Delcevo

Wikipedia says during Ottoman times it was called “Sultania” or “Sultaniye” and later Carevo Selo. The town was renamed its present name Delčevo in 1950.

4. Kavadarci

The name Kavadarci is derived from the Greek word, “Kavadion” which means “cape made from a valuable material”. The citizens of Kavadarci being manufacturers of this material, the first recorded use of this name was during the first half of the 19th Century.

5. Kicevo

The original ancient Macedonian name was Uskana and was mentioned for first time in the reign of Perseas, king of Macedon during the Third Macedonian War (171-169 BC). Another ancient Macedonian name changed by Skops.

6. Negotino

Negotino was known under the name of Antigoneia. It was founded by the Macedonian king Antigonus II Gonatas, in the period between 278–242 BC.

7. Gostivar

From wikipedia: “Possibly the first mention of the town was made by the Roman historian Livy. He records how during the Third Macedonian War the King of Macedon Perseus at the head of 10000 men, after taking Uskana (Kicevo), attacked Drau-Dak, today Gostivar.

8. Ochrid

Wiki: Historical names include Dyassarites which is of Illyrian origin , and the Greek names Lychnidos (Λύχνιδος), Ochrida (Οχρίδα) and Achrida (Αχρίδα), the latter two of which are still in modern usage.

9. Valandovo

Wiki: Evidence of life can be found beginning in the 10th-7th centuries B.C. There is a settlement known as Mal Konstantinopol (Small Constantinople) dating from Roman times, and the life in the Middle Ages is marked by Marco’s Tower. In the vicinity of the town there are also two very important archeological sites – The Isar Marvinci and the knowledge experts have on the existence of the ancient city Idomene.

10. Prilep

I have read once its ancient name was Parembole and certainly it was a Greek name.

11. Demi Hisar

It was known as SideroKastron when Greeks lived there. Later in Ottomantimes, the name was changed in to ”Demir Hisar” which in their language means ‘’ Iron Mountain’’. Another original greek toponymy renamed.

12. Demir-Kapija

Demir-Kapija is a place already mentioned in Classical times under the name of Stenae (Greek for gorge). In the Middle Ages it was known as a Slav settlement, under the name of Prosek, while today’s name originates from the Turkish reign, meaning “The Iron Gate”.

13. Štip

Originally an ancient Macedonian city called astibo which was renamed later to Štip.

14. Stroumica

Wiki: The town is first mentioned in II century B.C. with the name Astrayon. Later it is known by the name Tiveriopol. It got it’s present name from the slovan settlers.

15. Cepigovo

The ancient Styberra was renamed by Slavs as Cepigovo.

16. Bučin

The ancient Alkomena. Alkomena used to be one of the urban centres of Derriopos.

17. Gevgelija
The ancient Gortynia renamed into Gevgelija.

18.  Titov Veles

It was known in antiquity as Bylazora.

19. Isar-Marvinci

There stood during antiquity according to archaeologists the ancient Idomenai.

20 Vardar

The ancient Bardarios was renamed in Slavic as Vardar.

21. Crna

The ancient Erigon renamed into the Slavic Crna.

FYROM propaganda “The use of the term Macedonia was forbidden in Greece until 1988”

FACTS:
F.Y.R.O.M.-Slavs claim that the use of the term “MAKEDONIA” in Greece was forbidden until 1988 and that no province with the name “MAKEDONIA” (Macedonia) existed in Northern-Greece before 1988.

There are many examples for state institutions or private organizations which use the term “MAKEDONIA” in Greece since the end of 19th century and still use it:

Faros Of Macedonia – paper of 29th November 1887.

Ermis of Thessaloniki – paper of 24th Octomber of 1875.

The Greek government had given the title “Governor General of Macedonia” to the Greek minister of the Macedonia region in Greece.

Examples:

In early 1923 the Governor-General of Macedonia, Achilleas Lambros, conducted an ethnological survey of this region.(30) According to Lambros, the statistical data came (a) from the official Greek census of 1920, (b) from another census conducted at about the same time on behalf of the Foreign Ministry and (c) from information derived from various local officials.

This figure is also supported by an 1912 unofficial and unpublished census found in the papers of the first Greek Governor-General of Macedonia, Stefanos Dragoumis.(25)
(25.) Archeio Stefanou Dragoumi [Stefanos Dragoumis Papers], F.116.4., Governor-General of Thessaloniki to the Prime Minister, Thessaloniki, 4 November 1913, ref. 17210

1923: “In the course of conversation, Mr. Lambros [Governor General of Macedonia], actually said that the present was a good opportunity to get rid of the Bulgars [sic] who remained in this area and who had always been a source of trouble for Greece

The building of the Society of Macedonian Studies founded in 1934. You do not need to know Greek to read the word in the middle: Makedonikwn=Macedonian

Newspaper “MAKEDONIA” March 1940

MACEDONIA und THESSALONIKI Newspaper logo
Macedonia (Greek:Μακεδονία) is a Greek daily newspaper first published in 1911 by Vellidis.
NationMaster – Encyclopedia: Macedonia (newspaper)The Society for Macedonian Studies
In the spring of 1939, a number of distinguished citizens of Thessaloniki founded the Society for Macedonian Studies as a legal entity of private law.
[…]
The Society for Macedonian Studies founded the Institute for Balkan Studies, initially as one of its own departments. The latter is now an independent body in its own right, with the Society for Macedonian Studies represented by three of the seven members of the Administrative Board. Another foundation is the Historical Archive of Macedonia, and the Society was also co-founder of the Museum of the Macedonian Struggle.
The Society for Macedonian StudiesArt Gallery of the Society for Macedonian Studies
Founded in 1975, this was the first organised visual art institution in the city, its purpose being to promote and disseminate modern Greek art, mainly that of northern Greece. […] The collection comprises more than 400 works, mainly paintings, sculptures, and engravings, mostly by artists from Thessaloniki and Macedonia in general, though there are also works by major artists from the rest of Greece and other countries too.
Art Gallery of the Society for Macedonian Studies by Greece Museums Guide – #1 Travel Guide to Greek Culture

Thessaloniki Museum of the Macedonian Struggle

The Society which is responsible for the Museum of the Macedonian Struggle is that of the “Frieds of the Museum of the Macedonian Struggle”, a private association founded in Thessaloniki in 1979.
Greece uses the term“MAKEDONIA” even before Macedonia was liberated. FYROM’s propagandistic claim that the greek Term “MAKEDONIA” was forbidden in Greece is totally clumsy and another lie used by FYROM’s propagandists.

http://history-of-macedonia.com/wordpress/2007/11/08/skopjan-propaganda-the-use-of-the-term-macedonia-was-forbidden-in-greece-until-1988/

National Geographic and FYROM propaganda

One of the funniest parts of Skopjan internet propaganda is the selective isolation of a few lines from one of the most famous magazines word-wide, National Geographic in early 20th century.

Lets examine it carefully.

National Geographic in 1912 had an extensive mention to Macedonia and its different races.

The first pages of the article about Macedonia had:

*pictures taken from http://kroraina.com/knigi/en/ng_1912/NG_macedonia.html

In these two pages, we could read among others, the following:

“Had the population of Macedonia been homogeneous, the Macedonian problem would have been settled long ago, but the mixture of races has ever been a marked characteristic of the Balkan Peninsula, and of no part of it more so than of Macedonia.
It is necessary to begin by explaining what is meant by the term Macedonia. The country forms neither a racial, a linguistic, nor a political unit. Geographically it is a unit, being bounded by the Shar Dagh on the North, the Albanian mountains on the west, the river Bistritza and the Aegean Sea on the south, and the Rhodope mountains on the east[..]

In the next page we read:

The division of races in Macedonia is not based wholly on difference of origin or of anthropological type. We may find characteristically Greek types, Bulgarian types, or Turkish types, but among those who call themselves Greeks are many whose type and whose origin is not Greek; and so it is with the others. In certain districts we find members of three distinct races speaking their respective language but all very similar in type.

* From “The Balkan Question,” edited by Luigi Villari

However Skopjan propagandists seems not to be aware of the above and propagandising the following from National Geographic of 1917

So in the 1917 National Geographic we have a new, different account from the version of 1912. Naturally a question comes to mind. How is it possible two different accounts on the same subject in just 5 years?

The answer is simple and plain. In 1917, the year the second article was published Bulgaria and US were already at war. We all know during war every mean possible is used for propaganda, including of course magazines. In addition to that Macedonia was the front line. On the other side of it was the Bulgarian army fighting the very same people who took the interview. So what does anyone would expect a peasant to say? “Yes, I am a proud Bulgarian, no matter that my countrymen are killing your compatriots by the thousand just over the hill!” As a matter of fact there is no indication that the woman was a Slav at all.

The funniest part is that skopjan propagandists stick to this only sentence in the second article and pretend that the much more scientific earlier article does not exist… If their best argument for the existence of Macedonians is one line by an anonimous peasant then they must surely try harder!!

Thanks to Robert for pointing out the above.

http://history-of-macedonia.com/wordpress/2007/11/08/national-geographic-and-fyrom-propaganda/