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March 12, 2003 Macedonian Alliance Condemns Adoption of Racist Resolutions by American State Legislatures
To: Secretary of State Colin L. Powell Cc: Illinois Senate Governor George H. Ryan The Macedonian Alliance condemns a number of US state legislatures that have adopted resolutions that quite contentiously and shamefully proclaim "... that the ancient Macedonians are Hellenes and that the inhabitants of the northern province of Greece, Macedonia, are their Hellenic Descendants." In June 2002, the Illinois state legislature adopted resolution 92_SR0446 and in August 2002, the California state legislature adopted a similar resolution, bill ACR 241. Now the Texas and New Hampshire legislatures are reviewing the same resolution. This is obviously pandering to an organisation of racists who has usurped the Macedonian name and calls itself the Pan-Macedonian association, an organisation of Greeks that is backed heavily by radical nationalist elements within the Greek Community. The Macedonian Alliance
is an organisation of people with an ethnic
Macedonian background from all parts of the divided land of Macedonia and
sees this as a blatant attempt to cover up a century of human rights abuses
by Greek authorities. In addition, the resolutions conveniently bypass the
fact that up to one million Christian refugees were resettled from Asia
Minor into Aegean Macedonia in the 1920s to Hellenize the area.
The Macedonian Alliance is insulted and angry. We are angry that a Greek
organisation is using the honorary resolution system of US states as a
propaganda tool. This is an international community matter and is therefore
not an appropriate subject for US States to comment on through simplistic
resolutions. It is not an issue that concerns these state legislatures.
Moreover, resolutions have been passed with no consideration or debate about
the subject matter. In Missouri, the resolution was "passed" on December
11,
2002, a date that the legislature was not even in session.
To quote a concerned US citizen, "It is reminiscent of the actions of
Representative Tom Moore who sponsored a resolution in the Texas House of
Representatives calling on the House to commend Albert de Salvo for his
unselfish service to his country, his state and his community. The
resolution was passed unanimously. Representative Moore then revealed that
he had only proposed the motion to show how the legislature passes bills and
resolutions often without reading them or understanding what they say.
Yours Faithfully
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Copyright © 2004 Macedonian Alliance All rights reserved |
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