YannisTsanikidis :
In recent decades, certain nationalist groups from Albania and the Republic of North Macedonia (formerly the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia) have increasingly promoted narratives that appropriate elements of ancient Greek history and heritage as their own.These claims have drawn widespread criticism from scholars and historians around the world, as they often ignore overwhelming linguistic, archaeological, and historical evidence that ties ancient Macedonia and other key parts of ancient civilisation to Hellenic culture and identity. One of the most prominent examples of historical revisionism stems from the appropriation of the legacy of Alexander the Great and ancient Macedonia by some groups in North Macedonia. Despite claims to the contrary, the overwhelming majority of historians and classical scholars maintain that the ancient Macedonians were a Greek people who spoke a dialect of Greek and participated in the Olympic Games—an event exclusively reserved for Hellenes. Archaeological finds, such as inscriptions from Pella (the ancient capital of Macedonia), are written in ancient Greek, further solidifying this connection. Similarly, the city-states and regions of ancient Greece were consistently identified as Greek by ancient historians such as Herodotus, Thucydides, and later Roman writers. Greek civilisation is widely recognised by historians and institutions worldwide as one of the foundational pillars of Western civilisation, with contributions in philosophy, politics, art, and science.This is evidenced by a vast corpus of Greek-language texts, art, monuments, and continuous cultural tradition from antiquity to the modern Greek state.The Greek language is a crucial marker of cultural identity, and the fact that ancient inscriptions, documents, and literature from across the Greek world were in Greek further undermines revisionist claims. Despite all this, irredentist narratives continue to persist, often fueled by political agendas rather than academic inquiry.It is rare, if not unprecedented, for modern states to claim the historical legacy of a neighboring country to such an extent, particularly in the face of overwhelming scholarly consensus t
2025-07-25 16:03:28