Is Macedonia considered to be Greek? And are Macedonians considered Greek?

Question

Hello :)
This is not exactly a question. It's a dispute about the "Macedonia" name. If somebody wants to spent some time to explain any reasons why Macedonia is Greek or not please do. BUT DO IT PROVIDING EVIDENCE please. 

Let me explain what I mean: A few days ago, someone asked at the GREEK section the question "Is Macedonia considered to be Greek? And are Macedonians considered Greek?" The asker asked this question because she was confused about the Macedonia issue. 

What is the Macedonia issue?
I suppose you know that Macedonia was from ancient times a Greek territory, (as it's name suggests), and has Greek history, language and civilization. Greeks can provide all kind of evidence to prove Macedonia's authenticity (see below). However since 1991, Vardarska, also known as F.Y.R.O.M, a Slav country, claims the name "because the name belongs to them" since "they're the ancestors of Alexander the Great". This is an excuse to laugh at, since Slavs came at the Balkans at the 6th-7nth century, but Macedonia's history starts in the Late Neolithic period (c. 4500 to 3500 BC) and as all of you know Alexander the Great was Greek! And from the other hand (and until now at least) I read no clues or something from their part... just the regular excuse "ask others, not greeks, to tell you THE TRUTH". 

So, I'm asking others to "learn the truth". What's your opinion? I repeat, don't just say "Macedonia is "X"" and that's it. Please provide some evidence if you can, as I did. 

The clues I provided (so far) are: 
1) FOREIGN testimonies
2) Etymology of the "Macedonia" name and various relative names 
3) A speech of Alexander the Great, the greater Macedonian of them all
4) Geographic facts
5) Tomb scriptures
6) Various historical scriptures and texts (by Herodotus)

They provided:
1) Some insults (not much)
2) A link from a site which:

a) Belongs to them (F.Y.R.O.M-ians) as the "about" page says. (This is normal of course since they don't have any evidence or testimonies from foreign scholars, but it's a total irony to blame Greeks for something they also do)
b) The content of the site is based on Quintus Curtius Rufus, a Roman historian who "garbled his writings" as Mary Renault a historical novelist said, and also is someone who had a "complete lack of historical principle" according to William Woodthorpe Tarn a British classical scholar and a writer. (According to Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quintus_Curtius_Rufus). But even if Quintus was a great writer, why his opinion matters more than all the rest ancient Greek philosophers for example Herodotus?

So, your opinion? What do you think?
PS: Here is the question for more info: http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index;_ylt=Ait9NVWsn9TezP4U9q7NQSClDX1G;_ylv=3?qid=20120129035355AA8XIY2

PS: I can provide more evidence if you like.

Anonymous · Accepted Answer

You seem to have had a good thrash through many historical sources.  One thing that possibly you need to understand is that the whole of the Balkans (say Bosnia across to Romania and down to Greece - much of south-eastern Europe) has had a very long history of successive waves of invasion and colonisation and internal power struggles, so ethnic origins of people in any particular area are mixed but jealously guarded, and serial bloodletting for family and ethnic honour has been the history of the whole Balkans.  The area now defined as the country of Macedonia is not the same area as was generally known as Macedonia at various times in history; borders of many of the counteries in that area were only fixed less than 20 years ago.  Much of the Balkans was under Turkish rule for several centuries from the 1400s.

Anonymous · Answer

Macedonians were Greek - only in modern Greek brainwashed minds. Here is what pro-Greek historian NLG Hammond has to say: We have already inferred from the incident at the Olympic Games c.500 that the Macedonians themselves, as opposed to their kings, were considered not to be Greeks. Herodotus said this clearly in four words, introducing Amyntas, who was king c.500, as 'a Greek ruling over Macedonians' (5.20. 4), and Thucydides described the Macedonians and other northern tribes as 'barbarians' in the sense of 'non-Greeks', despite the fact that they were Greek-speaking. (Thuc. 2. 80. 5-7; 2. 81. 6; 4. 124.1) When it comes to political controversy, it was naturally good invective to call the king a barbarian too. Thus a Greek speech-writer called the Thessalians 'Greeks' and Archelaus, the contemporary Macedonian king, 'a barbarian'. Demosthenes spoke of Philip II as 'the barbarian from Pella'. Writing in 346 and eager to win Philip's approval, Isocrates paid tribute to Philip as a blue-blooded Greek and made it clear at the same time that Macedonians were not Greeks. (Isoc. 5. 108 and 154) Aristotle, born at Stageira on the Macedonian border and the son of a Greek doctor at the Macedonian court, classed the Macedonians and their institution of Monarchy as not Greek, as we shall see shortly. It is thus not surprising that the Macedonians considered themselves to be, and were treated by Alexander the Great as being, separate from the Greeks. They were proud to be so.

Athena · Answer

The Greeks think so.

As to who it belongs to now, You need to understand that these fights go back thousands of years.
You demand for facts will not resolve this any more than any other blood feud from that area of the world.

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Is Macedonia considered to be Greek? And are Macedonians considered Greek?

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