Chess Moves

Always, when someone on any level (individual, state, international) wants to do something and truly is set on achieving it, one follows a strategy. This strategy can remain stable or change depending on the quality of the opponent’s strategy.

There are many types of strategy which one can use and which, if we are interested, we can see in their most abstract from during a chess game (or several more). Just like math, so does chess contain a sense of awe and fear that we will not be able to understand it. But this is not true on either case since both math and chess are just a language of simple logic exactly as the language we use to communicate: in the beginning we speak slowly, but if we continue practicing we acquire fluency and even glibness to our speech. All chess players say that before one can measure capacity or talent in chess, one must have been taught all the chess moves and strategies that, if one is unaware of, no matter how intelligent or talented he/she will not be able to display as much.

That is exactly what happens in all the facets of life and it is exactly this knowledge that is attempted to be hidden from the citizens- and when despite it all they manage to acquire it and make it theirs, it is attempted to convince them that what they have does not exist or it is too late to use it.

In the case of the issue of the naming of Skopje, we notice this with the continuous broken record of propaganda for inland consumption alone and according to which any objection on the part of Greece and demand for complete absence of the term ‘Macedonia’ from the name of the state of Skopje is doomed because it is now ‘too late’.

This is a tactical trick as it is never too late, especially in the cases where the people has not been properly, actually and officially informed for the action and the decisions or moves or lack thereof of the governments pertinent since World War II and onwards. Also, the claim that it is futile or too late or non-feasible is wrong as can be demonstrated by the facts and other such cases [see the case of France’s objection to the official name ‘Great Britain’ (that is, a name with a specialization) due to possible imperialistic tendencies on the part of England with regards to Brittany, France. The objection was sustained. / the case of the forbidding of Taiwan from the state of China to use a composite name with the term ‘China’ in it] on an international level.

Also, the claim that a composite name with specialization does not promote imperialistic motives is historically disproven, since if that holds true, France’s objection would not have been sustained (instead of ‘Great Britain’ England was forced to be officially named United Kingdom) nor would the condition have developed as it did in the divided Vietnam.

Therefore, it is not only not too late, but there should not in any case be allowed for the term ‘Macedonia’ to exist in any kind of composite name for the state of Skopje.

Any phenotypically ‘moderate’ and ‘compromising’ solutions/give-ins are in essence not only traitorous to Greece and unfair on the basis of historical, anthropological and human rights data but also war mongering and fully destructive for all the states of the Balkans without exception and beyond, since with a composite name a pro-war imperialistic policy can be promoted in the hands of any conscienceless or bought leader.

One very successful strategy which is applied in chess and in life is that of ‘divide and conquer’: It is very easy to beat the adversary if you isolate in small groups his/her pawns on the chess board instead of allowing them to have one big common front.

In the case of Greece this has always been accomplished through misinformation, discord, mal-coordination between the several groups and parts of it. A stellar example in the history of Greece is the Civil War of 1946 which was created by a systematic misinformation of the different groups of fighters and civilians who had cooperated seamlessly and successfully during World War II against the forces of the Axis powers. During World War II all the ‘leading’ political figures prominent during the Civil War were absent from Greek soil. The misinformation which began with the arrival of these political figures culminated with the several provocateur incidents and the threatening of the people regarding possession of arms and the philosophical/political alignment of the several groups which had fought united against Nazism and which aimed at the creation of a provision state and actual education. This state and this education plan had already been applied with great success before the arrival of these political persons from Egypt, where they had fled during World War II. It was this exact provision state and education plan, vastly different than the ones applied in the USSR, which was erased from the face of the earth as if it had never at all existed with the coming of this fabricated Civil War.

In our days, the exact same sowing of discord and division of the Greek element is attempted within the borders and out of them through:

1. misinformation

The mass media present a completely one-sided and non-objective take on things, promoting directly or indirectly the claims of Skopje, gagging and hiding at the same time all the actions, objections and moves by Greek citizens, associations and societies inside and outside the borders. So, inside the borders the Greeks believe that the Diaspora is not at all interested in the Macedonian matter and is idle or in accordance with the positions of foreign powers. The Diaspora believes that the Greeks inside the borders are completely unconcerned or in agreement with the official announcements and positions of those in power and also believe that the lukewarm governmental stance which follows the so-called ‘compromising’ solutions (which we already analyzed where they lead as a strategy) is the most dynamic that the Greek population has to offer. Therefore, both the domestic and the diaspora Greeks feel isolated, weakened and at least disappointed with each other.

Local mass media in each greek region project very different impressions, relaying a propaganda which is uneven and contradictory and which everyone in each Greek region assumes is the same for all of Greece. So, in Northern Greece, intolerance towards the Skopjan positions is promoted as well as a sense of combativeness in case of imperialistic tendencies. But in Southern Greece a great tolerance towards the Skopjan positions is promoted and at best moderate morale or even pessimistic about what is going to happen. In Cyprus they feel anger towards main Greece because it is promoted that Greece betrayed them and has continued to do so since the invasion of the Turks there in 1974. In the same time in main Greece there is great frustration towards Cyprus for the lack of apparent support to our goals or even in the weakening of our diplomatic positions because of the pending Cypriot situation. The same is also happening in Crete as well, since the rumour exists in the air that Crete feels ‘Cretan first and Greek second’.

This creates a fabricated situation of differentiation and fragmentation which can very easily lead to Ethnic strife and bloodshed with very grim forecasts for the unified state of Greece.

2. threatening

With the propaganda and the enforcement of an out of bounds rising price rate the Greek people is bombarded with the idea that it is poor, powerless and weak. The continuous failed syndicate efforts to curb the egregious social breaches of Human Rights of the Greek People is a constant confirmation for the Greek citizen that he/she ‘can shout but not do’.

In the same time we are threatened that the decision is already taken by the majority of the International Community that if we oppose it we will be going against the so-called super powers with tenebrous but in essence and actually undefined consequences, without at all stressing our own strategic force, power and importance towards them.

In addition we are threatened that we are militarily weak, an idea that has been cultivated systematically since the time of the invasion of the Turks in Cyprus, which was also the official excuse of the government at the time for our withdrawal as well as the deterrence of the thousands of Greek citizens of all ages who spontaneously volunteered at the centre of Athens so they could be sent to defend Cyprus. They were ordered to return home because “there was not enough equipment and arms for a Cypriot expedition”. Now it is openly and audaciously confessed by the generals of the time that they lied so that they would not support Cyprus and so that they would rebuff the unified Greek people who, without sufficient equipment and arms, gave rise to the epic fight of 1940-1944 where they beat back the Italian fascist forces with nearly their bare hands.

The exact same setting ot rebuffing of the intent of the Greek People for the defense of the interests and rights of Greece and of her lands took place during the skirmish at Imia islands in 1996.

The same is happening now from the exact same people, sides and interests not to prevent the Greeks from going to war, but to make them be afraid of what may happen if they raise their true diplomatic voice.

Until now, we have explored the most obvious chess moves and strategies of those against the Greek People but also every People including the one in the state of Skopje, who has been manipulated for fifty years.

In the next article we will explore the simplest chess moves and strategies which would ensure peace in the area of the Balkans and the Greek interests intact without any breach of the rights of other Peoples.