By: Pete James Kondoff

Pete James Kondoff — Sat, 16 May 2009 01:45:53 +0000

To All Concerned,
As Canadians we should all b e very concerned. But to me, as a Macedonian who was born in the U.S and a former educational specialist I am more concerned with the fact that our universities are still far to often promoting propaganda contrary to all of the facts and very often most discriminatory.
What you have documented was not only offensive to the Armenians but also to the Macedonians and all other ethnic identities which have at one time or another had to accept many of such falsifications being imposed upon them and usually by stronger powers who then occupied their native homelands. Some of these identities in the past were Latvians, Estonians, Lithuanians, Georgians, Ukrainians and countless others throughout Africa, Asia and even Canada, United States and Australia and how we treated our own native peoples.
Universities throughout the west are inadvertently initiating many false values in the minds of our students relative to what is represented as history. By regurgitating unverified myths as if they were facts many of such originated in the early 18th century at a time when public educational systems were in teir infancy and five out of the six largest European states were governed by monarchs who were absolute in their authority and very closely related to each other. This royalty predominately was from; England, France, Netherlands, Spain and Portugal and relatively very unified politically. To maintain their political strength as a unit and to also protect their individual markets and interests, they invented a buffer state for the prime purpose of slowing down the expansion of their rampant cousin, the Tsar of Russia.
Prior to the decline and the ultimate elimination of a 50 year old (Moslem) Ottoman Empire, these five (European) states controlled all of the Atlantic which included access into the Mediterranean and the African slave trade, access to an evolving silk trade in the east and dominance in India To protect all this from any future intrusion by the Russians they decided to create a new state which would hopefully slow down any further expansion of Russia into the Mediterranean. To do, this they created a new state which they named Greece! Prior to its birth in 1829AD this state was an unknown quantity with an unknown; history, culture, ethnic identity and/or language. After its birth they then had to legitimize what they created to the people who lived there. These five nations (with the assistance of their newly created Greek nation) then began a process of modifying all pervious history to legitimize what they had created. What they initiated over 180 years ago is still a part of our interpretation of history, not factual and very inaccurate and far too often also very discriminatory towards ethic identities which preceded such a creation.
As a former teaching professional I find this to be most offensive since most of such misconceptions appear to be originating within our higher educational institution and I believe also contrary both our laws and our obligations as educators to try and insure that the relevance of everything being taught is very impartial and hopefully verifiable with scientific data when such is available.
Pete James Kondoff

Comments on: The haunting tale of an Armenian Genocide survivor

By: Pete James Kondoff