Macedonian troops join with Vermont Guard units December 20, 2009
Posted by Yilan in Macedonia.Tags: America, Makedonya, NATO
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A historic alliance between soldiers from Vermont and Macedonia will mark the first time that troops from a non-NATO country have embedded inside U.S. military units.
In what Maj. Gen. Michael Dubie calls an unprecedented partnership, about 80 soldiers from Macedonia will deploy to Afghanistan and serve as integral parts of units from Vermont. The Vermont National Guard spent 18 months lobbying the Pentagon to get the partnership approved and finally got the go-ahead from top U.S. defense officials in November.
“This was a major muscle movement to try to get this approved,” Dubie said last week. “Everyone liked the idea, but it was tough because this is the first time a non-NATO nation is embedding inside a U.S. brigade.”
The coalition between Vermont and Macedonia dates back to 1994, when the countries were matched in the State Partnership Program, a U.S. Department of Defense initiative aimed at fostering strategic relationships with new democracies.
The Vermont National Guard was paired with the former Soviet bloc mainly because both regions are mountainous and approximately the same geographic size. Over the past 15 years, Macedonian soldiers have trained with their Vermont counterparts during exchange visits in both countries.
The deployment to Afghanistan, Dubie said, marked an opportunity to cement the relationship and create a true brotherhood.
“If you are willing to have a partnership that includes deploying to a combat area together, there’s really no better representation of what partnership is about,” Dubie said.
Macedonia committed some of its best soldiers to the mission, according to Dubie, who said the Macedonians traveled to the United States last month to train alongside the Vermont Guard in Fort Polk, La.
“They’re sending some of their special forces,” Dubie said. “They’re very professional. If we didn’t have confidence that they were that good, we never would have gone through this very difficult process of getting this approved.”
Dubie said the Macedonians will play no small role in the war effort.
“Some of them will be in leadership positions,” Dubie said. “You could have a Macedonian squad leader in charge of people from the United States.”
The United States has worked closely with soldiers from around the world in a war effort that includes dozens of countries. Unlike those nations though, Macedonia however is not a member of the North American Treaty Organization.
Macedonian President Gjorge Ivanov visited Vermont earlier this year for a briefing on the deployment.
Unacceptable for the US to partner outside of its NATO allies. FYROM is a troublesome nation newly invented with the fall of Yugoslavia. This coutry has taken it upon themselves to try and upsert the history of both Bulgaria and Greece.
Instead of being stuck in one nations version of the past, persons such as ‘Terps’ should understand and applaud The Republic Of Macedonia’s commitment to world security. If the brave soldiers of the Macedonia armed forces are willing to put their lives at risk and take part in the defence of people’s freedoms around the world (Terp’s included) it should be welcomed and rejoiced. The only reason that The Republic Of Macedonia is not part of NATO is due to Greece’s irresponsible, some might say ‘troublesome’ blocking of Macedonia’s joining in April 2008. This blocking only leads towards a sense of faltering security within south eastern Europe and further a field. The US obviously recognises the important need to include this relatively new nation within world security.
Macedonian history takes in a vast geographical and time period, the actions of one despot 2400 years ago does not define any single ethnicity or nations history. If one really wants to look at history maybe one should start with the dubious ethnic policy that Greece took towards its own Macedonian populous during the past century culminating in a society that refuses to recognise any ethnic minority within its borders apart from a small ‘Muslim’ minority Greece was forced to recognise under the the Treaty of Lausanne, 1923. There was another European nation that tried to create an ethnically homogeneous state in the past 80 years, that ‘history’ should serve as a warning.
The Republic Of Macedonia is a forward thinking, open, democratic country trying to make its way in the modern world. Ethnicity is not something set in stone, I am English and yet my ethnicity has no links to that of King Arthur, Robin Hood or many other famous English figures (If indeed King Arthur was English). It is in the same way that the state of modern Greece and its inhabitant bare little resemblance to the collection of city states and Greek culture of old. The word, the phrase, the notion Macedonian does not belong to one nation or peoples. There are those in Greece who choose to define themselves as Macedonian, there are those who live in a nation called The Republic Of Macedonia (recognised by 127 nations), who call themselves Macedonians, so be it, everyone has a right to self determination. As it states in article 15 of the Universal Declaration Of Human Rights ‘No one shall be arbitrarily deprived of his nationality nor denied the right to change his nationality’, a document that Greece voted for in 1948.
Macedonians within The Republic Of Macedonia have always been proud of their culture, their identity, their history. These are not concepts that appeared when Yugoslavia fell. I know an incredible 93 year old woman who lives in rural Macedonia, near to the Serbian border, she has no TV and has limited access to outside world. I asked her what nationality she was, bemused at my question she answered ‘Macedonian’. I then asked what nationality she was when she was a child, more confused at my ridiculous query she answered ‘Macedonian of course’. Who in this world has the right to deny this woman, her village, her municipality, and her country the identity that they have decided upon hundreds of years ago. If they are not Macedonian then what are they?
Individuals such as Terps are not here to disscus, compromise or understand. Denial, hypocrisy and a blinkered view of history can only lead to an atmosphere of hatred and the lack of security world. wide.
With respect to all nations and ethnicities
-John
Persons like TERPS are GRKOMANI whose parents and grandparents were successfully assimilated into the mythic HELLENIC culture and now they hate everything Macedonian!!! I feel really sorry for all this confused souls!!!
REPS wake up!!! MACEDONIA IS ONE AND WILL ALWAYS EXIST!!! GREECE IS THE ONE THAT FALSIFIES HISTORY!!!
I am amazed of the level of fanatism of John C and Frank.they blame Greece for irresponsible behaviour ,that falsifies history…That has an assimilated population,(what do you mean exactly,care to ellaborate?)
As for being English “, I am English and yet my ethnicity has no links to that of King Arthur, Robin Hood ” i seriously doubt so.Leave the true englishmen to tell us if they consider robin hood as part of their nation tradition.
I also spot the phrase “Macedonian history takes in a vast geographical and time period”,you mean FYROM has a history of 2400 years???And at the same time you blame Greece for being consisted for history ??what a hypocricy is this?
“f the brave soldiers of the Macedonia armed forces are willing to put their lives at risk and take part in the defence of people’s freedoms around the world”…?
You mean the 100 infantrymen that serve in the Afghanistan?what brave did they do there?They are also 180 Greek soldiers there and Greece will take control of the Kabul airport in the next months for a span for 1/2 a year.
“Macedonia” or FYROM as better to say,that is its UN recognized name,is an irredentist country which promotes racial violence against its albanian population (27% of the whole),see the war of 2001.
They have a witch hunt against anyone dare to declare its bulgarian origin.And they are condemned for that by European organizations.
The diaspora of FYROm such as the two gentlemen above promotes the idea of “United Macedonia” in which the current FYROM expands and curves parts of Greece and Bulgaria.
Macedonian political elit are endorcing these claims to neighboring lands in order to distract their citizens form their dire problems (35% unemployment!)
“n the same way that the state of modern Greece and its inhabitant bare little resemblance”
who are you to put label to a whole nation,who gave you that right?keep your insults to yourself mister.
Bottom line,FYROm is an unstability factor in the balkans ,an irredentist country ,with fanatical nationalist elit,which bad for her is neighbor to Greece which is 6 times bigger ,5 times its population,and 35 times its GDP.I understand you would love to attack to Greece and fullfill your wet geopolitical dreams of Greater “macedonia”but since you cannot,you can always play the victim,send troops to USA wars ,and collaborate with enemies of Greece such as turkey.
I pitty you and your “nation” which to be exact are a brainwashed bulgarian population.you hate Greece so much,and with such a passion yet you are doomed to be in its shadow.
Greetings from Greece…!
You x2 Greeks are sad c**ts
You’se are the ones who are sucking up to the Serbs and the French dogs and sucking their c**ks trying to help you erase the history and the country Macedonia from the Balkans and you got allies who are enemies with us and we have allies enemies with you’se same shit different smell! and yeah dw we have more soldiers over there then the Greeks do so we will succeed before you’se c**ts do and if you’se ain’t down with that then we got x2 words for you “Suck it”
I pitty the artificial nation of slavomacedonia. Macedonia is a reality with a historical meaning that is inherently related to the culture and history of Greece by far more than anything that identifies with todays slavomacedonia. No matter how viciously they try to destroy the cultural heritage of the modern Greeks, slavomacedonians have absolutely nothing to do with the meaning of Macedonia known to everybody and belonging to everybody particularly of the Western civilization. One may wonder of the purpose of the skopians insisting in a name and usurping a history and a culture that is not really their own. They may want to call themselves whatever they want or feel but they do not have the right to call their nation Macedonia.
A pathetic nation where the slavomacedonians will soon become a minority in the midst of other races that do not want nor care to identify themselves as Macedonians. That soon to be small minority feels the need to manufacture an identity not of theirs, raising statues foreign to their culture, blaming Greece for their misery, claiming Greek territory not their own, trying to fabricate historical facts and claiming descendance to the ancient Macedonians. In fact it is they that they play the race card, not so much the Greeks. It is they that they rallied behind defunct research to prove that their race is directly related to the ancient Macedonians. It is they that they tried to relate their slavic language to the Rosetta Stone language ridiculing themselves in front of the scientific community. Nobody today is a direct descendant to the ancient Macedonians particularly these slavic bastards that today want to call themselves as such.
Macedonia is a cultural and historical fact that belongs to everybody and cannot be used as a name of a nation particularly by one of a dubious historical reality soon to be non-representative of anything Macedonian.
To the above naive supporters of the slavomacedonian nation. You are fooling yourselves when you say that this country is progressive and forward thinking etc. It is rather a nationalistic pathology and instability instead, a serious problem soon to happen and you should heed the advice of the Greeks and plenty of other neigbhors in the area.
Greece should never recognize such a nation with the name Macedonia not even as a part in their name.
Slavomacedonians need to grow up and realize that claiming something that is not theirs but rather universal and particularly related to Greece will not help them in advancing their delapidated nation in the years to come but rather it will make life harder for them and for their neighbors.
You should find a name and an identity more related to your own slavo-Bulgarian heritage, Vardaska Banovina was the name of your land.
Greetings from Florida!
Spot on Constadine.You could not say better.
Yes,they blame Greece for racism,yet they are using “gene” and DNA “research” funded by them to a small spanish university(which later its director denied any involvement and condemned the research”) to prove that thy are genetically pure ancient people!!
Who?A population that lived in an area ,major crosing to any invader,from Goths,Eruls,magyars,Bulgars,Serbs,and Turkish tribes(patcineks,cumans ).A population that speaks a slavic language so similar to bulgarian,more similar than Australian English to American!!It wa s so close that the Tito government in 1947 hired an american proffesor named Horace Lunt to write their first grammar!!!
yes,the first grammar of their “ancient”language was written by an american in the early 50s!!Yet in all their cites claim that the Greek language is fabricated and artifficial,a language which we have THOUSANDS texts across 350ad and modern time.
Maybe they look themselves in the mirror?
Now “macedonia” has 35 % unemployment yet it will spent 16 milion Euro to make huge statues of Alexander in the capital’s square.Isn’t this a sign of spiritual decay and a sign of a totalitarian regime?It remends me sadam Hussein and Fidel Castro or the father Assad in Syria.
what to say?Roseta stone,Jesus was “macedonian” apostole paulus was “macedonian” kemal ataturk was “macedonian”…..They became the laughin stock of the international community.
As for the “united macedonia ” consept,i pitty them.
They want to annex parts of neighboring countries,4 of them (serbia bulgaria,albania but mainly Greece)yet they expect to do so by crying to USA and NATO and hope that in a magical way “they will give thier land back!”it is a wide belief in FYROM that the treaty that ended the 2 balcan war “expires” in 2013 abd they will take chunks of Greece!!
How?land that was taken by bloody war in which at least 1,000,000 men fight totaly is going to be altered by antiracist organizations and UNICEF and UN!!!Oh my god!!
Well since the treaty “expires”??? (!) Greece will give 30% of its land…..what a joke,It seriously challenges every logic that a simple man can say?Why they leave the population to live such illusions?
the whole story is 1000% ridiculus yet,yet gives an idea of the terrible and horific propaganda this regime gives to its citizens.And also gives a picture,excuse me,for how NAIVE and UNEDUCATED these people are.NAIVE is the world that says it all.I cannot believe that people that have acess to internet etc believe in our time in 2009 in God’s sake that in 2013 things by a magical way ,we shall return back to 1910.yes these are the people we are dealing with.They do not even bother to see the treaty itself and find if it says that it will “expire” …
A typical response from an slavomacedonian above: “You’se are the ones who are sucking up to the Serbs and the French dogs and sucking their c**ks… you’se same shit different smell! and yeah dw we have more soldiers over there then the Greeks do so we will succeed before you’se c**ts do and if you’se ain’t down with that then we got x2 words for you “Suck it””"
that is typical behaviour of thier population.No arguments,no facts,just fanatism,and racism.A skopian saying the French “dogs”.
France with its struggles in the past the french revolution etc is just “dogs” and “shit” to them since they do not abide by them.It is a pitty.
His only argument that “we have more soldiers there”.Great!!
send more men to kill and die in a distant foreign land just because uncle sam says so.And you are proud of it.lame and shame.
constadine says “It is rather a nationalistic pathology ”
i agree 100%.We have to deal with abnormality here with people that challenge every corner of logic and mental sanity.
Instead to look how to make their country better they spent all thier energy spitting poison against Greece a country that is the second large investor in thier country and gives them thousand jobs.N Gruevsky imagine himself as a great conqueror as a new VMRO hero that will bash the evil Greeks once and for all.Except that VMRO heroes were all declared BULGARIANS by theselfs and in their writings and except that the dreams sometimes end up in terrible nightmares.Let’s hope that FYROM will end up that dream otherwise Greece will have to wake up her the hard way.
Greetings from Greece
Still doesen’t explain why you’se Gayreek’s from Gayreece (Hell Ass) have Illyrian Albanian Gypsy roots and why the 1st president of Gayreece (Hell Ass) Albanian!
“Makedonija za zivot!”
The logo Brasso comes from a product that cleans copper and bronz.
The Former Yugoslav flag has that logo on it.
They are Former “Yugoslavs” not Macedonians.
Macedonians are Greeks.
Gayreek’s from Gayreece (Hell Ass) will go bankrupt soon and soon they will go back to their mother land Illyria Albania and at least we don’t have Illyrian Albanian Gypsy roots like you Gayreek’s from Gayreece (Hell Ass) do that is why the 1st president of Gayreece (Hell Ass) was Illyrian Albanian!
“Makedonija za zivot!”
Ancient Macedonians were a Pellazgian Tribe that became a nation later on and famous under the rule of Alexander the great, todays so called Macedonians are late comers to that region they are Slavic and very closely related to Bulgarians, theese are the facts that no one can deny no matter how delusional
they might be, as for today Greek they are ethnicaly mixed nation of Albanians and Greeks, majority of Greeks today have Albanian roots! ancient Greeks arrived in to the present day Greek lands from Asia Minor.
today its nearly impossible to find a Greek person whoes grandparents did not speak Albanian at home!
to all the Greeks who will respond to this comment, before you do so please do some family reserch or just ask your grandmother or grandfather and you shall get the answer, and there is no need to use voulgar language for we are the same people with the same blood.
I am a Macedonian American living in CT and I am a bit offended tht this author could not be bothered to do research. Macedonia was never part of the Soviet Bloc