Flags bearing the 16-beam Vergina Sun and maps of so-called “Greater Macedonia” were held by governing VMRO-DPMNE party supporters in Skopje, with the rally attended by PM Nikola Gruevski.
Many in the crowd raised a “three-finger” irredentist hand sign, meaning Vardar Macedonia, the “Aegean part”, and Pirin, and the “O” from the word “Obedineta” which means “United” in the Slavic language that is spoken by the country’s majority ethnos.
Of course, “Aegean Macedonia”, in “fyromese”, refers to the province of Macedonia in northern Greece, the country’s largest and the land that more closely approximates to geogrpaphical and historical Macedonia.
The rally took place in front of the country’s parliament and according to local media, there was a huge attempt to transport people with buses from across the land-locked country in order to show strong support for the FYROM prime minister.
Some signs showed Greek terrority as part of “Greater Macedonia”, the “newish Macedonia”, not Macedonia in Greece.
There has not been a reaction as yet from the Greek Foreign Ministry for the provocations. A 1995 Agreement between the two countries forbids Skopje from using the Vergina Sun as a symbol, as well as any propaganda that portrays the idea of “Greater Macedonia”, which reaches all the way to Olympus and Chalkidiki.
