Hey everyone! For today’s episode, from all the way down under, I was able to get on the pod Terry Stravridis. Terry, is a Greek-Australian & Historian, who has published & written on A LOT of topics that we cover on the pod. He's published several books on the Greek & Assyrian genocides, in addition to articles and conference papers on everything from the Deportation of Pontian Greeks, to the Pangalos Dictatorship, on Kondylis, and even on the plight of Greek POW’s after the Asia Minor Campaign. So some pretty niche stuff that matches with many topics we've touched on in the pod as well. Which is how I found Terry in the first place.

But today’s episode won’t be on any of that stuff. Instead we are touching on the politics of Diaspora Soccer rivalries, specifically in the Melbourne area of Australia. Terry is a huge huge soccer fan and this is a topic he really wanted to talk about, so I thought why not. I definitely learned a lot, as it was a topic I wasn’t especially keen on, but i'm glad we had the discussion, and I had a fun time with it as well. Additionally I have a couple of loyal listeners in the land down under, so this ones for you.

A couple of Notes for the listeners, especially for non-greek or non-balkan peoples. The topic itself is on some local semi-professional teams that have links with the Slavic population of the country of North Macedonia, people who call themselves Macedonians, Hellenic people with links to the Hellenic Region of Macedonia….people who also call themselves Macedonians, and a couple other clubs with links to the Cypriot Diaspora and other regions of Greece.

During the talk you may hear Terry use the word “Skops”….This is short for Skopjiani….which is a term some Greeks use to refer to people from the country of North Macedonia…which was renamed to North Macedonia in June of 2018. The Capital of North Macedonia is Skopje. This is not some kind oe ethnic slur. It’s used..because frankly, to a Greek, calling someone from the country of North Macedonia “Macedonian”, is practically on par with calling someone from Sweden who moved to Belgrade a Spartan….A lot of Greeks are resentful that the rich ancient history of the Hellenic Region of Macedonia, Alexander the Great included, was and in some cases still is, being culturally appropriated by Slavs, who speak a language that is practically identical to Bulgarian. So yeah….its cognitively disorienting for Greeks who can still read inscriptions on ancient Greek ruins to be told by Slavic Speakers that they are Macedonian….BUT…I digress, with the Prespes Agreement of 2018 this issue and many others are I think anyways pretty well addressed, as far as any deal goes as in you never get a deal where both sides get everything that they want. thats a discussion for another day.

Anyways I thought a little context was important to provide before we get into this discussion. I had a fun time recording this, I hope you learn a thing or two, and ENJOY!.

PLEASE SUPPORT TERRY'S WORK! https://terrystavridis.com/

Support the show