Saturday, December 25, 2004

Mass Graves In Cyprus

THE CYPRUS WEEKLY

26 December 2004

Experts to probe mass graves

By Menelaos Hadjicostis

A team of forensics experts is set to return to the island next month to start exploratory work at one of three sites in the Turkish-held north said to be mass graves where Greek Cypriot missing persons are believed buried.

The experts from the UK-based International Forensic Centre of Excellence for the Investigation of Genocide (INFORCE) will conduct an "exploratory investigation" at the site to positively identify it as a mass grave.

The site is believed to contain the remains of as many as 200 missing Greek Cypriots killed during the first phase of the Turkish invasion between July 20 and August 14, 1974.

The expert from the INFORCE Foundation...who came to the island in October for the first geophysical survey of certain burial sites is expected to come again with additional experts and equipment in January, 2005, said a statement from the Committee on Missing Persons (CMP).

Work is expected to be carried out through the second week of January. The experts' findings will be disclosed to the three CMP members who will then decide on whether to give the go-ahead to full-scale exhumations.

The site, situated between Nicosia's northern suburbs and the occupied village Hamit Mandres, is one of three which Turkish Cypriots had identified in 1998 as mass graves.

There are 1,586 Greek Cypriots and 500 Turkish Cypriots officially listed as having gone missing from the outbreak of intercommunal violence in the early 1960s to and including the invasion.

Non-profit INFORCE had been tapped by the CMP to spearhead exhumations of mass graves on both sides of the divide.

The Centre is part of the Technology and Law department of the University of Bournemouth, whose personnel have worked in international hotspots such as Bosnia, Guatemala and Rwanda.

Meanwhile, there doesnOt appear to be much progress in the CMPOs parallel task of investigating cases of disappeared Greek Cypriots last seen alive in the hands of Turkish soldiers 30 years ago.

The Turkish Cypriot side is accused of "unjustifiably" delaying the investigations despite repeated pledges to immediately begin work.

It's understood that the Greek Cypriot side has furnished Turkish Cypriot CMP member Rustem Tatar with information on the disappearance of over 70% of missing Turkish Cypriots.

OEfforts to complete the investigation of the cases submitted by both sides at the commencement of the 84th session will be continued. It is hoped that satisfactory results will be obtained as soon as possible, the CMP press release said.


Copyright (C) 2004 Cyprus Weekly

Thursday, December 23, 2004

Abortion: The "Silent Genocide" of Greeks

I fail to understand why the Church and Greek nationalists suddenly
go silent on this great issue. Every year 250,000-500,000 unborn
children are killed by abortion.

I therefore provide some information concerning this great crime
againat humanity:

[1] Highest Abortion Rate:
http://www.mpa.gr/article.html?doc_id=311399
[2] A Vital Issue For Hellenism: The Demographic Problem of Greece:
http://www.demokritos.org/html/D-ABSTRA.htm
[3] Greece Wins "Prestigious" Title of Highest Abortion Rate in the European Union:
http://www.hellas.f2g.net/articles/abortion.html
[4] Greece "dying", demographic study shows:
http://www.hri.org/news/greek/ana/1997/97-04-09.ana.html#24
[5] Infertility problems, high rate of abortions the focus of conference:
http://www.hri.org/news/greek/ana/1998/98-09-24.ana.html#27
[6] More Abortions Than Births in Greece:
http://www.hri.org/news/greek/mpa/2001/01-03-21.mpa.html#18
[7] Greece First In Abortions:
http://www.hri.org/news/greek/mpab/2002/02-04-22.mpab.html#12
[8] Estimated 250,000 Abortions Annually in Greece:
http://www.hri.org/news/greek/mpab/2003/03-11-10.mpab.html#02
[9] About 500 Thousand Abortions A Year in Greece:
http://www.hri.org/news/greek/mpab/2002/02-03-30.mpab.html#01

-A Hellenic Nationalist Comrade


Sunday, December 19, 2004

Turkish Tolerance

Example

The Other Holocaust

The Russian government has agreed to allow the Polish authorities to examine Soviet archives on what Poles call the Katyn Forest massacre of 1940-BBC report

but Katyn Massacre story dodges critical points


The Greco Report On The Subject Of The Greek Identity Cards

The Greco Report

The current New Democracy (ND) Minister of Education and Religion, Marietta Yiannakou, gave an interview to the Athens newspaper Eleftherotypia on 10 July '04, which was reprinted in the Orthodoxos Typos of 16 July '04 (p.6). During the interview, Yiannakou stated that though she disagreed with the Church of Greece over the issue of the identity cards (that is, whether or not one's religious affiliation should be inscribed thereon), she is "not afraid of dialogue."



Her idea of "dialogue," however, does not include explaining why her party is not making good on the campaign promises made prior to the recent elections. These promises were emphatically reiterated by ND candidate, and current Undersecretary of Education and Religion, G. Kalos -- whose shadow cabinet responsibility included matters having to do with religion. On the very day before the elections of 7 March, Kalos assured the voters of Greece that the question of voluntary inclusion of one's religious affiliation on the I.D. cards would be one of the first initiatives his party would make if elected.



When asked to discuss this matter during the interview, Yiannakou asserted that the position of former PM Simitis' PASOK government (which was that since the question had already been decided, "it was no longer to be discussed" -- "αύτο δέν συζητείται") was not the position of ND, but that "now is not the time to bring this issue up." In fact, to show just how "hip" she is, she even used the American word "timing" to explain why this question was not about to be addressed now, in spite of the many pre-election promises to the contrary made by her party. When the reporter reminded her that "this is what the former administration said," she adroitly finessed her way around that little annoyance by replying that "when you open an issue it should be at the right time and under the right circumstances so that a solution can be found." What she never explained, however, is why this is not the right time to raise the issue of the ID cards. After so many years, so many demonstrations, and so many promises, what we are getting here is just more of the same kind of kowtowing to the collectivist atheists in Brussels and the Zionist pressure groups in the U.S., who have no intention of allowing the over 3 million Greeks who signed the petition asking for a referendum on this matter to exercise their rights as citizens of a "democratic Europe."



All of which only goes to prove what we've been asserting here at TGR all along: The crypto-Marxist comrades of PASOK do the bidding of the American hegemons and collectivist "socialists" in Brussels because they want to; it's part and parcel of their totalitarian and godless ideology. Whereas, the "conservative" parties in the U. S. and Europe -- including our own New Democracy coterie of hem kissers -- do it because they'd better; otherwise the powers that be will do to them what they did to Slobodan Milosevic, or anyone else who dares to raise his head in defiance of the New World Order our Zionist friends, in collaboration with their Gentile flunkies, are busy creating for us.



We must never forget that, in Greece, "even the birds in the trees" know that Greek politicians only have freedom of action over those issues that don't affect the perceived interests of Washington or Brussels. This is why New Democracy or PASOK will only differ on matters of no real importance to their masters: things like how late the bouzouki-joints (skyladika) can stay open, or whether or not Katina and Thanasi should be allowed to drive their cars into downtown Athens on odd or even days, or whether the nation's museums and archaeological sites should offer free admission one day a week. These, and only these, are the kinds of decisions our home-grown "leaders" are allowed to make.



During the interview, Yiannakou demonstrated her devotion to democracy by allowing that "since the Church is an organization that has maintained its viability for 2000 years, it has every right to its opinion," but, she added, "both the Church and the State must be aware of their bounds and limits." We wonder whether or not it ever passes through Yiannikou's "conservative" mind that by referring to its two-millenniums-long lifespan she is indirectly admitting that the Church is an indispensable part of the Greek soul; a part which most Greeks -- as every poll has shown -- have no problem proclaiming on their ID cards? Doesn't this "champion of democracy" realize that stubbornly fighting this issue is tantamount to admitting that her ND "conservative" government is not working to further the interests of the vast majority of the Greek people, but is actually working to further the interests of those who are inimical to the Greek people? Since this is the case, what in the hell do we need ND for? Let's bring back that slimy little shyster, Simitiscu, or that air-headed "Americanaki" buffoon, "Georgaki" Papandreou, together with their thuggish PASOK gang of collectivist wannabees: At least with them we know just how contemptuous they are of Hellenism and Orthodoxy, and will therefore be disabused of hallucinatory delusions about just where Hellas is really being taken.

----


Saturday, December 18, 2004

Russian Patriarch Alexis II Denounces Materialism Or Judaization Of The Church,Abortion And The Death Of The Nation

Example
2004-12-15 18:43 * RUSSIA * PATRIARCH * DEMOGRAPHY * STATISTICS *
DRIVE MERCHANTS OUT OF THE TEMPLE! BAN ABORTIONS! CALLS PATRIARCH ALEXIS


MOSCOW, December 15 (RIA Novosti) - Commerce is not to penetrate the Church, stressed Alexis II, Patriarch of Moscow and All Russia, while addressing a diocesan conference of the Moscow clergy today.

The Primate of the Russian Orthodox Church came down on such priests as succumb to the secular world's pressure, reports the conference press service.

"The Orthodox Christian mind is secularizing. The ecclesiastical spirit is receding. Spiritual blindness is coming in. Commerce is getting ever stronger in many aspects of parochial life as an alarming token of all those evils. Material interests come into the foreground ever more often to oust and strangle everything living and sublime.

"Nothing frightens the flock off religion worse than the clergy's cupidity. It is not for nothing greed for money is known as an abominable deathly passion, an infernal sin-betrayal of the Lord on a par with the sin of Judas," said the Patriarch.


He strongly warned against clerical fees for administering sacraments, especially baptism.

"We are in duty bound, and we are able to explain to the flock that churches are property of the entire people of God, so it is Christian duty to donate what each can afford to church maintenance. Yet our explanations are by no means to turn into begging donations, or forcing one into them. This must be a kind, fatherly explanation and encouragement."

Russia is getting through a demographic crisis, its population dwindling apace. There is an appalling number of abortions. Spiritual values are thrown overboard. That is the principal cause of those disastrous evils, the Patriarch went on. A majority of marriages end in divorce. The number of babies coming into the world lags desperately behind the number of babies killed in mother's womb. Ever more men and women turn to drugs and heavy drinking. Ever more commit suicide. That is what comes of "godless life, forgetfulness of the good, and ignorance of moral duty".

"We are doomed to live in a horrible time when our nation is extinguishing. We have every reason to say that its extinction has moral roots," the Patriarch went on.

"To kill a baby in mother's womb is the most heinous of deadly sins. That precept has always been part and parcel of the Church doctrine. Meanwhile, the number of abortions in Russia defies imagination year in, year out. The nation is dying out, and that is nothing surprising. Does this nation deserve to survive at all, we wonder."

From his invectives, the Patriarch went on to a more hopeful matter-Church statistics. The outgoing year added another 85 houses of prayer in Moscow. Now the city possesses 645 churches and chapels, as against 560 last year. More than a hundred added to the city clergy, 1,586 from last year's 1,485.

"At present, the Russian Orthodox Church possesses 132 dioceses, with a total 167 bishops. Twelve of them have retired. The Church has 26,590 parishes-12,638 of these in Russia," said the Primate.

There are 652 monastic abodes. Of these, Russia has 189 monasteries and 205 convents, Ukraine 79 monasteries and 76 convents, Belarus seven monasteries and 18 convents, and Moldova 25 monasteries and 24 convents.

Responsible for theological education in Moscow are three seminaries, a theological academy and, last but not least, the St. Tychon Orthodox Humanitarian University. It was upgraded to a university status this year, and presently has 3,732 students.

© 2004 RIA Novosti


Engineer’s Deathbed Confession: We Built Morgues, not Gas Chambers

By Werner Rademacher
Who is Walter Schreiber?

Walter Schreiber was born in 1908 and died in 1999 at the age of 91 in Vienna. He studied civil engineering at the Technical University in Vienna and worked first on the construction of the alpine high altitude road "Groίglockner-Hochalpenstraίe" as assistant to the construction manager. After an extended period of unemployment he emigrated to the Soviet Union in 1932 and worked on the construction of refrigeration buildings and alcoholic beverage factories in Bryansk, Spassk, and Petrofsk until 1935. In 1936 Schreiber went to Germany, where he worked first for the Tesch Corporation and then, from 1937 to Aug. 31, 1945, for the Huta Corporation. Schreiber was employed as a senior engineer in the branch office in Kattowitz from Jan. 11, 1943, until the evacuation of Upper Silesia in 1945.
[Full Story]



Athens Rally Against Turkey

Example




Albanian Hospitality

2 Albanians charged in Athens bus hijacking
Example
Leonard Murati, right, and Gaz Resuli, second left, are escorted outside Greek police headquarters in Athens on Thursday.

MSNBC News Services
Updated: 2:32 p.m. ET Dec. 16, 2004

ATHENS, Greece - Two Albanian immigrants were charged Thursday with multiple counts of kidnapping and attempted murder following an 18-hour bus hijacking and hostage drama that ended peacefully, and the government appealed for Greeks not to strike back at foreigners.(Shows where the political establisment's immediate priorities lie.)

A crowd outside Athens police headquarters jeered (maybe, "the crowd", pictures please, should have been more hospitable?) as the two 24-year-old Albanians, Gaz Resuli and Leonard Murati, went before a prosecutor. Both are housepainters who have lived in Greece for seven years.

The two are accused of using shotguns to hijack a long-distance bus with 26 passengers on board shortly before dawn Wednesday. The gunmen claimed to have explosives and threatened to blow it up if authorities did not pay a ransom of $1.3 million and provide them with safe passage out of Greece.

They were jailed without bond pending an arraignment Monday.

Government seeks to defuse any backlash

The government sought to defuse any backlash against immigrants in Greece, which has become home (now that's really taking liberties with a word) in the past decade to more than 1 million foreigners, most from neighboring Albania. Immigrants make up 10 percent of the Greek population.

“The fact that two immigrants were the perpetrators of this incident we faced should not in any way affect our views and behavior,” Public Order Minister Giorgos Voulgarakis said. “We are after all an open, democratic and progressive society without prejudices.”

The Albanian government asked Greeks not to pass judgment on the hundreds of thousands of their citizens living and working in this country. ( yeah, whatever)

“Albania’s Foreign Ministry is convinced that such acts do not identify with the Albanian citizens who live and work honestly in Greece, contribute to Greek society and strengthen bilateral relations,” an announcement said.

A spokesman for the Albanian Workers Union in Greece, Lefter Martar, urged Greeks to show understanding.

“These criminals don’t represent hardworking Albanians and their families that live in Greece, and I’m calling on the media and other authorities not to blame the Albanians for all the crime that is being committed,” Martar said.

Calls for deportation of immigrants

The appeals came as some Greek political groups, mostly on the extreme right, demanded the government expel immigrants. ( names please, there is only one group in Greece that can even remotely be classified as "extreme right" and it has a few dozen "Golden" members, that's it)

“We want a Greece for Greeks and not a multicultural country,” said a flier scattered by the Greek Front party at the site where the bus was seized. ( "the Greek Front party"??? , that's news to me , I would love to see this flier...)

The party has blamed rising crime on immigrants and has called on the government to stop granting residence and work permit to foreigners.

“We need an operation to sweep them all up now,” the Athens daily Avriani ( it's ironic that Avriani , a far left newspaper, that often hosts diatribes by communist ideologue Mikis Theodorakis , would allegedly make such a call...) said in a banner headline referring to immigrants. “Thousands of criminals from Albania and the Balkans are roaming freely.”

Albanians living in Greece are widely perceived as having contributed to a rise in crime, despite official statistics showing that they and other immigrants were only responsible for one in eight of all crimes committed in 2003. ( source please)

“There is nothing statistically to justify the link between immigrants and crime,” said Ioannis Panousis, a professor of criminology at the University of Athens. “Out of 20 crimes that take place, 19 are committed by Greeks.” ( again, source please)

But relations between the two communities have become increasingly tense.

In September, an Albanian soccer fan was killed and more than a dozen people were injured after Albania beat Greece in a World Cup qualifying game.

Wednesday’s armed standoff also marked the third time Albanian gunmen were involved in a bus hijacking in the past five years.

In 1999, an Albanian seized a bus full of Greek passengers and forced it to drive into Albania, where Albanian police killed the hijacker and a passenger in a botched raid. Police killed another Albanian who hijacked a bus a few months later.

Victory for Games training

On Thursday, Greek officials said that training security forces received in protecting last August’s Athens Olympic Games and phone calls to the gunmen from their relatives urging them to give themselves up played key roles in ending the drama.

Hostages portrayed the gunmen who kept them captive for 18 hours as angry young men whose sole motive was money and who finally caved in after phone calls to the bus from relatives.

Negotiators had spoken with the gunmen throughout the day convincing them to release hostages in twos or threes until only six were still left on the bus.

At that stage, the gunmen set an 8 a.m. (1 a.m. ET) Thursday deadline for their demands to be met and vowed not to release any more hostages.

But about four hours after setting the deadline, the bus doors opened without warning and the remaining captives walked to freedom.

Seconds later the gunmen also got off the bus with their hands behind their heads.

The Associated Press and Reuters contributed to this report.


Wednesday, December 15, 2004

U.S. Storing Atomic Bombs In Turkey

tehrantimes.com

December 12, 2004

U.S. storage of atomic bombs in Injerlik base astonishes Turkish people: report


TEHRAN – The Turkish people living near the Injerlik military base in southern Turkey have been seriously frightened by a report that the U.S. has been storing 90 atomic bombs in the base, the Egyptian Middle East News Agency (MENA) reported on Saturday.

A large number of people, the owners of industries, and trade centers have written a letter to the local governor demanding the need to find about the truth of such a report.

However, the governor has said that currently there are no official talks between Turkey and the U.S. about the authenticity of such a report.

Democratic Crackdown On Nationalism in Britian


West Yorkshire police arrested British National Party leader Nick Griffin at 7am Tuesday, because of a BBC documentary--BBC report


HellenicGenocide.org

URGENT: Please share information on http://www.HellenicGenocide.org with all who might be interested.

Geia sou,

Please, share information on the work http://www.HellenicGenocide.org with all persons and organizations you know that might be interested.

As its address suggests, it's a work on the HELLENIC GENOCIDE, that is, the systematic torture, massacre and ethnic cleansing of several MILLIONS Hellenes (Greeks) perpetrated by the Turks in Asia Minor, Constantinople (now called Istanbul by the Turks), Eastern Thrace, Imvros, Tenedos, Macedonia, Cappadocia and Pontos.

Most of the victims were exterminated between 1895 and 1955. Some 2.000.000 children, men and women of ALL AGES were killed only for being Hellenes. They didn't fit in a "TURKEY FOR THE TURKS" as the Turkish leaders called the Turkification of the lands they invaded. At the same time, millions of Armenians and Assyrians were killed.

Even NOW, the few survivors of the HELLENIC GENOCIDE are victims of the extermination policy of the Kemalists, as we can see through the attacks against them in Constantinople and Imvros, for example.

Please, make that address as WIDELY KNOWN AS POSSIBLE. I would like to suggest you to contact the press and also European politicians URGENTLY so we might influence their decision about Turkey.

I suppose that some really conscious, honest persons, INCLUDING IN HELLAS, may support the entrance of Turkey in the European Union due to the fact that they don't REALLY know what the Turks did and DO.

They have been taught by the US and English "media bibles" that Turkey has been and still is a kind of "PARADISE", not only to the Turks but also to the survivors of the Genocides perpetrated by Turkey. Both ideas are evidently false, as the European Court of Human Rights and the most prestigious human rights organizations, such as Amnesty International and the Reporters Sans Frontires can attest.

It is PROFITABLE for certain companies in the USA that Turkey becomes a European Union member. But it is NOT AT ALL for Europe. It would be a complete HUMILIATION and DEMORALIZATION of the European Union. It would mean the careful and planned insertion of a TUMOUR in the body of the European Union. A tumour INTENDED to greatly WEAKEN it.

Please, alert ALL EUROPEANS and also citizens of any countries. They will certainly be grateful for being alerted. The European Union will take a decision about the possible entrance of Turkey in just a FEW DAYS. Besides the ENORMOUS RISKS to the European Union, all persons from all nations have THE RIGHT to know the crimes that MADE THE HOLOCAUST POSSIBLE and, unlike the Holocaust, are COVERED UP TO PROTECT COMMERCIAL INTERESTS.

A simple way to publicize that work continually is an email signature, a short text that is included in the end of all email messages you send. Some email programs even choose randomly one from a list. I included a list of 27 signatures I use in my emails. Feel free to use them. Actually, I should say, PLEASE, use one or more of them...

Any suggestions, comments or corrections are always welcome.

Thank you for your attention.

Best wishes,

Roberto Lopes.
Sao Paulo, Brazil - roblopes@uol.com.br - ICQ UIN: 829188
----

A crime against humanity is a crime against each one of us.
Visit http://www.HellenicGenocide.org

Crimes against humanity should not be rewarded.
Visit http://www.HellenicGenocide.org

Do something on behalf of justice today.
Visit http://www.HellenicGenocide.org

Do you want to see justice prevailing? You're not alone.
Visit http://www.HellenicGenocide.org

Does a human life have a price? What about millions of lives?
Visit http://www.HellenicGenocide.org

Don't let History be falsified anymore.
Visit http://www.HellenicGenocide.org

Facing reality may not be pleasant, but it's always essential.
Visit http://www.HellenicGenocide.org

Help breaking a vicious circle of crimes and lies that affects millions.
Visit http://www.HellenicGenocide.org

Help make justice prevail.
Visit http://www.HellenicGenocide.org

Impunity is an open wound in the human soul.
Visit http://www.HellenicGenocide.org

Impunity will always cause similar, often worse, crimes.
Visit http://www.HellenicGenocide.org

It's about time for the truth to be known.
Visit http://www.HellenicGenocide.org

Justice will eventually prevail, if we do our best.
Visit http://www.HellenicGenocide.org

Lies are short-cuts to war. Justice is a one-way road to peace.
Visit http://www.HellenicGenocide.org

Millions couldn't react. You can act now.
Visit http://www.HellenicGenocide.org

Nothing good can be based on lies. Especially a whole society.
Visit http://www.HellenicGenocide.org

Only justice can make peace and stability possible.
Visit http://www.HellenicGenocide.org

Peace and stability can be more than a dream, if we do our best.
Visit http://www.HellenicGenocide.org

Several crimes against humanity have been hidden from you.
Visit http://www.HellenicGenocide.org

Speak up for those who were silenced forever.
Visit http://www.HellenicGenocide.org

Take part in actions aimed at making justice prevail.
Visit http://www.HellenicGenocide.org

The denial of a crime against humanity is a way to commit it again.
Visit http://www.HellenicGenocide.org

True peace cannot be built over injustice and lies.
Visit http://www.HellenicGenocide.org

Weapons and oil should not value more than justice and peace.
Visit http://www.HellenicGenocide.org

You are free to protest. Many were not free to live.
Visit http://www.HellenicGenocide.org

You can make things change.
Visit http://www.HellenicGenocide.org

You have the power to uncover 100 years of lies.
Visit http://www.HellenicGenocide.org

----
----

Nothing good can be based on lies. Especially a whole society.
Visit http://www.HellenicGenocide.org

Monday, December 13, 2004

Hellenic Nationalist Review Of The Alexander Movie

A Hellenic Nationalist comrade recently viewed The Alexander Movie now playing in movie theatres across North America, his review of the film and its audience is reproduced below...
************************
I believe that Oliver Stone genuinely believed he WAS promoting ancient Greek civilization in a positive light. Maybe because he's read too much into the "homosexuality" of ancient Greece, and admiring this aspect of dubious nature forone reason or another, thought he was portraying Hellenism in a progressive light. Someone told me he was a homosexual, so this might be the case. I mean, even as far back as "Midnight Express", Oliver Stone included a homosexual scene in the movie (the part where the Swedish guy makes the move on Billy Hayes even though Hayes finally rejects his advances). Now, with the general tolerant attitudes towards homosexuality in the Western world, he probably felt more at liberty to focus on this subject.

Truly, the amount of overt homosexual references in this movie is absolutely appalling. From the very BEGINNING, we are made to watch blonde-haired, skinny, prepubescent boys wrestle each other in make-shift underwear for a few minutes. I'm sure the pedophiles watching the movie got hard from just that.

Then we have little children discussing the "positive"and negative varients of homoeroticism with Aristotle, who is against lustful homosexuality (from what I understood) but seems to support intimate (possibly platonic) male-bonds that develop in war and "which allow men to accomplish great things."

The rest of the movie is a series of unadulterated acts of homosexuality between men and between men and boys. In one sequence, a young boy (teenager or youngman) is raped in open view by three older guys during a feast and then dragged off by some guy to presumably continue being anally raped. Alexander sees this going on, and acts as if nothing remotely strange is going on, and so resumes drinking his goblet of wine.

During the same feast, Alexander's father Philip (who is drunk, of course) is seen with one woman and one young man (the latter drunk) each one clutching each of his shoulders, and obviously preparing to take part in an orgy with Philip somewhere else.

Drunken guys are kissing each other all over the placeand, for the most part, the few women present are ignored as they silently look on to the debauchery around them, not really caring.

And as Alexander conquers kingdom after kingdom he introduces homosexuality to their civilizations, too. In Persia, for example, his men enter the king's harem (which is filled with about 50 women in colorful clothes that look like belly-dancing outfits) and, although just about all of his men are impressed by their beauty, almost as many seem just as intrigued at the 5 or so swarthy and hairless Persian boys hudled in the corner. These Persian boys stare at the Greeks wide-eyed and are all too willing to do their bidding. But as far as I know, Persians never had males intheir harems so this might be Stone's attempt to portray the ancient world as universally homosexual. Or maybe they were just eunuchs in charge of the harem? But then that doesn't explain why they were lying around with the Greeks and allowing them to kiss them.

When Alexander finally gets to India he has long-haired Indian boys dance seductively in front of him as his wife sits next to him. After the dance, Alexander gets up and walks to the nervous boy. His men all start cheering, "Kiss him! Kiss him!" in Irish accents, so he assents and kisses the boy in front of the entire Greek-Indian assembly. His wife doesn't seem to be too pleased. The old Indian women in the audience look at the display in shock and disgust, probably thinking to themselves what kind of a sick bastard just conquered them and is now degrading their youth.

And then there's Hephaistion who's constantly trying to take his relationship with Alexander to the "next step" to the displeasure of his wife.

Of course Alexander will look "great" to the Westerners because their accomplishments have been traditionally measured by physical conquests rather than ideological conquests. If the film had focused on Alexander spreading Hellenic ideals most of the audience would have probably been confused. So they concentrated on Alexander's conquests, which the audience could relateto, instead. And, since this is the age of liberalism and multiculturalism, his conquests were largely interpreted by the film makers as wars to free mankind from tyrants, establish an egalitarian and multi-racial world, and unite all peoples under a single leader for the benefit of all.

They used a number of Negroes in the Persian army. And, even worse, they had Alexander the Great's first wife, Roxane, played by a Negroe, which personally insulted me even though I'm not Persian. Having great respect and admiration for both ancient Persia and modern Iran, I found the occassiona lstereotypes of Arab-looking Persians ignorant, though the Israeli actor Raz Degan -- in my opinion -- did physically look like a Persian in the film: light-skinned, long-faced, and hazel-eyed.

Even though he hardly said more than a few of words I felt a sort of sympathy for his stoic and emotionally distant character, whose eyes were very penetrating and seemed to conceal a sort of hidden and great melancholy underneath.

Unlike Alexander, who was portrayed as highly passionate, daring, and emotional, Darius is portrayed more as a somber king who sees war as a natural extension of Empire rather than one concerning acclaimed notions of freedom and valor. His emotions are conveyed entirely through his silent actions and eyes, which I thought was a very interesting approach (as this is hard to do in a film). You never sense any animosity in those eyes; just a sort of bafflement at Alexander the Great's idealism and arrogance.

But his character sadly wasn't explored much, which might have been good as it leaves him as enigmatic which is understanble also because he isn't a main character but rather a foil to subtly compare and contrast the two kings and their worldviews.

So he dies early on. In the first battle scene of the movie, after Alexander the Great charges toward Darius, who's sitting still and completely unemotional on his chariot as his foe rapidly approaches,Alexander launches a spear at him which he duckswithout blinking or changing his facial expressions. As Alexander continues to advance he retreats with hisguards -- but in a kingly manner rather than one of cowardice -- and turns around in his chariot to stare back at the strange Alexander.

After that, Alexander takes the city of Babylon (which is gorgeously depicted) and makes a plan to hunt down Darius to seal his sovereignty over Persia. Finally, his men track Darius down, only to discover his corpse. Apparently, betrayed and murdered by his own generals, Darius' bloodied body is sprawled on the soil as a nameless soldier might be. Alexander then places a tunic over Darius' bloodied face, showing respect for his enemy, and granting him full burial rights.

I wonder how much of any of this is really true.

Anyway, aside from Darius, most of the remaining Persians depicted look like Arabs at best and of mixed race at worst. And, as I said before, Roxane was played by an American Negroe -- who I did not find at all attractive and would be surprised if anynon-Negroe would (aside, of course, from the Americans who are indoctrinated into finding black women"beautiful" and "exotic" as long as they have large breasts).

But considering the indecent role she had to play -- Irefer to the sex scene where Alexander the Great literally tries to rape her, strips her completely naked (at which point we are forced to watch close-ups of her unnaturally large breasts several times), and then finally gives in and has sex with Alexander -- I doubt any self-respecting Iranian woman would have degraded themselves like that in the name of Hollywood "art" so maybe it's not such a great surprise why no Persian actors were chosen to play major roles.

The same may apply to Greeks who, I assume, would have had nothing to do with the movie after reading the script. That also makes me wonder how this film will do in Greece. I hear that it's already been released in Athens. Or maybe that release was just a sneak preview for the lawyers who wanted to sue the film. I don't know if you heard, but after seeing the film, they dropped the lawsuit. I don't know why considering the level of homosexuality in it.

Oliver Stone, for whatever reason, created a film almost entirely geared towards male homosexual viewers. And I say *male* homosexualviewers because there is a misogynist attitude that pervades the movie which I doubt feminist-dykes would appreciate much. And, strangely enough (especially for a Hollywood movie), at the end of this fim this misogynism proves to be entirely justified since all the major women in the movie (Olympias and Roxane) are portrayed as devious, snake-charming witches willing to kill those who stand in their way and those they are jealous of.

Personally, I think the movie was geared tohomosexuals more than anything else. The homosexuality was all-pervading to such a degree that it seemed to actually constitute a central point in the film to the point where one might reasonablyconclude that Alexander the Great was merely a backstory to creating a homosexual-geared film.


I forget to mention this before but ironically when I went to see the movie on a Wednesday night, there were two couples in the theater. One was comprised of a black guy with a white girl as his date. The other was comprised of a Puerto Rican guy with a white girl dressed like a nigger-bitch or Puerto Rican (but who, I think, was speaking a non-Spanish language to someone). There might also have been a second girl the Puerto Rican was with butI didn't get a good look.

I bring this up to re-inforce the appeal to a multicultural/multi-racial audience this movie might have had. Not that they necessarily enjoyed the movie. The Puerto Rican/Puerto Rican-wannabe girl kept laughing and saying "he's gay" when Alexander and Hephaistion were "getting close." She also kept commenting on how she wished Alexander would "just die" so the movie could finish. She even spoke on hercellphone in the middle of the movie, in typical Puerto Rican uncultured style. And when a scene showed Alexander kissing his Russian-accented mother Olympias on the mouth she yelled out "eww... he kissed his mom!"


Taki On The Alexander Movie

THE AMERICAN CONSERVATIVE

December 20, 2004 issue
Copyright © 2004 The American Conservative

Greeks Bearing Writs

By Taki


What would most Americans think if a Greek film showed George Washington performing oral sex on one of Thomas Jefferson’s runaway slaves? Not much, would be my guess, except, of course, for the likes of Oliver Stone, a man who would probably begin casting for a sequel. Stone has been pulling our leg for years. He has built his reputation by portraying American fighting men in Vietnam as callous murderers, chiefs of the FBI involved in the assassination of JFK, and young killer punks as existential American heroes. It works, at least in the blue states. Alas, I have had the bad luck to meet (and play tennis with) Stone. He’s the real McCoy—at least as far as slobs are concerned. Only Michael Moore comes close.

His latest extravaganza has my fellow Greeks up in arms. Call it Greeks bearing writs, as a bunch of Greek lawyers are threatening to sue over Stone’s depiction of Alexander the Great as bisexual. Actually, the lawyers’ letter is very funny in itself. “We cannot come out and say that President John F. Kennedy was a shooting guard for the Los Angeles Lakers and so Warner cannot come out and say Alexander was gay,” says their patriotic, Orlando Furioso epistle. (Mind you, the reason they won’t call JFK a nose guard is that NBA players are viewed in Greece as preening, vainglorious blowhards, actually less than human. For once the Greeks have it right.)

Though a Hellene, I cannot side with the Greek lawyers. I’d much rather have our greatest king depicted as gay than have one of those thuggish halfwits foisted upon us by the NBA and the networks. I have not seen the movie, nor do I plan to. I also gave “Troy” a miss once I heard that in that particular stinker Menelaos is killed by Paris, as egregious a paraphrasing of the classics as Hollywood is guilty of. It’s as if Santa Ana was shot dead by David Crockett.

Basically, all of Stone’s movies are publicity stunts, injecting fiction into fact, as in “Nixon,” “JFK,” and now “Alexander.”

For the record, here’s the real deal on Greek homosexuality. Ancient Greeks are often produced as evidence by the gay lobby, but the truth is that sex between adult males was laughed at by polite Greek society, although there was no shame in desiring beautiful boys. (Buggery was strictly forbidden and punishable by exile and perhaps death.) Indeed much love poetry was devoted to boys, and sexual conduct had to be “proper”—i.e., no sign of arousal by the boy and certainly no penetration by the man.

Alexander was no bugger. He was the most extraordinary warrior the world has seen. He accomplished almost incredible deeds. He brought East and West together in the mightiest clash of cultures history had ever known. He never lost a battle. He founded many cities and razed many, many more. He straddled the known world like a colossus. His sexuality played a minute part in his short, tumultuous 32 years.

He grew up in a drink-swilling court where rivals were routinely murdered. (A bit like Hollywood today, or at least Disney.) His beloved mother Olympias and he were suspected of having had a hand in the assassination of his father, King Philip. Total rubbish. His tutor was Aristotle. He was the first to integrate information for the purposes of specific problem-solving. He first brought all the Greek city-states under his rule, then used spin managing to present his war against Persia as a new Trojan war and therefore a pan-Hellenic affair. This served him well. Homer’s epics—the closest the ancient Greeks came to a Bible—were not only widely known but read and revered throughout the Greek world, and they helped inspire the troops in his successful campaign in Asia fought by Greeks standing united under Alexander. He became a unifier, champion, and avenger of Hellenism against the barbarians.

This is why Hollywood can never get it right: lack of culture and much too much cocaine. It cannot envision the big picture—pun intended. John Stuart Mill wrote that if the Athenians had not won the Battle of Marathon in 490 BC, the Western world would never had existed. Hear, hear!

Alexander’s only failure was that he bungled his succession. Yes, he did get drunk and killed his friend, and yes, he did hang out with Hephaistion, his childhood buddy and ablest general perhaps too much, but what was he supposed to do in the steppes of Afghanistan, go clubbing with Bianca Jagger? He offered a hand of friendship to Darius, married the Persian Roxane (scandalizing Greeks in the process—it would be as if George W. Bush took one of Saddam’s daughters as a mistress), and died in the summer of 323 BC in the very same spot our valiant troops are fighting right now on the banks of the Euphrates. It was the tenth of June, and he was 32.

Unlike today’s old men who send young men to fight and die, he always led from the front. After his death, his Greek soldiers insisted on filing past him, some committing suicide. Within 20 years his empire had fallen apart. Alexander’s “vision thing” about a united world died with him. The White House should read this and forget about the movie.

Copyright © 2004 The American Conservative


Greek Farmer Finds 2,000-Year-Old Monument

A farmer tending a cotton field in central Greece has uncovered a stone monument marking the spot where the Roman army stopped a major westward offensive more than 2,000 years ago, a Greek archaeological official said Wednesday.

"This is the location of one of the biggest battles in Greek history ...where a huge army from the east was assembled against Rome," the official said.
[Full Story]


Pictures of the Year 2004

Example
An Israeli border policeman fires a teargas canister during a protest by Palestinians against the construction of the controversial Israeli security barrier in the West Bank village of Az-Zawiya June 20, 2004. Reuters/Goran Tomasevic

More pictures here.



Thursday, December 09, 2004

Greek Woman Raped In Central Athens By Algerian And Moroccan Immigrants

The following news story is a rough translation of a report from the pages of Eleftherotypia newspaper
*****************
The Rape Of A 25 year old Woman In Paleo Demarcheo Square

Foreigners raped a 25 year old Greek woman, last night at 1:20 AM, just a few meters away from Omonia Square. The crime occurred in Paleo Demarcheo Square. The young woman later told police that the two men had approached her. By force of knives , they dragged her onto the roof of a multistory building, where they both raped her. The luckless woman managed to shortly later go to the Akropoleos Police Station, where she reported her rape. Police searches were immediately launched, and shortly thereafter the criminals were apprehended. The woman identified them without reservation. According to police, they are foreigners, aged 21 and 20, from Algeria and Morocco, without papers, and they were driven into police custody.

ΕΛΕΥΘΕΡΟΤΥΠΙΑ - 07/12/2004


European Crackdown On Dissident History

27 November 2004
Leading European Revisionist Siegfried Verbeke Arrested
By Germar Rudolf
[Full Story]


Iranian Perspective On The Alexander Movie

Just came across this very interesting email, reproduced in full below...
**********

http://iranscope.ghandchi.com/Anthology/kavehfarrokh.htm
*forwarded email*

Dr. Kaveh Farrokh-The Alexander Movie: How are Iranians and Greeks portrayed?
From: Kaveh Farrokh
manuvera@aol.com
Tuesday, Nov 30, 2004 2:07 PM

Hollywood has just released one of the latest of its epic blockbusters: Alexander the Great. Directed by distinguished director Oliver Stone, the movie endeavours to recreate the events of the Hellenic conquests and the downfall of the first Persian Achaemenid Empire. It is important to note however, that simply because a movie is high budget, casts high profile Hollywood actors and is directed by top ranking directors, does not make it flawless.

Beyond the entertainment value of Oliver Stone's latest project, a number of serious errors do exist in the movie, many which may appear trivial. These "trivial" errors will nevertheless be of consequence to both Iranians and Greeks.

Ironically, it has been my Greek friends and colleagues who bought the flaws of Oliver Stone's "Alexander" picture to my attention. There are a total of five overall errors that will be listed and discussed below:

(1) The Battle of Gaugamela:

Oliver Stone has relied on Professor Robin Lane Fox, one of the world's foremost experts in the area of Alexander and Hellenic Studies. His book is a standard reference text in the area of Alexandrian Studies:

R.L. Fox. Alexander the Great. London: Penguin, 1986 and 1994.
ISBN: 0140088784

Despite excellent reviews of his book by critics and scholars, Dr. Fox does not understand the military of ancient Persia. A typographical shot of the battle of Gaugamela, shows the Greeks advancing in ordered and disciplined ranks. In contrast, the armies of Darius III are shown as little better than an amorphous mob. This is a false image of the Achaemenid army. The Achaemenids used drums and musical instruments to direct the marching tactics of their troops in battle. Second, the Achaemeneans used the decimal system, which was in fact, unknown to the Greeks of the period. Persian units were formed in legions of 10, 100 or 1000 or 10,000. A typical term was "Hezar-Patesh" (roughly equivalent to "leader of a thousand men").

In addition, the Persians had developed a sophisticated system of heraldry and their troops wore standard uniforms. The Greeks were certainly excellent fighters and were thoroughly organized, but this does not mean that the Persians were not. At the time, the Greeks were militarily superior with respect to armaments, tactics and military training.

This military imbalance changed with the coming of the Parthian and Sassanian cavalry. The Iranian Savaran (elite Cavalry) successfully halted and defeated many of the later Greek-Hoplite inspired Roman armies. Many Romans attempted to imitate Alexander and failed against Persia. These include Marcus Lucinius Crassus at Carrhae, Marc Antony at Tabriz (where he failed twice), Gordian III at Mesiche, Phillip the Arab near modern Syria, Valerian at Barbablissos, and Julian the Apostate in Mesopotamia. I personally doubt that Hollywood will recreate these spectacular Roman defeats as these will challenge contemporary western notions of the Alexandrian legacy. In addition, many Iranians today are unaware of the proud legacy of the Parthian and Sassanian Savaran.

Professor Fox's elementary grasp of Iranian militaria should not inspire much confidence with respect to accurate portrayals of Iranians in general. You may wish to read the following books by Professors Sekunda and Head who are experts on the uniforms, dress and equipment of the ancient Greeks and Achaemenid Persians.

N. Sekunda. The Persian Army: 560-330 BC. England. Osprey Men at Arms Elite Series, 1992.
ISBN: 1855322501
http://www.ospreypublishing.com/title_detail.php/title=P2501

D. Head. The Achaemenid Persian Army. England: Montvert Publications, 1992.
ISBN: 1874101000

There are many errors with the uniforms portrayed as "Persian". As you will see in these books, the colors and materials of Achaemenid Persians were invariably bright with a mix of shades of purple, Saffron, red dyes, shades of blue and green, mixed with darker browns (almost Burgundy) and black. These fashions and regalia were resuscitated during the Sassanian dynasty (226-651 AD). Only the Persian archers (and a few guards) are shown with some accuracy; the same cannot be said with respect to the other "Persians" of the movie set.

More puzzling is the "Arabesque" way in which ancient Persians are portrayed in this battle. I was shocked to see Arabian camel riders used to portray one of the vanguards of Darius III's attack on Alexander at the battle scene. Arabs were simply auxiliary units in the Achaemenean army at the time, and were not a major factor. Camel troops were never a major battle order in the armies of Persia. I also noticed that an infantry troop of the Achaemenid advance guard was speaking in Arabic. Persian is not related to Arabic; it is an Indo-European language akin to the languages of Europe and India.

This may be the usual Hollywood habit however of portraying Iranians as Arabs, a topic we will re-visit later in this commentary.

(2) Confusing Persia with Babylon

It is very interesting that Professor Fox does not refer to the Achaemenid capitals in Susa, Maracanda (Samarqand), Media or Persopolis. The destruction of Persopolis by Alexander is a major event - instead the movie shows Alexander entering the city of Babylon, implying that this was the administrative capital of Persia. Babylon was simply another satrapy of the empire; not its capital. Babylon had already been incorporated into the Persian Empire in 539 BC by Cyrus the Great (559-530 BC). Why is Persopolis and its destruction not mentioned? There was also the destruction of the three major Zoroastrian texts by Alexander - also not referred to in the movie.

A possible reason for this may be found in Professor Fox's.interview with the distinguished journal "Archeology Today" (Riding with Alexander) (enter link below into your internet browser):

http://www.archaeology.org/online/interviews/fox.html

Note the statement below, and how indicative it is of Professor Fox's lack of understanding of Classical Achaemenid Persia:

"We all understood that the separate "parts" of Oliver's drama must be "color-coded" and … which could not totally depart from audiences' expectations of Greek or Babylonian imagery"

Note the statement "Greek or Babylonian imagery". This statement implies that Persia had no real arts worth mentioning, and that Persia is simply an extension of Babylon or at best interchangeable.

As noted previously, Babylon was not a major power at the time of Alexander. Persian arts and architecture were an eclectic synthesis of indigenous (e.g Median, Elamite), Lydian, and Mesopotamian styles, including Babylonian. The city-palace of Persopolis is very distinct and cannot be crudely termed as Babylonian. It is, to put it mildly, shocking, that the treatment of Persian studies is addressed at such a shallow level by Professor Fox.

An important point must be made, especially with respect to the reason why Alexander was so violent in his conquest of Persia. The Greeks were simply taking revenge for the earlier invasion of their country by Darius the Great and his son Xerxes. The Greeks paid a heavy price for their battles at Marathon (490 BC), Thermopylae (17th September, 490 BC), Athens (27th September, 490 BC), Salamis (29th September, 490 BC), and Plataea (479 BC). It is significant that when Xerxes burned Athens, he ordered the sacred statues of the Greek gods to be removed and brought to Persia. The Greeks revered their gods and this Persian act was a national insult to them. Most contemporary Iranians are not aware of these facts. This certainly is not an excuse for what happened at Alexander's time, but it does help put these events in perspective.

Although many Iranians demonize Alexander, the man did come to develop a great deal of respect for Persia. The more Alexander stayed in Persia, the more "Persian" he became, in manners and in dress. Alexander paid his respects at the tomb of Cyrus the Great and indeed saw himself as the heir of Cyrus. The Greeks so admired Cyrus the Great, that they saw his manner of government as a model. You may wish to read the Greek "Cyropedia". If Aristotle made racist statements about the Persians (and this is shown in the movie), it must also be made clear that many Greeks also praised the Persians (see Xenophon or Plutarch in his discussion of the Parthian general Surena). A very positive aspect of the Alexander movie is that Alexander praises the "east" for its architecture and civilization. It is possible that Alexander was poisoned by some of his officers for becoming too "Persian".

(3) The Blondism of Alexander

A very serious concern of the Alexander movie is the promotion of the idea of the "Nordicism" of ancient Greece. Put simply, this is the thesis that ancient Greeks were not only predominantly blonde, but "Nordic", in the manner of present-day Scandinavians and Northern Germans. Nordicists have long argued, since the late 1700s, that the people of ancient and modern Greece are unrelated. Nordicism argues that the "ancient" Greeks were the "true" Greeks in contrast to the non-Nordic people of Greece today. This view is exemplified by the Austrian Hellenicist, Professor Fallmerayer, in the 1830s, who noted that "not a drop of pure Greek blood runs in the veins of modern Greeks…" To this day, Fallmerayer is recalled with bitterness and derision in Greece. It is worth noting that Fallmerayer never set foot in Greece in his entire lifetime. For further discussion on these issues you may wish to read:

Felipe Fernandez-Armesto's "Guide to Peoples of Europe", especially pages 207-216.
Published in London by Times Books in 1994.
ISBN: 0-7320-0624-5

Fallmerayer's analysis of Greece is not entirely correct. While true that the Ottoman Turks ruled Greece for 400 years and that previous Byzantine rulers (e.g. Emperor Nikopherous) had to import colonists from present day south Italy to help repopulate parts of Greece ravaged by wars, many of these "Italian" colonists were themselves ancient Greek, settled in regions such as Calabria and Southern France since the times of Darius the Great and earlier. In any event, there has always been a strong and predominant Greek element in areas such as the Peloponnesos.

As for the lack of mainstream Nordiscism in modern Greece, this has to do with the history of ancient Greece itself. Mainland Greece was already settled with indigenous Mediterranean peoples, such as the ancient Minoans, before the arrival of the Classical Greeks. Ancient Greece, like today, was a mixture of Mediterranean and "blonde" peoples.

This leads to a very crucial question: why have no Greek actors been selected to portray classical Greeks such as Alexander, Hephaestion, Ptolemy I, Olympias, King Phillip II, Cassander or Antiginous? For a review of the cast, click on the following links (enter links below into your internet browser):

http://www.alexander-the-great.co.uk/

http://www.lilianagimenez.com/artisti-ospiti/raz.jpg - Israeli actor, Raz Degan who portrays Darius III.

If one were to use Classical Greek works of art (vases and statues specifically) as a standard for prototypical Greek physical appearance, one can then easily find a plethora of modern Greek actors and actresses today who can portray ancient Greeks. It is interesting as to why Oliver Stone did not select Hollywood actors of Greek descent or from mainland Greece.

Oliver Stone goes further however. Colin Farrell, a dark haired Irish actor, who plays Alexander, is portrayed literally, as a bleached blonde. The notion of Alexander being Flaxen-haired or blonde is itself a matter of considerable doubt if not strong dispute. As noted by my friend George Tsonis, a Greek-Canadian and a scholar of Greek, Roman and Persian history, the Greek word for Alexander's complexion is "Xanthenein" (fair). This description simply marks Alexander's complexion as being fairer than the other Greeks of his time. Yes, he was relatively fair, but not necessarily flaxen-blonde in the Nordicist sense. From the Tufts University Lexicon "Xanthenein" is roughly translated as fair or a yellowish-brown color. A related term, "Xanthizo", can also be to "make yellow" or "brown". No wonder there is confusion!

Plutarch, whom most western scholars rely on for their references, does not actually describe Alexander's hair color, only his complexion. This is a quote from Aelian on the hair; below is the Anglisized Greek from Cyrillic and the English translation below that:

"Alexandron de ton Filippou apragmonos oraion legousi genesthai' tin men gar komin anasesyrthai afto, xanthin de einai'"

"Alexander the son of Philip is reported to have possessed a natural beauty: his hair was wavy and fair"

Varia Historae, 12.14

To see the debates raging about Alexander's true appearance see the following discussion panel (enter link below into your internet browser):

http://www.pothos.org/forum/showmessage.asp?messageID=16281

A very non-Nordic portrayal of Alexander is evident in the Pompei Mosaic. It is agreed by a majority of scholars that the painting is a faithful rendition of an original Hellenistic painting of the 3rd century BC. As you will witness in the painting below, this Hellenic-Roman version of Alexander is very different from the contemporary Hollywood fantasy interpretation (see photo below):

Example

As you see in the photo, this is a very different Alexander than what many western scholars and Hollywood would have us believe.

This painting appears to refutes the notion of Alexander being blonde. Nevertheless, a number of western scholars remain determined to push forward an image of Alexander that may be false. There are scholars who are actually convinced that the Pompei mosaic is proof of Alexander's Nordic blondeness! Even in allowing for poor reproductions, the mosaic clearly shows a 'brown' haired person with a Mediterranean or modern Iranian profile. Many Greek and Iranian people today have auburn-brown hair, which can appear to be somewhat "blonde" in sunlight.

The point from the Greek perspective however, is not simply whether Alexander was blonde or not. After all, the Dorian Greeks were blonde as a rule, just as the original Persians and Mede settlers of ancient Iran were as well. The issue is that of using the notion of blondeness to project a specifically non-Greek Nordic west European image. Irrespective of whether Alexander was blonde or not, he represented the culture of ancient Greece, which is not necessarily the same as that of modern Western Europe.

Ancient Greece and Rome, as we will note again further below, were Mediterranean empires, very different from the inhabitants of interior and northern Europe. The peoples of western and eastern Europe were very different from the Classical Greeks in culture, language and temperament. To obtain an introduction to the history of the northern Europeans, you may wish to read:

D. Rankin. Celts and the Classical World. London: Routledge, 1996.
ISBN: 0-415-15090-6

A. Ferrill. The Fall of the Roman Empire: The Military Explanation. Thames & Hudson, 1986.
ISBN: 0500274959

The "Europeans" adopted a great deal of their civilization and identity from the Greeks and the Romans. Even the name "Europe" is derived from the ancient Greek term "Oropia". It may not be an exaggeration to state the following: with their adoption of Greco-Roman culture, west European scholars in particular, have essentially affected a "Nordic makeover" of the ancient Greeks and Romans. As Western culture has adopted the mantle of ancient Greece, it has also adopted Alexander as its own son; to the point that Alexander and ancient Greece are viewed as identical with ancient Western Europe and Scandinavia.

The Nordicising of favourite historical figures does not end with Alexander. Jesus Christ, is frequently portrayed as a slightly built, tall blonde Nordic man. Jesus or Jeshua, was a Jew from West Asia who spoke Aramaic. It is now acknowledged by a number of researchers that much of what we accept as the "appearance" of Jesus is not altogether accurate. Jesus would most likely have resembled a modern Fertile Crescent Arab or Jew from places such as Jerusalem, Amman, Hebron, Damascus or Basra. Scientists have recently reconstructed the image of Christ as he would have most likely appeared in his lifetime in ancient Palestine and Judea (see photo below):

Example

The reconstruction that you witnessed in the attachment is very different from the icons we are used to seeing in the churches and Christian arts of Northwestern Europe. How many images have you seen in North American or Western European churches that show the Aramaic Christ? It would seen that, like Alexander, the "real image" of Jesus has shifted in accordance with politics, ideology, dogma and popular culture over the centuries. Interestingly, many cultures across the world today interpret Jesus' physical appearance in accordance with their own anthropomorphic image (enter link below into your internet browser):

http://dsc.discovery.com/convergence/jesus/photo/photo.html

It appears that Hollywood has successfully associated a certain physical appearance with modernity, progress, success and rationalism. By implication, that which is not of that "certain look" is in danger of being associated with all that is the antithesis of that. With this logic, historical reality is bent to fit a manufactured reality: a fantasy.

(4) Greek or Macedonian?

This movie contains a number of concerns to Greeks in particular, such as Macedonia being "different" from the rest of Greece, a very contested issue in the Balkans these days. Although not generally reported, the government of Greece, which had originally supported the Alexander picture, withdrew its funding and support for Oliver Stone's project (enter link below into your internet browser):

http://www.hri.org/news/greek/ana/1998/98-11-17.ana.html#19

There was to have been co-operation between Stone and the Greek government, but this was apparently changed when the details of the script became known (see also (4) below).

To be honest, I was left confused as to whether the Macedonians were Greek or not. This may be an attempt to placate those who view Macedonia as "different" from Greece, not unlike those who try to argue that Kurds and Azerbaijanis are not Iranians. The Greeks, like the Iranians today, are now confronted with having to defend their historical heritage against those who have territorial claims against their nation. The Oliver Stone picture, in my opinion, does not clearly define Macedonians as Greeks.

In addition to these concerns, many Greeks are offended by the bisexual portrayal of Alexander. It is also rumoured that many Greek associations may have plans to sue Oliver Stone.

Again, ancient Greek terminology and its translations by western scholars may have played a role in the "bisexual" interpretation of Alexander. We have already seen how the term "Xanthenein" has been stretched to paint a "Scandinavian" Alexander.

(5) The Portrayal of Roxanna and the Perpetuation of the "Hollywood Persian"

My wife Parnian and I, as Iranians, found the portrayal of Roxanna insulting. This portrayal has been defined by the aforementioned Professor Fox, whose has already been noted for his shallow understanding of Persian arts and architecture. Professor Fox's portrayal of Roxanna also indicates that he has very little knowledge of Iran's anthropological history.

The portrayal of ancient Iranians is outright comical, if not insulting. The inaccurate Hollywood portrayal of Iranians is exemplified by the selection of Rosario Dawson ( http://www.lostfocus.de/archives/rosario_dawson.jpg ), a very talented, beautiful and intelligent black actress, to star as Roxanna, an ancient Iranian queen from Soghdia-Bactria. Roxanna was not black, anymore than Alexander was Scandinavian. Having Rosario Dawson portrayed as Roxanna makes as much sense as having Lucy Liu, an Asian-American, portraying Queen Victoria of Great Britain.

The term Roxanna is derived from Old Iranian "Rokh-shwan" or "face (Ruksh) - fair skinned-shiny (shwan)". Roxanna was related to a North Iranian tribe known later as the Sarmatians, the remnants who survive in the Caucasus and Russia as the Ossetians (ancient Alans or Ard-Alans)

Roman sources such as Pliny repeatedly describe ancient North Iranian peoples such as the Alans and Seres as "…flaxen (blonde) haired blue eyed nomads…" (see Wilcox, p.19). Rosario Dawson does not fit the description of an ancient Iranian woman, especially from Northern Iranian stock. The Ossetians of today, descendants of ancient Northern Iranians, predominantly resemble northern Iranians and Europeans and speak an archaic Iranian language (like the Avesta of the Zoroastrians). Blondism is very common among these descendants of ancient North Iranians in cities such as Beslan and Vladikafkaz. It can be argued that Roxanna was a brunette, however, she was of Northern Iranian stock, which would still make her very different from actress Rosario Dawson.

There are plenty of talented actresses of Iranian descent in North America alone that would well fit the historical Roxanna. Oliver Stone could have just as easily selected an Iranian actress, however he relied on the historical "expertise" of Professor Fox. The question that can be addressed to Professor Fox is this: what makes Rosario Dawson so representative of Iranian women and Roxanna in particular? Is the Professor aware of the anthropology and history of ancient Iran as it was at 333 BC?

More puzzling is the design of Roxanna's costume in the movie. Note the photo showing the marriage of Alexander to Roxanna. Roxanna appears to wear a Burka-like veil constructed of strips of metallic mesh in which the face is partly hidden. See the photo (enter link below into your internet browser):

http://www.alexander-the-great.co.uk/showimages.php?id=alex3_l.jpg

The headgear is partly correct if we base the costume on the Saka Paradraya Iranian speaking tribes of the present-day Ukraine (8-4th centuries BC). The decorations on the headgear are simply wrong and Iranian queens did not wear face masks of any type. For a discussion of the Saka Paradrya, known in the west as Scythians, consult:

E.V. Cernenko. The Scythians 700-300 BC. London: OspreyPublishing, 1989.
ISBN: 0850454786
See colour plate G.

Once you have consulted Professor's Cernenko's book, it will be evident how flawed the costume design is, not to mention the colors. None of the reconstructions by Professor Gorelik, which Cernenko has consulted, show any type of face masks for ancient Iranian women. Ancient Iranian women, who were found in military, religious and political leadership roles, simply did not wear such attire during courtship, marriage or everyday duties.

It is not clear why Professor Fox has chosen a Burka-like face mask for Roxanna at Alexander's wedding. Variants of this face mask are present in Afghanistan today, mainly the result of former Taliban rule and very conservative Pashtoon tribal society, which very strongly identifies itself with the culture of ancient Arabia.

Even more interesting is the "Arabian Nights" portrayal of an Achaemenid harem. Harems certainly existed in Persia and the later Roman and Byzantine courts, however the specifically "Arabian" appearance accdored to the Achaemenids is simply consistent with the Hollywood tradition of portraying Iranians as Arabs.

Interestingly, the movie portrays the "Persians" with Arabian styles of music and dance. This portrayal is not based on factual information; it is a Hollywood portrayal. From the scant evidence that exists, we do know that one of the Persian styles of dance strongly resembled the dances of the Kurds of today; a style also seen in western Turkey, Greece and the Balkans today. As for music, we have no notes or scales from that period, and "Arab music" as we know it today simply did not exist at that time; it is a much later creation. Arabian music can trace its beginnings to the Bedouin tribes of Arabia - it later borrowing heavily of Sassanian and Greek scales (after the 7th century AD).

These errors are enough to question the historical accuracy of the Alexander picture. It seems that when it comes to Iranians and their identity, history is easily "re-written" for the benefit of popular entertainment. As Professor Fox has duly noted in an interview with Archeology Today (http://www.archaeology.org/online/interviews/fox.html), the movie "could not totally depart from audiences' expectations". The "audience" undoubtedly has "expectations" as to what Iranians "should" look like.

Given Professor Fox's rudimentary knowledge of Persia's anthropology, you may wish to refer to:

J.P. Mallory. In Search of the Indo-Europeans: Language, Archeology and Myth. London: Thames & Hudson, 1989.
ISBN: 0-500-27616-1
Read pages: 9-23, 48-56, 78, 266-272.

An excellent article by Dr. Oric Basirov is posted as well:
http://home.btconnect.com/CAIS/Religions/iranian/Zarathushtrian/Oric.Basirov/origin_of_the_iranians.htm

For color reconstructions of ancient Iranians see:

P. Wilcox. Rome's Enemies (3): Parthians and Sassanid Persians. London: OspreyPublishing, 1986.
ISBN: 0850456886

T. Newark. The Barbarians. London: Concord Publications Company, 1998.
ISBN: 9623616341
See Page 7 (the Saka - ancestors of today's Lurs and Seistanis) and 30 (ancestors of the Ard-Alan).

Iran today is very much a genetic tapestry that includes blondism in Northern and Western Iran (e.g. Parsabad, or Talysh), as well as among Iranian peoples such as Lurs, Azeris, Mazandaranis, Kurds and Boyer-Ahmadis. Iran is also home to Arabians in Khuzistan and the Persian Gulf coast, Asiatic Turcomens in the Northeast, as well as the Baluchis near Pakistan, who have a strong Dravidian admixture. You may wish to read the very thorough and precise compendium of Iranian peoples today by:

F. Hole (Editor). The Archaeology of Western Iran: Settlement and Society from Prehistory to the Islamic Conquest (Smithsonian Series in Archaeological Inquiry).
Washington, D.C.: Smithsonian Institution Press, 1987.
ISBN: 0874745268

W. B. Fisher (Editor). The Cambridge History of Iran: Volume 1, The Land of Iran. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2004.
ISBN: 0521069351

These books (especially the Cambridge History of Iran series) will provide a more informed and less misleading analysis of Iran's anthropological history than that offered by Professor Fox.

As seen in this commentary, Hollywood portrayals of Iranians are in stark contrast to reality. Until the Arabian arrivals in the 7th century AD, the majority of Iranians would have looked no different from the Greeks or Romans. Greek and Roman references to classical Iranians do not refer to them as different in the "physical" sense; differences lay mainly in manner of government, philosophy and to a lesser extent, mythology. The Azadan nobility of the Parthian and Sassanian Savaran (elite cavalry), more than 500 years later than Alexander, are described by Peter Wilcox as "…very similar to the Celts…strikingly similar to Northwest Europeans…" (p.6). There are still many short stories in Southern Italy today which accurately portray the temperament and appearance of the Persians as they would have appeared in antiquity.

= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =

Despite the powerful historical revisionism of a number of mainly northwest European historians such as Edward Gibbon (1737-1794) or the aforementioned Fallmerayer, the Greco-Roman world and Persia have profoundly influenced each other in areas such as architecture, the arts and crafts, the sciences and medicine, mythology, military and engineering technologies. While true that one can find a number of anti-Persian references in Greco-Roman sources, these were in the context of wars that broke out between these powers. A perfect example of this is how the movie explicitly shows Aristotle deriding the Persians as inferior to the Greeks. Modern Greeks place this in context and see Aristotle as expressing the political climate of his day. Iranians are very well liked and respected in Greece and are seen as the heirs of a great civilization. Alexander himself came to greatly appreciate the Iranians and their culture. It is a shame that the movie did not show Alexander as paying homage to the tomb of Cyrus the Great.

As noted previously, Greco-Roman historians who were prepared to acknowledge and highly praise the Persians (e.g. Xenophon, Plutarch, etc.). Today's popular culture, education systems and movie entertainment industries in particular, seem to be providing a very selective and distorted view of Persia with respect to antiquity. Many are simply not aware (or wish not be aware) of Persia's importance and status in antiquity let alone her major contributions to world civilization.

Ancient Greeks, Romans and Persians had much more in common with each other than with the relatively unsophisticated Celtic and Germanic peoples who were roaming the Northern European forests. For an incisive discussion of these little discussed topics consult:

N. Spatari. Calabria, L'enigma Delle Arti Asittite: Nella Calabria Ultramediterranea. Italy: MUSABA, 2003.
ISBN: 8887935300
As far as I know, this book has still not be translated from Italian to English. Still an excellent read, especially with the illustrations.

P. Kriwaczek. In Search of Zarathustra: The First prophet and the Ideas that Changed the World. Weidenfeld & Nicolson, 2002.
ISBN: 0297646222

I look forward to the day when we will see blockbuster movies of Shapur I (241-272) who defeated three Roman emperors in his lifetime and destroyed a third of Rome's armies. Even more dramatic would be to see movies made of the life and times of figures such as Zarathustra, Aryaman, Shahrbaraz, Mani, Mazdak, Babak, Abu Ali Sina or Omar Khayyam.

Dr. Kaveh Farrokh
Manuvera@aol.com