American foreign policy. The three most horrific words in the English language. What about "murder", "starvation", and "genocide"? American foreign policy is habitually the precursor of all three, so let's start there.

The United States likes to use buzzwords and phrases like "spreading democracy", "freedom-loving", and "defenders of human rights" to claim that they are, indeed, these things, but if someone constantly uses self-aggrandizing terms that seem oddly misplaced — and regurgitated widely and uniformly throughout the Western political and media spectra — they most certainly are complete fabrications. It’s a modern-day twist on the classic English literature term, "thou doth protest too much".

Similarly, so is constantly claiming that a war is "unprovoked". Pro tip: Redundancy in language is negative. It is generally understood that a war that is condemned is unprovoked. So, is there any point in endlessly claiming that the war in Ukraine was “unprovoked”. Adding to the pro tip above, most of the Western public, just as the US orchestrated, already had an ingrained hatred of Russians, so using such terminology when referring to the Ukraine war only gives pause to some in the West and makes them, God forbid, use their own brains to question the West's warmongering narrative and whether the war was really "unprovoked".

The US also likes to use buzzwords and phrases to label things that it wants us to be deathly afraid of, and it doesn't care (they actually prefer) that these buzzwords often refer directly to human beings or countries in which, guess what, human beings live.

The dehumanization begins.

When we hear “Iran”, the West hears “evil”. Anything “state-run” (like “Chinese state-run”, oh no!) equates to “government-controlled propaganda”. (So why isn’t Western media referred to as state-run?). “Hamas” is used as much as possible when referring to anything Palestinian so any words that follow are automatically tainted. The term “Hamas-run health agency”, for example, is used to deflect focus off the tens of thousands of Palestinians (with the majority being children and women) slaughtered by the US and Israeli regimes. See what I did there? Referring to a “regime” automatically portrays them as evil, but in this case, no exaggeration is necessary. A government wouldn’t slaughter children, only a regime would.

Referring to Joe Biden and Benjamin Netanyahu as “presidents” also doesn’t do them justice (there are other ways that justice can be served for these two), so let’s refer to them as Butcher Biden (thank you Clare Daly) and Butcher Bibi (“Bibi” is Netanyahu’s widely-used “adorable” little nickname). You would think that The Butchers wouldn’t even be offended (who cares?) since Butcher Bibi has infamously complained that the US was “withholding weapons” (to aid in his genocide of Palestinians!). How does Butcher #1 respond? By denying that the US has withheld weapons! See the justice comment above.

Of course, as a predictable follow up and in a bipartisan show of absolute moral deficiency and sadistic psychopathy, Democratic and Republican House and Senate leaders invited Butcher Bibi to address US Congress a month later. Predictably again, US Congress showered Bibi with standing ovations and carpet-bombed him with applause.

The United States government just had to outdo their Canadian counterparts, who gave a standing ovation earlier this year to a Ukrainian World War II Nazi. Read my condemnation of it in The Hill Times.

But let’s get back to the US’s favourite buzzword — Russians. (Oh my God, run for your lives!). Or better yet, provoke a war that will kill as many Russians as possible, regardless of how many of the US' Ukrainian "like-minded partners" get slaughtered. (which is a lot more than the number of Russians).

From 2014 (the beginning of the current crisis in Ukraine) to 2022 (the year Russia invaded), Western media reported on the rampant neo-Nazi problem in Ukraine, including US Congress banning arms sales to the neo-Nazi Azov battalion, but that all switched on a dime shortly after the invasion to reflect the approved Western narrative that the war was “unprovoked” and that anyone fighting the “evil Russians” must be “heroic” and “noble”. So Western media covered up their previous reporting (which included op-eds about the US provoking a war and arming neo-Nazis in Ukraine) and began using new buzzwords in order to sugarcoat Nazis because NATO finally got what it was waiting for — a Russian invasion of Ukraine.

Who sugarcoats (and arms and supports) fascism and Nazism? The West. They’ve been doing it for 80+ years. And my ethnic group, Macedonians, was one of the first victims — and the first victim of napalm bombing post-WWII — and continues to be a victim, with a modern-day twist. But I’ll get to the dehumanization of Macedonians in a minute.

The author of the article above is John Pilger, who endured widespread demonization by the West for speaking the truth and exposing Western warmongering. Western powers attack and try to silence anyone who dares deviate from their approved narrative. Western media: State-run and fascist.

Ironically, and predictably, the US and NATO are losing the war in Ukraine, and the only way they could claim success is to announce that their actual goal was to have as many Ukrainians killed as possible. Oh my God, are the US and NATO in bed with Putin?! Those in the West who believe the idiocy of Western media discourse would’ve eaten up the previous statement with a spoon.

But why serve up once-willing Ukrainians to be cannon-fodder in this NATO-provoked war? (Other than for the benefit of the Military Industrial Complex, of course.) To attempt to overthrow Vladimir Putin and install a Western puppet regime, just as the US did — and admitted to doing — in Ukraine in 2014. Here is the infamous war criminal Victoria Nuland admitting as such.

Warmongering, mass murder, starvation-causing sanctions, the absolute crushing of basic human rights. How do they sleep at night? As president of Macedonian Human Rights Movement International, I’ve asked that question directly to numerous State Department officials and Western politicians, including foreign ministers and leaders. The cowards refused to answer, of course, but they probably repeat Western buzzwords while they’re falling asleep like counting sheep. Either that, or the psychopaths count dead civilians like counting sheep.

Tragically, Macedonians are in the position of having experienced all of the weapons in the US arsenal, both literally and figuratively. Carpet-bombing of civilians, forced expulsion, arming and supporting neo-Nazis in their quest to eradicate Macedonians, just to name a few. But I’ll get to all of that after I explain the current crop of American psychopaths.

Re-enter Victoria Nuland.

Her interventionism knows no bounds. She was instrumental in planning a coup and the installation of a puppet regime in Macedonia and the carefully orchestrated and subsequent destruction of human rights — all in preparation for the forced name changed into the most derogatory term Macedonians have ever known (and we experience a lot). A multitude of terms were circulating, all designed to eradicate our identity, culture, and history and label us as “brand new” — code for “you don’t have a right to exist”.

The dehumanization of Macedonians modernized.

So, during an infamous visit in 2016 to the Republic of Macedonia — and in preparation for the imminent, US-led forced name change — Nuland refused to use Macedonia’s name, and instead, repeatedly referred to “this country” and “Skopje” (Macedonia’s capital). Foreshadowing — another American use of classic English literature illustrating their upcoming barrage on Macedonians’ rights…

I called for Nuland to be expelled from Macedonia, told her directly, and she followed up by…offering to set up meetings between Macedonian Human Rights Movement International and a multitude of high-level State Department officials. We had already been meeting with senior State Department officials for years, but since the US was approaching the end zone in trying to end Macedonians, these were more frequent and at an even higher level. The United States’ goal? To try to convince us —as the largest and most influential Macedonian human rights organization — to “support US foreign policy” (to eradicate Macedonians), while spinning it as “Euro-Atlantic integration”. (wow, would we get ice cream with a cherry on top?). Our goals? To reverse US anti-Macedonian policy (it’s hard to stop a genocidal train), educate possibly human State Department officials, to extract information and details about US anti-Macedonian players, policies, and tactics, and to condemn US interference directly and personally. We accomplished three out of four and it was quite the experience dealing directly with the devil and her sadistic State Department psychopaths. (How are you doing Elaine Hensle?)

Enter Jess Baily.

He was the former US ambassador to Macedonia, and protagonist of the horror show that the US has inflicted — and continues to inflict — on Macedonia for the past several years.

Baily presided over the imprisonment of the father of the girl featured in this photo:

“Freedom for dad”: Macedonian girl calling for the release of her father, a political prisoner jailed for opposing the US-installed regime in Macedonia.

Baily did the same for riot police attacks on innocent civilians, threats against their families, election fixing, ballot-stuffing and mass voting irregularities, shutting down media, imprisoning nine opposition MPs and charging more than half a dozen in order to more easily pass US-ordered illegal laws, imposing prison sentences for journalists, blocking and shutting down social media for individuals and media, firing thousands of Macedonians from public and private sector jobs, outlawing and criminalizing the use of the term “Macedonia”, regime investigation and intimidation of Macedonian civilians and opposition MPs including physical attacks and arson, and yes, imprisoning even more Macedonians and subjecting them all to abhorrent prison conditions.

Their “crime”? Opposing US interventionism in Macedonia and the US policy of eradicating Macedonia’s name, identity, culture and history in order to appease our oppressors.

You would oppose US policy too.

Attacks against Macedonians throughout the Balkans have also exploded, as the US’ “strategic partners”, Greece, Bulgaria, and Albania have used US foreign policy as an enabling excuse to ramp up their policies of cultural genocide against Macedonians, policies in place since the Western-imposed partition of Macedonia in 1912/13.

Once the US dehumanizes a group, it is much easier for them to convince the gullible (and stupid, lazy, and heartless) Western public to accept human rights abuses against them.

Re-enter former ambassador Baily.

In one of his most infamous acts — which sent shockwaves throughout Macedonia — Baily and several members of the US-installed regime in Macedonia held female opposition MPs in parliamentary chambers against their will, blackmailed and threatened them and their family members with imprisonment until they followed orders to vote to change Macedonia’s name.

Why?

The United States deemed it a priority to increase NATO membership at any cost in order to expand its hegemony, so it sided with Greece and its campaign—publicly admitted and celebrated — of cultural genocide against Macedonians.

Greece had pledged to veto Macedonia’s US-imposed NATO membership bid unless its name was changed and everything Macedonian was eradicated.

Bulgaria saw Greece’s “success” so, in a ramp-up of their own generations-old campaign of cultural genocide against Macedonians, they pledged to veto Macedonia’s Western-imposed European Union membership bid unless even more of its own anti-Macedonian demands were met.

These included additions to the ironically named “Agreement on Friendship and Good Neighbourliness,” which renounces the existence of Macedonians in Pirin Macedonia (annexed by Bulgaria in 1913), and declarations that Macedonians never existed and are “really Bulgarian.” They also rewrite Macedonian history to erase any reference to Bulgarian persecution of Macedonians, including the removal of any reference to Bulgaria’s alliance with Nazi Germany during World War II, occupation of Macedonia, and deportation of more than 7,000 Macedonian Jews to the Treblinka death camp in Poland.

Western and Jewish condemnation of the rewriting of Jewish history — but not Macedonian — ensued. Not even an attempt to hide the hypocrisy. Sheer laziness…

As a result of Greece and Bulgaria’s Western-enabled anti-Macedonian campaigns, there are now multiple treaties that outline how Macedonians are “permitted” to define ourselves. As I said on a panel discussion about the forced name change on Turkey’s international news channel, TRT World,“There is a 19-page document telling me who I am. Does this seem normal?”

This document is, ironically, known as the “Prespa Agreement” (that no Macedonian agreed to), and was overwhelmingly rejected by Macedonians in a referendum on September 30, 2018. In it, Article 7(2) officially hands over the term “Macedonia” to Greece, and renders the entire Macedonian population in Aegean Macedonia (annexed by Greece in 1913) as non-existent. Article 7(3) creates a brand new, artificial "North Macedonian" identity and eradicates Macedonians' heritage, identity, and culture. Article 8(5) mandates that a panel of Greek diplomats rewrite Macedonian history and that Macedonian textbooks be rewritten to officially remove any trace of our existence.

One would foolishly think that Western leaders, who constantly spew their upholding of so-called “American and European values”, would step in and immediately halt the attacks on Macedonians. As per their “values” and historical actions against regimes worldwide, the next step would logically be to impose repercussions (specifically, sanctions) on Greece, Bulgaria, and Albania. But no, the West prefers to aid their “strategic partners” and punish the oppressed.

So, leading up to the forced name change, a slew of international interventionists, including EU Commissioner for European Neighborhood and Enlargement Negotiations Johannes Hahn, NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg, High Representative of the EU for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy Federica Mogherini, multiple US Secretaries of Defense and Secretaries of State — both Democratic and Republican — all visited Macedonia to issue blatant threats. The common message, “Change your name or else.”

Subsequently, as per Western orders, every applicable Macedonian and international law, parliamentary rule, constitutional law, human rights convention, in addition to the referendum, were all violated or ignored to force through the name change to the highly offensive “North Macedonia,” a name specifically designed to eradicate Macedonians’ ethnic identity.

Forget “silence is complicity”; in the West’s case, they are blatantly and proudly complicit. Western media, following orders from their political bosses (both left and right), praised the destruction of Macedonians’ ethnic identity and assault on human rights and civil liberties as a “resolution of a diplomatic dispute”.

As a perverse twist on simply supporting our oppressors, Greece, Bulgaria, and Albania, Western media decided to support the Macedonian…regime and riot police attacks on protesters and dissidents.

In one example of many, Macedonian civilians were brutalized, the attacks were caught on video, but Western media, of course, led the news from the point of view from the riot police. Imagine Western media favouring Iranian riot police during the mass protests in Iran.

In addition to the beatings, Macedonians were subjected toheadlines about the beatings throughout Western media such as:"North Macedonia: 47 Police Officers Injured in Protests". As I wrote about here, imagine a drunk driver running a red light and slamming into a crowd of pedestrians, gravely injuring several. If this happened in Macedonia, the headline in Western media would be:"Pedestrians Cause Car Accident, Major Damage to Vehicle". A few, among pages and pages of examples, of Western anti-Macedonian bias can be found here, here, and here.

Of course, a choice was made to use the most offensive term possible for a Macedonian, and that is "North Macedonia" (or “North Macedonian”), ignoring the fact that the name change was illegally and brutally imposed on Macedonians with severe consequences for dissenting or even expressing one’s own Macedonian identity.

In other protests, riot police in Macedonia broke both legs of the spokesperson of an opposition party. They also attacked a group of elderly professors with shock bombs and tear gas, including a future presidential candidate. Both are female, so imagine the outrage from Western media and politicians. You’ll have to stick with imagining, because they supported the riot police.

In another perverse twist of irony, Deputy Prime Minister of Canada and former Foreign Minister, Chrystia Freeland, received an outpouring of Western political and media support — as per the statements, especially because she is a woman — for being the target of the most vile of hate crimes (oh my God, what?)…being yelled at in an elevator! How she managed to hold it together and continue enabling war crimes and mass human rights abuses on the world stage is a mystery.

And despite being fully aware of all the attacks against Macedonian women, Chrystia Freeland fully supports the attackers.

Further dehumanization of Macedonians.

Western politicians have also perfected their faux outrage routines and decry inconsequential and non-existent “incidents”, yet are perfectly happy hypocrites in literally destroying and ending lives.

Their faithful minions, Western media, also happily fall in line and jump at the chance to aid the oppressor.Politico EU described a Bulgarian politician’s speech denying Macedonians’ ethnic identity as“a very long and emotional”one.

Politico chose to side with notorious human rights abuser Bulgaria, convicted more than a dozen times by the European Court of Human Rights, in its policy of denying Macedonians the basic rights of self-determination and self-identification. And without reservation or condemnation, Reuters published Bulgarian Foreign Minister Ekaterina Zakharieva’s statement outlining Bulgaria’s chilling policy regarding Macedonians:

“Our concerns come from the never-ending claims for a Macedonian minority in Bulgaria. The acknowledgment of Bulgarian roots would put an end to this.”

Replace Macedonians (our oppressors are trying to) with a Western-approved group and there would be an immediate outcry in defence of human rights. Do Macedonians not count? Not in the Western world’s eyes. Macedonians are clearly expendable in the West’s supposed campaign to “defend human rights and self-identification.” These policies have prompted me to ask every leader, foreign minister, politician, diplomat, bureaucrat and journalist I’ve ever met —“You wouldn’t give away your ethnic identity, so why should Macedonians?”

The West is also notorious for its romanticizing of Greece and enabling of its Nazi-like infatuation of (tragically laughable and disgusting) “cultural purity” — and the resulting vast human rights abuses against ethnic minorities, particularly Macedonians. This set the stage for the complete abandonment of international law and human rights conventions regarding Macedonia's name and the full embrace of Greek racism. Western media headlines discussed Macedonians not wanting to abandon our ethnic identity as“Macedonian Nationalists Oppose Name Change Deal with Greece”. A few examples again, among an infinite supply, can be found here, here, and here.

The shocking irony is that Greece and Bulgaria appropriated Macedonian and other ethnic groups’ history, culture, language and identity when forging their own identities. But as the West taught their “strategic partners” – offence is the best defence. They also taught them to dehumanize the oppressed while demanding, and receiving, superhuman status for themselves.

Another revolting irony is Greece’s sudden claim to the name “Macedonia” following generations of denying its existence. After Macedonia’s partition in 1913 among Serbia, Greece, Bulgaria and, in 1919, Albania, and each country brutally denying the existence of the “M” word and trying to wipe out any trace of Macedonia and Macedonians, Greece suddenly, in 1988, began claiming that the name “Macedonia” belonged to them. Greek officials, including former Greek Prime Minister Constantine Mitsotakis, even admitted in 1995 that the so-called “name dispute” had nothing to do with Macedonia’s name, but everything to do with hiding Greece’s policy of denying the existence—and cultural genocide—of the large Macedonian minority in Greece.

This led me to ask another question of the aforementioned cowardly group of politicians, journalists, etc.:“What would happen if the English claimed that the names of Indigenous groups belonged to them — does that mean colonization and brutalization of Indigenous lands and people didn’t happen?”.This is exactly what Greece will have you believe about Macedonia and Macedonians. They’re selling the idea that, if you own the name, identity and history of the oppressed, no oppression could possibly have occurred.

Many more analogies spring to mind and I have asked them all of several political leaders. One of my “favourites” is an analogy to France, as French governments have traditionally been unabashedly anti-Macedonian and pro-Greek (and now pro-Bulgarian): I’ve asked what they would do if Germany demanded that France change its name to “West France,” declare that the name “France” now belongs to Germany, as does the French identity, language and culture and, let’s not forget to add the revision of French history to declare that Nazi Germany did not invade, occupy and brutalize France, and that it was an “administrator” and “liberator” of France. Welcome to Macedonia’s world.

But wait! Since the full endorsement by the West of Bulgaria’s anti-Macedonian demands, the analogy would have to change to France being referred to as “North France”, because Spain owns the name and ancient history of France, while Germany owns French modern history, language, and identity. So what happens to the “French” as we used to know them? They suddenly disappeared and “the people of North France” (or the “North French”) were just given a brand-new identity and history, but let’s not forget that they’re really German!

The evil stupidity of Western foreign policy astounds.

I’ll explain further. Imagine the following happening to a Western country, as opposed to dehumanized Macedonians.

Little did my family know that, soon after this photo was taken during World War II, the US and UK would start bombing Macedonian villages–in support of Greek fascism. Photo courtesy of author.

Despite being on the Allied side in both world wars, Macedonians were the target of US and UK terror after World War II because these “beacons of democracy” chose to aid Greece, its ruling Nazi-supporting fascists, and its policy of complete eradication of Macedonians because Greece aligned with US and UK foreign policy. Nazis and genocide will not get in the way of the West and their attempts at complete worldwide hegemony. The US and UK proceeded to drop bombs all over the Aegean part of Macedonia (annexed by Greece earlier in the century) — deliberately targeting civilians, with napalm bombs no less — and murdering countless Macedonians, many members of my family included.

The US has since expanded its terrorist repertoire to include modern methods of cultural genocide while still employing “classic” methods of invasion, occupation and mass murder in many countries (or getting a US proxy to do the dirty work). (Side note: You can see that the UK started obeying its American little brother long before the Iraq invasion and “WMD” debacle.)

Now to more of the United States’ modern methods: Before Jess Baily’s assault on Macedonia, the United States had gone through a myriad of ambassadors executing its united Democratic/Republican anti-Macedonian policy (see, bipartisanship does exist!).

This policy included: a) starting a civil war; b) supporting neo-Nazi Albanian separatist groups; c) granting them amnesty despite being convicted of terrorism and murder; and d) awarding them with high-level government posts — the more kills, the higher the post. (Albanians enjoy US-granted superhuman rights too). This all lay the groundwork for: a) the forced Macedonia name change; b) forced Macedonia NATO membership; c) increased US imperialism; and d) eventually (possibly not that far off), another partition of Macedonia’s territory.

And since Baily’s departure from the Republic of Macedonia, the US has replaced him with other sadistic stooges (how are you doing Kate Byrnes and Angela Aggeler?), who are also not shy about their goals to eradicate Macedonians’ ethnic identity — including the enabling of daily anti-Macedonian hate speech and crackdown on Macedonians’ rights by the US-installed regime in Macedonia and Greek and Bulgarian government officials, and enabling physical attacks by Greek and Bulgarian secret police and neo-Nazis (yet again) against their large Macedonian minorities.

We have seen what happens to Macedonians throughout partitioned Macedonia when they oppose US policy. But what happens to Macedonians abroad?

I’ve been targeted by the US for exposing its illegal, interventionist, anti-Macedonian policy and actions taken against me include being the subject of several libelous hit pieces in US-financed media, being slandered by the US-backed regime's foreign minister, and being banned from entering the United States as per a 2021 executive order by Joe Biden, so...congratulate me! I’m now on the blacklist of (at least) two countries! I was already blacklisted by the US’ favourite regional partner-in-crime, Greece. If standing up for human rights gets me banned, keep the countries coming!

Don't worry, the regime and US-financed media are the subject of lawsuits for defamation brought by me and Macedonian Human Rights Movement International. In addition, our multiple lawsuits in several international courts continue, in which we demand rights for oppressed Macedonians throughout the Balkans, the return of Macedonia’s name, and holding those (specifically countries and government officials) who violated Macedonians rights accountable, with many of our court cases already victorious.

Dehumanization denied. We will not allow Macedonians to be destroyed by US foreign policy. Our name is Macedonia. We’re getting it back.

Bill Nicholov, President
Macedonian Human Rights Movement International
x.com/billnicholov