Talk:Greece–Serbia relations

Comments

How come everyone can write a comment here and I can't? Why don't you let me write the truth about Srebrenica? Is it forbidden for Bosnians to write their comments here or something? It shouldn't be, since you're mentioning my country in this article, and you're lying about it. Stop deleting my comments!!!

Every time someone writes the truth about Srebrenica or about Bosnia, you delete it. That's because you don't want people to know the truth. You're only showing it from the Serbian perspective. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 89.146.179.105 (talk) 16:44, 23 July 2008 (UTC)

This isn't the article for that. You can go contribute to the Srebrenica article. Your asking to put something in the article that has no significant connection. It would be like talking about peanut butter. ____________________________________________________________________________________________________

Vandalism

Lately (and by "lately" I mean since late 2007), Serbian-Greek Friendship and and this very discussion page have been the objects of repeated vandalism. It's good that people have been vigilant in reverting these changes and deleting disruptive (and/or irrelevant) material. However, I suggest people follow my recent example and, rather than merely revert repeated vandalism, report it for administrator intervention.[1] In some cases, a warning will suffice but in other cases (especially when the individual has dedicated his account to destroying a page he doesn't like), more needs to be done; otherwise, time will be wasted reverting what could easily be prevented by an administrative block. Critias (talk) 22:20, 10 May 2008 (UTC)

Unfortunately, the article is being vandalized yet again -- this time as part of the Macedonian naming dispute -- as at least one individual is reverting entire edits (including content that has nothing to do with the dispute, thereby bringing back typographical errors, for example, in the process) if one happens to refer to the Slav-Macedonian entity and/or Slav-Macedonian people as anything but "Macedonia" or "Macedonians". While the term "Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia" (FYROM) is ridiculous, the fact remains that this is the internationally-accepted name of the Slav-Macedonian political entity (something that both Hellenes and Slav-Macedonians find less than acceptable). Aside from this fact, however, is the fact that since this is a Greek-themed article, the use of "Macedonia" in anything but a Greek context causes serious confusion among those unfamiliar with the dispute. Hence, the need for clarification in the form of "Slav-Macedonian". As I've said numerous times, "it is improper to use 'Macedonia' to refer to the Slav-Macedonian entity (especially in Greek-themed articles) as it creates confusion". The fact that Western historians who specialize in the Balkans have traditionally referred to the people of Vardarska (or, rather, those who did not accept either a Serb or Bulgarian ethnic identity as the majority of Slav-Macedonians did, at one point) as "Slav-Macedonians/Macedonian-Slavs" before (and after) they formed a strong national identity indicates that the term is not only neutral but has a strong and credible tradition.

Even the country's first president, Kiro Gligorov, (while still in office) referred to his people as "Slav-Macedonians". Here is exactly what he said on 15 March 1992 to the Toronto Star newspaper: "We are Macedonians but we are Slav Macedonians. That's who we are!"

Although the individual in question who is bringing his personal politics into the article has suggested that "Macedonia/Macedonians" should be used because the Serbian state recognizes the country in question as the "Republic of Macedonia", this is irrelevant since the logic in not using the term has absolutely nothing to do with how the Greek or Serb states recognize the country but rather what is most appropriate for the article (and, in this instance, what will prevent confusion among international readers). To use "Macedonia/Macedonians" in place of "Slav-Macedonia/Slav-Macedonians" in this article would generate as much confusion as using "Vardarska"/"Vardarskans" in a Slav-Macedonian-themed article. Finally, the alteration of the terminology being used would also radically change the meaning and entire context of a number of passages (i.e. ones that refer to geographic Macedonia, etc.) Critias (talk) 21:50, 2 June 2008 (UTC)

Nobody is using "Macedonians". "ethnic Macedonians" is used once, and instead of "FYROM" (which is a provisional reference), "Republic of Macedonia" is being used, as it is the name of the country. Tell me, how many Republics of Macedonia are there? Exactly. BalkanFever 11:54, 3 June 2008 (UTC)

Serbian-Greek Friendship to Serbian-Greek Relations

Re-naming the article "Serbian-Greek Relations" was a major change and should have been discussed before it was made. This isn't just semantics. The change likely means that the entire article will have to be altered. This change is also redundant since there already was a section in the article specifically about Greek-Serbian bilateral relations. Information about bilateral relations should go there with the rest of the article focusing on the phenomenon of Greek-Serb friendship. As for the argument that the original title was NPOV, I fail to see that. The article was about a specific phenomenon that a great deal of mainstream media sources (including non-Serb/non-Greek ones) and politicians have made reference to. Bilateral relations are a part of Serbian-Greek friendship just as Serbian-Greek friendship is a part of bilateral relations but those are two separate issues since the phenomenon in question goes beyond state relations and regards society itself. Finally, it's worth mentioning that the Serbian Wikipedia article is titled Serbian-Greek friendship and not Serbian-Greek relations. That said, those who support the re-naming of the article should explain their position here so that we can reach some sort of consensus on the issue. Critias 17:07, 30 August 2007 (UTC)

This message is in regards to the second unilateral attempt to change this article's name from "Serbian-Greek friendship" to "Serbian-Greek relations" by editors who have not contributed to this article at all until just now (which I point out because, based on their edits and what they have written in the discussion page, it seems that they do not understand the purpose of this article and only comprehend Serbian-Greek friendship in a bilateral relations sense instead of as a societal, ideological, and intellectual phenomenon):

What certain individuals (i.e. those who are trying to change the article's name and transform it into a bilateral relations article) fail to see is that this article is not about mere political relations but rather about a mainstream cultural phenomenon that is recognized as existing and participated by all major segments of Greek and Serbian society: state institutions, religious institutions, the public, and the academic community. (Even those who oppose Serbian-Greek friendship on ideological grounds recognize its existence.) This article's scope transcends the narrow confines of a bilateral relations article and the majority of this extremely well-sourced and informative article (which had a high rating before it was altered) would have to be almost completely deleted to transform it into one (and attempts to delete this article have failed; therefore, one can argue that this re-naming attempt is an attempt to use a loophole to destroy this article). The fact that there are regular Greek-Serbian symposiums held by intellectuals, that non-Greek/non-Serb versions of Wikipedia (e.g. the Spanish Wikipedia article) are aware of this phenomenon, and that countless international references to said phenomenon (even books dedicated to it) exist are very significant facts and indicate that a bilateral relations page could not possibly contain any of these references.

That said, I agree that a Serbian-Greek bilateral relations page should exist. There is already a bilateral section in this article since bilateral relations make up a small part of Serbian-Greek friendship. That section should serve as a summary for the yet-to-be-created Serbian-Greek relations article which will go into more depth into that particular subject and which the bilateral relations section from Serbian-Greek friendship will link to. At the top of this article (i.e. the Serbian-Greek friendship article), there could be a disambiguation link so that people searching for a strictly Serbian-Greek bilateral relations page could easily find it. The Serbian-Greek bilateral relations page could also contain a similar link, or a "See also" link at the bottom to direct readers to Serbian-Greek friendship. Critias (talk) 19:21, 12 July 2008 (UTC)

Poll Findings

I'm searching for news articles (Greek, Serbian, and/or international) that cite polls regarding Greek opposition to the NATO bombing in order to better reference the article. Most polls, I recall, revealed that approximately 98% of the population was against the attack but there were other findings that listed as low as 95% or as high as 99.5%. If anyone knows of any articles that cite any numbers, please post the links and the relevant text here so that we can establish a figure and reference it. Critias 16:55, 31 March 2007 (UTC)

Here are some figures I found (which basically source the numbers I gave above):

• "According to a survey conducted by ICAP Hellas on behalf of Pantios University, 99.5 percent of those polled opposed the bombings and 99.3 percent the prospect of ground operations".[2]

• "In Greece, a member of both Nato and the EU, a recent poll revealed that 95 per cent of those canvassed were against the Nato air strikes - by far the largest number of dissenters in any EU country".[3]

Again, if anyone has found any other data, please mention it here. Critias (talk) 03:01, 26 August 2008 (UTC)

renaming

This article is real crappy; yet, it may be saved renaming it Serbian-Greek relations.--Aldux 16:11, 23 December 2006 (UTC)

George Kastriotis

Would it be of any usefulness to mention George Kastriotis (Skanderbeg) in this article? His father was Greek and his mother was Serbian, even though he is the greatest Albanian hero...Elikarag (talk) 19:57, 5 May 2008 (UTC)

I doubt mentioning him would be useful. Regardless of his ancestry or his personal ethno-national identity (both of which are contested), Albanians seem to be the only ones who celebrate him as a national hero (irrespective of how strong his alleged Albanian identity was). I know that cases have been made about him being of Greek, Serb, or Greek-Serbian background but neither Serbs nor Greeks celebrate him. (Furthermore, although it is certain that he was brought up a Muslim after becoming a hostage to the Turks, his later religious loyalty is unknown -- as far as I know -- with conflicting reports of him being Catholic or Orthodox; it goes without saying that he would not have been considered to be a Greek/Serb either by the standards of his time or today's standards if he was not Orthodox.) Given the high incidence of Serbs and Greeks marrying, there are many notable individuals of both Greek and Serb ancestry, from medieval times up to today, who would be much better candidates. I suggest we rely on such figures. Critias (talk) 23:19, 10 May 2008 (UTC)

Requested move

See also: Wikipedia: Naming conventions

Requested move

Serbian-Greek friendship → Serbian-Greek relations — Wikipedia Naming conventions —Heroeswithmetaphors (talk) 23:59, 22 June 2008 (UTC)

As I stated in my edit summary (or tried to, since most of it was cut), "All of the points made at Talk:Serbian-Greek_relations#Serbian-Greek_Friendship_to_Serbian-Greek_Relations were completely ignored by the unilateral change of name to "Serbian-Greek relations"; please see discussion page before drastically altering this article (especially if you are a new editor to this article) as such major changes (which require drastic content alterations) cannot be made on a whim or without mass consensus". Critias (talk) 19:31, 12 July 2008 (UTC)

Survey

Feel free to state your position on the renaming proposal by beginning a new line in this section with *'''Support''' or *'''Oppose''', then sign your comment with ~~~~. Since polling is not a substitute for discussion, please explain your reasons, taking into account Wikipedia's naming conventions.

• Rather, delete and rewrite Serbian-Greek relations, including the late-nineteenth century competing claims over Macedonia, the full history of 1913, and at least link to Greek-Yugoslav relations for the division during the Cold War. Septentrionalis PMAnderson 14:07, 23 June 2008 (UTC)

• I'd suggest Greco-Serbian relations per naming conventions, but otherwise support including less recent history. Deletion doesn't seem necesscary, just a redirect is fine.--Thomas.macmillan (talk) 04:12, 28 June 2008 (UTC)

Discussion

Note that every other article uses "relations":

Heroeswithmetaphors (talk) 00:12, 23 June 2008 (UTC)

Yes that is the NPOV name. It's not the matter of discussion actually but the matter of style and NPOV so I moved it.--Avala (talk) 15:08, 23 June 2008 (UTC)

An NPOV name should have an NPOV article. This isn't it. Septentrionalis PMAnderson 15:36, 23 June 2008 (UTC)

Back up your claims or don't make them as without sources it's just a POV pushing.--Avala (talk) 16:10, 23 June 2008 (UTC)

This is about the friendship between Greece and Serbia, its original title. Do you contend that is all of Greco-Serbian relations? Septentrionalis PMAnderson 21:10, 23 June 2008 (UTC)

Why not move to Greek-Serbian relations. It is rather common practice to follow alphabetic order in articles like this. M0RD00R (talk) 16:20, 23 June 2008 (UTC)

Serbian-Byzantine wars

This article is rather one-sided: it only shows the "friendship" between Serbs and Greek, but it fails to say anything about the wars between the Serbian states (Duklja, etc) and the Byzantine Empire. I'm just mentioning this here, hoping there's someone who knows better mediaeval Balkans history. :-) bogdan (talk) 15:32, 25 June 2008 (UTC)

That's the original title at work still. Yes, it is. I have tagged accordingly; it should serve as an incentive to finish converting the article. Septentrionalis PMAnderson 15:12, 26 June 2008 (UTC)

I failed to see the reason to discuss the war between Serbs and Byzantium in this article. Byzantium is the common name that people had known for centuries, but many don't know its official name was the "Roman Empire"! Although the official language was Greek, the Empire never considered itself to be a nation of the Greeks! therefore, war between Serb and Byzantium would be more like the war between the Serb and the Romans. nothing to do with Greeks. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 221.216.240.165 (talk) 03:35, 12 March 2011 (UTC)

Nonsense. At least after 1204, what remained of Byzantium was pretty much "Greek" in the modern sense. Even the Byzantines themselves gradually came to apply the term "Hellenes" to themselves, and were usually referred to as "Greeks" by their neighbours. Byzantium never became a monolithically single-nation state, but "Romans" or rather "Rhomaioi" by this time designates the Byzantine Greeks exclusively. Albanians, Serbs, Bulgarians, Turks, Vlachs etc settled in Byzantine territory are always mentioned as such, not as "Romans". Constantine ✍ 08:57, 12 March 2011 (UTC)

Can users adding the pov tag summarize their concerns here?

I checked the talk page, and the main pov concern I saw expressed was the article name. That has already been fixed (and I absolutely agree with that change, by the way; the use of the term "friendship" in the article title was highly irregular... This is much better).

I have seen some comments at ANI and in edit summaries that express pov concerns, but to add the tag, you really need to summarize your concerns on the Talk page. Otherwise, users who see the tag won't know what to fix! --Jaysweet (talk) 15:03, 27 June 2008 (UTC)

See the section above. This article was written to prove the thesis that Serbian-Greek friendship is natural and therefore provides a history in which only the friendly episodes are mentioned; this is, at best, drastically incomplete. It really needs a complete rewrite, which I am not qualified to do. The following omissions occur to me, the first on the basis of a comment above:

• There was considerable conflict between the medieval Serbian Empire and Byzantium, both between the Churches and between the States. Stephen Dushan took Thessalonica, and may have been attempting to replace the Greek Empire with a Serb one.
• Whether the Patriarchate of Pec is legitimate is a long-standing issue between the two Churches.
• Serbian, Greek, and Bulgarian ambitions clashed during the Balkan Wars, over both Macedonia and Albania. Had the states not both been attacked by Bulgaria, they might have gone to war with other.
• The Greek Government was (as much as it could manage) anti-Serb and anti-Allied during the First World War, until it was overthrown in 1917.
• The Yugoslavs (the successor state to Serbia) assisted the Communist rebels against Greece from 1944 to 1948, and did make the same claims as the extreme Macedonian nationalists on their right to Aegean Macedonia.

I have said what I can about some of these, but they have not received due weight; and they are doubtless other instances. I am out of my field. Septentrionalis PMAnderson 21:00, 27 June 2008 (UTC)

The tag is not intended to imply malice; this is as good an essay on Serbian-Greek friendship as there is likely to be, and if we were intended for such things, there would be no reason to meddle with it at all. But it is not yet a good WP article. Septentrionalis PMAnderson

First of all, please read Talk:Serbian-Greek_relations#Serbian-Greek_Friendship_to_Serbian-Greek_Relations as it explains why the article must not be re-named to "Serbian-Greek relations". If this had been done before some individual(s) decided to unilaterally make major changes, we wouldn't be discussing the same issue a second time around. Anyway, Since Greek, Serb, and international mainstream media have all recognized the existence of the phenomenon of Serbian-Greek cultural friendship and political analysts and journalists take it into account as a factor when analyzing geopolitical conflicts in the Balkans, there is nothing "irregular" about the title whatsoever. (Unfortunately, since the new influx of editors are not informed about the issue, they don't know this and assume that the title and/or article is non-neutral and possibly even a promotion of the phenomenon, when it clearly isn't.)

There are those who oppose this cultural link -- both foreigners who live in the region and even some Greeks and Serbs -- and a section regarding this could certainly be created to explain why they oppose it since the Serbian-Greek friendship article should be as encompassing as possible. To summarize, the former -- such as Albanians, Turks, Slav-Macedonians, and Bosnian Muslims -- view it as a threat based on an alleged "mutual hatred of a particular ethnic group" (or a "mutual hatred of Islam") rather than something apolitical that has been created as the result of centuries of interaction (both friendly and hostile interaction) between the Greek and Serb nations. The latter oppose it under the same basic misunderstanding and view it as a political force that promotes nationalism and religious values instead of internationalism/globalism (especially Europeanization and Westernization) and secularism. Ironically, political groups that espouse internationalism/globalization and secularism (or outright atheism) like the Communist Party of Greece played a not so insignificant role in contemporary Serbian-Greek friendship (e.g. organizing events that promoted Greek-Serb friendship and solidarity) during the 1990s when they still viewed the Serbian nation (then existing as a part of Yugoslavia) as the victim of imperialism. (Since then, their views of 1990s Serbia have changed to that of one in which they believe that Yugoslavia was a nationalistic Serbian entity whose motivation was to create a Greater Serbia.) However, it should be mentioned that domestic groups opposed to Greek-Serb friendship are very small. Even the pro-Western factions in Greece and Serbia have tried to use the traditional friendship between the two nations to benefit one another (e.g. the Greek political establishment's economic and business development in Serbia, the Serbian political establishment's aspirations of joining the European Union or even NATO, etc.).

Since the article is about the phenomenon of Greek-Serbian friendship, it was not necessary for the aforementioned things to be mentioned (though, as I stated, I agree that a section about political groups opposed to Serbian-Greek friendship should exist). This would be better mentioned in a new Serbian-Greek bilateral relations article. (That said, I was eventually planning on expanding the bilateral relations section of the article with Milosevic's recognition of the Slav-Macedonian entity as "Macedonia" but never got around to it.) Despite these issues being irrelevant to this particular article, I will nonetheless go over them:

1) Although there was conflict between the Eastern Roman Empire of the Greeks (i.e. the so-called "Byzantine Empire") and the Serbian Empire, this and prior interaction (even though it sometimes involved war) led to the formation of the Serbian nation. Contemporary Serbian politicians like Dragan Dragic (as noted in the article) have stated that the Serbs' roots stem from Hellenic civilization (i.e. the Eastern Roman Empire) and that the two peoples are united through Orthodoxy.[4] Also, don't forget that land was actually given to the Serbs by an emperor at one time. Whether in peace or at war, the Serbs were greatly influenced by the Eastern Roman Empire. The fact that they wanted to express their own nationalism by creating a state of their own is only natural and does not minimize from this at all.

That said, emperor Dusan (whose court used Greek and not Serbian) actually sought to create a Serb-Greek Empire to replace and rejuvenate the Eastern Roman Empire. That is why he granted Greek cities he had occupied the same rights they had enjoyed under Eastern Roman rule. Unlike other groups who wanted to occupy Constantinople, Dusan sought to become a legitimate heir of the empire. In the words of historian Donald M. Nicol in "The Last Centuries of Byzantium", "The resulting assimilation of Byzantine culture by the Serbians helped to fortify the ideal of a Slavo-Byzantine Empire, which came to dominate the mind of Milutin's grandson, Stephen Dusan, later in the fourteenth century". In the words of Radoman Stankovic, "Powerful Byzantium started to decline, and young Serbian King Stephan Dushan, Stephan of Dechani's son, wanted, by getting crowned in 1331, to replace weakened Byzantium with the powerful Serbian-Greek Empire. [...] By proclaiming himself emperor of the Serbs and Greeks, Dushan showed that he aspired to a legitimate rule over the subjects of the Byzantine Empire".[5]

2) There is no long-standing conflict between the Patriarchate of Pec (known better as the Serbian Orthodox Church) and the Hellenic Orthodox Church (or the Church of Greece). In fact, quite the contrary, the leaders of both Churches have supported each other's national issues and made statements re-enforcing the friendship between Greeks and Serbs. In July 1994, Bishop Nicolas of Sarajevo stated the following: "We, the Serbs, are blessed to have God in heaven and Hellenes on earth. You the Hellenes have us Serbs as your friends. We will continue the struggle you undertook in 1974 against the Muslims until Constantinople becomes a centre for Orthodoxy". The patriarch himself wrote the following (which was read by Metropolitan Amfilohije of Montenegro and the Littoral): "May the traditional Greek-Serbian friendship flourish!"[6] Obviously, such statements would not exist if there was a dispute of any kind. These and many other statements actually used to be part of the Serbian-Greek friendship article but were deleted by someone. (Perhaps if they had remained, we wouldn't be discussing such issues right now.) It also bears mentioning that not only does the Church of Greece recognize and support the Serbian Orthodox Church but also the Orthodox Ohrid Archbishopric (which is persecuted by the so-called "Macedonian Orthodox Church" which, unlike either the Orthodox Ohrid Archbishopric or the Serbian Orthodox Church, is uncanonical).

3) Your claims that Greece and Serbia would have gone to war in the Balkan Wars if not for Bulgarian ambitions is your own personal view and wild speculation. There is no evidence to even suggest that Greece and Serbia were close to war. They were allies during both wars and neither does Serbia have any territorial claims on Greece today nor does Greece have territorial claims on Serbia today. Greece and Serbia, rather, are some of the only contemporary Balkan states that have absolutely no territorial claims against each other. This is in stark contrast to Serbia's and Greece's neighbors, who have territorial ambitions to this day. Since Greece's War of Liberation and Serbia's War of Liberation, neither country has ever gone to war against the other. Instead, history shows close cooperation in regards to military conflicts. Even as recent ago as the 1990s, Greece aided Serbia by betraying NATO and even breaking international law to help the country while regular people, from all walks of life and political ideologies, volunteered to fight on the Serbian side. Many were wounded and some even died fighting for Serbia.

4) No Greek political establishment has ever been anti-Serb. The King who was of Germanic descent but not of Greek descent (in fact, ironically, the contemporary Serbian royal family has more Greek ancestry than the contemporary Greek royal family, which has none at all) may have favored the Central Powers because he was a Germanic at heart but he did not represent the Greek nation or Greek people, despite his title. So to go and say that the government was "anti-Serb" is preposterous and only shows how lacking in credibility your claims are. The fact that the so-called "King of Greece" or Greek royal family is not ethnically Greek is one of the reasons why they are not popular among Greeks today. Throughout Greek history, the only group to represent the pro-German camp has been the King (for reasons of ethnic kinship). The Germans have never favored a strong Greece and have traditionally been pro-Turk, even to the point of helping facilitate the Hellenic Genocide around the time of the First World War.[7] When Otto was installed in Greece as king, it was made very clear that he would be the "King of Greece" instead of "King of all Greeks" as that would imply territorial ambitions against current-day Turkey -- something that would be harmful to Germanic geopolitical strategy as Turkey (whether Ottoman or Kemalist) was regarded as a very important ally to the Germans. In the words of Ambassador Morgenthau, both Greece and Serbia were a barrier to pan-Germanic aspirations: "Since Germany, however, had her own plans for Asia Minor, inevitably the Greeks in this region formed a barrier to Pan-German aspirations. As long as this region remained Greek, it formed a natural obstacle to Germany's road to the Persian Gulf, precisely as did Serbia".[8]

That said, it must be mentioned that Greece has refused Germanic demands to betray Serbia by attacking and invading it: "One of the most significant historic details from Venizelos’s biography is his response to Vienna’s suggestion to Greece to attack Serbia in order to weaken her position: 'Greece is too small a country to do such big malice'".[9]

5) The communists of Greece (who were ethnically Greek) were in favor of butchering northern Greece and creating a "Macedonian state" because these were the directions of the Communist International. Communists of Greek ancestry and of Serbian ancestry do not represent their nations as they had an internationalistic self-identity. The communists of Greece were responsible, for instance, for the Paedomazoma: the abduction of 30,000 Greek children who were sent to communist states where they lost their Greek identity and, in some cases, actually were taught that they were "ethnic Macedonians" and that Greece was their enemy and had occupied their "rightful land". (For more details on this, I highly suggest "A Child's Grief, A Nation's Lament: A Modern Greek Tragedy 1946-49" by Panayiotis Diamadis, et al which probably constitutes the most informative English-language source on this issue and is completely sourced and referenced with international documents instead of Greek ones precisely because some might regard Greek sources as being "Greek propaganda".) Today, Serbs view communist Yugoslavia as a foreign occupation in the same way that Russians view the Soviet Union as one. To attribute the crimes of communist Yugoslavs (who tried their hardest to destroy the Serb ethnic and religious identity while empowering the ethnic identities of minority groups) to Serbs is absurd and offensive, especially considering how greatly Serbs suffered under communism. (The reason why Kosovo has such a great Albanian population is because communist dictator Tito wanted to weaken Serbs and imported Albanians there; thus, the causes of today's problems revolving around Kosovo trace back directly to Tito and communism.)[10]

If you are "out of your field" as you claim, perhaps you shouldn't be editing this article. This goes for anyone who is not knowledgeable about specifically Greek-Serb friendship but also those who are not knowledgeable about Greek and Serb history. Personally, I avoid editing articles that I do not possess an intimate knowledge of and I recommend others follow in my lead. The recent influx of new editors (who know little to nothing about the issue) has had a very negative impact on the article and led to assumptions of it being non-neutral, promoting certain things (which are unknown as the people who claim this don't tell us what is supposedly being "promoted"), or not being in line with Wikipedia guidelines when it was.

That some of these same individuals actually tried to delete this article on 23 June 2008 is unbelievable and speaks volumes in and of itself. Since the attempt failed, the next way to accomplish their goal of deleting the informative and well-sourced content of this high-rated article was through a loophole: by re-naming the article to "Serbian-Greek bilateral relations" as the article now would need a complete re-write due to the change of description. The fact that at least one individual has been deleting paragraphs and refusing to debate the issue (all the while attempting to portray the article as non-neutral in sparse edit summaries) seems to vindicate my point. I fail to understand why this article bothers so many people. Ever since its precursor was created (i.e. the Serbian-Greek Empire article, which was supposed to be about the attempt to create one during the medieval period), it seems as though any article about Serb-Greek friendship has been under constant attack by a small group of (dedicated) individuals. Critias (talk) 21:18, 15 July 2008 (UTC)

POV intro?

Can User:Bogdangiusca actually explain what the intro is POV advancing? _{El Greco}^(talk) 01:10, 14 July 2008 (UTC)

There is no neutrality issue (especially since this article is about Serb-Greek friendship and not bilateral relations between the Greek and Serbian states) and the aforementioned individual will likely not bother engaging you in intellectual discourse as he has completely ignored my messages (even when I explicitly asked him to see Talk:Serbian-Greek_relations#Serbian-Greek_Friendship_to_Serbian-Greek_Relations) and, instead, proceeded to vandalize the article by deleting entire well-sourced paragraphs. I believe we can no longer assume good faith on his behalf anymore and should question his motives and agenda. Critias (talk) 17:11, 15 July 2008 (UTC)

Look again at the title: this article is about "Serbian-Greek relations", that is, about the bilateral relationship. If you want to move it back, see Wikipedia:Requested moves, but unless it's moved back, the article is about the relations and it should be written using a NPOV style. bogdan (talk) 21:12, 15 July 2008 (UTC)

It is only like that because you have repeatedly vandalized it to remain that way (while ignoring all discussion on this page), something that more than one editor has pointed out. Unless someone can refute the reasons I've given for it to remain in its original form (i.e. Serb-Greek friendship), it should be reverted. In fact, I would say that until those points can be refuted, it should remain in the original format since the name change was made unilaterally without discussion, in violation of Wikipedia guidelines by editors who misinterpreted it as a bilateral relations page due to the fact that they had never edited the page before (and may have never even bothered to read the article, I'm afraid). Critias (talk) 21:25, 15 July 2008 (UTC)

I added a bit about the wars between the Greeks and Serbs. So it can't be an article about a friendship if it talks about the wars. :P bogdan (talk) 17:41, 26 August 2008 (UTC)

Territorial errors on the Greece-Serbia map - Isles of Rhodes and Lesbos, not part of Greece?!

In the map, on the beginning of the article, which colors the 2 countries, Greece and Serbia, the big islands in Eastern Aegean Sea, such as Lesbos and Rhodes, are not colored as green (Greek territory). 5 Greek Islands are shown as Turkish, and 1 Turkish Island is shown as Greek. Can someone fix this error? Other than that, the map looks ok to me. --85.75.156.234 (talk) 02:49, 27 November 2012 (UTC)

Well spotted, I nominated it for deletion. Macedonian, a Greek (talk) 08:38, 27 November 2012 (UTC)

The map is fine now, fixed by Cplakidas. Macedonian, a Greek (talk) 10:19, 27 November 2012 (UTC)

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• Added archive https://web.archive.org/web/20071126022238/http://www.embassyofserbia.gr/Krf/KrfEng.htm to http://www.embassyofserbia.gr/Krf/KrfEng.htm
• Added archive https://web.archive.org/web/20090104002056/http://www.tiscali.co.uk/news/newswire.php/news/reuters/2005/06/27/world/greecestartsprobeintosrebrenicamassacre.html&template=/news/templates/newswire/news_story_reuters.html to http://www.tiscali.co.uk/news/newswire.php/news/reuters/2005/06/27/world/greecestartsprobeintosrebrenicamassacre.html&template=/news/templates/newswire/news_story_reuters.html

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External links modified

Hello fellow Wikipedians,

I have just modified 2 external links on Greece–Serbia relations. Please take a moment to review my edit. If you have any questions, or need the bot to ignore the links, or the page altogether, please visit this simple FaQ for additional information. I made the following changes:

• Corrected formatting/usage for http://www.tiscali.co.uk/news/newswire.php/news/reuters/2005/06/27/world/greecestartsprobeintosrebrenicamassacre.html%26template%3D/news/templates/newswire/news_story_reuters.html
• Added archive https://web.archive.org/web/20070929122815/http://www.b92.net/eng/news/politics-article.php?yyyy=2007&mm=08&dd=28&nav_category=90&nav_id=43337 to http://www.b92.net/eng/news/politics-article.php?yyyy=2007&mm=08&dd=28&nav_category=90&nav_id=43337

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External links modified

Hello fellow Wikipedians,

I have just modified 18 external links on Greece–Serbia relations. Please take a moment to review my edit. If you have any questions, or need the bot to ignore the links, or the page altogether, please visit this simple FaQ for additional information. I made the following changes:

• Added archive https://web.archive.org/web/20070519165405/http://www.mfa.gr/www.mfa.gr/Articles/el-GR/03052007_1526_alp.htm to http://www.mfa.gr/www.mfa.gr/Articles/el-GR/03052007_1526_alp.htm
• Added archive https://web.archive.org/web/20080130004146/http://www.embassyofserbia.gr/Krf/KrfEng.htm to http://www.embassyofserbia.gr/Krf/KrfEng.htm
• Added archive https://web.archive.org/web/20080801002528/http://www.b92.net/eng/news/region-article.php?yyyy=2008&mm=07&dd=30&nav_id=52313 to http://www.b92.net/eng/news/region-article.php?yyyy=2008&mm=07&dd=30&nav_id=52313
• Added archive https://web.archive.org/web/20101031013559/http://cm.greekhelsinki.gr/index.php?sec=194&cid=848 to http://cm.greekhelsinki.gr/index.php?sec=194&cid=848
• Added archive https://web.archive.org/web/20150116013708/http://cm.greekhelsinki.gr/index.php?sec=194&cid=881 to http://cm.greekhelsinki.gr/index.php?sec=194&cid=881
• Corrected formatting/usage for http://www.greekhelsinki.gr/english/articles/AIM2-7-99.html
• Added archive https://web.archive.org/web/20140514003910/http://www.b92.net/eng/news/society-article.php?yyyy=2010&mm=03&dd=20&nav_id=65928 to http://www.b92.net/eng/news/society-article.php?yyyy=2010&mm=03&dd=20&nav_id=65928
• Added archive https://web.archive.org/web/20140513194936/http://serbiangreek.in.rs/sg-magazin/sa-ponosom-predstavljamo-udruzenje-grka-u-srbiji/ to http://serbiangreek.in.rs/sg-magazin/sa-ponosom-predstavljamo-udruzenje-grka-u-srbiji/
• Added archive https://web.archive.org/web/20120206212848/http://www2.mfa.gr/www.mfa.gr/en-US/Policy/Geographic%2BRegions/South-Eastern%2BEurope/Balkans/Bilateral%2BRelations/Serbia/ to http://www2.mfa.gr/www.mfa.gr/en-US/Policy/Geographic+Regions/South-Eastern+Europe/Balkans/Bilateral+Relations/Serbia/
• Added archive https://web.archive.org/web/20080124191843/http://www.b92.net/eng/news/politics-article.php?yyyy=2007&mm=08&dd=26&nav_category=90&nav_id=43292 to http://www.b92.net/eng/news/politics-article.php?yyyy=2007&mm=08&dd=26&nav_category=90&nav_id=43292
• Added archive https://web.archive.org/web/20090227121126/http://www.b92.net/eng/news/politics-article.php?yyyy=2009&mm=02&dd=26&nav_id=57453 to http://www.b92.net/eng/news/politics-article.php?yyyy=2009&mm=02&dd=26&nav_id=57453
• Added archive https://web.archive.org/web/20080614235408/http://www.b92.net/eng/news/politics-article.php?yyyy=2008&mm=06&dd=13&nav_id=51072 to http://www.b92.net/eng/news/politics-article.php?yyyy=2008&mm=06&dd=13&nav_id=51072
• Added archive https://web.archive.org/web/20121104103851/http://www.b92.net/eng/news/politics-article.php?yyyy=2008&mm=10&dd=16&nav_id=54270 to http://www.b92.net/eng/news/politics-article.php?yyyy=2008&mm=10&dd=16&nav_id=54270
• Added archive https://web.archive.org/web/20100523184728/http://www.b92.net/eng/news/politics-article.php?yyyy=2010&mm=05&dd=22&nav_id=67303 to http://www.b92.net/eng/news/politics-article.php?yyyy=2010&mm=05&dd=22&nav_id=67303
• Added archive https://web.archive.org/web/20080621111916/http://www.skgo.org/code/navigate.php?Id=107 to http://www.skgo.org/code/navigate.php?Id=107
• Added archive https://web.archive.org/web/20160420163426/http://www.b-info.com/places/Bulgaria/news/94-12/dec20.gr to http://www.b-info.com/places/Bulgaria/news/94-12/dec20.gr
• Added archive https://web.archive.org/web/20100902050251/http://www.b92.net/eng/news/society-article.php?yyyy=2010&mm=09&dd=01&nav_id=69430 to http://www.b92.net/eng/news/society-article.php?yyyy=2010&mm=09&dd=01&nav_id=69430
• Corrected formatting/usage for http://www.greekhelsinki.gr/english/articles/AIM2-7-99.html

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Population figures

@InNeed95: per WP:ONUS if you wish to change these figures you need to provide a reliable source. What other Wikipedia articles say has no bearing. You need to source it appropriately herePipsally (talk) 19:04, 31 July 2021 (UTC) Blocked sock:Orchomen.

Source was added now.

You could have done the same thing on Kosovo Serbs, but you didnt. Interesting enough, you managed to, lets call it, "Win", due to a Admin not handling the problem well and acting on your side. This has nothing to do with this Article tho. So nevermind this. :)

--InNeed95 (talk) 20:00, 31 July 2021 (UTC)

All you need to do is add sources properly. And not edit war when people ask you to do so.Pipsally (talk) 20:11, 31 July 2021 (UTC) Blocked sock:Orchomen.

As I said, Likewise.

--InNeed95 (talk) 20:16, 31 July 2021 (UTC)

No, not likewise, because all I've done is revert your unsourced changes to the existing consensus version. Please go and read WP:ONUS before you edit further, especially in the Balkan articles. And next time you want to make a change that is reverted observe WP:BRD properly.Pipsally (talk) 20:26, 31 July 2021 (UTC) Blocked sock:Orchomen.

Likewise.

--InNeed95 (talk) 20:32, 31 July 2021 (UTC)