The attempts made by Skopje to provide evidence for its allegations by the use of forged maps are familiar to all. No matter how hard one may try, will find no maps printed anywhere in the world before 1944 which show the word 'Macedonia' in any country other than Greece. In 1944, the first maps published by the Yugoslavs showed southern Serbia as the "Socialist Republic of Macedonia". This map was later reprinted, with the words 'Socialist Republic of omitted and the word 'Macedonia' deleted from Greece: as a result, those using the map would form the opinion that 'Macedonia' lay only within Yugoslavia and that therefore there was a 'Macedonian nation' which, of course, would speak its own language.

a. The ethnographic map of nationalities in Macedonia in the period 1912-1926 published in the New Cambridge Modern History (1970).

b. The ethnographic map of Kieport (Berlin, 1818).

c. The ethnographic map produced by the Italian Amendore Virgili in 1908, and based on the Turkish census carried out by Hilmi Pasha.

d. The Stanford map.

None of these maps, or any other published before the Second World War, makes any reference to a 'Macedonian nation', for the simple reason that no such thing existed before the Yugoslav Communist Party invented it.

During the period of rule by the Ottoman Empire (after 1529), the Turks implemented their own system of division, as can be seen from the ethnographic map of 1908 based on the census conducted by Hilmi Pasha in 1904. This map makes no reference to Macedonia, because the area was divided into 'sancaks' and 'vilayets' (the Vilayets of Monastir and Thessaloniki).

A map dating from as far back as 1350 shows the realm of King Stepan Dusan of Serbia, who referred to it as the "kingdom of Serbs and Greeks". Stepan Dusan divided his kingdom into two parts, the northern (stretching as far as Skopje), which he bestowed on his son, and the southern (Greek), which he kept for himself. If there was any such thing as a 'Macedonian nation' he would surely have called his realm the 'kingdom of Serbs and Macedon ians' or the 'kingdom of Serbs, Greeks and Macedonians'.

The 'kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenians' was set up after the First World War. Once again, had there been any Macedonians, it would have borne the title of 'kingdom of Serbs, Croats, Slovenes and Macedonians.

In 1824, a New Historical Map of Greece was published at Baltimore by E.Z. Coal. In the legend, the publisher describes Macedonia as a part of mainland Greece, and marks its northern border as lying beyond the town of Monastir.