The Age newspaper reported that police were investigating the attack of a young Greek-Australian male in his 20s, by several unknown assailants whilst he was dining at a Ribs & Burgers restaurant on McDonalds Road in South Morang, Melbourne on December 17.
The assailants are believed to have been also dining at the same restaurant as the victim, when the incident took place.
According to reports, both the victim and the assailants had been at the Whittlesea Council meeting, partaking in protests against each other, sparked by Whittlesea mayor Emilia Lisa Sterjova - of ‘North Macedonian’ heritage – when she published a controversial post congratulating students in their study of the ‘Macedonian’ language whilst waving a flag with the Star of Vergina on it.
Following her controversial post, many Australians of Greek descent, protested her action of holding the Star of Vergina, given it is clearly a symbol belonging to Greece, but provocatively appropriated for years by the Slavic population of what was formerly known as FYROM, now Northern Macedonia.
The mayor’s actions with the flag are seen by many, if not provocative and deliberate, at the very least as ignorant given that both Greece and Northern Macedonia signed the well-known Prespes Agreement where Skopje agreed that the Star of Vergina, Alexander the Great and anything to do with Ancient Macedonia belongs to Greece, Greek history and Greek culture and was not to be exploited by Northern Macedonia.
