Macedonia (Greece)

Μακεδονία (Greek) Macedonia (English) Region of Greece
(Greek national flag) (Macedonian flag)1 Anthem: Μακεδονία ξακουστή ("Famous Macedonia")2
Country:	Greece
Capital:	Thessaloniki
Peripheries:	West Macedonia Central Macedonia East Macedonia
Population:	2,424,765 (2001 census) 2,625,681 (2006 estimate)
Area:	34,177 km²
Population density:	77/km²
Website:	General Secretariat for Macedonia and Thrace
1 2De facto widespread but de jure unofficial.

Macedonia ([ˌmæsəˈdoʊniə]; Greek: Μακεδονία, Makedonía, [makʲe̞ðo̞ˈnia]) is a geographical and historical region of Greece in southeastern Europe. Macedonia is the largest and second most populous Greek region. The region and that of Thrace are often together referred to informally as northern Greece.

This northern Greek region incorporates most of the territories of ancient Macedon, the kingdom ruled by the Argeads whose most celebrated members were Alexander the Great and his father Philip II. The name Macedonia was later applied to identify various administrative areas in the Roman and Byzantine Empires with widely differing borders. Under the Ottomans, the name disappeared altogether.

Even before the establishment of the Modern Greek state in 1830, it was identified as a Greek province, even though Macedonia had no geographical borders^[1][2][3][4] By the mid 19th century, the name was becoming consolidated informally, defining more of a distinct geographical, rather than political, region in the southern Balkans. At the end of the Ottoman Empire most of the region known as Rumelia (from Ottoman Turkish: Rumeli, "Land of the Romans") was divided by the Treaty of Bucharest of 1913, following the Ottoman defeat in the Balkan Wars of 1912-1913. Greece, Serbia, Bulgaria each took control of portions of the territory, with Greece obtaining the largest portion; a small section went to Albania. The region was an administrative subdivision of Greece until the administrative reform of 1987, when the region was subdivided into the peripheries of West Macedonia and Central Macedonia and part of the periphery of East Macedonia and Thrace, the latter containing also the whole of the region of Thrace.^[5]

History

Prehistory

Macedonia lies at the crossroads of human development between the Aegean and the Balkans. The earliest signs of human habitation date back to the palaeolithic period. In the Late Neolithic period (c. 4500 to 3500 BC), trade took place from quite distant regions, indicate rapid socio-economic changes. One of the most important changes was the start of copper working.

Ancient History

Map of Alexander's Empire.

According to Herodotus, the history of Macedonia began with the Makednoi tribe, among the first to use the name, migrating to the region from Histiaeotis in the south. There they lived near non-Greek tribes such as the Bryges that would later leave Macedonia for Asia Minor and become known as Phrygians. Macedonia was named after the Makednoi. Accounts of other toponyms such as Emathia are attested to have been in use before that. A branch of Macedonians invaded Southern Greece, where, upon reaching Peloponnese were renamed to Dorians triggering the accounts of the Dorian invasion. For centuries the Macedonian tribes were organized in independent kingdoms, in what is now Central Macedonia, and their role in Greek politics was minimal. The rest of the region was inhabited by various Thracian and Illyrian tribes as well as mostly coastal colonies of other Greek states such as Amphipolis, Olynthos, Potidea, Stageira and many others. During the late 6th and early 5th century BC, the region came under Persian rule until the destruction of Xerxes at Plataea. In the next century, Macedonia became the theatre of many military actions by the Lacedaemonians and the Athenians and saw incursions of Thracians and Illyrians, as attested by Thucidydes. The kingdom of Macedon, was reorganised by Philip II and achieved Greek hegemony during his years. This is where the Greek history of the remainder of today's Greek Region of Macedonia. After his assassination, his son Alexander succeeded to the throne of Macedon and, retaining the office of "General of Greece", he became one of the best known persona this land ever gave birth to. Macedonia remained an important and powerful kingdom until it was annexed by the Romans in 148 BC. The region remained under Roman rule for centuries and went under various administrative names.

Medieval history

Map showing the Byzantine themata in 1045 AD,focusing on central Balkans around the region of Macedonia.The Macedonian thema is in what today is part of present-day Bulgaria.Thessaloniki and Strymon themata roughly correspond to modern-day Greek Macedonia and Thrace.

Metrophanes Kritopoulos was a monk,patriarch and theologian who was born in Veria,Macedonia^[6] in 1589.

Under Byzantine rule, the territory of the Greek region of Macedonia was divided as part of various administrative regions, called themata. Confusion sometimes occurs when referring to the Theme of Macedonia, which was in fact located in Thrace.^[7] Following the Bulgarian incursions of the 7th century, for long only the coastal areas remained under effective Byzantine control, while most of the hinterland was disputed between Byzantium and Bulgaria.

Familiarity with the strong Slavic element in the area led two brothers from Thessaloniki, Saints Cyril and Methodius, to be chosen to convert the Slavs to Christianity. Following the campaigns of Basil II, all of Macedonia returned to the Byzantine state. Following the Fourth Crusade 1203–1204, a short-lived Crusader realm, the Kingdom of Thessalonica, was established in the region, but it was subdued by the Greek Despotate of Epirus in 1224. Returning to the restored Byzantine Empire shortly thereafter, the area remained in Byzantine hands until the 1340s, when all of Macedonia (except Thessaloniki, and possibly Veria) was conquered by the Serbian ruler Stefan Dusan.^[8] Divided between Serbia and Bulgaria after Dusan's death, the region fell quickly to the advancing Ottomans, with Thessaloniki alone holding out until 1387. After a brief Byzantine interval in 1403–1430, the city and its immediate area returned to the Ottomans.^[9]

The capture of Thessalonica threw the Greek world into consternation, being regarded as the prelude to the fall of Constantinople itself. The memory of the event has survived through folk traditions containing fact and myths. Apostolos Vacalopoulos records the following Turkish tradition connected with the capture of Thessalonica:^[10]

While Murad was asleep in his palace at Yenitsa, the story has it that, God appeared to him in a dream and gave him a lovely rose to smell, full of perfume. The sultan was so amazed by its beauty that he begged God to give it to him. God replied, "This rose, Murad, is Thessalonica. Know that it is to you granted by heaven to enjoy it. Do not waste time; go and take it". Complying with this exhortation from God, Murad marched against Thessalonica and, as it has been written, captured it.

Ottoman Rule

Modern history

Greece gained the region from the Ottoman Empire, after the Second Balkan War with the Treaty of Bucharest (1913).

Etymology

There are a number of theories for the etymology of the name Macedonia:

1. According to Herodotus, both the Dorians and Macedonians descended from the Makednoi tribe. The name of the latter two probably derives from the Doric noun μᾶκος, mākos (Attic and modern Greek μάκρος, mákros and μῆκος, mēkos), meaning "length", and the adjective μακεδνός, makednós, meaning "tall, taper", since both the Macedonians (Makedónes) and their Makednoi tribal ancestors were regarded as tall people. The adjective is used by Homer in Odyssey (7.105f), to describe a tall poplar tree, and by Aristophanes in his comedy the Birds, to describe a wall built around their imaginary city.
2. The district of Macedonia took its name from the Macedonian people, who in turn owe their name to Macedon, who according to Hesiod was the son of Zeus and Thyia, Deucalion's daughter. Hesiod makes Magnes and Macedon brothers, cousins of Graecus, sons of Zeus and grandchildren of Deucalion, the progenitor of all Greeks.

Local government

Macedonia is divided into three peripheries comprising thirteen prefectures (Greek: νομοί). Two of these prefectures (Drama and Kavala) are part of the Drama–Kavala–Xanthi super-prefecture. The prefectures are further divided into municipalities (Greek: δήμοι, demoi) or "communities" (Greek: κοινότητες – roughly equivalent to British or Australian shires). They are overseen by the Ministry for the Interior, while the Ministry of Macedonia and Thrace is responsible for the coordination and application of the government's policies in the region.^[11]

Macedonia borders the neighboring peripheries of Thessaly, Thrace (part of the East Macedonia and Thrace periphery) and Epirus. The three Macedonian peripheries and their prefectures are:

Map of Macedonia	Number	Periphery	Capital	Area	Population
	Total	West Macedonia	Kozani	9,451 km²	301,522
	1	Kastoria Prefecture	Kastoria	1,720 km²	53,483
	2	Florina Prefecture	Florina	1,924 km²	54,768
	3	Kozani Prefecture	Kozani	3,516 km²	155,324
	4	Grevena Prefecture	Grevena	2,291 km²	37,947
	Total	Central Macedonia	Thessaloniki	18,811 km²	1,871,952
	5	Pella Prefecture	Edessa	2,506 km²	145,797
	6	Imathia Prefecture	Veria	1,701 km²	143,618
	7	Pieria Prefecture	Katerini	1,516 km²	129,846
	8	Kilkis Prefecture	Kilkis	2,519 km²	89,056
	9	Thessaloniki Prefecture	Thessaloniki	3,683 km²	1,057,825
	10	Chalkidiki Prefecture	Polygyros	2,918 km²	104,894
	11	Serres Prefecture	Serres	3.968 km²	200,916
	Total	East Macedonia (Part of East Macedonia and Thrace)	Kavala	5,579 km²	249,029
	12	Drama Prefecture (Part of the Drama–Kavala–Xanthi super-prefecture)	Drama	3,468 km²	103,975
	13	Kavala Prefecture (Part of the Drama–Kavala–Xanthi super-prefecture)	Kavala	2,111 km²	145,054
	-	Mount Athos (Autonomous)	Karyes	336 km²	2,262
	Total	Macedonia	Thessaloniki	34,177 km²	2,424,765[12]

The geographical region of Macedonia also includes the male-only autonomous monastic state of Mount Athos, but this is not part of the Macedonia precincts. Mount Athos is under the spiritual jurisdiction of the Ecumenical Patriarchate, and enjoys a special status: it is inaccessible to women;^[13] its territory is a self-governed part of Greece, and the powers of the state are exercized through a governor. The European Union takes this special status into consideration, particularly on matters of taxation exemption and rights of installation.^[14]

Economy and Transport

Aerial view of the central districts of Thessaloniki,major economic and industrial center.

Despite its rugged terrain, Macedonia possesses some of the richest farmland in Greece in the plain of Drama and the valleys of the Strimon and Axios. A wide variety of agricultural products and cash crops are grown, including rice, wheat, beans, olives, cotton, tobacco, fruit, grapes, wine and other alcoholic beverages. Food processing and textile weaving constitute the principal manufacturing industries. Tourism is a major industry along the coast, particularly in the Chalcidice peninsula, the island of Thasos and the northern approaches to Mount Olympus. Many tourists originate from Greece's immediate neighbors.

Thessaloniki is a major port city and industrial center; Kavala is the second harbor of Macedonia. Apart from the principal airport at Thessaloniki (Makedonia Airport), airports also exist in Kavala (M.Alexandros Airport), Kozani (Filippos Airport), and Kastoria (Aristotelis Airport). The "Via Egnatia" motorway crosses the full distance of Macedonia [1], linking most of its main cities. It also has a basic rail system, though most of it is single gauge which, with chronic underfunding and management deficiencies contribute contributing to slow to travel. The lack of modernisation and mostly single lines contribute to routine delays.

Culture

Macedonian cuisine

Macedonian music

Demographics

The inhabitants are overwhelmingly ethnic Greeks and most are Greek Orthodox Christians. From the Middle Ages to the early 20th century, the ethnic composition of the region of Macedonia is characterized by uncertainty both about numbers and identification. The 1904 Ottoman census of Hilmi Pasha recorded 373,227 Greeks and 204,317 Bulgarians in the vilayet of Selânik (Thessaloniki) alone. According to the same census, Greeks were also dominant in the vilayet of Manastır (Bitola), counting 261,283 Greeks and 178,412 Bulgarians. Hugh Poulton, in his Who Are the Macedonians, notes that "assessing population figures is problematic"^[15] for the territory of Greek Macedonia before its incorporation into the Greek state in 1913.^[15] The area's remaining population was principally composed of Ottoman Turks and also some Jews, and at much smaller numbers of Roma, Albanians and Vlachs.

During the first half of the twentieth century, major demographic shifts took place, which resulted in the region's population becoming overwhelmingly ethnic Greek. In 1919, Bulgaria and Greece signed the Treaty of Neuilly, which called for an exchange of populations between the two countries. According to the treaty, Bulgaria was considered to be the parent state of all ethnic Slavs living in Greece. Most ethnic Greeks from Bulgaria were resettled in Greek Macedonia; most Slavs were resettled in Bulgaria but a number, remained, most of them by changing or adapting their surnames and declaring themselves to be Greek so as to be exempt from the exchange. In 1923 Greece and Turkey signed the Treaty of Lausanne, and 600,000 Greek-speaking refugees from Anatolia were resettled in the region replacing Macedonian Turks and other Muslims (of Albanian, Greek, Roma, Slavic and Vlach ethnicity) under similar terms.

Macedonian cities during Ottoman rule were often known by multiple names (Greek, Slavic or Ottoman Turkish by the respective populations). After the partition of Ottoman Europe, most cities in Greece either became officially known by their Greek names or adopted Greek names; likewise most cities in Bulgaria and the Kingdom of Yugoslavia became officially known or adopted names in the languages of their respective states. After the population exchanges, many locations were renamed to the languages of their new occupants.

The population was badly affected by the Second World War through starvation, executions, massacres and deportations. Nazi-aligned Bulgarian occupation forces persecuted the local Greek population and settled Bulgarian colonists in their occupation zone in eastern Macedonia and western Thrace, deporting all Jews from the region. Total civilian deaths in Macedonia are estimated at over 400,000, including up to 55,000 Greek Jews. Further heavy fighting affected the region during the Greek Civil War which, combined with post-war poverty, drove many inhabitants of rural Macedonia to emigrate to the towns and cities, or abroad. Even today, many parts of Macedonia are fairly sparsely inhabited.

Greek is by far the most widely spoken and the only official language of public life and education in Macedonia. The local Macedonian dialect is spoken alongside dialects from other parts of Greece and Pontic Greek still spoken by some Greeks of Pontic descent. Macedonian Slavic dialects are the most widely spoken minority language while Aromanian, Arvanitic, Megleno-Romanian, Turkish and Romani are also spoken. Ladino is still spoken by some Jews in Thessaloniki.

After the fall of communism throughout Eastern Europe in the late 1980s and early 1990s, a large number of economic refugees and immigrants from other south-east European countries, such as Albania, Bulgaria, the Republic of Macedonia, Romania and Serbia, as well as from more distant countries such as Russia, the Ukraine, Armenia and Georgia, have arrived in Greece (including Macedonia) to seek employment.

Population of largest towns

Kavala's port.

Panorama of Serres.

Regional identity

Apogevmatini headline quoting Kostas Karamanlis:
"I myself am a Macedonian, just as 2.5 million Greeks are Macedonians."

Macedonians (Greek: Μακεδόνες, Makedónes) is the term by which ethnic Greeks originating from the region are known. Macedonians came to be of particular importance during the Balkan Wars when they were a minority population inside the Ottoman province of Macedonia. The Macedonians now have a strong regional identity, manifested both in Greece^[16] and by emigrant groups in the Greek diaspora.^[17] This sense of identity has been highlighted in the context of the Macedonian naming dispute after the break-up of Yugoslavia, in which Greece objects to its northern neighbour calling itself the "Republic of Macedonia", since explicit self-identification as Macedonian is a matter of national pride for many Greeks.^[18] A characteristic expression of this attitude could be seen when Greek newspapers headlined a declaration by Prime Minister Kostas Karamanlis at a meeting of the Council of Europe in Strasbourg in January 2007, saying that "I myself am a Macedonian, and another two and a half million Greeks are Macedonians."

Minority populations

The exact size of the linguistic and ethnic minority groups of Macedonia is officially unknown, as Greece has not conducted a census on the question of mother tongue since 1951. The main minority groups in Macedonia are:

Slavic-speakers

Distribution of the Slavic Macedonian language in Florina Prefecture and Aridaia regions (1993).

Slavic-speakers are concentrated in the Florina, Kastoria, Edessa, Giannitsa, Ptolemaida and Naousa regions. Their dialects are linguistically classified variously either as Macedonian or Bulgarian, depending on the region and on political orientation. The exact number of the minority is difficult to know, together with its members' choice of ethnic identification, is difficult to ascertain; most maximum estimates range around 100,000–120,000. The Greek branch of the former International Helsinki Federation for Human Rights has estimated that those of an ethnic Macedonian national conscienceness number between 10,000–30,000.^[19]

Aromanians

See also: Aromanians in Greece and Aromanian speakers of Greece

Aromanians form a minority population through out much of Macedonia. They largely identify as Greeks and most belong to the Greek Orthodox Church. In the 1951 census they numbered 39,855 in all Greece (the number in Macedonia proper is unknown). Many Aromanians villages can be found along the slopes of the Vermion Mountains and Mount Olympus. Smaller numbers can be found in the Prespes region and near the Gramos mountains.

Megleno-Romanians

Right: The Megleno-Romanian and the Aromanian linguistic area. Left:Map of the Megleno-Romanians settlements.

Megleno-Romanians can be found in the Moglena region of Macedonia. The Megleno-Romanian language is traditionally spoken in the 11 Vlach villages, Archangelos, Notia, Karpi, Koupa, Langadia, Perikleia, Skra and Kastaneri (the other three are found in the Republic of Macedonia). They are generally adherents to the Orthodox Church while the former majority in Notia was Muslim.

Arvanites

Arvanites communities can be found in Greek Macedonia. Five Arvanite communities exist in Serres prefecture while many can be found in the capital, Thessaloniki. There are three Arvanites villages in the Florina prefecture (Drosopigi, Lechovo and Flambouro) with others located in Kilkis and Thessaloniki regions.^[20]

Others

Other minority groups include Jews (Sephardim and Romaniotes), Armenians and Roma. Roma communities are concentrated mainly around the city of Thessaloniki. An uncertain number of them live in Macedonia from the total of about 200,000-300,000 that live scattered on all the regions of Greece.^[21]

See also

• Macedonians (Greeks)
• Macedonia (region)
• Macedonia (terminology)
• List of Macedonians (Greek)
• Peripheries of Greece

References

Bibliography

• Council of Europe, Steering Committee on Local and Regional Democracy (2001). "Special Regulations for Particular Areas – the Legal Status of Aghion Oros". Structure and operation of Local and Regional Democracy. Council of Europe. ISBN 9-287-14644-6. 
• Elster, Ernestine S.; Renfrew, Colin, ed (2003). Prehistoric Sitagroi: Excavations in Northeast Greece, 1968–1970. Monumenta Archaeologica 20. 2. Cotsen Institute of Archaeology. ISBN 1-931745-03-X. 
• Fine, John Van Antwerp (1994). "Serbian Participation in the Byzantine Civil War". The Late Medieval Balkans. University of Michigan Press. ISBN 0-472-08260-4. 
• Renfrew, Colin; Gimbutas, Marija; Elster, Ernestine S., ed (1986). Excavations at Sitagroi: a Prehistoric Village in Northeast Greece. Monumenta Archaeologica 13. 2. Cotsen Institute of Archaeology. ISBN 0-917-95651-6. 
• Renfrew, Colin (1969). "The Autonomy of the South-east European Copper Age". Proceedings of the Prehistoric Society 35: 12–47. http://www.ucl.ac.uk/prehistoric/pps/contents/contentsbyvolume.html#35. Retrieved 2009-05-11. 
• Rodden, R.J.; Wardle, K.A., ed (1996). Nea Nikomedeia: the Excavation of an Early Neolithic Village in Northern Greece 1961-1963. Supplementary series 25. 1. Athens: British School of Athens. 
• Souvatzi, Stella G. (2008). A Social Archaeology of Households in Neolithic Greece : an Anthropological Approach. Cambridge University Press. ISBN 978-0-521-83689-0. 
• Treadgold, Warren (1995). "The Roman Army's Second Millenium". Byzantium and Its Army, 284–1081. Stanford University Press. ISBN 0-804-73163-2. 
• Vacalopoulos, Apostolos E. (1973). History of Macedonia, 1354–1833 (translated by P. Megann). Zeno Publishers. ISBN 0-900-83489-7. http://www.promacedonia.org/en/av/. 
• Wardle, K.A. (1997). "The Prehistory of Northern Greece: a Geographical Perspective". Afieroma to N.G.L. Hammond. Society of Macedonian Studies. ISBN 9-607-26536-Χ. 

Notes

External links

• Macedonian Press Agency
• Museums of Macedonia
• Nikolaos Martis - Macedonia's Hellenism: Empirical documents and sources
• An online review of Macedonian affairs, history and culture
• EMS.name
• University of Macedonia
• University of Western Macedonia
• Macedonia, The Historical Profile of Northern Greece
• Map of Makedonia
• Technological Educational Institution of Serres
• Department of Physical Education Science & Athletics of Serres
• Roman province of Macedonia
• Macedonia, Greece - History And Politics - eBook Greek Language (ISBN 960-6-0337-5)
• Alistrati Cave in Serres
• Lake Kerkini in Serres - Kerkini Wetland (Ramsar & Natura 2000 Protected)

Official links

• Macedonia and Thrace region site (English)
• Ministry for Macedonia–Thrace (Greek)
• Region of Central Macedonia
• Region of Western Macedonia
• Region of Eastern Macedonia and Thrace
• Serres Prefecture
• City of Thessaloniki
• City of Edessa
• City of Serres
• Map of Macedonia

Regions of Greece Aegean Islands · Attica · Central Greece · Crete · Epirus · Ionian Islands · Macedonia · Peloponnese · Thessaly · Thrace