Macedonian nationalism

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Flag of the Republic of Macedonia
Statue of Georgi Pulevski, a major figure who endorsed the concept of an ethnic Macedonian identity resulting in the founding of Macedonian nationalism.[1]

Macedonian nationalism is a term referring to the ethnic Macedonian version of nationalism. The origins of a separate ethnic Macedonian identity and nationalism are complex.[8]

In the 19th century, the region of Macedonia became the object of competition by rival nationalisms, initially Greek nationalists, Serbian nationalists and Bulgarian nationalists that each made claims about the Slavic-speaking population as being ethnically linked to their nation and thus asserted the right to seek their integration.[8] The first assertions of Macedonian nationalism arose in the late 19th century. Early Macedonian nationalists were encouraged by several foreign governments that held interests in the region. The Serbian government that came to believe that any attempt to seek to forcibly assimilate Slavic Macedonians into Serbs to incorporate Macedonia would be unsuccessful given the strong Bulgarian influence in the region.[8] Instead, the Serbian government believed that providing support to Macedonian nationalists would stimulate opposition to incorporation to Bulgaria and favourable attitudes to Serbia.[8] Another country that encouraged Macedonian nationalism was Austria-Hungary that sought to deny both Serbia and Bulgaria the ability to annex Macedonia, and asserted a distinct ethnic character of Slavic Macedonians.[9] In the 1890s, Russian supporters of a Slavic Macedonian ethnicity emerged, Russian-made ethnic maps began showing a Slavic Macedonian ethnicity, and Macedonian nationalists began to move to Russia to mobilize.[8]

The origins of the definition of an ethnic Macedonian identity arose from the writings of Georgi Pulevski in the 1870s and 1880s, who identified the existence of a distinct modern "Slavic Macedonian" language that he defined that was different from other languages in that it had linguistic elements of Serbian, Bulgarian, Church Slavonic, and Albanian languages.[10] Pulevski analyzed the folk histories of the Slavic Macedonian people, in which he concluded that Slavic Macedonians were ethnically linked to the people of the ancient Kingdom of Macedonia of Philip and Alexander the Great based on the claim that the ancient Macedonians' language had Slavic components in it and thus that the ancient Macedonians were Slavic, and that modern-day Slavic Macedonians were descendants of them.[8] However Slavic Macedonians' self-identification and nationalist loyalties remained ambiguous in the late 19th century. Pulevski for instance viewed Macedonians' identity as being a regional phenomenon (similar to Herzegovinians and Thracians). Once calling himself a "Serbian patriot", another time a "Bulgarian from the village of Galicnik",[11] he also identified the Slavic Macedonian language as being related to the "Old Bulgarian language" as well as being a "Serbo-Albanian language".[8] Pulevski's numerous identifications actually reveals the absence of a clear ethnic sense in a part of the local Slavic population.

The Internal Macedonian Revolutionary Organization (IMRO) grew up as the major Macedonian separatist organization in the early 20th century, seeking the autonomy of Macedonia from the Ottoman Empire.[12] The IMRO initially opposed being dependent on any of the neighbouring states, especially Greece and Serbia, however its relationship with Bulgaria grew very strong, and it soon became dominated by figures who supported the annexation of Macedonia into Bulgaria, though a small fraction opposed this.[12] As a rule, the IMRO members had Bulgarian national self-identification, but their autonomist ideas have stimulated the development of the Macedonian nationalism.[13] The IMRO devised the slogan "Macedonia for Macedonians". It called for a supranational Macedonia, consisting from different nationalities, included in a future Balkan Federation.[10] However the promotors of this slogan declared their conviction that the majority of the Macedonian Christian Slav population was Bulgarian.

In the late 19th and early 20th century the international community viewed the Macedonians predominantly as regional variety of Bulgarians. At the end of the First World War there were very few ethnographers, who agreed that a separate Macedonian nation existed. During the Paris Peace Conference of 1919, the Allies sanctioned Serbian control of Vardar Macedonia and accepted the belief that Macedonian Slavs were in fact Southern Sebs. This change in opinion can largely be attributed to the Serbian geographer Jovan Cvijić.[14] Nevertheless, Macedonist ideas increased during the interbellum, in Yugoslav Vardar Macedonia and among the left diaspora in Bulgaria, and were supported by the Comintern.[15] During the Second World War Macedonist ideas were further developed by the Yugoslav Communist Partisans, but some researchers doubt that even at that time the Slavs from Macedonia considered themselves to be a nationality separate from the Bulgarians.[16] So the crucial point for the Macedonian ethnogenessis was the creation of the Socialist Republic of Macedonia after the World War II into the framework of the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia.[17][18]

History

Part of a series on the
History of the
Republic of Macedonia
Chronological
Topical
Related
Portal icon Republic of Macedonia portal
Map of Macedonia region on the basis of earlier publication in the newspaper "Македонскi Голосъ" of the Saint Petersburg Macedonian Colony, 1913
This map, showing the geographical region of Macedonia split with barbed wire, has widely circulated among extreme ethnic Macedonian nationalists in Melbourne (supporting the irredentist concept of United Macedonia).

Late 19th and early 20th century

The development of the Macedonian ethnicity[19][20][21] can be said to have begun in the late 19th and early 20th century.[22][23] This is the time of the first expressions of ethnic nationalism by limited groups of intellectuals in Belgrade, Sofia, Thessaloniki and St. Petersburg.[22] However, until 20th century and beyond the majority of the Slavic-speaking population of the region was identified as Macedono-Bulgarian or simply as Bulgarian[24][25] and after 1870 joined the Bulgarian Exarchate.[26] Some authors consider that at that time, labels reflecting collective identity, such as "Bulgarian", changed into national labels from being broad terms that were without political significance.[22] At the beginning of 20th Century H. N. Brailsford, described the Slavic speakers from Macedonia as related both with Serbs and Bulgarians, but without clear defined ethnic consciousness. However, he accepted that a part of this population is "definitely Serbs", while the other part is "clearly Bulgarians".[27]

On the eve of the 20-th Century the Internal Macedonian-Adrianople Revolutionary Organization (IMARO) tried to unite all unsatisfied elements in the Ottoman Europe and struggled for political autonomy for the regions of Macedonia and Odrin Thrace.[28] But this manifestation of political separatism by the IMARO was a phenomenon without ethnic affiliation and the Bulgarian ethnic provenance of the revolutionaries can not be put under question.[29] During the Balkan Wars and the First World War the area was exchanged several times between Bulgaria and Serbia, and the IMARO supported the Bulgarian army and authorities when they took temporarily control over Vardar Macedonia. In this period the political autonomism was abandoned as tactics and annexationist positions were supported, aiming eventual incorporation of the area to Bulgaria.[30]

Interwar period and WWII

During the interwar period in Vardar Macedonia, then annexed by Serbia, part of the young locals repressed by the Serbs, tried to find a separate way of ethnic development.[31] In 1934 the Comintern issued a resolution about the recognition of separate Macedonian ethnicity.[32] However, the existence of considerable Macedonian national consciousness prior to the 1940s is disputed.[33][34][35] This confusion is illustrated by Robert Newman in 1935, who recounts discovering in a village in Vardar Macedonia as part of Kingdom of Yugoslavia[36] two brothers, one who considered himself a Serb, and the other considered himself a Bulgarian. In another village he met a man who had been, "a Macedonian peasant all his life", but who had varyingly been called a Turk, a Serb and a Bulgarian.[37] During the WWII the area was annexed by Bulgaria and anti-Serbian and pro-Bulgarian feelings among the local population prevailed.[38][39] Because of that Vardar Macedonia was the only region where Yugoslav communist leader Josip Broz Tito had not developed a strong Partisan movement in 1941. But the Bulgarians soon fell into the old Balkan trap of centralization. The new provinces were quickly staffed with officials from Bulgaria proper who behaved with typical official arrogance to the local inhabitants.[40] The communists' power started growing only in 1943 with the capitulation of Italy and the Soviet victories over the Nazi Germany. To improve the situation in the area Tito ordered the establishment of the Communist Party of Macedonia in March 1943 and the second AVNOJ congress on 29 November 1943 did recognise the Macedonian nation as separate entity. As result the resistance movement grew up. However, by the end of the war, the Bulgarophile sentiments were still distinguishable and the Macedonian national consciousness hardly existed beyond a general conviction gained from bitter experience, that rule from Sofia was as unpalatable as that from Belgrade".[41]

Post World War II

After 1944 Communist Bulgaria and Communist Yugoslavia began a policy of making Macedonia into the connecting link for the establishment of new Balkan Federative Republic and stimulating here a development of distinct Slav Macedonian consciousness.[42] The region received the status of a constituent republic within Yugoslavia and in 1945 a separate Macedonian language was codified. The population was promulgated ethnic Macedonian, a nationality different from both Serbs and Bulgarians. With the proclamation of the Socialist Republic of Macedonia as part of the Yugoslav federation, the new authorities also started measures that would overcome the pro-Bulgarian feeling among parts of its population.[43] On the other hand, the Yugoslav authorities forcibly suppressed the ideologists of an independent Macedonian country. The Greek communists as well as its fraternal parties in Bulgaria and Yugoslavia, had already been influenced by the Comintern and it was the only political party in Greece to recognize Macedonian national identity.[44] However the situation deteriorated after the Greek Communists lost the Greek Civil War. Thousands of Aegean Macedonians were expelled and fled to the newly established Socialist Republic of Macedonia, while thousands more children took refuge in other Eastern Bloc countries.

Post-Informbiro period and Bulgarophobia

At the end of the 1950s the Bulgarian Communist Party repealed its previous decision and adopted a position denying the existence of a Macedonian ethnicity. As result, in Macedonia the Bulgarophobia increased almost to the level of State ideology.[45] This put the end of the idea of the Balkan Communist Federation about unification of all of Macedonia under Communist rule. During the post-Informbiro period, separate Macedonian Orthodox Church was established, splitting off from the Serbian Orthodox Church in 1967. The encouragement and evolution of Macedonian culture has had a far greater and more permanent impact on Macedonian nationalism than has any other aspect of Yugoslav policy. While development of national music, films and the graphic arts has been encouraged in Macedonia, the greatest cultural effect has come from the codification of the Macedonian language and literature, the new Macedonian national interpretation of history and the establishment of a Macedonian Orthodox Church.[46] Meanwhile, the Yugoslav historiography had borrowed parts from the histories of its neighboring states to construct the Macedonian identity, having reached not only the times of medieval Bulgaria, but even Alexander the Great.[47] In 1969, the first History of the Macedonian nation was published. Most Macedonians' attitude to Communist Yugoslavia, where they were recognised as a distinct nation for the first time, became positive. The Macedonian Communist elites were traditionally more pro-Serb and pro-Yugoslav than those in the rest of the Yugoslav Republics.[48]

Post-independence period and Antiquisation

Monument of Alexander The Great in Skopje.
Statue in Prilep commemorating Alexander the Great
Bust of Alexander the Great inside the Skopje airport.

On September 8, 1991, the Socialist Republic of Macedonia held a referendum that established its independence from Yugoslavia, under the name of the Republic of Macedonia. With the fall of Communism, the breakup of Yugoslavia and the consequent lack of a Great power in the region, the Republic of Macedonia came into permanent conflicts with its neighbors. Bulgaria contested its national identity and language, Greece contested its name and symbols, and Serbia its religious identity. On the other hand, the ethnic Albanians in the country insisted on being recognised as a 'nation’, equal to the ethnic Macedonians. As a response a more assertive and uncompromising strand of Macedonian nationalism emerged.[49][50] This is the so-called "ancient Macedonism", or "Antiquisation" ("Antikvizatzija", "антиквизација"),[51][52][53] whose supporters are claiming that the ethnic Macedonians are not related to the Slavs, but are direct descendants of the ancient Macedonians, who, according to them, were not Greeks.[54] Antiquisation is the policy which the nationalistic[55][56][57][58][59][60][61] ruling party VMRO-DPMNE has pursued since the coming to power in 2006, as a way of putting pressure on Greece as well as for the purposes of domestic identity-building.[62][63] Antiquisation is also spreading due to a very intensive lobbying of the Macedonian Diaspora from the USA, Canada, Germany and Australia.[64] As part of this policy, statues of Alexander the Great and Philip II of Macedon have been built in several cities across the country.[62] In 2011, a massive, 22m tall statue of Alexander the Great (called "Warrior on a horse" because of the dispute with Greece[65][66]) was inaugurated in Macedonia Square in Skopje, as part of the Skopje 2014 remodelling of the city.[62] An even larger statue of Philip II is under construction at the other end of the square. Statues of Alexander also adorn the town squares of Prilep and Štip, while a statue to Philip II of Macedon was recently built in Bitola.[62] A triumphal arch named Porta Macedonia constructed in the same square, featuring images of historical figures including Alexander the Great, causing the Greek Foreign Ministry to lodge an official complaint to authorities in the Republic of Macedonia.[67] Additionally, many pieces of public infrastructure, such as airports, highways, and stadiums have been named after them. Skopje's airport was renamed "Alexander the Great Airport" and features antique objects moved from Skopje's archeological museum. One of Skopje's main squares has been renamed Pella Square (after Pella, the capital of the ancient kingdom of Macedon), while the main highway to Greece has been renamed to "Alexander of Macedon" and Skopje's largest stadium has been renamed "Philip II Arena".[62] These actions are seen as deliberate provocations in neighboring Greece, exacerbating the dispute and further stalling Macedonia's EU and NATO applications.[68] In 2008 a visit by Hunza Prince was organized in Republic of Macedonia. This Pakistani people were proclaimed as direct descendants of the Alexandrian army and as people who are the most closely related to the Ethnic Macedonians.[69] The Hunza delegation was welcomed at the Skopje Airport by the country's prime minister Nikola Gruevski, the head of the Macedonian Orthodox Church Archbishop Stephen and the then-mayor of Skopje Trifun Kostovski.

Such antiquization is facing criticism by academics as it demonstrates feebleness of archaeology and of other historical disciplines in public discourse, as well as a danger of marginalization.[64] The policy has also attracted criticism domestically, by ethnic Macedonians within the country, who see it as dangerously dividing the country between those who identify with classical antiquity and those who identify with the country's Slavic culture.[62][70] Ethnic Albanians in the Republic of Macedonia see it as an attempt to marginalize them and exclude them from the national narrative.[62] The policy, which also claims as ethnic Macedonians figures considered national heroes in Bulgaria, such as Dame Gruev and Gotse Delchev, has also drawn criticism from Bulgaria.[62] Foreign diplomats have warned that the policy has reduced international sympathy for the Republic of Macedonia in the naming dispute with Greece.[62]

The background of this “antiquization” can be found in the 19-th Century and the myth of ancient descent among Orthodox Slavic-speakers in Macedonia. It was adopted partially due to Greek cultural inputs. This idea was also been included in the national mythology during the post-WWII Yugoslavia. An additional factor for its preservation has been the influence of the Macedonian Diaspora. Contemporary antiquization, has been revived as an efficient tool for political mobilization and has been reinforced by the VMRO-DPMNE.[71] For example, in 2009 the Macedonian Radio-Television, aired a video named "Macedonian prayer" in which the Christian God was presented calling the people of the Republic of Macedonia "the oldest nation on Earth" and "progenitors of the white race", who are described as "Macedonoids", in opposition to Negroids and Mongoloids.[72] This ultra-nationalism accompanied by the emphasizing of Macedonia’s ancient roots has raised a concerns internationally about growing a kind of authoritarianism by the governing party.[73] There have also been attempts to scientific claims to ancient nationhood, but they had a negative impact on the international position of the country.[71] On the other hand, there is still strong Yugonostalgia among the ethnic Macedonian population, that has swept also over other ex-Yugoslav states.

Macedonism

For other uses, see Macedonist (disambiguation) and Macedonianism.
Damaged inscription on the Holy Sunday church (Sveta Nedela) in Bitola. It reads: This holy church was erected with the contribution of the Bulgarians in Bitola on October 13, 1863. The part of the inscription that reads "Bulgarians" has been erased. There are many other deliberately destroyed Bulgarian monuments in the RoM.[2]
The Bitola inscription from 1016/1017. On the medieval stone is clearly readable the word Bulgarian. In 2006 the French consulate in Bitola sponsored and prepared a tourist catalogue and printed on its front cover the inscription. News about it had spread prior to the official presentation and was a cause for confusion among the officials of the municipality. The printing of the new catalogue was stopped because of its "Bulgarian" cover.[3]
Front cover of the original edition of Bulgarian Folk Songs collected by the Macedonia born Miladinov Brothers. When the Macedonian State Archive displayed a photocopy of the book, the upper part of the page showing "Bulgarian" has been cut off.[4] There is a similar case with the national museum of the Republic of Macedonia which, apparently, refuses to display original works by the two brothers, because of the Bulgarian labels on some of them.[5]

Macedonism, sometimes referred also as Macedonianism[74][75][76] (Macedonian and Serbian: Македонизам, Makedonizam; Bulgarian: Македонизъм, Makedonizam and Greek: Μακεδονισμός, Makedonismós) is a political and historical term used in a polemic sense to refer to a set of ideas perceived as characteristic of aggressive Macedonian nationalism.[77][78][79][80][81][82] Before the Balkan Wars Macedonist ideas were shared by a limited circles of intellectuals. They grew in significance during the interbellum, both in Vardar Macedonia and among the left-leaning diaspora in Bulgaria, and were endorsed by the Comintern. During the Second World War, these ideas were supported by the Communist Partisans, who founded Yugoslav Macedonian Republic in 1944.[15] Following the WWII Macedonism became the basis of the Yugoslav Macedonia's state ideology, aimed at transforming the Slavic and, to a certain extent, non-Slavic parts of its population into ethnic Macedonians.[83] This state policy is still current in today's Republic of Macedonia,[84] where it was developed in a several directions. One of them maintains the connection of the today ethnic Macedonians with the Ancient Macedon, rather than with the South Slavs, while another have sought to incorporate into the national pantheon the right-wing Internal Macedonian Revolutionary Organization (IMRO) activists, previously dismissed as Bulgarophiles.

The term is occasionally used in an apologetic sense by some Macedonian authors,[85][86][87][88] but has also faced strong criticism from moderate political views in the Republic of Macedonia and international scholars.[89][90]

Macedonism as ethno-political conception

The roots of the concept were first developed in the second half of 19th century, in the context of Greek, Bulgarian and Serbian initiatives to take control over the region of Macedonia, which was at that time ruled by the Ottoman Empire. It was originally used in a contemptuous manner to refer to Slav Macedonians, who believed they constituted a distinct ethnic group, separate from their neighbours. The first to use the term "Macedonist" was the Bulgarian author Petko Slaveykov, who coined the term in his article "The Macedonian Question", published in the newspaper Makedoniya in 1871. However, he pointed that he had heard for the first time of such ideas as early as 10 years prior, i.e., around 1860. Slaveykov sharply criticised those Macedonians espousing such views, as they had never shown a substantial basis for their attitudes, calling them "Macedonists".[91] Nevertheless, those accused of Slaveikov as Macedonists, turned out to be really representative of the movement aiming at the construction of the Bulgarian standard literary language primarily on the Macedonian dialects, such as Kuzman Shapkarev, Dimitar Makedonski and Veniamin Machukovski.[92] Another early recorded use of the term "Macedonism" is found in a report by the Serbian politician Stojan Novaković from 1887. He proposed to employ the macedonistic ideology as a means to counteract the Bulgarian influence in Macedonia, thereby promoting Serbian interests in the region.[93] Novaković's diplomatic activity in Istanbul and St. Petersburg played significant role for the realization of his ideas, especially through the “Association of Serbo-Macedonians” formed by him in Istanbul and through his support for the Macedonian Scientific and Literary Society in St. Petersburg.[94] The geopolitics of the Serbs evidently played the crucial role in the ethnogenosis by promoting a separate Macedonian consciousness at the expense of the Bulgarians. In 1888 the Macedono-Bulgarian ethnographer Kuzman Shapkarev noted as result from this activity that a strange, ancient ethnonym: "Macedonci" (Macedonians) was imposed 10–15 years ago by some weird intellectuals, introduced probably with a "cunning aim" to replace the traditional one: "Bugari" (Bulgarians).[95]

In 1892, Georgi Pulevski completed the first ”Slavic-Macedonian General History", whose manuscript is over 1,700 pages.[96] According to the book the ancient Macedonians were Slavic people and the Macedonian Slavs were native to the Balkans, in contrast of the Bulgarians and the Serbs, who came there centuries later. The root of such indigenous mixture of Illyrism and Pan-Slavism can be seen in “Concise history of the Slav Bulgarian People” (1792), written by Spyridon Gabrovski, whose original manuscript was found in 1868 by the Russian scientist Alexander Hilferding on his journey in Macedonia.[97]

Next proponents of the ideas were two other Serbian scholars, the geographer Jovan Cvijić[98] and the linguist Aleksandar Belić.[99] They claimed the Slavs of Macedonia were "Macedonian Slavs", an amorphous Slavic mass that was neither Bulgarian, nor Serbian. Cvijić further argued that the traditional ethnonym Bugari (Bulgarians) used by the Slavic population of Macedonia to refer to themselves actually meant only rayah, and in no case affiliations to the Bulgarian ethnicity. In his ethnographic studies of the Balkan Slavs, Cvijic devised a "Central Type" (Slav Macedonians and Torlaks), dissimilar at the same time to the "Dinaric Type" (the principal "Serb" ethnographic variant) and the "East Balkan Type" (representing the Bulgarians, but excluding even Western Bulgaria). The true Bulgarians belonged only to the "East Balkan Type" and were a mixture of Slavs, "Turanian" groups (Bulgars, Cumans, and Turks) and Vlachs, and as such, were different from the other South Slavs in their ethnic composition. More important, their national character was decidedly un-Slavic. Bulgarians were industrious and coarse. They were a people without imagination and therefore necessarily without art and culture. This caricature of Bulgarians permitted their clear differentiation from the "Central Type," within which Cvijic included Macedonian Slavs, western Bulgarians (Shopi), and Torlaks, a type that was eminently Slavic (i.e. old-Serbian) and therefore non-Bulgarian. Nowadays, this outdated Serbian views have been propagandized by some contemporary Macedonian scholars and politicians, as bad remake of this racial pseudo-science.

Some panslavic ideologist in Russia, former supporter of Greater Bulgaria, also adopted these ideas as opposing Bulgaria's Russophobic policy at the beginning of 20th century, as for example Alexandr Rittikh[100] and Aleksandr Amfiteatrov. At the beginning of the 20th century, the continued Serbian propaganda efforts had managed to firmly entrench the concept of the Macedonian Slavs in European public opinion and the name was used almost as frequently as Bulgarians. Simultaneously the proponents of the Greek Struggle for Macedonia as Germanos Karavangelis openly popularized the Hellenic idea about a direct link between the local Slavs and the ancient Macedonians.[101] Nevertheless in 1914 the Carnegie Council for Ethics in International Affairs report states that the Serbs and Greeks classified the Slavs of Macedonia as a distinct ethnic group "Macedonians Slavs" for political purposes and to conceal the existence of Bulgarians in the area.[102] However after the Balkan Wars (1912–1913) Ottoman Macedonia was mostly divided between Greece and Serbia, which had as result processes of Hellenisation, respectively Serbianisation of the Slavic population and led in general to a ceasing the use of this term in both countries.

On the other hand Serbian and Bulgarian left-wing intellectuals envisioned in the early 20th century some sort of "Balkan confederation" including Macedonia, should the Austro-Hungarian Empire and Ottoman Empire dissolve. This view was accepted from the Socialist International. In 1910, the First Balkan Socialist Conference was held in Belgrade, then within the Kingdom of Serbia.[103] The main platforms at the first conference was the call for a solution to the Macedonian Question. It was offered to create a Balkan Socialist Federation and Macedonia would be a single state in it. After the Balkan Wars in 1915, it was confirmed on the Balkan Socialist Conference in Bucharest to create a Balkan Socialist Federation, and that divided from the imperialists Macedonia would be united into its framework. This ideology later found fruition with the support of the Soviet Union as an advent of Yugoslav communist federation. Various declarations were made during the 1920s and 1930s seeing the official adoption of Macedonism by the Comintern. In turn declarations were made by the Greek, Yugoslav and Bulgarian communist parties, as they agreed on its adoption as their official policy for the region. Also the demise of the IMRO and its ideology for much of the interwar period, led in Vardar Macedonia for part of the young local intellectuals, regarded at that time as Serbs, to find a solution in the ideology of Macedonism.[104] This issue was supported during the WWII by the Communist Resistance and in 1944 the wartime Communist leader Josip Broz Tito, proclaimed the People's Republic of Macedonia as part of the Yugoslav Federation, thus partially fulfilling the Comintern’s pre-war policy. He was supported by the Bulgarian leader from Macedonian descent and former General Secretary of the Comintern, Georgi Dimitrov in anticipation of a failed incorporation of the Bulgarian Macedonia into the People's Republic of Macedonia, and of Bulgaria itself into Communist Yugoslavia.

Early adherents

The first Macedonian nationalists appeared in the late 19th and early 20th century outside Macedonia. At different points in their lives, most of them expressed conflicting statements about the ethnicity of the Slavs living in Macedonia, including their own nationality. They formed their pro-Macedonian conceptions after contacts with some panslavic circles in Serbia and Russia. The lack of diverse ethnic motivations seems to be confirmed by the fact that, in their works they often used the designations Bulgaro-Macedonians, Macedonian Bulgarians and Macedonian Slavs in order to name their compatriots. Representatives of this circle were Georgi Pulevski, Theodosius of Skopje, Kraste Misirkov, Stefan Dedov, Atanas Razdolov, Dimitrija Chupovski and others. Nearly all of them died in Bulgaria. Most of the next wave Macedonists were left-wing politicians, who changed their ethnic affiliations from Bulgarian to Macedonian during the 1930s, after the recognition of the Macedonian ethnicity by the Comintern, as for example Dimitar Vlahov, Pavel Shatev, Panko Brashnarov, Venko Markovski, Georgi Pirinski, Sr. and others. Such Macedonian activists, who came from the Internal Macedonian Revolutionary Organization (United) and the Bulgarian Communist Party never managed to get rid of their pro-Bulgarian bias.[105] Many of them were later purged from their political positions, then isolated, arrested, imprisoned or executed by the federal authorities of Communist Yugoslavia.

Contemporary ideas

Monument of Samuel of Bulgaria in Skopje. In the Republic of Macedonia he is identified as an ethnic Macedonian king.[6] In 2012 the European Parliament has urged the R. of Macedonia to create a joint expert committee with Bulgaria to tackle the sensitive issue of history education in the country.[7]

Among the views and opinions that are often perceived as representative of Macedonian nationalism and criticised as parts of "Macedonism" by those who use the term[106] are the following:

  • The notion of unbroken racial continuity between the modern ethnic Macedonians and a part of the ancient autochthonous peoples of the region, in particular the ancient Macedonians; (see: Ancient history of the Republic of Macedonia)
  • The idea that there is a fundamental ethnogenetic distinction between Macedonians on one side and Bugarians on other ; (see: Ethno-genetic origins of the South-Slavic people.)
  • The opinion that the term Bulgarians used in Medieval and Ottoman Macedonia meant in fact common peasants or Christian Slavs, but in any case affiliations to the Bulgarian ethnicity.[107] (see: Macedonian Bulgarians)
  • Irredentist political views about the neighbouring regions of Greek Macedonia ("Aegean Macedonia") and parts of southwest Bulgaria ("Pirin Macedonia") and about the existence of significant ethnic Macedonian minorities in these areas, connected to the irredentist concept of a United Macedonia.[108]
  • The belief that the medieval migration of Slavs is a fictional concept coined by Communist Yugoslavia and that no such migration in the Balkans occurred; (see: South Slavs)
  • The denial of any presence of Serbs in Ottoman Macedonia until 1913; (see: Serbs in Macedonia)
  • The opinion that an ethnogenetic connection exists between the Macedonians and the Hunza people, going back to the time of Alexander the Great.[109]
  • The belief that Republic of Macedonia neighbors have organized a huge propaganda across the world, containing false history and portraying a wrong picture about its people as a young nation, although the Macedonians are in fact the forefathers of the modern Europeans.[110] (see: Foreign relations of the Republic of Macedonia)
  • The idea that the internationally accepted term Hellenism is wrong and has to be replaced with a new one - Macedonism, which is more correct in historical aspect.[111]

Other, related areas of Macedonian–Bulgarian national polemics relate to:

  • The presence of the Bulgars in Medieval Macedonia and the lack of ethnogenetic connection to today's Macedonians in contrast to the Bulgarians; (see Kouber)
  • The ethnic character of various medieval historical figures and entities, including the saints Cyril and Methodius, the medieval Tsar Samuil and his kingdom, and the medieval Archbishopric of Ohrid;
  • The historical role of the Bulgarian Exarchate and the ethnic character of the Internal Macedonian Revolutionary Organization;
  • The historical role of various Macedonian insurgent movements during Ottoman rule (see Ilinden Uprising) and during the Bulgarian occupation of Macedonia in World War II; (see National Liberation War of Macedonia)
  • The opinion that a separate Macedonian nationhood and ethnicity are an artificial product, result of the Serbian propagana during the 19th and the Comintern policy during the 20th century.[112] (see: Balkan Communist Federation)
  • The belief that the Macedonians constitute a regional ethnographic subgroup of the Bulgarian people and the Macedonian language is a dialect of Bulgarian. (see Macedonian Bulgarians)

See also

References and notes

  1. ↑ Victor A. Friedman: Macedonian language and nationalism during the 19th and early 20th centuries. Balcanistica 2 (1975): 83-98.
  2. ↑ Focus information Agency, June 01, 2010 - UNESCO has send a letter to the Bulgarian Cultural Club – Skopje about the alarming condition of Bulgarian monuments in Macedonia.
  3. ↑ Исправена печатарска грешка, Битола за малку ќе се претставуваше како бугарска. Дневник-online, 2006.
  4. ↑ "ms0601". www.soros.org.mk. Retrieved 2008-03-18. 
  5. ↑ Phillips, John (2004). Macedonia: Warlords and Rebels in the Balkans. I.B.Tauris. p. 41. ISBN 1-86064-841-X. 
  6. ↑ An outline of Macedonian history from ancient times to 1991. Macedonian Embassy London. Retrieved on 2007-04-28.
  7. ↑ [http://www.novinite.com/view_news.php?id=136026. EP urges FYROM to form joint Committee on history with Bulgaria, January 24, 2012, Sofia news agency.]
  8. ↑ 8.0 8.1 8.2 8.3 8.4 8.5 8.6 Roumen Daskalov and Tchavdar Marinov. Entangled Histories of the Balkans: Volume One: National Ideologies and Language Policies. BRILL, 2013. p. 316.
  9. ↑ Roumen Daskalov and Tchavdar Marinov. Entangled Histories of the Balkans: Volume One: National Ideologies and Language Policies. 2013. p. 318.
  10. ↑ 10.0 10.1 Roumen Daskalov and Tchavdar Marinov. Entangled Histories of the Balkans: Volume One: National Ideologies and Language Policies. BRILL, 2013. p. 300.
  11. ↑ Contested Ethnic Identity: The Case of Macedonian Immigrants in Toronto, 1900-1996, Peter Lang, 2010, ISBN 3034301960, p. 67.
  12. ↑ 12.0 12.1 Viktor Meier. Yugoslavia: A History of Its Demise. P. 179.
  13. ↑ Entangled Histories of the Balkans: Volume One: National Ideologies and Language Policies, Balkan Studies Library, Roumen Dontchev Daskalov, Tchavdar Marinov, BRILL, 2013, ISBN 900425076X, pp. 300-303.
  14. ↑ Nationalism and Territory: Constructing Group Identity in Southeastern Europe, Geographical perspectives on the human past, George W. White, Rowman & Littlefield, 2000, ISBN 0847698092, p. 236.
  15. ↑ 15.0 15.1 Historical dictionary of the Republic of Macedonia, Dimitar Bechev, Scarecrow Press, 2009, ISBN 0-8108-5565-8, pp. 139-140.
  16. ↑ The Macedonian conflict: ethnic nationalism in a transnational world, Loring M. Danforth, Princeton University Press, 1997, ISBN 0-691-04356-6, pp. 65-66.
  17. ↑ "The Macedonian conflict: ethnic nationalism in a transnational world", Loring M. Danforth, Princeton University Press, 1997, ISBN 0-691-04356-6, pp. 65-66.
  18. ↑ Modern hatreds: the symbolic politics of ethnic war. New York: Cornell University Press. Kaufman, Stuart J. (2001), p. 193, ISBN 0-8014-8736-6.
  19. ↑ Loring Danforth, The Macedonian Conflict: Ethnic Nationalism in a Transnational World, Princeton University Press, December 1995, p.63: "Finally, Krste Misirkov, who had clearly developed a strong sense of his own personal national identity as a Macedonian and who outspokenly and unambiguously called for Macedonian linguistic and national separatism, acknowledged that a ‘Macedonian’ national identity was a relatively recent historical development."
  20. ↑ Eugene N. Borza, "Macedonia Redux", in "The Eye Expanded: life and the arts in Greco-Roman Antiquity", ed. Frances B Tichener & Richard F. Moorton, University of California Press, 1999: "The twentieth-century development of a Macedonian ethnicity, and its recent evolution into independent statehood following the collapse of the Yugoslav state in 1991, has followed a rocky road. In order to survive the vicissitudes of Balkan history and politics, the Macedonians, who have had no history, need one."
  21. ↑ Throughout this article, the term "Macedonian" will refer to ethnic Macedonians. There are many other uses of the term, and comprehensive coverage of this topic may be found in the article Macedonia (terminology).
  22. ↑ 22.0 22.1 22.2 Danforth, L. (1995) The Macedonian Conflict: Ethnic Nationalism in a Transnational World ISBN 0-691-04357-4
  23. ↑ Social cleavages and national “awakening” in Ottoman Macedonia by Basil C. Gounaris, East European Quarterly 29 (1995), 409-426
  24. ↑ Cousinéry, Esprit Marie. Voyage dans la Macédoine: contenant des recherches sur l'histoire, la géographie, les antiquités de ce pay, Paris, 1831, Vol. II, p. 15-17, one of the passages in English - , Engin Deniz Tanir, The Mid-Nineteenth century Ottoman Bulgaria from the viewpoints of the French Travelers, A Thesis Submitted to the Graduate School of Social Sciences of Middle East Technical University, 2005, p. 99, 142
  25. ↑ Pulcherius, Receuil des historiens des Croisades. Historiens orientaux. III, p. 331 – a passage in English -[http://promacedonia.org/en/ban/ma1.html#13, http://promacedonia.org/en/ban/nr1.html#4]
  26. ↑ Center for Documentation and Information on Minorities in Europe - Southeast Europe (CEDIME-SE)- Macedonians of Bulgaria, p. 4.
  27. ↑ MACEDONIA: Its races and their future. H. N. Brailsford, London, 1906. p. 101
  28. ↑ Спомени, И. Х. Николов, Д. Груев, Б. Сарафов, Ј. Сандански, М. Герџиков, д-р. Х. Татарчев. Култура, Скопје. 1995. ISBN 9989-32-022-5. 
  29. ↑ Иван Катарџиев. "Верувам во националниот имунитет на македонецот", весник Форум
  30. ↑ Bulgaria's Macedonia: Nation-building and state-building, centralization and autonomy in Pirin Macedonia, 1903–1952, James Walter Frusetta, University of Maryland, College Park, ProQuest, 2006, ISBN 0-542-96184-9, pp. 137–140. Google Books. Retrieved 14 November 2011. 
  31. ↑ Politics, power, and the struggle for democracy in South-East Europe, Karen Dawisha, Bruce Parrott, Cambridge University Press, 1997, ISBN 05215973, p. 229.
  32. ↑ "Резолюция о македонской нации (принятой Балканском секретариате Коминтерна" - Февраль 1934 г, Москва
  33. ↑ Loring M. Danforth, The Macedonian Conflict: Ethnic Nationalism in a Transnational World, 1995, Princeton University Press, p.65 , ISBN 0-691-04356-6
  34. ↑ Stephen Palmer, Robert King, Yugoslav Communism and the Macedonian question,Hamden, CT Archon Books, 1971, p.p.199-200
  35. ↑ The Macedonian Question: Britain and the Southern Balkans 1939-1949, Dimitris Livanios, edition: Oxford University Press, US, 2008, ISBN 0-19-923768-9, p. 65.
  36. ↑ The term "Vardar Macedonia" is a geographic term which refers to the portion of the region of Macedonia currently occupied by the Republic of Macedonia.
  37. ↑ Newman, R. (1952) Tito's Yugoslavia (London)
  38. ↑ The struggle for Greece, 1941-1949, Christopher Montague Woodhouse, C. Hurst & Co. Publishers, 2002, ISBN 1-85065-492-1, p. 67.
  39. ↑ Who are the Macedonians? Hugh Poulton,Hurst & Co. Publishers, 1995, ISBN 1-85065-238-4, ISBN 978-1-85065-238-0, p. 101.
  40. ↑ Who are the Macedonians? Hugh Poulton, Hurst & Co. Publishers, 2000, p. 101.
  41. ↑ 's+Macedonia:+Nation-building+and+state-building&hl=bg&ei=r-47TrjECsn_-gbr-PShAg&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=6&ved=0CEgQ6AEwBQ#v=onepage&q&f=false The Macedonian conflict: ethnic nationalism in a transnational world, Loring M. Danforth, Princeton University Press, 1997, ISBN 0-691-04356-6, pp. 65-66.
  42. ↑ Europe since 1945. Encyclopedia by Bernard Anthony Cook. ISBN 0-8153-4058-3, pg. 808.
  43. ↑ Djokić, Dejan (2003). Yugoslavism: Histories of a Failed Idea, 1918-1992. C. Hurst & Co. Publishers. p. 122. ISBN 1-85065-663-0. 
  44. ↑ Incompatible Allies: Greek Communism and Macedonian Nationalism in the Civil War in Greece, 1943-1949, Andrew Rossos - The Journal of Modern History 69 (March 1997): 42
  45. ↑ Mirjana Maleska. Editor-in-chief. WITH THE EYES OF THE “OTHERS”. (about Macedonian-Bulgarian relations and the Macedonian national identity). New Balkan Politics - Journal of Politics. ISSUE 6
  46. ↑ Palmer, Ir., E. Stephen and Robert King, R. Yugoslav Communism and the Macedonian Question. 1971.
  47. ↑ OJPCR: The Online Journal of Peace and Conflict Resolution 6.1 Fall (2004), ISSN: 1522-211X Bulgarian “Macedonian” Nationalism: a conceptual overview , Anton Kojouharov, p. 288.
  48. ↑ Yugoslavism: histories of a failed idea, 1918-1992, Dejan Djokić, Hurst, 2003, ISBN 1-85065-663-0, p. 123.
  49. ↑ The Global Review of Ethnopolitics Vol. 1, no. 3, March 2002, 3-17, The Power of Perception: The Impact of the Macedonian Question on Inter-ethnic Relations in the Republic of Macedonia Jenny Engström, London School of Economics and Political Science, p.6.
  50. ↑ Floudas, Demetrius Andreas; "FYROM's Dispute with Greece Revisited" (PDF). in: Kourvetaris et al. (eds.), The New Balkans, East European Monographs: Columbia University Press, 2002, p. 85. 
  51. ↑ Reading the City: Urban Space and Memory in Skopje, Sonderpublikation des Instituts für Stadt- und Regionalplanung, Technische Universität Berlin, Langer Benjamin, Lechler Julia (Hrsg.) Herold Stephanie, niverlagtuberlin, 2010, ISBN 3798321299, pp. 42-43.
  52. ↑ Comparative Archaeologies: A Sociological View of the Science of the Past, Ludomir R. Lozny, Springer, 2011, ISBN 1441982248, p. 427.
  53. ↑ A Companion to Ancient Macedonia, Blackwell Companions to the Ancient World, oseph Roisman, Ian Worthington, John Wiley & Sons, 2010, ISBN 1405179368, p. 583.
  54. ↑ The Macedonian conflict: ethnic nationalism in a transnational world, Princeton University Press, 1997, ISBN 0-691-04356-6, pp. 45-46.
  55. ↑ Alan John Day, Political parties of the world, 2002
  56. ↑ Hugh Poulton, Who are the Macedonians?, Hurst & Company, 2000
  57. ↑ Loring M. Danforth, The Macedonian conflict: ethnic nationalism in a transnational world, Princeton University Press, 1997
  58. ↑ Christopher K. Lamont, International Criminal Justice and the Politics of Compliance, Ashgate, 2010
  59. ↑ Human Rights Watch World Report, 1999
  60. ↑ Imogen Bell, Central and South-Eastern Europe 2004, Routledge
  61. ↑ Keith Brown, The past in question: modern Macedonia and the uncertainties of nation, Princeton University Press, 2003
  62. ↑ 62.0 62.1 62.2 62.3 62.4 62.5 62.6 62.7 62.8 Ghosts of the past endanger Macedonia's future. Boris Georgievski, BalkanInsight, October 27, 2009 .
  63. ↑ Stephanie Herold, Benjamin Langer, Julia Lechler, Reading the City: Urban Space and Memory in Skopje, Technischen Universität Berlin, Taschenbuch, 2011, p.43
  64. ↑ 64.0 64.1 Comparative Archaeologies: A Sociological View of the Science of the Past (ch. The Macedonian Question), Ludomir R. Lozny, Springer, 2011, p.427
  65. ↑ Macedonia statue: Alexander the Great or a warrior on a horse? The Guardian, Sunday 14 August 2011
  66. ↑ Is Macedonia's capital being turned into a theme park? CNN International, October 10, 2011
  67. ↑ Athens complains about Skopje arch, Kathimerini, Thursday Jan 19, 2012
  68. ↑ Greece slates Skopje's provocative Alexander statue Sinisa Jakov Marusic, Balkan Insight, 15 June 2011
  69. ↑ http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/11034b1e-54ef-11dd-ae9c-000077b07658.html?nclick_check=1
  70. ↑ Academic G. Stardelov and first President of the Republic of Macedonia Kiro Gligorov against antiquisation, on youtube
  71. ↑ 71.0 71.1 Nation-building ancient Macedonian style: the origins and the effects of the so-called antiquization in Macedonia, Nationalities Papers, Anastas Vangelia, pp. 13-32, Volume 39, Issue 1, 2011.
  72. ↑ Makedonska molitva - Македонска молитва - Macedonian prayer, on CastTV

    Translation from Macedonian:

    0:25-0:45 O, Lord! Dearest God, which You are in Heaven! Do you see our Macedonian agonies? Do you hear the crying of our fathers, mothers, brothers, sisters and of our children? For the offspring which died for Macedonia?

    0:47-2:27 We are bleeding for thousands of years, the living wounds of our offspring are left to them. O, Lord, You are the Only One in the Heaven. Only You are looking at our mother, crucified at four sides as the Son of God. Wherever You go, You are stepping over a grave and fall over bones. O, Lord, appear now, say us the truth, to us and to the world, because St. Nicholas came in my dream and told me: "and I am from the land of love and goodness, and I am a Macedonian. And I shed a bloody tear in the pot of our pain. But the truth is at the Almighty. Ask Him and He will tell it, because our Macedonian era has arrived. O, Lord, only You know that two truths exist, but the justice is only one. Thousands of book were spread all over the world by our neighbors with fake history and twisted truth about Macedonia. O, Lord, only You know our true justice: who we are, from where we are and why we are Macedonians? And to the Apostle Paul during a dream a Macedonian appeared, saying: "come to Macedonia and help us".

    2:28-3:24 And St. Apostle Paul listened to the prayer and firstly came among us, Macedonians. And now here, for 2.000 years we are believing only in You, and in 2.000 Churches and Monasteries we are praying, and from the eternity we are waiting on You. I already can't remember, but I know, I, Macedon of Govrlevo, I am alone with God for 8.000 years and I pray in front of the largest cross in the world. You, the only Lord, dearest God which is in Heaven, listen to our prayer, come to Armageddon, lend us a hand and tell us the truth about the evil and the good, to us and to the whole world, because no more blood left in us, for the great mother - Macedonia.

    "God" is supposed to say the following:

    3:48-5:16 Divine blessing for you, my Macedonians. I have waited for thousands of years to be called by you. From always with you, from eternity I am coming, I am already among you because here neither time nor space exists. Here, at my place, the time is still. But at your place, the time is now, for me to explain. Your mother Earth I have inhabited with three races: the White-Macedonoids, the Yellow-Mongoloids and the Black-Negroids. The rest-all are mulattoes. From you, Macedonians, the descendants of Macedon, I have impregnated the White race and everything began from you, to the Sea of Japan. All White people are your brothers because they carry Macedonian gene. And all the migrations started from your place towards the north. Kokino, Porodin, Radobor, Angelci, Barutnica, Govrlevo, wherever you dig you shall find the truth who you are, why you are and from where are you. Evil diabolic souls obscured the truth for thousands of years and lied to the world.

    5:19-6:37 How much did you suffered and to what kind of plights did you passed, because I was sending you temptations, but you have stayed faithful, my children. Children of the sun and of the flowers, blessed with the joy, love and goodness. I send you Tsars for thousands of years and now I am giving you again. You are giving them to everybody, you didn't left them for you. How many Tsars are here with Me and how many Macedonians are, so many stars are on the heaven and sand in the sea is. Let all the Angels sing, for everybody who are with Me, who from love for Macedonia, exchanged their life for eternity and shared the Tsardom here with Me. Already the Angels are singing for all of you which understood God's glory, for all of you to which I gave a part of Paradise, for all of you I gifted with love and peace, for all of you which waited for Me and have seen My arrival.

    6:40-8:23 Here, I am now coming to Macedonia, I am now among you, to tell you the truthful truth, which is among you under the soil. The grave of Alexander, the Macedonian Tsar, I shall open it, and the entire world at bowing in front of you I shall bring. How many Macedonian graves I have yet to open, because souls near me desire the truth. Love your greatest enemies, because I send them to be of greatest help to you. The truth about Macedonia and you, Macedonians should be known to the world. Because you were first among the firsts, most dignified among the most dignified. Now the Macedonian era arrived, the whole world to obtain the truth, to see that honor and blessing is to be a Macedonian, a descendant of Macedon and son of the God of Universe. Children of mine, blessed and eternal be, here where the sun and flowers rule, let there be eternal joy, love and goodness. Among you, I am now noble. In eternal Macedonia, blessed One, amen!

  73. ↑ Concerns Grow About Authoritarianism in Macedonia By Matthew Brunnwasser, New York Times, October 13, 2011
  74. ↑ Developing Cultural Identity in the Balkans: Convergence Vs Divergence, Raymond Detrez, Pieter Plas, Peter Lang, 2005, ISBN 9052012970, p. 184.
  75. ↑ Historical Dictionary of Modern Greece, Dimitris Keridis, Scarecrow Press, 2009, ISBN 081086312X, p. 101.
  76. ↑ Macedonia and the Macedonians: a history, Andrew Rossos, Hoover Institution Press, 2008, ISBN 0817948813, pp. 155; 165.
  77. ↑ John D. Bell, edited by Sabrina P Ramet - (1999) The Radical Right in Central and Eastern Europe Since 1989, Page 252
  78. ↑ Лабаури, Дмитрий Олегович. Болгарское национальное движение в Македонии и Фракии в 1894-1908 гг: Идеология, программа, практика политической борьбы, София 2008
  79. ↑ Nikolaĭ Genov, Anna Krŭsteva, (2001) Recent Social Trends in Bulgaria, 1960-1995, Page 74
  80. ↑ Society for Macedonian Studies, Macedonianism FYROM'S Expansionist Designs against Greece, 1944-2006, Ephesus - Society for Macedonian Studies, 2007 ISBN 978-960-8326-30-9, Retrieved on 2007-12-05.
  81. ↑ Kentrotis, Kyriakos (1996): "Echoes from the Past: Greece and the Macedonian Controversy", in: Richard Gillespie (ed.) Mediterranean Politics, Fairleigh Dickinson University Press, p. 85–101 vid=ISBN0838636098&id=UpC4QJP66HUC&pg=PA99&lpg=PA99&ots=RauFTx6VlC&dq=macedonism&sig=jFMCaYW04ob2Jep-oCa3CxwzeVg]
  82. ↑ Evangelos Kofos (1994): "Remarks on FYROM 's new school textbooks"
  83. ↑ Greece and the new Balkans: challenges and opportunities, Van Coufoudakis, Harry J. Psomiades, André Gerolymatos, Pella Pub. Co., 1999, ISBN 0-918618-72-X, p. 361.
  84. ↑ Mediterranean politics, Richard Gillespie, Fairleigh Dickinson Univ Press, 1994, ISBN 0-8386-3609-8, p. 97.
  85. ↑ The "Mi-An" encyclopedia - a great victory for Macedonism
  86. ↑ The Macedonian (Old-New) Issue. Mirjana Maleska, Institute of Sociological and Political Research, Skopje, Macedonia. New Balkan Politics - Journal of Politics ISSUE 3.
  87. ↑ Example cited in: Loring Danforth (1995), The Macedonian Conflict: ethnic nationalism in a transnational world, Page 45
  88. ↑ Џамбазовски, Климент. Стоjан Новаковић и Македонизам, Историjски часопис, 1963-1965, књига ХІV-ХV, с. 133-156
  89. ↑ "The lack of capability by Macedonists in condition of democracy, also contributes to the vision of their opponents. The creation of the Macedonian nation, for almost half of a century, was done in a condition of single-party dictatorship. In those times, there was no difference between science and ideology, so the Macedonian historiography, unopposed by anybody, comfortably performed a selection of the historic material from which the Macedonian identity was created. There is nothing atypical here for the process of the creation of any modern nation, except when falsification from the type of substitution of the word “Bulgarian” with the word “Macedonian” were made. In a case which that was not possible, the persons from history were proclaimed for Bulgarian agents who crossed into some imaginary pure Macedonian space. But when we had to encourage the moderate Greek political variant and move into a direction of reconciliation among peoples, our nationalism was modelled according to the Greek one. The direct descendants of Alexander the Great raised the fallen flag on which the constitutional name of the Republic of Macedonia was written and led the people in the final confrontation with the Greeks, the direct descendants of Greek gods. This warlike attitude of the "winners" which was a consequence of the fear of politician from heavy and unpopular compromises had its price. In those years, we lost our capability for strategic dialog. With Greeks? No, with ourselves. Since then, namely, we reach towards some fictional ethnic purity which we seek in the depths of the history and we are angry at those which dare to call us Slavs and our language and culture Slavic!? We are angry when they name us what we -if we have to define ourselves in such categories- are, showing that we are people full with complexes which are ashamed for ourselves. We lost our capability for reasonable judgment, someone shall say, because the past of the Balkans teaches us that to be wise among fools is foolish. Maybe. Maybe the British historians are right when they say that in history one can find confirmation for every modern thesis, so, we could say, also for the one that we are descendants of the Ancient Macedonians...." Denko Maleski, politician of the Republic of Macedonia (foreign minister from 1991 to 1993 and ambassador to the United Nations from 1993 to 1997), Utrinski Vesnik newspaper, October 16, 2006.
  90. ↑ "Macedonia was also an attempt at a multicultural society. Here the fragments are just about holding together, although the cement that binds them is an unreliable mixture of propaganda and myth. The Macedonian language has been created, some rather misty history involving Tsar Samuel, probably a Bulgarian, and Alexander the Great, almost certainly a Greek, has been invented, and the name Macedonia has been adopted. Do we destroy these myths or live with them? Apparently these radical Slavic factions decided to live with their myths and lies for the constant amusement of the rest of the world!..." T.J. Winnifrith, Shattered Eagles, Balkan Fragments, Duckworth, 1995
  91. ↑ "We have many times heard from the Macedonists that they are not Bulgarians but Macedonians, descendants of the Ancient Macedonians, and we have always waited to hear some proofs of this, but we have never heard them. The Macedonists have never shown us the bases of their attitude. They insist on their Macedonian origin, which they cannot prove in any satisfactory way. We have read in the history that in Macedonia existed a small nation - Macedonians; but nowhere do we find in it neither what were those Macedonians, nor of what tribe is their origin, and the few macedonian words, preserved through some greek writers, completely deny such a possibility....", "The Macedonian question" by Petko R. Slaveikov, published 18 January 1871 in the Macedonia newspaper in Constantinople.
  92. ↑ Ц. Билярски, Из българския възрожденски печат от 70-те години на XIX в. за македонския въпрос, сп. „Македонски преглед“, г. XXIII, София, 2009, кн. 4, с. 103-120.
  93. ↑ "Since the Bulgarian idea, as it is well-known, is deeply rooted in Macedonia, I think it is almost impossible to shake it completely by opposing it merely with the Serbian idea. This idea, we fear, would be incapable, as opposition pure and simple, of suppressing the Bulgarian idea. That is why the Serbian idea will need an ally that could stand in direct opposition to Bulgarianism and would contain in itself the elements which could attract the people and their feelings and thus sever them from Bulgarianism. This ally I see in Macedonism...." from the report of S. Novakovic to the Minister of Education in Belgrade about "Macedonism" as a transitional stage in Serbianization of the Macedonian Bulgarians; see idem. Cultural and Public Relations of the Macedonians with Serbia in the XIXth c.), Skopje, 1960, p. 178.
  94. ↑ He was sent as the Serbian envoy to Constantinople, considered as one of the most important posts in that period. The diplomatic convention with Ottoman Turkey signed in 1886, due to Novaković's skillful negotiations, made possible the opening of Serbian consulates in Skopje and Thessaloniki. He was instrumental in organizing a huge network of Serbian consulates, secular and religious Serbian schools and Serb religious institutions throughout Turkey in Europe, in particular in Macedonia, where he aided macedonistic intellectuals as K. Grupchevic and N. Evrovic. Furthermore Novaković initiated the establishment of closer Serbian-Russian relations as consul in St. Petersburg, where he supported the local macedonists as Misirkov and Chupovski. Angel G. Angelov, The European Legacy: Toward New Paradigms, 1470-1316, Volume 2, Issue 3, 1997, Pages 411 – 417.; Memoirs of Hristo Shaldev, Macedonian revolutionary (1876-1962), Macedonian Patriotic Organization "TA" (Adelaide, Australia, 1993), The Slav Macedonian Student Society in St. Petersburg, pp. 14-21.
  95. ↑ In a letter to Prof. Marin Drinov of May 25, 1888 Kuzman Shapkarev writes: "But even stranger is the name Macedonians, which was imposed on us only 10-15 years ago by outsiders, and not as some think by our own intellectuals.... Yet the people in Macedonia know nothing of that ancient name, reintroduced today with a cunning aim on the one hand and a stupid one on the other. They know the older word: "Bugari", although mispronounced: they have even adopted it as peculiarly theirs, inapplicable to other Bulgarians. You can find more about this in the introduction to the booklets I am sending you. They call their own Macedono-Bulgarian dialect the "Bugarski language", while the rest of the Bulgarian dialects they refer to as the "Shopski language". (Makedonski pregled, IX, 2, 1934, p. 55; the original letter is kept in the Marin Drinov Museum in Sofia, and it is available for examination and study)
  96. ↑ One Nineteenth Century Macedonian History Book (Historical Data and Mythology) Biljana Ristovska-Josifovska Institute of National History (Macedonia) Summary
  97. ↑ Gabrovski tried to build a connection between the Illyrians and the ancient Macedonians, at a time when the latter were regarded as rivals of Greece by the Greek Enlightenment authors. Spyridon believed that Alexander the Great defeated the Illyrians and gave them his birth name: Macedonians, but they were also Slavs. The main agenda from this story on the mythical Bulgaro-Illyro-Macedonians was to assert that the Bulgarians were among the indigenous inhabitants of the Balkans.Multiple Antiquities - Multiple Modernities: Ancient Histories in Nineteenth Century European Cultures, Gábor Klaniczay, Michael Werner, Ottó Gecser, Campus Verlag, 2011, ISBN 3593391015, p. 224.
  98. ↑ Јован Цвијић, Основе за географију и геологију Македоније и Старе Србије I-III, 1906—1911.
  99. ↑ Дијалекти источне и јужне Србије, Александар Белић, Српски дијалектолошки зборник, 1, 1905.
  100. ↑ 20.11.1914 "Македонскiй Голосъ" - Кто такие Македонцы?
  101. ↑ This theory has its deep roots into the Greek policy on Macedonia, which may be noticed in the address of Archbishop Germanos Karavangelis and his advices to Konstantinos Christou. In his memories entitled as “Macedonian Struggle”, Archbishop Karavangelis, wrote: "You have been Greeks since the time of Alexander the Great, but the Slavs came and slavicized you. Your appearance is Greek and the land we step on is Greek. This is witnessed by the monuments that are hidden in it, they are Greek, too, and the coins that we found are also Greek, and the inscriptions are Greek...." Каравангелис, Германос. „Македонската борба (спомени)“, Васил Чекаларов, Дневник 1901-1903 г., Съставителство Ива Бурилкова, Цочо Билярски, ИК „Синева” София, 2001, стр. 327.
  102. ↑ "A comparison of the ethnographic and linguistic maps drawn up by Messers, Kantchev, Cvijic and Belic, with the new frontiers of the treaty of Bucharest reveals the gravity of the task undertaken by the Servians. They have not merely resumed possession of their ancient domain, the Sandjak of Novi-Bazar and Old Servia proper (Kosovo Pole and Metchia), despite the fact that this historic domain was strongly Albanian; they have not merely added thereto the tract described by patriotic Servian ethnographers as "Enlarged Old Servia" fan ancient geographical term which we have seen twice enlarged, once by Mr. Cvijic and again by Mr. Belic; [See chapter I, p. 29.] over and above all this, their facile generosity impelled them to share with the Greeks the population described on their maps as "Slav-Macedonian", a euphemism designed to conceal the existence of Bulgarians in Macedonia."
  103. ↑ Stavrianos, L. S. (1942) The Balkan Federation Movement. A Neglected Aspect in The American Historical Review, Vol. 48, No. 1. pp. 30-51.
  104. ↑ Rough guide to Bulgaria, Jonathan Bousfield, Dan Richardson, Richard Watkins, Rough Guides, 2002, ISBN 1-85828-882-7, p. 453.
  105. ↑ Palmer, S. and R. King Yugoslav Communism and the Macedonian Question, Archon Books (June 1971), p. 137.
  106. ↑ Representative of the anti-"Macedonist" criticism from the Bulgarian side is the work by Bozhidar Dimitrov (2003), The Ten Lies of Macedonism, Sofia.
  107. ↑ Вестник Народна воля , март 2008 г. История на Македония - Апология на македонизма, Доц. д-р Георги Радулов
  108. ↑ FYROM, 2011 - Euphoria Of Racism And Expansionism Towards Greece. A large assembly of people during the inauguration of the Statue of Alexander the Great in Skopje, the players of the national basketball team of the Republic of Macedonia during the European Basketball Championship in Lithuania, and a little boy, singing a racist tune. Translation from Macedonian:

    "Get out, boy, right away on the balcony

    And say hello to the people of Goce's race

    Lift your hands up high

    Ours will be Thessaloniki's field."

  109. ↑ Financial Times, Alexander’s ‘descendants’ boost Macedonian identity, by Neil MacDonald, July 18 2008.
  110. ↑ 2,300 years later, 'Alexander-mania' grips Macedonia, Christian Science Monitor, March 20, 2009.
  111. ↑ (C) А1 Телевизија, 16.06.2009, Нова историја на Македонија
  112. ↑ Minchev, Dimiter: "Macedonia and Bulgaria". In: B. A. Cook (ed.), Europe since 1945: An Encyclopedia Taylor and Francis, 2001. ISBN 0-8153-4058-3, pg. 808.
  • Note: Forms of nationalism based primarily on ethnic groups are listed above. This does not imply that all nationalists with a given ethnicity subscribe to that form of ethnic nationalism.
This article is issued from Wikipedia. The text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share Alike; additional terms may apply for the media files.