Macedonian nationalism

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Flag of North Macedonia

Macedonian nationalism (

Bulgaria, along with smaller regions of Albania, Kosovo and Serbia
.

The designation "Macedonian"

Ogledalo issued by Kiril Peychinovich and printed in 1816 in Budapest. It was inspired by a movement on Mount Athos that was fighting for a liturgical renewal within the Orthodox Church. According to the book's title page, it was written in the "most common Bulgarian language of Lower Moesia". Today geographic Macedonia was traditionally called by the local Slavic-speakers either 'Bulgaria' or 'Lower Moesia', but after the Greek War of Independence these names were gradually replaced by 'Macedonia'.
In 1844, this "Alexander Romance" was published in Belgrade, translated from Greek into Bulgarian by Hristo Popvasilev from Karlovo. This book, according to Blaze Ristovski, played an essential role in awakening Macedonianism, which in the middle of the 19th century was still in its infancy.[1]
The Macedonian Question an article from 1871 by Petko Slaveykov published in the newspaper Macedonia in Carigrad (now Istanbul). In this article, Petko Slaveykov writes: "We have many times heard from the Macedonists that they are not Bulgarians, but they are rather 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."
Cover of the first volume of Veda Slovena. It contains "Bulgarian folk songs from ancient times, discovered in Thrace and Macedonia". In fact, it was a forgery printed in 1874 in Belgrade under the edition of the pan-Slavic activist Stjepan Verković. The aim of its author Ivan Gologanov, supported by his brother – Theodosius of Skopje, was to prove the ancient inhabitants of Thrace and Macedonia were not Hellenic but Slav-Bulgarian.[2]
Cover of the "General History of the Macedonian Slavs", completed in 1892 in Sofia by Georgi Pulevski. Its author who endorsed the concept of an ethnic Macedonian identity, claimed the ancient inhabitants of Macedonia were not Hellenic but Slav-Macedonian.
Bulgarian National Movement and attach them to its Greek counterpart.[6]
Kutsovlachs
who lived in the area, already called themselves Macedonians, and the surrounding nations also called them so.

During the first half of the

pan-Slavic propagandists believed the early Slavs were related to the paleo-Balkan
tribes. Under these influences, some intellectuals in the region developed the idea on direct link between the local Slavs, the early Slavs and the ancient Balkan populations.

In Ottoman times, names such as "Lower Bulgaria" and "Lower Moesia" were used by the local Slavs to designate most of the territory of today's geographical region of Macedonia and the names Bulgaria and Moesia were identified with each other. Self-identifying as "Bulgarian" on account of

Bulgarian nationalism changed the Greek position.[10] At that time, the Orthodox Christian community began to degrade with the continuous identification of the religious creed with ethnic identity,[11] while Bulgarian national activists started a debate on the establishment of their separate Orthodox church
.

As a result, massive Greek

Greek Patriarchist bishop of Bitola: from Exarch of all Bulgaria to Exarch of all Macedonia. He also noted the unusual popularity of Alexander the Great and that it appeared to be something that was recently instilled on the local Slavs.[18]

As a consequence, since the 1850s some Slavic intellectuals from the area adopted the designation Macedonian as a regional label, and it began to gain popularity.

Konstantin Miladinov, continued to call their land Western Bulgaria and worried that use of the new name would imply identification with the Greek nation.[22][23][24][25]

According to Kuzman Shapkarev, as a result of Macedonists' activity, the Slavs in Macedonia had started to use the ancient designation Macedonians alongside the traditional one Bulgarians by the 1870s.[26] However, Shapkarev notes that the name "Macedonians" had been "imposed on them by outsiders" (i.e., the Greeks), and that the Slavs in Macedonia were using the designation "Bulgarians" as peculiarly theirs, while referring to other Bulgarians as Shopi.[26] Similarly, they referred to their own Macedono-Bulgarian dialect as Bulgarian ("bugarski") in opposition to the other Bulgarian dialects, which they called "shopski".

During the 1880s, after recommendation by Stojan Novaković, the Serbian government also began to support those ideas to counteract the Bulgarian influence in Macedonia, claiming the Macedonian Slavs were in fact pure Slavs (i.e. Serbian Macedonians), while the Bulgarians, unlike them, were partially a mixture of Slavs and Bulgars (i.e. Tatars).[27] In accordance with Novaković's agenda this Serbian "Macedonism" was transformed in the 1890s, in a process of the gradual Serbianisation of the Macedonian Slavs.[28]

By the end of the 19th century, according to

Serbianization of the local Slavs,[31] because there was a tendency to make the name Macedonia scorned, and the name South Serbia was imposed, while some also used simply South or Povardarie (after the Vardar river) as neutral names.[32] Ultimately, the designation Macedonian changed its status in 1944, and went from being predominantly a regional, ethnographic denomination, to a national one.[33] However, when the anthropologist Keith Brown visited the Republic of Macedonia at the eve of the 21st century, he discovered that the local Aromanians, who also call themselves Macedonians, still label the ethnic Macedonians, and their eastern neighbors as "Bulgarians".[34][35]

Origins

Statue of Georgi Pulevski, a major figure who endorsed the concept of an ethnic Macedonian identity, resulting in the foundation of Macedonian nationalism[36]

In the 19th century, the region of

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.[37] 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 came to believe that any attempt to forcibly assimilate Slavic Macedonians into Serbs in order to incorporate Macedonia would be unsuccessful, given the strong Bulgarian influence in the region. Instead, the Serbian government believed that providing support to Macedonian nationalists would stimulate opposition to incorporation into Bulgaria and favourable attitudes to Serbia. 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.[37] 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.[37]

The origins of the definition of an ethnic Slav 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 as different from the other languages in that it had linguistic elements from Serbian, Bulgarian, Church Slavonic, and Albanian.[38] 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 Macedonian language had Slavic components in it and thus the ancient Macedonians were Slavic, and modern-day Slavic Macedonians were their descendants.[39] 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",[40] he also identified the Slavic Macedonian language as being related to the "Old Bulgarian language" as well as being a "Serbo-Albanian language".[39] Pulevski's numerous identifications reveal 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 1890s, seeking the autonomy of Macedonia from the Ottoman Empire.[41] 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.[41] As a rule, the IMRO members had Bulgarian national self-identification, but the autonomist faction stimulated the development of Macedonian nationalism.[42] It devised the slogan "Macedonia for the Macedonians" and called for a supranational Macedonia, consisting of different nationalities and eventually included in a future Balkan Federation.[38] However, the promoters 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 a regional variety of the 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

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 ethnically separate from the Bulgarians.[46] The turning point for the Macedonian ethnogenesis was the creation of the Socialist Republic of Macedonia as part of the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia following World War II.[47][48]

History

The front page of the book "Za makedonckite raboti, Sofia 1903" by Krste Petkov Misirkov.
Map of the region of Macedonia on the basis of an earlier publication in the newspaper "Македонский Голосъ" by the Saint Petersburg Macedonian Colony, 1913

Early and middle 19th century

With the conquest of the Balkans by the

Lower Moesia" during Ottoman rule. The name "Macedonia" was revived to mean a separate geographical region on the Balkans, this occurring in the early 19th century, after the foundation of the modern Greek state, with its Western Europe-derived obsession with the Ancient world.[14] However, as a result of the massive Greek religious and school propaganda, a kind of Macedonization occurred among the Greek and non-Greek speaking population of the area. The name Macedonian Slavs was also introduced by the Greek clergy and teachers among the local Slavophones with an aim to stimulate the development of close ties between them and the Greeks, linking both sides to the ancient Macedonians, as a counteract against the growing Bulgarian influence there.[15]

Late 19th and early 20th century

The first attempts for creation of the

St. Petersburg.[56] However, up until the 20th century and beyond, the majority of the Slavic-speaking population of the region was identified as Macedono-Bulgarian or simply as Bulgarian[58][59][60][61][62] and after 1870 joined the Bulgarian Exarchate.[63] Although he was appointed Bulgarian metropolitan bishop, in 1891 Theodosius of Skopje attempted to restore the Archbishopric of Ohrid as an autonomous Macedonian church, but his idea failed.[64][65][66] 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.[56]

While according to some modern authors as well as pro-Macedonian sources (e.g. Nick Anastasovski[67]), the designation 'Bulgarian' referred to all the Slavs living in Rumelia and meant nothing more than peasant,[68][69][unreliable fringe source?] contemporary travellers, ethnographers and linguists, including Slovak philologist Pavel Jozef Šafárik (1842), French geologist Ami Boué (1847, 1854), French ethnographer Guillaume Lejean (1861), English travel writers Georgina Muir Mackenzie and Paulina Irby (1867), Russian ethnographer Mikhail Mirkovich (1867), Czech folklorist Karel Jaromír Erben (1868), German cartographer August Heinrich Petermann (1869), German geographer Heinrich Kiepert (1876), Austrian diplomat Karl Sax (1877), etc. clearly identified the Slavs living in the part of Rumelia currently known as Kosovo as Serbs and only referred to the Slavs living in the Macedonia as Bulgarians.[70][71] All of them also established the ethnographic boundary between Serbs and Bulgarians along the Šar Mountains.

According to

Bulgarian Exarchists.[75] With the rise of nationalism in the Ottoman Empire then, the classical Ottoman millet system began to degrade with the continuous identification of the religious creed with ethnic identity.[76] In this way, in the struggle for recognition of a separate national Church, the modern Bulgarian nation was created,[77][78] and the religious affiliation became a consequence of national allegiance.[79]

On the eve of the 20th century the Internal Macedonian-Adrianople Revolutionary Organization (IMARO) tried to unite all unsatisfied elements in the Ottoman Europe and struggled for political autonomy in the regions of Macedonia and Adrianople Thrace.[80] 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.[81]

The first major manifestation of ethnic Macedonian nationalism was the book

Macedonians as a separate people. Misirkov considered that the term "Macedonian" should be used to define the whole Slavic population of Macedonia, obliterating the existing division between Greeks, Bulgarians and Serbians. The adoption of a separate "Macedonian language" was also advocated and he outlined an overview of the Macedonian grammar and expressed the ultimate goal of codifying the language and using it as the language of instruction in the education system. The book was written in the dialect of central Macedonia (Veles-Prilep-Bitola-Ohrid
) which was proposed by Misirkov as the basis for the future language, and, as Misirkov says, a dialect which is most different from all other neighboring languages (Bulgarian and Serbian).

Another significant activist for the ethnic Macedonian national revival was

Macedonian people different from Greeks, Bulgarians and Serbs, and sought to popularize the idea for an independent Macedonian state. Some of its articles were written by Krste Misirkov.[83]

Balkan Wars and First World War

A World War I era ethnographic map of the Balkans by Serbian ethnologist Jovan Cvijić, depicting "Slavic Macedonians" in shades of green, distinct from Bulgarians and Serbs. The western parts of Bulgaria and northeastern Macedonia are shown as populated by Serbs. In this way he promoted the idea that Macedonians were in fact Southern Serbs.[84]

During the

Veles and other cities and persecuted Bulgarian priests and teachers, forcing them to flee and replacing them with Serbians.[85] Serbian troops enforced a policy of disarming the local militia, accompanied by beatings and threats.[86] During this period the political autonomism was abandoned as tactics and annexationist positions were supported, aiming eventual incorporation of the area into Bulgaria.[87]

Interwar period and WWII

After the WWI, in

Serbian Macedonia any manifestations of Bulgarian nationhood were suppressed. Even in the so-called Western Outlands ceded by Bulgaria in 1920 Bulgarian identification was prohibited. The Bulgarian notes to the League of Nations, consented to recognize a Bulgarian minority in Yugoslavia were rejected. The members of the Council of the League assumed that the existence of some Bulgarian minority there was possible, however, they were determined to keep Yugoslavia and were aware that any exercise of revisionism, would open an uncontrollable wave of demands, turning the Balkans into a battlefield.[88] Belgrade was suspicious of the recognition of any Bulgarian minority and was annoyed this would hinder its policy of forced "Serbianisation". It blocked such recognition in neighboring Greece and Albania, through the failed ratifications of the Politis–Kalfov Protocol in 1924 and the Albanian-Bulgarian Protocol (1932)
.

German ethnic map of Yugoslavia from 1940. Macedonians are depicted as a separate community, and described as claimed by Serbs and Bulgarians, but generally attributed to the last ones.

During the interwar period in Vardar Macedonia, part of the young locals repressed by the Serbs attempted at a separate way of ethnic development.

resolution about the recognition of a separate Macedonian ethnicity.[90] However, the existence of considerable Macedonian national consciousness prior to the 1940s is disputed.[91][92][93]
This confusion is illustrated by Robert Newman in 1935, who recounts discovering in a village in
AVNOJ congress on 29 November 1943 did recognise the Macedonian nation as separate entity. As a result the resistance movement grew and in August 1944 the Macedonian Partisans set up the Anti-fascist Assembly for the National Liberation of Macedonia. They proclaimed a Macedonian nation-state of the ethnic Macedonians and the Macedonian as official language. After the German troops left the area in November, the new Macedonian government started the codification of the Macedonian language.[98][99] The state was later incorporated in the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia. 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.[100]

Post-World War II

After 1944 the

Aegean Macedonians were expelled and fled to the newly established Socialist Republic of Macedonia, while thousands of more children took refuge in other Eastern Bloc
countries.

Post-Informbiro period and Bulgarophobia

At the end of the 1950s the

culture of the Republic of Macedonia has had a far greater and more permanent impact on Macedonian nationalism than has any other aspect of Yugoslav policy. While the development of national music, films and graphic arts had been encouraged in the Republic of Macedonia, the greatest cultural effect came from the codification of the Macedonian language and literature, the new Macedonian national interpretation of history and the establishment of a Macedonian Orthodox Church.[105] Meanwhile, the Yugoslav historiography borrowed certain parts of the histories of its neighboring states in order to construct the Macedonian identity, having reached not only the times of medieval Bulgaria, but even as far back as Alexander the Great.[106] In 1969, the first History of the Macedonian nation was published. Most Macedonians' attitude to Communist Yugoslavia, where they were recognized 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.[107]

After the Second World War, Macedonian and Serbian scholars usually defined the ancient local tribes in the area of the Central Balkans as

Triballians, the Dardanians and the Paeonians.[108] The leading research goal in the Republic of Macedonia during Yugoslav times was the establishment of some kind of Paionian identity and to separate it from the western "Illyrian" and the eastern "Thracian" entities. The idea of Paionian identity was constructed to conceptualize that Vardar Macedonia was neither Illyrian nor Thracian, favouring a more complex division, contrary to scientific claims about strict Thraco-Illyrian Balkan separation in neighbouring Bulgaria and Albania. Yugoslav Macedonian historiography argued also that the plausible link between the Slav Macedonians and their ancient namesakes was, at best, accidental.[109]

Post-independence period and Antiquisation

Macedonian flag from 1992 to 1995
Ancient Macedonia.[110]

On 8 September 1991, the

Eugene Borza, possess a pro-Macedonian bias in the Macedonian-Greek conflict.[127]

Similar parahistorical myths connecting the Slavs and Paleo-Balkan peoples were characteristic for Ottoman Bulgaria during the late 18th and the 19th century and later arrose in Ottoman Macedonia.[128][129] Practically, until the 1940s Bulgarian academic circles and Bulgarian volk history spread the same views when fighting Greek claims about the Greek origins of the ancient Macedonians.[130]

As part of this policy, statues of

Archbishop Stephen and the 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.[115] 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.[125][136] Ethnic Albanians in North Macedonia see it as an attempt to marginalize them and exclude them from the national narrative.[125] 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.[125] Foreign diplomats had warned that the policy reduced international sympathy for the Republic of Macedonia in the then-naming dispute with Greece.[125]

The background of this antiquization can be found in the 19th 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 included in the national mythology during the post-WWII

This ultra-nationalism accompanied by the emphasizing of North Macedonia's ancient roots has raised concerns internationally about growing a kind of authoritarianism by the governing party.
Yugonostalgia
among the ethnic Macedonian population, that has swept also over other ex-Yugoslav states.

Macedonian nationalism also has support among high-ranking diplomats of North Macedonia who are serving abroad, and this continues to affect the relations with neighbors, especially Greece. In August 2017, the Consul of the Republic of Macedonia to Canada attended a nationalist Macedonian event in Toronto and delivered a speech against the backdrop of an

Greater Macedonia. This has triggered strong protests from the Greek side,[140][141][142] which regards this as a sign that irredentism remains the dominant state ideology and everyday political practice in the neighboring country.[143] Following strong diplomatic protests, however, the Foreign Ministry of the Republic of Macedonia condemned the incident and recalled its diplomat back to Skopje for consultations.[144]

Macedonism

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 Republic of North Macedonia.[145]
The Bitola inscription of 1016/1017. The medieval stone contains instances of 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.[146]
Miladinov Brothers. When the Macedonian State Archive displayed a photocopy of the book, the upper part of the page showing "Bulgarian" had been cut off.[147] There is a similar case with the national museum of the Republic of North Macedonia which, apparently, refuses to display original works by the two brothers, because of the Bulgarian labels on some of them.[148]
.

Macedonism, sometimes referred to as Macedonianism

state ideology, aimed at transforming the Slavic and, to a certain extent, non-Slavic parts of its population into ethnic Macedonians.[158] This state policy is still current in today's Republic of North Macedonia,[159] where it was developed in several directions. One of them maintains the connection of the modern ethnic Macedonians with the ancient Macedonians, rather than with the South Slavs, while others 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,[160][161][162][163] but has also faced strong criticism from moderate political views in North Macedonia and international scholars.[164][165] Additionally the official website of the Macedonian Encyclopedia that is published by the Macedonian Academy of Sciences and Arts uses the word 'Macedonism' as its domain name.[166]

The term is used in Bulgaria in an insulting and derogatory manner, to discredit the development of Macedonian nationalism during the 19th and 20th centuries. The term is widely seen as a Greater Serbian aspiration, aiming to split the Bulgarian people on anti-Bulgarian grounds.[167] The term is first believed to have been used in a derogatory manner by Petko Slaveykov in 1871, when he dismissed Macedonian nationalists as "Macedonists",[168] who he regarded a misguided (sic): Grecomans.[169]

Macedonism as an ethno-political conception

The roots of the concept were first developed in the second half of the 19th century, in the context of

Makedoniya in 1871. However, he pointed out 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".[170] Nevertheless, those accused of Slaveikov as Macedonists were 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.[171] 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.[172] Novaković's diplomatic activity in Istanbul and St. Petersburg played a significant role in 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.[173] The geopolitics of the Serbs evidently played a crucial role in the ethnogenesis by promoting a separate Macedonian consciousness at the expense of the Bulgarians (it is worth mentioning that 19th century Serbian propaganda mostly adhered to direct Serbianization, including post-WWI policy of Belgrade in Vardar Macedonia). In 1888 the Macedono-Bulgarian ethnographer Kuzman Shapkarev noted that, as a result of this activity, a strange, ancient ethnonym "Makedonci" (Macedonians) was imposed 10–15 years prior by outside intellectuals, introduced with a "cunning aim" to replace the traditional "Bugari" (Bulgarians).[26]

In 1892,

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.[175] Gabrovski tried to establish a link between the Bulgaro-Macedonians on the one hand, and the Illyrians and ancient Macedonians on the other, whom he also regarded as Slavs. The main agenda of this story about the mythical Bulgaro-Illyro-Macedonians was to assert that the Macedonian and Bulgarian Slavs were among the indigenous inhabitants of the Balkans.[176]

Other proponents of the Macedonist ideas in the early 20th century were two Serbian scholars, the geographer

Turanian" groups (Bulgars, Cumans, and Turks) and Vlachs, and as such, were different from the other South Slavs in their ethnic composition. More importantly, 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 the 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, these outdated Serbian views have been propagandized by some contemporary Macedonian scholars and politicians.[179][180]

Some panslavic ideologists in

Hellenic idea about a direct link between the local Slavs and the ancient Macedonians.[182] 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.[183] However, after the Balkan Wars (1912–1913) Ottoman Macedonia was mostly divided between Greece and Serbia, which began a process of Hellenization and Serbianisation of the Slavic population and led in general to a cease in the use of this term in both countries.[citation needed
]

On the other hand, Serbian and Bulgarian

General Secretary of the Comintern Georgi Dimitrov, in anticipation of an ultimately failed incorporation of the Bulgarian part of Macedonia (Pirin Macedonia) into the People's Republic of Macedonia, and of Bulgaria itself into Communist Yugoslavia.[citation needed
]

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

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.[185]

See also

References and notes

  1. ^ “Историа на велики Александра македонца”, во 1844 година во Белград!“ во Весник “Вечер” от 23 ноември 2011 година.
  2. .
  3. .
  4. , p. 293.
  5. .
  6. ^ Dedikousi, Stamatia. (2013) Η διένεξη για την ονομασία της Δημοκρατίας της Μακεδονίας μέσα από τις στήλες των αναγνωστών του αθηναϊκού τύπου (1991–1995 & 2004–2005) [The dispute over the name of the Republic of Macedonia through the columns of the readers of the Athenian press (1991–1995 & 2004–2005)]. p. 15. Mytilene: University of the Aegean. (in Greek) "Στις αρχές του εικοστού αιώνα, µεσούντος του µακεδονικού αγώνα, ο ελληνικός εθνικισµός ενθάρρυνε την ταύτιση των ντόπιων σλαβόφωνων µε τους αρχαίους Μακεδόνες, για να τους αποσπάσει από το βουλγαρικό εθνικό κίνηµα. Οι ιθύνοντες της ελληνικής προπαγάνδας λοιπόν αποφασίζουν την εισαγωγή του όρου ‘Μακεδόνας’ για το σύνολο των ‘σλαβόφωνων ελλήνων’. Ακραίο παράδειγµα αυτής της προσπάθειας, συνιστά η συγγραφή ‘πλαστών προφητειών του Μεγαλεξάνδρου’ στα σλαβοµακεδονικά (µε ελληνικούς χαρακτήρες) – Πρεσκαζάνιε να Γκόλεµ Αλεξάντρ – και η διασπορά τους από τον ελληνικό µηχανισµό στη µακεδονική ενδοχώρα".
  7. , p. 48.
  8. ^ Bonner, Raymond (14 May 1995). "The World; The Land That Can't Be Named". The New York Times. New York. Archived from the original on 29 January 2019. Retrieved 29 January 2019. Macedonian nationalism did not arise until the end of the last century.
  9. , pp. 36–37.
  10. , p. 48.
  11. , pp. 171–172.
  12. , p. 160.
  13. , Introduction, pp. VII–VIII.
  14. ^ , p. 91.
  15. ^ , pp. 49–51.
  16. ^ Anastas Vangeli, Nation-building ancient Macedonian style: the origins and the effects of the so-called antiquization in Macedonia. Nationalities Papers, the Journal of Nationalism and Ethnicity, Volume 39, 2011 pp. 13–32.
  17. , Introduction, p. VII.
  18. ^ Kyril Drezov, “Macedonian identity: an overview of the major claims,” in The New Macedonian Question, ed. James Pettifer (New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2001), 47–59.
  19. , pp. 283–285.
  20. ^ The Macedonian Question an article from 1871 by Petko Slaveykov published in the newspaper Macedonia in Carigrad (now Istanbul). In this article, Petko Slaveykov writes: "We have many times heard from the Macedonists that they are not Bulgarians, but they are rather 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."
  21. ^ A letter from Slaveykov to the Bulgarian Exarch written in Solun in February 1874
  22. , p. 84.
  23. , pp. 273–330.
  24. , p. 72.
  25. Georgi Rakovski, dated 31 January 1861:On my order form I have called Macedonia “Western Bulgaria”, as it should be called, because the Greeks in Vienna are ordering us around like sheep. They want Macedonia to be Greek territory and still do not realize that it cannot be Greek. But what are we to do with the more than two million Bulgarians there? Shall the Bulgarians still be sheep and a few Greeks the shepherds? Those days are gone and the Greeks shall be left with no more than their sweet dream. I believe the songs will be distributed among the Bulgarians, and have therefore set a low price for them. For more see: Spyridon Sfetas, The image of the Greeks in the work of the Bulgarian revolutionary and intellectual Georgi Rakovski. Balkan Studies, [S.l.], v. 42, n. 1, p. 89-107, Jan. 2001. ISSN 2241-1674. Available at: <https://ojs.lib.uom.gr/index.php/BalkanStudies/article/view/3313/3338
    >.
  26. ^ a b c In a letter to Prof. Marin Drinov of 25 May 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)
  27. , p. 139.
  28. , p. 65.
  29. , p. 185.
  30. , p. 303.
  31. , p. 65.
  32. .
  33. , p. 173.
  34. , p. 71.
  35. , p. 110.
  36. ^ Friedman Victor A (1975). "Macedonian language and nationalism during the 19th and early 20th centuries" (PDF). Balkanistica. 2: 83–98. Archived from the original (PDF) on 15 September 2006.
  37. ^ a b c Roumen Daskalov and Tchavdar Marinov. Entangled Histories of the Balkans: Volume One: National Ideologies and Language Policies. 2013. p. 318.
  38. ^ a b Roumen Daskalov and Tchavdar Marinov. Entangled Histories of the Balkans: Volume One: National Ideologies and Language Policies. BRILL, 2013. p. 300.
  39. ^ a b Roumen Daskalov and Tchavdar Marinov. Entangled Histories of the Balkans: Volume One: National Ideologies and Language Policies. BRILL, 2013. p. 316.
  40. .
  41. ^ a b Viktor Meier. Yugoslavia: A History of Its Demise. p. 179.
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  43. Republic of Macedonia
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  44. , p. 236.
  45. ^ .
  46. , pp. 65–66.
  47. , pp. 65–66.
  48. .
  49. , p. 192.
  50. , p. 35.
  51. , p. 89.
  52. ^ "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." Denko Maleski, politician of the Republic of Macedonia (foreign minister from 1991 to 1993 and ambassador to the United Nations from 1993 to 1997), and professor at Ss. Cyril and Methodius University of Skopje, North Macedonia (International Politics and International Law). Utrinski Vesnik newspaper, 16 October 2006
  53. ^ 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."
  54. ^ 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."
  55. ^ 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).
  56. ^
  57. ^ Social cleavages and national "awakening" in Ottoman Macedonia by Basil C. Gounaris, East European Quarterly 29 (1995), 409–426
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  59. ^ "French consul in 1831: Macedonia consists of Greeks and Bulgarians". History-of-macedonia.com. Retrieved 4 September 2015.
  60. ^ Engin Deniz Tanir (2005). "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" (PDF). pp. 99, 142.
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  62. ^ "II. The National Revival Period 1". Promacedonia.org. Retrieved 4 September 2015.
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  66. Constantinople Patriarchate
    – and be united in its own Orthodox Church, acquiring all the characteristic features of a people who have a right to independent spiritual and cultural life and education.
  67. . Duncan Perry (1988: 19) summarized that "studies using linguistic, cultural, historical and religious criteria usually yield different results and various combinations of these modes of measurement and only new permutations each... inspired by the nationalist prejudices and preferences of the individuals making the assessments ". For a detailed pro-Macedonian summary, see Anastasovski 2005...
  68. .
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  71. .
  72. . Until the late nineteenth century both outside observers and those Bulgaro-Macedonians who had an ethnic consciousness believed that their group, which is now two separate nationalities, comprised a single people, the Bulgarians. Thus the reader should ignore references to ethnic Macedonians in the Middle Ages which appear in some modern works. In the Middle Ages and into the nineteenth century, the term Macedonian was used entirely in reference to a geographical region. Anyone who lived within its confines, regardless of nationality, could be called a Macedonian. Nevertheless, the absence of a national consciousness in the past is no grounds to reject the Macedonians as a nationality today.
  73. .
  74. , 2006, John Benjamins, pp. 390–413.
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  98. .
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  109. ^ 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. Archived from the original (PDF) on 25 March 2009. Retrieved 26 October 2008.
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  116. ^ Hugh Poulton, Who are the Macedonians?, Hurst & Company, 2000
  117. ^ Loring M. Danforth, The Macedonian conflict: ethnic nationalism in a transnational world, Princeton University Press, 1997
  118. ^ Christopher K. Lamont, International Criminal Justice and the Politics of Compliance, Ashgate, 2010
  119. ^ Human Rights Watch World Report, 1999
  120. ^ Imogen Bell, Central and South-Eastern Europe 2004, Routledge
  121. ^ Keith Brown, The past in question: modern Macedonia and the uncertainties of nation, Princeton University Press, 2003
  122. ^ a b c d e f g h i Georgievski, Boris (3 May 2013). "Ghosts of the Past Endanger Macedonia's Future". Balkan Insight. Retrieved 4 September 2015.
  123. ^ Stephanie Herold, Benjamin Langer, Julia Lechler, Reading the City: Urban Space and Memory in Skopje, Technischen Universität Berlin, Taschenbuch, 2011, p. 43
  124. ^ 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, pp.264–265: "Some of the Macedonian émigré community in North America have adopted Ernst Badian, Peter Green, and me as “their” scholarly authorities, believing (without basis) that we possess a pro-Macedonian bias in this conflict. While it is true we share certain similarities in our views about the ancient Macedonians, none of us has, to the best of my knowledge, publicly expressed any political opinions on the modern Macedonian Question. Thus, in a recent telephone conversation initiated by a fervent Macedonian nationalist from Toronto who saw in me a potential ally, the caller expressed astonishment when I said that I thought his views on the languages of ancient and modern Macedonia were without scholarly merit and bordered on the absurd. He never called back."
  125. .
  126. ^ Per Tchavdar Marinov a phenomenon of a specific “local Macedonian” patriotism, was described at the turn of the twentieth century by foreign observers. They likewise noted the legend that Alexander the Great and Aristotle were "Bulgarians." Obviously, by the late Ottoman period, the ancient glory of the region of Macedonia was exploited for self-legitimation by groups with different loyalties—Greek as well as Bulgarian. It was also generating a new identity that, during that period, was still not necessarily exclusive vis-à-vis Greek or Bulgarian national belonging. Marinov claims that such people, although Bulgarians by national identification and Macedonian by political conviction, began to promote rarely the prognostics of some different ethnicity, which after the First World War were transformed into definitive Macedonian nationalism. For more see: Tchavdar Marinov, "Famous Macedonia, the Land of Alexander: Macedonian Identity at the Crossroads of Greek, Bulgarian and Serbian Nationalism", In: Entangled Histories of the Balkans – Volume One, pp: 293–294; 304.
  127. ^ Drezov, K. (1999). Macedonian identity: an overview of the major claims. In: Pettifer, J. (eds) The New Macedonian Question. St Antony’s Series. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1057/9780230535794_4
  128. ^ Helena Smith (14 August 2011). "Macedonia statue: Alexander the Great or a warrior on a horse? | World news". The Guardian. Retrieved 4 September 2015.
  129. ^ Davies, Catriona (10 October 2011). "Is Macedonia's capital being turned into a theme park? - CNN.com". Edition.cnn.com. Retrieved 4 September 2015.
  130. ^ "Athens complains about Skopje arch | News". ekathimerini.com. 30 June 2015. Retrieved 4 September 2015.
  131. ^ Sinisa Jakov Marusic (3 May 2013). "Greece Slates Skopje's 'Provocative' Alexander Statue". Balkan Insight. Retrieved 4 September 2015.
  132. ^ [2] Archived 12 December 2008 at the Wayback Machine
  133. ^ Academic G. Stardelov and first President of the Republic of Macedonia Kiro Gligorov against antiquisation, on YouTube
  134. ^
    S2CID 154923343
    .
  135. ^ 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 books 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!
  136. ^ Matthew Brunnwasser (13 October 2011). "Concerns Grow About Authoritarianism in Macedonia". The New York Times. Retrieved 4 September 2015.
  137. ^ "Another diplomatic incident between Greece and Macedonia". Macedonia's Top-Channel TV. Archived from the original on 23 August 2017. Retrieved 23 August 2017.
  138. ^ "Σε αλυτρωτική εκδήλωση συμμετείχε Σκοπιανός πρόξενος – Σφοδρή απάντηση από το ΥΠΕΞ (English: Macedonian consul participated in an irredentist event – Foreign Ministry)". Aixmi.gr. 16 August 2017. Retrieved 23 August 2017.
  139. ^ "Σκοπιανός πρόξενος με φόντο χάρτη της ΠΓΔΜ με ελληνικά εδάφη – ΥΠΕΞ: Ο αλυτρωτισμός εξακολουθεί (English: Macedonian Consul against a backdrop of Greater Macedonia – Greek MoFA: "Macedonian irredentism continues")". Real.gr. Retrieved 23 August 2017.
  140. ^ "ΥΠΕΞ: Καταδίκη της συμμετοχής του σκοπιανού πρόξενου σε αλυτρωτική εκδήλωση στο Τορόντο (English: Greek MoFA condemns the participation of Macedonian Consul in an irredentist event at Toronto)". 16 August 2017. Retrieved 23 August 2017.
  141. ^ "Dimitrov says MoFA won't tolerate 'excursions' like the diplomatic blunder in Toronto". Macedonian Information Agency. Retrieved 23 August 2017.
  142. ^ Focus information Agency Archived 18 January 2016 at the Wayback Machine, June 01, 2010 – UNESCO has send a letter to the Bulgarian Cultural Club – Skopje about the alarming condition of Bulgarian monuments in Macedonia.
  143. ^ Исправена печатарска грешка, Битола за малку ќе се претставуваше како бугарска. Дневник-online, 2006. Archived 2012-02-24 at the Wayback Machine
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  160. ^ Џамбазовски, Климент. Стоjан Новаковић и Македонизам, Историјски часопис, 1963–1965, књига XIV–XV, с. 133–156
  161. ^ "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 politicians 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, 16 October 2006.
  162. ^ "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
  163. ^ "Macedonism".
  164. . Here is how a Bulgarian historian nowadays interprets the existence of Macedonian national identity (usually stigmatized in Bulgaria under the derogatory term "Macedonism"—makedonizăm): "As an offspring of Greater Serbian propaganda and aspirations in Macedonia, Macedonism was meant to split the Bulgarian people, to denationalize a part of it on anti-Bulgarian grounds. Macedonism sought to destroy the sentiment of the Bulgarians from Macedonia of having historical roots identical with those of the Bulgarians from Moesia [northern Bulgaria] and Thrace, to destroy the feeling of belonging to the Bulgarian nation.
  165. . The historians from Skopje refer in particular to an 1871 article published by Petko Slaveykov in his Makedoniya. He describes the ideology of some "young patriots" whom he labels "Macedonists" (makedonisti)— without a doubt, this is the first instance of the derogatory term. According to Slaveykov, the "Macedonists" claimed they were "not Bulgarians but Macedonians, descendants of ancient Macedonians. Though, the Macedonists have never shown the bases of their attitude. They believed they had "Macedonian blood," and, at the same time, they were "pure Slavs"— in any case, different from the Bulgarians. These patriots even had ethnoracist stereotypes about the latter: for them, the Bulgarians were "Tatars."
  166. ^ Речник на българската литература, том 2 Е-О. София, Издателство на Българската академия на науките, 1977. с. 324.
  167. ^ "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.
  168. ^ 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.
  169. ^ "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.
  170. ^ 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, pp. 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. Archived 4 March 2016 at the Wayback Machine
  171. ^ One Nineteenth Century Macedonian History Book (Historical Data and Mythology) Biljana Ristovska-Josifovska Institute of National History (Macedonia) Summary Archived 2015-01-10 at the Wayback Machine
  172. , p. 224.
  173. , p. 121.
  174. ^ Јован Цвијић, Основе за географију и геологију Македоније и Старе Србије I-III, 1906–1911.
  175. ^ Дијалекти источне и јужне Србије, Александар Белић, Српски дијалектолошки зборник, 1, 1905.
  176. ^ Стефан Дечев: За българските и македонските учебници, за удобния и неудобния „оригинален език". 31.12.2018, Marginalis.
  177. ^ Проф. Драги Георгиев: Да признаем, че е имало и фалшифициране – вместо "българин" са писали "македонец"- това е истината. 21.03.2020 Factor.bg.
  178. ^ 20.11.1914 "Македонскiй Голосъ" – Кто такие Македонцы?
  179. 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.
  180. ^ "A comparison of the ethnographic and linguistic maps drawn up by Messrs, 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."
  181. ^ Stavrianos, L. S. (1942) The Balkan Federation Movement. A Neglected Aspect in The American Historical Review, Vol. 48, No. 1. pp. 30–51.
  182. ^ Palmer, S. and R. King Yugoslav Communism and the Macedonian Question, Archon Books (June 1971), p. 137.