Viktor A. Friedman

[Pelister]

He is one of us.

This gentleman deserves the praise of all Macedonians.

I have just read it again. His essay "The Modern Macedonian Standard Langauge and its Relation to Modern Macedonian Identity", in Victor Roudometof (ed.) The Macedonian Question: Culture, Historiography, Politics., East European Monographs, Boulder, Columbia Univesity Press, New York, 2000, pp.173-201.

He does Macedonians a great service by writing our history in a way that respects our traditions, our culture and our distinctiveness. In particular it is the "powerful political forces" that he brings to light that deserves the most admiration. These were forces that tried to shut us down, to bury us.

I will cite only one example, he exposes.

On 22nd August 1892, the Kostur parish school council adopted the proposal of a group of six teachers who had met previously in secret, and agreed to eliminate both Bulgarian and Greek and introduce Macedonia as the langauge of instruction in the town school for the school year 1892-1893. Three teachers were asked to compose a grammar and dictionary, taks that were apparently already under way. By 18 September (1892), however, the Greek bishop had succeeded in convincing the Turkish governor of Kostur to close both the school and the one church in town that was using the Slavonic liturgy. A Bulgarian representative from Plovidv (Atanas Sopov) convinced the parish council to adopt literary Bulgarian (a language foriegn to the Macedonians) lest they lose both their church and their school to the Greeks. The only documentation we have of the incident is contained in the telegrams to the SErbian Ministry of Foriegn Affairs in Belgrade from the SErbian Consul in Bitola, who had attempted to turn the movement to Serbian advantage without success. p.186

Interesting how the Greek priest collaborated with the Turks in 1892 to close down a Macedonian school, but allowed it to reopen as a Bulgarian one.

I think we should dedicate a thread to him.

[indigen]

He is one of us.
This gentleman deserves the praise of all Macedonians.

Only qualified praise where it is due but there are some issues we should not overlook, IMO. The following is one I would like for you to consider:

The Nationalist Trap and State Policies

CD: (Laughing) on that note, let’s talk about the Macedonia issue now. Greece denies the Macedonian identity, referring to ancient history. What do you think about this?

VF: Unfortunately, with independence, some Macedonians fell into the nationalist trap set by Greece. The Greeks came up with a line claiming the Macedonians could not claim the name Macedonia unless they were descended from the Ancient Macedonians.

Well, no one can reasonably claim to be descended from the Ancient Macedonians, but this became part of the argument, instead of other more pertinent things. And so the issue has remained. But the Greeks have been denying the existence of Macedonia and the Macedonians all along.

VF: Well, no one can reasonably claim to be descended from the Ancient Macedonians,

How and why were they the only ones to vanish into vapour?

I have just read it again. His essay "The Modern Macedonian Standard Langauge and its Relation to Modern Macedonian Identity", in Victor Roudometof (ed.) The Macedonian Question: Culture, Historiography, Politics., East European Monographs, Boulder, Columbia Univesity Press, New York, 2000, pp.173-201.

He does Macedonians a great service by writing our history in a way that respects our traditions, our culture and our distinctiveness. In particular it is the "powerful political forces" that he brings to light that deserves the most admiration. These were forces that tried to shut us down, to bury us.

I will cite only one example, he exposes.

Interesting how the Greek priest collaborated with the Turks in 1892 to close down a Macedonian school, but allowed it to reopen as a Bulgarian one.

I think we should dedicate a thread to him.

Victor Friedman on Macedonia: the Balkanalysis.com Interview

December 14, 2008

http://www.balkanalysis.com/blog/200...com-interview/

Some very useful info can be read at the above link but it is also where I sourced the top excerpt, where I disagree entirely with such a view as it relates to Macedonians.

[Pelister]

Maybe I spoke too soon. Thanks for allerting me to that interview.

[indigen]

Maybe I spoke too soon. Thanks for alerting me to that interview.

Pelister, I believe that there is an ideological straight jacket that has been set by the political and cultural establishment in the western world that academics, if they want to remain part of the system, will rarely transgress and the denial of Macedonian indigenous continuity is one set in concrete at present. Thus I would not like to think too negatively of him because he is simply operating within the allowable parameters in academic institutions he operates from but the praise should be objective and this issue kept in mind.

Secondly, please read the interview carefully as I think there is very useful and valuable info to be found there and interpreted (as we should) from a nationalist Macedonian perspective.

[Daskalot]

He is a great asset to the Macedonian cause.

[Pelister]

I have nothing but praise after reading that essay. When writing that article, he was really batting for our cause. It was just a breath of fresh air to see a Western academic writing a history from an indigenous point of view, acknowledging Macedonian agency and for his resistance (which must have been strong) against the use the colonial nomenclature of conquest, such as the term FYROM. I'm always disappointed when academics use this term.

[Daskalot]

The amount of good that Victor has done for Macedonia from a scholarly perspective cannot be measured in money. It is that valuable.