Risto Stefov - Articles, Translations & Collaborations

[George S.]

The two Macedonian monks, Saints Cyril and Methody, were instrumental in the cultural and religious achievements of the Macedonians and the rest of the Slavic world. They invented the Cyrillic alphabet in 863 A.D. and began the process of converting the Slavs in to Christianity, later continued by Saints Clement and Naum. These Macedonians converted religious documents into Macedonian, which aided in their conversion missions, and helped the Macedonian language become the fourth official language of the Christian church.

"However, a significant event in the history of Macedonia and the history of the Slavs in general took place in 863 when the distinguished Byzantine missionaries from Salonica, the brothers Sts. Cyril and Methodius and their disciples, set out for Moravia bearing with them the first books in a Slavonic language, written in the Glagolitic alphabet which they themselves had invented. It is of particular significance that this new form of writing was created on the basis of the phonetic principles of the Slavs in Macedonia (from the surroundings of Salonica) and that the first translations of the holy books were made into the language of the Macedonian Slavs. This was the fourth language, in addition to Hebrew, Greek and Latin, which was officially recognized by the Christian church."

"The process of Christianisation was completed in Macedonia as early as the course of the second half of the 9th century. After the propagation of Sts. Cyril and Methodius' Moravian mission (885), St. Clement, after a brief sojourn in Pliska, was nominated a teacher in the region of Kutmichevica, which included the south-western Macedonian districts (Strumica Region), and the Ohrid Glagolitic literary school was established. Thanks to St. Clement and, after 893, St. Naum (who took over the role of teacher when St. Clement was named the first Slav archbishop), about 3,500 Slav teachers, clergy, writers and other literary figures emerged from the Ohrid literary school whose activity was crowned with the laying of sound foundations for the building-up of the Slavonic cultural, educational and ecclesiastical organization."1

Life & Work of the Macedonian Brothers
Sts. Cyril & Methody

The following is an excerpt from Macedonian Immigrants in Canada and Their Background 2

Sts. Cyril and Methody

St. Cyril and his brother St. Methody were born in the city of Solun, Macedonia. Their father Leo held the position of assistant to the Military Procurator of Solun. He was a person of outstanding Christian virtue and was compared to Job the Righteous. His mother was also a very devout woman and history says that both father and mother were of Slavonic origin.

St. Cyril, the youngest child of the family was born in 827; we have no exact date for St. Methody. The two brothers received their primary education and rearing in their home in the city of Solun under the direction of their parents. The older brother, Methody, was for a time Governor of a Slavic Province which probably was found on the Balkan Peninsula. He later became a monk in the monastery on Mount Olympus, in the Province of Vitania, Asia Minor.

St. Cyril, who was orphaned at the age of fourteen, continued his education in Constantinople wherein he was enrolled by Theoclyt the Logician in the Imperial Magnaurska School, where the sons of the Byzantine Royalty were taught. Upon completing his education there under the direction of the famous teachers of that time, Leo the Mathematician, Photious, later the Patriarch of Constantinople, and others, he assumed the position of Librarian in the Patriarchical Library of Constatntinople and later became a teacher in Philosophy in the Magnaurska School. His great knowledge of philosophy and language as well as dialectics, elevated him highly before the Byzantium Imperial Palace. Theoclyt the Logician who had great affection for St. Cyril, offered him an opportunity to marry a relative of his and to place him at a high Byzantine Military Position, as Strategist, but, he refused. As he said, "that it was not his wishes and apart from learning, nothing else interested him."

The Byzantine Government designated him responsible religious-political tasks before the Caliph of Baghdad against the Hussars in southern Russia and the Ikonoclasts, which he performed successfully. He won a famous dispute with the eminent Ikonoclastic Patriarch, John, and also with Saracens and the Hussars. His brother Methody, who accompanied him among the Hussars, later was appointed Egumen of the Polychron Monastery in the City of Kezek on the Sea of Marmora.

St. Cyril, after a brief stay in the Church of the Holy Apostles in Constantinople, also entered the monastery. Here, it appears, the two brothers conceived the idea of Christianization of the Slavonic tribes in their native tongue. St. Cyril invented in the Polychron Monastery the Slavonic alphabet called "Glagoritsa" (Glagolithic).

The language however, in which the Gospel of St. John was translated and later, the remaining sacred and service books, was that of the Macedonian Slavs. The short period in which the portion of the Gospel was translated and the accuracy of the translation thoroughly demonstrate that the two brothers knew the Slavonic language to perfection.

St. ClementPresently, scholars accept the position that Sts. Cyril and Methody were of Slavonic origin and not Greeks because of their knowlege of the Slavonic language.

When in 863, emissaries from the Moravian Prince, Rostislav came to Constantinople to seek Slavonic Missionaries and Slavonic books, Emperor Michael III and the Patriarch Photius sent the two brothers of Solun, who were accompanied by their followers and helpers, embarked for Moravia, where they were received with great honour by Prince Rostislav and the Moravian people.

In Velegrad, the capital of Moravia, the two brothers dedicated themselves to intense missionary work and teaching. Soon the Moravian Church services were heard in the intelligible Slavonic language in place of the Latin language in which the German clergy celebrate the services. The brothers, supported by Prince Rostislav, and surrounded by many Slavic followers, taught the Slavonic languae and writing and prepared missionaries and teachers.

The Matin, the Vesper, the Hours, and the Divine Liturgy Service were translated in the Slavonic language. The Slavonic work of the Holy Brothers however met with great opposition from the side of the German clergy who alleged that God can only be served in three languages - Greek, Latin, and Hebrew. In order that they could continue their great enlightening work without interference, Sts. Cyril and Methody departed for Rome to seek the approval of the Pope. On the road to Rome they stopped in the city of Blatno, the capital of the Panonian Slavs and where Prince Kostel became interested in their work and so gave them fifty followers from among his people. After passing Venice, where St. Cyril was also detained by controversy concerning the Slavonic Services, the brothers finally reached Rome. They carried with them the relics of St. Clement of Rome, found in Chersones and therefore were received in triumphant manner. Pope Adrian II, not only did not disapprove of the enlightening work of the two brothers in Moravia, but arranged that the followers accompanying St. Cyril and St. Methody be ordained priests; and the Slavonic Service Books be consecrated and placed on the altar of the church and for five consecutive days, the Divine Liturgy be served in the Slavonic language in the larger churches in Rome.

Lesnovo MonasteryIn this way, Pope Adrian II managed to keep Moravia in his domain. The brothers remained in Rome for an entire year. There, St. Cyril at 42 years of age became seriously ill, and on February 14, 869, died. He was buried in the Church of St. Clement with honour which only the popes themselves receive when buried.

St. Cyril bestowed the legacy upon his brother to continue their work. Pope Adrian II detained Methody in Rome until the end of 870 when in accordance with the decision of the Council of Constantinople of that year, the Latin clergy were expelled. St. Methody and his followers departed for Moravia, but, because of the death of Rostislav, and the ascension of his nephew, Svetopolk, he remained in Panonia. The Panonian Prince requested that St. Methody be consecrated a bishop and sent him back to Rome.

In order to prevent that which happened in Panonia, Pope Adrian II fulfilled the wishes of Kotsel and appointed St. Methody, the Bishop of the re-established Sirmo-Panonian Bishopric. This however provoked the Salzbury Archbishopric to oppose St. Methody since Panonia at the time fell under his jurisdiction. He began to intrigue and detract against the new Slavic Bishop until finally at a council at which Prince Svetopolk attended, St. Methody was sentenced to prison where he remained two and a half years.

Released from prison through the intervention of Pope John VIII, St. Methody returned to Panonia and thereafter through the wishes of the Moravians was appointed by the Pope to be Archbishop of Moravia and Panonia. Even though he was supported by Rome, the Latin clergy did not cease intrigues against him. Therefore, in 879 he was called before the Pope, and, was vindicated.

The intervention of Pope John VIII, before Prince Rostislav and the support he received from his Orthodox followers permitted St. Methody to remain in Panonia to the end of his life. He died April 6, 885, and was buried in Velegrad. As Archbishop, he enlarged the Slavonic Literature with the assistance of two followers (priests), and he translated almost the entire Old Testament with the exception of the book of Macabees, the Nomokanon of Photius and some minor service books. He convinced the Czech Prince Boryvoy to be baptized along with his people, and he preached Christianity to the Slavs who lived on the lands around the River Vesta. Thus the two Slavonic teachers ended their difficult early life. However, they left abundant literature manifesting the magnificent results of their work in the field of coulture and philosophy.

Since these two brothers were sons of Macedonia, many of our churches and universities are dedicated to their names and glory. These two eternal flames will lighten the path of our people in their struggle for human rights - freedom, language, self-determination and social justice.

References

Macedonia and Its Relations With Greece, Macedonian Academy of Sciences and Arts, Skopje, 1993
Macedonian Immigrants in Canada and Their Background, Macedonian Canadian Senior Citizens Club-Toronto, Haynes Printing Company Ltd., Cobourg, 1981; p.32-34

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[George S.]

"Perched in his royal seat high over the city of Ohrid, Tsar Samuil fought the Byzantine invaders who frequently tried to take over Macedonia. A ruler as well as a warrior, he led a brave and loyal army who would follow him to the grave."

Tsar Samuil established the first Macedonian state in 976 A.D. lasting until 1018, following the defeat at the hands of the Byzantines. Samuil's Empire consisted of the entire region of Macedonia, as well as Thessaly, Epirus, Albania, Serbia, Duklja, Travina, Zahumlje, Neretva, and a considerable part of Bulgaria. In this empire the majority of the population were Macedonians, followed by Bulgarians, Serbs, Croats, Romaioi (Byzantines), Albanians, and Vlachs. The official language of the empire was Macedonian.

Tsar Samuil's Fortress

Tsar Samuil's Fortress - Ohrid, Macedonia

The Archbishopric of Ohrid was established with Ohrid becoming the religious centre and capital of the Empire. Following the defeat of Samuil's Empire by the Byzantine Empire in 1018, the Macedonians were dealt with harshly.

"The Byzantine Empire also placed the Archbishopric of Ohrid under the jurisdiction of the Patriarchate of Constantinople, and the Greek hierarchs started suppressing Slavonic written documents, Slav hagiographies, etc. It was considered, that with the eradication of the Archbishopric of Ohrid the traditions cherished by the Macedonian people will also be eradicated. Yet Slavonic literacy could not be eradicated." 1

The work of Sts. Cyril and Methody was already well-established. In addition to creating the first Slavonic alphabet, translating religious books into Macedonian, they also expanded their activity among other Macedonians.

Clement and Naum continued the mission of the two brothers.

"In Ohrid, during his activity of 20 years, Clement instructed about 3,500 teachers and priests in the Slavonic alphabet and introduced the Slavonic language in religious service. He was the first original Slav and Macedonian writer. The Ohrid Literary School, being the first Slav university, has left deep traces and has been the basis for Macedonian cultural identity." 2


The Empire of Samuil - Summary (from Mi-An Publishing)
At the end of January 969, immediately after the death of Tsar Petar, the four sons of the Komitadji Nikola-David, Moysey, Aron and Samuil-began an uprising against Bulgarian authorities. Taking advantage of a Russian invasion by Prince Svyatoslav which preoccupied the Byzantines and Bulgarians, they quickly succeeded in overwhelming all opposition in the region. The young Komitadjis, whose territory was far distant from the Russo-Byzantine conflict, remained neutral despite attempts by both sides to sway them. In the summer of 971 near the Danube River, Byzantine Emperor John I Tzimisces delivered a decisive blow to Svyatoslav, and incorporated the Bulgarian empire into Byzantium following the victory.

For two years the Macedonian state of the four brothers had been independent of Byzantium. With the Tzimisces' victory over Svyatoslav and the extension of Byzantine borders as far as Dalmatia, the Macedonian state could be subordinated to the supreme authority of Constantinople in 971, and Bulgaria and Serbia were transformed into Byzantine provinces. By 976, the Komitopulis made several attempts to gain international recognition; there is record of a visit paid by two of them to the court of the Holy Roman Emperor Otto I in 973, with the intention of contacting European rulers gathered in Otto's capital at Kwedlinburg. In January 976, immediately after the death of Tzimisces, the komitopulis rose in revolt: some historians consider this to be a second, new uprising by the four brothers, while others argue that it was a continuation of their first uprising of 969.

"The first date, the year 969," writes Styepan Antolyak, "marks the beginning of the formation of a state core in Macedonia under the leadership of the komitopulis, who, after their liberation from the authority of the Bulgarian church began to extend [the borders of] their still small state in the shadow of nominal Byzantine supremacy. The year 976 marked the beginning of strong development of the state community, the borders of which soon extended from the Black Sea to the middle part of the Adriatic and to the Sava, Drava and Danube Rivers."

In the newly-established state, completely independent of Byzantium, the brothers ruled jointly. This joint rule lasted for a very short time: "Of the four brothers, David was soon killed in the area between Prespa and Kostur by some Vlach travelers, while Moysey was slain by a stone thrown from the ramparts during the siege of Serres. According to the records, Aron, either because he supported the Romaeans or because he sought to grasp power for himself, was killed together with his family by his brother Samuil. Only [his son] Ivan was saved by Radomir Roman, Samuil's son. Thus, Samuil became the sole ruler of Bulgaria: a militant man who was never at peace." Such were the circumstances in which the life of the new empire began. The ambitions of Samuil, called "a brilliant commander" even by Byzantine chroniclers, lay in the west: he attacked Thrace, Macedonia, Thessaloniki, Thessaly, Greece and Peloponnesus. By the 10th century, he succeeded in incorporating the entire territory of Macedonia (without Thessaloniki), most of the former Bulgarian Empire, part of Greece, a large part of Albania, Dioclea, Serbia, Bosnia and a part of Dalmatia within his Macedonian Empire. At the close of the 9th century, Pope Gregory V heralded and blessed Samuil as a king, and the empire of the youngest son of the Komitadji Nikola acquired international recognition and character.

It is very important to note which church recognized Samuil. Some Bulgarian historians have asserted that Samuil's empire was a continuation of the First Bulgarian Empire-recognized by Constantinople and the Orthodox Church. But Samuil's empire was recognized by the Catholic Roman Curia. In addition, Samuil represented a new imperial dynasty, the empire was founded on a new state and legal basis, with new twin capitals at Prespa and Ohrid, and with a precisely defined core centered around Macedonia and the Macedonian Slavs as the fundamental element of the new empire. All of this points to the fact that Samuil's empire was not merely a continuation of the First Bulgarian Empire recently shattered by Byzantium, but a new political entity which emerged independently. The first capital of Samuil was Prespa, later transferred to Ohrid. At that time, the latter was a strongly fortified town and well-suited to forestall Byzantine reconquest. In Ohrid Samuil built imperial palaces and a church to be the seat of the Macedonian church. It is also significant to note that, throughout the existence of the Macedonian Empire, the capital was situated within Macedonia-a confirmation of the essentially Macedonian character of this medieval Balkan state.

As recorded in Byzantine chronicles, Basil II, the new Byzantine emperor, invaded Macedonia almost "every year" and gradually succeeded in capturing and destroying a number of strongholds. The fall of Durres and of the fortified towns on the other side of the Maritsa River and the submission of Greater and Lesser Preslav, Pliska, Veria, Servia, Voden, Vidin, Edirne and Skopje considerably eroded Samuil's power. The decisive battle between Samuil and Basil II took place at the foot of Mt. Belasitsa on July 29, 1014.

"The emperor had given up hope that he would be able to pass, when Nicephorus Sciphianus, appointed by him as strategist of Philippopolis, bade him stay there and assault the barriers [before the battle of Belasitsa Samuil had blocked the road where Basil II sought to enter Macedonia by barriers and trenches], while he would attempt a rescue action. And he took his soldiers and, unexpectedly, with shouts and great noise, appeared on the hill behind their backs. Frightened by the unexpected appearance of enemy soldiers, the army [of Samuil] started to run away. The emperor pulled down the barriers and began to chase them. Many of them were killed, and even more were taken captive. Samuil narrowly escaped death with the help of his son, who bravely fought against the attackers. He put his father on a horse and took him to the fortress called Prilep. The emperor blinded captives-about 15,000 of them, they say-and ordering afterwards that every hundred of them be led by a one-eyed soldier, he sent them thus to Samuil. The latter was so shaken by the sight of them walking in rows of equal numbers that he felt sick. Everything went black in front of his eyes and he fell on the ground. Those present, who tried hard to restore his breathing with water and herbs, succeeded to bring him back to consciousness for a few minutes. When he revived he asked for cold water; however, when he began to drink, he suffered a heart attack and two days later he died." This is the 12th century account of the Byzantine historian Skylitzes about the defeat of Samuil by Basil II. There is no definite proof where Samuil died-in Prilep, as claimed by Skylitzes, or in Prespa, as stated by Michael Attaliot. But the date of Samuil's death is placed at October 6, 1014.

The death of Samuil did not mean disintegration of his empire. His successor to the throne was his son Gavril Radomir, who continued the war with Byzantium and raided as far as Constantinople. The Byzantines intrigued to achieve what they could not win on the battlefield: they persuaded Ivan Vladislav, the son of Aron-alive only thanks to Gavril Radomir's intervention with Samuil-to kill Radomir. Promised "gold and silver to his heart's content" and even Samuil's empire, Vladislav agreed and in August or September 1015, Gavril Radomir was killed by Ivan Vladislav while hunting near the town of Ostrovo. Regardless of the fact that he took an oath of loyalty to Basil II, Ivan Vladislav continued to fight Constantinople. But after a series of dramatic battles, devastating campaigns and acts of treason throughout Samuil's empire, the last faithful commanders of Samuil, Ivec and Nikolica, were defeated in the summer of 1018 and Ohrid taken. Basil II could now boast that he had crushed and conquered Samuil's state. The territory of Macedonia was divided into a number of administrative regions, called themes. Consequently, the chances for Macedonians to unite and renew the uprising were reduced to the absolute minimum.


References

Makedonski Icelenuchki Almanac '95, Matitsa na Icelenitsite od Makedonija; Skopje: 1995; p.36
Ibid; p.37

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[George S.]

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St. Jovan Church in Ohrid, Macedonia

St. Jovan Church in Ohrid, Macedonia

"During the night Paul had a vision of a man of Macedonia standing and begging him, 'Come over to Macedonia and help us.' After Paul had seen the vision, we got ready at once to leave for Macedonia, concluding that God had called us to preach the gospel to them."

The Holy Bible - Acts 16:9,10

Excerpt from: Macedonia and Its Relations With Greece 1

The Macedonian people has re-established its church as one of the fundamental features of its national identity on the foundations of the Archbishopric of Ohrid. This autocephalous church has existed, first at Prespa and then in Ohrid, since the time of Tsar Samuil and his descendants as the spiritual institution of that empire. It was legally strengthened by the Byzantine Emperor Basil II as an ecumenical Christian institution immediately after his defeat of Samuil's state in 1018.

The administrative, economic and cultural measures then instituted by Byzantium were adapted to the local traditions. A leader of Slav Macedonian origin was retained at the head of the Archbishopric. At the time when the archiepiscopal leadership considered that the ecumenical Patriarchate in Nicaea had, at the beginning of the 13th century, infringed the autocephalous rights of the Archbishopric of Ohrid there was a fiery reaction from its Archbishop, Demetrius Homatian, who in large measure laid down the ecclesiastical and canonical aims of his ecclesiastical institution which would later be the canon law foundation for other archbishoprics as well.

St. Naum Church in OhridIn the 13th century at the time of the Bulgarian Emperor Ivan Asen II, in addition to the church at Trnovo, the older Ohrid Church was also an object of respect. This was also the case under the rule of the Serbian sovereign, Stefan Dushan: in addition to his church at Pec, he treated the Archbishopric of Ohrid with equal respect. After the proclamation of the Serbian Patriarchate in 1346 and its expulsion from the ecumenical body, the Patriarchate in Constantinople, the archbishops of Ohrid were engaged in a process of reconciliation for the return of Serbia into the orthodox community.

With the fall of Ohrid under Ottoman rule at the close of the 14th century the Archbishopric of Ohrid was legalized before the Turkish authorities and strengthened its rights, as had the Patriarchate of Constantinople after 1453, and for a period in the 15th century both the territory of Serbia and a part of Bulgaria came under its ecclesiastical jurisdiction.

In the Ottoman state the archbishops of Ohrid, particularly in the 17th and 18th centuries, took on the role of popular leaders in the movement for liberation, carrying on talks, predominantly with Austria, concerning the formation of a state for the captive Christians, primarily the Macedonians.

Despite the fact that Orthodox Albanians, Vlachs and Greeks from Epirus came into the Ohrid diocese in the course of the 18th century, all of these were deeply linked to the traditions of the Ohrid Church, guarding its autocephalous nature jealously. In the first half of the 18th century, therefore, virtually an the Lives and Services of the saints of its Church, starting with the Slavonic educators of the 9th and 10th centuries, were published in Macedonian Slavic.

BogorodicaIn 1767, the financial difficulties of the Archbishopric of Ohrid were used as a pretext and it was discontinued by agreement of the Patriarchate of Constantinople and the Ottoman authorities. This dealt a grievous blow to the centuries-long ecclesiastical and cultural traditions maintained in Macedonia and the neighboring regions.

Throughout the long life of this extremely distinguished institution, lasting nearly eight centuries, the Archbishopric of Ohrid had not lost its autocephalous status, regardless of changes in the political situation under Byzantine, Bulgarian and Serbian rule or during the lengthy period of Ottoman Turkish rule. Other peoples and their parts of the Balkans had come under the diocese of the Archbishopric of Ohrid, which was extremely large, up to the 13th century and under Ottoman rule (15th and 16th centuries), but throughout the whole of its existence the Macedonians formed the basic zone of its eparchies and the main body of the faithful. The guardian and patron saint of the Church was the first pupil of Ss. Cyril and Methodius, St. Clement of Ohrid, one of the founders of Slavonic culture and literacy. His work was celebrated by distinguished Greek archbishops (e.g. Theophilact and Homatian), who respected the traditions of their flock, during the Byzantine period. The language of this institution of public worship was Slavonic, established by Ss. Cyril, Methodius and Clement and also ancient Greek which, together with Latin, was treated as a language of the entire Christian world.

In the cultural traditions of the Ohrid School, especially in its art, portraits of the first Slavonic educators from the 9th and 10th centuries have been created over a period of a thousand years, and many hundreds of representations of them have been preserved in churches. Macedonia was a center of the iconography of the old Slavonic period right up to the end of the 19th century.

The contact of the Macedonians with Byzantium, its culture, scholarship and art was a beneficial one. The Macedonians, like the Russians, Bulgarians, Serbs, Romanians and other peoples of the "Byzantine Commonwealth", as it has been termed by the distinguished British scholar D. Obolensky, made a great contribution in the middle ages to the development of the Byzantine style and culture through their own creative strengths., their outstanding writers, artists, builders, etc.

It is quite comprehensible that in the 19th century, in the struggle for cultural emancipation in Macedonia, the question of the revival of the Archbishopric of Ohrid was also posed. In the course of their struggle for their own language, the ecclesiastical and educational districts in Macedonia from the mid-19th century onwards sought also the revival of the ecclesiastical institution which had been discontinued in 1767. Starting out from the fact that neither the Bulgarian nor the Serbian authorities had in earlier periods discontinued the Archbishopric of Ohrid, but rather recognized its autocephalous nature, there existed certain suppositions, both legal and ecclesiastical, concerning its revival; but the prevailing political and military conditions and above an the activities of neighboring propaganda rendered this impossible.

In the 20th century, during the period of the Second World War and the course of the military actions of the struggle for Macedonian statehood, the Macedonians put the question of an autocephalous church. In 1943, when the national liberation movement became a massive uprising and when the first liberated territory was established in the village of Izdeglavje in the Debar district of the Ohrid region, the First Assembly of Macedonian Clergy was held on 21st October and a decision was taken to form an Archpriests' Governership with the aim of its developing into an autocephalous Macedonian church.

St. John BigorskiIn October 1944, in the village of Gorno Vranovel in the Veles district, a Preliminary Committee for the organization of church life in Macedonia was formed. The first Church-and-People Assembly was held in Skopje in March 1945, when 300 delegates, all clergyman and laymen from whole of Macedonia declared themselves in favor of the realization of the aims expressed at Izdeglavje for the formation of an autocephalous Macedonian Orthodox Church with Macedonian Archiepriests. On 8th May 1946, only fourteen months after the first Church-and- People Assembly, a new Assembly of the Clergy took place in Skopje as a reaction to the fact that the decisions passed at the first Church-and-People Assembly had met with no understanding at the Holy Synod of the Serbian Orthodox Church.

Since the representatives of the Serbian orthodox Church were attempting to postpone the solution of the Macedonian Church question, the delegates to the second Church-and-People Assembly, held in Ohrid on 4th and 5h 0ctober 1958, passed a decision in favor of the revival of the Archbishopric of 0hrid and of the Constitution of the Macedonian orthodox Church, although with the recognition of the Patriarch of the .Serbian Orthodox Church the Bishop of Toplice, Dositej, was elected as its Archbishop, its supreme head.

After a year of negotiations, the Holy Synod of Archpriests of the Serbian Orthodox Church agreed to the secession of the three Macedonian eparchies order to form an independent Macedonian Church and stated that the regulations and the Constitution of the Serbian Orthodox Church ceased to be valid in the Macedonian Church. In accordance with this decision, the Serbian archpriests took part in the consecration of the first Macedonian archpriests The Patriarch German employs the title of Patriarch of Serbia and Macedonia''.

Since the Serbian Church did not proclaim the state of affairs that had come to pass, the Holy Synod of the Macedonian Orthodox Church caned its third Church-and-People Assembly on 17th-18th July 1967 in Ohrid and discarded the personal union of the Macedonian and the Serbian Orthodox Churches . The Macedonian Orthodox Church is administered by an assembly and consists of the Eparchies of Skopje, Prespa and Bitola, Debar and Kicevo, Bregalnica, Polog and Kumanovo, Vardar, Strumica, the American and Canadian Eparchy and the Australian Eparchy, while a European Macedonian Eparchy is in the process of formation.

In its concern for the faithful beyond their fatherland, the Church endeavors to organize them into Macedonian church districts. The first such district came into being in 1958, immediately after the holding of the second Church-and-People Assembly. Today there are more than forty Macedonian church districts in the U.S.A.. Canada, Australia and Europe in which virtually all the Macedonian emigrants are enrolled.

The education, training and renewal of the clergy of the Macedonian Orthodox Church is undertaken through the St. Clement of Ohrid Theological College, founded in 1964 and, since 1377. a Theological Faculty has also been operative.

Reference

Macedonia and Its Relations With Greece, Macedonian Academy of Sciences and Arts, Skopje, 1993; p.25-30

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[George S.]

The covered market place and the
Isac Mosque in Bitola, Macedonia

Summary of Ottoman Rule in Macedonia

Excerpt from: Makedonski Icelenuchki Almanac '97 1

Macedonia before the Balkan WarsAt the end of the 14th century, after a famnonym for having no rights. For a long period Macedonia was subject to a dual domination: economically and politically to the Sultan's rule, and religiously to the rule of the Constantinople Patriarchate, at the head of which were Greeks.

The struggle against feudal exploitation and Turkish rule in Macedonia took the form of repeated rebellions and insurrections, which later developed into organized ajduk strife (ajduks were outlaws opposed to Turkish rule). In 1564-1565 the Mariovo- Priand the beginning of the 19th century was accompanied by the first emergence of capitalism in Macedonia and the intensifying of national liberation activities. Macedonians took an active part in the insurrections of the neighbouring peoples. The attempts of the Ottoman Empire at reforms in the social, economic, and political system in Macedonia, made under the pressure of the contemporary European Great Powers, did not lead to any improvement in the difficult situation.

Following its defeat in the 187f San Stefano. By ignoring the real interests and struggle of the Macedonian people for liberation and a state of their own, European diplomacy encouraged the nationalist and expansionist myths of the neighbouring Balkan states, and turned the Macedonian Question into an important European political question.

Dimitrija Chupovski's "Macedonia and the Macedonians"
Written in 1913
Ottoman Terror in Macedonia

General Info | Photo Gallery | Those who are acquainted with the history of the revolutionary movement in Macedonia know about the many excesses of the Committee, which were contrary to the tasks of the Internal Organization and thus wakened the power of the popular movement.

Following the Macedonian uprising of 1895 (led by Trajko Kitanchev) and the (Armenian) slaughter in Asia Minor, the European states succeeded only in forcing the Sultan in 1896 to proclaim his famous "Irade" for reforms in the whole of European Turkey. But this irade did not help the Christian population of Macedonia in the least.

The Internal Organization, however, vigorously prepared itself for a new uprising under the slogan "Macedonia to the Macedonians", and the people, exhausted by the Turkish atrocities, were glad to join the revolutionary movement. Of course, this did not suit the will of the Balkan states, which dreamt of grabbing Macedonia themselves. They only awaited a suitable moment to declare war on Turkey, and such an event was a result of the difficult position of the Osmanli state, caused by the Macedonian and Albanian uprisings, internal turnovers, and primarily, by the Italo-Turkish War. Even before the end of that war, the Balkan states united in an alliance and came out against Turkey under the slogan of liberation of the Christians from the Turkish yoke.

In view of the menace of events the Macedonian emigrants to Bulgaria, organized in 27 brotherhoods, formed an executive committee from the delegates of all the brotherhoods, under the presidency of Lieutenant Colonel Aleksandar Protogerov and Polihron Naichev. This executive committee established from the Macedonian emigrants and Russian volunteer detachments, one of which, known under the name of "Krdzhaliska", captured Yaver Pasha with an army of 12,000. There were 27 such volunteer detachments, according to the number of the largest towns in Macedonia, and all those units were sent into Macedonia, some of them acting independently, and some along with the Bulgarian, Serbian and Greek regular armies. Apart from the aforementioned units, the activists of the Internal Organization, such as Todor Lazarev, Todor Aleksandrov, Petar Kuchev, Dr. Hristo Tatarchev, Hristo Matov, Sandanski and others, also organized local terrorist bands. Both these and the other partisan units acted ahead of the advancing allied front blowing bridges, demolishing roads, destroying Turkish units, giving information about the disposition of the enemy, etc. They also collected food both for the people and the horses in the regular armies.

Especially organized was the activity of detachments of voyvoda Sandanski in the regions of Mount Pirin, Melnik, Nevrokop and Drama. Even before the start of the war, the voyvoda took the Christian inhabitants from these regions to the mountains, where after they had built a series of inaccessible fortifications, he trained them in manipulating with arms. He had more than 2,000 men.

The activity of these detachments extended not only on the Macedonian military scene but on the Thracian one as well, where they suffered severe losses during the capture of Bulair and Shar-Koj. The Macedonian units captured many Turkish garrisons and many towns even before the arrival of the allied forces.

In this way, the Macedonians, as regards Bulgaria, Serbia, Greece and Montenegro, appeared as allies in the present Balkan war. In general, more than 100,000 Macedonians participated in this war, not considering the help of the whole population offered to the allies for the liberation. Justice required, after all, when the Macedonians fought against the Turks for their freedom under the slogan "Macedonia to the Macedonians" and helped the allies in the war, that the interests of Macedonia, too, should be recognized by the Balkan Alliance and all means satisfied in the form of autonomy.

King MarkoOver almost twenty centuries the Macedonian people have always and in all circumstances striven toward freedom and independence. However difficult their economic situation was, however harmful for that situation their continuous struggle was, they raised at every suitable moment the banner of rebellion and rose against the oppressors, suffering innumerable sacrifices. But these freedom-loving people did not think only of their freedom; all revolutions, all wars for liberation of the Slav neighbours even those of the same faith, such as the Greeks, met with their fiery response. The Macedonians then left their fields, their wives and children, and went to die for the cause of the others, as if for their own. Who of the Bulgarians, Serbs and Greeks will dare deny this fact? The feeling of solidarity for the members of the same stock or the same faith has been preserved in them from times immemorial. The Macedonian national hero, Marko Krale, forced in 1394 to join the Turks as a vassal against the Moldavian prince Mirko, expressed the depth of this brotherly national spirit with the following words: "Lord, may I die in this battle, but let the Christians win". And he died for the Christians, compelled to fight against them.

The Slavs, settling the territory of present-day Macedonia, simultaneously adopted the Christian doctrine from the older inhabitants that remained there, and along with it, the Christian culture as well. The Christian communes were established here by the first followers of Christ and mainly, they were the result of the activity of the Holy Apostles St. Paul, St. Andrew, and one of the seventy apostles of Aristarchus, who was first Bishop Salonika.

For a long time, the cultural Christian centre of Macedonia, and of the balkan Peninsula in general, was Salonika with its archbishopric. But even the Emperor Justinian (527-565) with his decree (law), issued in the name of Archbisop Catelian, separated the Illyrian Archbishopric (which was located in western Macedonia, near present-day Skopje) as an autonomous unit, calling it Prima Justiniana, giving it an authority equal to the authority of the Patriarchate and subordinating the whole of the Balkan Peninsula to it.

With decree 131, issued on 17th March 545 A.D., Justinian confirmed those rights, with the amendment that the Archbishop should be ordained by his own synod, with rights equal to those of the Roman Pope.

The Prima Justiniana was of immense significance for the whole country and was actually an antecedent of the future Archbishopric of Ohrid.

But the whole Christian culture could not attain in its development full significance as an autonomous Chruch until the distinct Slav literacy, and along with it the translations of the holy books, were furnished by the Salonika brothers, SS. Cyril (with his secular name of Konstantin) and Methodius.

The father of Cyril and Methodius, Lev, was a Macedonian Slav in the Byzantine service, occupying the post of assistant to the Salonika military commander. Cyril the Philosopher and his brother acquired the highest education possible for that time in Constantinople, in the Imperial Palace, and attracted the attention of the Slavs even at the time. Born in Salonika, and being Slavs themselves, they invested all their efforts into educating their compatriots.

Soon after the completion of his education, we see Konstantin near the banks of the River Bregalnica, where he found a certain number of pagans still, and owing to his relentless endeavours, he Christianized, according to the data of the chronicler, 4,050 Slavs.

In 843 A.D. Methodius was appointed Prince of the Struma region in Macedonia, where he stayed until 853 A.D.

When in 855 A.D. the Byzantine emperor Michael, on the request of the Moravian prince Rastislav, decided to send Slav priests as educators his choice naturally fell upon the Salonika brothers (at that time the brothers had already cut their hair and become monks).

"You are Salonikans, and all Salonikans speak pure Slavic", said Emperor Michael, sending them to Moravia.

Even before, while they were still in Macedonia, the holy brothers composed an alphabet and with its help translated the Gospels and the religious service books into the Macedonian Slav language.

Just as in Moravia, the brothers sowed Christianity with the help of these church books throughout the other Slav countries as well, and after their death, their work was continued by their disciples Gorazd, Kliment, Angelarius, Sava, Naum and many others.

The most important centre of the Christian national culture of Macedonia became the town of Ohrid with its famous Archbishopric of Ohrid, restored upon the ruins of the Justiniana by the great Macedonian emperor, Samuil, with the same right as the latter.

This archbishopric fought, defending Macedonian Slav culture during the whole period from 995 to 1767, when it fell under the pressure of Hellenism, strengthened at the time of the Turkish reign, and as a result of the intrigues by the Constantinople Patriarch.

The triumphant Hellenism which extinguished the last embers of national church life in the form of the aforementioned archbishopric, invested all its forces in dispossessing and Hellenizing the Macedonian people. Only Greeks were appointed bishops and priests, the schools were turned into Greek, and the Slavic services replaced by Greek ones.

All this gave rise to a powerful resistance by the Macedonian Slavs, which started a long struggle for the restoration of their national Church, a struggle of Slavism against Hellenism, which led to the Bulgarians managing to establish their Exarchate (autonomous Church) in 1872. Many Macedonians joined it, since the Bulgarians were allowed to found churches and schools throughout Macedonia and the Macedonians had to choose the lesser of the two evils - at least a Slav, although alien, Church. The Macedonians have not succeeded in restoring their autonomous Ohrid Church up to the present day.

Thus, the detrimental influence of the Greek Patriarchate was combined with the no less detrimental influence of the Exarchate, which employed all its forces for the Bulgarianization of the Macedonian Slavs. Through this instrument of its own (the Exarchate), the Bulgarian Government put its chauvinist ideas firmly into practice, not shrinking from the use of any means.

The population of the unfortunate country began suffering pressure from two sides. But this was still not enough. The struggle of the Greeks and the Bulgarians for domination over Macedonia provoked the third side to struggle, too - the Serbs - who, noticing that nobody was advocating a case for the Macedonians anyway, procured a right from Turkey to spread their propaganda in the country also, thus creating "Serbian" people where they had never existed. In 1897, not without the support of Russian diplomacy, Serbia obtained the right to have its own Church in Macedonia, and then its own schools as well. From that moment on, the Macedonian people were forced to carry a triple cross upon their backs. What the Greeks could not Hellenize over the course of several centuries, what the Bulgarians could not put in their Exarchist bosom, now the Serbians started to try to grab with their Church and schools. The depredation of the unprotected Macedonian people thus began, and in that depredation the Turkish Government also consciously participated, which acting on the principle of divide and rule, readliy cooperated in the cultural and spiritual partition of this one poeple into three sections, finding in this the guarantees for its peace and power.

The historical facts and the evidence of national culture were distorted with evil intentions, the national customs, traditions and songs were twisted and destroyed with the only aim of proving that all of it was either Serbian, Bulgarian or Greek, excluding among themselves the rights of the others.

All these Bulgarian, Serbian and Greek nationalities were created artificially with the help of whole rivers of gold, which flew from the interested states into the pockets of both Turkish civil servants and certain Macedonians who sold their fatherland for money or worked for no profit as blind instruments of foreign states, under the influence of education or upbringing acquired there.

This abnormal phenomenon, which developed in the body of the living organism - the people, could not fail to cause protests and resistance by the patriots who thought honestly and who saw that such a state of affairs could sooner or later bring abaout the ruin of the whole people. A struggle was started, but not any more for "distributionof shirts", but against the foreign culture, which plundered the national property. Both individuals and whole organizations came out with protests against such a depredatory way of dealing by current allies. Collective complaints were submitted to the Turkish Sultan, as the supreme authority in the country, similar complaints were also submitted to the Russian Tsar, as the prime protector of the whole Slav and Orthodox world, memoranda were sent throughout Europe.

The Turkish authorities, of course, did not pay any attention to those complaints, but on the contrary, looked at the Macedonians as revolutionaries.

All those who declared that Macedonia was a single, indivisible body, which should not be subjected to disintegration, were handed over by the agents of the three aforementioned countries to the Turkish Government as persons who threatened the integrity and inviolability of the Turkish Empire, were put in prison and subjected to torture.

The Russian Emperor Alexander lll and the present sovereign who rules successfully, Emperor Nicholas ll, permanent protectors of the oppressed, have many times drawn attention through their representatives of the governments of Turkey, Bulgaria, Serbia and Greece to the abnormality of this phenomenon.

But the countries interested in the cultural occupation of Macedonia, aware that in such a way they would also achieve a political occupation, refused to listen to any advice and continued their mission which was destructive for Macedonia, arousing thus great wrath and protests among the Macedonians whom they were tearing apart.

And now, after the subjugation of many centuries and the long influence of alien cultures upon them, regardless of all unfavourable circumstances, regardless of the pressure they endured and are still enduring, the Macedonian people have left the arena of the centuries just as pure and autonomous as they entered it.

Reference

Makedonski Icelenuchki Almanac '97, Matitsa na Icelenitsite od Makedonija; Skopje, 1997; p.35-36
Macedonia and the Macedonians, Dimitar Chupovski, Makedonski Golos, 1913

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Partition of Macedonia

In their aim to annex Macedonian territory and drive out the Ottoman Turks, Greece, Bulgaria, Serbia, and Montenegro declared war on Turkey in the autumn of 1912. Macedonians took part in the First Balkan War believing that it would finally bring them freedom. Upon defeating the Turks, the Balkan allies could not reach an agreement on how to partition Macedonia. The Second Balkan War began in 1913 and ended with the Treaty of Bucharest signed on August 10, 1913. The map below illustrates how Macedonia was partitioned as a result of this treaty.

Macedonian Cultural and Historical Resource Center

"On October 8, 1912, the First Balkan War begun. Montenegro, Serbia, Bulgaria, and Greece attacked the European positions of the Ottoman Empire. More than 100,000 Macedonians also took active part and contributed in driving the Turks out of Macedonia. Turkey capitulated soon, but Macedonia did not free itself. The victorious Balkan kingdoms convened in Bucharest in August 1913 to divide the spoils.

Greece was awarded Aegean Macedonia and renamed it to "Northern Greece"; Bulgaria annexed Pirin Macedonia and abolished the Macedonian name, and Serbia took over Vardar Macedonia and renamed it to "Southern Serbia". The same year, N. Pasich of Serbia and E. Venizelos of Greece agreed on the newly formed Greek-Serbian (later Yugoslavian) border, so that there would be "only Serbs to the North and only Greeks to the South", and no "Macedonians" on either side. Thus, the politics to assimilate the Macedonians of Aegean Macedonia had already begun."

Macedonia and Greece 1

"...even in the very long rule of the Turks, Macedonia was recognized as a separate entity. It was this Greater Macedonia that was divided by the Greeks, Bulgarians and Serbians after the Balkan wars of 1912-13. No historian, Greek or otherwise, uses any name but Macedonia to descrbie the territories that were partitioned. After the division, none of the controlling powers permitted the use of the name in the portions of Macedonia that they had taken. The kingdom of the Serbs, Croatians and Slovenians used the name 'South Serbia'; Greece referred to the 'Northern Provinces'; and Bulgaria used the name 'Western Bulgaria.'"

Carnegie Commission Report on the Balkan Wars, 1914

"The most natural solution of the Balkan imbroglio appeared to be the creation in Macedonia of a new autonomy or independent unity, side by side with the other unities realised in Bulgaria, Greece, Serbia and Montenegro, all of which countries had previously been liberated, thanks to Russian or European intervention. But this solution had become impossible, owing first to the incapacity of the Turkish government, and then to the rival pretensions of the three neighbouring States to this or that part of the Macedonian inheritance."

Macedonia and Its Relations With Greece, 2

"Following their own interests and aims to conquer and partition the European part of Ottoman Turkey, the neighbouring Balkan states - Serbia, Greece, Bulgaria and Montenegro - decided to start a war. The Treaty between Serbia and Bulgaria signed on March 12th 1912 (with a secret annexe) included a possibility for the transformation of Macedonia into an autonomous region and anticipated the arbitration of the Russian Tsar. In such form, this agreement was a compromise to avoid the territorial separation and partition of Macedonia. After Greece and Montenegro joined the agreement, a Balkan Alliance was formed and it immediately began preparations for a war against the Ottoman Empire.

In autumn 1912 the Balkan allies declared war on Turkey. The offensive actions of the Balkan allies against the Turkish army were carried out mainly on Macedonian territory and on the Thracian front. Believing that this war would bring the long-expected freedom, the Macedonian people took active part in the First Balkan War with their own regiments (chetas) and voluntary units. Forty-four such units were operating in Macedonia at the time impeding the mobilization and the movement of the Turkish army with their diversions. About 14,000 Macedonians fought together with the Bulgarian army within the so-called "Macedonian Regiment." At the same time there were Macedonian soldiers distributed in thirty units within the "National Defence" and the "Voluntary Regiments" of the Serbian army. A similar formation, called the "Holy Regiment", was operating within the Greek army.

The victories of the Balkan allies over the Turkish army conditioned Turkey to sign a cease-fire and a short-term truce, but the battles went on until May 30, 1913. However, new bloodshed started soon among the Balkan allies who could not reach an agreement as how to partition the territories taken over from Turkey. The partition was carried out by force of arms and sanctioned by the Bucharest Peace Treaty signed on August 10th, 1913 according to which all the Balkan states expanded their territories. Macedonia was not only denied its autonomy which had originally been one of the causes of war against Turkey, but it was forcefully divided and partitioned by the neighbouring Balkan states. Greece seized the biggest, southern part of Macedonia, Serbia won the central Vardar region and the Pirin part with the Strumica vicinity was given to Bulgaria.

Drawing new borders under the excuse of establishing a "balance" and peace in the Balkans was a violent denial of the rights of the Macedonian people to live and develop as a free, unified and independent nation. The aspirations towards the creation of a state of their own as a necessity, a guarantee of the national sovereignty and territorial integrity of Macedonia, were evident in the ideas and actions of the Macedonian patriots. Despite the conquering and partitioning of their homeland they fought for independence and the establishment of a Macedonian government and national assembly which would decide on the form of government and "the internal structure of the Macedonian state." However, the attempts to prevent the compulsory partition of Macedonia were in vain because the Balkan and European states remained deaf to the demands of the Macedonian people for preserving the integrity of their land and its constitution as a state.

The new masters of the conquered Macedonian regions introduced a violent military and police regime, denied the national individuality of the Macedonian people, deprived them of their rights and tortured and denationalized the Macedonian people. A regime of "special decrees" from the mid-nineteenth century was imposed in the territory under Serbian rule. In the part of Macedonia under Bulgarian rule, military commanders helped by comitadji voivodes ruled over the civil authorities and "dispensed justice" to the people. In the Macedonian districts under Greek rule the notorious Cretan gandarmerie, which acted in support of the conservative Greek governors, kept law and order.

The territorial, ethnic and economic disintegration of Macedonia caused severe damage to the economy, to the Macedonian movement for national liberation and to its socio-political development. After the Balkan Wars, Macedonia was completely devastated. Besides the tens of thousands killed in the war, there were several hundreds of thousands of refugees (more than 135,000 Macedonians and a small number of Bulgarians from Thrace escaped from the Aegean part of Macedonia occupied by the Greek army alone). There were numerous cases of genocide towards the Macedonian population in the territories occupied by the Greek, Serbian and Bulgarian armies and, according to the Carnegie Commission, several towns like Voden, Negush, Ber, Enidzhe Vardar, Dojran, etc., more than 200 villages (out of which around 170 villages with 17,000 homesteads in the Aegean part of Macedonia) were completely destroyed. In June 1913 the Greek army burnt to ashes the Macedonian town of Kukush with its 1,846 houses, 612 shops, 6 factories, etc. At the same time 4,000 houses were burned to the ground in the Serez vicinity.

The tragic outcome of the Balkan Wars was a real national catastrophe for Macedonia. The unresolved Macedonian question continued to be "an apple of discord" for the Balkan states. It remained in the whirlpool of events which were of fatal importance both for Macedonia and the future of the Balkans."

The consequences of this partition are outlined under the category - Human Rights

References

Macedonia and Greece - The Struggle to Define a New Balkan Nation, John Shea, McFarland and Company Inc., North Carolina, 1997; p.91
Macedonia and Its Relations With Greece, Macedonian Academy of Sciences and Arts, Skopje, 1993; p.67-70

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[George S.]

Lerin, Aegean Macedonia

Lerin, Aegean Macedonia

Introduction | Expulsion of Ethnic Macedonians After 1913 | Change of Toponyms and Names
The ABECEDAR Case | The Metaxas Dictatorship

Introduction

Aegean Macedonia came under Greek occupation in 1913 following the Balkan Wars and partition of Macedonia. The Greek government immediately began a terrorist campaign against the Macedonian people, resulting in hundreds of thousands killed, tortured, or expelled. Many Greeks, however, refuse to admit that a sizeable ethnic Macedonian minority exists in Greece. (See Greek Propaganda). The Greek government claims that 98.5% of its country is ethnically Greek while the remainder belongs to the "Muslim minority of Thrace". It claims that there are no ethnic minorities within its borders. The human rights record of Greece is horrendous, despite being a member of the United Nations, European Union, and NATO and a signatory of several international human rights agreements including the United Nations Universal Declaration of Human Rights. This has been well-documented by several human rights organizations including: Human Rights Watch/Helsinki; Amnesty International; United Nations; Greek Helsinki Monitor; Minority Rights Group; International Helsinki Federation; and the Macedonian Human Rights Movement of Canada.


Expulsion of Ethnic Macedonians After 1913

Kukush, Aegean MacedoniaThe Greek government attempted to ethnically cleanse the Macedonian population and colonize Aegean Macedonia with Greeks. A series of population exchanges occurred after 1913 which saw tens of thousands of Macedonians forcibly expelled while over half a million Greeks were shipped in from Turkey and Bulgaria.

"All statistics except the Greek ones are also in general agreement that these Macedonians represented the largest single group on the territory of Aegean Macedonia before 1913. The figures range from 329,371 or 45.3 per cent to 382,084 or 68.9 per cent of the non-Turkish population; and from 339.369 or 31.3 per cent to 370.371 or 35.2 per cent of the total population of the area of approximately 1,052,227 inhabitants.

The number of Macedonians in Aegean Macedonia began to decline both in absolute terms and as a percentage of the total population during the Balkan wars and particularly after the First World War. The Treaty of Neuilly with Bulgaria provided for the so-called volun-tary exchange of Greek and Bulgarian minorities. According to the best available estimates, 86,582 Macedonians were compelled to emigrate from Aegean Macedonia, mostly from its eastern and central regions, to Bulgaria in the years from 1913 to 1928. More importantly still as a result of the compulsory exchange of Greek and Turkish or rather Christian and Muslim minorities required by the Treaty of Lausanne, which ended the Greek-Turkish war (1919-22), 400,000 Turks, including 49,000 Muslim Macedonians, were forced to leave Greece; and 1,300,000 Greeks and other Christians were expelled from Asia Minor. In the years up to 1928 the Greek government settled 565,143 of these refugees as well as 53,000 colonists from other parts of Greece in Aegean Macedonia. Thus, as a result of the removal of 127,384 Macedonians and the conscious and planned settlement of 618,199 refugees, the Greek government transformed the ethnographic structure of Aegean Macedonia in the period between 1913 and 1928." 1

"Even Greek sources concede that during the years from 1913 to 1928 the enormous movements of population which took place in Greek Macedonia changed the ethnological composition of the area. Macedonia, History and Politics, acknowledges that perhaps 100,000 Slavic speakers 'left' (ie., were forced to leave), 77,000 of these in 1926 alone. These figures may well be an underestimate but this material does add weight to the idea that even greater numbers of Greeks came in. The extent of the population movement out of Aegean Macedonia is emphasized in a report on March 30, 1927, in the Greek newspaper Rizospastis, which stated that 500,000 Slavic speakers were resettled to Bulgaria." 2

"Thus the majority of the Greek-speaking population of Aegean Macedonia is descended from relatively recent Greek refugees from Turkey and other places. This being the case, Greece might be considered to have questionable claim on the name Macedonia. Remember, too, that the name Macedonia was not applied to the province by Greece until 1988. Thus much of the current population has lived at most some 70 years in a land that has been called 'Macedonia' for less than a decade. Clearly they do not have the kind of historical claim to the land and to the name Macedonia as the Macedonian Slavs, Vlachs and Albanians whose ancestors have been there for 1,500 years or more." 3

"...they have carefully fostered this delusion, as if to give the impression both to their own people and to the world that there that there was no Slav minority in Greece at all; whereas, if a foreigner who did not know Greece were to visit the Florina (Lerin) region and from his idea of the country as a whole, he would conclude that it was the Greeks who were the minority. It is predominantly a Slav region not a Greek one. The language of the home, and usually also of the fields, the village street, and the market, is Macedonian, a Slav language." 4

The Macedonians became a minority in the eastern half of Aegean Macedonia while remaining (still today) a majority in western Aegean Macedonia, around the villages of Lerin, Kostur, and Voden. The numbers of ethnic Macedonians was reduced to 240,000. Today, the estimates range between 270,000 and one million (the latter number by Macedonian human rights activists in Greece).

Kostur, Aegean Macedonia"As official census data do not exist, and if they did they would not be reliable, we will mention here the most frequent estimate of some 200,000 Macedonian speakers in Greece (IHF, 1993:45; & Rizopoulos, 1993); the 1987 Encyclopedia Britannica Book of the Year 1987 gives an estimate of 180,000 (Banfi, 1994:5). Also, an anonymous Greek ethnologist gave an estimate of 200,000 for the community...(Chiclet, 1994:8). Another scholar, based on a detailed estimate of 30,000 speakers in the Florina and Aridea area makes a global estimate of 100,000-150,000 Macedonian speakers throughout Greek Macedonia (Van Boeschoten, 1994). Thus, the 200,000 estimate for the Macedonian community seems reasonable..." 5

"...we note Greek claims that Northern Greece, or Aegean Macedonia, is 'more than 98.5% ethnically pure.' The purity is held to be Greek. However, the statement is not accepted by reputable opinion outside of Greece. For instance, the 1987 edition of the Encyclopedia Britannica indicated that there were still 180,000 Macedonian speakers in this area, indicating a much greater percentage than 1.5%. If Macedonian activists from these areas are correct,there may be as many as 1,000,000 people from Macedonian-speaking backgrounds in Aegean Macedonia." 6

The following quote is from the Republic of Turkey's Ministry of Foreign Affairs: www.mfa.gov.tr/grupa/ac/ach/macedon2.htm

"Following the partition of Macedonia in 1913, Aegean Macedonia was annexed by Greece and since then its indigenous people, the ethnic Macedonians, became the target and often the victim of the oppressive policies of Greek state. Today, after nearly ninety years of assimilation efforts by the Greek governments it seems that measures have proved to be unsuccessful in Hellenizing the region. Currently, the ethnic Macedonians, estimated around 1,000,000 by some sources, still constitute the majority of population in that part of the Greece, Aegean Macedonia."


Summary of the Partition and Colonization of Aegean Macedonia 7

After the Balkan Wars (1912-1913), the First World War (1914-1918) and especially after the Peace Treaties of Lausanne (1923), which gave the Macedonian issue a central place, there began a great ethnic cleansing of Macedonians, who in 1912 had numbered 374,000, from the Aegean part of Macedonia.

Disregarding the principle of respect for minority rights within existing states, the negotiations in Lausanne accepted the principle of an obligatory resettlement of Christians from Turkey (Greeks, Turkophones, etc.) and of Moslems from Greece (Turks, Macedonian Moslems, etc.). Under the convention for obligatory emigration, 350,000 Moslems were expelled from the Aegean part of Macedonia. 40,000 of these were Macedonian Moslems.

In place of the Macedonians expelled to Bulgaria and Turkey (a total of 126,000) the Greek state resettled 618,000 persons of Greek and non-Greek origin in the Aegean part of Macedonia. This heterogeneous population, colonized in the Aegean part of Macedonia in the period between the two world wars, came from other parts of Greece, as well as from Asia Minor, the Black Sea region, the Caucasus, western Thrace, Bulgaria and other places.

The large majority of the refugee Christian population was settled in villages throughout the Aegean part of Macedonia, thus creating what has become known as the village, or agricultural, colonization; and a smaller number were colonized in towns, creating the so-called urban colonization.

This large colonization effected by Greece resulted in a major change in the historical status of the Macedonian language. Once the language used by most, it was now afforded only the status of the language of a minority, or the status of a family language, which was spoken by 240,000 Macedonians.

The large ethnic changes were the cause of changes in the status of the Greek language as well. From being the language of a minority, it now became the most used language, being imposed even on the Armenians, the "Turkophones", the in-comers from among the various Caucasian peoples, etc. With the imposition of the Greek language and with the help of mixed marriages, a new Greek nation was being created in the Aegean part of Macedonia.

The colonization by this population, whom the Macedonians called madziri (in-comers, foreigners), resulted in the Aegean part of Macedonia losing its Macedonian ethnic character. The Macedonians (240,000) became a minority; they were present as a majority only in the western part of the Aegean part of Macedonia (Kostur, Lerin and Voden regions).

The large colonization brought about by the Greeks was followed by a law passed by the Greek government in 1926 on the change of the toponymy of the Aegean part of Macedonia. All villages, towns, rivers and mountains were renamed and given Greek names.

The Greek state achieved this through a policy of state terror. As early as the period of the Balkan War of 1913 Greece had begun the ethnic genocide of the Macedonian people. The cruelty displayed by the Greek soldiers in their dealings towards the Macedonian people was merciless.

Solun, Aegean MacedoniaFollowing the political partition of Macedonia in 1913, Greece launched upon an active policy of the denial of the nationality and the assimilation of the Macedonians. The name Macedonian and the Macedonian language were prohibited and the Macedonians were referred to as Bulgarians, Slavophone Greeks or simply "endopes" (natives). At the same time, all the Macedonians were forced to change their names and surnames, the latter having to end in -is, -os or -poulos.

With the denial of the Macedonian nation went the non-recognition of the Macedonian language. It was prohibited, its standing was minimized and it was considered a barbarian language, unworthy of a cultured and civilized citizen. Its use in personal communication, between parents and children, among villagers, at weddings and funerals, was strictly forbidden. Defiance of this ban produced Draconian measures, ranging from moral and mental maltreatment to a "language tax" on each Macedonian word that was uttered. The written use of Macedonian was also strictly prohibited, and Macedonian literacy was being eliminated from the churches, monuments and tombstones. All the churches were given Greek names.

The attacks on the Macedonian language culminated at the time of Ioannis Metaxas (1936). General Metaxas banned the use of Macedonian not only in everyday life in the villages, in the market-place, in ordinary and natural human communications and at funerals, but also within the family circle. Adult Macedonians, regardless of their age, were forced to attend what were known as evening schools and to learn "the melodious Greek language". The violation of the ban on the use of the Macedonian language in the villages, market-places or the closed circle of the family caused great numbers of Macedonians to be convicted and deported to desolate Greek islands.

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Change of Toponyms and Names

In its attempts to eradicate the Macedonian name,

"Greece followed a policy of assimilating the Macedonian minority and Hellenizing the Macedonian region in northern Greece. The government changed place names and personal names from Macedonian to Greek, (Decree No. 332 of 1926) ordered religious services to be performed in Greek, and altered religious icons." 8

A few examples of changed village names:

Macedonian Name New Greek Name

Armensko Alonas Banica Vevi Bouf Akrita Gabresh Gavros Kostur Kastoria Kukush Kilkis Lerin Florina Negochani Niki Oshchima Trigonon Solun Thessaloniki Voden Edessa Zhelevo Antartikon

If Macedonia was always Greek, why would the Greek government have to change the Macedonian names of people, towns, and villages to Greek?

"Between 1913 and 1928 the Slavic names of hundreds of villages and towns were Hellenized by a Committee for the Changing of Names, which was charged by the Greek government with 'the elimination of all the names which pollute and disfigure the appearance of our beautiful fatherland and which provide an opportunity for hostile peoples to draw conclusions that are unfavourable for the Greek nation' (Lithoxoou 1992b: 55). In 1927 the Greek government issued a directive calling for the destruction of all Slavic inscriptions in churches and forbidding church services from being held in a Slavic language. Finally, in 1936 a law was passed ordering that all Slavic personal names, both first and last, be Hellenized (Human Rights Watch/Helsinki 1994b: 6-7). Jovan Filipov, therefore, became Yannis Filippidis, and Lena Stoikov became Eleni Stoikou." 9

Sveti Atanas Church in Zhelevo

Sveti Atanas Church in Zhelevo, Aegean Macedonia
The original Macedonian inscriptions were wiped out and replaced with Greek writing

"The participants in this partitioning claimed right to parts of Macedonia, declaring Macedonians to be Southern Serbs, Bulgarians and Slavophonic Greeks. They changed their new subjects' names and surnames. They forbade the Macedonian language, forced Macedonians to learn in foreign languages and imposed their own interpretations of history. They forced them to go to their churches. In short, they turned them into second-rate citizens, subjected to systematic re-settling and permanent exile. The common denominator of such politics was denationalization of the Macedonian people, erasing them from the Balkan's map of peoples, usurping its history, identity and desire for its own state. They forced upon us the fate of disappearing through assimilation." 10

"After the Greeks occupied Aegean Macedonia, they closed the Slavic-language schools and churches and expelled the priests. The Macedonian language and name were forbidden, and the Macedonians were referred to as Bulgarians, Serbians or natives. By a law promulgated on November 21, 1926, all place-names were Hellenized; that is the names of cities, villages, rivers and mountains were discarded and Greek names put in their place. At the same time the Macedonians were forced to change their first names and surnames; every Macedonian surname had to end in 'os', 'es', or 'poulos'. The news of these acts and the new, official Greek names were published in the Greek government daily Efimeris tis Kiverniseos no.322 and 324 of November 21 and 23, 1926. The requirement to use these Greek names is officially binding to this day. All evidence of the Macedonian language was compulsorily removed from churches, monuments, archaeological finds and cemetaries. Slavonic church or secular literature was seized and burned. The use of the Macedonian language was strictly forbidden also in personal communication between parents and children, among villagers, at weddings and work parties, and in burial rituals." 11

"In 1926 the Greek government ordered in decree no. 332 of November 1926 that all Slavonic names of towns, villages, rivers and mountains should be replaced by Greek ones." 12


Summary of the Change of Toponyms and Names 13

Immediately after the Bucharest Peace Treaty, when it became quite clear that Greece had usurped territory which did not belong to it either by the ethnic structure of the population or geographically, the Greek government conducted a census of the population in the new lands. According to this census the Aegean part of Macedonia numbered 1,160,477 inhabitants. In 1917 the law known under the number 1051 was passed, article 6 of which established the formation and functioning of the town and village municipalities of the New Lands.

The White Tower in SolunOn 10th October 1919 the Commission on Toponym in Greece issued a circular letter which contained instructions for the choice of place-names. The circular letter from the Commission was immediately followed by a booklet by N. Politis entitled "Advice on the Change of the Names of Municipalities and Villages" (Athens, 1920), published by the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Greece. At the same time, special sub-commissions were formed in the newly-established districts in the Aegean part of Macedonia, whose task it was to study the problem on the spot and to suggest new names for the villages and towns in the respective districts.

In the spirit of this letter, in 1922, the Commission on Toponyms of Greece issued a more detailed statement under the number 426. This Commission had intensified its activities and was now giving concrete suggestions. However, owing to the Graeco-Turkish War, the still undefined peace agreement with Turkey and also the great migrations of the population between Aegean Macedonia and Turkey and the forced movement of an estimated 33,000 Macedonians to Bulgaria (imposed by the Neuilly Convention, signed by Bulgaria and Greece, for "voluntary" resettlement) the process of renaming was slightly slowed down.

Thus in the period from 1918 to 1925 inclusive, 76 centres of population in Aegean Macedonia were renamed: in 1918 - one; in 1919 - two; in 1920 - two; in 1921 - two; in 1922 - eighteen; in 1923 - eighteen; in t924 - six and in 1925 - twenty-six. But as soon as the processes of migration came to an end and the position of the state was strengthened, and, following the legislative orders of 17th September 1926, published in the "Government Gazette" N2 331, 21st September 1926, and the Decision of the Ministerial Council dated 10th November 1927, and published in the Government Gazette S2 287, 13th November 1927, the process of renaming the inhabited places was accelerated to an incredible degree. Consequently, in the course of 1926, 440 places in the Aegean part of Macedonia were renamed: 149 in 1927, 835 and-in 1928, 212, i.e. in only three years , 1926, 1927 and 1928, 1,497 places in the Aegean part of Macedonia were renamed.

By the end of 1928 most of the centres of population in the Aegean part of Macedonia had been given new names, but the Greek state continued the process by a gradual perfection of the system of renaming, effected through new laws and new instructions. On t3th March 1929 the special law known under its number, 4,096, was passed and published in the "Government Gazette" S-- 99 of 13th March 1929.

This law contained detailed instructions and directives as to the process of renaming places. By the force of this law and the earlier instructions, amended by Law Ng 6,429 of 18th June 1935, Law S2 1418 of 22 November 1938, Law N2 697 of 4th December 1945 and many other instructions, legislative orders and other enactments, the process of renaming the inhabited areas has been carried on to this day, taking care of each and every geographical name of suspicious origin throughout Macedonia, including entirely insignificant places, all aimed at erasing any possible Slav trace from the Aegean part of Macedonia and from the whole of Greece. With these laws, instructions and other enactments, the district commissions in charge of the change of place names and the Principal Commission at the Ministerial Council of Greece (established as early as 1909) enforced many more changes.

In the period from 1929 to 1940 inclusive, another 39 places in the Aegean part of Macedonia were renamed, and after World War II (up to 1979 inclusive) yet another 135 places in this part of Macedonia were renamed. An estimated total of 1,666 cities, towns and villages were renamed in the Aegean part of Macedonia in the period from 1918 to 1970 inclusive. This number does not include those inhabited places the renaming of which has not been announced in the "Government Gazette", which has been taken as the exclusive source for the figures and the dynamics of renaming given here by years and districts. Neither does it include the numerous Macedonian settlements named after saints, the names of which official Greece simply translated from the Macedonian into the Greek language.

Renamed centres of population in the Aegean part of Macedonia by district:

1. Ber - 49; 2. Negush - 16; 3. Greven - 82; 4. Voden - 34; 5. Enidzevardar - 56; 6. Meglen - 48; 7. Drama - 233; 8. Kavala - 24; 9. Pravishta - 36; 10. Sari shaban - 38; 11. Tasos - 3; 12. Katerini 42; 13. Kajlari - 32; 14. Kozzani - 88; 15. Naselichka - 72; 16. Gumendze 29; 17. Kukush - 179; 18. Kostur 104; 19. Lerin - 101; 20. Valovishta 84; 21. Zihneni - 20; 22. Nigride - 35; 23 Ser - 55; 24. Lagadin 76; 25. Salonica - 78; 26. Larigovo - 6; 27. Halkidiki - 40; or a total of 1,666.

Renamed places in the Aegean part of Macedonia by years:

1918 - 1; 1919 - 2; 1920 - 2; 1922 - 19; 1923 - 18; 1924 - 6; 1925 - 26; 1926 - 440; 1927 - 835; 1928 - 212; 1929 - 9; 1930 - 7; 1932 - 6 1933 - 2; 1934 5; 1936 - 2; 1939 - 2; 1940 - 6; 1946 - 1; 1948 - 2; 1949 - 5; 1950 - 17; 1951 - 4; 1953 - 22; 1954 - 18; 1955 - 25; 1956 - 4; 1957 - 3; 1958 - 2; 1959 - 2; 1960 - 5; 1961 - 6; 1962 - 3; 1963 - 6; 1964 - 3; 1965 - 4; 1966 - 1; 1968 - 1; 1970 - 1; or a total of 1,646.

We shall give just a few examples of renamed places, rivers, mountains, rivers, lakes and mountains: The town of Voden was renamed Edessa; Rupista - Argos Orestikon; S'botska - Aridea; Postlo - Pella; Libanovo - Eginion; Larigovo - Arnea; ostrovo - Arnisa; Vrtikop - Skidra; Valovista - Sidirokastron, and the small settlements of Barbesh and Kutlesh into Vergina. The River Vardar was renamed Axios, the Bistrica - Alliakmon; the Galik - Erigon, etc. Lake ostrovsko became Limni Arnisis; Lake Gorchlivo became Pikrolimi, etc. Mt. Pijavica was renamed as Stratonikion; Grbovica on Mt. Athos Agion Oros; Karakamen - Vermion, Kusnica - Pangeon, etc. The Voden district became Nomos Pelis; Gumendze district - Eparhia Paeonis; Valovista district - Eparhia Sindikis; Zihnenska ditrict - Eparhia Philidos; Pravishka district - Eparhia Pangeu, etc.

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The ABECEDAR Case

AbecedarThe Greek government, upon signing the Treaty of Sevres on August 10, 1920, undertook obligations to protect its national minorities. Articles 7,8,and 9 stipulated the free use of the minorities' language, education, religious services, etc.

In March 1925, the Council of the League of Nations insisted that Greece carry out the stipulations of the agreement and provide the Macedonians with their educational and religious needs. The Greek government notified the League of Nations that:

"...measures were being taken towards the opening of schools with instruction in the Slav language in the following school year of 1925/1926 and towards granting freedom to practise religion in the Slav language." 14

A primer, entitled ABECEDAR, was written in the Macedonian language and was intended for use by Macedonian school-children. This was used by Greece as evidence of their commitment to the League of Nations agreement. It was prepared by a special government commission and published by the Greek government in Athens in 1925.

The following is a quote from Salonica Terminus: 15

"Official policy, since the integration into the modern Greek State of the region called Macedonia, has been to deny the existence of the Slav-Macedonians as a distinct people, separate from the Greeks. But lingering just below the bright, hard surface of the discourse of authority is an ill-concealed malaise. In 1925, the country's education ministry prepared a primary school reader in Slav-Macedonian entitled Abecedar for submission to the League of Nations. The book was to be held up as proof that the Macedonian Slavic tongue was neither Bulgarian nor Serbian, but a distinct language protected and encouraged by the State. On the delegation's return from Geneva, the Abecedar was confiscated and destroyed. Two years later, by government decree, all Slavonic church icons were repainted with Greek names. Why had it become necessary to eradicate that which did not exist?"


Summary of the Abecedar Case 16

Zhelevo, Aegean MacedoniaBy signing the Treaty of Sevres on 10th August, 1920, the Greek government undertook certain obligations regarding "the protection of the non-Greek national minorities in Greece". Articles 7, 8 and 9 of this treaty stipulated precisely the free use of the minorities' language, education, religious practice, etc. Bulgaria and the Kingdom of the Serbs, Croats and Slovenes interested themselves in the implementation of this treaty, and when Greece realized it was in its interest to sign the "Lesser Protocols" (League of Nations, Geneva, 29th September 1924) on the protection of the Greek minority in Bulgaria and the reciprocal protection of the Bulgarian minority in Greece, Sofia launched a campaign in support of the activities initiated by the Joint Greek-Bulgarian Commission for the ,'voluntary" exchange of minorities. Large numbers of Macedonians were forcibly moved to Bulgaria, and Orthodox Christians from Turkey, Bulgaria and other places were brought to the Aegean part of Macedonia where, as Greeks, they took over the Macedonians' property. However, since this met with resolute opposition not only in Sofia but in Belgrade as well, the Greek parliament did not ratify certain relevant clauses of the "Lesser Protocols".

In March 1925 the Council of the League of Nations concerned itself with the situation so created and addressed three questions to the Greek government, insisting particularly on a reply on the measures taken with regards to the needs, the education and the freedom of religious practice of the "Slav speaking minority" in Greece. These documents treated the Macedonians neither as a Serbian nor as a Bulgarian minority, but as a "Slav-speaking minority". In its reply the Greek government categorically denied the Bulgarian government the right to be interested in the "Slav-speaking minority", claiming that only the League of Nations could have and had the right to intervene with regard to the rights of this minority. Greece stated that no steps were taken for the protection of the "Slav-speaking minority in Greece" as it had been thought that the convention on reciprocal resettlement would result in "the moving of all Macedonians" beyond the borders of Greece.

The Greek government also notified the League of Nations that "measures were being taken towards the opening of schools with instruction in the Slav language in the following school year of 1925/26" and towards granting freedom to practice religion in the Slav language. The primer intended for the Macedonian children in this part of Macedonia, entitled ABECEDAR, was offered as an argument in support of this statement. This primer, prepared by a special government commission and published by the Greek government in Athens in 1925, was written in the Lerin-Bitola vernacular (even though Bitola was not within the Greek borders!) but printed in a specially adapted Latin alphabet (instead of the traditional Cyrillic, which was the official alphabet of Bulgaria and Serbia).

Many primers written mainly in Macedonian and intended for schools in Macedonia were published in the 19th century, but this was the first primer for Macedonians written and published by a legitimate government for its citizens and under the aegis of the League of Nations. This significant act on the part of the Greek government was condemned outright by both Belgrade and Sofia. The former proved that those for whom the primer was intended were in fact "Serbs", whereas the latter claimed that they were "Bulgarians". Bulgaria commissioned its outstanding philologists and Slavists to help its diplomats and Belgrade inspired petitions from two ailari villages (written in Serbian!) which were sent to the League of Nations. These petitions stated that the signatories were "Serbs by nationality" and that they demanded their rights "as a national minority" and also a "Serbian school" in order to "protect their language from enforced Graecization". At the same time, propaganda activities were undertaken among the population of these villages, promising free land and Serbian priests and teachers to those who declared themselves as Serbs. The Greek government's immediate response was another petition from the same village (Birinci), signed 16th October 1925, in which the signatories claimed that "in this region there are no Serbs, nor are there any Serbian institutions, and consequently the Serbian language is not used". The League of Nations used this statement to ask, in writing, the following question: the Greek government claims that this population does not speak Serbian, but does not say "what the language they speak in is".

At the last moment before the deadline the Greek government replied by cable saying that "the population of these villages knows neither the Serbian nor the Bulgarian language and speaks nothing but a Slav-Macedonian idiom". Thus the Greek government officially recognized for the first time the separate national entity of the Macedonians within Greece's borders, which is also clearly confirmed by the pure language of the pnmer, ABECEDAR, published in Greece. Following the stormy and violent reaction in the press of the three monarchies the Greek government decided, with relief, not to introduce the primer, which was already published, into Macedonian schools.

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The Metaxas Dictatorship

"The use of the Macedonian language was prohibited both in public and at home, and the penalties included fines, forced drinking of castor oil, thrashing, torture, and exile. All its native speakers were forced to attend night school to learn Greek." 17

Banica, Aegean MacedoniaGeneral Metaxas severely persecuted those who spoke Macedonian, even in private everyday life in the villages, at funerals, and at home. Adult Macedonians were denied the right to speak their mother tongue and were forced to attend night school to learn Greek.

Use of the Macedonian language meant harsh reprisals, including a "language tax". The following is a quote from Hristo Melovski, a professor of history at the University of Skopje, who was born in Aegean Macedonia.

"They told us our name was now Mellios and it was forbidden to speak our language-for every Macedonian word, you would be fined 30 to 40 drachmas (40 cents U.S.). One man I knew fought it. He would see a policeman and go right up to him, pronounce a Macedonian word, and hand him the money." 18

"The dictatorial regime established in 1936 under General Metaxas adopted a policy of forced assimilation of the Macedonian minority. The repression of the Macedonian minority in Greece was further stepped up. Macedonians were forbidden to speak their language in public, and deportations to the islands became a usual governmental practice. According to Yugoslav sources, some 1,600 Macedonians were interned on the islands of Thasos and Cephalonia in the years preceding World War II." 19

"The dictatorship of Ioannis Metaxas (1936-1940) was especially brutal in its treatment of the Slavic speakers of Aegean Macedonia, who by this time had increasingly begun to identify themselves as Macedonians. On December 18, 1936, the Metaxas dictatorship issued a legal act concerning 'Activity Against State Security.' This law punished claims of minority rights. Ont he basis of this act, thousands of Macedonians were arrested, imprisoned, or expelled from Greece. On September 7, 1938, the legal act 2366 was issued. This banned the use of the Macedonian language even in the domestic sphere. All Macedonian localities were flooded with posters that read, 'Speak Greek.' Evening schools were opened in which adult Macedonian were taught Greek. No Macedonian schools of any kind were permitted. Any public manifestation of Macedonian national feeling and its outward expression through language, song or dance was forbidden and severely punished by the Metaxas regime. People who spoke Macedonian were beaten, fined, and imprisoned. Punishments in some areas included piercing of the tongue with a needle and cutting off a part of the ear for every Macedonian word spoken. Almost 5,000 Macedonians were sent to jails and prison camps for violating this prohibition against the use of the Macedonian language. Mass exile of sections of Macedonians and other 'difficult' minorities took place. The trauma of persecution has left deep scars on the consciousness of the Macedonians in Greece, many of whom are even today convinced that their language 'cannot' be committed to writing." 20

References

The Macedonians of Aegean Macedonia: A British Officer's Report, 1944, Andrew Rossos, The Slavonic and East European Review, Volume 69 Number 2, April 1991; p.284
Macedonia and Greece - The Struggle to Define a New Balkan Nation, John Shea, McFarland and Company Inc., North Carolina, 1997; p.107
Ibid; p.107
The Macedonians of Aegean Macedonia: A British Officer's Report, 1944, Andrew Rossos, The Slavonic and East European Review, Volume 69 Number 2, April 1991; p.293 (quotation by British Captain P.H. Evans, stationed in Aegean Macedonia during WWII)
Greek Monitor of Human and Minority Rights, December 1995 Volume 1, No.3, Minority Rights Group and Greek Helsinki Monitor, 1995; p.20
Macedonia and Greece - The Struggle to Define a New Balkan Nation, John Shea, McFarland and Company Inc., North Carolina, 1997; p.105
Macedonia and Its Relations With Greece, Macedonian Academy of Sciences and Arts, Skopje, 1993; p.70-73
Denying Ethnic Identity: the Macedonians of Greece, Human Rights Watch/Helsinki, New York, 1994; p.6-7
The Macedonian Conflict, Loring M. Danforth, New Jersey, Princeton University Press, 1995; p.69
Macedonian President Kiro Gligorov, quoted by the Macedonian Information and Liaison Service (MILS), Skopje, August 3, 1994
Macedonia and Greece - The Struggle to Define a New Balkan Nation, John Shea, McFarland and Company Inc., North Carolina, 1997; p.108-109
The Balkans - Minorities and States in Conflict, Hugh Poulton, Minority Rights Group, Minority Rights Publications, London, 1991; p.176
Macedonia and Its Relations With Greece, Macedonian Academy of Sciences and Arts, Skopje, 1993
League of Nations, Official Journal, Council, Geneva, 6th year, No.7, July 1925; p.950
Salonica Terminus, Reed, Fred A., Burnaby, Talonbooks, 1996; p.249-250
Macedonia and Its Relations With Greece, Macedonian Academy of Sciences and Arts, Skopje, 1993
Greek Monitor of Human and Minority Rights, December 1995 Volume 1, No.3, Minority Rights Group and Greek Helsinki Monitor, 1995; p.37
National Geographic, Volume 189, No. 3, March 1996; p.131
The Rising Sun In the Balkans: The Republic Of Macedonia, International Affairs Agency, Sydney, Pollitecon Publications, 1995; p.33
Macedonia and Greece - The Struggle to Define a New Balkan Nation, John Shea, McFarland and Company Inc., North Carolina, 1997; p.111-112

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© Copyright Macedonia for the Macedonians
Created and maintained by Bill Nicholov

[George S.]

Proud Macedonians in Gorna Dzumaja, Pirin Macedonia

Introduction | Makedonski Icelenuchki Almanac | OMO Ilinden | OSCE Human Rights Conference - Presentation by MHRMC
International Helsinki Federation 1999 Human Rights Report | International Helsinki Federation Report on Bulgaria
Amnesty International Press Release

Introduction

OMO Ilinden-PIRINPirin Macedonia came under Bulgarian occupation after the Balkan Wars in 1913. Macedonians were denied their human rights, the right to speak their own language, and the ability to openly express their Macedonian identity. These human rights violations continue today. Bulgarians also claim that Macedonians are "really Bulgarians" and that they speak "a Western Bulgarian dialect." This despite the fact that Macedonian is spoken by millions of people throughout the world and is an internationally recognized language and taught at dozens of universities worldwide.

"We Macedonians are not Serbians nor Bulgars but simply Macedonians. The Macedonian people (narod) exists separate from the Bulgarian and the Serbian. We feel with both and the one that helps our liberation we'll thank but neither should forget that Macedonia belongs to the Macedonians." - Boris Sarafov, 1902

"In 1875 Pulevski published a 'Dictionary of Three Languages' (Macedonian, Albanian, and Turkish). In the introduction he wrote that 'a nation is the term for a people who have the same origin, who speak the same language...and who have the same customs, songs, and festivals...Thus the Macedonians are a nation, and Macedonia is their fatherland.' Several years later he founded a Macedonian literary society in Sofia, which was quickly suppressed by the Bulgarian authorities." 1

"According to a confidential report submitted to the Foreign Office at the end of World War II by Captain P.H. Evans, a British intelligence officer, the district of Florina was 'predominnantly a Slav region not a Greek one,' where Greek was regarded 'as almost a foreign language' and the Greeks were 'distrusted as something alien.' Evans emphasizes that 'the inhabitants of the area, just as they are not Greeks, are also not Bulgarians or Serbs or Croats. They are Macedonians.'" (Rossos 1991:293-294)

"The official policy of the Bulgarian state, ever since the first democratic elections of June 1990, has been to denounce the existence of a Macedonian minority. Thus the police have been given a free hand in suppressing all public manifestations of Macedonian identity. Moreover, the New Bulgarian Constitution of July 13, 1991, as well as the Political Parties Act provide for a discriminative ban against organizations and political parties on ethnic and/or religious basis." 2

"Bulgaria should recognize the Macedonian minority" - Krassimir Kranev, Bulgarian Helsinki Committee (Sega, May 15-21, 1997)

The following is a quote from the CIA World Factbook 1998 regarding Bulgaria's ethnic composition:

Ethnic groups: Bulgarian 85.3%, Turk 8.5%, Gypsy 2.6%, Macedonian 2.5%, Armenian 0.3%, Russian 0.2%, other 0.6%

The following are two quotes from Jorn Ivar Qvonje, Professor of Balkan Linguistics at the University of Copenhagen: 3

"The Macedonian language norm has been acknowledged by the Slavonic linguistics (with the exception of the Bulgarian linguists who until recently have kept the designation 'West-Bulgarian dialect'). In the highly respected 'Guide to the Slavonic Languages', London 1961 (p.797) by R.G.A. de Bray, the Macedonian language is treated on par with other Slavonic languages."

"A fine textbook in Macedonian is: V. Bojic & W. Oschlies: 'Lehrbuch der Mazedonischen Sprache', Munchen, 1984, Slavstische Beitrage nr. 175. A Macedonian - Russian dictionary was published in Moscow in 1963. It is therefore beyond doubt that the Macedonian language is accepted as an independent language by international linguists."

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Makedonski Icelenuchki Almanac 4

Minorities in BulgariaIn Bulgaria, in Pirin Macedonia, there was in 1919 a compact Macedonian population of about 250,000. Official Bulgarian policy and statistics following the Second World War showed different figures in different periods concerning the number of ethnic Macedonians in the country. The encyclopedic handbook Ethnic Minorities in Europe quotes data from the official censuses. In 1946 there were 300,000 people enumerated as Macedonians and in 1956 - 188,000. According to the sources quoted, in 1990 there were about 250,000 Macedonians living in Bulgaria. It is important to note that according to the 1956 census, when 187,789 inhabitants declared themselves as Macedonians, they constituted a majority in a large part of Pirin Macedonia. In the Blagoevgrad District alone, which comprised 281,015 inhabitants, 178,862, or 63.7% declared themselves as Macedonians. There are also many Macedonians living in Sofia and other parts of Bulgaria. In spite of all claims by Bulgaria to European orientation and the acceptance of European democratic values, during the 1992 population census the Macedonians were not allowed to declare their ethnic affiliation under a separate heading.

In a short period after 1947, the Macedonians living in Pirin Macedonia had schools in their mother tongue and their own theatre. More recently, Amnesty International, the Organization for International Human Rights, and Human Rights Watch/Helsinki have given documentary evidence about the situation there and about the violation of the individual and minority rights of the Macedonians.

The authorities have been refusing the registration of the Ilinden United Macedonian Organization and the Macedonian Democratic Party, although they fulfill all the necessary legal conditions. The 1995 U.S. Department of State report underlines "the Government's refusal since 1990 to register a Macedonian rights group, OMO Ilinden," and that this is a "restriction of the constitutional rights to express opinions and to associate". Police and judicial repression against the leaders and activists of OMO Ilinden and other Macedonian organizations is continuing. In order to prevent the celebration of anniversaries of historical events by the Macedonians in Pirin Macedonia, special police forces are used and even military manouevres are organized at that time.

In 1994 and 1995, the periodicals of the Macedonian organizations in Pirin Macedonia came under attack from the Public Prosecutor of Bulgaria. Several periodicals, including Makedonska Volja, however, continue to write openly on the discrimination against ethnic Macedonians in Bulgaria. An illustration of the extent of this discrimination is the expulsion from the Bulgarian Writer's Association of the writer Slave Makedonski, whose works have been translated into several world languages, owing to the fact that he has publicly declared his Macedonian ethnic affiliation. A number of writers, artists, and other individuals are harassed or denied access to jobs because of their Macedonian feeling.

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OMO Ilinden

The Pirin MountainsOMO (United Macedonian Organization) Ilinden is an organization of Macedonians in Pirin Macedonia that are dedicated to achieving cultural and human rights. It was established in November of 1989 during the fall of communism in Eastern Europe. As citizens of other countries were finally attaining their freedom, Bulgaria, along with Greece, remained determined to deny their minorities any rights. The Bulgarian government has consistently denied this group the right to register as a "legal" organization.

"In July 1990, OMO Ilinden applied for registration at the district court of Blagoevgrad but was turned down as the 'targets of the organization and the means of its attainment are directed against this nation's (Bulgaria) unity, and are aiming at spurring a national and ethnic hostility' (Bulgarian Telegraph Association, July 18, 1990) and the Blagoevgrad prosecutor warned that the leaders faced prosecution under Article 162 of the penal code which allows for up to six years imprisonment." 5

Other articles of the Criminal Code that are frequently used to prosecute Macedonians and other national minorities are Articles 108 and 109 which deal with "anti-state agitation and propaganda" and Article 39 of the People's Militia Law which "allows administrative punishment (that is without trial), which has reportedly been used to forcibly resettle members of the Macedonian ethnic minority in other areas of the country." 6



OSCE Human Rights Conference - Presentation by MHRMC

The following quotes are from the Macedonian Human Rights Movement of Canada, on behalf of OMO Ilinden, made at the OSCE Human Rights Conference in November, 1998 in Warsaw, Poland.

To read more about MHRMC's presentations at the conference regarding Bulgarian and Greek discrimination against ethnic Macedonians, please click here


The Current State of Bulgarian State Compliance with Its Obligations Respecting Freedom of Expression, Free Media and Information, Freedom of Association, and the Right of Peaceful Assembly
Freedom of Expression and Free Media

With respect to those citizens who identify themselves as Macedonians the Bulgarian government has and continues to place unlawful restrictions on a number of fundamental rights of these people. Whether it be through uneven application of laws which on their face do not seem to discriminate against the Macedonian minority, or through unlawful conduct of officials, the effect is the same: Macedonians in Bulgaria who choose to openly call themselves Macedonians suffer abuses of their human rights repeatedly. As regards freedom of expression and free media and information, for instance, the Macedonian human and minority rights organization, OMO-Ilinden has recently suffered the following outrageous act at the hands of the Bulgarian authorities.

On April 14 of this year, OMO-Ilinden began the publication of a newspaper which was intended to serve as a voice for its members and their concerns and interests. Just two days later, on 16, April, 1998 seven policemen broke up a meeting of this organization without a search warrant and after 8:00 p.m. (the latest time in which searches can be conducted legally). Notwithstanding the statement of police sergeant Krsomir Karonfil, that he was “sent by the authorities to come and search your organization’s headquarters and seize what is necessary,” when asked for evidence of his legal right to conduct such a search, he was unable to provide such evidence. Fearing violence, OMO-Ilinden members allowed the search to continue without any other protest, hoping that they could achieve some measure of relief after the fact through the court system. All equipment and supplies necessary to publish a newspaper (including what is for those in Bulgaria a particularly expensive item, a photocopier) were seized and, as of today (some six months later) have not been returned. Nor, subsequent OMO-Ilinden’s official complaint to the regional authority who oversees these kinds of searches, and to the highest military authority in Sofia, has there been a response to the complaints lodged.

In addition to forcibly restricting the right of OMO-Ilinden to publish its own newspaper, the government of Bulgaria uses, or permits others in the private sphere to use, the media to discredit the legitimacy of OMO-Ilinden and, by extension, the central tenet of the organization: the existence and significance of the Macedonian minority in Bulgaria. OMO-Ilinden is either portrayed as a fringe organization of mentally unstable people (the implication being, to believe you are Macedonian in Bulgaria must mean you are insane) or as a terrorist organization responsible for a whole range of criminal activity (implying that only criminals call themselves Macedonians). Examples are very numerous. In all cases, despite the government’s direct or indirect involvement of the promulgation of untruths about OMO- Ilinden, the organization is, perhaps not surprisingly, forbidden access to the same media for purposes of rebuttal. Furthermore, when OMO-Ilinden has attempted to seek redress through the courts, they are denied standing at the first stage and a court-derived remedy is denied them.

Following are specific examples of comments made in the following newspapers: 24 Chassa, Trut, 168 Chassa, Duma, Makedonje, Struma and Pirin News:

OMO Ilinden threatens regional journalist with death - Struma April 24, 1994
OMO Ilinden prepares to kill journalist - Struma June 6, 1994
OMO Ilinden stole TV equipment of German news crew - Pirinski Delo August 2, 1994
Bomb threats attributed to OMO Ilinden - Struma June 24, 1994
psychopaths from the Macedonian disease - Mariana Cvetoslavova in 168 Chassa October 4, 1998
OMO Ilinden members are lunatics and psychopaths - Anatoly Velichkov, Member of Bulgarian Parliament in 168 Chassa October 4, 1993
OMO Ilinden needs psychotherapy - Crsomir Kanakachana, President, VMRO and Member of Bulgarian Parliament in 24 Chass September 4, 1998

[George S.]

Proud Macedonians in Gorna Dzumaja, Pirin Macedonia

Introduction | Makedonski Icelenuchki Almanac | OMO Ilinden | OSCE Human Rights Conference - Presentation by MHRMC
International Helsinki Federation 1999 Human Rights Report | International Helsinki Federation Report on Bulgaria
Amnesty International Press Release

Introduction

OMO Ilinden-PIRINPirin Macedonia came under Bulgarian occupation after the Balkan Wars in 1913. Macedonians were denied their human rights, the right to speak their own language, and the ability to openly express their Macedonian identity. These human rights violations continue today. Bulgarians also claim that Macedonians are "really Bulgarians" and that they speak "a Western Bulgarian dialect." This despite the fact that Macedonian is spoken by millions of people throughout the world and is an internationally recognized language and taught at dozens of universities worldwide.

"We Macedonians are not Serbians nor Bulgars but simply Macedonians. The Macedonian people (narod) exists separate from the Bulgarian and the Serbian. We feel with both and the one that helps our liberation we'll thank but neither should forget that Macedonia belongs to the Macedonians." - Boris Sarafov, 1902

"In 1875 Pulevski published a 'Dictionary of Three Languages' (Macedonian, Albanian, and Turkish). In the introduction he wrote that 'a nation is the term for a people who have the same origin, who speak the same language...and who have the same customs, songs, and festivals...Thus the Macedonians are a nation, and Macedonia is their fatherland.' Several years later he founded a Macedonian literary society in Sofia, which was quickly suppressed by the Bulgarian authorities." 1

"According to a confidential report submitted to the Foreign Office at the end of World War II by Captain P.H. Evans, a British intelligence officer, the district of Florina was 'predominnantly a Slav region not a Greek one,' where Greek was regarded 'as almost a foreign language' and the Greeks were 'distrusted as something alien.' Evans emphasizes that 'the inhabitants of the area, just as they are not Greeks, are also not Bulgarians or Serbs or Croats. They are Macedonians.'" (Rossos 1991:293-294)

"The official policy of the Bulgarian state, ever since the first democratic elections of June 1990, has been to denounce the existence of a Macedonian minority. Thus the police have been given a free hand in suppressing all public manifestations of Macedonian identity. Moreover, the New Bulgarian Constitution of July 13, 1991, as well as the Political Parties Act provide for a discriminative ban against organizations and political parties on ethnic and/or religious basis." 2

"Bulgaria should recognize the Macedonian minority" - Krassimir Kranev, Bulgarian Helsinki Committee (Sega, May 15-21, 1997)

The following is a quote from the CIA World Factbook 1998 regarding Bulgaria's ethnic composition:

Ethnic groups: Bulgarian 85.3%, Turk 8.5%, Gypsy 2.6%, Macedonian 2.5%, Armenian 0.3%, Russian 0.2%, other 0.6%

The following are two quotes from Jorn Ivar Qvonje, Professor of Balkan Linguistics at the University of Copenhagen: 3

"The Macedonian language norm has been acknowledged by the Slavonic linguistics (with the exception of the Bulgarian linguists who until recently have kept the designation 'West-Bulgarian dialect'). In the highly respected 'Guide to the Slavonic Languages', London 1961 (p.797) by R.G.A. de Bray, the Macedonian language is treated on par with other Slavonic languages."

"A fine textbook in Macedonian is: V. Bojic & W. Oschlies: 'Lehrbuch der Mazedonischen Sprache', Munchen, 1984, Slavstische Beitrage nr. 175. A Macedonian - Russian dictionary was published in Moscow in 1963. It is therefore beyond doubt that the Macedonian language is accepted as an independent language by international linguists."

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Makedonski Icelenuchki Almanac 4

Minorities in BulgariaIn Bulgaria, in Pirin Macedonia, there was in 1919 a compact Macedonian population of about 250,000. Official Bulgarian policy and statistics following the Second World War showed different figures in different periods concerning the number of ethnic Macedonians in the country. The encyclopedic handbook Ethnic Minorities in Europe quotes data from the official censuses. In 1946 there were 300,000 people enumerated as Macedonians and in 1956 - 188,000. According to the sources quoted, in 1990 there were about 250,000 Macedonians living in Bulgaria. It is important to note that according to the 1956 census, when 187,789 inhabitants declared themselves as Macedonians, they constituted a majority in a large part of Pirin Macedonia. In the Blagoevgrad District alone, which comprised 281,015 inhabitants, 178,862, or 63.7% declared themselves as Macedonians. There are also many Macedonians living in Sofia and other parts of Bulgaria. In spite of all claims by Bulgaria to European orientation and the acceptance of European democratic values, during the 1992 population census the Macedonians were not allowed to declare their ethnic affiliation under a separate heading.

In a short period after 1947, the Macedonians living in Pirin Macedonia had schools in their mother tongue and their own theatre. More recently, Amnesty International, the Organization for International Human Rights, and Human Rights Watch/Helsinki have given documentary evidence about the situation there and about the violation of the individual and minority rights of the Macedonians.

The authorities have been refusing the registration of the Ilinden United Macedonian Organization and the Macedonian Democratic Party, although they fulfill all the necessary legal conditions. The 1995 U.S. Department of State report underlines "the Government's refusal since 1990 to register a Macedonian rights group, OMO Ilinden," and that this is a "restriction of the constitutional rights to express opinions and to associate". Police and judicial repression against the leaders and activists of OMO Ilinden and other Macedonian organizations is continuing. In order to prevent the celebration of anniversaries of historical events by the Macedonians in Pirin Macedonia, special police forces are used and even military manouevres are organized at that time.

In 1994 and 1995, the periodicals of the Macedonian organizations in Pirin Macedonia came under attack from the Public Prosecutor of Bulgaria. Several periodicals, including Makedonska Volja, however, continue to write openly on the discrimination against ethnic Macedonians in Bulgaria. An illustration of the extent of this discrimination is the expulsion from the Bulgarian Writer's Association of the writer Slave Makedonski, whose works have been translated into several world languages, owing to the fact that he has publicly declared his Macedonian ethnic affiliation. A number of writers, artists, and other individuals are harassed or denied access to jobs because of their Macedonian feeling.

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OMO Ilinden

The Pirin MountainsOMO (United Macedonian Organization) Ilinden is an organization of Macedonians in Pirin Macedonia that are dedicated to achieving cultural and human rights. It was established in November of 1989 during the fall of communism in Eastern Europe. As citizens of other countries were finally attaining their freedom, Bulgaria, along with Greece, remained determined to deny their minorities any rights. The Bulgarian government has consistently denied this group the right to register as a "legal" organization.

"In July 1990, OMO Ilinden applied for registration at the district court of Blagoevgrad but was turned down as the 'targets of the organization and the means of its attainment are directed against this nation's (Bulgaria) unity, and are aiming at spurring a national and ethnic hostility' (Bulgarian Telegraph Association, July 18, 1990) and the Blagoevgrad prosecutor warned that the leaders faced prosecution under Article 162 of the penal code which allows for up to six years imprisonment." 5

Other articles of the Criminal Code that are frequently used to prosecute Macedonians and other national minorities are Articles 108 and 109 which deal with "anti-state agitation and propaganda" and Article 39 of the People's Militia Law which "allows administrative punishment (that is without trial), which has reportedly been used to forcibly resettle members of the Macedonian ethnic minority in other areas of the country." 6



OSCE Human Rights Conference - Presentation by MHRMC

The following quotes are from the Macedonian Human Rights Movement of Canada, on behalf of OMO Ilinden, made at the OSCE Human Rights Conference in November, 1998 in Warsaw, Poland.

To read more about MHRMC's presentations at the conference regarding Bulgarian and Greek discrimination against ethnic Macedonians, please click here


The Current State of Bulgarian State Compliance with Its Obligations Respecting Freedom of Expression, Free Media and Information, Freedom of Association, and the Right of Peaceful Assembly
Freedom of Expression and Free Media

With respect to those citizens who identify themselves as Macedonians the Bulgarian government has and continues to place unlawful restrictions on a number of fundamental rights of these people. Whether it be through uneven application of laws which on their face do not seem to discriminate against the Macedonian minority, or through unlawful conduct of officials, the effect is the same: Macedonians in Bulgaria who choose to openly call themselves Macedonians suffer abuses of their human rights repeatedly. As regards freedom of expression and free media and information, for instance, the Macedonian human and minority rights organization, OMO-Ilinden has recently suffered the following outrageous act at the hands of the Bulgarian authorities.

On April 14 of this year, OMO-Ilinden began the publication of a newspaper which was intended to serve as a voice for its members and their concerns and interests. Just two days later, on 16, April, 1998 seven policemen broke up a meeting of this organization without a search warrant and after 8:00 p.m. (the latest time in which searches can be conducted legally). Notwithstanding the statement of police sergeant Krsomir Karonfil, that he was “sent by the authorities to come and search your organization’s headquarters and seize what is necessary,” when asked for evidence of his legal right to conduct such a search, he was unable to provide such evidence. Fearing violence, OMO-Ilinden members allowed the search to continue without any other protest, hoping that they could achieve some measure of relief after the fact through the court system. All equipment and supplies necessary to publish a newspaper (including what is for those in Bulgaria a particularly expensive item, a photocopier) were seized and, as of today (some six months later) have not been returned. Nor, subsequent OMO-Ilinden’s official complaint to the regional authority who oversees these kinds of searches, and to the highest military authority in Sofia, has there been a response to the complaints lodged.

In addition to forcibly restricting the right of OMO-Ilinden to publish its own newspaper, the government of Bulgaria uses, or permits others in the private sphere to use, the media to discredit the legitimacy of OMO-Ilinden and, by extension, the central tenet of the organization: the existence and significance of the Macedonian minority in Bulgaria. OMO-Ilinden is either portrayed as a fringe organization of mentally unstable people (the implication being, to believe you are Macedonian in Bulgaria must mean you are insane) or as a terrorist organization responsible for a whole range of criminal activity (implying that only criminals call themselves Macedonians). Examples are very numerous. In all cases, despite the government’s direct or indirect involvement of the promulgation of untruths about OMO- Ilinden, the organization is, perhaps not surprisingly, forbidden access to the same media for purposes of rebuttal. Furthermore, when OMO-Ilinden has attempted to seek redress through the courts, they are denied standing at the first stage and a court-derived remedy is denied them.

Following are specific examples of comments made in the following newspapers: 24 Chassa, Trut, 168 Chassa, Duma, Makedonje, Struma and Pirin News:

OMO Ilinden threatens regional journalist with death - Struma April 24, 1994
OMO Ilinden prepares to kill journalist - Struma June 6, 1994
OMO Ilinden stole TV equipment of German news crew - Pirinski Delo August 2, 1994
Bomb threats attributed to OMO Ilinden - Struma June 24, 1994
psychopaths from the Macedonian disease - Mariana Cvetoslavova in 168 Chassa October 4, 1998
OMO Ilinden members are lunatics and psychopaths - Anatoly Velichkov, Member of Bulgarian Parliament in 168 Chassa October 4, 1993
OMO Ilinden needs psychotherapy - Crsomir Kanakachana, President, VMRO and Member of Bulgarian Parliament in 24 Chass September 4, 1998
Head Bulgarian Prosecutor : OMO Ilinden are lunatics and traitors - Trut March 23, 1998

Perhaps the most disturbing aspect of this pattern of using the media to discredit a legitimate organization, is the fact that these comments are not made by a single newspaper or journalist, but rather they are made by radio, television and newspaper staff, government officials and even members of the Bulgarian Parliament.

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International Helsinki Federation 1999 Report

The following are excerpts from the IHF's 1999 human rights report. For the full text please visit their website

Throughout 1998 Bulgaria was ruled by a government consisting of the United Democratic Forces (UtDF), formed after the elections of April 1997. In contrast to previous years, 1998 was not marked by political or economic upheavals. The government continued its policy of reform and reiterated its willingness to abide by European human rights standards. This created a favorable public climate both for legislative reforms as well as for NGO activities.

However, the actual development of the human rights situation in Bulgaria in 1998 was contradictory. While authorities continued their dialogue with human rights NGOs and carried out investigations into past abuses, sentences for human rights violations were very mild. On the whole, in most spheres of human rights the situation did not change, in some a setback was observed.

Freedom of Association and Peaceful Assembly

The rights of ethnic and religious minority groups as well as trade-union activists to association and assembly were restricted. The only positive development was the government's June decision to register the moderate Macedonian culture-based organization TMO-IMRO, led by Georgi Solunski.

Protection of Ethnic Minorities - Macedonian Minority

In early July the European Commission of Human Rights admitted the complaint submitted by ethnic Macedonians regarding the violation of their right to peaceful assembly. Despite this fact, violations continued.

· On 18 April several hundred activists of UMO "Ilinden" were prevented from placing flowers on the grave of Yane Sandanski, a historic Macedonian figure on the basis of an order of the Blagoevgrad District Prosecutor's Office. People attempting to approach the site of the grave near Rozhen were turned back because of their "technically faulty vehicles." Vassil Gyudjemov, who still managed to reach to the grave, was detained for not carrying a passport and beaten by the police.

· On 2 August the mayor of Petrich banned the UMO "Ilinden" celebrations of the anniversary of the Ilinden Uprising in the Samouilova Krepost locality near Petrich. Yordan Toshev, a local UMO "Ilinden" activist, was arrested for having thrown flowers at the policemen's feet.

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International Helsinki Federation

Protection of Ethnic Minorities
Report by the International Helsinki Federation for Human Rights
to the
United Nations Commission on Human Rights
Fifty-Fourth Session
Geneva, 16 March - 24 April 1998
(Item No. 16)

Protection of the ethnic and cultural identity of the minorities in Bulgaria is inadequate. Members of ethnic minority groups appear today to have less chance of receiving instruction in their mother tongue than in previous years. A request by members of the Bulgarian Turkish community to receive instruction in and about their own language was rejected by the authorities.

On 4 December 1997, the government adopted Decree N 449, setting up a National Council on Ethnic and Demographic Questions at the Council of Ministers. The Council is a consultative body expected to develop and propose strategies of demographic policy, promote tolerance and understanding between ethnic and religious groups, and to coordinate support for Bulgarians abroad. This strange combination of functions raises serious doubts about the Council’s capacity to fulfill them.

The Macedonian Minority

Under the new government of the United Democratic Forces, policy towards ethnic Macedonians has remained unchanged. Macedonians are subjected to various forms of harassment, including confiscation of their publications, being prevented from holding assemblies and book presentations, and officials refusing to let them meet on public premises.

On 28 August 1997, customs officers at Stanke Lissichkovo border checkpoint confiscated 31 books from Georgi Hristov on the ground that he had not declared them upon entry and that they had a "pro-Macedonian nationalistic content."

On 20 April 1997, the Blagoevgrad district prosecutor banned a rally by activists of UMO "Ilinden," a pro-Macedonian

[George S.]

ria, bulgarian, bulgarians, albania, albanian, albanians, human rights, history, mala prespa, former yugoslav republic of macedonia, alexander the great, macedonian history, macedonia history, ancient macedonia, ancient macedonians">

the provision of social justice, economic wellbeing and prosperity in the life of the individual and the community.

Click here to view the Constitution of the Republic of Macedonia in its entirety.

For more information, please go to General Information about the Republic of Macedonia.

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© Copyright Macedonia for the Macedonians
Created and maintained by Bill Nicholov

[George S.]

As always it´s highly amusing to read another one of Risto Stefov´s articles.

Starting from the opening statement, one notes the factual distortion present. For an individual who allegedly doesn´t care about what Greeks may claim about themselves; he certainly seems to waste much time and energy intentionally distorting texts and manipulating history in his articles and books, and distributing his propaganda.

Right after his first bout of hypocrisy, Stefov continues by distorting his very own claims. While he intentionally misinforms us by claiming that he´s never supported some twisted direct descendance from the ancient ´Makednoi´ theory; he conveniently forgets about his article: “Evidence of the Existence of Macedonians Throughout the Ages” in which in his opening statement in the introduction is: “This document was prepared in response to Greek allegations that Macedonians do not exist and have ceased to exist since the so called “Slav invasions” of the fifth and sixth centuries AD.

The logical question of why would any individual who allegedly doesn´t, nor has ever supported the “continuity theory” ever waste time to gather and intentionally distort sources to prove that the modern day population of the FYROM has every right to title themselves and claim heredity from the Makednoi?

Stefov’s opening statement which attempts to refute Greek allegations and the insinuation of providing proof that the Macedonians have existed, since Slavic invasions doesn´t do much for his case.

It is obvious that he is at the very least intentionally misinforming readers of his true objectives.

Stefov and his followers constantly insinuate that Greeks allegedly strive to present the FYROM population as Bulgarians (he should know the difference between Bulgars and Bulgarians) and Slavs.

While this is partially true, what Stefov intentionally neglects to mention is that Greeks are simply reproducing what his ancestors themselves had stated.

We could take for example the organization called BMARC (Bulgarian Macedonian-Adrianopolitan Revolutionary Committee) all members of which, today, are considered as fine FYROM patriots. It is this very organization, (their very own national heroes) which totally legitimize our reference to the true ethnicity which they detest.

In its 1896 statute BMARC states:

Art. 1. The goal of BMARC is to secure full political autonomy for the Macedonia and Adrianople regions.

Art. 2. To achieve this goal they [the committees] shall raise the awareness of self-defense in the Bulgarian population in the regions mentioned in Art. 1., disseminate revolutionary ideas – printed or verbal, and prepare and carry on a general uprising.

So the question asked must be, which is the population FYROM national heroes aimed to raise the awareness in and title Bulgarian; if not the forefathers of the population that today attempt to usurp a history and heritage which they have no connection to?

Stefov also accuses Greeks of titling the population of FYROM as Slavonic.

But what defines a Slav?

Slavs are an ethnic group connected by language, customs, traditions, beliefs.

We know beyond doubt that the population of FYROM does speak a Slavic language. We also know from their own authors like Tanas Vrazhinovski and Vladimir Karadzoski that FYROM folklore is predominantly Slavonic.

Both authors give numerous examples of worship of Slavonic deities and place names directly related to these deity´s names. Customs as any Bulgarian or Serb may confirm are also highly similar, if not identical.

So identical that we may safely conclude that the population of FYROM is indeed Slavonic and the attempt to present the use of the ethnonym ‘Slav’ as some form of insult, simply indicates the extent of propaganda aimed at (not to an international audience), but as its main target group has the FYROM youth. In some futile attempt to teach the FYROM population to hate their true origins and believe that their only true destiny is indissolubly connected upon usurping a history and culture which is totally alien to them is unacceptable.

Yet another fallacy promoted by Stefov for his audience is the case in which Philip of Macedon didn´t unite as so many true historians have accepted (see Thomas R. Martin, Lewis Vance Cummings, Richard Gabriel, Alan Fildes, Joann Fletcher, Robin Lane Fox…etc) but conquered. If that isn´t enough, he also resorts to fallaciously extending Philip´s empire further North to incorporate the lands of FYROM and by doing so legitimize his claims.

While it is true that these lands have seen various conquerors and settlers, what Stefov neglects to mention, is that while the above may have partially influenced the locals with their own culture, they never did manage to alienate them from their own. Something we clearly see in the alleged descendants of the Makednoi. Stefov and his believers have totally failed to provide a single logical explanation as to how any since trace of cultural connection to those they claim descendance from is non-existent.

During the last years the main FYROM offensive in the name debate is centralized on the following logic: “since we can´t prove a connection to the ancients, we´ll centralize on disproving yours”, which is exactly what we see Stefov doing today.

Unfortunately his attempts are caught either constantly celebrating ignorance or due to malicious intent, falsifying facts. Stefov claims that the name/term Greeks was ignored until after the Roman conquests which is when it was allegedly coined. Its puzzling how an alleged authority in history, who has published so many books about ancient history, could possibly ignore the reference of the eponym ‘Graikos’found in Hesiod´s Catalogue of Women or the village ‘Graia’ noted in Homer´s Catalogue of ships or even the later reference to the Graeci in Aristotle´s Meteorological. This is yet another well known quasi-historical attempts to approach the issue which Stefov is renowned for. Had he tried to tackle the issue on its factual basis, he wouldn´t centralize on the Latinization which has been passed down to the majority of language but the term which classicists acknowledge as the proper denomination and that is that of Hellenes (even though they have been used interchangeably). But even uttering the term ‘Hellenes’ is simply unthinkable for Stefov; for he would then have to deal with Hesiod´s reference to a ‘race of the Hellenes’ (works and days), a race of Hellenes which would disprove the very basis of his theory of various city-states alien to each other, not forming a single body of people.

While it is conveniently true that Greece wasn´t used by Ancient Greek geographers to describe the region in question, we know of several of them that use the term ‘Hellas’ (Agatharchides, Pausanias and Strabo being some of the more well known examples). If we were to look towards Roman writers with Pliny the Elder´s Natural History being one of the finest examples, we´d find that throughout his entire work and especially books 3-5 which are geography related, the term ‘Greece’ is constantly used to define the region.

One really has to wonder why Stefov tries to alienate an entire people from their heritage with such void argumentation. So the term ‘Rhomios’was used by the Greek population to define themselves, what does this actually prove?

While the term Rhomios may indeed be partly alien to their ancestors, one can´t neglect to note that it derives from the ‘Constitution Antoniniana of Caracalla’ which allowed all freemen of the Roman provinces to obtain Roman citizenship and that it is directly related to the Eastern Roman Empire (Byzantium) which they were subjects. A term forged to represent their citizenship but also their Greek ancestry (see Andreas Osiander´s Before the State), hence why it (and not ‘Rhomaios’) was also used to strictly designate the subjects of Greek ancestry and them alone. It is also interesting to note the perception of some of the empire´s neighbors. Armenians, Russians, Georgians, Jews and even Ottomans titled the subjects ‘Graikoi’, Yunan, Yavani , or the authors Theodorus Studitus, Anna Komnene, George Gemistos Plethon, Michael Psellus and Theophanes Confessor all used the ethnonym Hellenes; terms directly linked to their ancestral roots which they recognized then, but today this author (Stefov) with some highly questionable arguments tries to refute the facts.

Stefov continues to unsuccessfully tackle the demographics of Greece. If under his logic the Slavic presence in the Balkans gives the Slavic population of FYROM some right to usurp a history; heritage and claim descendance from the ancient Makednoi (even through their very customs, traditions and folklore) prove them totally alien to it. Then how can someone even try and attempt to alienate the Vlachs from the Ancient Greeks?

While theories on their origin vary and one could argue their autochthonous origin, doesn´t their presence in the region which is dated prior to the time when the Slavs were nothing but mere invaders(Procopius) give them the right to claim ancestry?

Stefov makes reference to the total population of Greece upon its liberation while exaggerating and distorting possible population statistics. There is no accurate account of the possible ethnic makeup of the population, therefore any argument either for or against homogeneity would be ridiculous. One would notice that while Stefov doesn’t make any reference of Greeks as being a part of the population, he adds Turks; which as it is well documented, were non-existent since in their vast majority had fled upon the rebellion and Slavs. Then again such claims by Stefov who has previously promoted the totally outdated and disregarded ‘Fallmerayer theory´, anything seems possible.

Finally, there needs to be a mention of the Albanians. Since the only census which provides us with data is that of 1928 we must take that into consideration. In a 1928 census we find that the total amount of self-identified Albanian-speakers (and not ethnic Albanian origin) is approx. 19,000. A population of 19,000 in 1928 when Greece had liberated its lands and had a total population of some 6.2 million. Stefov claims that the Albanians were obviously the majority in the region in the early 1800´s; hence his reference to them and no reference to the Greeks. One must ask of what happened to the Albanians?

Well, we could take into account the statements of the Albano phone population itself, who in 1836 Christophoros Perraivos recorded their self-identification as purely Greek and were recognized as such by Alexandros Ypsilantes; who in his letter makes reference to their ancestors that fought in the battle of Marathon.

Finally, it must be noted that people like Risto Stefov, while providing an entertaining read, continue to distort Greek history (in a way similarly described above) and must not be taken seriously.

by www.macedoniaontheweb.com

[email protected]

https://www.macedonian.com.au

http://www.americanchronicle.com/articles/78259

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[George S.]

Established in 1984 the Australian Macedonian Human Rights Committee (AMHRC) is a non-governmental organisation that informs and advocates before international institutions, governments and broader communities about combating racism and promoting human rights. Our aspiration is to ensure that Macedonian communities and other excluded groups throughout the world, are recognised, respected and afforded equitable treatment.

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[George S.]

amchronlogo Risto Stefov and the falsification of Ancient Macedonian history





Australian Macedonian Advisory Council

October 29, 2008



Dear Editors,I feel obliged to write to you in order to express my deepest concern for the deliberate manipulation of well-evidenced historical events which is clearly reflected in the article “Most modern Greeks today believe the Ancient Macedonians were Greek” written by Mr. Risto Stefov. The specific article is full of unfounded claims, an enmity addressed against Greek people and sophisticated misrepresentations of the ancient Greek history with its main aim to deceive the unsuspected reader by attempting to present false claims, disguised to sound truthful.
Before proceeding through a point by point refutation of the baseless claims presented in article in question, I would like to point out that the title of the article is misleading. Certainly it´s not “Most modern Greeks” who accept the fact that ancient Macedonians were Greek but instead it´s the vast majority of the world today, including the core of the contemporary modern historians who accept it as a fact.
To rephrase the author´s initial question…Why is it so important in general for the Slavic element of the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia (FYROM) which Mr. Stefov belongs, to believe that the ancient Macedonians were not Greek?

The answer is simple and plain. Because somehow they live under a misguided notion. Particularly, they believe that by disassociating Greeks from ancient Macedonians, this will mean in their illusionary point of view, they, the descendants of the Slavic and Bulgar tribes that entered the Balkan peninsula in the 6th and 7th centuries, are the historical heirs and descendants of the ancient Macedonians who lived a thousand or more years earlier and who were Greeks by their own testimonies. One can hardly go further in Orwellian double-speak. This absurd notion supported increasingly among the Slavs of FYROM, makes as much sense as asserting that if someone manages to prove a car´s color is not white, this would surely mean it is black!

Furthermore Mr. Stefov embarks on an clumsy effort to spread mendacious disinformation as regards to the events of the early 20th century. Incorrectly he states “Didn´t Greece in 1912, 1913 invade and occupy a fully populated Macedonia?” while the truth is that nobody has invaded Macedonia in 1913 but instead during the first Balkan war, the Balkan coalition between Bulgaria, Serbia and Greece invaded Ottoman Empire, for the liberation of the Greeks, Bulgarians and Serbs who lived there. Sadly for the author´s empty claims there was not back then, any ethnicity called ´Macedonian´. The term was used merely as a geographical indicator.

To quote some accounts of contemporary self-witnesses that shatters Mr. Stefov´s unfounded claims and deliberate misinformation:

John Foster Fraser in his “Pictures from the Balkans” verifies: “But who are the Macedonians [5]? You will find Bulgarians and Turks who call themselves Macedonians, you find Greek Macedonians, there are Serbian Macedonians, and it is possible to find Rumanian Macedonians. You will NOT, however, find a single Christian Macedonian who is not a Serbian, a Bulgarian, a Greek, or a Rumanian. They all curse the Turk, and they love Macedonia. But it is Greek Macedonia, or Bulgarian Macedonia, and their eyes flame with passion, whilst their fingers seek the triggers of their guns”. He further adds “I have some hope that in years to come the inhabitants will think less of their Turkish, Bulgarian or Greek Origin and a great deal more with the fact that they are all Macedonians”[2].

Edmund Spencer in his “Travels in European Turkey, in 1850…”writes “The population of Uskioub [Note: Modern Skopje], consisting of Arnouts, Jews, Armenians, Zinzars, Greeks, Bulgarians and Serbians, amounts to upwards of twelve thousand” [3]. Again another clear evidence there was no “Macedonian” ethnicity back then but instead it´s a modern “invention”.

Additionally, John Van Antwerp Fine gives us a realistic portrait of the situation in the Macedonian region by writing: “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 [4]. 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.”.

Furthermore, Arthur Douglas Howden Smith in 1908 adds: “It should be remembered, to begin with, that there is NO Macedonian race, as a distinct type [5]. Macedonians may belong to any of the races of Eastern Europe or Western Asia, as, indeed, they do. A Macedonian Bulgar is just the same as a Bulgar of Bulgaria proper, the old principality, that in October, 1908, at Tirnova, was proclaimed independent of Turkey. He looks the same, talks the same, and very largely, thinks the same way. IN SHORT HE IS OF THE SAME STOCK. There is no difference, whatsoever, between the two branches of the race, except that the Macedonian Bulgars, as a result of their position under the Turkish government, have less culture and education than their northern brethren.”
To help the readers having a more informative view over the issue on stake, I urge them to take a look in the following link. It contains a vast number of excerpts taken by 90 neutral sources, written by travelers, historians, diplomats related to the subject which put an end to the unfounded claims over a so-called “Macedonian “Ethnicity back then. Mr. Stefov, conveniently for his agenda, chooses to ignore all the overwhelming evidence.







http://history-of-macedonia.com/2008...-in-fyrom/Lets return back to the core issue of Mr. Stefov´s article. Namely the ethnicity of Ancient Macedonians. Of course there is no issue at all, whether the modern Slavs

descendants of the Slavic tribes that invaded the Balkan peninsula centuries after the demise of the ancient Macedonian kingdom have any link with ancient Macedonians. Obviously as verified by any serious historian, they haven´t!!!








1. The Ancient Macedonians spoke a dialect of the Greek language
Mr. Stefov incorrectly assumes that “This [Koine] was an international language which was used in the Macedonian court and by the Macedonian administration.”. This is simply fallacious and deserves an immediate rectification. Koine became the international language BECAUSE of Alexander´s campaign. Prior to Alexander´s campaign, ancient people like Illyrians, Persians, Paeonians, Indians, Carthaginians, Romans, Thracians, Egyptians, Dardanians did NOT speak Greek. Most of them begun to speak Greek (Koine) AFTER Alexander´s pan-Hellenic campaign to Asia. Therefore Mr. Stefov´s conclusions are entirely wrong since his own premises are erroneous in the first place.

The eminent linguist Olivier Masson states “For a long while Macedonian on mastics, which we know relatively well thanks to history, literary authors, and epigraphy, has played a considerable role in the discussion [6]. In our view the Greek character of most names is obvious and it is difficult to think of a Hellenization due to wholesale borrowing. ´Ptolemaios´ is attested as early as Homer, ´Ale3avdros´ occurs next to Mycenaean feminine a-re-ka-sa-da-ra- (´Alexandra´), ´Laagos´, then ´Lagos´, matches the Cyprian ´Lawagos´, etc. The small minority of names which do not look Greek, like ´Arridaios´ or ´Sabattaras´, may be due to a substratum or adstatum influences (as elsewhere in Greece). Macedonian may then be seen as a Greek dialect, characterized by its marginal position and by local pronunciations (like ´Berenika´ for ´Ferenika´, etc.). Yet in contrast with earlier views which made of it an Aeolic dialect (O.Hoffmann compared Thessalian) we must by now think of a link with North-West Greek (Locrian, Aetolian, Phocidian, Epirote). This view is supported by the recent discovery at Pella of a curse tablet (4th cent. BC) which may well be the first ´Macedonian´ text attested (provisional publication by E.Voutyras; cf. the Bulletin Epigraphique in Rev.Et.Grec.1994, no.413); the text includes an adverb ´opoka´ which is not Thessalian. We must wait for new discoveries, but we may tentatively conclude that Macedonian is a dialect related to North-West Greek.”




2. The ancient Macedonians prayed to the same Greek gods as the ancient Greeks.

The poorly-chosen argumentation reveals Mr.Stefov´s inconsistence with ancient history. His lack of evidence subsequently forces him to produce irrelevant anachronistic analogies with…Christianity even if it is more than obvious we are talking about issues having to do merely with classical ages. Mr. Stefov, for your discomfort, it is only Greeks which gave their deities the familiar Greek epithets, such as Agoraios, Basileus, Olympios, Hypsistos of Zeus, Basileia of Hera, Soter of Apollo, Hagemona and Soteira of Artemis, Boulaia of Hestia, etc and naturally Macedonians as being Greek themselves, were doing similarly which certainly is not the case for non-Greek people. Furthermore nowadays historians agree that Macedonians had the religious and cultural features of the rest Hellenic world.
The worship of the twelve Olympian gods in Macedonia is undoubted

and it is shown explicitly in the treaty between Philip V and Hannibal of Carthage “`In the presence of Zeus, Hera and Apollo …and in the presence of ALL THE GODS who possess Macedonia AND THE REST OF HELLAS” [7].




3. The ancient Macedonians united the ancient Greek city states and spread the “Hellenic” language and culture to the known world.
Mr. Stefov adds further his own misguided perception which is the epitome of misinformation. He states “Macedonia fought and defeated the so called “Greeks” in battle and subjugated them from 338 BC until 206 BC when they were briefly liberated and again subjugated by the Romans”.

This is another terrible effort to create the wrong impression amongst the readers that “Macedonians fought Greeks in Chaeronea”. Contrarily, in Chaeronea the opposing sides were:



ξύμμαχα και υπήκοα

[allied and SUBJECTED]. One line of approach was direct annexation attempted disastrously by Perdiccas II and successfully by Philip.”Prof. Bosworth adds “Lyncestis probably co-operated with the Illyrian invaders as before in the war against Archelaus, the chaos in lower Macedon at the accession of Amyntas was an ideal time to avenge the annexation attempted by Perdiccas and probably by Archelaus”.
Essentially Mr. Stefov just managed with his above wrong assertion to dissolve his own self-made ´construction´ of ancient Macedonian history speaking about a “unified” Macedonian kingdom.
In relation to the spread of Greek language and culture declares quite amusingly that: “As for spreading the so-called “Hellenic” language and culture, there is no evidence that the Macedonians exclusively did this for the sole purpose of honoring the “Greeks”. The Macedonians gave the world what the Macedonians had and considered to be of value”.

I will briefly analyze the falsification of the author´s assertion, before presenting an enumeration of ancient sources [9] proving that Alexander launched a Pan-Hellenic campaign against Persia and through his conquests spread Hellenism in a vast colonizing wave throughout the Near East. Furthermore he created economically and culturally, a single world stretching from Greece to the Punjab in India with Greek (koine) as lingua franca. He built a network of almost thirty Greek cities throughout the empire, a building program that was expanded by later Hellenistic rulers. These became enclaves of Greek culture. Here gymnasia, baths, and theaters were built. The upper classes spoke koine Greek, wore Greek dress, absorbed Greek learning, adopted Greek customs, and took part in Greek athletics. Ancient sources reports as such and the pan-Hellenic character of his campaign were the definitive statements of the Macedonian royalty and nobility. We find Greek language, poleis, architecture, and art expand As far east as India. Even in Judaea of Roman times, there was a group of Jews called “The Hellenists”. The Greek language survived in the Indian region as late as about AD 120, when the Kushan king Kanishka, who ruled western India, Bactria, and Sogdiana (in an inscription) declared that Greek was to be replaced by “Aryan” (the Bactrian language).
It would be essential to complete this reply with numerous excerpts showing exactly how ancient Macedonians felt themselves about their own ethnicity. After all this is what matters mostly.






ChaeroneaCombatants
Side A´
Macedonia, Thessaly, Epirus, Aetolia, Northern Phocis, Epicnemidian Locrians*

Vs

Side B´

Athens, Beotian League (Thebes, etc), Euboean League, Achaean League, Corinth, Megara, Corcyra, Acarnania, Ambracia, Southern Phocis.

Neutral sides

Sparta, Argos, Arcadia, Messene. The three last had alliances both with Athens and Philip but their pro-Macedonian activity of 344/3 BC showed they were leaning towards Philip. However they didn´t sent aid to Chaeronea in Philip´s side because of the blocking in Isthmus by Corinth and Megara. Sparta had withdrawn almost entirely from Greek affairs in 344 BC.

Elis had an alliance with Philip though they didn´t take part in Chaeronea but showed their pro-Macedonian feelings by joining their forces with Philip in the invasion of Laconia in the autumn of 338 BC.

In other words, we find on both sides Greeks!!! We are dealing apparently with a Greek civil war!!

If this is translated to Mr. Stefov´s illusionary world that “Macedonians fought Greeks” then following the same irrational line of thought, we have to assume in Coronea “Spartans also confronted Greeks”.

Battle of Coronea (394 BC)

Combatants

Sparta Vs Thebes, Argos, and allies

In addition, the author adds “So, according to “Greek” logic, the Macedonians united the so-called “Greek” city states by subjugating and subordinating them under Macedonian control. By the same “Greek” logic we can conclude that Hitler too, in WWII, united the Europeans by subjugating them and placing them under German control.”

Here we get a trustful and genuine proof of the author´s selective quotation and hypocrisy. If we are to take his assertion as truthful, then the author ignores conveniently the fact that even the “Unification” between Lower Macedonia and the Upper Macedonian kingdoms by the Argead Royal house was forceful. In fact the annexation of Upper Macedonia took centuries to be successful.

According to the eminent historian prof. A. B. Bosworth [8]
“The upper kingdoms then had a constant struggle to preserve their independence and fostered alliances with the peoples to the west and north. On the other hand the policy of the kings of Macedon was to make the recalcitrant mountaineers truly “





1. Alexander I, king of Macedon:“Men of Athens… Had I not greatly AT HEART the COMMON welfare of GREECE I should not have come to tell you; but I AM MYSELF GREEK by descent, and I would not willingly see Greece exchange freedom for slavery. …If you prosper in this war, forget not to do something for my freedom; consider the risk I have run, out of zeal for the GREEK CAUSE, to acquaint you with what Mardonius intends, and to save you from being surprised by the barbarians. I am ALEXANDER of MACEDON.”

Herodotus, The Histories, 9.45, translated by G.Rawlinson]



2. Alexander The Great:“Your ancestors invaded Macedonia and the rest of Greece and did US great harm, though WE had done them no prior injury […] I have been appointed hegemon of the Greeks”

(Arrian, Anabasis of Alexander II,14,4)






3. Alexander the Great speaking to his troops:There are Greek troops, to be sure, in Persian service — but how different is their cause from ours ! They will be fighting for pay— and not much of it at that; WE on the contrary shall fight for GREECE, and OUR HEARTS WILL BE IN IT. As for our FOREIGN troops —Thracians, Paeonians, Illyrians,Agrianes — they are the best and stoutest soldiers of Europe, and they will find as their opponents the slackest and softest of the tribes of Asia.

Arrian (The Campaigns of Alexander) Alexander talking to the troops before the battle. Book 2-7 Penguin Classics. Page 112. Translation by Aubrey De Seliucourt



4. Alexander The Great and Diogenes

“But he said, ´If I were not Alexandros, I should be Diogenes´; that is to say: `If it were not my purpose to combine barbarian things with things HELLENIC, to traverse and civilize every continent, to search out the uttermost parts of land and sea, TO PUSH THE BOUNDS OF MACEDONIA TO THE FARTHEST OCEAN, AND TO DISSEMINATE AND SHOWER THE BLESSINGS OF HELLENIC JUSTICE and peace over every nation, I should not be content to sit quietly in the luxury of idle power, but I should emulate the frugality of Diogenes. But as things are, forgive me Diogenes, that I imitate Herakles, and emulate Perseus, and follow in the footsteps of Dionysos, the divine author and progenitor of my family, and DESIRE THAT VICTORIOUS HELLENES SHOULD DANCE AGAIN in India […]“







5. Alexander the Great dedication to Athena:

Alexander, son of Philip, and the Greeks, except the Lacedaemonians, from the barbarian inhabitants in AsiaMany more excerpts can be found on:


history-of-macedonia




Notes:
1] “Pictures From The Balkans” by John Foster Fraser (published in 1906), Page 5
2] “Pictures From The Balkans” by John Foster Fraser (published in 1906), Page17

3] “Travels in European Turkey, in 1850: Through Bosnia, Serbia, Bulgaria, Macedonia, Thrace,…” By Edmund Spencer, page 28, Published 1851

4] The Early Medieval Balkans: a critical survey from the sixth to the late twelfth century By John Van Antwerp Fine, Page 37

5] Arthur Douglas Howden Smith, “Fighting the Turk in the Balkans: An American´s Adventures with the Macedonian Revolutionists”, 1908, p. 4-5

6] Olliver Masson, 1996, “Oxford Classical Dictionary: ´Macedonian Language”.

7] Polybius 7.9.1-7; Treaty of alliance between king Philip V of Macedonia and Hannibal

8] ´Philip II and Upper Macedonia´ by A. B. Bossworth, p.100

9] (Aelian ´Varia Historia´ 13.11; Arrian I.16.7, I12.1-2, Plutarch Ages. 15.4, Moralia I, 328D, 329A, Alex. 15, 33, 37.6-7; Diod. 16.95.1-2, 17.67.1; Callisthenes 2.3.4-5, 2.4.5, 2.4.7-8, 3.1.2-4; Arrian “Indica” XXXIII, XXXVIII, XXIX, ´Anab.´ Arrian I.16.7, II, 14, 4, 3.18.11-12 ; Polybius IX.35.2, IX.34.3, 17.4.9; Curtius 3.3.6, 4.1.10-11, 4.5.11, 4.14.21, 5.6.1, 5.7.3, 5.7.11, 8.1.29)

[email protected]

Australian Macedonian Advisory Council




Conclusion: As it is evident from the extensive analysis of the facts, Mr. Stefov´s article consists of an overall historical falsification and distorted presentation of facts. Of course it´s his and his people right to denounce for whatever reason this may be, their well-attested from all sources Slavic/Bulgarian origin and history but it´s not their right to usurp the history and heritage which rightfully and evidently belongs to Greece. I hope that Mr. Stefov and the people he represents will eventually find a name which represents their heritage – “Macedonia” evidently does not!
By Ptolemy

for

http://www.macedoniaontheweb.com

Source: http://www.americanchronicle.com/articles/79306
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Comments
westclub4
November 1, 2008 at 6:32 pm

Dear brother Dimitrios and readers,

Indeed, it is the job of professional historians, linguists, archaeologists and anthropologists to provide ‘us’ –i.e. the ‘bewildered general public’, with some –if any at all, significant evidence, and also with substantial information about antiquity; that is, from the far and distant past (i.e. the Spring of early human civilization) to the present date.

As a matter of fact, it is the job of the supposedly and yet so called ‘educated’ professionals of this or that particular scientific field to provide our policy-makers too with scientific evidence and also with either absolute historic facts or with such relevant concluding remarks that would definitively shape our future to the better, so that they would also bring peace and prosperity to our glorious land and to our ancient Greek people, as well.

Nonetheless, our job as ethnically conscious Greek bloggers is to inform the general public to the best of our ability about those matters that might concurrently be of great significance and of an also great importance to them, as well as, to put pressure upon the policy-makers of our country either to produce a unified and an also significant national strategy about these matters or to reform and revise where necessary the already existing national strategy of their choosing, so that our national and foreign policy becomes more substantial and also successful.

To the extent that there is any such national strategy at all, we can expect to see the results of it soon, and yet thereafter we begin to claim what it’s really ours and what should really belong to us as a nation and without ever having to beg for it to our western imperialist ‘allies’, nor to our so called ‘friends and protectors’ in order for them to act on our behalf and do for us things properly, and also do justice while we sit there and wait.

Ancient Greek mythology –and, yet again ancient Greek literature too as well as the many contemporary archaeological findings may provide the so called ‘professionals’ with as much information and evidence they like and need, in order to put forward such a national strategy before the eyes of the Greek public and of Greek politicians and policy makers, so that we finally manage to produce something which might be significant and appropriate too for an ethnic strategy that is worth of the name and which might also become relevant in respect to the ethnic Greek minorities in neighboring countries. Mind you that at present these ethnic Greek minorities might be either conscious or unconscious of their Graeco-Pelasgian and Hellenic ethnic origin, ancestry and descent.

Indeed, had we got particular references and also appropriate quotations that are available to us at the moment would significantly help if we were to elaborate those quotations to our present contributions too. Hence, it is important that we do not fail to produce quoted arguments in order to further stress and support strongly of our point. But, I particularly insist that it is not our job only to produce substantial papers and masterpieces of professional and of academic work at the same time. Nor is it our role to attempt do the job of the ‘missing’ professionals either, in order to take part on an ongoing debate and discussion of this or of either that particular blog. From the labor movement and also from its daily political and economic struggle we know that ‘a single strike is worth more than any of the best, more elaborate and also most detailed documents and Party Programs that are yet ever to be produced by the Central Committee of any of the Labor Parties’.

This also applies to national strategy and to policy-making, as well. That is, in respect to these ethnic Greek minorities in the neighboring countries too. Therefore, on my behalf, I strongly advise and also invite historians and all other relevant so-called professionals to take part to this ongoing discussion and debate about ancient Macedonian ethnic origins and descent. I also propose to extent and also to further this concurrent debate as far as to the historic ethnic roots and origins of all ancient Greek and Pelasgian-Greek peoples that were once habituating to –and, which were also dueling throughout the area of the Hellenic Peninsula, Asia Minor, Italy, Egypt and the Middle East.

I therefore presume that we can all learn something that might prove to be of great significance and also importance to our cause, which is none other than the liberation of all glorious and historic Hellenic lands of our Peninsula, as well as, to assist to the Hellenicisation of either the conscious or unconscious Greek, mix-Greek and also mix-Barbarian Greek and Pelasgian-Greek peoples that are still living to –and also throughout the whole of the Hellenic Peninsula, at present.

Long live Hellenism and the ancient Greek and Pelasgian-Greek cosmopolitismos! Long live Macedonia and Paeonia, Moesia and Thrace, Epirus and Epirus Nova, Illyris and Dardania as well as the rest of historic Greece! For the cultural Hellenicisation of all Hellenic and Pelasgian Greek Peoples and lands throughout the Hellenic Peninsula! Long live the forthcoming Hellenic Republic!

Elias Leon A.
Athens, Greece.
Dimitrios
November 1, 2008 at 3:04 pm

Hi Elias,

Thank you for your information!
I wanted to ask you if there is any scientific prove or any agreement amongst historians on the above mentionend matter.
In general, isn’t it of great importance to put forward any of the proven historical facts to a platform such as Wikipendia for example?

Greetings!
westclub4
November 1, 2008 at 7:00 am

Addendum,

The ethnic Macedonian Greek brothers and sisters of the north are neither Slavs nor Bulgars. They are of an equally historic ethnic Greek origin and of an also significant Pelasgian (i.e. ancient Greek and proto-Greek) ancestry to ourselves i.e. the Macedonian Greeks of the south. The concurrently enslaved ethnic Macedonian brothers and sisters of the north comprise of many thousand Graecophone, Vlachophone and Arvanitophone ethnic Greeks and ethnic Pelasgian Greeks too who were once habitating to the southern and also to the eastern and northeastern parts of FYROM. These are the areas which were once populated either by ethnic Macedonian Greeks or by Illyro-Epirotic Greek and Dardano-Paeonian Greek and Graeco-Pelasgian peoples.

There is an also significant Illyro-Thracian Greek and Pelasgian-Greek element to the population of FYROM. In particular, to those areas which lay to the central, northern and western parts of that partitioned state. In ancient and historic times, and also for an almost thousand years before the Avaric Slavs and the Tataric Bulgars ever set foot to the Hellenic Peninsula, those particular regions were laying to the lands of the ancient Paeones, Bryges, Agriannes and Dardanes. The ethnic and historical origins of those ancient peoples were at that time significantly Greek or proto-Greek -i.e. they were of an ancient Pelasgian-Mycenean Greek origin of the particular Thrako-Illyrian cultural branch of the same nonetheless proto-Greek and Pelasgian people and of also the same cosmopolitismos.

To the Greeks of the Classic Age, they seemed as if they were left behind culturaly because they had once coalesced with the Troyan Phrygio-Pelasgian Greeks of Asia Minor and thereafter, they were left outside to the cultural advances made by the southern Doric Greek peoples and of that particular neo-Greek sphere of influence and cosmopolitismos ever since. In other words, most of southern Pelasgian or proto-Greeks ever since the Dorian kathodos onwards had became significantly Doric or Hellenic Greek themselves, though some of them still to that date had yet remained more Pelasgic (i.e. Aeolic) or mixed (i.e. Ionic) Greek and proto-Greek as opposed to the Hellenic Doric and Epiroto-Macedonian tribes of the north and of the northwest who became significantly Hellenic.

At the same time, many Epiroto-Macedonian Dorian (i.e. Hellenic) tribes had also began their expansion northwards and eastwards -i.e. to the lands of the formerly backward Pelasgian Greek remnants. Hence, they expanded (and yet extended their rule) to the lands of the Paeones, Bryges, Thracians, Illyrians, Dardanians etchetera, even prior to the times of Philippe and of Alexander. Moreover, it is ever since the Macedonian expansion to these formerly Pelasgian Greek Brygian, Paeonian, Dardanian and Thrako-Illyrian lands that those proto-Greek (or Pelasgic-Greek) and thus, Thrako-Illyrian Greek tribes became significantly Hellenicised, meaning that they became culturaly equals to the southern Hellenicised Greeks.

Hence, most of the Hellenic Peninsula and definitively all lands that lay within FYROM today were already Greek (i.e. Pelasgian or Thrako-Illyrian proto-Greek) even prior to the historic Macedonian expansion of the Greek Classic Era or became significantly Hellenic (i.e. Doric Greek) ever since, to say the least. Also, even prior to Macedonian (i.e. Doric Greek) expansion the Pelasgian Greeks and proto-Greeks of the north had established significant condacts with the the either Ionian or Aeolian Greeks of the southern Hellenic Peninsula. Hence, they also contributed to their significant Hellenicisation, which must have been conducted at a time that was certainly prior to the time of Philippe and thereby, their substantial Hellenicisation which is well attested throughout the Hellenistic Era has definitively been not only as a result of Macedonian (i.e. Doric Greek) expansion but it is also due to the significant contribution and effort made at past and at previous times by many Ionian and Aeolian Greeks who made colonies into Thrake and Illyria, ever since antiquity and at distant Classical and historic times, which were to follow the Greek Dark Ages right after the civil war at Troy and the destruction of the old and rampant Mycenean Greek civilisation by the southward moving Dorian Hellenes.

However, these peoples became significantly mixed and even romanised after the Roman Conquest and, as a result of their linguistic and cultural mixture their historic Aeolic, Doric or Ionic Greek language got substantially latinized ever since and either to a lesser extend (i.e. Arvanitophone Greeks with the Arvanitic Graeco-Latin language) or to a far greater extend (i.e. Vlachophone Greeks with the predominantely latinized Vlachic language). Nonetheless, those same Vlachophone and Arvanitophone Greeks of the north are the same Hellenes of the old with the rest of us -i.e. with the rest of us, concurrent southern Greeks of the Hellenic Macedonia and of the rest of the southern Hellenic Peninsula, as well.

The slavophone ethnic Macedonian Greeks of the north have adopted the west-Bulgarian dialect as their language, ever since the 8th Century. Nevertheless, we will not find many slavophones who would trade their Macedonism with an either Bulgarian or yet again with a Serbian passport in nowadays, which is very encourraging fact, to say the least. Since we assist this brothering people of ours with historic knowledge and information, we would become able to explain to them that they are definitively neither Bulgarian nor Slavic. The same we must do also with the Arvanitan Greeks of northewestern FYROM as well as with all of the Vlachophone Greeks of Norhtern Macedonia too.

We need to explain patiently to either of them that they are neither Slavs, nor Bulgars, nor Turks, nor Latins, nor Romans, neither anything else that is non-Greek. Insted, we need to explain to them that they are a Hellenic Macedonian people like ourselves who live in the south, though they speak Slavic (i.e. the slavophone ethnic Macedonians), Graeco-Roman (i.e. the Arvanitans and also the Albanian Sqipetars) or Latin (i.e. the Vlachs) and so on.

This is not an easy task either. Indeed, it is a heavy taske for us, modern Greeks of the southern Hellenic Peninsula. Yet, it is the only way available to us at present to restore peace and also to bring prosperity to the southern Hellenic Peninsula. This is the historic duty of each and of every Greek at present who respects, understands and wants to honour of the heavy name and also culture, he or she carries to eternity, under the glorious label of being an ethnic Greek of the rather ancient Pelasgian or Hellenic original and same peoples’ stock.

Long live Macedonia and the rest of Greece! Freedom to all ancient Greek, Hellenic and Pelasgian lands! Freedom to Northern Macedonia, Norhtern Epirus, Illyris, Dardania and Epirus Nova, Moesia, Northern and Eastern Thrake! Long live the forthcoming Hellenic Republic!

Elias Leon A.
Athens, Greece.
westclub4
October 31, 2008 at 8:16 am

Indeed, this is a nice article, which also manages to answer to the quite many of the historic misconceptions that are created purposely by the Great Skopjan School of Falsefication of Absolute Historic Facts.

Nonetheless, we shall all be extremely cautious especially when we use ourselves reproduce the many translated texts into English, which might also contain many foggy bits, here and there. Probably, the best thing to do is we ourselves to read and translate those parts from the the original (i.e. from the ancient Greek prototype) or simply to reproduce the ancient Greek text as such. This is so, because there are many mistakes that are of particular importance and of great significance to us all and to our cause.

In particular, it is another thing to say ”Alexander of Macedon” and a rather different thing to say ”Alexander the Macedon”. The Glyxbourgh’s were Kings of Greece and even before them, King Othon has been a King of the Greeks, but none of them were of a Greek bloodline and origin himself.

When we refer to King Alexander the Macedon (i.e. the Macedonian Greek King Alexander) we should stress his Greek Macedonian origin. That is of course another thing from simply saying King Alexander of Macedon (i.e. Alexander the King of Macedonia), which does not stress, nor it specifies his Greek (i.e. Macedonian Greek) ethnicity.

Indeed, Alexander was a Macedonian and a Macedonian at that time also meant a Greek. Alexander was not a Greek King who ruled over Macedonia and Macedonia was definitively not a foreign -i.e. a non-Greek- land, to say the least. Alexander was not a Greek King who ruled another tribe. He was a Macedonian himself. His father has been a Macedonian Greek and his mother an Epirotan Greek. His tribe -i.e. the Macedonians, were also Greek. In particular, Macedonians were of an ancient Dorian Greek ethnic stock -that is, quite similar to the Magnetes, Epirotes and Lakedaemones or Spartiates (i.e. the Spartans of ancient Laconia).

They all shared the same origins because they were Dorian Greeks. They all spoke the same Dorian Greek dialect and they also shared the same culture, customs and religion. In that sense, they all were Dorian Greeks or Hellenes as opposed to those who were Ionian Greeks (e.g. the Athenians and also the Greeks in Chalkidiki to name but a few) and who were of an also ancient though of a Pelasgian Greek (i.e. Ionian) origin and who spoke Attic, which has been a more elaborate dialect of the ancient Greek language.

There were also many more Greek tribes who spoke differernt Greek dialects such as the Aeolians (e.g. the Thessalians and also the Greek colonists near the ancient city of Troy), who spoke Aeolic Greek. Their dialect has also been Greek but of a particularly more ancient (or primitive) form. Aeolic Greek was closer to the proto-Greek or to the ancient Pelasgian language and therefore, it must have been closer to the language of the Pelasgian Paeones (or ‘Upper Hellenes’), Bryges, Dardanians, Illyrians, Thracians, Phrygians, ancient Troyans and Mycenaeans Greeks.

Hence, to prove only that Alexander himself has been a Greek is not enough. We also need to patiently explain that the Macedonians were a Hellenic (i.e. Dorian Greek) tribe even before they conqueer the land of the historic Macedonia. Also, we need to explain that the peoples of the historic Macedonia at the time of Alexander the Great (i.e. the Paeones, Bryges, Dardanians, southern (or the so-called ‘Real’) Illyrians, Pierres, Agrianes, Thracians and so on) were of an also Greek origin too and that they have been Greek (i.e. Pelasgian or Hellenic) either much prior to the Macedonian expansion to neighboring lands, which primarily occured under the reign of Philippe (i.e. Alexander’s father) or from at least, ever since the time of Philippe’s reign and thereafter.

All of the above, either to a Slav or a Bulgar of the contemporary Northern Macedonian region might sound ‘really Greek to them’, to say the least. But, to those who are not only habitants of ancient Macedonian land but who are also Macedonians themselves -that is, to all those who are of a real Macedonian (i.e. Dorian Greek) ethnic origin are all too very important.

Long live the ancient Greek cosmopolitismos! Long live Macedonia and the rest of Greece! Long live the forthcoming Hellenic Republic!
ΔΕΝ ΕΠΙΤΡΕΠΕΤΑΙ Η ΑΝΑΔΗΜΟΣΙΕΥΣΗ ΧΩΡΙΣ ΑΔΕΙΑ

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[George S.]

Република Македонија
Republic of Macedonia
Macedonia capital

Скопје/Skopje (467,000)
Macedonia anthem

"Денес над Македонија"
"Denes nad Makedonija"
"Today above Macedonia"
Independence of Macedonia

September 8th, 1991
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25,714 sq km
15,977.93 sq mi
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Macedonian Denar (since April 26, 1992)
Macedonia demographics

Macedonians 65%, Albanians 25%, Turks 3,9%, Roma 2,7% and Serbs 1,8%.
Languages spoken in Macedonia

Macedonian 70%, Albanian 20%, Turkish, Serbo-Croat, Roma % Vlach 10%.
Religions in Macedonia

Macedonian Orthodox 64,7%, Muslim 33,3%, Catholic and other 2%.
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United Nations - April 8th, 1993
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Greek propaganda against Macedonia
About Macedonia

Republic of Macedonia represents a part of the entire region Macedonia (also known as Makedonija, Makedonia, Makedonya), a region that contains a great historical - geographical value, in southeastern Europe, in the south central part of the Balkan Peninsula. Macedonia covers about 68,451 sq km. The Republic of Macedonia covers about 25,713 sq km and slightly near than half of the region lies in northern Greece, 34,411 sq km. A small portion of the region belongs to Bulgaria, 6,798 sq km & 802 sq km belongs to Albania. Though mostly mountainous, the region also encompassed the valleys of the Bistrica (Halijakmon), Vardar (Axios) and Struma rivers, all of which drain into the Aegean Sea.

In the 8th century BC the sense of becoming to one nation was improved and the ancient Macedonian tribes formed their ancient kingdom, ruled by Perdica 1st. Philip 2nd, (356-336 BC), led the kingdom into a period of growth and expansion. Philip 2nd conquered the Greeks in 338 BC at the Chaeroneia battle and unified the Greek city-states with the Macedonian kingdom, and they lost their independence. Alexander the Great (336-323 BC), pursued his father's objectives and created a vast empire which stretched south into Egypt and across Persia (now known as Iran) to northwestern India. Culture and art flourished under Alexander's rule.

Alexander The Great, died in 323 BC, leaving the empire with no clear successor. Generals in the Macedonian army divided the empire into smaller kingdoms. These kingdoms continued to fight with each other for several decades until the year 215 BC. Starting in 215 BC Macedonia was assailed by the Romans in a series of three wars which lasted until 168 BC. In 148 BC the region became a Roman province. During the early Christian period the region was an important field for the missionary labors of Saint Paul the Apostle.

After the final division of the Roman Empire in AD 395 Macedonia became part of the Byzantine Empire. In the 6th-7th century the Slavs penetrated in the Byzantine empire in large numbers. The Slavic tribes, Berziti (Brsjaci), Smoljani, Dragoviti, Velegeziti, Sagudati, Rinhini, Strumjani that, settled on the territory of Macedonia mixed with the ancient population and created the Macedonian nation that exists even today. In the 9th century the brothers from Solun (Salonica), Sts. Cyril & Methodius created the first Slavonic alphabet, known as "Glagolica". Their follower, St. Clement of Ohrid, who improved their work, was the founder the of first University of Slavic literacy, in Ohrid (city known as the European Jerusalem). Also, during this period the Archbishopric of Ohrid was established (which became the biggest church on the Balkan's). In 976 AD the medieval Macedonian state was established by the four brothers: David, Aaron, Moses and Samoil, with seat in Prespa & later in Ohrid. After it's fall in 1018, Macedonia was controlled by the Byzantine leader Vasilius 2nd and later by the medieval rulers, as Strez, Dobromir Hriz, Alexi Slav, King Marko and others.

The Ottoman Turks ruled the region for 5 centuries, from 1371 to 1912. In 1767 they forbid the oldest church in the Balkans dating back to the 10th AD, the Archbishopric of Ohrid, (which was restored in 1967 under the name Macedonian Orthodox Church). Their rule was followed by many uprisings: Karpoš in 1689, Neguš in 1822, Razlovci in 1876, Kresna 1878-79 and the Ilinden in 1903, that resulted with the famous ten days, Kruševo republic. The Internal Macedonian Revolutionary Organization (IMRO) was established in Solun (Salonica), in 1893, which goal was establishing an independent Macedonian state.

Unfortunately, after the Balkan Wars (1912-1913), Macedonia was divided among Greece (Aegean), Bulgaria (Pirin), Serbia (Vardar) and small regions were given to Albania (Mala Prespa, Pogradec and Golo Brdo). The division was confirmed, later at the Versailles peace treaty in 1919, after the 1st world war. After this tragic event, the Macedonians were living under triple rule, having no rights of using their mother language and declaring themselves as Macedonians. After the 2nd world war, in 1946 the Macedonians finally got their human rights by having own state, but only on Yugoslav south (in the Vardar part). Those who live in Aegean (Greece), Pirin (Bulgaria), Mala Prespa, Pogradec & Golo Brdo (Albania), still fight for their rights. Macedonia was the last of the Yugoslav republic's, that proclaimed independence on September 8th 1991.
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Macedonia news

Matka Divers find church foundations
2013-11-10
Macedonian Airports hit record passanger traffic
2013-11-07
Lonely Planet puts Macedonia in top 10 countries to visit for 2014
2013-11-01
Archeological excavations at Crkviste site continue
2013-10-30
Jinping-Ivanov: China prepared to give Macedonia a hand
2013-10-22
Kromberg & Schubert plant opens
2013-10-18
32nd Skopje Jazz Festival kicks off
2013-10-17
Macedonians in Albania urge opening of Consulate in Korca
2013-10-12
Gruevski congratulates citizens October 11, People's Uprising day
2013-10-11
Macedonians to wake up with freezing temperatures
2013-10-03
Traditional rice harvesting begins in Kocani
2013-09-29
Matka Divers find church foundations
2013-11-10
Macedonian Airports hit record passanger traffic
2013-11-07
Lonely Planet puts Macedonia in top 10 countries to visit for 2014
2013-11-01
Archeological excavations at Crkviste site continue
2013-10-30
Jinping-Ivanov: China prepared to give Macedonia a hand
2013-10-22
Kromberg & Schubert plant opens
2013-10-18
32nd Skopje Jazz Festival kicks off
2013-10-17
Macedonians in Albania urge opening of Consulate in Korca
2013-10-12
Gruevski congratulates citizens October 11, People's Uprising day
2013-10-11
Macedonians to wake up with freezing temperatures
2013-10-03
Traditional rice harvesting begins in Kocani
2013-09-29

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