Risto Stefov - Articles, Translations & Collaborations

[George S.]

World Macedonian Congress



MACEDONIA IS NOT AN OCCUPIER OR A COLONIZER OF ALBANIAN SOIL, AND WILL NOT PERMIT ITS OWN DISINTEGRATION!

Translated and edited by Risto Stefov

May 1, 2012



Macedonia will defend and protect its unitary character! NATO the U.S. and the EU are to blame for the destabilization of Macedonia!



A state name is an element of statehood; refusing to recognize it is aggression against the state’s fundamental right!



April 17, 2012 Skopje, Macedonia – Historically Albanian territories never existed, much less being occupied or colonized! There are states with internationally recognized borders existing in the Balkans and the soil in these states is state owned, except for the private ownership of property registered with a deed. The Macedonian state is not an occupier, or a colonizer of Albanian soil. The Macedonian people on the other hand are eternally against changing the ethnic structure of the population inside Macedonia, as guarantor of peace and stability in the region!



The World Macedonian Congress (WMC), with indignation, rejects the ultimatum of the terrorist organization “Liberation Army of the occupied Albanian territories” directed at the Macedonian Government with a deadline to “withdraw from the occupied and colonized Albanian territories.”



The WMC will repeat that the war in 2001 was not a war between Macedonians and Albanians, or a war between Orthodox Christians and Muslims; it was a simulated war for the implementation of certain interests of some major powers for their own spheres of influence in the region.



The WMC strongly protests against the NATO, U.S. and EU attempts at blackmailing Macedonia to change its name. Such attempts stimulate the hopes of terrorist organizations in re-structuring the government and pushing for Macedonia’s territorial disintegration. By doing this they condone brutal crimes, crimes against property, endangerment of the lives of citizens and the destabilization of peace and security in Macedonia and the surrounding region. The WMC believes that these acts are deeply conspiratorial and serve the interests of others, of outsiders who want to see Macedonia destabilized! The state name is an element of statehood; its non-recognition is aggression against the state’s fundamental rights!



The WMC requests an urgent clarification from the competent authorities regarding the monstrous murders of the five Macedonians at the Smilkovsko Lake and demands severe penalties for the criminals who organized and committed these heinous crimes with the intent of sending a clear message just before Easter. At the same time, the WMC requests from the competent authorities the detention and elimination of terrorist groups, criminal gangs, military profiteers, religious fanatics and drug dealers in the territory of Macedonia. The WMC would also like to appeal to the citizens for prudence, restraint and responsible participation in scenarios that may lead to Macedonia’s destabilization!



The lives and property of our citizens are sacred and revered and there can be no interests for which they may be endangered. Violence and aggression must not be sanctioned by the state! The WMC requests of the authorities to reinforce measures and their presence for public order and peace for its citizens.



The WMC would like to appeal to the provocateurs through the media and social networks to stop lifting the passions of hatred, vengeance and war! The WMC believes
that participants in public forums should be careful of their behaviour in order to avoid the risk of inciting and inflaming racial, ethnic and religious hatred, discord and intolerance.



The WMC calls for confidence-building measures for permanent Macedonian-Albanian
reconciliation and coexistence. Macedonia is a legal state in which all citizens are equal before the Constitution and before the law, but at the same time everyone must also be aware of his or her rights and obligations in relation to the others in society and the consequences of possible injuries to lives and property.



The WMC condemns the promotion of aggression and violence in order to achieve political, religious and other rights. The WMC respects the cultural autonomy and acquired rights of all ethnic communities regardless of the census results as a condition for interethnic trust, understanding and tolerance.



The WMC considers it necessary to redefine society’s relationship with religious communities and sects that proclaim hatred and war! The WMC is in favour of encouraging the government to re-unify relations between Macedonians - Christians and Muslims - as an integral and unchallengeable part of Macedonian society!



The WMC is in favour of the people and the government working together for the sustainable development of Macedonia, in which the citizens will recognize a clear perspective for a stable constitutional order which will guarantee the right to life, the right to property, personal rights and freedoms, justice and the rule of law for the entire territory of Macedonia.



The WMC would like to point out that the basic principles of the Ohrid Framework Agreement, signed on August 13th, 2001 are: the rejection of violence as a means of achieving political objectives; no tampering with the inviolability, sovereignty and territorial integrity of the Macedonian state and its unitary character; the rejection of territorial solutions to ethnic issues; the multi-ethnic character of Macedonian society must be preserved and reflected in public life and the full implementation of needs of all citizens of Macedonia in accordance with the highest international standards, which is a practice in Macedonia.



At the same time the WMC would like to remind everyone that according to Article 20 of the Framework Convention for the Protection of National Minorities Council of Europe, of February 1, 1995, in the exercise of the rights and freedoms arising from the principles enshrined in the Framework Convention, members of national minorities are obliged to respect national legislation and the rights of others, especially the rights of the members of the majority and other national minorities. Also, in accordance with Article 21 of the Framework Convention, nothing in it will be interpreted as implying any right to take action or act contrary to the fundamental principles of international law and in particular the sovereign equality, territorial integrity and political independence of States.





СВЕТСКИ МАКЕДОНСКИ КОНГРЕС

МАКЕДОНИЈА НЕ Е ОКУПАТОР НИТУ КОЛОНИЗАТОР НА АЛБАНСКИ ЗЕМЈИ, НИТУ ЌЕ
ДОЗВОЛИ НЕЈЗИНА ДЕЗИНТЕГРАЦИЈА!

Македонија ќе го брани и одбрани својот унитарен карактер! НАТО, САД и
ЕУ сносат вина за дестабилизaција на Македонија!

Државното име е елемент на државноста, неговото непризнавање е агресија
врз државата, бидејќи е фундаментално право!

17 април 2012 година, Скопје, Македонија - На Балканот не постојат
албански земји, уште помалку окупирани или колонизирани! На Балканот
постојат држави со меѓународно признати граници, а земјата во овие
држави е државна сопственост, освен приватната сопственост која е
запишана на имотен лист во катастарот. Државата Македонија не е
окупатор, ниту колонизатор на албански земји, но Македонците се трајно
заинтересирани за непроменливост на етничката структура на населението,
како гарант за мирот и стабилноста во регионот и во Македонија!



Светскиот Македонски Конгрес (СМК) со индигнација го отфрла ултиматумот
на терористичката организација “Армија за oслободување на oкупираните
aлбански земји“ до Владата на Македонија “со рок за повлекување од
окупираните и колонизираните албански земји“.

СМК повторува, дека војната во 2001 година не беше војна меѓу
Македонците и Албанците, ниту војна меѓу православните и муслиманите,
туку симулирана војна за имплементација на определени интереси на некои
големи сили за свои сфери на влијание на овие простори.

СМК најостро протестира до НАТО, САД и ЕУ, кои уценувајќи ја Македонија
за промена на државното име, стимулираат терористички организации кои во
надеж за рекомпонирање на власта и територијална дезинтеграција на
Македонија, вршат брутални кривични и криминални дела против имотите и
животите на граѓаните, мирот и безбедноста во земјата и регионот. СМК
смета дека овие настани се длабоко конспирирани за други и туѓи
интереси, со цел дестабилизација на Македонија! Државното име е елемент
на државноста, неговото непризнавање е агресија врз државата, бидејќи е
фундаментално право!

СМК од надлежните органи бара итно расветлување на монструозното
петкратно убиство кај Смилковското езеро и најстроги казни за
злосторниците, кои биле организирани, имале свесна намера и оставиле
јасна порака пред Велигден. Истовремено, СМК од надлежните органи бара
детекција и елиминација на терористички групи на криминални банди, воени
профитери, верски фанатици и нарко дилери на територијата на Македонија.

СМК апелира до граѓаните на разумност, воздржаност и одговорност од
учество во сценарија за дестабилизација на Македонија!

Животите и имотите на граѓаните се неприкосновени и неповредливи, и не
постојат интереси заради кои можат да бидат загрозени, а секое насилство
и агресија државата мора најстрого да го санкционира! СМК бара
надлежните органи да ги засилат мерките и присуството заради јавниот ред
и мир на граѓаните.

СМК апелира до провокаторите преку медиумите и социјалните мрежи да
престанат со поткревање на страсти за омраза, одмазда и војна! СМК смета
дека секој учесник на јавен собир треба да внимава на своето однесување
поради ризик од поттикнување и разгорување на расна, етничка и верска
омраза, раздор и нетрпеливост.

СМК повикува на градење мерки на доверба за трајно македонско-албанско
помирување и коегзистенција. Македонија е правна држава во која сите се
еднакви пред Уставот и законите за делата кои ги сториле, но истовремено
сите мора да бидат свесни и за своите права и обврски во односите со
другите во општеството и за последиците од евентуална повреда на туѓи
животи и имоти.

СМК ја осудува промоцијата на агресија и насилство со цел остварување
на политички, верски и други права. СМК ја почитува културната
автономија и стекнатите права на етничките заедници независно од
пописните резултати како услов за меѓуетничка доверба, разбирање и
толеранција.

СМК смета дека е потребно редефинирање на односот на општеството кон
верските заедници и секти кои прокламираат омраза и војна! СМК ја
поттикнува власта на реунифицирање на односите меѓу Македонците
христијани и муслимани како нераскинлив и неотуѓив дел од македонскиот
народ!

СМК го поттикнува општеството и власта за профилација на одржлив развој
за Македонија, во кој граѓаните ќе препознаат јасна перспектива за
стабилен уставен поредок што ќе им гарантира право на живот и право на
сопственост, права и слободи, правда и владеење на правото на целата
територија на Македонија.

СМК потсетува, дека основни принципи во Охридскиот рамковен договор,
потпишан на 13 август 2001 година се: отфрлањето на насилството за
остварување на политички цели; неповредивоста на суверенитетот и
територијалниот интегритет на Македонија и унитарниот карактер на
државата; отфрлањето на територијалните решенија за етничките прашања;
мултиетничкиот карактер на македонското општество кој мора да се сочува
и да најде свој одраз во јавниот живот; и целосното исполнување на
потребите на сите граѓани на Македонија во согласност со највисоките
меѓународни стандарди, што впрочем е и практика во Македонија.


Истовремено, СМК потсетува дека во согласност со членот 20 од
Рамковната конвенција за заштита на националните малцинства на Советот
на Европа од 01 февруари 1995 година, во вршењето на правата и слободите
што произлегуваат од принципите наведени во оваа Рамковна конвенција,
припадниците на националните малцинства должни се да ги почитуваат
националното законодавство и правата на другите, посебно правата на
припадниците на мнозинството или на другите национални малцинства.
Додека, во согласност со членот 21 од оваа Рамковна конвенција, ништо во
неа нема да биде толкувано како да дава право да се презема активност
или да се постапува спротивно на основните принципи на меѓународното
право и посебно на суверената еднаквост, територијалниот интегритет и

[George S.]

Macedonia, Albania aim to turn page on encyclopedia dispute

http://www.setimes.com/cocoon/setime.../30/feature-03

By June, the Macedonian and the Albanian academies of arts and sciences will form a joint co-operation council that will offer a different interpretation of the history of relations between the Macedonian and Albanian people.

"By the constitution, such a body … will solve problems and open questions," Gudar Beciraj, president of the Albanian Academy (ACS), said.

Science should lead the way to dialogue, not conflict, Macedonian Academy (MANU) President Vlado Kambovski said. "A Balkan academy is needed to solve all open questions regarding history and science."

The two academies' members will meet in June in Ohrid to address the open issues between Macedonians and Albanians.

"Macedonians and Albanians have common history. The same rulers ruled and used the same measures towards them both. Whatever the truth about the Macedonian-Albanian relations, it should be viewed from more sides," Rizvan Sulejmani, professor at Tetovo State University, told SETimes.

One of the key issues to be addressed is the Macedonian Encyclopedia. Albanians dispute the book because it says they are newcomers to the Balkans and not native to Macedonia.

A wave of criticism in 2009 ceased publication of the book.

The encyclopedia is a project of MANU's Lexicographic Centre. More than 250 academy members, university professors and researchers created the two-volume encyclopedia over the course of seven years. It covers 9,000 people, concepts and events from all time periods within the geographical boundaries of Macedonia, from prehistoric to contemporary times.

The encyclopedia describes Albanians as "mountain people" and says the nation descended in Macedonia together with the Ottoman Empire in the 16th century.

The ASC says these views are nationalist, and called on their Macedonian colleagues to reconsider the publication for the sake of "truth in history and good neighbourhood relations."

"All statements in the encyclopedia are based on proof and documents which are verified. If some do not like facts, it does not mean the facts should be changed. Let them prove they are native to these lands," Gjorgi Malkovski, historian and one of the encyclopedia authors, told SETimes.

"The attempt to change the Macedonian encyclopedia in the interest of Albanians will degrade Macedonian historical science, which has made a tremendous progress," he added.

"The Macedonian Academy [MANU] is forming a new team to produce a new encyclopedia which will contain statements that will be acceptable to the Albanians. But nothing will come out of that effort. After all, is MANU interfering in the publishing and content of the Albanian Encyclopedia? In it, Macedonians are not even recognised as people but are assimilated into phantom 'Slavomacedonians'," the book's editor and veteran academy historian, Blazhe Ristovski, told SETimes.

Despite the efforts to smooth relations, historians are unanimous that history is not subject to goodwill agreements.

"We have seen similar efforts regionwide -- primarily from Greece and Bulgaria -- to legally 'solve' the gaps in their national historical narratives, including by attempting a political diktat or political agreements, especially towards Macedonia," historian Violeta Achkovska told SETimes.



SAY NO TO ALBANIAN INTERFERENCE IN MACEDINIAN AFFAIRS!!!

[George S.]

Canada proposes coordination with allies over Macedonia's NATO accession



Skopje, 19 April 2012 (MIA) - Foreign Minister Nikola Poposki met late Wednesday with Canadian counterpart John Baird at the sidelines of the North-Atlantic Council meeting in the NATO Brussels HQ.



The meeting focused on the excellent bilateral relations, as well as commitment to their future development, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said in a press release.



FM Baird stressed Canada's strong support to Macedonia's sooner NATO accession, proposing the coordination with other countries-supporters of its full-fledged NATO membership towards finding a swift solution.



Minister Poposki said Macedonia remained committed to the NATO integration process, voicing belief that the Chicago summit would not repeat the conclusions from previous summits, but acknowledge Macedonia's progress and active participation in NATO-led missions, but also taking into account the International Court of Justice ruling.



With regards to enhancement of bilateral relations, Poposki put forward a proposal for signing of agreements for investment promotion and protection, as well as airline traffic.

[George S.]

AMHRC CONDEMNS THE PRESENCE OF “NEO-NAZIS” AT A LOCAL COMMUNITY EVENT

Melbourne, 11 April 2012



The Australian Macedonian Human Rights Committee is deeply concerned about the presence of members of a racist “neo-Nazi” organisation at a recent Greek community event in Melbourne.

On Sunday 25 March 2012, the Australian Greek community organised a “Greek Independence Day Parade” at the Shrine of Remembrance in Melbourne. According to the Greek Australian newspaper, Neos Kosmos, the event was attended by a number of Greek community groups, as well as the Premier of the State of Victoria, the Hon. Ted Baillieu, members of the Victorian and Federal Parliaments and representatives from Victoria Police and the Australian Defence Forces.

However what Neos Kosmos failed to report was the fact that the event was attended by members of a Melbourne branch of the so-called “Chrysi Avgi” (Golden Dawn) organisation. Nevertheless, their presence at the parade was ‘proudly’ displayed on the organisation’s official website:

http://xryshaygh.wordpress.com/2012/03/25/%CF%87%CF%81%CF%85%CF%83%CE%B7-%CE%B1%CF%85%CE%B3%CE%B7-%CF%80%CE%B1%CE%BD%CF%84%CE%BF%CF%85-%CE%B1%CF%85%CF%83%CF%84%CF%81%CE%B1%CE%BB%CE%B9%CE%B1-25%CE%B7-%CE%BC%CE%B1%CF%81%CF%84%CE%AF%CE%BF%CF%85/

According to a report submitted by the Greek Helsinki Monitor (an Athens based human rights organisation) to the United Nations Committee on the Elimination of Racism and Discrimination (UN CERD), Golden Dawn is “openly neo-Nazi, anti-Semitic, racist and white supremacist and have been involved in many violent incidents against migrants, Macedonians ... as well as in desecration of Jewish monuments.”

See full GHM submission here:

http://www2.ohchr.org/english/bodies/cerd/cerds75.htm

In 2009, on the basis of the report of the Greek Helsinki Monitor, UN CERD officially recommended that Greece ban such groups, calling upon the authorities to “take effective measures to penalize organizations and media outlets that are guilty of such acts. It further recommends that the State party concretely ban Neo-Nazi groups from its territory and take more effective measures to promote tolerance towards persons of different ethnic origins."

See full UN CERD report here:
http://daccess-dds-ny.un.org/doc/UND...df?OpenElement )

While the Australian Macedonian Rights Committee recognises the right of all ethnic communities to organise peaceful national day celebrations and cultural events, the open and unimpeded presence of members of racist groups at such events is totally unacceptable.

Given the fact that members of the “Golden Dawn” group were wearing distinct black coloured clothing with the words “Golden Dawn” in Greek on the back of their attire, they were clearly visible and easily identifiable to all those present including the event organisers. As such, the neo-Nazi group should have been asked to leave the grounds of the Shrine immediately. Regrettably, they were permitted to stay.

In future, Australian political leaders need to take heed of who exactly they are addressing so as to avoid such embarrassing situations. The fact that the Premier of Victoria, the Hon. Ted Baillieu, flanked to the right by his Minister for Multicultural Affairs, Mr Nicholas Kotsiras, addressed a gathering in the presence of a Neo-Nazi group, at the Shrine of Remembrance of all places, is very disturbing.

The Australian Macedonian Human Rights Committee calls upon community leaders to condemn this incident and ensure the exclusion of racist groups from future community events. Manifestations of racism and intolerance have no place in Australian society.

AUSTRALIAN MACEDONIAN HUMAN RIGHTS COMMITTEE (AMHRC)
Suite 106, Level 1,
55 Flemington Rd ,
North Melbourne VIC 3051, Australia
Tel/Fax: +61 3 9329 8960
Email:[email protected]
Visit our website: www.macedonianhr.org.au

[George S.]

STOBI Winery Earns Silver in France

http://macedoniaonline.eu/content/view/20648/2/

Macedonian wineries continue to earn awards and be repeatedly voted as making the world's best wines...

At the 19th international wine competition held at Château des Ravatys in France, Macedonian winery Stobi received a silver medal. At the festival more than 300 wine experts (oenologists) had the utmost difficult task in selecting world's best Chardonnay wines.

Famous wineries from 43 countries presented 908 varieties of Chardonnay wines, which makes Stobi's silver medal the more remarkable.


“This is a huge achievement for us, for our philosophy and approach in making wine, and speaks volumes for the quality of our wine” says visibly pleased Dane Jovanov, Director at Stobi Winery.

Stobi Winery beat out stiff competition from wine makers from Spain, Italy, France, Chile, Australia, New Zealand etc.

[George S.]

CONFIDENTIAL AUSTRALIAN GOVERNMENT DOCUMENT REVEALS:
Greek government 'frequently' interferes in Australian policy on Macedonia



31 March 2012
Melbourne (Australia)

Following the Australian Macedonian Human Rights Committee’s announcement of the cancellation of the 1994 “Slav Macedonian” directive which renamed the Macedonian community in Australia, the English edition of the Melbourne based newspaper Neos Kosmos published a highly distorted article on the issue. The article quoted several Greek community organisations which reacted to the issue in a typically misleading manner. A local organisation calling itself the “Australian Hellenic Council” (AHC) accused Macedonian and Turkish diplomats in Canberra of “open interference” in an Australian policy matter. The AHC claimed that "it is unacceptable for the representatives of foreign governments to actively guide and participate in efforts to determine Australian domestic and foreign policy."

However, Freedom of Information documents released to the Australian Macedonian Human Rights Committee (AMHRC) demonstrate interference in Australian policy on Macedonia by another foreign government. Internal correspondence from the Minister for Foreign Affairs to the Minister for Immigration and Citizenship on the issue of Macedonia’s name, reveals that, "the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade frequently receives representations from the Embassy of the Republic of Greece asking that the Australian Government maintain its present approach" (Correspondence dated 8 October 2008).

The Australian Macedonian Human Rights Committee (AMHRC) wonders whether the Australian Hellenic Council and other Greek community organisations will also condemn this “open interference” in Australia’s domestic and foreign policy?

Of course, the interference of Greece in Australian domestic and foreign policy is nothing new. In fact this was detected almost twenty years ago by Dr Andrew Jakubowicz, Professor of Sociology at the University of Sydney when he noted that:



"…the Australian government had allowed itself to be manipulated by ultra-nationalists in the Greek community in particular, under direction or stimulation from Athens, into attacking one of the basic principles of multiculturalism, the right of groups in Australia to identify themselves as they believed was most appropriate." (A. Jakubowicz, “The State, Multiculturalism and Ethnic Leadership in Australia” 1995, page 8)



Dr Jakubowicz also found that:

"In 1992/1993 the Greek government, anxious to ensure diasporic solidarity and support in what it feared would be a potential conflict in the Balkans, brokered a rapprochement in Athens between the Australian Communities and the Archdiocese. With that rapprochement in place, the former left/right tensions could be suppressed and replaced by a call to Hellenic unity, an ultranationalist ethnically based reprise that could transcend more rational political debates and seek for an emotional trigger to release the growing political clout of the Greek community in Australia. There is a strange twist in the situation, in that it is the multiculturalist environment of Australia that has legitimised the retention of Hellenic cultural politics here, while in Greece this same Hellenic cultural politics rejects a multicultural acceptance of diversity (e.g. Macedonian language and culture) within that country." (A. Jakubowicz, “The State, Multiculturalism and Ethnic Leadership in Australia” 1995, page 8)



The Australian Macedonian Human Rights Committee (AMHRC) calls upon the Australian Government to free itself of the destructive influence of the Greek Government on its policy in relation to Macedonia's name. Australia should now move to adopt a policy on this issue which in accordance with the position of over 130 countries (two-thirds of UN members) and all of its major allies (eg. USA, UK, Canada) as well as other powers such as Russia, China and India, i.e. to recognise the official name of the Republic of Macedonia in bilateral relations.

The AMHRC also reiterates its call upon the Macedonian government to end all name "negotiations" with Greece.


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. For more information please visit www.macedonianhr.org.au, email [email protected] or via +61 3 9329 8960.



Australian Macedonian Human Rights Committee Inc.
Suite 106, Level 1, 55 Flemington Road
North Melbourne, Victoria 3051 Australia
Ph: +61 3 9329 8960
Email: [email protected] | Web: www.macedonianhr.org.au

[George S.]

20 Macedonian Trucks Vandalized in Greece...Police aided Vandals


Thursday, 16 September 2010

http://macedoniaonline.eu/content/view/16487/1/

Around twenty Macedonian trucks transiting from Athens to Solun were vandalized by local truckers at the outskirts of Volos.

This is not the first time, though in the latest case local police was involved in helping the vandals. Volos police pulled over Macedonian truckers to supposedly check their documents. When everything was said and done nine trucks had flat tires and scratches even though none of the trucks carried the MK insignia.

"It's horrible transiting through Greece. Their police either doesn't do anything or they are involved in the attacks. It's ludicrous, yet I have to drive here every week," said one of the drivers.

There was another absurd and brazen attack on Macedonian truckers at a parking lot in Volos. While the Macedonians were having lunch, their trucks were vandalized to levels not seen before; with their gas supplies cut, tampering with brake lines etc.

"We have filed a formal complaint to Greece's police and to our Embassy in Solun. These people are nuts. The border police are causing problems for us on daily basis. They have asked me for money and all sorts of bribes to allow my truck an entry," says an upset trucker who needed two days to fix his truck and return home.

[George S.]

Miracle in Skopje church attracts thousands



Skopje, 9 April 2012 (MIA) - Followers from all over Macedonia come to Skopje-based church "St. Dimitrija", waiting in lines to witness the phenomenon of fresco self-cleansing.



Church priests say this is a miracle, meaning people should turn towards God more often.

The cleansing phenomenon began at weekend's holiday Cvetnici (Palm Sunday) on the fresco at the church's entrance, followed by other frescoes inside.



According to clergymen, a similar phenomenon was registered only in Russia in the 1930s, when natural colors of frescoes and icons began to re-emerge in one church.



Natural colors of the frescoes in the Skopje church re-emerge at the aureoles of saints, but also on portion of their garments painted in gold.



Some of the icons in church "St. Dimitrija" are 100 years old, whereas others were painted after the 1963 Skopje earthquake.

[George S.]

Legal and Political Aspects of Partition of Macedonian Territory

By Pelister



This year and next year marks the 100th year since the start of the war over Macedonian territory, and its partition.

Serbia, Bulgaria and Greece seized Macedonian territory through an illegal use of force in 1912 and 1913. The Macedonian nation gave them no provocation.

At least since the 16th century legal philosophers have generally fallen into two camps. The first group has advocated that a war of aggression does confer 'rights' to the conqueror. The second group has advocated that a war of aggression (in legal terms known as 'Right by Conquest') does confer rights to that territory but with certain conditions. The second group advocated that an invading force has a legal right to territory only if it is a 'just' war and only if they have a 'just cause' for it.

The illegal seizure of Macedonian territory was not a 'just war' and there was no 'just cause' for it. It was robbery.

It is often stated that the Balkan League was formed to 'liberate' Macedonian territory and that the first Balkan War was a 'just war' while the second Balkan war was not a 'just war'.

I am going to present information that brings the truth to light about the illegal seizure of Macedonian territory. I will also routinely post what international jurors have been saying about the seizure of territory in international law over the last five centuries, and relate it to the invasion of Macedonia.

Here is something I came across by accident today. It relates to the first Balkan war, the nature of the alliances, the nature of that war and who was involved.

Background and context:

When the French Prime Minister first learned about the Serbo-Bulgarian Treaty (signed March 13, 1912), and the Bulgarian-Greek Treaty (signed May 29, 1912), he was alarmed. Poincare then suggested to both London and St. Petersburg, that the Entente powers sign a ‘pact of disinterestedness’ in the Balkans. This had an effect on the Russian court. Hugh O’Beirne, the Charge d’Affaires in St. Petersburg, wrote to Harold Nicolson, the British ambassador in St. Petersburg, about the effect of the French proposal at the Russian court.

Direct quote from the private letter of Hugh O'Beirne:

Quote:

Originally Posted by O'Beirne

Sazonov has been greatly put out during the last few days by Poincare’s proposal…in his irritation he had spoken to me with great openness about Russia’s policy. His main objection to Poincare’s suggested declaration of disinterestedness was, of course, with reference to the impression which it would produce on the Balkan Slavs. He told me, what I had naturally surmised, that the Bulgarian and Serbian delegations which had visited Russia, ostensibly on the occasion of the Moscow celebrations, had in reality come in connection with the Serbo-Bulgarian secret Treaty. He explained that the delegations had come to ‘present’ the signed Treaty to the Emperor. Russia thus appears as a king of high protecting Power in the alliance concluded by the two Slav kingdoms, and the Emperor gives his formal sanction to the secret arrangement which contemplates, in certain eventualities, the partition of Macedonia. That Sazanov attaches real importance to this Treaty, and that in fact he means business by it, is shown by the way in which he took the (French) proposal to sign a ‘pact of disinterestedness’. Sazonov said that, coming immediately after the arrival of the Serbian and Bulgarian delegations, it would be regarded as a renunciation by Russia of her historic role in the Balkans, that it would have a disastrous effect… Sazonov regarded the suggestion as positively dangerous, and described it as playing with fire, by which I take him to mean that it is a dangerous thing to force Russia to show her hand about the Balkans… [Cited in Harold Nicolson, Sir Arthur Nicolson, Bart. First Lord Carnock, A study in the old diplomacy, Constable and Co. Ltd, London, 1930, pp.379-380]

This is cited in Harold Nicolson's book.

Harold Nicolson continues to narrate the story:

Quote:

In September, M. Sazonov paid a visit to England, and on his return from Balmoral, Nicolson met him a Crewe Hall. It was there, on September 29, 1912 that they both received the news that Bulgaria had mobilised […] A formula was agreed upon by October 7 whereby the united Powers notified the Balkan States that if war broke out no territorial changes would be permitted.”

Summary:

The original Serbian-Bulgarian Treaty, according to the Russian Foreign Minister, Sazonov, proposed the partition of Macedonia.


The Partition of Macedonia has the full blessing and support of the Russian Tsar and government. Indeed, such a thing might not have been possible without it.


According to Harold Nicolson, the Powers new about it advance (debunking another myth), and that they had notified the Balkan Powers, before the first war broke out, and "no territorial changes would be permitted"

[George S.]

Vatican had Scholarships for Macedonians since 1600's

Monday, 26 March 2012

http://macedoniaonline.eu/content/view/20667/2/

Local Skopje daily "Nova Makedonija" published documents and letters from the Vatican archives dating back to the 17th century, or to be more precise to 1619.

In those documents, the Vatican had a special program in which they provided scholarships to Macedonian bishops for 400 years.



The most interesting are two original letters written by Macedonian bishop Mardarije, member of the Ohrid Patriarchy sent to Cardinal Beberini in which he speaks of the problems created by the Turks and in particularly the Albanians in his diocese. Both letters were received by the Pope. The Macedonian priest was presented to the Pope as "he hails from the land of the big king, Alexander."



Interestingly enough, Vatican made a distinction between Macedonians, Serbians (Servians) and Bulgarians 400 years ago. Even more interesting, Greeks or Greece are not mentioned in any of the documents! Though this is expected since Greece at the time was mainly populated by Macedonians, Albanians and Turks. The nationality "Greek" begun circulating much later, in the 19th century, introduced by Germany.



In 1619, Dalmatian bishops requested from Pope Paul V to make a decision and relocate the College back to Loreto, and allocate more spots for bishops from Servia (Vatican's name for Serbia), Bulgaria and Macedonia who in the future will no longer need to contact the Wholy See for scholarships.



According to Vatican archives, in 1620, there were three Macedonian bishops at the College.

There are additional communications between Macedonian bishops and the College of Cardinals and the Pope in 1625 and later on.

[George S.]

Ватикански документи за Македонија од 17 век

http://www.novamakedonija.com.mk/New...tIzdanie=22540

Во трезорите на Ватикан се чуваат значаен број документи за Македонија и за Македонците, кои допрва треба да бидат истражени и објавени. Во архивот на Конгрегацијата за пропаганда на верата во Рим (Арцхивио делла Сацра Цонгрегазионе де Пропаганда Фиде), кој е формиран за да ги собира и чува документите од тајното дипломатско функционирање на Светата столица, се чуваат документи што го покриваат периодот од 1622 година до денес. Првиот секретар на Конгрегацијата, Франческо Инголи, уште од основањето на Конгрегацијата како „ресор за пропаганда на католицизмот во светот“, целокупната документација систематски и стручно ја распоредувал, а на тој начин ги удрил темелите на денешниот архив.


Кога по десет години работа се собрала голема збирка на тајни документи, Инголи почнал да го пишува првиот водич (Мемориа Рерум), овозможувајќи со тоа лесно и едноставно пронаоѓање на сите архивирани списи. Од друга страна, пак, одредувајќи простор во Ватиканската палата за сместување на архивската граѓа, папата Урбан Осми покажал не само разбирање за напорите на Инголи туку со тоа оваа драгоцена збирка ја ставил под личен надзор и патронат. Извесен период документите се наоѓале во Апостолската канцеларија, каде што била и канцеларијата на Инголи, а потоа оттаму, по неговата смрт, збирката била преместена во зградата на Конгрегацијата за пропаганда на верата. Веќе кон крајот на 18 век овој архив поседувал богатство со кое го привлекол вниманието и на францускиот цар Наполеон. Имено, Наполеон наредил целокупната архивска граѓа да се пренесе во Франција, од каде што, по неговиот пад, повторно е вратена во Рим и сместена во просториите на Конгрегацијата, каде што се наоѓа и денес. За време на транспортот во Франција, односно при враќањето назад, одреден број кутии со значајни документи засекогаш биле изгубени, а 74 кутии стигнале во Виена. Овие 74 кутии австриската влада ги вратила во Конгрегацијата дури во 1925 година. Како работела Конгрегацијата, односно Центарот за пропаганда на верата во Ватикан?

СЕДНИЦИ ВО ПРИСУСТВО НА ПАПАТА

Според документите од функционирањето на оваа институција може да се види дека е основана во времето на папата Григориј Петнаесетти. Документот за основање е потпишан на 6 јануари 1622 година, а основна задача била да стане централен и врховен орган за ширење на римокатоличката вера, односно за создавање унија со православието и враќање на протестантите во пазувите на Римокатоличката црква. Освен тоа, обврска на Конгрегацијата била да го организира и надгледува ширењето на католицизмот меѓу нехристијаните. Конгрегацијата, според актот за нејзиното основање ја сочинувале 13 кардинали, од кои еден бил префект, двајца прелати и секретар. Во овој состав подоцна влегол и еден кармелитанец, а потоа и протонотар и акцесор на Светиот уред. Членовите на Конгрегацијата редовно одржувале седници еднаш месечно, и тоа најчесто во присуство на папата. На тие седници (Цонгрегазионе Генерали) биле разгледувани важни прашања, додека оние сложените биле поверувани на посебни комисии што ги воделе кардиналите во Конгрегацијата и други експерти (Цонгрегазионе патриколари). Секојдневните работи ги водел префектот на Конгрегацијата со секретарот и минутантите. Тие одржувале седници еднаш неделно (Цонгресси). Прашањата, кои барале интервенција на папата, му биле соопштувани лично нему на аудиенција. Своите одлуки Конгрегацијата ги објавувала со декрет, препораки и писма.

До 1665 година генералните или месечните седници се одржувале во присуство на папата, меѓутоа таа практика е прекината во 1666 година. Оттогаш, секретарот на Конгрегацијата, во одредени денови, го известувал папата за најважните прашања и од него барал неопходни одобрувања за решавање на прашањата што ја надминувале надлежноста на префектот и на целата конгрегација. Од овие извештаи, и кратки молби, поднесени до папата, основан е посебен фонд. Мнозинството документи во овој фонд се однесуваат на прашања од приватен карактер, како молби, индулгенции, привилегии, одобренија за склопување брак во недозволени степени на сродство и слично. Овие прашања, односно прашањата за кои реферирал папата, во почетокот биле бележени во општи бележници, а подоцна секој предмет бил запишуван на посебен лист. На крајот на листот секретарот на Конгрегацијата ја нотирал и одлуката на папата.

СТИПЕНДИИ ВО 1619 ГОДИНА!

Во еден документ од 1624 година се зборува за обновување на Илирскиот колеџ, значи Словенски колеџ во Лорето, кој би основан 1580 година. Токму своето образование на овој колеџ го почнале 40 студенти. Пред тоа, во 1593 година, истиот колеџ бил преселен во Рим, а бројот на слушателите бил сведен на 12 ученици. Во 1619 година, далматинските бискупи побарале папата Павле Петти да донесе одлука колеџот да се врати во Лорето, а истовремено да се доделат места на питомци „Срби, Бугари и Македонци, кои во иднина нема да имаат причина да се обраќаат до Светата столица за стипендии“. Значи, уште во 1619 година во Ватикан правеле разлика меѓу Македонците, Србите и Бугарите, па затоа за нив била одобрена посебна квота во колеџот, посебна графа во документите за апликација како за одделен народ за кој треба да се одвојат одреден број места според националната припадност. Во Колеџот во Лорето во 1620 година студирале тројца Македонци, стипендирани од Ватикан.

Освен овој, во Архивот на Когрегацијата, односно во Ватикан, има и друг документ што е мошне значаен за нас. Станува збор за писмо од февруари 1625 година, испратено од Мантова од охридскиот патријарх Порфириј Палеолог. Во писмото го известува папата дека поради болест се задржал во Мантова, и дека тука ја добил веста да не се враќа во својата резиденција во Охрид, затоа што му се заканува голема опасност од Турците поради големиот долг на неговите претходници кон Портата. Се работи за даноци што ги наметнал султанот, а кои Охридската патријаршија не можела да ги плати. Во прашање се околу 40.000 скуди. Откако Конгрегацијата го добила ова писмо на патријархот Порфириј, стигнува понуда да остане во Мантова и да служи во црквата според неговиот обред, но Порфириј таа понуда не сакал да ја прифати без дозвола на папата. Конгрегацијата веднаш го известила папата за барањето на охридскиот патријарх, односно одлучила писмото на Порфириј да го достави за одлука до папата.

ОД ТАТКОВИНАТА НА АЛЕКСАНДАР!

Исклучително интересни се двете оригинални писма на „епископот македонски Мардарије од отечества великого цара Александра“, епископ на Охридската архиепископија, испратени до кардиналот Беберини, во кои жали за зулумите што ги прават Турците, особено Албанците, во неговата диецеза. Во двете негови писма, кои стигнале во Конгрегацијата, а со нив бил запознат и папата, стои дека тој е „епископ македонски од татковината на големиот цар Александар“. На заднината на истото писмо во Конгрегацијата било запишано да се достави на увид на кардиналите Алвициј и Инголиј, за да видат што може да се направи по тоа прашање. Врз основа на документацијата што се чува во Ватикан, Францеско Инголи, како прв човек на оваа своевидна влада на Ватикан, детално го известува папата за овој проблем на охридскиот архиепископ. Целата таа преписка се случува во јануари и февруари 1640 година.

Мошне интересен документ е и писмото испратено од Паштровиќи на 15 февруари 1642 година, во кое Франческо де Леонардис, специјален пратеник на папата, кој чекал да отпатува за Пеќ, каде што со српскиот патријарх требало да преговара за унија на Српската православна црква со Светата столица во Ватикан, известува за состојбите на теренот. Во своето доверливо писмо, Леонардис го известува папата дека е принуден да го одложи патувањето за Пеќ, затоа што бил известен дека српскиот патријарх отпатувал за Цариград „каде што охридскиот патријарх се обидува повторно да ги потчини сите поранешни територии под своја јурисдикција, односно да се прогласи за глава на ‘Бугарија, Србија, Македонија и Босна‘“. Тоа се случува во средината на 17 век. Во таа насока мошне интересно е и едно известување испратено од Скопје, на 22 март 1642 година, значи еден месец по паниката на Србите дека охридскиот патријарх ќе договори со султанот враќање на целосната контрола на Охридската архиепископија врз своите поранешни, одземени територии. Имено, барскиот надбискуп Георго Бјанки, известува дека на Скопска Црна Гора, освен православни, живеат и 500 католици, а ниту еден муслиман.
Како и кога се населени Албанците на теренот од денешното Арачиново до Танушевци, нема податоци во Конгрегацијата.

Во секој случај, овие и многу други документи што се чуваат во Ватикан сигурно ќе фрлат ново светло на затемнетиот дел на балканската историја, која, како што се знае, особено по пропаста на античка Македонија, ја пишувале само победниците.

[George S.]

Scattered heritage – Part 1 of 6

By Nove Cvetanoski

INTRODUCTION

Whether abundant or scarce, cultural heritage is in fact cultural wealth, as it holds great historical, artistic or spiritual value. We can think of our cultural heritage as being abundant if we have abundant knowledge of it. Our sense of a rich cultural past will be as strong, and as present, as the insight we have into it. This insight, though, is closely related to the evidence we have at our disposal.

For most of its history, Macedonia has been at a crossroad of civilisations. Therefore it is inevitable that its territory should be rich with historical, ancient cultural and civilisational testimonies. Despite that advantage, there have been times when specific aspects of the Macedonian state (i.e. its non-continuity and incomplete institutions) resulted in a neglect of cultural and civilisational treasures, which had been created on Macedonia's territory throughout centuries.

During its history, Macedonia has had many conquerors and foreign emissaries who destroyed, and robbed the land of, anything that was of value. Historical documents, especially those that refer to more recent times, can confirm that those people proved to be raiders of catastrophic proportions, doing much harm to the country's cultural heritage.

Hence, the most valuable medieval manuscripts and books, as well as the most beautiful icons and archaeological objects, are to be found today in foreign museum collections. Priceless manuscripts and books crafted and illuminated with exquisite ornaments in the Macedonian medieval literary centres, as well as valuable icons created by master artists during the lifetime of the unsurpassed Michelangelo and Da Vinci, have been taken by raiders to their own countries, or have been sold into other countries. In consequence, today they are jealously kept far from both the public and from Macedonian scholars. Macedonian scholars, therefore, don't have enough information on everything that was stolen and taken away – but the existing data is shocking nonetheless.

What was taken away in this manner from Macedonia cannot be estimated in numbers denoting financial worth. The value of cultural heritage isn’t measured thus, but just to illustrate that aspect as well, here's a comparison:

A single old parchment sheet will fetch astronomically high sums (hundreds of thousands of dollars) in auction houses or on the black market. Macedonia has been robbed of hundreds of such manuscripts, i.e. tens of thousands of parchment sheets, which are now being kept in foreign libraries, museums and private collections.

Or consider this: In the early 1990's, Moscow's "Vladimir Ilich Lenin" State Library asked our country for an insurance policy to exhibit some of its many Macedonian manuscripts. Unfortunately, our country couldn't afford the policy, since the Russian library estimated the fifteen Macedonian manuscripts in question were worth around 70 million dollars!

Another example: In 1998, both the Bulgarian and the Macedonian public were intrigued when information was published about valuable Macedonian antiques and several relics being kept in Bulgaria. Among them was the Ohrid Archbishops' crown. For half a century, the exact location of the crown had been a mystery. Announcing its location, and explaining that it had been hidden because of its high value, the Sofia National History Museum's director made the evaluation that the precious stones embedded in the crown alone are worth around 20 million dollars today.

The valuable objects described above are just a small fraction of the treasures that have been taken out of Macedonia. It would take many volumes just to record everything that foreign emissaries destroyed or scattered. We can point out and list only the most valuable plundered artifacts, particularly if we bear in mind that information on many valuable objects isn't available – that is, they are being kept in the coffers of some neighbouring and European countries to this day.

Throughout all history, especially from the early 19th century to World War II, Macedonia's cultural heritage was mercilessly demolished, pilfered, and scattered. The damage to it was catastrophic, movable heritage suffering in particular.

In this publication we will present only the most important information relevant to the destruction, theft and scattering of all types of cultural heritage (handwritten, archaeological, ethnological, sacred). This study is the first in-depth attempt to treat the entire problem of the destruction and dispersal of all types of Macedonia's cultural heritage. (This subject, until now, has never been a topic of any scientific, institutional or journalistic studies.) An overview of this kind can never be all-inclusive, because many acts of theft and destruction go unrecorded or because information is withheld by the countries who have received the artefacts. But we shall attempt to examine: How Macedonia's movable cultural heritage was destroyed and by whom, how it was stolen, where it was taken, and where it is today, i.e. to list several key treasures from Macedonia's territory and the foreign museums, libraries and collections in possession of these items.

TREASURES STOLEN, THEN HIDDEN


At present, Macedonian scholars and Macedonian institutions responsible for the care for our cultural heritage don't have information on everything that's been destroyed or carried away from the territory of Macedonia. It's impossible to obtain a complete account as well, since often the destroyers' and the robbers' traces have been erased.

Furthermore, even those pieces that are today in foreign treasuries aren't very accessible to the public or to Macedonian researchers. Even when there are Macedonian items being exhibited their origin is concealed; that is, only the title (the name of the item) is cited, and possibly the location where it was found (if it is an archaeological object), but the country of origin is never stated, even if the archaeological site is mentioned.

Great difficulties notwithstanding, Macedonian researchers have gathered a solid amount of data about the looted movable cultural heritage, and the information shows that the greatest damage has been done to the written heritage, i.e. the medieval manuscripts.

What does this information reveal?

And why were handwritten materials being stolen most often?

Old books and manuscripts are an important part of Macedonia's cultural heritage because of the country's ecclesiastic literary and scriptorial traditions, as well as Macedonia's significant role in the history of pan-Slavic literacy. In the Middle Ages, there were several large literary centres and scriptoriums (mainly in monasteries) where—particularly during foreign, non-Christian rule—spirituality, enlightenment and culture were concentrated. Cultural heritage originating in the Middle Ages is predominantly religious (starting with the work of St. Clement and his so-called Ohrid Literary School, there were gospels, epistles, triodions, octoechoses, books of hours, prayerbooks, and hagiographies being translated, as well as many other texts intended for Christian service.) Despite the religious nature of the manuscripts (of course, literary writing was also progressing), the handwritten texts are especially important because of their earliest usage of the first Slavic alphabet – the Glagolitic alphabet (which was used in Macedonia ever since its creation at the end of the 9th to the end of the 11th century). These works are also important for studying the development of the Slavic literary languages, which have historically been differentiated from the church-Slavic language that was the vernacular in Macedonia. Later, these manuscripts became especially interesting to devotees of Slavic romanticism and to pioneers of Slavistics.

Precisely because Macedonia was the keystone regarding the beginnings of literacy and the tradition of Enlightenment, when Slavistics as a science began to develop in Europe in the middle of the 19th century many collectors and experts in handwritten cultural and historical records set out towards Macedonia to collect manuscripts and books. Most of those collected manuscripts and books are to be found today in several European cities (in Belgrade, Zagreb, Moscow, Odessa, St. Petersburg, Sofia, Plovdiv, Krakow, Istanbul, Vatican, Bologna, Munich, Paris, London…), while only a small number of them are saved in the Republic of Macedonia (chiefly manuscripts and old books that were discovered after World War II). Despite the merciless ravage and plunder of manuscripts that went on for centuries, there are still some left in Macedonia. This evidence points to the fact that there used to be a rich literary heritage here and the whirlwind of history could not destroy everything and could not take away everything that the Macedonian people created.

According to research done by Macedonian archaeographists and science institutes, around 700 manuscripts and books created from the end of the 10th century to the beginning of the 18th century are today in the possession of foreign libraries and museums. They have been directly or indirectly recorded – via catalogues and descriptions or references in literature. Thus, we have grounds to assume that in libraries, museums and archives throughout Europe there are even many more manuscripts and old books kept in secrecy. Even so, there are more than 400 manuscripts and books in Macedonia today – most of which were discovered and catalogued during the last two decades of the 20th century.

As a country with the oldest written evidence of Slavic language, i.e. of the oldest Glagolitic epigraphs, Macedonia has none of the oldest Glagolitic manuscripts, although seven of the nine oldest have been created in Macedonia: The Zographian, Mariian and the Aseman gospels, the Sinai psalter, the Sinai prayer book, the Bitola gospel, and the Macedonian Glagolitic papers. They have been discovered at Mt. Sinai, Mt. Athos, Jerusalem, or in Ohrid, but all are today outside of Macedonia's borders. Some of the oldest literary (Glagolitic) records are the Ohrid Glagolitic papers and the Bojanic palimpsest. Furthermore, letters, words or texts written in the Glagolitic alphabet were recorded on some of the oldest Cyrillic texts (manuscripts): the Macedonian Cyrillic paper, the Resen fragment of a triodion, the Ohrid epistle, the Bitola triodion, the Grigorovič parable book, the Šafaric triodion, the Orbel triodion, the Argir triodion, the Bolognese Psalter, the Bitola selective octoechos etc.

The oldest and most valuable manuscripts are to be found outside of Macedonia, however. According to their dates of origin, the following manuscripts have been saved: Nine Glagolitic manuscripts and four fragments in Cyrillic from the end of the 10th century and from the 11th century (all of them are in foreign libraries today!); around fifteen manuscripts dating from the 12th century, more than a hundred from the 13th century; around 220 from the 14th century; around 120 from the 15th century, and around 170 old Macedonian manuscripts from the 16th century. Macedonian scholars have collected all of these manuscripts' signature numbers by which they are catalogued in libraries and museums. Even so, these works represent only a small part of Macedonian manuscripts taken away to other countries.

When one takes into account the data about the damage done to Macedonian cultural heritage, including the handwritten heritage, one will get the impression that in the past everyone who could do so destroyed and robbed – from conquerors to passers-by: collectors, researchers, adventurers and other interested persons. After such crusades of collecting and destruction, it can be concluded that the pieces left behind in Macedonia have been saved from ruin largely by chance.

Destruction of Macedonian manuscripts began ever since the downfall of Samoil's state, during the two centuries of Byzantine rule, when the Byzantine government and church wrought havoc on anything that was Slavic in Macedonia, i.e. when via the Hellenic assimilation of Slavic culture and learning, the manuscripts were destroyed. The raiding continued even during the Bogomilism period, and then later during Ottoman rule when Moslem religion was established on the territory of Macedonia. Christian educational, literary and spiritual activities were again suppressed, forcing learned people to withdraw and continue their work inside monastery walls. Precisely during those long, dark Middle Ages of Macedonia's history, in some Macedonian monasteries and churches, as a result of the active and abundant religious, edifying and literary activities, rich handwritten monastery collections were created. Among them, historic literature references the collections of the Lesnovo, Markov, Slepče, Bigorski, and the Lešok monasteries as some of the greatest examples. Between the Ottoman rule and then, there was more destruction than theft. But after the creation of the first independent Balkan states, especially the Serbian and the Bulgarian ones, when no-one prevented stealing of heritage, the biggest theft of manuscripts and other Macedonian antiques occurred.

During the 18th and 19th centuries, particularly during the period when the first shoots of Macedonian Renaissance emerged, many esteemed Macedonian citizens (among which was J. H. Konstantinov – Džinot) began developing collections of their own. The Macedonian monastery and church collections, in particular, were the main target of manuscript collectors coming from other countries, predominantly from Russia. The most prominent collectors were Victor I. Grigorovič, Stefan I. Verković, Antun Mihanović¸ G. Ilinsky, A. Gilferding, Polichronius A. Sirku, Rudolph Gutovsky, A. K'nčev.

In addition to collectors who were coming from other countries, some esteemed Macedonian inhabitants, too, collected (and, unfortunately, sold) manuscripts. Jordan Hadži Konstantinov – Džinot dispatched manuscripts to the Bulgarian Exarchy in Istanbul and Sofia, and later to the Serbian Learned Society in Belgrade. Near the end of his life, he sold a collection of 36 valuable manuscripts to the National Library in Belgrade. During the 19th century, Dimitar Miladinov also collected manuscripts, dispatching them to the Istanbul "St. Stefan" church and to the Society of Slavic Literature in Belgrade. Information on some manuscripts in foreign libraries and museums gives us the names of several suppliers. Among them, the most frequently mentioned are Janoš Aleksievik from Veles (who in 1867 alone dispatched 26 parchment manuscripts to Belgrade), the professor Lazar Duma from Bitola (who collected for the Serbian Learned Society), whereas the National Library in Sofia has recorded as the most frequent suppliers (i.e. traders) Vasil Ikonomov from Lazaropole and Eftim Sprostranov from Ohrid.

Throughout Macedonia's past there have been more destroyers than collectors of handwritten and other types of movable cultural heritage. A part of what was gathered by the collectors was afterwards given away or sold to libraries in the neighbouring countries and in Europe. Some of it is still in their possession, but a large part of Macedonia's heritage has been irretrievably destroyed.

The history of the treatment of manuscripts in mid-19th century Macedonia is staggering. We have insight into it from data recorded by Jordan Hadži Konstantinov – Džinot. He visited almost all monasteries and churches in Macedonia and wrote about it in [the newspaper] "Tzarigradski Vestnik". According to his research, in the Markov monastery St. Dimitrija in the vicinity of Skopje, for instance, there were twenty loads of books; in the St. Pantheleimon monastery in the Nerezi village there were more than thirty loads; in the St. Nikola monastery there were ten loads. But, as he says, they were burnt, torn apart, and scattered by careless monks. There were also many manuscripts in the St. Bogorodica Pčinjska monastery, but those the monks burnt or threw away into the river. Then, in the Matejče monastery until the year 1848 there were ten loads of manuscripts, which according to Džinot were later destroyed by Arnaouts. In Treskavec he recorded a library of 20 loads, in St. Jovan the Baptist, near Veles (in 1851) he recorded ten loads, in St. Nikola in Moklište there were 20, in the St. Georgi monastery at Crna Reka – 50 loads of manuscripts, in the Lesnovo monastery there were more than 50 loads. In 1855, however, he found only ten loads of manuscripts. In the village of Bukovo, near Bitola, in the same year there were more than 20 loads, but as Džinot says, all of them were destroyed by a Vlach priest. Džinot wrote in "Tzarigradski Vestnik" that during this period the biggest number of manuscripts could be found in Ohrid and the vicinity, but even there some monks "not speaking our language" destroyed them, sometimes even by throwing them into the lake.

Džinot estimated that Macedonia was brimming with "millions of Slavic relics written by hand on parchment". In 1854, he wrote: "Had we gathered the ancient Slavic handwritten books in our Macedonia 35 years ago and had we put them into a book archive, now we would have had around 150.000 manuscripts". Not many traces of that treasure remain today. A few hundred have been fortuitously saved in Macedonia or at Mt. Athos, Jerusalem, Sinai, i.e. Russia, Serbia, Bulgaria, Croatia, Ukraine, the Czech Republic, Poland, Italy, France, Germany, Great Britain, Turkey, Greece and other countries. There are manuscripts in some foreign libraries today that were sold by Džinot himself (!).

What was saved in Macedonia is only a small part of its former abundant handwritten treasures; instead, many significant Macedonian documents are today to be found abroad. These foreign collectors most often do not acknowledge it, since their gains were ill-gotten, but facts are facts...

[George S.]

RE: "Mycenaeans & Linear B (Scota & Gaedel -Part 10) -Last Issue.


"......Michael Ventris demonstrated that Linear B was a syllabic alphabet and that the tablets that had been discovered were written in an archaic form of 'Greek'.

At first this discovery did not go down too well with the establishment, especially those from 'Greece' who were effectively being told by a non-academic Englishman that the artifacts in their museums were actually written in their own language. However, despite all the protests, it became abundantly clear that Ventris was correct, and that the Linear B tablets in both Mycenae in 'Greece' and Knossos in Crete were all written in an early form of 'Greek'."

My Response: And these are the people disputing our name Macedonia! What credibility do they have?

By Emperor Zac


ALEKSANDAR & ALEXANDROS


The boys name Aleksandar is older than its equivalent Alexandros.

"Aleksand(ar)" is proto-Slavic. A-le - ksan-d > Lives-li - lives-don.


"Alexand(ros)" is proto-Slavic based. A-le - xan-d > Lives-li - lives-don.


......I wonder what the bastardized Koine speaking Arvanitovlachs (the impostor wannabees) have to say about this! :-)



By Emperor Zac

[George S.]

Repression of Macedonians in the Kingdom of Yugoslavia



The monarchist authority was dominated by discriminatory Serbs. They ensured our repression under monarchist Yugoslavia. The reason to repress was to attempt the Serbianization of the region and ensure the region become a firm stronghold of Serbdom. This failed despite authoritarian laws and banning of Macedonian political parties and meetings. The only explanation possible within logic is a strong national consciousness that existed within our people. Many say Macedonians are children of Tito but this isn't true and sensationalist since several Serbianization and Bulgarianization programmes failed multiple times.

One primary reason our predecessors threw their support behind Tito's partisans is Tito promised to grant us a country, have our language and people recognized. He did keep his promise but his solution was ultimately unfavorable. The re-founding of our nation could have achieved better results if Cento didn't face resistance from Communist authorities for desire of forming an independent Macedonian republic. Cento was subsequently arrested and thrown in prison soon after Tito learned of his plans. We were to be puppets of Tito for a political belief of his own, to be subjugated to a certain line of thought and ideological system at the cost of our people.

If Tito allowed Cento to follow through his plan then better results might have been achieved and the true unification of Macedonian people and territories could have been achieved. Communist Yugoslavia was then again repressing our people for certain political order of utopia searched by Tito. This is why we shouldn't observe Communist Yugoslavia any differently than we observe Monarchist Yugoslavia. Both used severe repressive measures to ensure our loyalty, to ensure Macedonian territories remain part of Yugoslavia. The only difference Tito put an end to the Serbian project but started the Yugoslavian project to create a new Yugoslav national identity. Similar to German national identity except there was no organic development to form basis of identity Tito desired.

Monarchist Yugoslavia committed multiple gross violations of our predecessors' human rights. Several of them are the denial of our identity, the forcible process of Serbianization equal to genocide, the repression of political parties and meetings, the denial of existence of Macedonian language, the starvation of Macedonians and exploitation of region by Serbian colonists to form a strong Serb-centric bourgeoisie, multiple more violations were committed but these are basic and gives us some idea of very gross violations by monarchist Serb-Yugoslav authorities. It is perhaps the same if a situation emerged where Serbs denied the existence of a separate Croatian people and language since both peoples share a similar language.



Quote:

After the Paris Peace Conference, the 25,713 square kilometers and 728,286 inhabitants of Vardar Macedonia were incorporated within the borders of the Kingdom of the Serbs, Croats and Slovenes. For seven years from 1912 to 1918, Macedonia had been a battle ground for invasion and counter-invasion, raid and defense. The countryside was devastated, and the death toll from direct action or hunger and malnourishment high.

Immediately after war's end, the peacetime Yugoslav government quickly instituted a renewed authoritarian regime in Macedonia of punishments, reprisals, court sentences and torture. Yugoslav regulations provided for 20 years imprisonment at hard labor for forming "anti-government organizations", and two years imprisonment for instigating strikes. Moreover, the Macedonian people of Vardar Macedonia were official non-existent and the use of the Macedonian language and the term "Macedonian" were forbidden. Radničke novine (Workers' Newspaper) in March 1920 wrote that "the prisoners, who were in the Prilep jail for 10 to 12 months for political reasons, stirred up mutiny. They requested to be taken to court and put on trial. A fight broke out with the guards and, as a result, all of the prisoners were put in chains."

Greater Greek, Greater Bulgarian and Greater Serbian politics alike applied generally identical methods and means in their attempts to denationalize and assimilate the Macedonians. By the "Regulation for the Settlement of the 'New, Southern Regions'" dated September 24, 1920, Macedonian land was granted to colonists from other parts of Yugoslavia willing to settle in the region. This policy was aimed at breaking the cohesiveness of the Macedonian population within their own homeland. By the end of 1928, some data suggests that 6,377 families had been settled in the region on 63,939 hectares of land.

Privredni glasnik (Economic Herald) on February, 1921 wrote that "Murders and robberies are committed everywhere. One of the essential operations, agrarian reform, has begun to be carried out in a strange manner. It progressed slowly in one direction then came to a standstill, followed by a turn off the path and a retrogression. A few contradictory regulations and numerous differing interpretations and ministerial announcements caused real chaos. The selfish actions of the agrarian chiefs, the deliyas [brave men] were natural, [those] who in fact became the real masters in regulating the concrete cases. We are witnessing how the true farmers are deprived of their land, given to various speculators who have had nothing to do with agriculture in their entire life."

For that reason, it was not surprising that in the local administration elections held in the summer of 1920, a considerable segment of the population voted for leftist parties-especially for the Communists, who gained control of the local administrations in Veles, Kumanovo, Kavadarci and Skopje. In the November, 1920 elections for the Constituent Assembly, out of the total 105,000 votes 40,200 were secured by delegates from Macedonia, winning 15 mandates.

As a result of that victory, the commander of the Third Army requested district chiefs-of-staff in Vardar Macedonia to take the following steps:

to isolate certain villages
to follow the field shepherds
to determine points for crossing the Vardar River where people may be allowed to cross the river only between sunrise and sunset
to displace the population of the villages of Gradec, Konsko, Petrovo and Sermenin
to strengthen the garrisons in Kavadarci and Valandovo each with an additional infantry battalion and a machine-gun squad, two infantry battalions to be added in Strumica, etc
the clerks-communists to be removed from the district, as they had been the first to spread communist ideas not knowing whom they had been serving to
to increase rewards for information
to strengthen police stations in the former frontiers of Serbia
after garrisons are strengthened, to begin collecting taxes and giving orders to report for military service or military exercises, as communist agitation is directed against the army and taxes
not a single person may go from one commune to another without an identity.
The Obzana (edict) of December 29 and 30, 1920, outlawed the Communist Party and banned trade unions. Political life in Macedonia was impoverished, and the solid base of the national Macedonian movement was lost, as other political parties upheld Greater Serbian ideals regarding the Serbian character of Vardar Macedonia.

Following the murder of Gjorche Petrov, the dissolution of the temporary government and the passing of the December 29 Obzana, Vrhovist armed bands, small bands and individual saboteurs were dispatched from Bulgaria to Vardar Macedonia on an increasingly frequent basis. Their aim was to pave the way for the creation of an autonomist movement in Vardar Macedonia, and for that purpose slogans were used to arouse the anger of the Macedonians against the Yugoslav government. However, lurking in the shadows was still the dream of annexing Vardar Macedonia to Bulgaria.

The period from 1922 to 1930 was marked by 63 assassinations in Vardar Macedonia. To answer the Vrhovist challenge or any other resistance against them, state authorities undertook "the white terror," including mass arrests-for example, after the murder of General Kovachevich in Shtip more than 400 people were imprisoned-as well as trials, dismissals from work and torture. To revenge the killing of colonists at Kadrifakovo and of soldiers in the village of Garvan, all the adult males from the village were taken and shot, without trial. In order to maintain "law and order" in Vardar Macedonia, now renamed Vardarska Banovina (the Vardar Regional District), 35,000 soldiers, military policemen, frontier guards and paramilitary bands were deployed.

In autumn 1927, the Greater Serbian regime unleashed a new, violent offensive aimed at achieving a Serbian solution of "the Macedonian Question" in Vardarksa Banovina, heralded by the institution of the Dictatorship of January 6. In a letter sent by the zhupans (heads of administrative districts) and the military police commanders in Vardar Macedonia to the Prime Minister and the Minister for Internal Affairs dated December 1927, a dozen measures were proposed under the pretext of combating infiltrators. But the ultimate aim was the denationalization of Vardar Macedonia and the creation of a police state.

The situation in Vardar Macedonia became desperate. A report of the Ministry for Internal Affairs dated November 22, 1926 states "in the towns and, particularly in the villages, the people are underfed... in the villages food mainly consists of rye bread, onions, vinegar, salad and yogurt. Salt is very rarely used because, as the peasants say, it is very expensive. Meals are rarely cooked or fat and oil used as the people are generally fasting. I counted 260 fasting days in a year... Owing to malnutrition, [children and new-borns] are in bad condition. There are communes where the recruits look miserable and the percentage of capability is equal to zero..."

In an appeal on February 1, 1928, a group of Macedonian citizens warned of the true situation: "Macedonia is suffering. What is going on here cannot be endured any more. A time has come when we here do not know whether when night falls we will live to see the dawn, or when it dawns whether we will live to see the night. People here are in a desperate situation. On one hand, Protogerov sends his bands to commit assassinations, the result of which is always that innocent Macedonians suffer. On the other hand, every such assassination attempt, regardless of whether it is its successful or not, is taken advantage of by the present regime to apply more violent terror, which can lead only to evil. Thus, the dispute over the possession of Macedonia is conducted over our backs, and it is only the Macedonians who suffer from such settlement of accounts, although they do no take part in it and condemn both sides."

With the incorporation of Vardar Macedonia into the Kingdom of Yugoslavia, teachers and clergy who had not previously worked in Serbian schools and churches were regarded as undesirable. A considerable number of formerly exarchate schools were closed, and in the school year 1922/23 alone 130 schools were closed in the Vardar region. A formula of "dosed education" was applied, which would enable denationalization and "manufacture excellent Serbs". Through the schools and other institutions and organizations, the regime endeavored to strangle all Macedonian national consciousness and tradition, to root out the use of the mother tongue, and to distort history and ethnography. In carrying out enforced denationalization and assimilation, monstrous measures, terrible persecutions and mass terror were employed against the Macedonian people and against the Albanian and Turkish nationalities. Macedonians, Albanians and Turks lost their lives defending their human and national rights. By 1926, more than 1,600 people were executed without investigation or trial, while thousands of martyrs had been imprisoned.

Parallel to the denationalization policy of the authorities, the Macedonian Question was chiefly addressed by the activities of the Communist Party of Yugoslavia (CPY). Ivan Katardzhiev stresses that "the policies of the Communist Party of Yugoslavia in respect to the Macedonian national question, despite a certain straying during the first years of the Kingdom of the Serbs, Croats and Slovenes, can not be treated separately from first, the complexity of the national question of the Yugoslav peoples within the framework of the new state; second, the relation of Macedonian representatives in the ranks of the Communist Party of Yugoslavia; and third, the viewpoint of the Vukovar Congress (1920) that 'the Communist Party of Yugoslavia will continue to uphold the idea of national unity and equality of all nations in the country'."

On July 20, 1923, the Sarajevo newspaper Vecerwa posta (Evening Post) reported that "a new youth organization, 'Macedonian Group,' was formed in Southern Serbia". According to somewhat sketchy data, a number of democratic delegates from Macedonia took part in the formation of the group, led by Gligor Anastasov from Kavadarci, Trajko Arsov from Shtip and Dimitrie Chichevich from Prilep. The idea of forming a Macedonian party was aimed at "grouping the forces of people's delegates, in order that-as unified people's delegates-they might truly contribute to improving the unenviable position of Southern Serbia." In letters to the Parliamentary Club of the Democratic Party, Gligor Atanasov explained that this initiative was also prompted by the fact that "one cannot conceive of a lower level of decline and greater chaos and injustice... Macedonia is neglected in every respect..." In an interview with the Free Tribune, Atanasov states that "Macedonia, which most regularly fulfills its duties towards the state, is neglected in every respect. The question of public security, the agrarian question, road and railway traffic, the question of economic recovery, the emigrant question and many other questions of vital importance for the new province cannot come on the agenda of serious study and solution, for the simple reason that Macedonia does not have representatives in the parliament in a position-as a united whole with greater authority and less party passion-to point out the importance of these questions to the competent authorities."

Many aspects of the formation of this party remain unclear, its political platform being one of them-particularly considering that Gligor Atanasov, after the disintegration of the Kingdom of Yugoslavia, joined (if not previously a member) the Vancho Mihajlov group, which greeted the Bulgarian occupation of Macedonia in 1941 as "a historic act".

The Macedonian Popular Movement (MANAPO) emerged in 1936, founded by a group of Macedonian students and communists who passed a political declaration-which, unfortunately, is now lost. But the main principles of this movement have been preserved: to fight for the "recognition of Macedonia as an individual historical unit and the Macedonians as a separate people", and for Macedonia "to be a separate unit within the framework of Yugoslavia which would be transformed into a federal state community."

In his "Letter on Serbia" dated November 2, 1936, Josip Broz Tito stressed that "... The platform [of the People's Front] must clearly and unequivocally emphasize the resoluteness that the right of all peoples to self-determination will be respected, i.e. not only the right of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes, but also of Macedonians and Montenegrins, as well as the right of the people in Voivodina, Bosnia and Herzegovina to decide for themselves whether they will retain their regional independence within the federal state."

The recognition of the Macedonian nation by the Comintern determined the viewpoint of the CPY in respect to the struggle of the Macedonian for recognition. Although the Communist Party of Macedonia (CPM) was not created within the framework of the CPY, in the spring of 1939 the Central Committee of the CPY issued its position on the Macedonian national question: "it is beyond any doubt that the Macedonians are a seperate nation in the Balkans (they are neither Greeks, nor Bulgarians, nor Serbs)."

In the meantime, the Macedonian language gained ground. In some newspapers with a leftist orientation, such as Zagreb's Our Newspaper and Skopje's Light, Our Reality and Our Word, literary works and articles in Macedonian were published. The Skopje theater performed a number of plays in either the literary Macedonian language or in dialects, including but not limited to productions of The Runaway and The Rich Man Theodos by Vasil Iljoski; Money is Murder, Antitsa and Millions of Martyrs by Risto Krle; and Migrant Workers by Anton Panov. The appearance of White Dawns by Kosta Solev Racin fulfilled "a historical necessity-at the time it was published, this collection of poems signified the culmination of the drive toward the definite establishment of the Macedonian language and toward gaining recognition of Macedonian national culture in general." White Dawns heralded "the awakening of a people, which, in its struggle for a better life, had matured to creating its national culture."

Events in Macedonia were not completely ignored in the outside world. André Vaillant, a great French Slavicist, wrote in 1938 that "...The term 'Slavonic Macedonian' is unclear only for those who want it to be unclear. The Slavonic Macedonian represents reality to such an extent that in the 19th century there existed a Macedonian literary language, the language of a very small among of learned literature but of a rather abundant folk literature. It is not a question of documents and folklore as can be collected anywhere: the lyric Macedonian poem, highly esteemed in Serbia and Bulgaria, represents an authentic literary genre of real value. This literary language, based on dialects which naturally differ somewhat from each other, did not have sufficient time unify. But its centers were Skopje, Tetovo, Ohrid, Bitola (Manastir), Voden (Edessa), etc."

In that same year the Polish Slavicist Mieczyslaw Malecki concurred with Vaillant, "...However, it should be added that, beside the Macedonian characteristics which mirror the developments of either the Bulgarian or Serbo-Croat languages, there are also entirely individual features which, in such form, do not appear in either of those languages [Bulgarian and Serbo-Croat]. For that reason, my reply to the question whether the Macedonian dialects are Serbian or Bulgarian would be that they are neither Serbian nor Bulgarian, but the majority of them represent an individual dialectal type (which could also be named a Macedonian language), tied by strong knots of kinship to the two languages. Macedonian is a transition between the Serbian and Bulgarian, and its attachment to only one of those languages is baseless from a linguistic point of view."

Irrespective of the issue of recognition, the national consciousness of the Macedonian people was already strongly developed. The violent dialogue between a group of young intellectuals and the Serbian professor Nikola Vulich in 1940 when the latter publicly denied the existence of either Macedonia, a Macedonian people or a Macedonian language (as well as the reaction his denial caused) was clear evidence that it was political and international conditions which prevented the Macedonian people from obtaining recognition. The numerous leaflets, appeals and proclamations passed by the Regional Committee of the CPM and other left-orientated organizations and movements are an indication that there was no question-at least for the Macedonians-whether they felt themselves to be Bulgarians, Serbs, Greeks-or Macedonians.

The Resolution of the Regional Committee of the CPY for Macedonia stresses: "only a free and independent Macedonia can guarantee the freedom of all suppressed and enslaved people in Macedonia." The Resolution of the Fifth Countrywide Conference of the Communist Party of Yugoslavia, held from October 19 to 23, 1940, calls the Macedonian struggle "...A struggle for equality and self-determination of the Macedonian people against the oppression of the Serbian bourgeoisie, at the same time revealing the true face of the Italian and Bulgarian imperialists and their agents, who, by way of demagogic promises, also wish to suppress the Macedonian people."

At the beginning of October 1940, in his article "Balkan War Provocateurs", Tito wrote: "And today, while the destruction of the entire Versailles system is underway and the Bulgarian and Serbian reactionaries compete in a belligerent and pugnacious way whether Macedonia should be an ornament of the Bulgarian or the Yugoslav royal crowns, we must shout louder than ever to those instigators of war that Macedonia is neither Serbian nor Bulgarian. Macedonia, that suppressed country where the freedom-loving Macedonian people are exposed to the most cruel terrors, hungers, denationalizations and exploitations; have suffered under Serbian national hegemony for many years. That blood-soaked country is not here to serve as a decoration for someone's crown, nor to be a dowry of the Serbian or Bulgarian bourgeoisie, but to be free from national suppression. The Macedonian people are fighting for their national liberation and in that struggle they have made great human and material sacrifices so far. To this, as well as to any other suppressed people, no action whatsoever can crush their will for freedom, nor could it destroy their right to self-determination, the right to govern their fates by themselves. Neither the Bulgarian nor the Serbian bourgeoisie have any right to Macedonia."

The Macedonian people already possessed a highly-developed sense of their individuality and right to independence and freedom when the fires of war flamed across the border, urged on by the attacks on Greece by Italy and on Yugoslavia by Nazi Germany.



Posted by Krivan at http://www.macedoniantruth.org/forum...ead.php?t=6522

[George S.]

Repression of Macedonians in the Kingdom of Yugoslavia



The monarchist authority was dominated by discriminatory Serbs. They ensured our repression under monarchist Yugoslavia. The reason to repress was to attempt the Serbianization of the region and ensure the region become a firm stronghold of Serbdom. This failed despite authoritarian laws and banning of Macedonian political parties and meetings. The only explanation possible within logic is a strong national consciousness that existed within our people. Many say Macedonians are children of Tito but this isn't true and sensationalist since several Serbianization and Bulgarianization programmes failed multiple times.

One primary reason our predecessors threw their support behind Tito's partisans is Tito promised to grant us a country, have our language and people recognized. He did keep his promise but his solution was ultimately unfavorable. The re-founding of our nation could have achieved better results if Cento didn't face resistance from Communist authorities for desire of forming an independent Macedonian republic. Cento was subsequently arrested and thrown in prison soon after Tito learned of his plans. We were to be puppets of Tito for a political belief of his own, to be subjugated to a certain line of thought and ideological system at the cost of our people.

If Tito allowed Cento to follow through his plan then better results might have been achieved and the true unification of Macedonian people and territories could have been achieved. Communist Yugoslavia was then again repressing our people for certain political order of utopia searched by Tito. This is why we shouldn't observe Communist Yugoslavia any differently than we observe Monarchist Yugoslavia. Both used severe repressive measures to ensure our loyalty, to ensure Macedonian territories remain part of Yugoslavia. The only difference Tito put an end to the Serbian project but started the Yugoslavian project to create a new Yugoslav national identity. Similar to German national identity except there was no organic development to form basis of identity Tito desired.

Monarchist Yugoslavia committed multiple gross violations of our predecessors' human rights. Several of them are the denial of our identity, the forcible process of Serbianization equal to genocide, the repression of political parties and meetings, the denial of existence of Macedonian language, the starvation of Macedonians and exploitation of region by Serbian colonists to form a strong Serb-centric bourgeoisie, multiple more violations were committed but these are basic and gives us some idea of very gross violations by monarchist Serb-Yugoslav authorities. It is perhaps the same if a situation emerged where Serbs denied the existence of a separate Croatian people and language since both peoples share a similar language.



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After the Paris Peace Conference, the 25,713 square kilometers and 728,286 inhabitants of Vardar Macedonia were incorporated within the borders of the Kingdom of the Serbs, Croats and Slovenes. For seven years from 1912 to 1918, Macedonia had been a battle ground for invasion and counter-invasion, raid and defense. The countryside was devastated, and the death toll from direct action or hunger and malnourishment high.

Immediately after war's end, the peacetime Yugoslav government quickly instituted a renewed authoritarian regime in Macedonia of punishments, reprisals, court sentences and torture. Yugoslav regulations provided for 20 years imprisonment at hard labor for forming "anti-government organizations", and two years imprisonment for instigating strikes. Moreover, the Macedonian people of Vardar Macedonia were official non-existent and the use of the Macedonian language and the term "Macedonian" were forbidden. Radničke novine (Workers' Newspaper) in March 1920 wrote that "the prisoners, who were in the Prilep jail for 10 to 12 months for political reasons, stirred up mutiny. They requested to be taken to court and put on trial. A fight broke out with the guards and, as a result, all of the prisoners were put in chains."

Greater Greek, Greater Bulgarian and Greater Serbian politics alike applied generally identical methods and means in their attempts to denationalize and assimilate the Macedonians. By the "Regulation for the Settlement of the 'New, Southern Regions'" dated September 24, 1920, Macedonian land was granted to colonists from other parts of Yugoslavia willing to settle in the region. This policy was aimed at breaking the cohesiveness of the Macedonian population within their own homeland. By the end of 1928, some data suggests that 6,377 families had been settled in the region on 63,939 hectares of land.

Privredni glasnik (Economic Herald) on February, 1921 wrote that "Murders and robberies are committed everywhere. One of the essential operations, agrarian reform, has begun to be carried out in a strange manner. It progressed slowly in one direction then came to a standstill, followed by a turn off the path and a retrogression. A few contradictory regulations and numerous differing interpretations and ministerial announcements caused real chaos. The selfish actions of the agrarian chiefs, the deliyas [brave men] were natural, [those] who in fact became the real masters in regulating the concrete cases. We are witnessing how the true farmers are deprived of their land, given to various speculators who have had nothing to do with agriculture in their entire life."

For that reason, it was not surprising that in the local administration elections held in the summer of 1920, a considerable segment of the population voted for leftist parties-especially for the Communists, who gained control of the local administrations in Veles, Kumanovo, Kavadarci and Skopje. In the November, 1920 elections for the Constituent Assembly, out of the total 105,000 votes 40,200 were secured by delegates from Macedonia, winning 15 mandates.

As a result of that victory, the commander of the Third Army requested district chiefs-of-staff in Vardar Macedonia to take the following steps:

to isolate certain villages
to follow the field shepherds
to determine points for crossing the Vardar River where people may be allowed to cross the river only between sunrise and sunset
to displace the population of the villages of Gradec, Konsko, Petrovo and Sermenin
to strengthen the garrisons in Kavadarci and Valandovo each with an additional infantry battalion and a machine-gun squad, two infantry battalions to be added in Strumica, etc
the clerks-communists to be removed from the district, as they had been the first to spread communist ideas not knowing whom they had been serving to
to increase rewards for information
to strengthen police stations in the former frontiers of Serbia
after garrisons are strengthened, to begin collecting taxes and giving orders to report for military service or military exercises, as communist agitation is directed against the army and taxes
not a single person may go from one commune to another without an identity.
The Obzana (edict) of December 29 and 30, 1920, outlawed the Communist Party and banned trade unions. Political life in Macedonia was impoverished, and the solid base of the national Macedonian movement was lost, as other political parties upheld Greater Serbian ideals regarding the Serbian character of Vardar Macedonia.

Following the murder of Gjorche Petrov, the dissolution of the temporary government and the passing of the December 29 Obzana, Vrhovist armed bands, small bands and individual saboteurs were dispatched from Bulgaria to Vardar Macedonia on an increasingly frequent basis. Their aim was to pave the way for the creation of an autonomist movement in Vardar Macedonia, and for that purpose slogans were used to arouse the anger of the Macedonians against the Yugoslav government. However, lurking in the shadows was still the dream of annexing Vardar Macedonia to Bulgaria.

The period from 1922 to 1930 was marked by 63 assassinations in Vardar Macedonia. To answer the Vrhovist challenge or any other resistance against them, state authorities undertook "the white terror," including mass arrests-for example, after the murder of General Kovachevich in Shtip more than 400 people were imprisoned-as well as trials, dismissals from work and torture. To revenge the killing of colonists at Kadrifakovo and of soldiers in the village of Garvan, all the adult males from the village were taken and shot, without trial. In order to maintain "law and order" in Vardar Macedonia, now renamed Vardarska Banovina (the Vardar Regional District), 35,000 soldiers, military policemen, frontier guards and paramilitary bands were deployed.

In autumn 1927, the Greater Serbian regime unleashed a new, violent offensive aimed at achieving a Serbian solution of "the Macedonian Question" in Vardarksa Banovina, heralded by the institution of the Dictatorship of January 6. In a letter sent by the zhupans (heads of administrative districts) and the military police commanders in Vardar Macedonia to the Prime Minister and the Minister for Internal Affairs dated December 1927, a dozen measures were proposed under the pretext of combating infiltrators. But the ultimate aim was the denationalization of Vardar Macedonia and the creation of a police state.

The situation in Vardar Macedonia became desperate. A report of the Ministry for Internal Affairs dated November 22, 1926 states "in the towns and, particularly in the villages, the people are underfed... in the villages food mainly consists of rye bread, onions, vinegar, salad and yogurt. Salt is very rarely used because, as the peasants say, it is very expensive. Meals are rarely cooked or fat and oil used as the people are generally fasting. I counted 260 fasting days in a year... Owing to malnutrition, [children and new-borns] are in bad condition. There are communes where the recruits look miserable and the percentage of capability is equal to zero..."

In an appeal on February 1, 1928, a group of Macedonian citizens warned of the true situation: "Macedonia is suffering. What is going on here cannot be endured any more. A time has come when we here do not know whether when night falls we will live to see the dawn, or when it dawns whether we will live to see the night. People here are in a desperate situation. On one hand, Protogerov sends his bands to commit assassinations, the result of which is always that innocent Macedonians suffer. On the other hand, every such assassination attempt, regardless of whether it is its successful or not, is taken advantage of by the present regime to apply more violent terror, which can lead only to evil. Thus, the dispute over the possession of Macedonia is conducted over our backs, and it is only the Macedonians who suffer from such settlement of accounts, although they do no take part in it and condemn both sides."

With the incorporation of Vardar Macedonia into the Kingdom of Yugoslavia, teachers and clergy who had not previously worked in Serbian schools and churches were regarded as undesirable. A considerable number of formerly exarchate schools were closed, and in the school year 1922/23 alone 130 schools were closed in the Vardar region. A formula of "dosed education" was applied, which would enable denationalization and "manufacture excellent Serbs". Through the schools and other institutions and organizations, the regime endeavored to strangle all Macedonian national consciousness and tradition, to root out the use of the mother tongue, and to distort history and ethnography. In carrying out enforced denationalization and assimilation, monstrous measures, terrible persecutions and mass terror were employed against the Macedonian people and against the Albanian and Turkish nationalities. Macedonians, Albanians and Turks lost their lives defending their human and national rights. By 1926, more than 1,600 people were executed without investigation or trial, while thousands of martyrs had been imprisoned.

Parallel to the denationalization policy of the authorities, the Macedonian Question was chiefly addressed by the activities of the Communist Party of Yugoslavia (CPY). Ivan Katardzhiev stresses that "the policies of the Communist Party of Yugoslavia in respect to the Macedonian national question, despite a certain straying during the first years of the Kingdom of the Serbs, Croats and Slovenes, can not be treated separately from first, the complexity of the national question of the Yugoslav peoples within the framework of the new state; second, the relation of Macedonian representatives in the ranks of the Communist Party of Yugoslavia; and third, the viewpoint of the Vukovar Congress (1920) that 'the Communist Party of Yugoslavia will continue to uphold the idea of national unity and equality of all nations in the country'."

On July 20, 1923, the Sarajevo newspaper Vecerwa posta (Evening Post) reported that "a new youth organization, 'Macedonian Group,' was formed in Southern Serbia". According to somewhat sketchy data, a number of democratic delegates from Macedonia took part in the formation of the group, led by Gligor Anastasov from Kavadarci, Trajko Arsov from Shtip and Dimitrie Chichevich from Prilep. The idea of forming a Macedonian party was aimed at "grouping the forces of people's delegates, in order that-as unified people's delegates-they might truly contribute to improving the unenviable position of Southern Serbia." In letters to the Parliamentary Club of the Democratic Party, Gligor Atanasov explained that this initiative was also prompted by the fact that "one cannot conceive of a lower level of decline and greater chaos and injustice... Macedonia is neglected in every respect..." In an interview with the Free Tribune, Atanasov states that "Macedonia, which most regularly fulfills its duties towards the state, is neglected in every respect. The question of public security, the agrarian question, road and railway traffic, the question of economic recovery, the emigrant question and many other questions of vital importance for the new province cannot come on the agenda of serious study and solution, for the simple reason that Macedonia does not have representatives in the parliament in a position-as a united whole with greater authority and less party passion-to point out the importance of these questions to the competent authorities."

Many aspects of the formation of this party remain unclear, its political platform being one of them-particularly considering that Gligor Atanasov, after the disintegration of the Kingdom of Yugoslavia, joined (if not previously a member) the Vancho Mihajlov group, which greeted the Bulgarian occupation of Macedonia in 1941 as "a historic act".

The Macedonian Popular Movement (MANAPO) emerged in 1936, founded by a group of Macedonian students and communists who passed a political declaration-which, unfortunately, is now lost. But the main principles of this movement have been preserved: to fight for the "recognition of Macedonia as an individual historical unit and the Macedonians as a separate people", and for Macedonia "to be a separate unit within the framework of Yugoslavia which would be transformed into a federal state community."

In his "Letter on Serbia" dated November 2, 1936, Josip Broz Tito stressed that "... The platform [of the People's Front] must clearly and unequivocally emphasize the resoluteness that the right of all peoples to self-determination will be respected, i.e. not only the right of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes, but also of Macedonians and Montenegrins, as well as the right of the people in Voivodina, Bosnia and Herzegovina to decide for themselves whether they will retain their regional independence within the federal state."

The recognition of the Macedonian nation by the Comintern determined the viewpoint of the CPY in respect to the struggle of the Macedonian for recognition. Although the Communist Party of Macedonia (CPM) was not created within the framework of the CPY, in the spring of 1939 the Central Committee of the CPY issued its position on the Macedonian national question: "it is beyond any doubt that the Macedonians are a seperate nation in the Balkans (they are neither Greeks, nor Bulgarians, nor Serbs)."

In the meantime, the Macedonian language gained ground. In some newspapers with a leftist orientation, such as Zagreb's Our Newspaper and Skopje's Light, Our Reality and Our Word, literary works and articles in Macedonian were published. The Skopje theater performed a number of plays in either the literary Macedonian language or in dialects, including but not limited to productions of The Runaway and The Rich Man Theodos by Vasil Iljoski; Money is Murder, Antitsa and Millions of Martyrs by Risto Krle; and Migrant Workers by Anton Panov. The appearance of White Dawns by Kosta Solev Racin fulfilled "a historical necessity-at the time it was published, this collection of poems signified the culmination of the drive toward the definite establishment of the Macedonian language and toward gaining recognition of Macedonian national culture in general." White Dawns heralded "the awakening of a people, which, in its struggle for a better life, had matured to creating its national culture."

Events in Macedonia were not completely ignored in the outside world. André Vaillant, a great French Slavicist, wrote in 1938 that "...The term 'Slavonic Macedonian' is unclear only for those who want it to be unclear. The Slavonic Macedonian represents reality to such an extent that in the 19th century there existed a Macedonian literary language, the language of a very small among of learned literature but of a rather abundant folk literature. It is not a question of documents and folklore as can be collected anywhere: the lyric Macedonian poem, highly esteemed in Serbia and Bulgaria, represents an authentic literary genre of real value. This literary language, based on dialects which naturally differ somewhat from each other, did not have sufficient time unify. But its centers were Skopje, Tetovo, Ohrid, Bitola (Manastir), Voden (Edessa), etc."

In that same year the Polish Slavicist Mieczyslaw Malecki concurred with Vaillant, "...However, it should be added that, beside the Macedonian characteristics which mirror the developments of either the Bulgarian or Serbo-Croat languages, there are also entirely individual features which, in such form, do not appear in either of those languages [Bulgarian and Serbo-Croat]. For that reason, my reply to the question whether the Macedonian dialects are Serbian or Bulgarian would be that they are neither Serbian nor Bulgarian, but the majority of them represent an individual dialectal type (which could also be named a Macedonian language), tied by strong knots of kinship to the two languages. Macedonian is a transition between the Serbian and Bulgarian, and its attachment to only one of those languages is baseless from a linguistic point of view."

Irrespective of the issue of recognition, the national consciousness of the Macedonian people was already strongly developed. The violent dialogue between a group of young intellectuals and the Serbian professor Nikola Vulich in 1940 when the latter publicly denied the existence of either Macedonia, a Macedonian people or a Macedonian language (as well as the reaction his denial caused) was clear evidence that it was political and international conditions which prevented the Macedonian people from obtaining recognition. The numerous leaflets, appeals and proclamations passed by the Regional Committee of the CPM and other left-orientated organizations and movements are an indication that there was no question-at least for the Macedonians-whether they felt themselves to be Bulgarians, Serbs, Greeks-or Macedonians.

The Resolution of the Regional Committee of the CPY for Macedonia stresses: "only a free and independent Macedonia can guarantee the freedom of all suppressed and enslaved people in Macedonia." The Resolution of the Fifth Countrywide Conference of the Communist Party of Yugoslavia, held from October 19 to 23, 1940, calls the Macedonian struggle "...A struggle for equality and self-determination of the Macedonian people against the oppression of the Serbian bourgeoisie, at the same time revealing the true face of the Italian and Bulgarian imperialists and their agents, who, by way of demagogic promises, also wish to suppress the Macedonian people."

At the beginning of October 1940, in his article "Balkan War Provocateurs", Tito wrote: "And today, while the destruction of the entire Versailles system is underway and the Bulgarian and Serbian reactionaries compete in a belligerent and pugnacious way whether Macedonia should be an ornament of the Bulgarian or the Yugoslav royal crowns, we must shout louder than ever to those instigators of war that Macedonia is neither Serbian nor Bulgarian. Macedonia, that suppressed country where the freedom-loving Macedonian people are exposed to the most cruel terrors, hungers, denationalizations and exploitations; have suffered under Serbian national hegemony for many years. That blood-soaked country is not here to serve as a decoration for someone's crown, nor to be a dowry of the Serbian or Bulgarian bourgeoisie, but to be free from national suppression. The Macedonian people are fighting for their national liberation and in that struggle they have made great human and material sacrifices so far. To this, as well as to any other suppressed people, no action whatsoever can crush their will for freedom, nor could it destroy their right to self-determination, the right to govern their fates by themselves. Neither the Bulgarian nor the Serbian bourgeoisie have any right to Macedonia."

The Macedonian people already possessed a highly-developed sense of their individuality and right to independence and freedom when the fires of war flamed across the border, urged on by the attacks on Greece by Italy and on Yugoslavia by Nazi Germany.



Posted by Krivan at http://www.macedoniantruth.org/forum...ead.php?t=6522