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| ''This article is about the ] ]. For information on the unrelated, ancient Macedonian civilisation see ] and for the greater modern region of Macedonia, see ].'' | |||
| ] | |||
| {{Ethnic group| | |||
| |group=Macedonian Slavs | |||
| |image=] | |||
| |poptime=''c. '' 1,500,000 | |||
| |popplace=]<sup>]</sup>:<br> 1,297,981<br /> | |||
| ]:<br> 25,847 ()<br /> | |||
| ]:<br> 5,071<br /> | |||
| ]:<br> 5,000 (1989 census)<br /> | |||
| ]:<br> ''See ]''<br /> | |||
| ]:<br> 38,051<br /> | |||
| Rest of the world:<br> 100,000 (est.)<br /> | |||
| |langs=Slavic ] | |||
| |rels=]<sup>]</sup> ], ], Other, None | |||
| |related=], ], ], ], ]; and other ] | |||
| }} | |||
| The '''Macedonian Slavs''' (also often referred to as '''Macedonian Slavs''', a name strongly resented by the Macedonians themselves) are a South Slavic ] forming about 64.18% of the population of the ]<sup>]</sup>, and about a third of the population of the geographical region of ] in ]. They speak the ] ] and are generally associated with the ]<sup>]</sup> ]. The Macedonians are primarily the descendants of the ] tribes which settled Macedonia during the ], but it is likely that their ancestry includes an element of autochthonous groups such as the ] and ] and of later invaders, such as the ]. | |||
| ==Areas of settlement== | |||
| The vast majority of this ethnic group live in the valley of the river ], the central region of the ]. Smaller numbers live in eastern ], south-western ], northern ], and southern ], mostly abutting the border areas of the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia. | |||
| ===Major Populations of Macedonians by country=== | |||
| <!-- Please order the following by the number of people --> | |||
| * '''Former YugoslavRepublic of Macedonia:''' 1,297,981 (2002 ) | |||
| * '''Serbia and Montenegro:''' 25,847 ( 2002 census) | |||
| * '''Bulgaria:''' 5,071 (2001 census) | |||
| * '''Albania:''' 5,000 (1989 census) | |||
| * '''Greece:''' ''Unknown'' - ] lists 180,180 speakers of ''Slavic'' in Greece, but makes no claims as to their ethnic affiliation, nor to the methods used to obtain that figure - Greece has not conducted a census on the question of mother tongue since ], when 41,017 speakers of the Slavic language were recorded. In fact, only a small minority of Slav-speakers in Greece identify ethnically as (non-Greek) "Macedonians", as evidenced by the degree of electoral support for the ], which obtained precisely 6,176 votes throughout Greece at the last ] elections in ], less than half of which (2,955) were cast in the region of ] itself. | |||
| ==Origins and identities== | |||
| The geographical region of ], which is divided between Bulgaria, Greece and the Republic of Macedonia, is inhabited by a variety of other peoples including ], ], ], ], ], ] (Gypsies), ] and ]. | |||
| Historians generally date the arrival of the Slavs in Macedonia and the Balkans to the ] or ] centuries AD. The question of whether the Macedonians constitute a distinct ethnic group is controversial, as many ] and Greeks believe that they are merely a subset of another people, usually the Bulgarians. Linguistically and culturally, there is not a great distinction between Slav Macedonians and Bulgarians, but due to political and historic circumstances, the Slav Macedonians have come to consider themselves a separate people from the Bulgarians. | |||
| The Macedonians had little or no political and national identity of their own until the ]. Medieval sources traditionally describe them as Bulgarians, a definition which survived well into the period of Ottoman rule as attested by the Ottoman archives and by descriptions of historians and travellers, for example ] and his ''Book of Travels''. | |||
| ] ethnographers and travellers were also generally united in identifying them as Bulgarians until the period between ] and ] when the rival propaganda machines of Serbia, Greece and Bulgaria succeeded in effectively splitting the Slavophone population of Macedonia into three distinct parties, a pro-Serbian, pro-Greek and pro-Bulgarian one. | |||
| The key events in the formation of a distinctive "Macedonian" identity thus came during the first half of the 20th century in the aftermath of the ] of 1912-1913 and especially following the ]. | |||
| ==Origin of the name== | |||
| The Slav Macedonians were traditionally described as ] by external observers until ] when an opinion on a ] origin of the Macedonians gradually started to gain popularity. The ]n push to the south was preconditioned by the clauses of the ] of the same year, which denied them ] and the ] of ], as well as by the pro-Austrian policy of Serbian king ]. In ], ] relinquished all claims to the two regions in a secret treaty with ], which, in its turn, vowed not to obstruct the expansion of Serbia into the valley of ]. | |||
| As from the beginning of the ], ] launched a wide-scale ] effort in Macedonia and abroad to prove the Serbian character of the region. ] and ] soon launched similar campaigns, the Greeks claiming that the Slavs living in Macedonia were Slavophone Greeks and the Bulgarians maintaining that they were nothing but Bulgarians. As the three-sided propaganda efforts escalated in the ], the name "Macedonians Slavs" came into being as a way to designate all Slavs inhabiting ] regardless of their national affiliations. | |||
| The first scholar to use the designation with a specific meaning was ] geographer ] in ]. In an attempt to put Serbian claims in Macedonia on an equal footing with Bulgarian ones, Cvijic argued that Macedonia south of ], ] and ] and west of the present border between ] and the ] was inhabited by "Macedonian Slavs", an amorphous Slavic mass without definite ]al affiliations and ]. The Macedonian Slavs according to Cvijic oscillated between the Bulgarians and the Serbs both politically and culturally and could turn out either Bulgarian or Serbian if the respective people were to rule the region. In the years to the ] Cvijic pushed the northern limit of the Macedonian Slavs twice more to the south thus almost doubling the portion which the Serbs, according to him, occupied in Macedonia. The view of Cvijic gained little recognition outside Serbia until Bulgaria's entry into ] on the side of the ] in ] precipitated the acceptance of the idea by the allied countries in ]. | |||
| ==The Balkan Wars== | |||
| The ] resulted in drastic changes to Macedonia's demographics after the ] were forced out of the region. Ottoman Macedonia was carved up between the Balkan nations, with its northern parts coming under Serbian rule, the southern under Greece and the northeastern under Bulgaria. | |||
| The territory of the present-day Republic of Macedonia came under the direct rule of Serbia (and later the ]), and was termed "southern Serbia" or the "Vardar banovina" (district). An intense programme of "Serbianization" was implemented during the ] and ], during which time the local population were forcibly assimilated into Serbian culture. Only the ] was permitted and taught, while Macedonian families found their names being modified into Serbian forms (e.g. Stankov becoming Stanković, Atanasoski becoming Atanacković). Other ethnic minorities in Serbian Macedonia were also suppressed during the inter-war period, with thousands being arrested. | |||
| ==Tito and the Macedonian Slavs== | |||
| After the Second World War, the ] Yugoslav leader ] decided that the policy of Serbianization in Macedonia had failed - it had led to strong resentment of ]. In addition, some of the Macedonians had been strong supporters of Tito's ] resistance movement, fighting the occupying Bulgarians, ] and ] as well as opposing the Serbian royalist ]s, who were, until midway through the war, the West's favorite rebels in Serbia. Although both the local Communist Party and the ]-led ] welcomed the Bulgarian occupation in ], the Macedonian resistance at the end of the warn had a strongly nationalist character, not least as a reaction to Serbia's pre-war repression. It was clear well before the end of the war that Tito would seek major changes to the region's political balance. | |||
| Following the war, Tito separated Yugoslav Macedonia from Serbia, making it a republic of the new federal Yugoslavia (as the Socialist Republic of Macedonia) in ]. He also promoted the concept of a separate "Macedonian" nation, as a means of severing the ties of the Slav population of Yugoslav Macedonia with Bulgaria. Although the (Slavic) Macedonian language is very close to Bulgarian, the differences were deliberately emphasized and the region's historical figures were promoted as being uniquely "Macedonian" (rather than Serbian or Bulgarian). A separate ] was established, splitting off from the ]. Pro-Bulgarian sentiment was forcibly suppressed. | |||
| Tito had a number of reasons for doing this. First, he wanted to reduce Serbia's dominance in Yugoslavia; establishing a territory formerly considered Serbian as an equal to Serbia within Yugoslavia achieved this effect. Secondly, he wanted to sever the ties of the Macedonian population with Bulgaria as recognition of that population as Bulgarian would have undermined the unity of the Yugoslav federation. Thirdly, Tito sought to justify future Yugoslav claims towards the rest of geographical Macedonia; in August ], he claimed that his goal was to reunify "all parts of Macedonia, divided in 1915 and 1918 by Balkan imperialists." To this end, he opened negotiations with Bulgaria for a new federal state, which would also probably have included ], and supported the Greek Communists in the ]. The idea of the "reunification" of all of Macedonia under Communist rule was abandoned in ] when the Greek Communists lost and Tito fell out with the Soviet Union and pro-Soviet Bulgaria. | |||
| Tito's actions had a number of important consequences for the Macedonians. The most important was, obviously, the promotion of a distinctive "Macedonian" identity as a part of the multiethnic society of Yugoslavia. It may be only the subject of speculation whether Tito forced the "Macedonian" consciousness on the population of Yugoslav Macedonia or simply catered to an already existing national sentiment. There have been numerous accounts from northern Macedonia from the late ] that the policy of Bulgarisation during the Bulgarian occupation (]-]) was as abhorrent for the ordinary Macedonian Slav as the policy of Serbisation until then. ]'s leader in exile, ], and the renewed Bulgarian IMRO after 1990 have, on the other hand, consistently argued that between 120,000 and 130,000 people went through the concentration camps of Idrizovo and Goli Otok for pro-Bulgarian sympathies and ideas for an independent "Macedonia" in the late 1940s, which has also been confirmed by former prime minister ] . Whatever the truth, it was certainly the case that most Macedonians embraced their official recognition as a separate nationality. Even so, some pro-Bulgarian sentiment persisted despite government suppression; even as late as ], convictions were still being handed down for pro-Bulgarian statements. | |||
| In ], the Macedonians faced considerably tighter restrictions as its government saw them as a potentially disloyal minority. Greeks were resettled in the region in ] as a result of the population exchange with Turkey that followed the Greek military defeat in Asia Minor. After the Second World War many of the Macedonians who lived in Greece either chose to emigrate to Communist countries to avoid prosecution for fighting on the side of the Greek communists (see: ]), or were forced to do so. Although there was some liberalization between ] and ], the Greek military dictatorship re-imposed harsh restrictions. The situation gradually eased after Greece's return to democracy. The Macedonian Slavs in Albania faced restrictions under the paranoid ] ] of ], though ordinary Albanians were little better off. Their existence as a separate minority group was recognised as early as 1945 and a degree of cultural expression was permitted. | |||
| As ethnographers and linguists tended to identify the population of the Bulgarian part of Macedonia as Bulgarian in the interwar period, the issue of a "Macedonian" minority in the country came up as late as the ]. In ], the population of ] was declared "Macedonian" and teachers were brought in from Yugoslavia to teach the newly codified ]. The census of ] was accompanied by mass repressions, the result of which was the complete destruction of the local organisations of the ] and mass internments of people at the Belene concentration camp. The policy was reverted at the end of the ] and later Bulgarian governments argued that the two censuses of ] and ] were the result of pressure from ]. Western governments remained, however, mistrustful and continued to list the population of Pirin Macedonia as "Macedonian" until the beginning of the ] despite the ] census which put Macedonians in the country at 9,000. The two latest censuses after the fall of communism (in ] and ]) have, however, confirmed the results from previous censuses with some 3,000 people declaring themselves as "Macedonians" in ] in 2001 (<1.0% of the population of the region) out of 5,000 in the whole of Bulgaria. | |||
| ==The situation today== | |||
| The secession of the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia from the former Yugoslavia in ] led to an intense nationalist dispute with Greece which has not yet fully been resolved. | |||
| * Within the '''Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia''', Macedonians comprise two-thirds (65.2%) of the population. Following a brief conflict with ethnic Albanians in ], a Macedonian-Albanian power-sharing agreement is now in place. | |||
| * '''Albania''' continues to recognise the Macedonians as a legitimate minority and delivers education in the (Slavic) Macedonian language in the border regions where most Macedonians live. However, Macedonian organizations complain that the government undercounts the number of Macedonians in Albania and that they are politically underrepresented - there are no ethnic Macedonians in the Albanian parliament. | |||
| * '''Bulgaria''' maintains generally cordial relations with the Macedonian Slavs, recognizing them as a distinct ethnic group and last counting them in the ] census. However, Slavic Macedonian groups in the country have reported official harassment, with the Bulgarian Constitutional Court banning a small Slavic Macedonian political party in ] as separatist and Bulgarian local authorities banning political rallies. | |||
| * '''Greece''' does not recognise any ethnic minorities: only one "religious minority", the ] in ], in accordance with the provisions set out in the ]; and opposes the use of the term "Macedonians" to refer to the country's Slav minority, which is centered around the northern Greek town of ]. The term "Slavomacedonians" is sometimes used instead, to distinguish them from the various other ethnic groups who inhabit Macedonia. There is a Macedonian (Slav) ] in Greece, the "]": their most recent election tally amounted to 6,176 votes (or 0.098%) nationwide (1,203 of them in the Prefecture of ] and 2,955 in the region of ] overall). | |||
| * ''']''' recognizes the Macedonian minority on its territory as a distinct ethnic group and counts them in its annual census. | |||
| ==External links== | |||
| * , a site representing the views of the Slav Macedonians | |||
| ** | |||
| * , pro-Bulgarian | |||
| * , pro-Bulgarian | |||
| * | |||
| * | |||
| ==See also== | |||
| * ], a Macedonian (Slav) party in Greece | |||
| ] | |||
| ] | |||
| ] | |||
| ] | |||
| ] | |||
| ] | |||
| ] | |||
| ] | |||
| ] | |||
Latest revision as of 17:53, 8 May 2023
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