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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 th | |||
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