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For the religious terminology see Macedonianism.

Macedonism (Macedonian and Serbian: Македонизам, Bulgarian: Македонизъм) is a term denoting a political idea prevalent in the Republic of Macedonia, former Yugoslavia and the Macedonian diaspora, and is thus chiefly a Balkan regionalism. The idea presents itself as an extreme form of ethnic nationalism, according to which the Slavic-speaking population in Macedonia forms a separate ethnic group, possessing unique language and separate history, independent of the Bulgarian ethnic group, language and history respectively. The term can also be used as an epithet by Bulgarians or their supporters against any Macedonians from the Republic of Macedonia seeking to downplay their connections with Bulgarians, or in some way exert claims of Macedonian heritage over certain groups of people outside the Republic of Macedonia - e.g. "macedonistic organization", "macedonistic orientation". The term was coined by Stojan Novakovich, describing the Serbian nationalist strategy with regard to the Bulgarians from Macedonia. This term is widely used in Bulgaria due to the Bulgarian reaction against alleged attempts at falsification of history by the Republic of Macedonia. It is often used by extreme nationalists, like Dr. Bozhidar Dimitrov, the author of The Ten Lies of Macedonism. The term is also used in the Republic of Macedonia, mainly to address issues raised by the critics of Macedonism.

Claims

The following are some of the major claims put forward by the Macedonism supporters:

1. The Slav-speaking inhabitants of the contemporary region of Macedonia constitute a separate ethnic group (regardless of their self-determination). A typical Macedonistic statement would be: "Those Slavs live in Macedonia, therefore they are ethnic Macedonians" . In other words, ethnicity is prescribed on a regional basis, rather than being self-expressed.
2. The inhabitants of the Republic of Macedonia are largely the descendants of the Ancient Macedonians, because of which claims are made over various insignia from the kingdom of Macedon, notably the Vergina Star, which is presented as "symbol of all ethnic Macedonians"
3. There existed a distinct Macedonian ethnic group in the Middle Ages, culminating with the rule of Tsar Samuil and his Macedonian/Slavic kingdom, despite Samuil being internationally recognized as "King of all Bulgarians" and various stone tablets and historic references from the time period confirming the Bulgarian ethnic character of his kingdom.
4. There exist large and oppressed ethnic Macedonian minorities in the region of Macedonia, located in neighboring Albania (up to 350,000 people), Bulgaria (up to 200,000, mainly in Blagoevgrad Province), Greece (200,000 to 800,000 in Greek Macedonia) and Serbia (about 20,000 in Pčinja District). Because of those claims, irredentist proposals are being made calling for the expansion of the borders of the Republic of Macedonia to encompass the territories allegedly populated with ethnic Macedonians, either directly or through initial independence of Blagoevgrad province and Greek Macedonia, followed by their incorporation into a single state. (See United Macedonia).
5. The Macedonian language has evolved largely independently of the Bulgarian language, rooted at the Macedonian dialects of Old Church Slavonic.
6. The name Bulgarian meant Christian or Slav before the beginning of the 20th century, instead of referring to the Bulgarian people. For that reason, people born in the region such as Goce Delchev, Kuzman Shapkarev and Grigor Parlichev were declaring that they are Bulgarian. Also Macedonists use this claim to explain the fact that no Macedonians were recorded in any census conducted prior to the 1920s, rather a mixture of Albanians, Aromanians, Bulgarians, Greeks, Serbs and Turks. See Demographic history of Macedonia#Statistical data.

Support

Generally, the term is considered antimacedonian by many ethnic Macedonians, as well as being offensive and directly attacking the Republic of Macedonia. Nonetheless, the following claims in support of Macedonism are made:

Claim 1

The critics of this claim usually ignore the concept of self determination . As allredy stated, Bulgaria and Greece do not recognize ethnic Macedonians. Macedonian groups in the country have reported official harassment, with the Bulgarian Constitutional Court banning a small Macedonian political party in 2000 as separatist and Bulgarian local authorities banning political rallies.

Claim 2

It is indisputable that in the Macedonian ethnogenesis, Slavic component is very significant. However according to Macedonian Slav authors, there is rich oral tradition mentioning Justinian I (Shapkarev 1889, p. 154) , Alexander the Great , Phillip II, even Karanus of Macedon founder of Macedon 8th century BC (Miladinov, #8). There are no tales about Bulgarian tsars on the other hand, including Tsar Samuil . This does not explain why overwhelming number of the intelectuals in 19th century were linking the origin of Macedonian people with Ancient Macedonians. This was confirmed with the proclamation of Kresna Uprising

Claim 3

According to Macedonian Slav and other historians from the former Yugoslavia, Samuil Empire had some unique differences from its predecessors . For more details, see the Samuil_of_Bulgaria#Other_theories. There are number of documents mentioning Macedonians. Macedonian people were first mentioned in 1027 („natio macedonum“) in the three most important documents of Bari (Annales Barenses, Lupi Protospatharii и Anonymi barensis chronicon.). Macedonians as an ethnic group were first mentioned in early 13th century (J. Pitra, Analecta sacra et classica specilegio Solesmensi parta, t. VI Juris ecclesiastici graecorum selecta paralipomena). Cardinal J Rita in (Collection of Canon laws Parissis et Romae 1891, col. 315) there are 50 family with Macedonian ethnicity during Ohrid Archbishop Demetrius Homatian (1216-1235). Similar thing of this time can be find at Bulgarian historian D. Angelov work (Prinot KJM Narodostite i Pozemleni Otnoshenja vo Makedonija pp. 11-12 et. seq.; 43). But perhaps the most interesting is the manifesto of Leopold I from 1690 inviting Macedonian people to be under imperial protection (along with separate letters made for Bulgaria and Serbia) (J. Ronic, Prilozi za istoriju Srba u Ugarskoj u XVI, XVII и XVIII veku, Prva Knjiga, Matice srpske, br 25 - 26, Novi Sad , p. 52-53) Regarding the Bitola Inscription the critics points that the word “by birth” in the Slavic languages shows the origin (geographical, ethnic, confessional, religious. Many parallel in that relation could be found in Byzantium, for Romei, Macedonians, Thracians etc. by birth). Regarding Samuil origin, despite Bitola Inscription , there are four theories: Armenian, Bulgar, Macedonian Slav (Brsjak), or Christianized Jew

Claim 4

Because separate ethnic status of Macedonians is not recognized in Bulgaria and Greece, there can be only speculation about the actual numbers, including the possibility that there is no Macedonian minority at all in those countries. In the censi of 1948 and 1956, where according to Macedonian Slav sources Macedonians in Bulgaria were allowed to declare freely, and according to Bulgarians were forced under pressure from Moscow as a step towards planned incorporation of the entire region of Macedonia in Yugoslavia, showed overwhelming majority in Blagoevgrad Province. However, in subsequent censi, following the Tito-Stalin split, only a small number of ethnic Macedonians were recorded.

Claim 5

The Macedonian language evolved from Old Church Slavonic (in its Macedonian dialects) In the Middle Ages this language was also used in other countries as an official language, such as Serbia. In 1875, Gjorgi Pulevski published the first Macedonian dictionary. Fried. p 9,. As any other language, it is standardized set of dialects. Macedonian language is very close to the Bulgarian and they form Dialect continuum with Serbian, Croatian, Bosnian, Slovenian and the Slavic spoken in northern Greece. Macedonian, Bulgarian and the Slavic spoken in northern Greece form the East South Slavic dialect continuum. Macedonian is based on its central dialects (Prilep-Bitola, whereas Bulgarian is based on northern Bulgarian dialects. As a result, literary Macedonian and literary Bulgarian are different. For more details, see Political views on the Macedonian language.

Criticism

According to the critics of Macedonism, its usage of historical sources and documents is generally selective and inconsistent, as anything adverse to the Macedonistic perspective is deemed to be foreign (usually Bulgarian, Greek or Serbian) propaganda, with the intent to deny the Macedonian nation (see also petitio principii). For example, throughout high schools in the Republic of Macedonia, the organization of revolutionaries from the late 19th century is presented under the name Macedonian-Adrianople Revolutionary Committees, instead of its true name - Bulgarian Macedonian-Adrianople Revolutionary Committees. Until the early 1990's the name of the collection entitled Bulgarian Folk Songs by Miladinov Brothers was presented as Macedonian Folk Songs.

Claim 1

The supporters of Macedonism generally ignore censi conducted in Albania, Bulgaria and Greece, which show minimal presence of ethnic Macedonians. They consider those censi flawed, without presenting evidence in support, and accusing the governments of neighboring countries of continued propaganda.

Claim 2

The general consensus is that by the time the Slavs settled in the region of Macedonia in the 6th century, the local population had been culturally and linguistically assimilated and by the Greek ethnic group.

Claim 3

The general consesus is that Tsar Samuil was indeed ruler of Bulgaria, fact stated by Byzantine historians from the period, as well as confirmed by the Bitola inscription.

Quotes

Excerpt from the letter of the Serbian professor and politician Stojan Novakovich to Vladan Djordjevich, minister of education of Serbia, 1888 , containing one of the earliest known references to the word Macedonism:

Because of the Bulgarian idea, as we all know, being deeply rooted in Macedonia, I think that it is almost impossible to weaken it, presenting against it only the Serbian idea. This idea, I fear, will not be able as a sole opposite to push away the Bulgarian idea, and because of that the Serbian idea will be in need of some kind of ally, which will stand firmly against Bulgarism, and which will contain in itself elements which will appeal to the people and the people's feelings, separating it from the Bulgarism. This ally in my view is Macedonism, or in definite and wisely set boundaries, presentation of Macedonian dialect and Macedonian specifics. There is nothing more opposing to Bulgarian tendencies than this - there is no other situation where Bulgarians can find themselves in more unrest than against Macedonism.

Notes

1. Дипломатски архив - Дубровник, ПП одель., ф. I - 251/1888 г.

See also

• History of the Republic of Macedonia
• Demographic history of Macedonia
• Macedonian Question
• Titoism
• Moldovenism
• The Ten Lies of Macedonism
• Nationalism
• Chauvinism
• Irredentism
• Propaganda
• Extremism
• United Macedonia
• Conformism
• Indoctrination
• Bulgarians
• Ethnic Macedonians
• Macedonian language
• Bulgarian language

External links

• Macedonia and Bulgarian National Nihilism Template:En icon
• Explanation of the term Macedonism by the organization "Ratko" (RoM) Template:Mk icon

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