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It has been suggested that this article be merged with Aegean Macedonians and Talk:Slavophone Greeks#Merge with Aegean Macedonians. (Discuss) Proposed since June 2008.

Slavophone Greeks (Template:Lang-el) are a population group in northern Greece, who traditionally speak Slavika, a dialect of South Slavic, along with Greek. They are also referred to as Dopii, which means 'locals' in Greek, and the vast majority of them self-identify as Greeks. They live mostly in West and Central Macedonia and adhere to the Greek Orthodox Church.

Slavic presence in Macedonia

Slavic peoples started invading Macedonia around the 6th and 7th century. Since then, Slavic languages have been spoken alongside Greek. In 598 the Slavic tribes besieged Thessaloniki and settled its hinterlands in great numbers. These Slavs participated in several assaults against the Byzantine Empire, alone or aided by Bulgars or Avars.

Several massive expeditions of Byzantine Greeks took place against the Slavs of the Greek peninsula. In the mid-7th century, by the time Constans I, a significant number of Slavs of Macedonia were captured and led to central Asia Minor, while in the late 7th century, Justinian II captured over 110,000 Slavs and transferred them to Cappadocia. There are no records of Slavs, who were called Sklavines by the Byzantines, after 837, since large numbers of them were expelled from the region and the remainders were absorbed into the First Bulgarian Empire, the political and cultural center of which, at the end of the 10th century, was the region of the modern day Republic of Macedonia. Intermittent slavic uprisings continued to occur, often with the support of the Serbian kingdoms to the north. Since the 12th century, the Serbian kingdom of Raška had been taking more and more of Macedonia, considering themselves as liberators of their fellow Slavs. In the 14th century the Serbs had already conquered all of Macedonia, which later came under the Ottoman rule.

Over the centuries Macedonia had become a multicultural region, inhabited by Greeks, Bulgarians, Turks, Vlachs, Jews, Albanians and Roma people. In the early 20th century the term Bulgarians was used to refer to all the Slavic-speaking populations of Macedonia, as synonymous to Slav-Macedonians, until the ethnic Macedonian identity emerged in the mid-20th century. After the Second World War, after Bulgaria's conversion to communism, some Slav-speakers in Greece who had referred to themselves as "Bulgarians" began to indentify as "Macedonians". To an extent the collaboration of the Slav-speaking peasants was determined by the geopolitical position of each village. Depending upon whether their village was vulnerable to attack by the Greek communist guerrillas or the occupation forces, the peasants would opt to support the side in relation to which they were most vulnerable. In both cases, the attempt was to promise "freedom" (autonomy or independence) to the formerly persecuted Slavic minority as a means of gaining its support.

This fact has resulted in the Macedonia naming dispute between Greece and the Republic of Macedonia, over the name, the language and the main ethnic group of the latter and its claims that the Slavophone Greeks actually form an ethnic Macedonian minority in Greece, although a minority of the Slavophones self-identify as ethnic Macedonians and the vast majority as Greeks. The linguistic classification of their language, Slavika, oscillates between Bulgarian and Macedonian.

Demographics

See also

• Aegean Macedonians

References

1. Watch 1320 Helsinki, Human Rights Watch/Helsinki (Organization : U.S.) (1994). Denying Ethnic Identity: The Macedonians of Greece. Toronto: Human Rights Watch. p. 9. ISBN 1564321320. {{cite book}}: Unknown parameter |coauthors= ignored (|author= suggested) (help)CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link)
2. John S. Koliopoulos. Plundered Loyalties: World War II and Civil War in Greek West Macedonia. Foreword by C. M. Woodhouse. New York: New York University Press. 1999. p. 304.
3. "Greek Helsinki Monitor" (PDF). Greece against its Macedonian minority The "Rainbow" trial. Retrieved 2007-01-02.
4. Hill, P. (1999) "Macedonians in Greece and Albania: A Comparative study of recent developments". Nationalities Papers Volume 27, Number 1, 1 March 1999, pp. 17-30(14)
5. "Eurominority". Macedonians in Greece. Retrieved 2007-01-02.
6. Danforth, L. (1995) The Macedonian Conflict: Ethnic Nationalism in a Transnational World ISBN 0691043574
7. "The Guardian". Bittersweet return for Greek civil war's lost victims. Retrieved 2007-01-02.

• Articles to be merged from June 2008
• Ethnic groups in Greece
• Greek people