ONE HUNDRED AND TWENTY YEARS SINCE MACEDONIA'S PARTITION (21)
PART OF THE BOOK “SELECTED PAPERS FOR MACEDONIA”
BY SLAVÉ KATIN
In the history it is noted that the Macedonian people from the Aegean part of Macedonia, together with all its ethnic brethren from Macedonia in 1903 rose to a rebellion to fight for their freedom and an independent Macedonian state. Only ten years later Macedonia was brutally attacked, occupied and divided from its neighbors Greece, Serbia and Bulgaria, and later from Albania; division confirmed by the European great powers, of August 10, 1913, with the Treaty of Bucharest.
It is known that the Macedonians existed in 1912 and in 1913. In fact, the whole world knew that the Macedonians existed even before, since read about them in history books and other information media. The whole world read about the Ilinden Uprising of 1903 and how the Macedonian people are trying to get rid of the yoke. Today we have hundreds of newspaper clippings from the time, practically every major newspaper in the world, which, no doubt, prove that the Macedonians existed in 1903, only a decade ago that Macedonia be brutally invaded, occupied and divided from neighboring countries.
In 2013, Macedonia marked the 100th anniversary of the division. If the Balkan wars in 1912 and 1913 heralded the liberation of Macedonia, the Treaty of Bucharest, on August 10, 1913, marked its tragic division between Greece, Serbia (former Yugoslavia) and Bulgaria. When the Treaty of Bucharest was signed in 1913, Macedonia has an area of 66.474 km2 of which 25,713 km2 (today Macedonia) with approximately 1.6 million Macedonian people were assigned to Serbia. Greece won southern Macedonia 33.953 km2, slightly more than half of Macedonia, with a population of about 500,000. Northeastern part of Macedonia, which covers 6.808 km2 with approximately 300,000 Macedonian population was given to Bulgaria.
If the Balkan wars they brought freedom of Macedonia from the Ottoman Empire, then the Treaty of Bucharest of 1913 brought division restitution, unseen assimilation and persecution of thousands of Macedonians from homes and hearths of their ancestors. Therefore, Macedonians believed that 2013 was going to be the year of cancellation of the contract invalid in Bucharest in 1913 and the year of realization of Macedonia's dreams of uniting all ethnic Macedonians in Macedonia. A unification of the Macedonian people from ethnic Macedonia must have the cultural, linguistic, religious, national, spiritual and other field without changes to the limits, but uniting what great powers do to other nations in Europe and elsewhere.
For such a unification of Macedonia have every Macedonian strive, strive with great love to convey the idea of the young Macedonian generations, the way they do some neighboring countries.
Even before 1913 the great powers agreed they did not want the Ottoman Empire to be replaced by a single great state. Such a large state would be a potential danger to them in the future. Therefore, they all agreed that the Ottoman Empire must disintegrate into smaller components. They also agreed that these components need to polarize so that you hate each other and will never no chance for their unification. Moreover, they should be of approximately equal size so that no component will have the ability to dominate or swallow any of the other if war starts between them.
In Macedonia, as the largest and a major component of the European part of the Ottoman Empire, the question every man whatever is going to happen with Macedonia and the Macedonian people after the Ottoman Empire would completely fall apart? So that that unjust sentence which is now called "Macedonian question.
In this occasion it should be emphasized that the Greeks, Serbs and Bulgarians of that time knew that no "ethnic" Greeks, Serbs and Bulgarians do not live in Mace-donia. How could any, when the Greek, Serbian and Bulgarian identity is formed by their natural course. How could it have when these identities were forcibly imposed on these Balkan nations, practically overnight, by the great powers. Greece, Serbia, Bulgaria, Albania and later, first tried using propaganda to convince them that the Macedonians are Greeks, Serbs, Bulgarians and Albanians. When it does not succeed, they tried to do with power and opening churches and classifying people according to religious affiliation.
In those days, under Turkish rule, the church was the highest authority that ruled the country, similar to what governments today. And as there was no regular Mace-donian Church Macedonian Christians, unfortunately, could only belong to the Greek, Serbian or Bulgarian church.
After the partition of Macedonia, Greece, Serbia, Bulgarians and later Albanians attacked the Macedonian language, the only living thing left behind as evidence of Macedonia's existence. The most severe measures against the Macedonian language in Greece were taken during the years of the dictator Metaxas, since coming to power in August 4, 1936. During that period, the Greek regime was strongly opposed to the use of the Macedonian language and harshly punish and jail those who spoke Macedonian language in any public or home.
In Aegean Macedonia the Greek regime showed its true cruelty Macedonian people when sent many Macedonians in prison, in the prison camps of the Greek islands, simply because they speak their native language; the only language they knew.
All these countries - Greece, Serbia, Bulgaria and Albania - mingled in Macedonian affairs in the ethnic Macedonia and throughout the Second World War and during the Greek Civil War. But the ultimate insult against the Macedonian people is set when Greece, in the 80s of last century, introduced the Law on repatriation, which allows only "Greeks by birth" to return to their places of origin, or in places where they were born.
However, in Aegean Macedonia there centuries opinion that they are Macedonians because they, their fathers and mothers, their grandparents and many generations of men and women before them, who were Macedonians as the country where they were born, where they are grown and in which the rest is called Macedonia. They do not need their enemies to define and to tell them who they are and who are not. They are Macedonians because they are Macedonians from divided Macedonia, surrounded by borders today.
It should be noted that Greece uses the position that is a meek country of England and the United States and continues to block because a member of the European Union. However, we should not forget that Greece is not homogeneous, but in fact a multinational state, having all the potential political consequences.
It is binding on Greece and Bulgaria to adopt European regulations concerning the treatment of minorities and protection of their human and cultural rights. It is a country where, unfortunately, comes the word "democracy." Along with Macedonia is a country in the past, hoping to be a country of the future, and finally, it is a neighbor of the Republic of Macedonia, should be a kind of a generator, not unprecedented obstacle to the better tomorrow of a people of God.
It should be emphasized that the Macedonian and Greek people, regardless of their state policy, cooperated in good and bad times. This is confirmed in recent decades with increasing collaboration between the two countries and their peoples to cultural and other fields. As confirmation of this, for example, to indicate that there have been many translations from Macedonian to Greek and vice versa.
A number of Greek intellectuals condemn policies and injustices inflicted on known and recognized Macedonian citizens originating from Aegean Macedonia. It must also be stressed the importance of the Greek Helsinki Committee and other associations for the protection of human and other rights of every citizen in Greece.
Greece is a signatory to the Convention of the Council of Europe for protection of national minorities in September 1997, which showed good signs of gradual positive change in the attitude towards minorities in that country. It hopes this Convention will lead to the disappearance of the reasons for denying the Greek name Macedonia and the rights of the Macedonian and other minorities in Greece.
To be continued
By Slave Nikolovski-Katin
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