BY SLAVÉ KATIN
According to Goyko Yakovleski, alias Goyko Delchev Rafkin - Gotse of Macedonia, tо write about the past and present of Macedonia is responsible task, but also very pleased. It is for reasons often said that Macedonia is the most beautiful country in the Balkans. It is not accidental, because in that area was once the headquarters of the Macedonian state of Philip and Alexander and of a great number of known and unknown heroes. That is why their descendants shine the horizons of the Macedonian emigrant galaxy with charisma as it may have only the stars of the Macedonian sky.
In spite of the Macedonian people having risen in 1903 to fight for their freedom and to create an Independent Macedonian state, only ten years later, Macedonia was brutally invaded, occupied and partitioned by its neighbours Greece, Serbia and Bulgaria; a partition validated by the European Great Powers on August 10, 1913 by the Treaty of Bucharest.
that Macedonians existed even before that because they read about them in their newspapers. The entire world read about the 1903 Ilinden Uprising and how the Macedonian people were struggling to free themselves from Ottoman oppression! Today we have hundreds of newspaper clippings from that time, from practically every major newspaper in the world, which, without a doubt, proves that Macedonians existed in 1903, only a decade before Macedonia was brutally invaded, occupied and partitioned by the neighbouring countries.
At some point in time during the 19th century, after nationalism came to exist and after ordinary people started being loyal to nations, the idea of modern homogeneous countries with permanent and solid borders was born. Even though nationalism was popular and adopted by many countries, it was very rare that a country would be homogeneous meaning that all the people within its borders would belong to a single nation. In practical terms there would al- ways be people belonging to other nations; or what we today call “minorities”.
In those days it was not desirable to have minorities in one’s country and there were strong attempts by authorities to homogenize the population by assimilating the minorities into the majority. It was believed that if all the people living with- in the borders of a country belonged to the same nation there would be no differences between the people to divide them and this would make the country stronger.
This however, also had an opposite effect. In other words, if we were to take all the people in- side a country, inside a set of borders and break them down to their “ethnic components” and al- low them to exist as such, that country would be- come weak and eventually break up. Yugoslavia was a good example of this.
So, 19th century philosophy dictated that it was preferable to have one country, one nation and one people because that way the country would be strong. So governments and authorities strived to assimilate the minorities into the majority and create one homogeneous nation inside each country. Unfortunately, this was done under brutal circumstances without giving regard to the destruction of cultures.
With some countries, like Greece and Bulgaria, this practice has continued to this day because they still believe that their countries will weaken and break apart, like Yugoslavia, if they recognize all the ethnicities living inside their borders. As we know, the Balkan Region for more that 2,000 years, since Philip II’s time, was a single, large borderless unit occupied by several consecutive Empires, the Ottoman Empire being the last to occupy it. Then, during the 19th century, it was broken up and made into several smaller modern countries.
Great Powers agreed that they did not want the Ottoman Empire to be replaced with a single large state. A single large State would be potentially dangerous to them in the future. So they all agreed that the Ottoman Empire had to break up into smaller components. They also agreed that these components would need to be polarized so that they hated each other and there would be no chance of them ever uniting.
They also needed to be of equal size so that no one component would have the ability to dominate or swallow any of the others if war was to break out between them.
The one thing that the Great Powers could not agree on was who was going to have influence over which of these components. This is because the Great Powers themselves were in competition with each other for dominance of the region.
By the turn of the 20th century, Serbia, Greece and Bulgaria were already sovereign countries with supposedly “homogeneous” populations and looking to expand their territories.
By the turn of the 20th century all that remained of the Ottoman Empire in Europe was the internal core which consisted mostly of Thrace, Macedonia and Albania.
With Macedonia being the largest and main component of the European part of the Ottoman Empire, the question on everyone’s mind was “What will happen to Macedonia and to the Macedonian people” after the Ottoman Empire completely crumbled? This gave birth to what we today call “The Macedonian Question”. But as we are now discovering, “The Macedonian Question”, at a diplomatic level and in the halls of secrecy had already been answered. The Great Powers and Royals of the time had by now already decided that there would be no Macedonia and the Macedonian territories would be awarded to the Greek, Serbian and Bulgarian kingdoms looking to expand their territories.
It should be mentioned that the Greeks, Serbians and Bulgarians of that time knew that no “ethnic” Greeks, Serbians, or Bulgarians lived in Macedonia. How could they, when the Greek, Serbian and Bulgarian identity did not form through its natural course. How could there be when these identities were thrust upon these Balkan people practically overnight by the Great Powers. One day these people were Christians and citizens of a 500 year old Ottoman Empire. The next day they were told that they were Greeks, Serbians and Bulgarians. These people, however, through education and intense propaganda, quickly adapted to their new identities.
In Macedonia however, Macedonians already knew that they were Macedonian and the children of Alexander the Great, as they called themselves on many occasions. So fooling the Macedonians into believing that they were Greeks, Serbians and Bulgarians, all at the same time, was not going to be an easy task. But that did not stop our neigh- bours from trying!
Greece, Serbia and Bulgaria first tried using propaganda to convince the Macedonians that they were Greeks, Serbians and Bulgarians. When that didn’t work they tried opening churches and classifying people by church affiliation. When that did not work they tried opening schools and educating the young to be good Greeks, Serbians and Bulgarians. When that did not work they sent armed hoodlums to frighten the Macedonians into becoming Greeks, Serbians and Bulgarians.
At some point in time the three, Greece, Serbia and Bulgaria, had decided that the best criteria for classifying Macedonians as Greeks, Serbians and Bulgarians would be by their Church affiliation.
Towards the end of the 19th century Greece, Serbia and Bulgaria were allowed to establish their own “National” churches inside Macedonia. The Macedonians also tried to establish a Macedonian church but they were not allowed by the Ottoman authorities mainly because of protests from the other churches who did not want a Macedonian church to be established.
In those days, under Ottoman rule, the church was the ultimate authority over the nation similar to what governments are today. And because there was no Macedonian Church the Macedonian Christians could only belong to the Greek, Serbi- an, or Bulgarian Church. So, if a person belonged to one of these churches they were assumed to belong to the “national” identity associated with that Church.
So in our neighbours’ estimation “not having a recognized Macedonian church meant no Macedonian identity existed”. This idea was neatly packaged by Greece, Serbia and Bulgaria and sold to the entire world. Today we have uncovered nu- merous census reports released by Greece, Serbia and Bulgaria that say “no” Macedonians lived in Macedonia before, during and after 1903! Now we know why. Because these census reports were based on church affiliation and not on ethnicity!
We are Macedonians because we, our fathers and mothers, our grandfathers and grandmothers and many generations of men and women before them, who were born in Macedonia, were Mace- donians because the land on which we were born, grew up and died was called Macedonia! We don’t need our enemies to define us and tell us who we are and who we are not! We are Macedonians
because that is exactly what we are!
This year, 2013 marks the 100th Anniversary since Macedonia’s partition. If the Balkan Wars of 1912, 1913 heralded Macedonia’s liberation then the 1913 Treaty of Bucharest, dated on August 10th, 1913, marked its tragic partition between Greece, Serbia (former Yugoslavia) and Bulgaria. When the 1913 Treaty of Bucharest was signed Macedonia covered an area of 66,474 km2 out of which 25,713 km2 (today’s Republic of Macedonia) with approximately 1.6 million Macedonian people, was awarded to Serbia (former Yugoslavia).
Greece was awarded the southern part of Macedonia consisting of 33,953 km2, slightly over half of Macedonia, with approximately 300,000 Macedonian people. The northeastern part of Macedonia covering 6,808 km2, with approximately 200,000 Macedonian people was awarded to Bulgaria.
If the Balkan Wars brought Macedonia freedom from the Ottoman Empire, then the 1912 Treaty of Bucharest brought partition, denationalization, unprecedented assimilation and exile for thousands from their ancestral homes and hearth. Therefore, let 2013 be the year to annul the illegal 1913 Treaty of Bucharest and realize all of our dreams by unifying all Macedonians in an ethnic Macedon
However, it is an irrefutable fact that the Macedonian people have managed to ensure their continuation despite all forms of pressure for their assimilation. This is yet another proof that this people, being a Biblical one, has managed to confront and endure all conquests, oppressions, and denials. Macedonia is the only country in the world that has such a long and ancient history. Its roots could be traced back to the Ancient Macedonians and to their leaders Philip II and Alexander of Macedon.
Since the time of Philip and Alexander, and during the rule of Rome and Byzantium and the Slav migrations to the south, followed by the domination of the Ottoman Empire and others, Macedonia has always been the landmark and crossroads of various civilizations, cultures, languages, and religions. Again, it is an irrefutable fact that when Europe was going through the dark ages it was enlightened only by the torch of Macedonian culture. Among other things, St. Clement’s University of Ohrid was shining as a symbol of one of the oldest civilizations on the continent
To be continue
By Slave Nikolovski-Katin
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