THE TRUTH ABOUT MACEDONIA (13)
PART OF THE BOOK “SELECTED PAPERS FOR MACEDONIA”
BY SLAVÉ KATIN
It is an irrefutable fact that the Macedonian has managed to survive despite every form of pressure for his assimilation. This illustrates that this people, as a Biblical one, have managed to confront and endure every conquest, oppression, and negation. Macedonia is one of the exceptional countries with long and ancient history. Its roots are the Ancient Macedonians, and its leaders Phillip and Alexander of Macedon.
Since their time, throughout the rule of Rome and Byzantium, and throughout the great migrations of the Slavs to the South, followed by the Ottoman and other periods, 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 in darkness, it was enlightened only by the torch of the Macedonian culture. Among other things, St. Clement’s University in Ohrid shone as a symbol of the oldest civilization on the continent.
Starting from the 4th century, Christianity has prevailed in these areas. This is confirmed by the archeological findings and by the great number of Christian churches, episcopal cathedrals, basilicas, baptisteries and other sacral facilities of huge dimensions that prove that Christianity has been rooted deeply and organized well in Macedonia since its very beginning up to the present times.
One of the greatest things that ever happened in Macedonia in the past was the first alphabet of Saint Cyril of Thessalonica (Solun), which has a historically significant role for all Slavic people. Thus, the first translations of religious books to Old-Slavic, i.e. to the Old-Macedonian tongue, marked the period in which this language, with its letters, found itself among the dominant languages alongside the Latin, Hellenic, and Jewish. Then, God’s word began spreading in our tongue, too, and people began writing and reading books written in the Pan-Slavic and Old-Macedonian letters and tongue.
Undoubtedly, this event was of epochal significance for the Macedonian people. First, because the brothers, Saints Cyril and Methodius, came from Thessalonica, Macedonia, and second, because the first books written in the Old-Macedonian and Pan-Slavic tongue were written in the tongue of the Macedonian Slavs. Obviously, Saints Cyril and Methodius could not use any other but the language of the Macedonians who lived in their city, Thessalonica.
Another epochal event for the Macedonians took place at the beginning of the 11th century when the Macedonian Czar Samuil moved his capital first to Prespa, the birthplace of the Metropolitan Kiril, and then to Ohrid. Witness to this are the remnants of his fortresses that we still see today as a permanent mark of our glorious past. This was also the center of the Ohrid Archbishopric until it was abolished in 1767. Namely, along with the declaration of the Patriarchate it was no coincidence that Czar Samuil was declared to be Emperor by the first Ohrid patriarch.
Before the arrival of the Ottomans to the Balkans in the 14th century, there had been a lot of construction work in Macedonia. Witnesses to this are the numerous medieval churches and monasteries, which are now part of the treasury of the European and world culture. It was no coincidence that the Ottomans did not revoke immediately the autocephalous state of the Ohrid Archbishopric, but instead they showed tolerance towards the Christian faith.
After the occupation of Ohrid in 1408, the whole of Macedonia found itself occupied by the Ottoman Empire. Nevertheless, not only did the Ottomans not limit the independence of the Ohrid Archbishopric, but instead they increased its power in order to weaken the Patriarchate in Constantinople. However, the expansion of the feudal system in the Ottoman Empire objectively meant weakening of the Ohrid Archbishopric.
In the midst of the difficult situation in which they had found themselves, the Macedonian people and their church were under constant pressure of the Patriarchate in Constantinople and the Catholic propaganda in Rome. The Patriarchate used various methods to Hellenise the Macedonian people and destroy their church within the Ohrid Archbishopric. To achieve this, the Patriarchate did not choose the means or methods to impose itself upon the church authorities at the time. Hence, in 1767 it abolished the Ohrid Archbishopric, thus inflicting great harm upon the Macedonian Christian population.
Even though the Balkan Wars (1912-1913) meant some form of liberation for Macedonia from the Ottoman slavery, they in fact brought the country a new subjugation. Macedonia was tragically partitioned by Greece, Bulgaria, and Serbia, and later by Albania, which was followed by even worse conditions and discrimination for the Macedonian people.
Not only was the Macedonian nation denied, but the use of the Macedonian language was forbidden, especially in Aegean Macedonia, where there were strict penalties for those who dared to speak Macedonian. Within Serbia, which was later to grow into the Kingdom of the Serbs, Croatians, and Slovenes under the Yugoslav monarchy, Macedonia was colonized. Once again, the Macedonians were denied their national identity, and their language was repressed. They shared a similar fate in Bulgaria, in Pirin Macedonia, too.
The age-old struggle of the Macedonian people for national and social freedom, for justice and truth, especially their active involvement in the anti-fascist coalition, enabled them to acquire, after WWII, a sovereign state with national institutions and a range of cultural communication with the world.
The Macedonian tongue became the official language of the Republic of Macedonia, well-known and acknowledged in the world. It is studied at many universities on several continents and contributes toward the dissemination of the values of the Macedonian culture and its joining the treasury of world culture.
Unfortunately, in the parts of Macedonia that remain especially within Greece and Bulgaria, their well-known attitudes to deny the Macedonian identity and truth continue.The state was proclamed as People's Republic of Macedonia within the framework of the previous Federal Republic of Yugoslavia in 1944. Not many years afterwards, it was changed in Socialist Rapublic of Macedonia. However, when the socialistic block collapse in 1989, the Yugoslav republics followed the path of independance.
Thus, Macedonia, with the Referendum of 8-the of September 1991, it was constituted as a separate, independent and sovereign state - the Republic of Macedonia. In those important moments, Republic of Macedonia became a member of the United Nations Organisation and a permanent member of many other international organizations.
The period from independence of the Republic of Macedonia - 8-the of September, 1991 till today, has been fulfilled with construct of enormous number of monuments of the Macedonian history from ancient times until today. The 8th of September is one of the most significant date for the existence, progress and future of the Macedonians and Macedonia as a whole.
To be continued
By Slave Nikolovski-Katin
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