Information AboutMacedonians (ethnic Group) |
The Macedonians ( who live in the southern Balkans region of Europe . They speak the Macedonian Language , a South Slavic Language , and most of them are part of the Macedonian Orthodox Church . The majority of Macedonians today inhabit parts of the geographical region of Macedonia (shared with other ethnic groups, mainly Greek Macedonians , Albanians and Bulgarians ), with the largest single population inhabiting the Republic Of Macedonia . The Macedonians are primarily the descendants of the Slavic tribes which settled Macedonia during the 6th and 7th Century AD, but it is presumed by some historians (Kanchov; Weigand) that these Slavic tribes probably absorbed some indigenous populations that they came upon in the area. Later groups such as the Bulgars mixed with the Slavonic-speakers in the region, as stated by the Byzantine Chronicle rs Theophanes and Nicephorus . The modern Macedonian language is closely related to all languages belonging to the Eastern group of South Slavic Languages . AREAS OF SETTLEMENT The vast majority of Macedonans live in the valley of the river , UK , Italy , Austria , etc. Major Populations of Macedonians by country See also:'' The Present Situation Of Macedonians In Neighboring Countries ''
Significant Macedonian communities can also be found in the traditional immigrant overseas countries, as well as in western European countries. It should be noted that Census data in European countries often does not take into account what ethnicity immigrates from the Republic Of Macedonia , as is the case with Italy and Germany:
Other significant Macedonian communities can also be found in the other western European countries such as Austria , France , Switzerland , Netherlands , United Kingdom , etc. ORIGINS AND IDENTITIES The geographical region of Macedonia, which is divided between Bulgaria, Greece and the Republic of Macedonia, has been inhabited by a variety of peoples, including Macedonians, Albanians , Bulgarians , Jews , Turks , Serbs , Roma , Greeks and Vlachs . The oldest recorded continuous presence are the Greeks . In Bulgaria , and to some extent in Greece , the question of whether the Macedonians constitute a distinct ethnic group is controversial - the popular and the academic consensus in these countries regards them as a branch of the Bulgarians. The majority of international organizations consider modern ethnic Macedonians to be a distinct cultural, if not ethnic group. Historians generally date the arrival of the Slavs in Macedonia and the Balkans to the 6th or 7th centuries AD. The Macedonians had little or no political national identity of their own until the 20th Century . Any Macedonian identity during the Byzantine centuries is mostly expressed through the Greek medium. Medieval sources traditionally describe them as Bulgarians, a definition which survived well into the period of Ottoman rule as attested by the Ottoman archives and by descriptions of historians and travellers, for example Evliya Celebi and his ''Book of Travels''. During the Ottoman rule, there is no documentation attesting to a specific Macedonian national identity, be it Slav, Greek or otherwise, until the 20th Century . From the 17th century, authors who declared themselves 'Macedonian' did so in the context of publishing Greek books and belonging to the Greek nation. 19th Century ethnographers and travellers were generally united in identifying the Slavic speakers as Bulgarians, at least until the period between 1878 and 1912 when the rival propaganda of Serbia, Greece and Bulgaria succeeded in engaging the Slavophone population of Macedonia into three distinct parties, the pro-Serbian, the pro-Greek or the pro-Bulgarian ( Henry Brailsford ). In the late 19th Century and the beginning of 20th Century , there were many clashes between Serbophile Chetniks (originating from Macedonia) and Bulgarophile Komitas from all over Slavic-speaking Macedonia, which shows the lack of a distinctive urge to form a Macedonian Nation State . The key events in the formation of a distinctive "Macedonian" identity thus emerged during the first half of the 20th century in the aftermath of the Balkan Wars of 1912-1913 and especially following the Second World War . THE BALKAN WARS The Balkan Wars resulted in drastic changes to Macedonia's demographics after the Ottomans were defeated and forced out of the region. What we may call Ottoman Macedonia, was divided between the Balkan nations, with its northern parts going to Serbian, the southern to Greece, and the northeastern to Bulgaria. The territory of the present-day Republic of Macedonia came under the direct rule of Serbia (and later the was taught, it was the language of government, education, media, and public life; even so Macedonian literature was tolerated as a local dialectal folkloristic form. The Serbian National Theatre in Skopje even performed some of the Macedonian language plays (now the classical drama pieces) (UCLA Language Material Sources, {Link without Title} ). Greece adopted strongly repressive policies towards the Slavic population in its northern regions, mainly due to its experiences with Bulgaria's expansionist policy during the Second Balkan War . Many of those inhabiting northeastern Greece fled to Bulgaria or Serbia after the Balkan Wars or were exchanged with native Greeks from Bulgaria under a population exchange treaty in the 1920s . The slavophone Macedonians that stayed in northwestern Greece were regarded as a potentially disloyal minority and came under severe pressure, with restrictions on their movements, cultural activities and political rights; many emigrated, for the most part to ). On , since Cyrillic was the official alphabet of neighboring Bulgaria and Serbia. The book was to be held up as proof that a Macedonian Slavic tongue existed and that it was neither Bulgarian nor Serbian, but a distinct language protected and encouraged by the State. This would mean that the Greek government officially recognized for the first time a separate national entity of the Macedonians within Greece. But after fears from Serbia and Bulgaria that the Macedonians in their borders might demand the same rights, the Abecedar school books were confiscated and destroyed before they got into the reach of the children HRW pg.42 . MACEDONIANS AFTER THE SECOND WORLD WAR After the Second World War, the Communist Yugoslav leader Josip Broz Tito decided that the policy of Serbianization in Macedonia had failed - it had led to strong resentment of Belgrade. In addition, many Macedonians had been supporters of Tito's Partisan resistance movement, fighting the occupying Bulgarians, Germans and Italians as well as opposing the Serbian royalist Chetnik s, who were, until midway through the war, the West's favorite rebels in Serbia. The Macedonian resistance at the end of the war had a strongly nationalist character, not least as a reaction to Serbia's pre-war repression. It was clear well before the end of the war that Tito would seek major changes to the region's political balance. Following the war, Tito separated Yugoslav Macedonia from Serbia, making it a republic of the new federal Yugoslavia (as the Socialist Republic of Macedonia) in 1946 . He also promoted the concept of a separate Macedonian nation, as a means of severing the ties of the Slav population of Yugoslav Macedonia with Bulgaria. Although the Macedonian Language is close to Bulgarian, the differences were emphasized and the region's historical figures were promoted as being uniquely Macedonian (rather than Serbian or Bulgarian). A separate Macedonian Orthodox Church was established, splitting off from the Serbian Orthodox Church in 1967 (only partly successfully, because the church has not been recognised by any other Orthodox Church). The ideologists of a separate and independent Macedonian country, same as the pro-Bulgarian and pro-Serbian sentiment was forcibly suppressed. Tito had a number of reasons for doing this. First, he wanted to reduce Serbia's dominance in Yugoslavia; establishing a territory formerly considered Serbian as an equal to Serbia within Yugoslavia achieved this effect. Secondly, he wanted to sever the ties of the Macedonian population with Bulgaria as recognition of that population as Bulgarian could have undermined the unity of the Yugoslav federation. Thirdly, Tito sought to justify future Yugoslav claims towards the rest of geographical Macedonia; in August 1944 , he claimed that his goal was to reunify "all parts of Macedonia, divided in 1915 and 1918 by Balkan imperialists." To this end, he opened negotiations with Bulgaria for a new federal state, which would also probably have included Albania, and supported the Greek Communists in the Greek Civil War . The idea of reunification of all of Macedonia under Communist rule was abandoned in 1948 when the Greek Communists lost and Tito fell out with the Soviet Union and pro-Soviet Bulgaria. Tito's actions had a number of important consequences for the Macedonians. The most important was, obviously, the promotion of a distinctive Macedonian identity as a part of the multiethnic society of Yugoslavia. The process of ethnogenesis gained momentum, and a distinct national Macedonian identity was formed. There have been numerous accounts from northern Macedonia from the late , convictions were still being handed down for pro-Bulgarian statements. In Greece, they faced considerably tighter restrictions as its government saw them as a potentially disloyal minority. Greeks were resettled in the region in two occasions, firstly following the Bulgarian loss of the ), or were forced to do so. Although there was some liberalization between 1959 and 1967 , the Greek military dictatorship re-imposed harsh restrictions. The situation gradually eased after Greece's return to democracy, but Greece still receives criticism for its treatment of some slavophone Macedonian political organizations. Greece, however, recognises the Rainbow political party of the slavophone Macedonians who canvas during elections. The Macedonians in Albania faced restrictions under the Stalinist Dictatorship of Enver Hoxha , though ordinary Albanians were little better off. Their existence as a separate minority group was recognised as early as 1945 and a degree of cultural expression was permitted. As ethnographers and linguists tended to identify the population of the Bulgarian part of Macedonia as Bulgarian in the interwar period, the issue of a Macedonian minority in the country came up as late as the despite the 1965 census which put Macedonians in the country at 9,000. The two latest censuses after the fall of Communism (in 1992 and 2001 ) have, however, confirmed the results from previous censuses with some 3,000 people declaring themselves as "Macedonians" in Blagoevgrad Province in 2001 (<1.0% of the population of the region) out of 5,000 in the whole of Bulgaria. During this period, ethnic Macedonians living in the region continue to complain of official harassment. This was confirmed in s for a violation of Article 11 (freedom of assembly and association) of the European Convention on Human Rights for its refusal to give court registration to "UMO Ilinden" and "UMO Ilinden-Pirin", the two Macedonian political parties in Bulgaria. A similar judgement was passed against Greece for also violating Article 11 in regards of the members of the Rainbow , the registered political party of the slavophone Macedonians living in Greece. SYMBOLS
Former official symbols
THE SITUATION TODAY The secession of the Republic of Macedonia from the former Yugoslavia in 1991 led to an intense nationalist dispute with Greece which has not yet fully been resolved. The position of the Macedonians has improved somewhat across the region, although significant problems do still remain.
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