Letter from the Greek embassy in Thessaloniki 1876

[Flipper]

I found an extract from a report sent on the 30-10-1876 from Konstantin Vatikiotis, Greek ambassador in the Ottoman occupied Thessaloniki, to the ministry of foreign affairs [protocol number 1.480/30-10-1876]. The report is about the ethnic background of Slavic speakers in Macedonia.



Αλλ' οι Βουλγαρόφωνοι κάτοικοι της Μακεδονίας δεν είναι δια τούτο και Βούλγαροι. Τουναντίον πολλά εισί τα ενδεικνύοντα ότι εισί Μακεδόνες απομαθόντες την γλώσσαν των δια των βουλγαρικών επιδρομών και εποικίσεων. Αλλ' οτιδήποτε και ήνε, οι Βουλγαρόφωνοι ούτοι ελληνίζουσιν επί τοσούτον ώστε και εν τη εκκλησία και εν τω σχολείο και ως γραφομένην γλώσσαν έχουσι την ελληνικήν και πιστά ενέμειναν εις το πατριαρχείον και τον ελληνισμόν μεθ'ου έχουσι κοινά τα ήθη και τα εξωτερικά γνωρίσματα και κρατερώς απέκρουσαν την εξαρχίαν. Οι βουλγαρόφωνοι λοιπόν κάτοικοι της Μακεδονίας εύλογον είναι να διασταλώσιν από των άλλων βουλγαροφώνων της Βόρειας Μακεδονίας οίτινες χρώμενοι πανταχού τη βουλγαρική γλώσσα και άσχετοι προς τον ελληνισμόν απεσκίρτησαν διά τούτο ευκολώτερον από της Μεγάλης εκκλησίας και ησπάσθησαν την Βουλγαρικήν εξαρχίαν. Και οι μεν πρώτοι δέον να συνταχθώσι μετά της ελληνικής φυλής ως βουλγαρόφωνοι μακεδόνες, οι δε δεύτεροι μετά της βουλγαρικής φυλής ως βούλγαροι.

Κ. Βατικιώτης
Πρόξενος



Translation


But the Bulgarophone inhabitants of Macedonia are not all Bulgarian. Contrary there is much evidence showing that they are Macedonians who learned Bulgarian due to the Bulgarian immigrations. Those bulgarophones are Hellenes, belonging to the same church, attend hellenic school, have hellenic as primary written language, stay loyal to the hellenic patriarchy and the Hellenism, following hellenic customs, have the same look (as the rest of the hellenes in the area) and strongly deny the Bulgarian exarchy.

So, it makes sense that the bulgarophone inhabitants of Macedonia [meaning Aegian, Pelagonia] do not feel affiliation to the northern inhabitants, who happen to speak only the bulgarian language, have nothing to do with Hellenism and left the community of the big church by accepting the Bulgarian exarchate. While the first have joined the Hellenic nation as bulgarophone macedonians, the second joined the Bulgarian nation as Bulgarians.

K. Vatikiotis
Ambassador



Note that there was no VRMO or anything similar by that time...

It seems that the language did not confuse the rest of the Greeks when they needed to identify the ethnic background a slavophone. They knew who was Greek and who was Bulgarian. Note that only the slavophones who declared Greek are mentioned as Macedonians and not the northern inhabitants. Ofcourse that doesn't mean that there are no people of Hellenic origins in FYROM.

There is more to come...

[Tsontos]

nice.

[PhiliptheUniterchaeronea]

This something I think many of us suspected. However, where did they along the line changed who they identified with what were their numbers? How many still identify themselves as such?

[Tsontos]

This something I think many of us suspected. However, where did they along the line changed who they identified with what were their numbers? How many still identify themselves as such?

In 1870, with the creation of the Bulgarian Exarchate if you want to put an exact date on it even though the ones with a Bulgarian consciousness had always identified as such. Those who identified as Greeks continued to constitute a comfortable majority with the advent of the Balkan wars in what is now Greek territory.