Makedonia25
12-02-2005, 05:25 PM
Today's members of the Macedonian people, or narod, speak a Slavic language codified only after 1944 with fewer than 2 million native-speakers and a slender body of literature. Macedonians are, for the most part, members of an Orthodox Church whose authority was established by a socialist political régime in 1968. Their kin-terms, household structures, marriage practices, and vernacular culture all closely resemble those of neighboring groups. THEY ARE DESCENDED FROM PEOPLE WHO WERE CALLED, AND AT TIMES CALLED THEMSELVES, SERBS OR BULGARIANS."
[Keith Brown, "The Past in Question: Modern Macedonia and the Encertainties of Nation", 2003, Princeton Unicersity Press, p.2]
"The Krusevo manifesto was declared, assuring the population that the uprising was against the Sultan and not against Muslims in general, and that all peoples would be included. As the population of Krusevo was two thirds hellenised Vlachs and Patriarchist Slavs, this was a wise move. Despite these promises the insurgent flew BULGARIAN FLAGS everywhere and in many places the uprising did entail attacks on Muslim Turks and Albanians wh themselves organised for self defence."
[Hugh Poulton, "Who are the Macedonians", Indiana University Press, 2000, p.57]
"In addition to the new language, the new republic needed a history and this was quickly reflected in the new school textbooks. Here again bitter resentment was caused in Bulgaria since the Macedonian historical figures are also claimed by Bulgaria as Bulgarian heroes, e.g. the medieval emperor Samuil whose empire was centred around Lake Ohrid and Gotse Delchev. [...] Such a policy needed careful massaging and concealment. As Bulgarians pointed out, in the museum of the SR Macedonia it was not possible to see original works by the likes of the Miladinov brothers who had been in the forefront of Slav consciousness in the mid-nineteenth century, and were now claimed to be Macedonian as opposed to Bulgarian: in some of their works they clearly stated that they were Bulgarians"
[Hugh Poulton, "Who are the Macedonians?", Indiana University Press, p. 117]
"However, in the nineteenth century the term Macedonian was used almost exclusively to refer to the geographic region; the Macedonians were usually not considered a nationality separate from the Bulgarians, Greeks, Serbs, or Albanians. The diplomatic records of the period make no clar mention of a separate Macedonian nation."
[Barbara Jelavich, "History of the Balkans", vol. 2;Cambridge University Press, 1983, p.91]
"The establishment of a literary language was just one step in the building of a Macedonian nationality. It wasa also felt necessary to provide the proper historical background, and here serious problems arose. It was exceedingly difficult to distinguish Macedonian from Bulgarian history. Similar difficulties arose in connection with litterature, when the Skopje authorities tried to separate the Macedonian from the Bulgarian writers. In an effort to bolster the movement, the Macedonian Orthodox Church was removed from the juridiction of Belgrade in 1968 and granted autocephalous status"
[Barbara Jelavich, "History of the Balkans", vol 2, Cambridge University Press, 1983, p.399]
“What should be pointed out first is that we are not now breaking away from Bulgaria and so destroying an already existing whole, for we have already been separated and living apart for more than twenty-five years. It was others who divided us, creating for us and for the Bulgarians two different lives with different needs, and setting us in unequal positions. And these others will not allow us to unite.”
[Krste Misirkov, "On Macedonian matters",Skopje:Macedonian review editions, 1974]
"Up till that moment our national self-awareness had
been only half aroused; nobody had bothered particularly with the question of our nationality. WE DID INDEED CALL OURSELVES "BULGARIANS" AND "CHRISTIANS" IN THE NATIONAL SENSE;"
[Krste Misirkov, "On Macedonian matters",Skopje:Macedonian review editions, 1974]
"It was upon their initiative that in the eighteen nineties a nationalist-SEPARATIST movement was first formed with the aim of DIVORCING Macedonian interests from those of Bulgaria by introducing a Macedonian tongue which would serve as the literary language of all Macedonians."
[Krste Misirkov, "On Macedonian matters",Skopje:Macedonian review editions, 1974]
[Keith Brown, "The Past in Question: Modern Macedonia and the Encertainties of Nation", 2003, Princeton Unicersity Press, p.2]
"The Krusevo manifesto was declared, assuring the population that the uprising was against the Sultan and not against Muslims in general, and that all peoples would be included. As the population of Krusevo was two thirds hellenised Vlachs and Patriarchist Slavs, this was a wise move. Despite these promises the insurgent flew BULGARIAN FLAGS everywhere and in many places the uprising did entail attacks on Muslim Turks and Albanians wh themselves organised for self defence."
[Hugh Poulton, "Who are the Macedonians", Indiana University Press, 2000, p.57]
"In addition to the new language, the new republic needed a history and this was quickly reflected in the new school textbooks. Here again bitter resentment was caused in Bulgaria since the Macedonian historical figures are also claimed by Bulgaria as Bulgarian heroes, e.g. the medieval emperor Samuil whose empire was centred around Lake Ohrid and Gotse Delchev. [...] Such a policy needed careful massaging and concealment. As Bulgarians pointed out, in the museum of the SR Macedonia it was not possible to see original works by the likes of the Miladinov brothers who had been in the forefront of Slav consciousness in the mid-nineteenth century, and were now claimed to be Macedonian as opposed to Bulgarian: in some of their works they clearly stated that they were Bulgarians"
[Hugh Poulton, "Who are the Macedonians?", Indiana University Press, p. 117]
"However, in the nineteenth century the term Macedonian was used almost exclusively to refer to the geographic region; the Macedonians were usually not considered a nationality separate from the Bulgarians, Greeks, Serbs, or Albanians. The diplomatic records of the period make no clar mention of a separate Macedonian nation."
[Barbara Jelavich, "History of the Balkans", vol. 2;Cambridge University Press, 1983, p.91]
"The establishment of a literary language was just one step in the building of a Macedonian nationality. It wasa also felt necessary to provide the proper historical background, and here serious problems arose. It was exceedingly difficult to distinguish Macedonian from Bulgarian history. Similar difficulties arose in connection with litterature, when the Skopje authorities tried to separate the Macedonian from the Bulgarian writers. In an effort to bolster the movement, the Macedonian Orthodox Church was removed from the juridiction of Belgrade in 1968 and granted autocephalous status"
[Barbara Jelavich, "History of the Balkans", vol 2, Cambridge University Press, 1983, p.399]
“What should be pointed out first is that we are not now breaking away from Bulgaria and so destroying an already existing whole, for we have already been separated and living apart for more than twenty-five years. It was others who divided us, creating for us and for the Bulgarians two different lives with different needs, and setting us in unequal positions. And these others will not allow us to unite.”
[Krste Misirkov, "On Macedonian matters",Skopje:Macedonian review editions, 1974]
"Up till that moment our national self-awareness had
been only half aroused; nobody had bothered particularly with the question of our nationality. WE DID INDEED CALL OURSELVES "BULGARIANS" AND "CHRISTIANS" IN THE NATIONAL SENSE;"
[Krste Misirkov, "On Macedonian matters",Skopje:Macedonian review editions, 1974]
"It was upon their initiative that in the eighteen nineties a nationalist-SEPARATIST movement was first formed with the aim of DIVORCING Macedonian interests from those of Bulgaria by introducing a Macedonian tongue which would serve as the literary language of all Macedonians."
[Krste Misirkov, "On Macedonian matters",Skopje:Macedonian review editions, 1974]