The Ethnic and Historical origins of FYROM

[Tsontos]

Ethnic and Historical Origins of F.Y.R.O.M - Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia



Overview and Introduction


This Page is reserved to highlight the historic and ethnic origins of the Slavs of F.Y.R.O.M and the historical circumstances under which the first emergence of the ethnically artificial 'Macedonism' occured during the mid-19th century and the course it has taken until the present day. These first Macedonists were defined as a individuals favouring an autonomous or independent Macedonian state. As an extension of this they favoured, in differing degrees, the complete or partial seperation from the Bulgarian consciousness in the region of a Slavic 'Macedonian ethnicity' and hence also a 'Macedonian' conciousness and language. The first origins of Macedonism in the mid-19th century occured as a result of the turmoil created by the competing forces in the region; the Austrian, Pan-Slavist Russian and Ottoman Empires as well as Serbia, Bulgaria, Greece and the other Great Powers as well. The geopolitics of the Serbs' evidently played the crucial role in the ethnogenosis by promoting a seperate Macedonian consciousness at the expense of the Bulgarians. Though the Serbs initially put forward the idea that the majority of Slavs in Macedonia were Serbs; upon the realisation that their initial claim of the Slavs of Macedonia being Serbs and not Bulgarians was making little headway in the solidly Bulgarian Slav population, they began a systematic 'encouragement' of a seperate Macedonian consciousness. The Macedonist ideology drew on the historical legacy of the region with an implied sense of ethnicity in order to draw support to its cause. Despite gaining in support and appeal via reactionist forces, the ideology struggled to win the support of the Slavs of Vardar, the majority continued to be described and describe themselves as Bulgarian by all foreign records and censuses.

The ideology later found fruition with the support of the Soviet Union and later advent of Yugoslav communist rule for the sake of the communists' own political interests. Various declarations were made during the 1920s & 30s seeing the official adoption of Macedonism by the Comintern (the international communist organ headed in Moscow coordinating communist parties in other countries) and in turn declarations were made by the Greek, Yugoslav and Bulgarian communist parties, as they agreed on the adoption of Macedonism as their official policy for the region: the various Comintern congresses of the 1930s called for a 'Macedonian' nation as part of a wider 'Balkan Federation'. In 1944, wartime Yugoslav Communist Partisan leader Tito, who had gained control of the region during the war and aided by growing leftist reactionist support for Macedonism, proclaimed the 'Peoples' Republic of Macedonia' as part of the Yugoslav Federation, thus partially forfilling the Comintern's pre-war policy, despite a split between Tito and Stalin in 1948. With the break up of Yugoslavia in 1991, the independent 'Republic of Macedonia' was proclaimed. The situation exists today in the form where the Slavs of F.Y.R.O.M (Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia) have a 'Macedonian' nationality, a nationality having been constructed for over a century, owing to multiple historic and political factors. Primary and secondary sources following will illustrate this point.



French statistics on Ottoman Macedonia. The statistics listed are the number schools, teachers and students according to nationality; Greek, Bulgarian, Serb or Vlach in the various cities



Overview of Slavic Migratory history in the Balkans and Macedonia


Slavs had arrived in the region after crossing the Danube during the 6th and 7th centuries AD. The inhabitants of Macedonia of significant numbers prior to the large South Slavic migrations, were the Greeks, the Vlachs (A Romanized people), Albanians (North West). Smaller settlements of Turkish inhabitants came with the advent of Ottoman rule as well as a small percentage of Gypsy Roma who inhabited the area. Come the Slavic migrations, the bulk of the Vardar (FYROM) region's Slavs were recorded as being ethnic Bulgarians; and as well in the North around Skopje there was an encroaching Serbian influence.

Note* The fact that Slavic Migrations occured over 1000 years after the time of the ancient kingdom of Macedon in the 6th and 7th centuries, is obviously ignored by nationalist revisionist historians, who claim that a Slavonic Macedonian ethnicity has existed for 2000 years as a continuation of the ancient kingdom of Macedon. Nevertheless we will not dwell on that fact as this page is specifically designed to describe the historic origins of F.Y.R.O.M and its 'Macedonian' ethnogenosis, an ethnogenosis which occured over a millenia after the first Slavic migrations to the area.




Ethnogenesis


It is a fact that the Slavs of FYROM now have an artificial 'ethnic Macedonian' conscience and owe this to various historical and political circumstances. This political turmoil involved the forcefully competing interets in Macedonia of the Russian, Austro-Hungarian and Ottoman empires as well as the emerging nation states; Greece, Serbia and Bulgaria. The first origins of this 'Macedonism' are found in the mid-to-latter stage of the 19th century as an ideology with little influence on the Slavic population of Macedonia initially. The catalyst for ethnogenosis evidently lies with Serbian and counter Bulgarian geopolitics. Not without opposition at home, Serbs propagated the idea of the Serb ethnicity of the Slavs of Macedonia. Their lack of success prompted the Serbs to promote an idea with more appeal to the population and more acceptance by the foreign powers; Macedonism. It was then that the crucial event occured when Belgrade resorted to vigorously promoting the idea of a seperate Macedonian consciousness among the Slavs of Macedonia at the expense of the Bulgarians. Though with alltogether different aims the Bulgarians promoted autonomy of Macedonia and Thrace as a way of gaining the upperhand by eventually incorporating the regions into Bulgaria, in the same way that Bulgaria had already annexed the autonomous Eastern Rumelia region in 1885. At the same times the Bulgarians resisted what they saw as Serbian attempts to de-Bulgarize Macedonia.

In 1822 the Serbian folklorist and linguistic, Vuk Stefanovich Karadjich (1787-1864), published the first work containing grammatical facts about the Bulgarian language. Interestingly Karadjich's analysis of the Bulgarian language was based on the Macedonian dialects. Prior to formation of the Bulgarian Exarchate in 1870, there was a small, but influential group of Serbians, mainly politicians and some academics, who supported the concept of a "Greater Serbia". However, this was not the popular view and most Serbians saw Bulgarians as their Slav brothers and foresaw a close future relationship. In 1860, the Serbian Academic Society published Bosnian Croat, Stefan Verkovich's first volume of "Folk Songs of the Macedonian Bulgarian" awarding him the Serbian "Uceno Druzestvo" (Scholar's Society), in his preface Verkovich said:

"I call these songs Bulgarian and not Slavic, because if someone today should ask the Macedonian Slav "what are you?" he would be immediately be told: "I am Bulgarian" and would call his language 'Bulgarian'"

Ilija Garashanin (1812-1874) was a distinguished Serbian statesman and the main architect of Serbian state policy between 1843-1868. In 1844 he published a blueprint, known as "Nachertanije" (Outline), describing future Serbian territorial ambitions. A plan modelled directly on Dushan's medieval empire - that is including both Macedonia and Old Serbia. But, at the same time Garashanin also encouraged a diplomatic policy of strong support for Bulgarian revolutionary activity against the Turks. Milosh S Milojevich (1840-1897) was the first Serbian to publicly challenge the prevailing consensus concerning the Exarchate's boundaries and the ethnic composition of the Macedonian territories (The Bulgarian Exarchate was the church body which was granted independence from the Patriarchate in 1870 as spititual head of all Bulgarians). In 1873 Milojevich presented a paper to the Serbian Scholar's Society which characterised the Slavic population of Macedonia as Serbian - a basic repetition of Garashanin's beliefs. Milojevich's thesis was severely criticised by two other Society members, Stoyan Novakovich (1842-1915) and Milan Kujundjich. The latter described Milojevich as:

"..a cheap, mischievous chauvinist, ignominiously condemned by his fellow countrymen for having committed an unfriendly act against a good neighbour."

The Russo-Turkish war of 1878 had a number of dire consequences for Serbian nationalistic goals. Because of its support for Russia, Turkey closed all Serbian schools within Macedonia. The Treaty of San Stefano in 1878 demonstrated to Serbian politicians that there existed a strong and general acceptance that Macedonia was populated by Bulgarians. Later in 1881 Serbian hopes to annex Bosnia and Herzegovina had to be abandoned, which meant redirecting its quest for an outlet to the Aegean - via Macedonia. These setbacks led Serbia to instigate the Serbo-Bulgarian war of 1885, which ended in its convincing defeat. Thus to accomplish, what it had failed to do militarily, Serbia now pursued two separate tactics to enhance its future claims to Macedonia. The first was based on proving directly that Macedonia was actually populated by Serbs not Bulgarians; the second involved fostering nascent Macedonian separatism (Macedonism) as a counter to Bulgarian influence. While previously Stoyan Novakovich had criticised the chauvinistic policies of individuals like Milojevich, times had changed and now as an eminent Serbian statesman he felt it his duty to support Serbian claims to the Macedonian territories. Therefore initially Novakovich attempted to show that Slavic dialects of Macedonia were not part of the Bulgarian language but actually part of the Serbian language. However because his study was dismissed by noted academics of the period, including Yagich, Miletic, Oblak and Derzhavin, he realised that this strategy could not succeed. Subsequently Novakovich advanced a thesis that in the late 9th century Macedonia had three ethnic Slavic groups - Bulgarian, Serbian and "Slovene" - and that these divisions still persisted and were identifiable in the present population. He outlined his theory in "First Foundations of Slavic Literature Amongst the Balkan Slavs", a 300 page monograph published in 1893 by the Serbian Academy of Sciences. What Novakovich had produced was a blueprint for "de-Bulgarization" of the Macedonian Slavs by their "Macedonianization", if direct "Serbianization" could not be readily effected. The intent is explicitly confirmed by Novakovich's well known (and quoted) dispatch to the Serbian Minister of Education in 1888:

"Since the Bulgarian idea, as it is well known to all, is deeply rooted in Macedonia, I think it is almost impossible to shake it completely by opposing it merely with the Serbian idea. This idea, we fear, would be incapable, as opposition pure and simple, of suppressing the Bulgarian idea. That is why the Serbian idea will need an ally that could stand in direct opposition to the Bulgarianism and would contain in itself the elements which could attract the people and their feelings and thus sever them from Bulgarianism. This ally I see in the Macedonism or to a certain extent in our nursing the Macedonian dialect and Macedonian separatism."

The Society of St Sava was the chief organ for dissemination of Serbian propaganda on the Macedonian Question and it offered well-paid scholarships to Macedonians in the hope they could ultimately be turned against the Bulgarian idea. Between 1888 and 1889 quite a number of Macedonians accepted these scholarships and went to Belgrade. They soon became aware of the obvious underlying reasons behind the program however, especially when they were forbidden to possess "Bulgarian" literature. Subsequently some 30 to 40 students left Belgrade to continue their education elsewhere, mostly Sofia. However it was during Novakovich's appointment as consul at St Petersburg that the staunchest and most dogmatic advocate of "Macedonism", Dimitur Chupovski, arose. Again we note that Chupovski and his small group of followers were directly supported by the St Sava Society and had an almost identical agenda to that of the four Macedonians that met with Novakovich in Belgrade during 1886. It did not matter to Novakovich that "Macedonism" was also essentially anti-Serbian, as long as it opposed or slowed the spread of Bulgarian influence within Macedonia.

Serbian agitations for the encouragement of a seperate Macedonian Slav consciousness continued well up until the Balkan wars through Serbs like Alexander Belic (Belich) and the ethnographer, Jovan Cvijic (Cvijich), who published numerous maps on the subject.




Further indication of the imposition of Macedonism by "outsiders", and the dubbing of the local Bulgarian dialect as "makedonski" can be found in a letter to Prof. Marin Drinov of May 25, 1888 Kuzman Shapkarev writes:

"But even stranger is the name Macedonians, which was imposed on us only 10 to 15 years ago by outsiders, and not as something by our own intellectuals... Yet the people in Macedonia know nothing of that ancient name, reintroduced today with a cunning aim on the one hand and a stupid one on the other. They know the older word: "Bugari", although mispronounced: they have even adopted it as peculiarly theirs, inapplicable to other Bulgarians. You can find more about this in the introduction to the booklets I am sending you. They call their own Macedono-Bulgarian dialect the "Bugarski language", while the rest of the Bulgarian dialects they refer to as the "Shopski language".

(Makedonski pregled, IX, 2, 1934, p. 55; the original letter is kept in the Marin Drinov Museum in Sofia, and it is available for examination and study)


the original In Bulgarian:

"No pochudno e imeto Makedonci, koeto naskoro, edvay predi 10-15 godini, ni
natrapiha i to otvqn, a ne kakto nyakoi mislyat ot samata nasha
inteligenciya... Narodqt obache v Makedoniya ne znae nishto za tova
arhaichesko, a dnes, s lukava cel ot edna strana, s glupeshka ot druga,
podnoveno prozvishte; toy si znae postaroto: Bugari, makar i nepravilno
proiznasyano, daje osvoyava si go kato sobstveno i preimushtestveno svoe,
nejeli za drugite Bqlgari. Za tova shte vidite i v predgovora na izpratenite
mi knijici. Toy naricha Bugarski ezik svoeto Makaedono-bqlgarsko narechie,
kogato drugite bqlgarski narechiya naricha Shopski."

In contrast to the Serbian aim of creating a "Macedonian nation consciousness", the Bulgarians saw advantages in an autonomous Macedonia:

"We talked a long time about the goal of this organization and at last we fixed it on autonomy of Macedonia with the priority of the Bulgarian element. We couldn't accept the position for "direct joining to Bulgaria" because we saw that it would meet big difficulties by reason of confrontation of the Great powers and the aspirations of the neighbouring small countries and Turkey. It passed through our thoughts that one autonomous Macedonia could easier unite with Bulgaria subsequently and if the worst comes to the worst, that it could play a role as a unificating link of a federation of Balkan people. The region of Adrianople, as far as I remember, didn't take part in our program, and I think the idea to add it to the autonomous Macedonia came late"

-One of the founders of the IMARO, Dr. Hristo Tatarchev, said in 1893



-------------------------------------------------------

"I have even met people who believe there is a special race which they call 'Macedonian', whose 'cause' they wish to aid. The truth is, that in a district which has no official frontiers, and never has had any stable ones, there are people of six races, who, as we have seen, all have causes to be considered. "

"I shall speak only of the part I have stayed in- the districts of Lakes Ochrida and Presba. Here there are Greeks, Slavs, Albanians, and Vlahs. Of Turks, except officials and such of the army as may be quartered on the spot, there are few. The Albanians, I believe, are all Moslem. Should there be any Christians they would be officially classed as Greeks. A large part of the land near Lake Presba is owned by Moslem Albanians as ' chiftliks ' (farms). "

-Edith Durham, 'The Burden of the Balkans' (1905), page 76


Continued..

[admin]

Excellent article. Well said.

[Tsontos]

Macedonism - the ideology's first emergence in the 19th century, its course through the Balkan wars and the ground it gained up until 1945 - Overview



Emerging in the middle to later stages of the 1800s, being first recorded in the 1860s and without ethnic/ historic reality, this Macedonist phenomena was never prolific enough to eventuate on its own and never consituted a fully fledged ethnicity. All foreign examinations attest to this, never deeming such Macedonism neither significant to constitute being mentioned as an ethnicity in official maps, censuses with the vast majority of Slavs in Macedonia being described as Bulgarians and lingustically Bulgarian.

In the the late 19th century, during the height of the activity of the IMARO, during the 1903 uprising, the balkan wars and Yugoslav rule thereafter, the "Macedonists", as the Bulgarians called them, were clearly a minority, especially amongst the uneducated peasant masses of Macedonia. Yet their views were gaining ground; if only a little. The Macedonists are recorded as having told the peasants they were descendants of the glorious ancient Macedonians, that they civilised all the Slavs through St Cyril and Methodius and they looked down on the rest of Bulgarians who were "not pure Slavs" as the Macedonians were. With the advent of Yugoslav rule and the forceful policies of Serbinization and de-Bulgarianization which occured on the Slavs of Vardar, the Macedonists did gain ground however with the idea of an independent Macedonia winning more hearts and minds.

During WW2 Tito and his Yugoslav Communist party enjoyed the support of the leftist Slav partisans in Vardar who favoured 'Macedonism' as an alternative to the opressive nature of the Bulgarian fascist occupation; this factor combined with Serbinization and Greece's mistreatment of its Bulgarophone minority gave the Yugoslav communists an opening. Yet at the same time much of the population welcomed the Bulgarians as liberators, despite having been under Yugoslav/ Serb rule since 1913 and being subject to Serbinization policies since that time. In some ways however, a German invasion and subsequent fascist Bulgarian occupation again gained more appeal for the idea of a "free and independent Macedonia" and seperatism from Bulgaria in terms of conscience.

With the Comintern and all the communist parties of the region; Greek, Yugoslav and Bulgarian already having adopted the Macedonist cause over a decade before the war, through Comintern and Balkan Communist Federatiom direction, Tito capitalised in the growing support for an independent/ autonomous Macedonia eminatting from the leftist Slav spectrum of Vardar. Espcially through the Partisans' resistance movements formed to resist axis occupation and win control for the communists in a post war situation. Such a group in Macedonia was 'SNOF', a group made up of Slav partisans specifically formed as a 'Free Macedonian Slav' unit and as a sub-branch of the Yugoslav Partisan movement. More on the collusion of the various communist partisan leadership of the region; Greeks, Slavs and Albanians and their subordinacy to Belgrade and Moscow and their contribution to the Macedonian affair can be found later on in this article.

In 1944, Tito, head of the CPY (Communist party of Yugoslavia) and the partisan forces gave Macedonism its fruition, though as part of the Federal Yugoslavia. The 'codification' of this artificial ethnisism with the creation of the 'Socialist Republic of Macedonia', the establishment of commitees on "Macedonian" language and alphabet as well as the "Macedonian Orthodox Church" in 1968 by the Yugoslav communist party. Thereafter Belgrade directed a concerted policy of the complete Macedonization of Vardar and promoted Macedonian nationalism.




Manufactured ethnogenesis - an ideology in the minority and its struggle to materialise



This quote from an observer in the 1950s after 5 years of Yugoslav Communist rule gives an idea of the ground still needed to be gained before FYROM can be said to be the country where a fully fledged Macedonian ethnicity exists:

"In regard to their own national feelings, all that can safely be said is that during the last eighty years many more Slav Macedonians seem to have considered themselves Bulgarian, or closely linked to Bulgaria, than have considered themselves Serbian, or closely linked to Serbia (or Yugoslavia). Only the people of the Skoplje region, in the north west, have ever shown much tendency to regard themselves as Serbs. The feeling of being Macedonians, and nothig but Macedonians, seems to be a sentiment of fairly recent growth, and even today is not very deep-rooted."

[Elisabeth Barker, "Macedonia, its place in Balkan power politics", (originally published in 1950 by the Royal Institute of International Affairs), p.10 ]

"On the other hand, the Macedonians are a newly emergent people in search of a past to help legitimize their precarious present as they attempt to establish their singular identity in a Slavic world dominated historically by Serbs and Bulgarians."

[Eugene Borza,The Macedonian Rendux]

"Since they were closely related to both Bulgars and Serbs and had, moreover, in the past been usually incorporated in either the Bulgar or Serb state, they inevitably became the object of both Bulgar and Serb aspirations and an apple of discord between these rival nationalities. As an oppressed people on an exceedingly primitive level, the Macedonian Slavs had as late as the congress of Berlin exhibited no perceptible national consciousness of their own. It was therefore impossible to foretell in what direction they would lean when their awakening came; in fact, so indeterminate was the situation that under favorable circumstances they might even develop ther own peculiar Macedonian consciousness."

[Ferdinand Schevill, "A History of the Balkans", p.432]

The history of the construction of a macedonian national identity does not begin with alexander the great in the fourth century b.c. or with saints cyril and methodius in the ninth century a.d., as Macedonian nationalist historians often claim. nor does it begin with tito and the establishment of the people's republic of macedonia in 1944 as greek nationalist historians would have us believe. It begins in the nineteenth century with the first expressions of macedonian ethnic nationalism on the part of a small number of intellectuals in places like thessaloniki, belgrade, sophia, and st.petersburg. this period marks the beginning of the process of "imagining" a macedonian national community, the beginning of the construction of a macedonian national identity and culture.

[Loring Danforth,The Macedonian Conflict. Ethnic Nationalism in a Transnational World,page 56]






Krste Misirkov



Krste Misirkov is an example of the struggle of the Macedonist philosophy to materialise initially. He is also prime example of the often fluxuating ethnic conscience of some of the early Macedonists at the turn of the century. Many intellectuals were having to decide whether they favoured annexation by Bulgaria, or an autonomous Macedonia. While Misirkov is curiously heralded by Skopjians as one of the "founders of the Macedonian nation", he is also wrote that "We [Macedonian Slavs] are more Bulgarian than those in Bulgaria!".

In view of his ethnic fluxuations it can be seen that Misirkov only promoted the concept of "Macedonism" when he felt the Bulgarian position in Macedonia was irrevocably lost - as in 1903 after Ilinden (when he wrote "On Macedonian Matters") and after WWI. At all other times he was a staunch advocate of the Bulgarian character of Macedonia. He was the first person to transform "Macedonian" as a literary language, when in Sofia in 1903, he published the book ''Za Makedonckite Raboti'' ('On Macedonian Matters') in which he laid down the principles of the 'Macedonian' language. According to this book, the language should be based on the central dialects of Vardar. He also used those dialects to write the book itself. Misirkov died in 1926. Misirkov's pro-Macedonism arguments were resurrected and re-packaged by the Comintern in 1934 as evidence for a "Macedonian Nation" and his principles were used by the Yugoslav committees for the codification of the Macedonian language. Some exceprts from his pro-Macedonist stance publication "On Macedonian matters":

"It was upon their initiative that in the eighteen nineties a nationalist-seperatist 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....

"Up till that moment our national self-awareness had been only half aroused; nobody had bothered particularly with the question of our nationality"

“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]

In his book, ''The national identity of the Macedonians'', which he wrote in 1924, two years before he died, he uncompromisingly defends the Bulgarian character of the population of Macedonia He completley retracts everything he wrote in his book ''Za Makedonckite Raboti'' about the Macedonian language, with the explanation that "I wrote it as a politician". The book is uncompromisingly pro-Bulgarian, describing himself as a Bulgarian, nationalistically so.



Krste Misirkov
National Identity of the Macedonians. 1924 γ:

Krste Misirkov wrote:

1. We speak Bulgarian language and we believed with Bulgarians is our strong power.

2. The Bulgarians in Macedonia. The future of Macedonia is spiritual union of the Bulgarians in Macedonia.

3. The Macedonian Slavs are called Bulgarians.

4. The biggest part of the population are called Bulgarians.

5. All spoke that Macedonians are Bulgarians. Until 1978 all including Russian Government spoke the Macedonians are Bulgarians. But after the Berlin Congress the Serbs came with pretension to have Macedonia. They try to change the European opinion that in Macedonia there are Serbian too.

6. If Ilinden uprising win we will be thankful to Bulgarians, but Serbians try to compete with Bulgarians and spend a lot of money and propaganda. If Macedonia is autonomic there will be no space for propaganda and the Serbs have to leave Bulgarian in peace.

7. The Ilinden Uprising Committee is Bulgarian.

8. Bulgarian Language and Bulgarian name. The Committee is ready to give guarantee to Europe that Macedonia will not unify with Bulgaria, but they can't take the Bulgarian name and language from Macedonia!

9. Unification between Turks and Bulgarians in Macedonia. Serbia and Greece do not want to give us autonomous and independent Macedonia, because they see this as a fist step to unification. In Macedonia have only pure Bulgarian population, which can't be unified with the Turks.

10. Serbia is against autonomous Macedonia. Serbia is afraid because Macedonia with the Bulgarian population will have tendency to united with Bulgaria and for this reason Serbia will not allow this.

11. They divided us and now they do not allow us to unify. We are living now 25 years divided from Bulgaria and they do not allow us to unify? We call ourselves Bulgarians or Macedonians and see us as separate and radically different from the Serbs with Bulgarian national consciousness.

12. Our Grandfathers call themselves Bulgarians. They never thing that we will be having such a problem to call ourselves so.

13. Bulgarian Literally Language. We the Macedonians voluntarily choose one and the same language with Bulgarians long before the liberation of Bulgaria from Turkey. The prohibition from the Serbs to use our literally language, which is the only one connection between us and Bulgarians is significant violation of our human rights. .. and further.. when they forbid us to call ourselves Bulgarians, to learn Bulgarian history and to be ashamed from everything which connect us with Bulgarians. It is enough to learn our Macedonian culture and history to understand that we are very different from Serbian nationality.

14. There no difference between Bulgarian and Macedonian Slav. The Greeks in 1804 long before Bulgarian exarchate do not make any difference between Bulgarian and West Macedonian dialect.

15. Bulgarian national name of Macedonians. In the IX century in the first Bulgarian kingdom we do not have anything against this Bulgarian national name for us and for the rest of Bulgarians in Bulgaria.

16. We Macedonian Bulgarians (Macedonians) like Bulgarian state as our own.

17. The Serbs are much inferior than we are. We demand freedom for all of us and not to be material for assimilation experiments of the Serbs, which stand much inferior from us in spiritual narrow-mindedness and chauvinism.

18. The Serbs come to the idea of the Macedonian nationality. The Serbs develop the concept for special Macedonian Nation, which they put in the south Macedonia. They declare north Macedonia as a pure Serbian land. Middle Macedonia as a transition between Serbian and Macedonian language.

19. The population of Skopje is pure Bulgarian. Bulgaria make a big error when recognize the territory for "neutral". It is pure Bulgarian and the population in Skopje and surrounding area is pure Bulgarian.

20. Why the Serbs want Macedonia? What Serbian you can find in this pure Bulgarian land, which is since 6 century till today Bulgarian, despite of all vicissitude of the historical destiny.

21. Serbian-Greek attempt on the Bulgarians in Macedonia. Because of the treaty between Serbia and Greece Bulgaria was robed and 2 Millions Bulgarians where conquered from Serbia and Greece. Yes! To many damage did the Serbs on Bulgaria, Macedonia and Dobrudja and with this they do not stop! They filled that their vicious work will be discovered and to be prosecuted by the Slavic consciousness because of the freedom of 1/3 of Bulgarians - the Bulgarians in Macedonia.

22. The lies about Bulgarian and Bulgaria. Restoration of the human rights of the Bulgarians in Macedonia and Dobrudja, despite of the lies spread for Bulgaria and Bulgarians! Who is against Great Bulgaria, he is against the Slavs!

23. Krali Marko songs in Macedonia are from Bulgarian origin. The songs of Krali Marko in Macedonia are from Bulgarian origin and speak for the Bulgarian influence over the Serbs and not the opposite.

24. The Serbs will coarse many wars, if the "Dushan empire" will not disappear. In the last quarter of the XIX century the Serbs start to dream to restore this abandon from Serbs it selves empire. With intrigues and and allies they conquer big part of Bulgarian Macedonia. But this Serbian advantages of 1912 coarse the war in 1913 and they coarse the war in 1915-1918 and will coarse many more wars, unless "Dushan empire" get liquidate in the same way as in XIV century on the principal of the self-determination of the nations.

25. Serbs falsify the history. In Bulgaria Macedonians have all personal rights, freedom of expression and self-determination in Bulgaria. The Serbs try to destroy the soul of the Macedonians and for that reason the falsify the hole history. In this Serbian logic and Serbian fillings there are something abnormal, which is prove of the failure of the Serbian state. They are afraid from the Macedonians in Macedonia and also this living outside.

26. The Macedonian population is against Serbs. You have to know that because your Serbian politics against Macedonians you have against you all past present and future Balkan governments and the Macedonian population.

27. The Bulgarians are our fellow citizens. The European recognize that only independent sate will put an end of the competition conquer and hegemony on the Balkan. An will end once forever violence of the new conquer. And everlasting peace on the Balkan and in Europe will rise. Greece and Serbia will loose territorially and les Bulgaria and will win all Macedonians.

28. The Serbs forbid us to celebrate all Bulgarian holidays. We are forced to celebrate St. Sava and forbid to celebrate St. Cyril and St. Methodius and Ilinden Uprising.

29. Our souls are in Bulgaria. Serbia conquer the land and the body of Macedonians, the souls are in Bulgaria and with Bulgaria.

30. Krste Petkov Misirkov defines himself as a Bulgarian. 1897 I was accepted in Petersburg University in Russia and five years I was Bulgarian student community as Bulgarian.

31. Self appreciation of the statement in the book "For Macedonian matters". The readers of this article will be very surprised of the big controversy opinion, which they will meet here in comparison with the article "For Macedonian matters". To understand this contradiction I will remember you, that I wrote as an improvised politicians

[Tsontos]

Foreign Evaluation of the ethnic make-up of Macedonia in the 1800s and 1900s


"Macedonian" was a geographical label, not ethnic. For outside/ foreign observers in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, when the first stages of Macedonian (or makedonski) ethnogenosis had taken place, there was simply not sufficient evidence to distinguish the Vardar Slavs from the Bulgarians. Indeed there was simply no historic precedent or reality to a "Macedonian" race existing in the region, not in Byzantine times nor Ottoman obviously. This is reflected through the fact that foreign records did not take into consideration the small faction of Macedonists when considering the pressing Macedonian Problem, its ethnic make-up and future in light of the crumbling Ottoman Empire.

Needless to say not one foreign record, treaty, map or census: be it Ottoman, English, French, German or anyother ever mentioned a seperate "Macedonian ethnicity" or "Macedonian language" (see numerous maps and censuses below).




For example none of the following censuses identified any "Macedonian" language/ conscience/ ethnicity; only Greek, Bulgarian, Vlach, Turk, Albanian, Roma, Serb or Armenian:


-The League of Nations (forerunner to UN set up after WWI) never mentions any Macedonian race/ ethnicity.

-Journal "Le Temps" Paris 1905 (Gave a total population of 2,782,000 inhabitants and no "macedonian" race)

-Prof. G. Wiegland - Die Nationalen Bestrebungen der Balkansvölker. Leipzig 1898 (Gave a total population of 2,275,000 inhabitants and no "macedonian" race)

-1904 Turkish census of Hilmi Pasha for Thessaloniki, Monastiri, Scopje

-1906 Turkish census of Hilmi Pasha for the area of Macedonia.

-Official Turkish Statistic Ethnicity of Macedonia Philippopoli 1881

-Vassil Kantcheff - Macedonia Ethnicity and Statistic - 1900

-Leon Dominian - The frontiers of Language and Nationality in Europe. Published for the American Geographical Society of New York 1917

-Richard von Mach - Der Machtbereich des bulgarischen Exarchats in der Türkei. Leipzig - Neuchatel, 1906

-Prinz Tcherkasky ethnographie 1877

-The treaties of San Stefano (1878), London (1913) , Versailles (1919), the Congress of Berlin (1878) and others; all of which dealt with the Macedonian question, made no reference even to small group declaring themselves as 'ethnic' Macedonians, only Bulgarians, Serbs, Greeks, Muslims and other minorities




Popolazione dell'Impero ottomano , 1911 - Italian report on the population make up of the Ottoman Vilayets (administrative regions) which made up Macedonia; Monastir, Thessaloniki as well as Adrianople, Kosovo, Ioannina and Skutari:





Lingustically there is no doubting that the so called "Macedonian language" of today is a Bulgarian dialect. The Slavs of Vardar were traditionally described as Bulgarian by foreign obsevers and the Macedonists first dubbed their Bugarski dialect 'Makedonski' in the 19th century (As was described earlier in the page by Shapkarev in 1888). For more information on the Skopjian language and the history of its transformation from a Bulgarian idiom to a "Macedonian" language visit the page: Linguistic origins of F.Y.R.O.M - From Bulgarian dialect to "Macedonian" language




According to the 1899 edition of Encyclopedia Brittanica considering the respective Serb and Bulgarian for the Slavonic population:
"Almost all independent authorities, however, agree that the bulk of the Slavonic population of Macedonia is Bulgarian"



1903 London Times article outlining the Macedonian problem. Evidently the article does not consider Macedonism significant enough, or any revisionist claims of a "Macedonian ethnicity" a reality . The only ethnic groups mentioned are Albanians, Turks, Vlachs, Rumanians, Greeks, Servian and Bulgarian.


Slavonic population exerpt (Click for greater picture resolution):








The Above article in its entirety (Click for greater resolution):

[Tsontos]

Foreign evaluation continued..



A later Encycolpedia Brittanica edition from 1911 on Macedonia refers to the diverse ethnic make-up of Macedonia, and does not mention any Macedonian ethnicity, only Macedonian Greeks, Macedonian Bulgarians, Vlachs, Turks, Albanians, Serbs, Jews, Gypsies, Armenian minority and so on:

http://36.1911encyclopedia.org/M/MA/MACEDONIA.htm


Some Excerpts:

"With the exception of the southern and western districts already specified, the principal towns, and certain isolated tracts, the whole of Macedonia is inhabited by a race or The races speaking a Slavonic dialect. If language is Slavonic adopted as a test, the great bulk of the rural population must be described as Slavonic. The Slavs first crossed the Danube at the beginning of the 3rd century, but their great immigration took place in the 6th and 7th centuries. They overran the entire peninsula, driving the Greeks to the shores of the Aegean, the Albanians into the Mirdite country, and the latinized population of Macedonia into the highland districts, such as Pindus, Agrapha and Olympus. The Slays, a primitive agricultural and pastoral people, were often unsuccessful in their attacks on the fortified towns, which remained centres of Hellenism. In the outlying parts of the peninsula they were absorbed, or eventually driven back, by the original populations, but in the central region they probably assimilated a considerable proportion of the latinized races. The western portions of the peninsula were occupied by Serb and Slovene tribes: the Slavs of the eastern and central portions were conquered at the end of the 7th century by the Bulgarians, a Ugro-Finnish horde, who established a despotic political organization, but being less numerous than the subjected race were eventually absorbed by it. The Mongolian physical type, which prevails in the districts between the Balkans and the Danube, is also found in central Macedonia, and may be recognized as far west as Ochrida and Dibra. In general, however, the Macedonian Slavs differ somewhat both in appearance and character from their neighbors beyond the Bulgarian and Servian frontiers: the peculiar type which they present is probably due to a considerable admixture of Vlach, Hellenic~ Albanian and Turkish blood, and to the influence of the surrounding races. Almost all independent authorities, however, agree that the bulk of the Slavonic population of Macedonia is Bulgarian. The principal indication is furnished by the language, which, though resembling Servian in some respects (e.g. the case-endings, which are occasionally retained), presents most of the characteristic features of Bulgarian...The Slavs of the eastern and southern regions are a quiet, sober, hardworking agricultural race, more obviously homogeneous with the population of Bulgaria.

Ethnic/ racial maps concerning the Macedonia and Vardar regions

"From an ethnographical point of view the population of Macedonia is extremely mixed. The old maps, from that of Ami Bone (1847) down, follow tradition in regarding the Slav population of Macedonia as Bulgarian."

-Carnegie Endowment for International peace, Commission to Inquire into the causes and conduct of the Balkan wars, published 1914





None of these racial/ ethnological maps record a "Macedonian" race/ ethnicity. Indeed no contemporary racial cartographer deems the Macedonist seperatists significant enough to be recorded in any maps. Ethnologists only recorded Greeks, Bulgarians, Serbs, Albanians, Turks, Vlachs/ Aromanians, Turks and other minorities such as Gypsy Roma, Armenians etc. (Click for higher resolution of pictures):


Map from 1877 by the British Stanford firm, studying the ethnology of Macedonia at the time:





Ethnograhical Map 1880s - by E. G. Ravenstein F.R.G.S. - Published by: New York, D. Appleton & Co







French Ethnocarte Map of Macedonia:






Shepards' Peoples of Europe around 900:






This Racial Map of Europe does not mention a Macedonian race and cites most of Vardar as Bulgarian. [Source Records of the Great War (National Alumni 1923 Volume VII)]





The ethnicity of the villages around Skopje in the last years of Turkish rule. (Source: Makedonien, Landschafts- und Kulturbilder., Schultze Jena, 1927):







Further Ethnolgraphical and Lingustic Maps (click to enlarge):




French 1 - racial map: Macedonia

French 2 - linguistic map of Macedonia concerning Serb/ Bulgarian dialects

French 2 - Map of A. Boue, French (1840). A traveler and scholar who edited in 1840 his cornerstone piece "La Turquie d'Europe". He traced almost precisely the borderlines separating the different races in Macedonia.





German 1 - Lingustic divisions of Europe in 1914

German 2 - Kiepert 1867 ethnographical map of Macedonia

German 3 - German map of the peoples and languages of Europe, end of 19th century

German 4 - Racial map of central and South Europe. Taken from F. W. Putzgers Historischer Schul-Atlas, 1905

German 5 - Der Grosse-Herder-Atlas

German 6 - Balkan-Region 1881





British 1 - H,N Brailsford, Macedonia. Its Races and their Future: Methuen & C.O

British 2 - P.C.G.N 1942 - Map drawn according to the lingustic divisions of Macedonia

British 3 - Ethnological map of Europe. (notice the green representing the South Slav races - Serbs, Croats, Slovenes, Bulgarians but no Macedonians)

British 4 -Races of the Balkan peninsula, Historical Atlas by William R. Shepherd, 1923




Czech 1 - Map of T.Safarik, Czech (1842) (must be approached with caution to an extent due to bias on account of the man being a well known Slavicist)



Compare the above foreign ethnological maps with the following Serbian maps, where a group seperate of Bulgarians; the 'Slavs of Macedonia' appears. Both cite Jovan Cvijic as the source of the ethnological data, Cvijich being one of the cheif Serb proponents of 'Macedonianism' as discussed earlier in the article:


Serbian map 1 - "Ethnological map from the point of view of the Serbs", map published by the 1914 Carnegie Commission on the Balkan wars, as an example of the Serbian view. Based on the ethnological data of Jovan Cvijich

Serbian map 2 - "Ethnographic map of the Balkan penninsula", published in 1913 through Austrian channels but once again citing Cvijich as the collector of the ethnological material on which the map is based




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[Tsontos]

The VMRO (IMARO) and the Illiden-Krushevo-Preobrazhenie Uprising


The revisionist attempts by F.Y.R.O.M's revisionist historians to portray the Bulgarian revolutionaries of the VMRO as 'early fathers of Macedonia' and exclusively as 'Macedonian nationalists' are indicative of both the ethnic Bulgarian origins of the Slavs of F.Y.R.O.M and the inherent flaws of the 'Macedonist' historical revisionism. This article will provide multiple primary and secondary sources describing the VMRO as "Bulgarian Komitadjis (committees)" as well as the Bulgarian conscience of all the Committee's founders and leaders, Hristo Tatarchev, Dame Gruev, Petar Pop-Arsov, Andon Dimitrov, Hristo Batandzhiev, Jane Sandanski and Ivan Hadzhinikolov. The Bulgarian conscience of its most famous leader, Goce Delchev (despite portrayals of Delchev by revisionists as the 'father of Macedonian nationalism') will also be seen.

The IMARO was Bulgarian since its establishment, one of the cheif motivations for its founding by Dame Gruev in 1893 was to block the spread of Serbian influence into Macedonia, less it hinder the ultimate unification of the Bulgarian people. Even earlier (1891), Gyorche Petrov, later a famous IMRO committee member, was so concerned by the obvious Serbian schemes that he spent his time exclusively on ethnographic research in Skopje to ensure the availability of indisputable evidence to support the "Bulgarian" character of the Macedonian population. However later on, the Committees experienced internal struggles between the pro-Bulgarians and the autonomists/ Macedonists who were in the minority. The autonomists' political outlook came in varying forms and degrees. While hardline Bulgarians favoured the complete Bulgarian annexation of Macedonia; certain sections favoured initial Macedonian autonomy uniting the different ethnicities in the region, with the hidden eventual aim of annexation by Bulgaria just as Bulgaria had annexed the autonomous Eastern Rumelia in 1885. There was also a minority of Macedonists who were clearly in favour of Macedonian autonomy and not annexation by Bulgaria.

The climax and fall of the "Internal Committe's" activity occured August 1903 when the IMARO organised an uprising in two parts of Ottoman territory. The main rising was in the Ilinden region North of Skopje on the 2nd of August where rebels proclaimed the short-lived 'Krushevo Republic' in the Bitola Vilayet. The Ilinden uprising was a Bulgarian uprising taking place under the Bulgarian flag, and was reported as such by the Western press, with hundreds of Bulgarian flags lining the streets. The Komitadjis however were successful in inlisting the support of the local Vlach population; claiming their aim was to establish an autonomous and multi-ethnic Macedonia. The second uprising was centered in Tsarevo in the Adrianople Vilayet near the Black Sea coast on the 19th of August, the day of the Transfiguration or Preobrazhenie in Bulgarian. Both uprisings were put down by the Turks without difficulty and despite the Bulgarians' claims that the rising was in the name of all disgruntled Ottoman subjects, many Greeks and Vlachs were murdered by the Committee in the process.





The failure of the 1903 insurrection resulted in the dispersal of the autonomy seeking, left-wing faction of IMRO and it becoming largely an agent of Bulgarian expansionism. in the years from 1904 to 1908, armed groups sponsored by all three neighboring states fought the Ottomans and each other, and the Ottomans took reprisals. The resulting brutality of the Young Turk government which took power in 1908 played a large part in provoking the Balkan Wars which broke out in 1912. After the Balkan wars and the defeat of Bulgaria, the VMRO mostly died out in Greek Macedonia and Yugoslavia, continuing as a radical right wing part in Bulgaria.



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-From the Statute of the 'Bulgarian Macedonian-Adrianople Revolutionary Committee', founded in 1893, as it was originally known before being simply referred to as SMARO/ IMARO, 'Secret/ Internal Macedonian-Adrianople revolutionary Committee':

Chapter I. - Goals:
Art. 1. The goal of BMARC is to secure full political autonomy for the Macedonia and Adrianople regions
Art. 2. To achieve this goal they [the committees] shall raise the awareness of self-defense in the Bulgarian population in the regions mentioned in Art. 1., disseminate revolutionary ideas - printed or verbal, and prepare and carry on a general uprising

No doubt the reason for the change in name of the Committee was to not allow the Greeks and Serbs label it as a Bulgarian organisation. The advantages of not openly being a Bulgarian apparatus for annexation and instead to aim for autonomy with the slogan "Macedonia for the Macedonians", Greeks, Serbs, Vlachs and even Turks inclusive. Later statutes in 1902 for example deleted the goals mentioning the "self defence" of the Bulgarian population instead their goal being:

"uniting all the disgruntled elements in Macedonia and the Adrianople region, regardless of their nationality, to win, through a revolution, a full political autonomy for these two regions." (1902 Statute of the Secret Macedonian-Adrianople Revolutionary Organization)


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We talked a long time about the goal of this organization and at last we fixed it on autonomy of Macedonia with the priority of the Bulgarian element. We couldn't accept the position for "direct joining to Bulgaria" because we saw that it would meet big difficulties by reason of confrontation of the Great powers and the aspirations of the neighbouring small countries and Turkey. It passed through our thoughts that one autonomous Macedonia could easier unite with Bulgaria subsequently and if the worst comes to the worst, that it could play a role as a unificating link of a federation of Balkan people. The region of Adrianople, as far as I remember, didn't take part in our program, and I think the idea to add it to the autonomous Macedonia came later.

-Dr. Hristo Tatarchev, one of the founders of the BMARO/ IMARO



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Various sources following will identify the Bulgarian character of the group and illustrate that, to foreign observers at least, there was no means by which, or historical precedent, to distinguish Macedonists and their ideas for the seperation of an 'ethnic Macedonian' consciousness from the Bulgarian consciousness of the Slavic population of the region.



Primary, contemporary, foreign sources concerning the Bulgarian ethnicity of Goce Delchev:




The following is a letter from Goce Delchev to Nikola Maleshevski, in which refers to himself as Bulgarian:

"Sofia, 01.05.1899,

Kolyo (Nikola),

..I have received all letters which were sent by or through you. May the dissents and cleavages not frighten you. It is really a pity, but what can we possibly do when we ourselves are Bulgarians and all suffer from the same disease! If this disease had not existed in our forefathers who passed it on to us, we wouldn't have fallen under the ugly sceptre of the Turkish sultans..."

Original letter of Goce Delchev:





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The following is an Ottoman Turkish document, following the Illinden Uprising, describing the death of Goce Delchev, a 'Bulgarian leader':






Extracts from the document once again confirming Delchev as a Bulgarian:

Appendix No 16. A photocopy by the telegram of Salonik valiya (chief of Vilaet) Hasan Fahmi from May, 5, 1903. The telegram contains the phrase:

"The cheta of the one of the famous leaders Delchev, is composed by twenty one rebels, but shamelesses from the Bulgarian population joined to the cheta and they together counted almost from seventy to eighty persons. They were encircled by the Ottoman army in the village of Banitsa which is outlying two and half hours from Seres".


Appendix No 17. A photocopy by the telegram of the Myutisarif of Seres from May, 9, 1903. The document has the words:

"I am informing you that the killed famous rebel Delchev wanted to pick on revolt the whole village population and that from the declaration of the captive hurt rebel Georgi we knew about existence of weapons in every village. The authorities know, according to the last information, that the Bulgarians from the village of Rondi near Seres are rebels and they help to the chetas of the Committee".


Appendix No 18. A photocopy by the telegram, written to the Turkish Embassy in Bulgaria, May, 9, 1903. It contains the phrase:

„On April, 22 (May, 5), in the village of Banitsa one of the leaders of the Bulgarian Committees, with name Delchev, was killed“.

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Greek newspaper, Empros, May 1903. Caption of picture reads: "Gotse Delchev, assassinated leader of the Bulgarian bands"



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Bulgarian conscience of Dame Gruev, IMARO founder:

" Considering the critical and terrible situation that the Bulgarian population of the Bitola Vilayet found itself in and following the ravages and cruelties done by the Turkish troops and irregulars, ... considering the fact that everything Bulgarian runs the risk of perishing and disappearing without a trace because of violence, hunger, and the upcoming misery, the Head Quarters finds it to be its obligation to draw the attention of the respected Bulgarian government to the pernicious consequences vis-a-vis the Bulgarian nation, in case the latter does not fulfill its duty towards its brethren of race here in an imposing fashion which is necessary by virtue of the present ordeal for the common Bulgarian Fatherland...

...Being in command of our people's movement, we appeal to you on behalf of the enslaved Bulgarian to help him in the most effective way - by waging war.We believe that the response of the people in free Bulgaria will be the same.

... No bulgarian school is opened, neither will it be opened... Nobody thinks of education when he is outlawed by the state because he bears the name Bulgar...


Waiting for your patriotic intervention, we are pleased to inform you that we have in our disposition the armed forces we have spared by now..."

-Memoranum from Dame Gruev, Boris Sarafov and Atanas Lotanchev to the Bulgarian consul in Bitola and transmitted from there to Sofia with report N441, September 17th, 1903

-Link to original Dame Gruev memorandum




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Primary, contemporary, foreign sources concerning the Illinden-Krushevo Uprisings:



The 'Orhid banner' shows the banner used by the insurgents of the Krushevo-Illinden uprisings. As can be seen the Bulgarian flag being held by a figure representing the uprising. On one side the word 'Makedonija' (Macedonia) is written in cyrillic describing Bulgarian aspirations in Macedonia with the Turkish flag at the bottom representing the uprising against the Turks:







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In any country's archives, and in the reports of the four Consuls and vice-consuls (British, French, Austrian and USA) in Monastir (now Bitola) and Thessaloniki in 1903, the VMRO's activities are described as a revolt by Bulgarian Komitadjis. The following are articles from August 1903 from the London times, clearly describing the uprisings as Bulgarian and the VMRO as Bulgarian Komijitads:







More London Times articles on the Ilinden Uprising (Click for higher picture resolution):


The Situation in Macedonia, Aug 03, 1903

The Bulgarian Bands In Macedonia, Aug 04, 1903

The Renewed Outbreak In Macedonia, Aug 07, 1903

The Rising In Macedonia. A Russian Consul Murdered. Aug 10, 1903

Balkan Crisis Aug 11, 1903




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Further foreign evaluation from diplomatic sources referring to the VMRO, Ilinden and Krushevo as Bulgarian:



Ottoman diplomatic document:


NOTAM by the Imperial Ottoman Embassy in Paris to the French Foreign Office

Paris, August 10, 1903
Source: French Foreign Office Archives, AMAE/NS Turquie-Macedoine, vol 35,
p. 230r

The Bulgarians gathered in large numbers at Kleisoura and its suburbs have occupied the villages of Djivarek in the Kesrie administrative region, have assasinated all the Muslim inhabitants, women and children, and burnt down their houses. They are currently fiercely attacking the remaining villages in the area, were they already captured a big number of inhabitants. Some of these poor people have been burnt alive. The greek and the muslim poulations are terrified after this terrible slaugtering.

In the suburbs of Monastir, Bulgarian bandits have burnt 8 barns, in 8 different farms, with all the cereals that had been stored there. These violent attacks, during which the muslim villages in the Resna and Persie regions have been attacked, have terrified the Muslims. In the Ochrida region the postman from Janina has been encyrcled by the Bulgarian bandits and a big number of items belonging to Muslims have been burnt by Bulgarian crooks.




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French diplomatic document:


The French vice-consul N.Vernazza reporting to T.Delcasse.

French Foreign Office Archives, AMAE/NS Turquie-Macedoine, vol 35,
p. 193-195, prot.n. 35

Thessaloniki August 6, 1903

News coming from Monastiri and areas between this town and Thessaloniki are always very alarming. Every night the Bulgarian rebels are trying to destroy (with dynamite) the railway. The government telegraph lines remain cut, and only those of the railroad have been repaired and it is so that the authorities communicate with Monastiri.

According to my information, all Bulgarian residents, men, women and children, from the villages of Tzerovo, Banitza, Rossen, Zaboritzeni, between Florina and Ekchi-Sou, have found refuge to the mountains. Two farms belonging to an Albanophone Greek and a Muslim have been burnt down in this area. An employee of the bulgarian commercial agency told me yesterday that up to date the Bulgarian gangs have kept a defensive attitude, but since last Sunday they have decided to attack and that the Bulgarian villagers will help them significantly. I have indeed personally verified that many young Bulgarians have recently left our town and suburbs to join gangs in the kazas of Gevgeli and Koukoush, on which there is no further conversation after the Postolari events.

My opinion is that the Bulgarians have decided to make a last venture in Monastiri area, where they are a majority. Passengers arriving from Monastiri confirm that many muslim villages have been partly burnt down and since yesterday morning news about the Krushevo administration building having been blown up is circulating. This town, with 1700 houses, is populated by BULGARIANS Vlachs and a few muslim Albanians.

It is heard that more than 30 persons, in their majority government employees, have been killed during this Bulgarian uprise, imitating the example of their colleagues in Thessaloniki.

Vernazza


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Austrian diplomatic docmument:


The Austrian consul August Kral to the head of the (Austrian) Foreign Office Count Agenor von Goluchowski.

Monastir, March 11, 1903
Source: Austrian Foreign Office Archives, HHStA PA XXXVIII/Konsulat Monastir. 1903, vol 392, prot.no. 22


Hochgeborener Graf, {your Highness the Count}


The Comitate with unspeakable audacity blackmails economically Bulgarians, Greeks, Wallachs, Christians and Muslims. In case of refusal to pay, the Christians are threatened with murder, and the rich, armed and guarded muslim landowners are threatened with the burning down of their fields. In gathering the money the comitates do not discriminate between the Christians, because, as they assert, their efforts aim to the amendment of the situation of all Christians of Macedonia. The amount of the money requested depends on individual income, but the Comitate is debatable in some special cases. The amount of the contributions varies between 5 and 100 Turkish pounds, some rare times even more. In the Perlepe region, where the Muslims are a minority, each and every Aga has to pay, the same for most Greeks ( i.e. the Wallachs) from Monastiri and the vlach villages, like
Gopes, Mollovista, Tirnovo, Krushevo etc. The comitates have won over, often with by the means of threats, a number of families in the above NON-BULGARIAN small towns. The comitates need such pied-a-terre in important small towns, that, overmore, being non-Bulgarian appear less suspect to the Turks.

The continuing and phenomenal in pressure blackmails, have attenuated to the maximum the anxiety of the non-Bulgarian populations, mainly of the Greeks. Fear dominates everywhere. Noone dares to resist. In this state of terror anyone feels the lack of protection to which he is exposed because of the incompetence, the feableness and the corruption of the turkish administration. There is a strong desire for the regularisation of the situation, which is unbearable, and the need for a new, strong government. I have already stated that the population does not want reforms or autonomy, the majority of the Macedonians want nothing more than the fate of Bosnia.

The execution of the punishments is a permanent chapter of the gangs' activities. One could mention the recent assasination of the Greek priest in Zelenic, the Greek teacher in Strebeno, a Greek supporter in Ajtos ( all three in the Kaza Florina ), the Serbian priest in Vrbjani and of an Albanian landowner in Lenista (in the Kaza Perlepe) who has been decapitated. Especially the Vrbjani crime has been very shocking, as for two years now there has been no Bulgarian action against the Serbs and therefore the Serbophiles have not been hostile towards the rebel groups. the assasins, now being fugitives, according to the inquiry performed by the Serbian Genaral Consul himself, have been three local villagers, an old friend of the priests' being one of them, who had to perform the murder as a sort of examination in order to join the comitate.

Kral


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British diplomatic document:


The British General Consul Sir Alfred Billioti to the British Charge D'Affaires J.B.Whitehead.

Source: Foreign Office F.O. 195/2156, p76r-80v, prot.no. 20


Thessaloniki, January 26, 1903


Sir,


Two years ago some Greco-Vlachs, i.e. Wallachians who are educated exclusively in Greek schools and embued with Greek ideas, who in some parts speak nothing but Greek, and form, in the Vilayet of Monastir the bulk of the Macedonian Greek population, requested the permission of the Patriarchate to use the Roumanian language in their churches. The Patriarchate refused but the Exarchate acceded to the request, and this false step on the part of the former caused the first split in the Greco-Vlach party by inducing a number of Vlachs to throw in their lot with the Exarchate. These new converts were, as is usually the case, more fervent than the Exarchists themselves and bashed by the Committees' bands resorted to intimidation and murder to coarse their compatriots who had remained faithful to the Patriarchate to join them.


One of the first Greco-Vlach villages affected was Oshin in the Caza of Ghevgheli,at the instigation of the Exarchist inhabitants of which two of the most influential Patriarchists were murdered in August last by a Bulgarian band under a certain Giovanni or Yovanoff of Ghevgheli. About three months ago, as I mentioned in my report no 198 of November 9, 1902, he called at Oshin with his band and that of another leader, Argiri, turned out at the Greek schoolmasters, appointed Roumanians (Non-Bulgarian speaking) and tried to induce the Orthodox priest to turn Exarchists, but failing in this they insisted on their reading the liturgy in Roumanian. On the priests' pleading ignorance of the language Yovanoff gave them six months to learn it. Since their other chiefs have joined Yovanoff and Arghiri, viz. Pavlo, who died lately, Athanasi, Karadouka, and Apostoli, but the men under them do not exceed forty, a number which may, however, be increased at any time by recruits from among the natives. These chiefs have continued the system initiated at Kupa, Oshin, Houma, Longountza, and Loubnitsa, neighbouring villages of Ghevgheli, where also the Patriarchists are in the majority. In the village of Ghera Kortzi, where they form the minority, one of the most influential among them was murdered in broad day light while working in his field by a Bulgarian band some three weeks ago for refusing to recant. Papa Nikola, Orthodox priest of Livadi, another Greco-Vlach village some five hours distance from Goumendje is being threatened with death for remaining Patriarchist and if he is murdered the whole village will join the Exarchate from fear. Meanwhile the forty men forming these Bulgarian bands live at the expense and in the houses of the Orthodox (or Roum, as they are officially termed, whether Greeks or Vlachs, in contradiction to the Exarchists), and no longer of the BULGARIAN peasants, thus shifting the onus of supposed complicity from the latter to the former, as reported to one of my previous dispatches.


The villages in the southwestern district of Ghevheli, Gorpop, Boemitza, Bogdanza, Bores (or Bogros), Stoyakovo, Matchoukovo etc, are only in part Exarchist, but the villages of Yenidje Vardar, Kriva, Barovitza, Tchernareka, Petges, Ramna, Petrovo with Corfalia (or Corfali) in Salonica are entirely Orthodox. None of these are, however, being pressed just now by the bands to join the Exarchate nor to dismiss their Greek schoolmasters but they have been warned to hold themshelves ready to take up arms when ordered to do so in a few months. In the meantime they are threatened with death if they should denounce the bands, for whose reception they are ordered to have a house and provisions in constant readiness. All these details some of which I have already had the honour of reporting, e.g. the payment of the taxes to the Committees agents and not to the Government, the submittal of cases to the Committees representatives and not to the local tribunals, the rape of Dimitris' daughter at Moouin for her father's refusal to join the bands and (as I did not know at the time) the exaction from him of twenty five pounds, have only lately come to light. The poor wretches, who suffered, being afraid to visit even Salonica for fear of being suspected of having come to denounce their opressors and only lately have a few dared to come secretly and, explaining their position, enquire what they can do for themselves or what can be done for them. They trembled lest the bands should discover what would assuredly cost them their lives.

The Vali himself is at a loss how to relieve the Patriarchists. He told me a forthnight ago that he had summoned the Kaimakamis of Ghevgheli and Yenidje Vardar and secretly arranged with them to invest all the villages mentioned above on a given day and in case of need to repeat the operation until successfu