Macedonians (ethnic group)

This article is about the Slavic ethnic group; for the unrelated people of ancient Greece, see Ancient Macedonians. For other meanings, see Macedonian.

The Macedonians (Македонци, Makedonci) - also referred to as Macedonian Slavs "Macedonian Slavs" can be translated into Macedonian as Македонски Словени - Makedonski Sloveni. Although acceptable in the past, current use of this name in reference to both the ethnic group and the language can be considered pejorative and offensive by some ethnic Macedonians. The Greek Helsinki Monitor reports:
: "... the term Slavomacedonian was introduced and was accepted by the community itself, which at the time had a much more widespread non-Greek Macedonian ethnic consciousness. Unfortunately, according to members of the community, this term was later used by the Greek authorities in a pejorative, discriminatory way; hence the reluctance if not hostility of modern-day Macedonians of Greece (i.e. people with a Macedonian national identity) to accept it." - are a South Slavic ethnic group 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 Macedonians today live in the Republic of Macedonia; there are minority communities in Greek Macedonia with their own dialect and history but where the overwhelming majority consists of Greeks (who are also known as Macedonians in the region), as well as in Albania and Bulgaria.

Population

The vast majority of Macedonians live in the valley of the river Vardar, the central region of the Republic of Macedonia and form about 64.18% of the population of the Republic of Macedonia (1,297,981 people according to the 2002 census). Smaller numbers live in eastern Albania, southwestern Bulgaria, northern Greece, and southern Serbia and Montenegro, mostly abutting the border areas of the Republic of Macedonia. A large number of Macedonians have immigrated overseas to Australia, USA, Canada and in many European countries: Germany, UK, Italy, Austria, etc.

Macedonians abroad

Serbia

Serbia recognizes the Macedonian minority on its territory as a distinct ethnic group and counts them in its annual census. 25,847 people declared themselves Macedonians in the 2002 census.

Bulgaria

In the 2001 census in Bulgaria, 5,071 people declared themselves Macedonians. Krassimir Kanev, chairman of the NGO Bulgarian Helsinki Committee, claimed 15,000 - 25,000 in 1998 ^*. In the same report Macedonian nationalists (Popov et al, 1989) claim that 200,000 Macedonians live in Bulgaria.

Macedonian groups in the country have reported official harassment, with the Bulgarian Constitutional Court banning a small Macedonian political party in 2000 as separatist and Bulgarian local authorities banning political rallies. A political organization of the Macedonian minority in Bulgaria – UMO Ilinden-Pirin – claims that the minority has experienced a period of intensive assimilation and repression.

Albania

Albania recognizes the Macedonians as an ethnic minority and delivers primary education in the Macedonian language in the border regions where most Macedonians live. In the 1989 census. 5,000 people declared themselves Macedonians.

Macedonian organizations allege that the government undercounts the number of Macedonians in Albania and that they are politically underrepresented - there are no ethnic Macedonians in the Albanian parliament. Some say that there has been disagreement among the Slavophone Albanian citizens about their being members of a Macedonian nation as a significant number of these Slavophones are Torbesh and self-identify as Albanians. External estimates on the population of Macedonians in Albania include 10,000 whereas Macedonian sources have claimed that there are 120,000 - 350,000 Macedonians in Albania [http://www.florina.org/html/2003/2003_osce_albania.html.

Greece

See also: Slavic-speaking minority of Greece, Slavic language (Greece)

According to the latest Greek census held in 2001, there are 962 holders of citizenship of the Republic of Macedonia in Greece , although it should be noted that Greek censuses do not take into account the ethnicity of immigrants and that immigration has significantly increased since then. According to a study conducted for the Hellenic Migration Policy Institute (ΙΜΕΠΟ), in 2003 90,651 visa applications were made by citizens of the Republic of Macedonia, out of which 90,549 were granted and 102 rejected .

Regarding an autochthonous Macedonian ethnic minority, its existence is not recognized by the Greek state. However, local authorities have acknowledged the existence of a minority language in the Periphery of Western Macedonia often referred to as Slavic or Dopia (a Greek word for 'local'), which was spoken by 41,017 people according to the latest Greek census to pose a question on mother tongue held in 1951. Depending on dialect, this language is classified by linguists as either Bulgarian or Macedonian. The vast majority of the speakers of this language espouse a Greek national identity as a result of either conscientious choice or coercion of their ancestors in the first half of the twentieth century . Their numbers are estimated at between 100,000 and 200,000 by the Greek Helsinki Monitor ; the Joshua Project gives an estimate of 192,000, and Ethnologue of 180,180. According to the Greek Helsinki Monitor however, only an estimated 10,000-30,000 of these people will have a clear ethnic Macedonian national identity and the government of the Republic of Macedonia in 1993 claimed that there are between 230,000 and 270,000 Macedonians living in northern Greece [http://www.hrw.org/reports/pdfs/g/greece/greece945.pdf. It's interesting that the only political party in Greece promoting the recognition and existence of an ethnically Macedonian minority in Aegean Macedonia – the Rainbow, which was founded in September 1998 – received only 2,955 votes in Aegean Macedonia in the 2004 elections.

Diaspora

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:

Australia: The official number of Macedonians in Australia by ancestry of birthplace of parents is 82,000 (2001). Macedonians are mainly inhabited in the following Australian cities: Melbourne, Sydney, Wollongong, Newcastle, Canberra and Perth.
Canada: The Canadian census in 2001 records 31,265 individuals claimed wholly- or partly- Macedonian heritage in Canada (2001), although community spokesmen have claimed that there are actually 100,000 - 150,000 Macedonians in Canada ^* (see also Macedonian Canadians).
USA: A significant Macedonian community can be found in the United States of America. The official number of Macedonians in the USA is 43,000 (2002). Macedonians are mainly inhabited in the following American states: Michigan, New York, Ohio, Indiana, New Jersey ^*.
Germany: There are an estimated 61,000 citizens of the Republic of Macedonia in Germany (2001)
Italy: There are 58,460 citizens of the Republic of Macedonia in Italy (2004)

Other significant ethnic Macedonian communities can also be found in the other western European countries such as Austria, France, Switzerland, Netherlands, United Kingdom, etc.

History

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 travelers, 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 travelers 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.

Ancient period

The modern Macedonian nation lives mostly in the present-day region of Macedonia, mostly in Vardar Macedonia, which in ancient times was inhabited by different ethnic groups such as Paionians, Dardani and other Thraco-Illyrian tribes. Although the present Macedonians are primarily the descendants of the Slavic tribes which settled Macedonia during the 6th and 7th century AD, it is presumed by some historians (Kanchov, Weigand) that these Slavic tribes probably absorbed some indigenous populations that they came upon in the area and mixed with later groups such as Bulgars as stated by the Byzantine chroniclers Theophanes and Nicephorus.

Arrival of Slavs

The Slavs are considered to start entering the area of Balkan Peninsula in the VI century, passing the Danube river and attacking the Byzantine settlements, fortresses, towns and villages. Many areas of Balkan Peninsula were gradually populated with the following Slav tribes: Dragovites, Velegezites, Berzites, Sagudates, Rinhines and other. Slavs were organized into many Sclavinaes as organized native-tribal units. This period is also known by very frequent battles between the Slavs and the Byzantines. In the year 586, Thessaloniki was besieged by the Slavs, and was only saved, so the people of Thessalonica believed, by the help of their patron Demetrios.The New Cambridge Medieval History, by Paul Fouracre, ISBN 0521362911 According to John of Ephesus, the Slavs set out and plundered all of Greece, the regions surrounding Thessaloniki and Thrace, taking many towns and castles, laying waste, burning, pillaging, and seizing a whole country. Archbishop John of Thessaloniki mentions an attack on the city by 5000 Slav warriors.The Making of the Slavs: History and Archaeology of the Lower Danube Region, C. 500-700 by Florin Curta, ISBN 0521802024

Christianization

Slavic tribes in Macedonia accepted the Christianity as their own religion around the 9th century. The creators of the Cyrillic alphabet were the Byzantine monks Saint Cyril and Saint Methodius; under the guidance of the Patriarchate at Constantinople they were promoters of Christianity and initated Slavic literacy among the Slavic people. Their work was continued by the St. Clement of Ohrid and St.Naum of Ohrid as founders of the Ohrid Literary School. Cyril and Methodius evangelized from Constantinople into the BalkansWhat Does the Future Hold for Mankind by R A Bowland, ISBN 1401040438 In the legacy of Cyril and Methodious, carried on by Clement and Naum, the development of Slav literacy was crucial in preventing assimilation of the Slavs either by cultures to the North or by the Greek culture to the south.Who Are the Macedonians?, Page 19, by Hugh Poulton, ISBN 1850655340

Middle ages

From 997 to 1014 big part of the Balkan Peninsula and other areas as well were part of the kingdom of Tsar Samuil of Bulgaria. At the peak of his kingdom, Samuel moved the seat of his kingdom from the island of St. Achilles, Prespa to Ohrid where he was crowned as king. The remains of his castle are still present in the city of Ohrid. Under Samuil, who was based in Macedonia around the Ohrid and Prespa lakes, its fortunes once more revived the great military rivalry with Byzantium. Samuil’s army was soundly defeated in 1014 by Basil II, emperor of Byzantium and Macedonia fell once again under Byzantine control until about 1230 when it was incorporated in the Second Bulgarian Empire. Who Are the Macedonians?, Page 20, by Hugh Poulton , ISBN 1850655340 In the 14 century this area was part of the Serbian empire of Tsar Stefan Dušan.

Ottoman rule

This expansion of medieval states on the Balkan Peninsula was discontinued by the occupation of the Ottoman Empire in the 14th century. The region of Macedonia remained part of the Ottoman Empire for the next 500 years, i.e. until 1912. During the rule of the Ottomans, the locals organized a number of uprisings: Mariovo uprising (1564), Karposh uprising (1689), Kresna Uprising (1878) etc. Although Greece, Serbia and Bulgaria succeeded to liberate from the Ottoman rule by 1878, according to the decisions made on the Berlin Congress (1878) the territory of present Republic of Macedonia was left under the Ottoman rule.

Ilinden uprising

In 1893 the Bulgarian Macedonian-Adrianople Revolutionary Committee (which changed its name to SMARO in 1902, IMARO in 1906 and IMRO in 1920) was established. IMRO is used below for simplicity. This organization advocated the creation of a independent Macedonian within a Balkan federation.Atlas of Eastern Europe in the Twentieth Century, Page 17, by R J Crampton, ISBN 0415066891 On august 2, 1903, IMRO led the locals in the Ilinden uprising, named after the festival of the Prophet Elijah on which it began. That was one of the greatest events in the history of the people in the region of Macedonia. The high point of the Ilinden revolution was the establishment of the Krushevo Republic in the town of Krushevo. By November 1903, the Ilinden Uprising was suppressed.The Macedonian Conflict: Ethnic Nationalism in a Transnational World, Page 51, by Loring M. Danforth, ISBN 0691043566 The uprising was led by the following activists of the Secret Macedonian-Adrianople Revolutionary Organization (BMARC before 1902): Goce Delchev, Jane Sandanski, Nikola Karev, Dame Gruev, Pitu Guli, Lazo Trpovski etc. Before 1902, BMARC allowed membership for Bulgarians only. Since 1902 SMARO did not proclaim any specific nationality, it rather invited "anyone who feels Macedonian", whether Greek, Slav or Jew to join together. However, the majority of its followers were Slavophones.

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 Kingdom of Yugoslavia), and was sometimes termed "southern Serbia", and, together with a large portion of today's southern Serbia, it belonged officially to the newly formed Vardar banovina (district). An intense program of "Serbianization" was implemented during the 1920s and 1930s when Belgrade enforced a Serbian cultural assimilation process on the region. Between the world wars in Serbia, Macedonian dialects were treated as a Serbian dialects (UCLA Language Material Sources, Only the literary Serbian language 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, [http://www.lmp.ucla.edu/).

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 Canada, Australia, USA and eastern European countries like Bulgaria . The Greek names for some traditionally Slavic or Turkish speaking areas became official and the Slavic speakers were encouraged to change their Slavic surnames to Greek sounding surnames, e.g. Nachev becoming Natsulis. A similar procedure was applied to Greek names in Bulgaria and Serbian Macedonia (eg. Nevrokopi becoming Goce Delchev In Greece, there was a government sponsored process of Hellenization [http://www.hrw.org/reports/pdfs/g/greece/greece945.pdf. Many of the border villages were closed to outsiders, ostensibly for security reasons. The Greek government and people have never recognized the existence of a distinct "Macedonian" ethnic group, as the term "Macedonian" is already reserved for the ethnic Greek population that has traditionally inhabited Greece's northern-most region (Macedonia (Greece)).

On August 10, 1920, upon signing the Treaty of Sèvres that "measures were being taken towards the opening of schools with instruction in the Slav language in the following school year of 1925/26". Thus, the primer intended for the "Slav-speaking minority" children in Greek Macedonia to learn their native language in school, entitled "ABECEDAR" ^*" target="_blank" >was offered as an argument in support of this statement. This primer, prepared by a special government commissioner was published by the Greek government in Athens in 1925, but was printed in a specially adapted Latin alphabet instead of the traditional Cyrillic, since Cyrillic was the official alphabet of neighboring Bulgaria and Serbia. After fears from Serbia and Bulgaria that the minorities in their countries might demand the same rights, the Abecedar schoolbooks were confiscated and destroyed before they got into the reach of the children [http://www.hrw.org/reports/pdfs/g/greece/greece945.pdf HRW pg.42.

Second World War

During Second World War (1941-1945), some inhabitants of Vardar Macedonia took part in the anti-fascist coalition. The uprising began in 1941 in the cities of Prilep and Kumanovo. In Greece, it has been estimated that the military wing of KKE – DSE (Democratic Army of Greece) had 14 000 soldiers of Slavic Macedonian origin out of total 20 000 fighters. Given their important role, the KKE’s General Secretary Nikolaos Zachariadis proceeded to change his party’s policy on Greek Macedonia. At the fifth Plenum on 31 January 1949, a resolution was passed claiming that the Macedonian people are distinguishing themselves, and that after the liberation they will find their national restoration as they wish it. In August 1949 the DSE was defeated in Grammos and Vitsi. Greece in the Twentieth Century, Page 144, by Theodore A. (EDT) Couloumbis, Theodore (EDT) Kariotis, Fotini (EDT) Bellou, ISBN 0714654078

Macedonians after the Second World War

The People’s Republic of Macedonia was proclaimed at the first session of the Antifascist Assembly for the People’s Liberation of Macedonia (on St. Elia's Day – August 2, 1944). Later, by special Act, it became a constitutive part of the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia. In the next 50 years Republic of Macedonia was part of the Yugoslav federation. 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 Chetniks, who were, until midway through the war, the West's favorite rebels in Serbia.. Although the inhabitants of Vardar Macedonia initially supported the Ivan Mihailov led Bulgarian occupation as "liberators from the Serbian occupation",Mahon, M., "The Macedonian question in Bulgaria". Nations and Nationalism, volume 4, 1998, pp. 389-407. 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 and mutually intelligible with 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 recognized 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 1940s that the policy of Bulgarisation during the Bulgarian occupation (1941 - 1944) was as abhorrent for the ordinary Macedonian as the policy of Serbisation until then. IMRO's leader in exile, Ivan Mihailov, and the renewed Bulgarian IMRO after 1990 have, on the other hand, repeatedly argued that between 120,000 and 130,000 people went through the concentration camps of Idrizovo and Goli Otok for pro-Bulgarian sympathies or ideas for independent Macedonia in the late 1940s., which has also been confirmed by former prime minister Ljubčo Georgievski The critics of these claims question the number as it would implied roughly a third of the male Christian population at that time; and the reasons of imprisonment, they argue, were multiple as there were Macedonian nationalists, Stalinists, Middle class members, Albanian nationalists and everybody else who was either against the post war regime or denounced as one for whatever reasons. Unlike the time before WWII, when Macedonia was hotbed for unrest and terror and about 60% of the entire royal Yugoslav police force was stationed there ^*," target="_blank" >after the war there were no signs of disturbances comparable with pre-war times or post war times in other parts of former Yugoslavia, such as Croatia, Bosnia and Serbia. ^*" target="_blank" >[http://www.pavelicpapers.com/documents/ratline/index.html. Whatever the truth, it was certainly the case that most Macedonians embraced their official recognition as a separate nationality. Even so, some pro-Bulgarian or pro-Serbian sentiment persisted despite government suppression; even as late as 1991, 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 Second Balkan War when Bulgaria and Greece mutually exchanged their populations (1913), and secondly in 1923 as a result of the population exchange with the new Turkish republic that followed the Greek military defeat in Asia minor. After the Second World War many of the slavophone Macedonians who lived in Greece either chose to emigrate to Communist countries (especially Yugoslavia) to avoid prosecution for fighting on the side of the Greek communists (see: Greek Civil War), 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, recognizes 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 recognized 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 1940s. In 1946, the population of Blagoevgrad Province was declared Macedonian and teachers were brought in from Yugoslavia to teach the Macedonian language. The census of 1946 was accompanied by mass repressions, the result of which was the complete destruction of the local organizations of the Internal Macedonian Revolutionary Organization and mass internments of people at the Belene concentration camp. The policy was reverted at the end of the 1950s and later Bulgarian governments argued that the two censuses of 1946 and 1956 which recorded up to 187,789 Macedonians (of whom over 95% were said to live in Blagoevgrad Province, also called Pirin Macedonia) were the result of pressure from Moscow. ^* Western governments, however, continued to list the population of Blagoevgrad Province as Macedonian until the beginning of the 1990s 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 2005 by the European Court of Human Rights with a judgment whereby Bulgaria was sentenced to pay damages amounting to 6800 euros 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 judgment was passed against Greece for also violating Article 11 in regards of the members of the Greek far left Rainbow party, also the registered political party of the slavophone Macedonians living in Greece.

Symbols

Image:Grb.gif|The official Coat of Arms Image: Flag of Macedonia.svg|The flag of the Republic of Macedonia

Sun: The official flag of the Republic of Macedonia, adopted in 1995, is a yellow sun with eight broadening rays extending to the edges of the red field.
Coat of Arms: After independence in 1992, the Republic of Macedonia retained the coat of arms adopted in 1946 by the People's Assembly of the People's Republic of Macedonia on its second extraordinary session held on July 27, 1946, later on altered by article 8 of the Constitution of the Socialist Federal Republic of Macedonia. The coat-of-arms is composed by a double bent garland of ears of wheat, tobacco and poppy, tied by a ribbon with the embroidery of a traditional folk costume. In the center of such a circular room there are mountains, rivers, lakes and the sun; where the ears join there is a red five-pointed star, a traditional symbol of Communism. All this is said to represent "the richness of our country, our struggle, and our freedom".

Image: Hti.02.pic.jpg|Historic Macedonian Coat of Arms Image:Flag of Macedonia 1991-95.svg|The Vergina Sun

Lion: The lion first appears in 1595 in the Korenich-Neorich coat of arms, where the coat of arms of Macedonia is included among with those of eleven other countries. On the coat of arms is a crown, inside a yellow crowned lion is depicted standing rampant, on a red background. On the bottom enclosed in a red and yellow border is written "Macedonia". Later versions of these coat of arms include a more detailed crown and lion with the word "Macedonia" written in a scroll like style. These coat of arms have also been adopted as the official emblem of VMRO-DPMNE, a Macedonian political party. Initially, it was adopted as a state symbol by Bulgaria.

Former official symbols

The flag of the former Yugoslav Federal Republic of Macedonia (1945-1991)
Sun: (official flag, 1992-1995) The Vergina Sun is occasionally used to represent the Macedonian people by the diaspora through associations and cultural groups. The Vergina Sun is believed to have been associated with ancient Macedonian kings such as Alexander the Great and Philip II. The symbol was discovered in the Greek region of Macedonia and Greeks regard it as an exclusively Greek symbol, unrelated to Slavic cultures and it is copyrighted under WIPO as a State Emblem of Greece The Vergina sun on a red field was the first flag of the independent Republic of Macedonia, until it was removed from the state flag under an agreement reached between the Republic of Macedonia and Greece in September 1995. Nevertheless, the Vergina sun is still used [http://heraldry.mol.com.mk/macedonian_symbols.htm unofficially as a national symbol by some groups in the country along with the new state flag.

References

Keith Brown, The Past in Question: Modern Macedonia and the Uncertainties of Nation, Princeton University Press, 2003. ISBN 0691099952.
Jane K. Cowan (ed.), Macedonia: The Politics of Identity and Difference, Pluto Press, 2000. A collection of articles.
Loring M. Danforth, The Macedonian Conflict: Ethnic Nationalism in a Transnational World, Princeton University Press, 1995. ISBN 0691043566.
Anastasia N. Karakasidou, Fields of Wheat, Hills of Blood: Passages to Nationhood in Greek Macedonia, 1870-1990, University Of Chicago Press, 1997, ISBN 0226424944. Reviewed in Journal of Modern Greek Studies 18:2 (2000), p465.
Peter Mackridge, Eleni Yannakakis (eds.), Ourselves and Others : The Development of a Greek Macedonian Cultural Identity since 1912, Berg Publishers, 1997, ISBN 1859731384.
Hugh Poulton, Who Are the Macedonians?, Indiana University Press, 2nd ed., 2000. ISBN 0253213592.
Victor Roudometof, Collective Memory, National Identity, and Ethnic Conflict: Greece, Bulgaria, and the Macedonian Question, Praeger Publishers, 2002. ISBN 0275976483.
Τάσος Κωστόπουλος, Η απαγορευμένη γλώσσα: Η κρατική καταστολή των σλαβικών διαλέκτων στην ελληνική Μακεδονία σε όλη τη διάρκεια του 20ού αιώνα (εκδ. Μαύρη Λίστα, Αθήνα 2000). Kostopoulos, The forbidden language: state suppression of the Slavic dialects in Greek Macedonia through the 20th century, Athens: Black List, 2000

Notes

External links

macedonia.org, a site representing the views of the Macedonians
Online Journal on Macedonian History and Culture, including relevant sources, documents and texts, pro-Macedonian
faq.macedonia.org Macedonians In Greece, pro-Macedonian
History of Macedonia according to Macedonians
New Balkan Politics - Journal of Politics
Macedonians in the UK

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