Macedonian nationalism

During the first half of the second millennium, the concept of Macedonia on the Balkans was associated by the Byzantines with their Macedonian province, centered around Adrianople in modern-day Turkey. After the conquest of the Balkans by the Ottomans in the late 14th and early 15th century, the Greek name Macedonia disappeared as a geographical designation for several centuries. The central and northern areas of modern Macedonia were often called "Bulgaria" or "Lower Moesia" during Ottoman rule. The name "Macedonia" was rediscovered during the Renaissance by western researchers, who introduced ancient Greek geographical names in their work, although used in a rather loose manner. After the Greek War of Independence, these names were gradually replaced by "Macedonia". The background of the modern designation Macedonian can be found in the 19th century, as well as the myth of "ancient Macedonian descent" among the Orthodox Slavs in the area, adopted mainly due to Greek cultural inputs. However, Greek education was not the only engine for such ideas. During the early modern era, some Dalmatian pan-Slavic ideologists like Mavro Orbini believed the ancient Macedonians were Slavs. Under these influences in the 19th century some intellectuals in the region developed the idea on direct link between the local Slavs, the early Slavs and the ancient Balkan populations. Also, the local Slavs considered themselves as "Rum", i.e. members of the community of Orthodox Christians. This community was a source of identity for all the ethnic groups inside it and most people identified mostly with it. At that time, the Orthodox Christian community began to degrade with the continuous identification of the religious creed with ethnic identity, while Bulgarian national activists started a debate on the establishment of their separate Orthodox church. Until the middle of the 19th century, the Greeks also called the Slavs in Macedonia "Bulgarians", and regarded them predominantly as Orthodox brethren, but the rise of Bulgarian nationalism changed the Greek position. As a result, massive Greek religious and school propaganda occurred, and a process of Hellenization was implemented among the Slavic-speaking population of the area. The very name Macedonia, revived during the early 19th century after the foundation of the modern Greek state, with its Western Europe-derived obsession with Ancient Greece, was applied to the local Slavs, which led to some "Macedonization" among Slavic-speaking population of the area. In 1845, the Alexander Romance was published in the Slavic Macedonian dialect typed with Greek letters. At the same time, the Russian ethnographer Victor Grigorovich described a recent change in the title of the Greek Patriarchist bishop of Bitola: from Exarch of all Bulgaria to Exarch of all Macedonia. He also noted the unusual popularity of Alexander the Great and that it appeared to be something that was recently instilled on the local Slavs. Macedonian Slavic intellectuals, such as Konstantin Miladinov, continued to call their land Western Bulgaria and worried that use of the new Macedonian name would imply identification with the Greek nation. Since the 1850s, some Slavic intellectuals from the area adopted the designation Macedonian as a regional label, and it began to gain popularity. According to Kuzman Shapkarev in 1888, as a result of outsiders' activity, the Slavs in Macedonia had started to use the ancient designation Macedonians alongside the traditional one Bulgarians by the 1870s. However, Shapkarev wrote that the name "Macedonians" had been "imposed on them by outsiders", and that the Slavs in Macedonia were using the designation "Bulgarians" as peculiarly theirs. The term "Slav Macedonian" was widely popularized by the Greeks since the 1890s to draw a distinction from the Bulgarian church, nation and state, as well as to bring Slavs closer to the Greeks through a connection with the ancient Macedonians. Per historian Alexander Maxwell, national sentiments existed mostly among the intelligentsia, while the peasantry was not involved in national debates as they were meaningless to their concern, at the end of the 19th century. In the early 20th century, Pavel Shatev witnessed this process of slow differentiation, describing people who insisted on their Bulgarian nationality, but felt themselves Macedonians above all. During the interwar period, in the Kingdom of Yugoslavia ruled Vardar Macedonia, in the context of the Serbianization policy of the local Slavs, the name Macedonia was scorned, and the name South Serbia was imposed, while some also used simply South or Povardarie (after the Vardar river) as neutral names. According to academic Duncan M. Perry, the name change to Yugoslavia in 1929 by king Alexander was done intentionally to subvert Macedonian consciousness and to foster a common Yugoslav identity. In the 1920s, Serbian army officer Panta Radosavljević argued that the locals identifying as Macedonians were a result of Bulgarian propaganda and manipulation in his attempt to demonstrate the Serbian character of Vardar Macedonia. When the anthropologist Keith Brown visited the Republic of Macedonia (now North Macedonia) at the eve of the 21st century, he discovered that the local Aromanians, who also call themselves Macedonians, still label the ethnic Macedonians, and their eastern neighbors as "Bulgarians". The term "Macedonism" was first used in a derogatory manner by Petko Slaveykov in 1871, when he dismissed Macedonian nationalists as "Macedonists". The term is used in Bulgaria in a derogatory manner, to discredit the existence of the Macedonian national identity. For Bulgarian historians, Macedonism is widely seen as a Greater Serbian aspiration, aiming to split the Bulgarian people on anti-Bulgarian grounds. If someone identifies as Macedonian, this is because a Serbian chauvinist strategy has manipulated them in the past. Thus the Macedonian nation is explicitly rejected as a denationalizing product of Serbian propaganda. ==History==

Late 19th century and early 20th century , a figure of the movement who endorsed the concept of an ethnic Macedonian identity. '', published in Sofia in 1903 by Krste Petkov Misirkov. translated into Slavic Macedonian by the Greek nationalist Athanasios Souliotis (Megali Idea advocates) in 1907 and issued in Thessaloniki. on the basis of an earlier publication in the newspaper Macedonian Voice by the Saint Petersburg Macedonian Colony, the map was part of the Memorandum of Independence of Macedonia in 1913. Per historian Raymond Detrez: "Indeed, until the 1860s, as there are no documents or inscriptions mentioning the Macedonians as a separate ethnic group, all Slavs in Macedonia used to call themselves "Bulgarians". In the 1870s, the region of Macedonia became the object of competition by rival nationalisms, initially Greek nationalists, Serbian nationalists and Bulgarian nationalists each made claims about the Slavic-speaking population as being ethnically linked to their nation and asserted the right to seek their integration. Rival nationalisms used religious and educational institutions to tie the population to their respective national cause by means of intense propaganda campaigns, so that the territorial claims over Macedonia can be validated. The first documented assertions of Macedonian nationalism arose in the second half of the 19th century. Furthermore, they believed that the Bulgarian Exarchate is as oppressive as the Greek Patriarchate in terms of local ecclesiastic and scholarly matters. In a letter written to the Bulgarian Exarch in February 1874, Slaveykov reports that discontent with the current situation "has given birth among local patriots to the disastrous idea of working independently on the advancement of their own local dialect and what’s more, of their own, separate Macedonian church leadership." The origins of the definition of an ethnic Macedonian identity arose from the writings of Gjorgjija Pulevski in the 1870s and 1880s, who identified the existence of a distinct "Slavic Macedonian" language and expressed the idea that the Macedonians were a distinct people. Pulevski analyzed the folk histories of the Slavic Macedonian people, in which he concluded that Slavic Macedonians were ethnically linked to the people of the ancient Kingdom of Macedonia of Philip II and Alexander the Great, based on the claim that ancient Macedonians were Slavic, and modern-day Slavic Macedonians were their descendants. The Macedonian myth of Alexander the Great appeared in two documents related to the Kresna Uprising in 1878, whose authenticity is disputed by Bulgarian historians. In one of them the revolutionaries, including Pulevski himself, saw themselves as heirs of the army of Alexander of Macedon and were prepared to shed their blood as he once did. Drawing on the same arguments, some earlier Bulgarian "revivalists" claimed that the ancient Macedonians were Bulgarians. Pulevski viewed Macedonians' identity as being a regional phenomenon (similar to Herzegovinians and Thracians). Once calling himself a "Serbian patriot", another time a "Bulgarian from the village of Galicnik", he also identified the Slavic Macedonian language as being related to the "Old Bulgarian language" as well as being a "Serbo-Albanian language". Pulevski's numerous identifications reveal the absence of a clear ethnic sense in a part of the local Slavic population. Some of the first Macedonists were educated in Serbia or under Serbian cultural influence, such as Naum Evro(vić), Kosta Grupče(vić), Temko Popov(ić) and Vasil(ije) Karajovov(ić), who established the Secret Macedonian Committee in 1886. It advocated for things repeated by other early Macedonian nationalists, such as re-establishment of the Archbishopric of Ohrid, creation of schools where Macedonian would be taught, the publication of a Macedonian newspaper against Bulgarian influence in Constantinople. In 1888, in a letter to the Serbian minister of education in Belgrade, Serbian diplomat Stojan Novaković suggested promoting Macedonism among the Ottoman Macedonian Slavs to counter Bulgarian influence in Macedonia and to gradually Serbianize the Macedonian Slavs. Macedonism had some support from the Serbian government which considered it a tool in the fight against Bulgarian influence in Macedonia, however, it was not significant. Other proponents of Macedonian nationalism were Stefan Dedov and Dijamandija Mišajkov. and after 1870 joined the Bulgarian Exarchate. Per John Van Antwerp Fine, from the 9th century until the late 19th century, the outside observers and those Slavic Macedonians who had clear ethnic consciousness, believed they were Bulgarians. As seen by observers, the affiliation of Macedonian Slavs to different national camps was not belonging to an ethnic group, but rather political and flexible option. Per historian Barbara Jelavich, it is possible to argue that the Macedonian Slavs formed a separate nationality. It devised the slogan "Macedonia for the Macedonians" and called for a supranational Macedonia, consisting of different nationalities. The IMRO initially opposed being dependent on any of the neighboring states, and especially tried to hold back the influence of Greece and Serbia in the area. However, its relationship with Bulgaria was more ambiguous, but there was a faction which firmly opposed any annexation from Bulgaria. In this period, he thought that there was an ethnic difference between Macedonians and their Orthodox Christian neighbors. Macedonism was connected with the philologist and teacher Krste Misirkov and Dimitrija Čupovski. The intellectual center of the movement was the Macedonian Scientific and Literary Society in Saint Petersburg in the Russian Empire. In the book, Misirkov advocated for affirmation of the Macedonians as a separate people. Misirkov considered that the term "Macedonian" should be used to define the whole Slavic population of Macedonia, obliterating the existing division between Greeks, Bulgarians and Serbians. The adoption of a separate Macedonian language was also advocated and he outlined an overview of the Macedonian grammar and expressed the ultimate goal of codifying the language and using it as the language of instruction in the education system. The book was written in the dialect of central Macedonia (Veles-Prilep-Bitola-Ohrid) which was proposed by Misirkov as the basis for the future language, and, as he wrote, a dialect which is most different from all other neighboring languages (Bulgarian and Serbian). During the 1913/1914 period, Čupovski published the newspaper Macedonian Voice in Russian in which he and fellow members of the Petersburg Macedonian Colony propagandized the existence of a separate Macedonian people different from Greeks, Bulgarians and Serbs, and sought to popularize the idea for an independent Macedonian state. Some of its articles were written by Krste Misirkov. At the beginning of the 20th century, Macedonism was marginal and had very little influence among the Slavs in Macedonia. In the late 19th and early 20th century the international community viewed the Macedonian Slavs predominantly as a regional variety of the Bulgarians. Balkan Wars and First World War , depicting "Macedonian Slavs" in shades of brown, distinct from Bulgarians and Serbs. The western parts of Bulgaria and northeastern Macedonia are shown as populated by Serbs. In this way, he promoted the idea that Macedonians were in fact Southern Serbs. During the Balkan Wars and the First World War, the area was exchanged several times between Bulgaria and Serbia. The IMARO supported the Bulgarian army and authorities when they took temporary control over Vardar Macedonia. During this period, the political autonomism was abandoned as a tactic, and annexation by Bulgaria was supported. On the other hand, Serbian authorities put pressure on local people to declare themselves Serbs: they disbanded local governments, established by IMARO in Ohrid, Veles and other cities and persecuted Bulgarian Exarchist priests and teachers, forcing them to flee and replacing them with Serbians. Serbian troops enforced a policy of disarming the local militia, accompanied by beatings and threats. After the Balkan Wars (1912–1913), Ottoman Macedonia was mostly divided between Greece and Serbia, which began a process of Hellenization and Serbianization of the Slavic population. Identical policies of forced assimilation of the Macedonian Slavs were implemented by the Bulgarian authorities during the First World War. The wars arguably even reinforced the rival Macedonian and Bulgarian narratives of national consciousness in the region, the first one consequently being adopted in the interwar period by the left wing of IMARO. At the end of the First World War, there were very few ethnographers and historians who agreed that a separate Macedonian nation existed. During the Paris Peace Conference of 1919, the Allies sanctioned Serbian control of Vardar Macedonia and accepted the belief that Macedonian Slavs were in fact Southern Serbs. This change in opinion can largely be attributed to the Serbian geographer Jovan Cvijić. In that period, the government abandoned the failed policy of Macedonism. Despite the repressive Serbianization policy during the interwar period in Vardar Macedonia, national consciousness was seemingly growing. Macedonian national ideas increased during the interbellum in Yugoslav Vardar Macedonia and among the leftist diaspora in Bulgaria. On 3 July 1928, the Czechoslovak consul in Skopje, Vladimír Znojemský, wrote to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs that the Macedonian Slavic population is neither Bulgarian, nor Serbian, but mostly without any clear national consciousness. As a result, Macedonism gained support from the communist parties of Yugoslavia, Greece and Bulgaria. Yugoslav, Bulgarian and Greek communists promoted the Macedonian national identity. In the interwar period, Bulgarian communism was crucial in the development and the international legitimization of Macedonian nationalism. The communist circles that made the first drafts of the Macedonian historiographical narrative were mostly affiliated with the Bulgarian Communist Party, as well as with international communism. Macedonian nationalism flourished in the Macedonian Literary Circle in Sofia, which was affiliated with the Bulgarian Communist Party. Its members were tasked with creating Macedonian literature, researching the Macedonian history and the folklore, although many of them were able to write only in Bulgarian. from 1940. Macedonians are depicted as a separate community, and described as claimed by Serbs and Bulgarians, but generally attributed to the last ones. During the Second World War, the area was annexed by Bulgaria and pro-Bulgarian feelings among the local population prevailed as a result of the previous oppressive Serbian rule. Thus, Vardar Macedonia remained the only region where Yugoslav communist leader Josip Broz Tito had not developed a strong partisan movement in 1941, because the population feared re-establishment of the oppressive Serbian rule. In order to enforce the Bulgarization campaign over the Slavs, the new provinces were quickly staffed with officials from Bulgaria proper who behaved with typical official arrogance to the local inhabitants. The wartime Bulgarization policies, national chauvinism and suffering backlash generated sizeable support for the Yugoslav Partisans, and caused even the anti-Yugoslav Macedonians that returned from exile to seek allies among the communists. Their power started to grow after Tito ordered the establishment of the Communist Party of Macedonia in March 1943 and the second AVNOJ congress on 29 November 1943 did recognize the Macedonian nation as separate entity. Harsh treatment by occupying Bulgarian troops reduced the pro-Bulgarian orientation of the Macedonian Slavs even more which made them embrace the emerging Macedonian identity. The Communist Party of Macedonia stressed that the struggle is not for the restoration of the old Yugoslavia, but above all for the liberation and unification of Macedonia and a new federal union of Yugoslav peoples with an extension of its prewar territory. Thus attracting more and more young Macedonians to the armed resistance. The communists' power started further to grow with the capitulation of Italy and the Soviet victories over Nazi Germany in 1943. Thousands of partisans in Yugoslav Macedonia accepted the Macedonian national cause. According to Alexander Maxwell, by 1945 an "ethnic Macedonian nationalism" incompatible with Bulgarian sentiments existed. Some observers argued that by the end of the war, it was doubtful whether the Macedonian Slavs considered themselves as separate from the Bulgarians. The region received the status of a constituent republic within Yugoslavia and in 1945, a separate Macedonian language was codified. The population was proclaimed to be ethnic Macedonian, different from both Serbs and Bulgarians, in that way the Bulgarian irredentism towards Yugoslav Macedonia was subverted, as well the claims that Macedonians are Bulgarians were denied, the same applying to the Serbian claims that Macedonians were Serbs, and their Greater Serbian idea that had dominated interwar Yugoslavia. The overwhelming majority of the Slavic population in Macedonia accepted the new Macedonian national identity without a problem. With the proclamation of the Socialist Republic of Macedonia as part of the Yugoslav federation, the new authorities also enforced measures that would overcome the pro-Bulgarian feeling among parts of its population. The establishment of the Macedonian republic inspired strong loyalty to the Yugoslav federation among the Macedonians. Per historian Evangelos Kofos, Macedonian nationalism became SR Macedonia's dominant nationalist ideology, aimed at transforming the Slavic and, to a certain extent, non-Slavic parts of its population into ethnic Macedonians. According to political scientist Dimitar Bechev, Macedonism was the dominant national ideology among the Slavs in SR Macedonia. As a multi-national state, the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia mostly suppressed the national sentiments of its constituent republics to preserve its existence. To maintain good relations among its republics, as well as between the country and its neighbors in the Balkans, particularly Bulgaria and Greece, the Yugoslav federal government strictly limited the expression of Macedonian nationalism. As a result of the policy with Yugoslavia, when the relations between Bulgaria and Yugoslavia were good, there was an attempt to spread Macedonism and the Macedonian national consciousness to Pirin Macedonia. The Bulgarian Communist Party supported Macedonism in Pirin Macedonia. Schools using Macedonian were opened in 1946 in Pirin Macedonia. Macedonian history, language and literature were introduced as compulsory subjects in 1947. Teachers from SR Macedonia came to teach literary Macedonian. A Macedonian national theater was opened in Gorna Dzhumaya, as well as the first Macedonian library and bookstore. Branches were also opened in Nevrokop, Sveti Vrach and Petrich. Macedonian newspapers and books started to be printed in literary Macedonian. Despite the policy, the majority of the population considered itself as Bulgarian. This put an end to the idea of a Balkan Communist Federation. During the post-Informbiro period, a separate Macedonian Orthodox Church was established, splitting off from the Serbian Orthodox Church in 1967. The encouragement and evolution of the culture of the Republic of Macedonia has had a far greater and more permanent impact on Macedonian nationalism than has any other aspect of Yugoslav policy. While the development of national music, films and graphic arts had been encouraged in the Socialist Republic of Macedonia, the greatest cultural effect came from the codification of the Macedonian language and literature, the new Macedonian national interpretation of history and the establishment of a Macedonian Orthodox Church. Most Macedonians' attitude to Communist Yugoslavia, where they were recognized as a distinct nation for the first time, became positive. In the 1980s, a Macedonian nationalism (Macedonism) that claimed ancient Macedonia and Alexander the Great emerged in SR Macedonia and the Macedonian diaspora. In 1989, the Yugoslav Macedonian authorities revised the state's constitution so that SR Macedonia was defined as a "nation-state of Macedonian people" instead of "a state of the Macedonian people and the Albanian and Turkish minorities". These authorities had concerns about Albanian nationalism and the possible breakup of Yugoslavia, which was expressed in a more aggressive Macedonian nationalism, from them and nationalists in new political groups like VMRO-DPMNE. Post-independence period from 1992 to 1995 on the Macedonia Square in Skopje. On 8 September 1991, the Socialist Republic of Macedonia held a referendum that established its independence from Yugoslavia. Bulgaria contested the country's national identity and language, Greece contested its name and symbols, and Serbia contested its religious identity. On the other hand, the ethnic Albanians in the country insisted on being recognized as a nation, equal to the ethnic Macedonians. In the 1990s, Macedonian nationalism was weak as ethnic Macedonians were led by moderates. Macedonian nationalism was divided between maximalists and minimalists. Maximalists wanted to include "all Macedonians" (including those outside the borders of the country) into the new Macedonian state. Minimalists wanted to preserve the existing state in such a way that ethnic Macedonians would be treated as the only political nation in it, with Albanians as a minority. VMRO-DPMNE promoted Macedonian nationalism at the expense of the inclusion of the local Albanians as equal partners in the new state. The Macedonian nationalists of the party wanted to define the new state as the "national state of the Macedonian people". On the other hand, moderate Macedonians and Albanians wanted to define it as a civil state for all of its citizens. In its more extreme forms, Macedonian nationalism advocates for United Macedonia. Bell referred to: In the 2000s, the concept of ancient Paionian identity was changed to a kind of mixed Paionian-Macedonian identity which was later transformed to a separate ancient Macedonian identity, establishing a direct link to the modern ethnic Macedonians. After the Greek veto on the 21st NATO Summit in 2008, the nationalist ruling party VMRO-DPMNE pursued the so-called "antiquization" policy, as a way of putting pressure on Greece, as well as for the purposes of domestic identity-building. The extreme Macedonian nationalist position is that the ethnic Macedonians are not descendants of the Slavs, but of the ancient Macedonians, who, according to them, were not Greeks. Moderate Macedonians dispute this claim. Some members of the Macedonian diaspora even believed, without basis, that certain modern historians, namely Ernst Badian, Peter Green, and Eugene Borza, possessed a pro-Macedonian bias in the Macedonian-Greek conflict, although per Borza they did share certain similarities in their views. As part of this policy, statues of Alexander the Great and Philip II of Macedon have been built in several cities across the country.) was inaugurated in Macedonia Square in Skopje, as part of the Skopje 2014 remodelling of the city. Statues of Alexander are also on display in the town squares of Prilep and Štip, while a statue to Philip II of Macedon was built in Bitola. In 2008, a visit by Hunza Prince was organized in the Republic of Macedonia. The Hunza people of Northern Pakistan trace their descent to the army of Alexander the Great. The Hunza delegation led by Mir Ghazanfar Ali Khan was welcomed at the Skopje Airport by the country's prime minister Nikola Gruevski, the head of the Macedonian Orthodox Church Archbishop Stephen and the mayor of Skopje, Trifun Kostovski. Antiquization was criticized by academics as it demonstrates feebleness of archaeology and of other historical disciplines in public discourse, as well as a danger of marginalization. On 27 April 2017, about 200 Macedonian nationalists (some of whom were sympathizers of VMRO-DPMNE) stormed the Macedonian Parliament in reaction to the election of Talat Xhaferi, an ethnic Albanian and a former NLA commander, as Speaker of the Assembly of the Republic of Macedonia. In August 2017, the consul of the Republic of Macedonia to Canada attended a nationalist Macedonian event in Toronto and delivered a speech against the backdrop of an irredentist map of Greater Macedonia. This triggered strong protests from the Greek side, which regarded this as a sign that irredentism remained the dominant state ideology and everyday political practice in the neighboring country. Following strong diplomatic protests, however, the Foreign Ministry of the Republic of Macedonia condemned the incident and recalled its diplomat back to Skopje for consultations. VMRO-DPMNE, as the main nationalist party in North Macedonia has been accused of fostering "Bulgarophobia" as a distinct anti-Bulgarian sentiment—through political discourse, hindering country's EU integration. Critics, argue the party uses anti-Bulgarian rhetoric to mobilize voters, complicating disputes over historical narratives and identity. The VMRO-DPMNE-led government (as of 2024) is accused also of accelerating the "Serbian world" influence, undermining EU integration, and threatening sovereignty. This influence is exerted through political alliances, media, and economic initiatives, including appointing pro-Serbian figures to top positions. ==See also==