Maps, Maps and More Maps

By David Edenden

This is slightly overwrought article about the recognition of ethnic Macedonians during the 1920's , pre-Tito and pre-communism. It shows that Macedonians were recognized rather than invented as the Greek slander goes.

I can't find the exact map on the internet, but here is another German or Austrian Map that also recognizes Macedonians as a distinct ethnic group. Barack Obama and Robert Kaplan please take note.

It does not really matter since power politics is in play rather than justice.

If anyone has the name of the map that Dragan has, I will be happy to update this post.

Völker- und Sprachenkarte der Balkan-Halbinsel vor den Kriegen
1912 -1918









Austrian Map from the Past
By Ljupcho Murgoski
Dnevnik, July 9, 2008

Translated and edited by Risto Stefov

Greek census shows half a million Macedonians

Dragan Mitrevski, a resident of Prilep, is in possession of an old atlas which indicates that in 1921 in Greece there were 500,000 residents that were declared Macedonians.

In Greece in 1921, 500 thousand Macedonians were declared, who represented 8.8% of the entire population in Greece. This is recorded in a Universal atlas published in Austria which the Prilep resident Dragan Mitrevski owns. This is yet another document which proves that the Macedonians are not a tree without roots and blows away the assertions that Macedonia and the Macedonians were a Communist-International creation.

“The relevance of this document is huge considering that for years our neighbours have been insisting that there is no Macedonian minority living in their respective states. This document weighs heavily against our neighbour’s claims not only because of its existence but because it was prepared by a reputable and eminent author in an independent state,” says Dragan Mitrevski. “The universal atlas also shows that in Yugoslavia, then Serbia, there were 600 thousand Macedonians or 5% of the country’s entire population. The atlas also shows that Austria recognized Macedonians living in Bulgaria but did not show a separate count only that there was a combined population of 4 million Macedonians and Bulgarians living in Bulgaria. It is interesting to note that on the Albanian flag there is no two headed eagle, but it is red-black with a white pentagram,” says Dragan Mitrevski.

Fifteen years ago Mitrevski discovered this book by chance. He approached a person burning old books in the center of Prilep and asked if he could have some. “I have always been a collector of old books and was lucky to have found this old atlas,” says Mitrevski.

Most important about this atlas is the source it uses which comes from a census carried out in Greece on December 19, 1920. The results of that census were never officially released by Greece but there was much discussion about them because for the first time they included information on the so called “New Territories”.

In the census information included were questions like “What is your mother language?”, “What language do you speak at home?” and “If your mother tongue is not Greek, do you understand Greek?” It is sad that the Greek state only released census information on the “old territories” of Greece and not on the occupied territories (among which is 51% of Macedonia) where there is information on both language and religion.