Same Vaknin on Goce Delchev

Some interesting quote and insights regarding Macedonian history circa 1900.

Macedonia to the Macedonians

Goce Delcev (Gotse Deltchev) was a teacher. He was born in 1872 in Kukush (the Bulgarian name of the town), north of Thessaloniki (Salonica, Solun, Saloniki). There is no doubt about his cultural background (as opposed to his convictions later in life) - it was Bulgarian to the core. He studied at a Bulgarian gymnasium in Saloniki. He furthered his education at a military academy in Sofia. He was a schoolteacher and a guerilla fighter and in both capacities he operated in the areas that are today North-Central Greece, Southwestern Bulgaria and the Republic of Macedonia. He felt equally comfortable in all three regions.

"Ethnic Denial is not a river in Egypt.

Macedonians are not the only ones suffering from ethnic denial. A reather long article, but interesting if you have the time.

Herzl's Butlers: Battle of Nationalists and Internationalists


(b) Ethnic Denial

In 1984, the Bulgarian communist regime forced the indigenous Turkish population to "Bulgarize" their names. The Slav minorities in the Hungarian part of the Austro-Hungarian empire were forced to "Magyarize" following the 1867 Compromise. Franco's Spain repressed demands for regional autonomy.

Other, more democratic states, fostered a sense of national unity by mass media and school indoctrination. Every facet of life was subjected to and incorporated in this relentless and unforgiving pursuit of national identity: sports, chess, national holidays, heroes, humour. The particularisms of each group gained meaning and legitimacy only through and by their incorporation in the bigger picture of the nation. Thus, Greece denies to this very day that there are Turks or Macedonians on its soil. There are only Muslim Greeks, it insists (often brutally and in violation of human and civil rights). The separate identities of Brittany and Provence were submerged within the French collective one and so was the identity of the Confederate South in the current USA. Some call it "cultural genocide".

History on the struggle to establish the Macedonian Church

Nice article about Macedonianism and the Orthodox Churches in the Balkans

Oh how the Mighty Have Fallen! by Risto Stefov

With the creation of the Ecumenical Patriarchy, the Greek State, which had earlier adopted Christian Orthodoxy as its State religion, indirectly began to lay claims to all Pravoslav Churches, including those in Macedonia.

Almost immediately all churches in Macedonia were infiltrated by the agents of the Patriarch who closely but unofficially cooperated with Athens. By the early 1870's Slavonic liturgy, which at the time was covertly and illegally conducted since the abolishment of the Macedonian Church in 1767, was replaced by liturgy conducted in Koine. Besides changing the language of liturgy, the Patriarchy began to exploit its parishes to a point of poverty. The Slavonic speakers complained to the Russian authorities, who at the time had appointed themselves guardians of the Orthodox Christians in the Ottoman Empire. Pressure from Russia forced the Sultan to create another religious governing body, specifically for the Slavonic speakers, which later became known as the Exarchist Church. The Exarchy was created in 1875 at the extreme protest of the Patriarchy, which refused to recognize it. The Sultan created the Exarchy without hesitation because, in his view, the two churches would now compete against each other and not against the Turks.

Macedonian Opera Singer for World Peace

Nice honour for a Macedonian

Reality Macedonia : Macedonian Baritone Boris Trajanov Named UNESCO Artist for Peace

Koïchiro Matsuura, Director-General of UNESCO, will name Macedonian opera singer Boris Trajanov UNESCO Artist for Peace on February 24 during a ceremony at Organization Headquarters (Room I, 6.30 p.m.). Mr Trajanov will then give a recital, to be followed by a performance of folk dancing by the group Tanec. Boris Trajanov receives the honour in recognition of his commitment to “defending humanist values and promoting dialogue among cultures and civilizations.” The baritone performed in more than 550 operas in Europe, America and Africa over the past 17 years and has played more than 35 leading roles, notably in Tosca, Nabucco, Rigoletto, Macbeth, Aïda, La Traviata, Madame Butterfly, Lucia di Lammermoor.

Macedonian Jazz fans BUY THIS BOOK!

A nice book! Buy it as a present for you friends!

Reality Macedonia : New Macedonian Book in US: "The Basics of Jazz Harmony"

The Reality Macedonia team is happy to announce that a new book by a Macedonian author just hit the shelves of the world’s biggest bookstore, Amazon.com. In our opinion, the proliferation of knowledge and culture from and to Macedonia is the biggest contribution to its survival and development.

The book, "The Basics of Jazz Harmony", written by the 57-year old award-winning jazz composer, arranger, conductor and educator, Mr. Ilija Pejovski. He is a Berklee graduate from 1977 (mentored by Mr. Barrie Nettles) and he is a regular professor since 1980 in Macedonia, Greece, Switzerland, Italy

Turks in Macedonia balance between Albanians and Macedonians

Study of ethnic tensions between Turks and Albanians

balkanalysis.com - Behind the Turkish Boycott in Macedonia: Interview with Kenan Hasipi

Hasipi claims that because of the low official Turkish percentages his party was prevented in 2000 from having its members present at all relevant polling stations – something which he charges allowed the DPA to falsify election results in the 2000 local elections. He specifically mentioned two villages in the Vrapciste municipality (Toplica and Vranovce) where, he claims, DPA logged drastically incorrect numbers of voters and also engaged in ballot-stuffing so as to sway the vote their way.

ICG - Independen Kosova good, Independent Srpska Republica bad!

A Macedonian interview with the coordinator in Macedonian of the pseudo - human rights group "International Crisis Group". Painfull to read. The interviewer did not question him on ICG's position on ... you know .... Macedonians in Greece.

ICG’s Whyte: It’s Better for Macedonia if Kosovo Becomes Independent

Whyte: As you know, we've been very supportive of Macedonia on the question of the international use of the correct name of the country, and in opposing any division of Macedonia territorially between ethnic groups. Our judgment is essentially a realist one. We simply do not see a possibility of Kosovo Albanians agreeing to participate in any state structures which are connected to Belgrade. It just won't happen. The legacy of the abuse of Belgrade rule in Kosovo is simply too great. (In addition, it has to be said that Belgrade has made little effort to acknowledge its own past failure to discharge its responsibilities to its own ethnic Albanian citizens.)

Your examples are good ones - the Bosnian Serbs have been participating in the BiH state structures for almost a decade now, and the Turks never withdrew their consent from the Bulgarian state. The situations are very different. We have to ask the question, who will impose a different solution to the Kosovars? You can't say that the Kosovars are morally deficient, as you're implying...

Stevo Pendarovski on Trajkovski

I liked Trajkovski. He will be missed.

Institute for War and Peace Reporting

Trajkovski - A Leader who Crossed the Divide

The tone was typical of a man whose faith impacted strongly on his politics, urging him constantly in the direction of forgiveness even when it was not always the surest way to survive politically. Trajkovski’s political career involved taking big risks. He used all his authority to push for a peace agreement with Macedonia’s ethnic Albanian rebels. The result was the 2001 Ohrid peace deal, which paved the way for the creation of a multi-ethnic state and rescued the country from all-out war. Trajkovski taught his fellow Macedonian politicians to understand that nationalist rhetoric was not the way ahead. He introduced a new model for politicians that had hardly been seen in Macedonia. He was a real people’s man, direct, easy to approach, honest and above all human. If those attributes are now expected of all politicians, that is part of his legacy. What, then, is the rest of the legacy of a president whose political ideas will surely outlive the brief time he spent in office, and which were not always hugely popular at the time. For one thing, he put his small country on the world map. In May 2001, he prayed together with President George Bush. Alongside the most powerful man on earth, he knelt in a small chapel in the White House. This was an event that Macedonia, with a population about a fifth of New York City’s, is unlikely to witness the like of again. The same year he met Russian president Vladimir Putin three times, including a meeting in the Kremlin that ran to three times the length envisaged in the protocol.

Creeping Recognition

The headline is wrong. It is just a recommendation from a British Houxe of commons committee. Just a case of "creeping recognition".

Reality Macedonia : Britain and Other EU Partners to Recognize Macedonia's Constitutional Name

Skopje, February 23 (MIA) - The British Parliament Committee for Western Balkans recommends to the British Government to follow the United States example and recognize Macedonia's constitutional name.

The Committee recommends that the United Kingdom work in unison with Germany, France, and other EU partners to recognise Macedonia's constitutional name and to encourage Greece by an act of statesmanship to do the same, the BBC - Macedonian language program reported.

The fact that three out of the five permane

In the Old Dialect, a Balkan Region Regains Its Identity

I find the discussion of languages regarding Serbian, Croatian and Bosnian very interesting with some similarities to the Macedonian language question. If we discuss these issues from the bottom up, (is Bosnian really Serbian? ... is Bulgarian really Macedonian?) ) we will have no resolution to these issues. If we discuss them from the top down, (i.e. we all speak a language of the "South Slavic" family ... dare I say "Yugoslav family"), then we can discuss what binds us together as well as what makes our own language unique.

All together now ... Cumbya lord, Cumbya ...

Novi Pazar Journal: In the Old Dialect, a Balkan Region Regains Its Identity

February 24, 2005

By Nicholas Wood

NOVI PAZAR, Serbia and Montenegro - Ahmed Halilovic's hand shot up to reply to a question from his teacher: "Can any one tell the difference between Bosnian and Serbian?"
Looking around the classroom in the Mesha Selimovic primary school here, it seemed that Ahmed, 7, was the only one to know. The other children could be forgiven: it is a question that many adults in this largely Muslim region of Serbia are finding hard to answer as well.
Bosnian is one in a series of languages that have blossomed in former Yugoslavia since the country broke up in the early 1990's.
Before then, most Yugoslavs considered that they spoke Serbo-Croatian, a language recognized since the 19th century but with many regional differences.
Since their country fractured, their culture and language has, too. Croatia, Bosnia, and even Montenegro have all sought to reassert traditional differences and distance themselves from Serbo-Croatian, a language some felt was too heavily dominated by Serbian.
What were considered dialects until recently are now regarded as their own language. In fact, three "new" languages - possibly four, if one counts Montenegrin -