  Prints of traditional Greek Macedonian costumes. | |
| Total population | |
|---|---|
| c. 3 to 3.5 million[dubious –discuss][1][2] | |
| Regions with significant populations | |
 Greece | c. 2.5+ million[3] |
| Languages | |
| Greek (alsoEnglish among the diaspora) | |
| Religion | |
| PredominantlyGreek Orthodox | |
| Related ethnic groups | |
| OtherGreeks | |
Macedonians (Greek:Μακεδόνες,Makedónes), also known asGreek Macedonians orMacedonian Greeks, are a regional and historical population group of ethnicGreeks, inhabiting or originating from theGreek region of Macedonia, inNorthern Greece. Most Macedonians live in or around the regional capital city ofThessaloniki and other cities and towns inMacedonia (Greece), while many have spread across Greece and in thediaspora.
The name Macedonia (Greek:Μακεδονία,Makedonía) comes from the ancient Greek wordμακεδνός (Makednos). It is commonly explained as having originally meant "a tall one" or "highlander", possibly descriptive of theMakedones.[4][5] The shorter English name variantMacedon developed in Middle English, based on a borrowing from the French form of the name,Macédoine.[6]
Greek populations have inhabited the region ofMacedonia since ancient times. Therise of Macedon, from a small kingdom at the periphery ofClassical Greek affairs, to one which came to dominate the entire Hellenic world, occurred under the reign ofPhilip II. Philip's son,Alexander the Great (356–323 BC), managed to briefly extend Macedonian power not only over the central Greek city-states, but also over the entirePersian empire which he toppled, includingEgypt, and later went on towards lands as far east as the fringes of India today Pakistan.[7] Alexander's adoption of the styles of government of the conquered territories was accompanied by the spread of Greek culture and learning through his vast empire. Although the empire fractured into multiple Hellenic regimes shortly after his death, his conquests left a lasting legacy, not least in the new Greek-speaking cities founded across Persia's western territories, heralding theHellenistic period. In the partition of Alexander's empire among theDiadochi, Macedonia fell to theAntipatrid dynasty, which was overthrown by theAntigonid dynasty after only a few years, in 294 BC.Ancient Macedonian, whether it was aGreek dialect[8][9] probably of theNorthwestern Doric group in particular,[10][11][12] as findings such asPella curse tablet indicate,[13] or a separateHellenic language,[14] was gradually replaced byAttic Greek; the latter came in use from the times ofPhilip II of Macedon and later evolved intoKoine Greek.[15]
After theRoman conquest of the Balkans, the Macedonians were an integral component of the people of theRoman province of Macedonia. Under Roman control and later in theByzantine Empire the region saw also the influx of many ethnicities (Armenians,Slavs,Aromanians etc.) that settled in the area where the ancient Macedonians lived.[citation needed] The region had also since ancient times a significantRomaniote Jew population. In the late Byzantine period much of central Macedonia was ruled by aLatin Crusader state based inThessalonica, before beingruled for a while by the rival emperorTheodore Komnenos Doukas and his descendants and subsequently re-incorporated into theByzantine Empire centred inConstantinople. The territory of western Macedonia was subsequently contested between the main powers in the region, the Byzantine Empire, theDespotate of Epirus, the rulers ofThessaly, theSerbian Empire, and theBulgarian Empire.[16]
After theOttoman conquest and towards the end of the Ottoman era, the termMacedonia came to signify a region in the north of the Greek peninsula different from theprevious Byzantine theme. In Ottoman Macedonia,Greeks,Aromanians,Slavs,Jews,Albanians andTurks lived side-by-side but in self-contained communities, while in westernMacedonia (Greece) there were sizable populations ofGreek Muslims such as theVallahades.[17] The matter of the multicultural composition of the people of Macedonia came to be known as theMacedonian Question.Thessaloniki remained the largest city where the most Macedonians resided.[17][18]
TheGreek War of Independence refers to the efforts of theGreeks to establish an independent Greek state, at the time that Greece waspart of the Ottoman Empire. The revolution was initially planned and organized through secret organizations, most notable of which theFiliki Eteria, that operated in Greece and other European regions outside theOttoman Empire. Macedonian Greeks were actively involved in those early revolutionary movements; among the first wasGrigorios Zalykis, a writer, who founded theHellenoglosso Xenodocheio, a precursor of the Filiki Eteria. Even after the end of the Greek national revolution, there were several revolts inMacedonia with all of them having as their stated aim the union of the region with theKingdom of Greece.[19]
The Greek revolution in Macedonia started inChalkidiki, where the population was almost entirely Greek.[20] On 28 May 1821, Yussuf Bey of Thessaloniki, alarmed by the danger of a general insurrection, demanded hostages from the region. At the time that his troops arrived atPolygyros, the local insurgents and monks fromMount Athos rose up and killed the Turkish voivod and his guards, compelling the Ottomans to retire to Thessaloniki. Yussuf Bey took the revenge by beheading a bishop, impaling three dignitaries while in durance and imprisoning a lot of Christians in Thessaloniki.[21] The Ottomans also turned Muslims and Jews against the Greeks, stating that the latter intended to exterminate non-Christian populations. That was the first accomplishment of the Greek side underEmmanouel Pappas, who had assumed at the time the title of "General of Macedonia"; he managed to capture Chalkidiki and threaten Thessaloniki but, in June, the Greek forces retreated fromVasilika and were finally superseded.[22] Letters from the period show Pappas either being addressed or signing himself as "Leader and Defender of Macedonia" and is today considered a Greek hero along with the unnamed Macedonians that fought with him.[23] The revolution in Chalkidiki ended on 27 December, with the submission of Mount Athos to the Ottomans.[24]
While conflicts endured for some time in Macedonia, such as the one inNaousa with notable figures beingAnastasios Karatasos,Aggelis Gatsos andZafeirakis Theodosiou, it was the defeat of Pappas that was the turning point in the oppression of the Macedonian revolt in the Greek War of Independence at the time.[25] While the revolution led to the establishment of the independent modern Greek state in the south, which earned international recognition in 1832, Greek resistance movements continued to operate in the territories that remained under Ottoman control, including Macedonia as well asThessaly,Epirus andCrete.[26] Events of the Russo-TurkishCrimean War in 1854 ignited a new Macedonian revolt that was spawned in Chalkidiki. One of the prime instigators of the revolt wasDimitrios Karatasos, son of Anastasios Karatasos, better known as Tsamis Karatasos or Yero Tsamis.[27][28] The insurrections of the Macedonian Greeks had the support of KingOtto of Greece, who thought that liberation of Macedonia and other parts of Greece was possible, hoping on Russian support. The revolt however failed in its part having deteriorated the Greco-Turkish relations for the years to come.[29]
The1878 revolt was prepared from both the Greek government and the leading Macedonian revolutionaries and took place in southern Macedonia, with large numbers of people from Greek andVlach (Aromanian andMegleno-Romanian) communities taking part.[19] In the same year thePrincipality of Bulgaria was established, which along with theBulgarian Exarchate started to wield on theSlavic-speaking populations of Macedonia, with the foundation of Bulgarian schools and the affiliation of local churches to the Exarchate; Greek, Serbian and Romanian schools were also founded in several parts. After Greece's defeat in the1897 Greco-Turkish War, further Bulgarian involvement was encouraged in Macedonian affairs and their bands invaded the region, terrorizing populations of Greek consciousness.[30]
On the eve of the 20th century, Greek Macedonians were a minority population in a number of areas inside the multiethnic region ofMacedonia, more so away from the coast. They lived alongsideSlavic-speaking populations, most of whom had come to be identified asBulgarians,[31][32][33] and other ethnicities such asJews,Turks andAlbanians. However, the Greek speakers were the predominant population in the southern zone of the region which comprised two-thirds of modernGreek Macedonia. Bulgarian actions to exploit the Bulgarian population of Macedonia with the foundation of theInternal Macedonian Revolutionary Organization and the influence of theBulgarian Exarchate on the region, led to theIlinden Uprising which was shut down byOttoman forces; these events provoked Greece to help the Macedonians to resist both Ottoman and Bulgarian forces, by sending military officers who formed bands made up of Macedonians and other Greek volunteers, something that resulted in theMacedonian Struggle from 1904 to 1908, which ended with theYoung Turk Revolution.[34][35] According to the 1904 census, conducted byHüseyin Hilmi Pasha for the Ottoman authorities, the Greeks were the predominant population in the vilayets ofThessaloniki andMonastir, outnumbered in thevilayet of Kosovo by the Bulgarians who formed the majority.[36]
During theBalkan Wars,Thessaloniki became the prize city for the struggling parties, Greece, Bulgaria andSerbia. Greece claimed the southern region which corresponded to that ofancient Macedonia, attributed as part ofGreek history, and had a strong Greek presence.[34] Following the Balkan Wars, Greece obtained most of the vilayets of Thessaloniki and Monastir, what is now Greek Macedonia, from the dissolving Ottoman Empire. AfterWorld War I and the agreement between Greece and Bulgaria on a mutual population exchange in 1919, the Greek element was reinforced in the region of Greek Macedonia, which acquired a high degree of ethnic homogeneity. During the 1923population exchange between Greece and Turkey, there was a mass departure ofMuslims and some pro-Bulgarian element from Macedonia, with the simultaneous arrival ofGreek refugees fromAsia Minor andeast Thrace, mainlyPontic Greeks. According to the statistics of theLeague of Nations in 1926, the Greeks comprised 88.8% of the total population, theSlavic-speakers 5.1%, while the remainder was mostly made up of Muslims and Jews.[36]
The Macedonians (Greeks) fought alongside the regular Greek army during the struggle for Macedonia, with many victims from the local population, to resist the Bulgarian expansionism andpan-Slavic danger.[37][38] There are monuments in Macedonia commemorating theMakedonomachi, the local Macedonian and other Greek fighters, who took part in the wars and died to liberate Macedonia from the Ottoman rule, officially memorialized as heroes.[39][40] Several of the Macedonian revolutionaries that were instrumental in the war later became politicians of the modern Greek state. The most notable of them were writer and diplomatIon Dragoumis and his fatherStephanos Dragoumis, a judge who becamePrime Minister of Greece in 1910. The Dragoumis family, originating from Vogatsiko, in theKastoria region, had a long history of participation in the Greek revolutions with Markos Dragoumis being a member ofFiliki Eteria. Heroic stories from the Macedonian struggle were transcribed in many of the novels of Greek writerPenelope Delta, from narratives collected in 1932–1935 by her secretary Antigone Bellou-Threpsiadi, who was herself a daughter of a Macedonian fighter.[41] Ion Dragoumis also wrote about his personal recollections of the Macedonian struggle in his books. During thePopulation exchange between Greece and Turkey the Greek refugees settled mainly in Macedonia. The Greek refugees from Turkey constituted 45% of the population ofMacedonia (Greece) in 1928.[42]
During theAxis occupation of Greece at World War II, Macedonia suffered thousands of victims due to anti-partisan activity of theGerman occupying forces and the ethnic cleansing policies of the Bulgarian authorities. The Bulgarian Army entered Greece on 20 April 1941 at the heels of theWehrmacht and eventually occupied the whole of northeastern Greece east of theStrymon River (Eastern Macedonia andWestern Thrace), except for theEvros Prefecture, at the border with Turkey, which was occupied by the Germans. Unlike Germany and Italy, Bulgaria officially annexed the occupied territories, which had long been a target ofBulgarian irredentism, on 14 May 1941.[43]
In Greek Macedonia, Bulgarian policy was that of extermination or expulsion,[44] aiming to forciblyBulgarize as many Greeks as possible and expel or kill the rest.[45] A massive campaign was launched right from the start, which saw all Greek officials (mayors, judges, lawyers and gendarmes) deported. The Bulgarians closed the Greek schools and expelled the teachers, replaced Greek clergymen with priests from Bulgaria, and sharply repressed the use of theGreek language: the names of towns and places changed to the forms traditional in Bulgarian,[43] and even gravestones bearing Greek inscriptions were defaced.[46]
Large numbers of Greeks were expelled and others were deprived of the right to work by a license system that banned the practice of a trade or profession without permission. Forced labour was introduced, and the authorities confiscated the Greek business property and gave it to Bulgarian colonists.[46] By late 1941, more than 100,000 Greeks had been expelled from the Bulgarian occupation zone.[47][48] Bulgarian colonists were encouraged to settle in Macedonia by government credits and incentives, including houses and land confiscated from the natives.
In this situation, a revolt broke out on 28 September 1941, known as the Drama revolt. It started from the city ofDrama and quickly spread throughout Macedonia. InDrama,Doxato,Khoristi and many other towns and villages clashes broke out with the occupying forces. On 29 September Bulgarian troops moved into Drama and the other rebellious cities to suppress the uprising. They seized all men between 18 and 45, and executed over three thousand people in Drama alone. An estimated fifteen thousand Greeks were killed by the Bulgarian occupational army during the next few weeks and in the countryside entire villages were machine gunned and looted.[46]
The massacres precipitated a mass exodus of Greeks from the Bulgarian into the German occupation zone. Bulgarian reprisals continued after the September revolt, adding to the torrent of refugees. Villages were destroyed for sheltering "partisans" who were in fact only the survivors of villages previously destroyed. The terror and famine became so severe that the Athens government considered plans for evacuating the entire population to German-occupied Greece.[49] TheGreat Famine that broke up in 1941, that killed hundreds of thousands in the occupied country canceled these plans, leaving the population to endure those conditions for another three years. In May 1943 deportation of Jews from the Bulgarian occupation zone began as well.[50] In the same year the Bulgarian army expanded its zone of control intoCentral Macedonia under German supervision, although this area was not formally annexed nor administered by Bulgaria.
Two of the leading members of the Greek resistance were Macedonians.Evripidis Bakirtzis, a veteran of theBalkan Wars, was commander of Macedonian forces of theGreek People's Liberation Army (ELAS) during theAxis Occupation of Greece in the period 1941–1944. He became the first president of thePolitical Committee of National Liberation — also referred to as the "Mountain Government" — an opposition government separate to theroyal government-in-exile of Greece. Bakirtzis was succeeded by the second president, juristAlexandros Svolos (anAromanian). It was Svolos who attended the Lebanon conference in 1944 when the organization was dissolved in the wake of the formation of thenational unity government ofGeorgios Papandreou, with Svolos later becoming a minister.[citation needed]
Later, during theGreek civil war, the region of Macedonia suffered a lot due to the battles between theHellenic Army and theDemocratic Army.[citation needed]
There had been a documented continuousGreek presence in Macedonia since antiquity, which marked the region, alongside the presence of many other groups that passed from its soil through the centuries, such as theThracians,Illyrians,Romans,Slavs,Latins,Jews andOttoman Turks. Today, due to the long and rich history of the region, communities ofAromanians andSlavic speakers also live in Macedonia. These communities use their various dialects in some social situations, while many also identify themselves as Greeks. After the 1923population exchange between Greece and Turkey, half of the refugees fromAsia Minor,Pontus, andEastern Thrace settled in the region.[51]
The Greek Macedonians have their own particular cultural heritage, which is classified as a subgroup of the nationalGreek culture. They admire, along with theancient Macedonians (especiallyAlexander the Great), the fighters of theMacedonian struggle as their own primary heroes, in contrast to southern Greeks who mainly praise the southern heroes of theGreek War of Independence. According to late-19th century folklorist Frederick G. Abbott:[52]
Everything that savours of antiquity is by the Macedonian peasant attributed to the two great kings of his country. His songs and traditions, of which he is vastly and justly proud, are often described as having come down " from the times ofPhilip andAlexander - andHeracles", a comprehensive period to which all remnants of the past are allotted with undiscriminating impartiality.
The use of theMacedonian flag is very common in the Macedonian population and the diaspora,[53][54][55] depicting theVergina Sun as their regional symbol, while "Famous Macedonia" is an unofficialanthem and military march.[56] They also have some folk dances that bear the name of the region,Makedonia andMakedonikos antikristos.
The overwhelming majority of the Greek Macedonians speak a variant ofGreek, called Macedonian (Μακεδονίτικα,Makedonitika). It belongs to thenorthern dialect group, with phonological and few syntactical differences distinguishing it fromstandard Greek which is spoken in southern Greece. One of these differences is that the Macedonian dialect uses theaccusative case instead ofgenitive to refer to an indirect object.[57] The Macedonians also have a characteristically heavier accent, which readily identifies a speaker as coming from Macedonia.[58] There is also a minority ofSlavic-speakers that predominantly self-identifies as Greek Macedonians, primarily found inWest Macedonia.
During the Ottoman period, some Macedonian Greeks converted to Islam and were calledVallahades.[59] With the 1923 population exchange between Greece and Turkey, the Vallahades went to Turkey.[60] In Turkish they are known asPatriyotlar 'patriots'; sometimesRumyöz 'Greek' is used.[61]
The strong sense of Macedonian identity among the Greek Macedonians had significant effect in the context of the "Macedonia naming dispute".[62] It has led to reactions to the notion ofMacedonians andMacedonian language with a non-Greek qualification, as used by theSocialist Republic of Macedonia, during the times ofsocialist Yugoslavia, and the contemporaryNorth Macedonia.[63] The dispute over the moral right to the use of the nameMacedonia and its derivatives traces its origin to theMacedonian question in the 19th and early-20th century between Greece,Yugoslavia and Bulgaria.[64] The Greek Macedonians have been objecting to these notions originally fearing territorial claims as they were noted by United States Secretary of StateEdward Stettinius in 1944, under presidentFranklin D. Roosevelt.[65] The dispute continued to be a reason of controversy between the three nations during the 1980s.[66]
The dispute achieved international status after thebreakup of Yugoslavia, when the concerns of the Macedonian Greeks rose to extreme manifestations.[67] On 14 February 1992, about one million Greek Macedonians turned out in the streets ofThessaloniki to demonstrate their objection to the nameMacedonia being a part of the name of the then newly established Republic of Macedonia using the slogan "Macedonia is Greece".[68] Following the recognition of the Republic of Macedonia by the United States, another rally was held in Thessaloniki on 31 March 1994, while two major rallies, organized by the Macedonian Greek community in Australia, were held inMelbourne in 1992 and 1994, with around 100,000 people taking part in each of these.[69]
Explicit self-identification as Macedonian is a typical attitude and a matter of national pride for the Greeks originating fromMacedonia.[64] Responding to issues about the Macedonia naming dispute asPrime Minister of Greece,Kostas Karamanlis – in a characteristic expression of this attitude – quoted saying in emphasis"I myself am a Macedonian, just as another 2.5 million Greeks are Macedonians" at a meeting of theCouncil of Europe inStrasbourg in January 2007.[70][71] Both Kostas Karamanlis and his uncleKonstantinos Karamanlis, are Macedonian ethnic Greeks with origin fromSerres. AsPresident of Greece, Konstantinos Karamanlis senior had also expressed his strong sentiments regarding the Macedonian regional identity, most notably in one emotionally charged statement made in 1992.[72]
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Australia had been a popular destination for the waves of Macedonian Greek immigrants throughout the 20th century. Their immigration was similar to that of the rest of theGreek diaspora, affected by their socio-economic and political background in their homeland, and has been recorded mainly between 1924 and 1974. Settlers fromWest Macedonia were the first to arrive in Australia and dominated the immigration waves until 1954. Macedonian families from the regions ofFlorina andKastoria established settlements in rural areas, while people fromKozani settled mainly inMelbourne. Only after 1954, people fromCentral andEastern Macedonia began to arrive in Australia. Vasilios Kyriazis Blades from Vythos, a village in the prefecture of Kozani, is believed to be the first Macedonian settler to arrive in Australia and was landed in Melbourne in 1915; his arrival exhorted other people from his village and adjacentPentalofos to settle in Melbourne, while several families from other districts also settled in Australia, bringing with them hundreds of people in the following decades.[73]
The geographic distribution of Macedonians beforeWorld War II differed from the distribution of otherGreek settlers. While the Greeks from the islands settled mainly in the eastern states of the country attracting more Greek immigrants there, large portions of Macedonians were concentrated in western Australia. During the first years of their settlement, the Macedonians were dispersed in the Australian countryside close to the metropolitan centers, working as market gardeners, farmhands and woodcutters; there was a significant change of their occupational patterns after 1946, when they began to bring with them their families from Greece.[73] The urbanization process for the Macedonians started after theGreat Depression, when the availability of work in urban areas increased, something that led to extended move of Macedonians towards the large cities, especially Melbourne,Perth andSydney, where they set up their own communities and regional institutions. While the majority of the settlers were indigenous Macedonians, there were also small numbers ofPontic Greeks coming from the region of Macedonia, who did not share the same regional identity and founded distinct institutions.[74]
After World War II greater numbers from all parts of Macedonia entered Australia, many of them as refugees due to theGreek Civil War. These new waves of immigrants resulted in crowded communes and over sixty Macedonian organizations were established in the country, the most prominent of which is the Pan-Macedonian Federation of Australia, the peak umbrella organization. Apart from its regional character, the federation also serves as the voice of the Greek Macedonian communities in Australia and has taken active role in theMacedonia naming dispute.[74] Its headquarters is in Melbourne, where the non-profit organization of Pan-Macedonian Association of Melbourne and Victoria was established in 1961,[75] while the federation is also active inNew South Wales,Queensland,South Australia andWestern Australia.[76] According to an estimate in 1988, there were around 55,000 Macedonians in Australia.[77] More recent accounts cite 145,000 Macedonians.[78]
Other large Greek Macedonian communities can also be found particularly in the United States, Canada andGreat Britain. The main institutions which were established by some of these communities or are closely affiliated with them are:
Pan-Macedonian Association USA, founded in 1947 inNew York City byGreek Americans whose origins were from Macedonia to unite all the Macedonian communities of the United States, works to collect and distribute information on the land and people of Macedonia, organize lectures, scientific discussions, art exhibitions, educational and philanthropic activities, while they have funded work in the Library ofNew York University with books about the Macedonian history and culture. Additionally, they promote the social welfare and educational advancement of the inhabitants of Macedonia.[79][80]
The Pan-Macedonian Association of Canada is the association's branch for theGreek Canadians of Macedonian origin.[81]
The Macedonian Society of Great Britain, founded in 1989 inLondon by Macedonian immigrants, promotes the Macedonian history, culture and heritage, organizes lectures and presentations, as well as social events and gatherings for theBritish Greeks.[82]
Panhellenic Macedonian Front, a Greekpolitical party founded in 2009 by politicianStelios Papathemelis and professorKostas Zouraris to run for the2009 European Parliament elections, which is affiliated with several Macedonian diaspora organizations.[83]
![Herbert von Karajan (1908–1989), who is considered to have been one of the greatest conductors of all time, was descended paternally from Greek-Macedonian ancestors.[85][86]](/mt/?noimg=&dark=on&url=http%3a%2f%2fen.wikipedia.org%2fwiki%2fFile%3aBundesarchiv_Bild_183-S47421%2c_Herbert_von_Karajan.jpg)
{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: publisher location (link){{cite book}}: CS1 maint: publisher location (link)Minister for Macedonia–Thrace addresses the public on occasion of 100 year anniversary of Macedonian struggle:"The revolt in Bourinos was the verst organized resistance act of the Macedonian Hellenism against the Bulgarian imperialism and the once pan-slavic danger."
Among Greeks the Islamization of the Vallahades in southwest Macedonia and of Cretans took place in the 17th–18th centuries.
Accenni alla loro religiosità popolare mistiforme "completano" questo quadro, ridotto, sulla trasmissione culturale di un popolo illetterato ormai scomparso: emigrati in Asia minore dalla fine del secolo scorso, e ancora soggetti allo scambio delle popolazioni del 1923, i "Vallahades", o meglio i loro discendenti, sono ormai pienamente assimilati agli ambienti turchi di Turchia.
Patriyot' Latin ve Yunan dillerinde "Vatansever" anlamına gelmektedir. Hint Avrupai dillerde baba anlamına gelen 'peder,' 'father,' 'patris' kelimeleri ile akraba... ve diğer Avrupa dillerine de Latince' den geçmiştir. ... Patriyotlar mübadele çerçevesinde Yunanistan'daki Makedonya bölgesinden göçmüş Rum olup, Osmanlı devrinde İslam'a girip, Müslümanlığı seçen, köken olarak Türk olmayıp Rum kökenlilere verilen bir isimdir. Bazı bölgelerde ise "Rum delikanlısı" anlamına gelen "Rumyöz" de kullanılmaktadır.
There is no other but one Macedonia, and this is Greek
Herbert von Karajan was born in Salzburg April 5, 1908. Though an Austrian by birth, the Karajan family was actually Greek, the original surname being Karajanis or "Black John". The family had migrated from Greece to Chemnitz, Germany, and from there to Austria about four generations before Herbert.
Karajan was born in 1908 in Austrian Salzburg, the son of a well-to-do physician of partially Greek-Macedonian ancestry whose forebears had been ennobled while in the service of the Saxon kings.
The Life Herbert Ritter von Karajan (fahn KAHR-eh- yahn) was born to Ernst and Martha von Karajan, an upper-class family of Greek-Macedonian origin.
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