The concept of a Macedonian ethnicity, distinct from their Orthodox Balkan neighbours, is seen to be a comparatively newly emergent one.[b] The earliest manifestations of an incipient Macedonian identity emerged during the second half of the 19th century[47][48][49] among limited circles of Slavic-speaking intellectuals, predominantly outside the region of Macedonia. They arose after theFirst World War and especially during the 1930s, and thus were consolidated by Communist Yugoslavia's governmental policy after theSecond World War.[c]The formation of the ethnic Macedonians as a separate community has been shaped bypopulation displacement[55] as well as bylanguage shift,[56][dubious –discuss] both the result of the political developments in the region ofMacedonia during the 20th century. Following thedissolution of the Ottoman Empire, the decisive point in theethnogenesis of the South Slavic ethnic group was the creation of theSocialist Republic of Macedonia after World War II, a state in the framework of theSocialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia. This was followed by the development of a separate Macedonian language and national literature, and the foundation of a distinctMacedonian Orthodox Church and national historiography.
Linguistically, the South Slavic languages from which Macedonian developed are thought to have expanded in the region during the post-Roman period, although the exact mechanisms of this linguistic expansion remains a matter of scholarly discussion.[65] Traditional historiography has equated these changes with the commencement of raids and 'invasions' ofSclaveni andAntes fromWallachia and western Ukraine during the 6th and 7th centuries.[66] However, recent anthropological and archaeological perspectives have viewed the appearance ofSlavs in Macedonia, and throughout theBalkans in general, as part of a broad and complex process of transformation of the cultural, political and ethnolinguistic Balkan landscape before the collapse of Roman authority. The exact details and chronology of population shifts remain to be determined.[67][68] What is beyond dispute is that, in contrast to "barbarian" Bulgaria, northern Macedonia remainedRoman in its cultural outlook into the 7th century.[64] Yet at the same time, sources attest numerousSlavic tribes in the environs ofThessaloniki and further afield, including theBerziti in Pelagonia.[69] Apart from Slavs and late Byzantines,Kuver's "Sermesianoi"[70] – a mix of c. 70,000Byzantine Greeks predominantly, alsoBulgars andPannonian Avars – settled the "Keramissian plain" (Pelagonia) aroundBitola in the late 7th century.[71][72][73][74] Later pockets of settlers included "Danubian"Bulgarians[75][76] in the 9th century;Magyars (Vardariotai)[77] andArmenians in the 10th–12th centuries,[78]Cumans andPechenegs in the 11th–13th centuries,[79] andSaxon miners in the 14th and 15th centuries.[80] Vlachs (Aromanians) and Arbanasi (Albanians) also inhabited this area in the Middle ages and mingeled with the local Slavic-speakers.[81][82]
Having previously been Byzantine clients, theSklaviniae of Macedonia switched their allegiance to the Bulgarians with their incorporation into theBulgarian Empire in the mid-800s.[83] In the 860s, Byzantine missionariesCyril and Methodius created theGlagolitic alphabet and Slavonic liturgy based on the Slavic dialect aroundThessaloniki for a mission toGreat Moravia.[84][85][86] After the demise of the Great Moravian mission in 886, exiled students of the twoapostles brought the Glagolitic alphabet to theBulgarian Empire, where KhanBoris I of Bulgaria (r. 852–889) welcomed them. As part of his efforts to limit Byzantine influence and assert Bulgarian independence, he adopted Slavic as official ecclesiastical and state language and established thePreslav Literary School andOhrid Literary School, which taught Slavonic liturgy and the Glagolitic and subsequently theCyrillic alphabet.[87][88][89] The success of Boris I's efforts was a major factor in making the Slavs in Macedonia—and the other Slavs within theFirst Bulgarian State—adopt the commondemonymBulgarians and transforming theBulgar state into aBulgarian state.[90][91][92] Subsequently, the literary and ecclesiastical centre inOhrid became a second cultural capital of medieval Bulgaria.[93][94]
After the final Ottoman conquest of the Balkans by the Ottomans in the 14th/15th century, all Eastern Orthodox Christians were included in a specific ethno-religious community underGraeco-Byzantine jurisdiction calledRum Millet. Belonging to this religious commonwealth was so important that most of the common people began to identify themselves asChristians.[95] However, ethnonyms never disappeared and some form of primary ethnic identity was available.[96][full citation needed] This is confirmed from a Sultan'sFirman from 1680 which describes the ethnic groups in the Balkan territories of the Empire as follows: Greeks, Albanians, Serbs, Vlachs and Bulgarians.[97]
Throughout the Middle Ages and Ottoman rule up until the early 20th century[53][54][98] the Slavic-speaking population majority in the region ofMacedonia were more commonly referred to (both by themselves and outsiders) asBulgarians.[99][92][100] However, in pre-nationalist times, terms such as "Bulgarian" did not possess a strict ethno-nationalistic meaning, rather, they were loose, often interchangeable terms which could simultaneously denote regional habitation, allegiance to a particular empire, religious orientation, membership in certain social groups.[d] Similarly, a "Byzantine" was aRoman subject of Constantinople, and the term bore no strict ethnic connotations, Greek or otherwise.[105] Overall, in the Middle Ages, "a person's origin was distinctly regional",[106] and in theOttoman era, before the 19th-centuryrise of nationalism, it was based on the correspondingconfessional community.
Therise of nationalism under the Ottoman Empire in the early 19th century brought opposition to this continued situation. At that time, the classical Rum Millet began to degrade. The coordinated actions, carried out by Bulgarian national leaders and supported by the majority of the Slavic-speaking population in today's Republic of North Macedonia (the second anti-Greek revolt was in Skopje) to have a separate "Bulgarian Millet", finally bore fruit in 1870 when afirman for the creation of theBulgarian Exarchate was issued.[107] In September 1872, the Ecumenical PatriarchAnthimus VI declared the Exarchate schismatic andexcommunicated its adherents, accusing them of having "surrendered Orthodoxy to ethnic nationalism", i.e., "ethnophyletism" (Greek:εθνοφυλετισμός).[108] At the time of its creation, the only Vardar Macedonian bishopric included in the Exarchate wasVeles.[109]
However, in 1874, the Christian population of thebishoprics ofSkopje andOhrid were given the chance to participate in a plebiscite, where they voted overwhelmingly in favour of joining the Exarchate (Skopje by 91%, Ohrid by 97%)[110][111] Referring to the results of the plebiscites, and on the basis of statistical and ethnological indications, the1876 Conference of Constantinople included all of present-day North Macedonia (except for the Debar region) and parts of present-day Greek Macedonia.[112] The borders of new Bulgarian state, drawn by the 1878Treaty of San Stefano, also included Macedonia, but the treaty was never put into effect and theTreaty of Berlin (1878) "returned" Macedonia to the Ottoman Empire.
For Christian Slav peasants, however, the choice between the Patriarchate and the Exarchate was not tainted with national meaning, but was a choice of Church or millet, and unsurprisingly the majority preferred the Slavic (Bulgarian) Church over the non-SlavicGreek one.[113] Furthermore, adherence to the Bulgarian national cause was attractive as a means of opposing oppressive Christianchiflik owners and urban merchants, who usually identified with the Greek nation, as a way to escape arbitrary taxation byPatriarchate bishops, via shifting allegiance to theExarchate and on account of the free (and, occasionally, even subsidized) provision of education in Bulgarian schools.[114][115] Alignment of the Slavs of Macedonia with the Bulgarian, the Greek or sometimes the Serbian national camp did not imply adherence to different national ideologies: these camps were not stable, culturally distinct groups, but parties with national affiliations, described by contemporary observers as "sides", "wings", "parties" or "political clubs".[115] Furthermore, any expression of national identity among the majority of Macedonian Slavs was purely superficial and imposed by the nationalisteducational and religious propaganda or byterrorism from guerrilla bands.[116] Also, more astute foreign observers who visited Macedonia at the time concluded that Macedonian Slavs linguistically were neither Bulgarians nor Serbs.[117] Considering all of the previous circumstances, it is possible to argue that the Macedonian Slavs formed a separate nationality.[118]
Identity
Gjorgjija Pulevski is the first known person, who in 1875 put forward the idea on the existence of a separate (Slavic) Macedonian language and ethnicity.[119]
The first expressions ofMacedonian nationalism occurred in the second half of the 19th century mainly among intellectuals inBelgrade,Sofia,Thessaloniki andSt. Petersburg.[116] Since the 1850s some Slavic intellectuals from the area adopted the Greek designationMacedonian as a regional label, and it began to gain popularity.[120] In the 1860s, according toPetko Slaveykov in his newspaperMakedoniya, some young intellectuals from Macedonia were claiming that they are not Bulgarians, but rather Macedonians, descendants of the Ancient Macedonians.[121] In a letter written to the Bulgarian Exarch in February 1874 Petko 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 theirown local dialect and what's more, of their own, separate Macedonian church leadership."[122] The activities of these people were also registered by the Serbian politicianStojan Novaković,[123] who promoted the idea to use theMacedonian nationalism in order to oppose the strong pro-Bulgarian sentiments in the area.[124] The nascent Macedonian nationalism, illegal at home in the theocratic Ottoman Empire, and illegitimate internationally, waged a precarious struggle for survival against overwhelming odds: in appearance against the Ottoman Empire, but in fact against the three expansionist Balkan states and their respective patrons among theGreat Powers.[125]
The first known author that overtly speaks of a Macedonian nationality and language wasGjorgjija Pulevski, who in 1875 published in Belgrade aDictionary of Three languages: Macedonian, Albanian, Turkish, in which he wrote that the Macedonians are a separate nation and the place which is theirs is called Macedonia.[126] In 1880, he published in Sofia aGrammar of the language of the Slavic Macedonian population, a work that is today known as the first attempt at a grammar of Macedonian. In 1885,Theodosius of Skopje, a priest who held a high-ranking position within theBulgarian Exarchate, was chosen as a bishop of theepiscopacy ofSkopje. In 1890 he renounced de facto the Bulgarian Exarchate and attempted to restore theArchbishopric of Ohrid as a separate Macedonian Orthodox Church in all eparchies ofMacedonia,[127] responsible for the spiritual, cultural and educational life of all Macedonian Orthodox Christians, as he considered that there was an ethnic difference between Macedonians and their Orthodox Christian neighbors.[128][125] During this time period Metropolitan BishopTheodosius of Skopje made a plea to the GreekPatriarchate of Constantinople to allow a separate Macedonian church, and ultimately on 4 December 1891 he sent aletter to the Pope Leo XIII to ask for arecognition and aprotection from the Roman Catholic Church, but failed. Soon after, he repented and returned to pro-Bulgarian positions.[129] In the 1880s and 1890s,Isaija Mažovski designated Macedonian Slavs as "Macedonians" and "Old Slavic Macedonian people", and also distinguished them from Bulgarians as follows: "Slavic-Bulgarian" for Mažovski was synonymous with "Macedonian", while only "Bulgarian" was a designation for the Bulgarians in Bulgaria.[130]
In 1890, Austrian researcher of Macedonia Karl Hron reported that the Macedonians constituted a separate ethnic group by history and language. Within the next few years, this concept was also welcomed in Russia by linguists includingLeonhard Masing,Pyotr Lavrov,Jan Baudouin de Courtenay, andPyotr Draganov.[131][132] Draganov, of Bulgarian descent, conducted research in Macedonia and determined that the local language had its own identifying characteristics compared to Bulgarian and Serbian. He wrote in a Saint Petersburg newspaper that the Macedonians should be recognized by Russia in a full national sense.[133]
Internal Macedonian Revolutionary Organization leaderBoris Sarafov in 1901 stated that Macedonians had a unique "national element" and, the following year, he stated "We the Macedonians are neither Serbs nor Bulgarians, but simply Macedonians... Macedonia exists only for the Macedonians."[134][135]Gyorche Petrov, another IMRO member, stated Macedonia was a "distinct moral unit" with its own "aspirations",[136] while describing its Slavic population as Bulgarian.[137]
Krste Misirkov in 1903 attempted to codify a standard Macedonian language and appealed for eventual recognition of a separate Macedonian nation when the necessary historical circumstances would arise.
In 1903,Krste Misirkov published in Sofia his bookOn Macedonian Matters, wherein he laid down the principles of the modern Macedonian nationhood and language. This book, written in the standardizedcentral dialect of Macedonia, is considered by ethnic Macedonians as a milestone of the process of Macedonian awakening. Misirkov argued that the dialect of central Macedonia (Veles-Prilep-Bitola-Ohrid) should be adopted as a basis for a standard Macedonian literary language, in which Macedonians should write, study, and worship; the autocephalousArchbishopric of Ohrid should be restored; and the Slavic people of Macedonia should be recognized as a separate ethnic community, when the necessary historical circumstances would arise.[138]
Another major figure of the Macedonian awakening wasDimitrija Čupovski, one of the founders of theMacedonian Literary Society, established inSaint Petersburg in 1902. One of the members was also Krste Misirkov. In 1905 the Society publishedVardar, the first scholarly, scientific and literary journal in the central dialects of Macedonia, which later would contribute in the standardization ofMacedonian language.[139] In 1913, the Macedonian Literary Society submitted theMemorandum of Independence of Macedonia to the British Foreign Secretary and other European ambassadors, and it was printed in many European newspapers. In the period 1913–1914, Čupovski published the newspaperМакедонскi Голосъ (Macedonian Voice) in which he and fellow members of the Saint Petersburg Macedonian Colony propagated the existence of a Macedonian people separate from the Greeks, Bulgarians and Serbs, and sought to popularize the idea for an independent Macedonian state.
The "Macedonian Slavs" in cartography
From 1878 until 1918, most independent European observers viewed theSlavs of Macedonia as Bulgarians or as Macedonian Slavs, while their association with Bulgaria was almost universally accepted.[140] Original manuscript versions of population data mentioned "Macedonian Slavs", though the term was changed to "Bulgarians" in the official printing.[141] Western publications usually presented the Slavs of Macedonia as Bulgarians, as happened, partly for political reasons, in Serbian ones.[142] Prompted by the publication of a Serbian map bySpiridon Gopčević claiming the Slavs of Macedonia asSerbs, a version of a Russian map, published in 1891, in a period of deterioration ofBulgarian-Russian relations, first presented Macedonia inhabited not by Bulgarians, but by Macedonian Slavs.[143] Austrian-Hungarian maps followed suit in an effort to delegitimize the ambitions of Russophile Bulgaria, returning to presenting the Macedonian Slavs as Bulgarians when Austria-Bulgaria relations ameliorated, only to renege and employ the designation "Macedonian Slavs" when Bulgaria changed its foreign policy and Austria turned to envisaging an autonomous Macedonia under Austrian influence within theMurzsteg process.[144]
The term "Macedonian Slavs" was used either as a middle solution between conflicting Serbian and Bulgarian claims, to denote an intermediary grouping of Slavs, associated with the Bulgarians, or to describe a separate Slavic group with no ethnic, national or political affiliation.[140] The differentiation of ethnographic maps representing rival national views produced to satisfy the curiosity of European audience for the inhabitants of Macedonia, after theIlinden uprising of 1903, indicated the complexity of the issue.[145] Influenced by the conclusions of the research of young SerbJovan Cvijić, that Macedonia's culture combinedByzantine influence with Serbian traditions, a map of 1903 by Austrian cartographerKarl Peucker depicted Macedonia as a peculiar area, where zones of linguistic influence overlapped.[146] In his first ethnographic map of 1906, Cvijic presented all Slavs of Serbia and Macedonia merely as "Slavs".[147] In a pamphlet translated and circulated in Europe the same year, he elaborated his ostensibly impartial views and described the Slavs living south of theBabuna andPlačkovica mountains as "Macedo-Slavs" arguing that the appellation "Bugari" meant simply "peasant" to them, that they had no national consciousness and could become Serbs or Bulgarians in the future.[148] Cvijić thus transformed the political character of theIMRO's appeals to "Macedonians" into an ethnic one.[149] Bulgarian cartographerAnastas Ishirkov countered Cvijić's views, pointing to the involvement of Macedonian Slavs in Bulgarian nationalist uprisings and the Macedonian origins of Bulgarian nationalists before 1878. Although Cvijic's arguments attracted the attention of Great Powers, they did not endorse at the time his view on the Macedo-Slavs.[150]
Austrian ethnographic map of the vilayets of Kosovo, Saloniki, Scutari, Janina and Monastir, ca. 1900.
Ethnographic map of the Balkans from the Serbian author Jovan Cvijić (1909)
Ethnographical Map of Central and Southeastern Europe -War Office, London (1916)
Greek map by Georgios Sotiriadis submitted to the Paris Peace Conference (1919)
Ethnographic map of the Balkans in theNewLarned History (1922)
Cvijić further elaborated the idea that had first appeared in Peucker's map and in his map of 1909 he ingeniously mapped the Macedonian Slavs as a third group distinct from Bulgarians and Serbians, and part of them "under Greek influence".[151][152] Envisioning a future agreement with Greece, Cvijic depicted the southern half of the Macedo-Slavs "under Greek unfluence", while leaving the rest to appear as a subset of the Serbo-Croats.[153][151] Cvijić's view was reproduced without acknowledgement byAlfred Stead, with no effect on British opinion,[154][155] but, reflecting the reorientation of Serbian aims towards dividing Macedonia with Greece, Cvijić eliminated the Macedo-Slavs from a subsequent edition of his map.[156] However, in 1913, before the conclusion of theTreaty of Bucharest he published his third ethnographic map distinguishing the Macedo-Slavs betweenSkopje andSalonica from both Bulgarians andSerbo-Croats, on the basis of the transitional character of their dialect per the linguistic researches ofVatroslav Jagić andAleksandar Belić, and the Serb features of their customs, such as thezadruga.[157] For Cvijić, the Macedo-Slavs were a transitional population, with any sense of nationality they displayed being weak, superficial, externally imposed and temporary.[158] Despite arguing that they should be considered neutral, he postulated their division into Serbs and Bulgarians based on dialectical and cultural features in anticipation of Serbian demands regarding the delimitation of frontiers.[159]
A Balkan committee of experts rejected Cvijić's concept of the Macedo-Slavs in 1914.[160] However, Bulgaria's entry into World War I on the side of theCentral Powers in 1915, after the Allies failed to convince Serbia to hand over the'Uncontested Zone' in Macedonia to Bulgaria, precipitated a complete turnaround in the Allies' opinion of Macedonian ethnography, and several British and French maps echoing Cvijić were released within months.[161] Thus, as theEntente approached victory in theFirst World War, a number other maps and atlases, including those produced by theAllies replicated Cvijić's ideas, especially its depiction of the Macedo-Slavs.[162][163] The prevalence of theYugoslav point of view, obligedGeorgios Sotiriades, a professor of History at theUniversity of Athens, to map the Macedo-Slavs as a distinct group in his work of 1918, that mirrored Greek views of the time and was used as an official document to advocate for Greece's positions in theParis peace conference.[164][165] After World War I, Cvijić's map became the point of reference for all Balkan ethnographic maps,[166] while his concept of Macedo-Slavs was reproduced in almost all maps,[160] including German maps, that acknowledged a Macedonian nation.[167]
Macedonian nationalism in the interwar period
After theBalkan Wars (1912–1913) and the World War I (1914–1918), following the division of the region ofMacedonia amongst theKingdom of Greece, theKingdom of Bulgaria and theKingdom of Serbia, the idea of belonging to a separate Macedonian nation was further spread among the Slavic-speaking population. The suffering during the wars, the endless struggle of the Balkan monarchies for dominance over the population increased the Macedonians' sentiment that the institutionalization of an independent Macedonian nation would put an end to their suffering. On the question of whether they were Serbs or Bulgarians, the people more often started answering: "Neither Bulgar, nor Serb... I am Macedonian only, and I'm sick of war."[168][169]Stratis Myrivilis noted a specific instance of a Slav-speaking family wanting to be referred to, not as"Bulgar, Srrp, or Grrts", but as"Makedon ortodox".[170] By the 1920s, following a negative reaction to the national proselytization of the previous decades, a majority of ChristianSlavs inhabiting Greek andVardar Macedonia used the collective name "Macedonians" to describe themselves, either as a nation or as a distinct ethnicity.[171] The 1928 Greek census recorded 81,844Slavo-Macedonian speakers, distinct from 16,755 Bulgarian speakers.[172] In 1924 thePolitis–Kalfov Protocol was signed between Greece and Bulgaria, concerning the protection of the Bulgarian minority In Greece. However, it was not ratified by the Greek side, because public opinion stood against the recognition of any "Bulgarian" minority".[173] Prior to the 1930s, "it seems to have been acceptable" for Greeks to refer to Slavs of Macedonia as Macedonians and their language as Macedonian,Ion Dragoumis had argued this viewpoint.
The consolidation of an international Communist organization (theComintern) in the 1920s led to some failed attempts by the Communists to use theMacedonian Question as a political weapon. In the 1920 Yugoslav parliamentary elections, 25% of the total Communist vote came from Macedonia, but participation was low (only 55%), mainly because the pro-Bulgarian IMRO organised a boycott against the elections. In the following years, the communists attempted to enlist the pro-IMRO sympathies of the population in their cause. In the context of this attempt, in 1924 the Comintern recognized a separate Macedonian nationality and organized the filed signing of the so-calledMay Manifesto, in which independence of partitioned Macedonia was required.[174] In 1925 with the help of the Comintern, theInternal Macedonian Revolutionary Organization (United) was created, composed of former left-wingInternal Macedonian Revolutionary Organization (IMRO) members. This organization promoted for the first time in 1932 the existence of a separate ethnic Macedonian nation.[175][176][177] In 1933 theCommunist Party of Greece, in a series of articles published in its official newspaper, theRizospastis, criticizing Greek minority policy towards Slavic-speakers in Greek Macedonia, recognized the Slavs of the entire region of Macedonia as forming a distinct Macedonian ethnicity and their language as Macedonian.[178] The idea of a Macedonian nation was internationalized and backed by the Comintern which issued in 1934 aresolution in which Macedonian national identity was recognized.[179] This action was attacked by the IMRO, but was supported by theBalkan communists. The Balkan communist parties supported the national consolidation of the ethnic Macedonian people and created Macedonian sections within the parties, headed by prominent IMRO (United) members.
The available data indicates that despite the policy of assimilation, pro-Bulgarian sentiments among the Macedonian Slavs in Yugoslavia were still sizable during the interwar period as a result of the repressiveSerbianisation policy.[e] Although a Macedonian national consciousness was growing as well,[188] until then it was espoused only by some intellectual circles.[189] The sense of belonging to a separate Macedonian nation gained credence during World War II when ethnicMacedonian communist partisan movement was formed. TheYugoslav communists recognized the existence of a Macedonian nationality during WWII to quiet fears of the Macedonian population that acommunist Yugoslavia would continue to implement the former policy ofSerbianization. In 1943 theCommunist Party of Macedonia was established and the resistance movement grew up.[190][191] After the World War II ethnic Macedonian institutions were created in the three parts of the region of Macedonia, then under communist control,[192] including the establishment of thePeople's Republic of Macedonia within theSocialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia (SFRJ). The codification of Macedonian language and the recognition of the Macedonian nation had as a main goal to finally subvert theBulgarian irredentism towards Yugoslav Macedonia, as well the claims that Macedonians are Bulgarians, the same applying to the Serbian claims that Macedonians were Serbs, and theirGreater Serbia idea.[188] As a result, Yugoslavia subdued the pro-Bulgarian feeling among parts of its population.[193] Bulgarian sources claim around 100,000 pro-Bulgarian elements were imprisoned for violations of the specialLaw for the Protection of Macedonian National Honour, and 1,260 were allegedly killed.[194][195]
Following the collapse of Yugoslavia, the issue of Macedonian identity emerged again. Nationalists and governments alike from neighbouring countries, especially Greece and Bulgaria, espouse the view that the Macedonian ethnicity is a modern, artificial creation. Such views have been seen by Macedonian historians to represent irredentist motives on Macedonian territory.[125] Moreover, some historians point out thatall modern nations are recent, politically motivated constructs based on creation "myths",[196] that the creation of Macedonian identity is "no more or less artificial than any other identity",[197] and that, contrary to the claims of Romantic nationalists, modern, territorially bound and mutually exclusive nation-states have little in common with their preceding large territorial or dynastic medieval empires, and any connection between them is tenuous at best.[198] In any event, irrespective of shifting political affiliations, the Macedonian Slavs shared in the fortunes of theByzantine commonwealth and theRum millet and they can claim them as their heritage.[125]Loring Danforth states similarly, the ancient heritage of modern Balkan countries is not "the mutually exclusive property of one specific nation" but "the shared inheritance of all Balkan peoples".[199]
Following theGreek veto on the 21st NATO Summit in 2008, the then ruling partyVMRO-DPMNE pursued a policy called "Antiquisation" by its critics.[200][201][202] Proponents of this view see modern Macedonians as direct descendants of the ancient Macedonians.[203] This view faces criticism by academics as it is not supported by archaeology or other historical disciplines and also could marginalize the Macedonian identity.[204][205] Surveys on the effects of the controversialnation-building projectSkopje 2014 and on the perceptions of the population of Skopje revealed a high degree of uncertainty regarding the latter's national identity. A supplementary national poll showed that there was a great discrepancy between the population's sentiment and the narrative the state sought to promote.[206]
Additionally, during the last two decades, tens of thousands of citizens of North Macedonia have applied for Bulgarian citizenship.[207] In the period since 2000 more than 100,000 acquired it, while ca. 50,000 applied and are still waiting.[208] Bulgaria has a special ethnic dual-citizenship regime which makes a constitutional distinction betweenethnic Bulgarians andBulgarian citizens. In the case of the Macedonians, merely declaring their national identity as Bulgarian is enough to gain a citizenship.[209] By making the procedure simpler, Bulgaria stimulates more Macedonian citizens (of Slavic origin) to apply for a Bulgarian citizenship.[210] However, many Macedonians who apply for Bulgarian citizenship asBulgarians by origin,[211] have few ties with Bulgaria.[212] Further, those applying forBulgarian citizenship usually say they do so to gain access tomember states of the European Union rather than to assert Bulgarian identity.[213] This phenomenon is calledplacebo identity.[214] Some Macedonians view the Bulgarian policy as part of a strategy to destabilize the Macedonian national identity.[215] As a nation engaged in a dispute over its distinctiveness from Bulgarians, Macedonians have always perceived themselves as threatened by their neighbor.[216] Bulgaria insists its neighbor admit the common historical roots of their languages and nations, a view Skopje continues to reject.[217] As a result, Bulgaria blocked the official start of EU accession talks with North Macedonia.[218]
Despite sizable number of Macedonians that have acquired Bulgarian citizenship since 2002 (ca. 9.7% of the Slavic population), only 3,504 citizens of North Macedonia declared themselves as ethnic Bulgarians in the2021 census (roughly 0.31% from the Slavic population),[219] which was observed and welcomed by theEuropean Commission.[220] The Bulgarian side does not accept these results as completely objective, citing as an example the census has counted less than 20,000 people with Bulgarian citizenship in the country, while in fact they are over 100,000.[221]
The national name derives from theGreek termMakedonía, related to the name of theregion, named after theancient Macedonians and theirkingdom. It originates from theancient Greek adjectivemakednos, meaning "tall",[222] which shares its roots with the adjectivemakrós, meaning the same.[223] The name is originally believed to have meant either "highlanders" or "the tall ones", possibly descriptive of theseancient people.[224][225][226]
During theearly modern era, someDalmatianpan-Slavic ideologists likeMavro Orbini believed theancient Macedonians wereSlavs. Under these influences in 19th century some intellectuals in the region developed the idea of direct link between the local Slavs, theearly Slavs and the ancient Macedonians.[227]With the conquest of the Balkans by theOttomans in the late 14th century, the name of Macedonia disappeared as a geographical designation for several centuries. The name was revived just during the early 19th century, after the foundation of the modernGreek state with its Western Europe-derived obsession withancient history.[228][229] As a result of therise of nationalism in the Ottoman Empire, massive Greekreligious and school propaganda occurred which led to some "Macedonization" among Slavic-speaking population of the area.[230][231] Accordingly, the nameMacedonians was applied to the local Slavs, aiming to stimulate the development of close ties between them and theGreeks, linking both sides to theancient Macedonians, as a counteract against the growingBulgarian cultural influence into the region and theBulgarian Exarchate propaganda.[232][233] Since the 1850s the Macedonian Slavic intellectuals adopted it as a regional identity, and this name began to gain popularity, and some of them would drew from it to imagine a ethnic Macedonian nation, which would eventually come to fruition in 1944.[234][235][120]
The vast majority of Macedonians live along the valley of the riverVardar, the central region of the Republic of North Macedonia. They form about 64.18% of the population of North Macedonia (1,297,981 people according to the2002 census). Smaller numbers live in easternAlbania, northern Greece, and southernSerbia, mostly abutting the border areas of theRepublic of North Macedonia. A large number of Macedonians have immigrated overseas to Australia, the United States, Canada, New Zealand and to many European countries: Germany, Italy, Sweden, the United Kingdom, and Austria among others.
The existence of an ethnic Macedonian minority in Greece is rejected by the Greek government. The number of people speaking Slavic dialects has been estimated at somewhere between 10,000 and 250,000.[f] Most of these people however do not have an ethnic Macedonian national consciousness, with most choosing to identify as ethnicGreeks[244] or rejecting both ethnic designations and preferring terms such as"natives" instead.[245] In 1999 theGreek Helsinki Monitor estimated that the number of people identifying as ethnic Macedonians numbered somewhere between 10,000 and 30,000,[12][246] Macedonian sources generally claim the number of ethnic Macedonians living in Greece at somewhere between 200,000 and 350,000.[247] The ethnic Macedonians in Greece have faced difficulties from the Greek government in their ability to self-declare as members of a"Macedonian minority" and to refer to their native language as"Macedonian".[245]
Since the late 1980s there has been an ethnic Macedonian revival in Northern Greece, mostly centering on the region ofFlorina.[248] Since then ethnic Macedonian organisations including theRainbow political party have been established.[249]Rainbow first opened its offices in Florina on 6 September 1995. The following day, the offices had been broken into and had been ransacked.[250] Later Members ofRainbow had been charged for "causing and inciting mutual hatred among the citizens" because the party had bilingual signs written in bothGreek andMacedonian.[251] On 20 October 2005, theEuropean Convention on Human Rights (ECHR) ordered the Greek government to pay penalties to theRainbow Party for violations of 2 ECHR articles.[245]Rainbow has seen limited success at a national level, its best result being achieved in the 1994 European elections, with a total of 7,263 votes. Since 2004 it has participated in European Parliament elections and local elections, but not in national elections. A few of its members have been elected in local administrative posts.Rainbow has recently re-establishedNova Zora, a newspaper that was first published for a short period in the mid-1990s, with reportedly 20,000 copies being distributed free of charge.[252][253][254]
WithinSerbia, Macedonians constitute an officially recognised ethnic minority at both a local and national level. WithinVojvodina, Macedonians are recognised under theStatute of the Autonomous Province of Vojvodina, along with other ethnic groups. Large Macedonian settlements within Vojvodina can be found inPlandište,Jabuka,Glogonj,Dužine andKačarevo. These people are mainly the descendants of economic migrants who left theSocialist Republic of Macedonia in the 1950s and 1960s. TheMacedonians in Serbia are represented by a national council and in recent years Macedonian has begun to be taught. The most recent census recorded 22,755 Macedonians living in Serbia.[255]
Macedonians represent the second largest ethnic minority population inAlbania. Albania recognises the existence of a Macedonian minority within theMala Prespa region, most of which is comprised byPustec Municipality. Macedonians have full minority rights within this region, including the right to education and the provision of other services inMacedonian. There also exist unrecognised Macedonian populations living in theGolo Brdo region, the "Dolno Pole" area near the town ofPeshkopi, aroundLake Ohrid andKorçë as well as inGora. 4,697 people declared themselves Macedonians in the 1989 census.[256]
Bulgarians are considered most closely related to the neighboring Macedonians, and it is sometimes claimed that there is no clear ethnic difference between them.[257] A total of 1,143 people officially declared themselves to be ethnic Macedonians in the last Bulgarian census in 2021.[32] During the same year, there were five times as many Bulgarian residents born in North Macedonia, 5,450.[258] Most of them held Bulgarian citizenship, with only 1,576 of them being citizens of theRepublic of North Macedonia.[259] According to the 2011 Bulgarian census, there were 561 ethnic Macedonians (0.2%) in theBlagoevgrad Province,[260] the Bulgarian part of the geographical region ofMacedonia, out of a total of 1,654 Macedonians in the entire country.[261] Also, a total of 429 citizens of theRepublic of North Macedonia resided in the province.[262]
In 1998, Krassimir Kanev, chairman of the non-governmental organizationBulgarian Helsinki Committee, claimed that there were 15,000–25,000 ethnic Macedonians in Bulgaria (seehere). According to the Bulgarian Helsinki Committee, the vast majority of the Slavic-speaking population inPirin Macedonia had a Bulgarian national self-consciousness and aregional Macedonian identity similar to the Macedonian regional identity inGreek Macedonia. According to ethnic Macedonian political activist, Stoyko Stoykov, the number of Bulgarian citizens with ethnic Macedonian self-consciousness in 2009 was between 5,000 and 10,000.[263] In 2000, theBulgarian Constitutional Court bannedUMO Ilinden-Pirin, a small Macedonian political party, as a separatist organization. Subsequently, activists attempted to re-establish the party but could not gather the required number of signatures.
Macedonians in North Macedonia, according to the 2002 census
Macedonian diaspora in the world (includes people with Macedonian ancestry or citizenship).
North Macedonia
+ 100,000
+ 10,000
+ 1,000
Significant Macedonian communities can also be found in the traditional immigrant-receiving nations, as well as in Western European countries. Census data in many European countries (such as Italy and Germany) does not take into account the ethnicity of émigrés from the Republic of North Macedonia.
The official number of Macedonians in Australia by birthplace or birthplace of parents is 83,893 (2001). The main Macedonian communities are found in Melbourne,Geelong, Sydney,Wollongong,Newcastle,Canberra andPerth. The 2006 census recorded 83,983 people of Macedonian ancestry and the 2011 census recorded 93,570 people of Macedonian ancestry.[265]
The Canadian census in 2001 records 37,705 individuals claimed wholly or partly Macedonian heritage in Canada,[267] although community spokesmen have claimed that there are actually 100,000–150,000 Macedonians in Canada.[268]
A significant Macedonian community can be found in the United States. The official number of Macedonians in the US is 49,455 (2004). The Macedonian community is located mainly inMichigan, New York,Ohio,Indiana andNew Jersey.[269]
Macedonians are an officially recognised minority group in Romania. They have a special reserved seat in the nation's parliament. In 2002, they numbered 731.
The culture of the people is characterized with both traditionalist and modernist attributes. It is strongly bound with their native land and the surroundings in which they live. The rich cultural heritage of the Macedonians is accented in the folklore, the picturesque traditional folk costumes, decorations and ornaments in city and village homes, the architecture, the monasteries and churches, iconostasis, wood-carving and so on. The culture of Macedonians can roughly be explained as Balkanic, closely related to that ofBulgarians andSerbs.
Architecture
Ottoman architecture inOhrid.Macedonian girls in traditional folk costumes.
The typical Macedonian village house is influenced byOttoman Architecture. Presented as a construction with two floors, with a hard facade composed of large stones and a wide balcony on the second floor. In villages with predominantly agricultural economy, the first floor was often used as a storage for the harvest, while in some villages the first floor was used as a cattle-pen.
The stereotype for a traditional Macedonian city house is a two-floor building with white façade, with a forward extended second floor, and black wooden elements around the windows and on the edges.
The history of film making in North Macedonia dates back over 110 years. The first film to be produced on the territory of the present-day the country was made in 1895 byJanaki and Milton Manaki inBitola. In 1995Before the Rain became the first Macedonian movie to be nominated for an Academy Award.[271]
From 1993 to 1994, 1,596 performances were held in the newly formed republic, and more than 330,000 people attended. The Macedonian National Theater (drama, opera, and ballet companies), the Drama Theater, the Theater of the Nationalities (Albanian and Turkish drama companies) and the other theater companies comprise about 870 professional actors, singers, ballet dancers, directors, playwrights, set and costume designers, etc. There is also a professional theatre for children and three amateur theaters. For the last thirty years a traditional festival of Macedonian professional theaters has been taking place inPrilep in honor ofVojdan Černodrinski, the founder of the modern Macedonian theater. Each year a festival of amateur and experimental Macedonian theater companies is held inKočani.
In the past, the Macedonian population was predominantly involved withagriculture, with a very small portion of the people who were engaged in trade (mainly in the cities). But after the creation of the People's Republic of Macedonia which started a social transformation based on Socialist principles, middle and heavy industries were started.
The closest relative of Macedonian isBulgarian,[272] followed bySerbo-Croatian. All theSouth Slavic languages form adialect continuum, in which Macedonian and Bulgarian form anEastern subgroup. TheTorlakian dialect group is intermediate between Bulgarian, Macedonian and Serbian, comprising some of the northernmostdialects of Macedonian as well as varieties spoken in southern Serbia and western Bulgaria. Torlakian is often classified as part of the Eastern South Slavic dialects.
One of the well-known monasteries –St. Panteleimon in Ohrid.
Most Macedonians are members of theMacedonian Orthodox Church. The official name of the church is Macedonian Orthodox Church – Ohrid Archbishopric and is the body of Christians who are united under theArchbishop of Ohrid and Macedonia, exercising jurisdiction over Macedonian Orthodox Christians in the Republic of North Macedonia and inexarchates in theMacedonian diaspora.
The church gained autonomy from theSerbian Orthodox Church in 1959 and declared the restoration of the historicArchbishopric of Ohrid. On 19 July 1967, the Macedonian Orthodox Church declaredautocephaly from the Serbian church. Due to protest from the Serbian Orthodox Church, the move was not recognised by any of the churches of theEastern Orthodox Communion. Thereafter, Macedonian Orthodox Church was not in communion with any Orthodox Church, until 2022 when it was reintegrated.[273] A small number of Macedonians belong to theRoman Catholic and theProtestant churches.
Between the 15th and the 20th centuries, duringOttoman rule, a number of Orthodox Macedonian Slavs converted to Islam. Today in the Republic of North Macedonia, they are regarded asMacedonian Muslims, who constitute the second largest religious community of the country.
Macedonian cuisine is a representative of the cuisine of theBalkans—reflecting Mediterranean (Greek) and Middle Eastern (Turkish) influences, and to a lesser extent Italian, German and Eastern European (especially Hungarian) ones. The relatively warm climate in North Macedonia provides excellent growth conditions for a variety of vegetables, herbs and fruits. Thus, Macedonian cuisine is particularly diverse.
Shopska salad, a food from Bulgaria, is an appetizer and side dish which accompanies almost every meal.[citation needed] Macedonian cuisine is also noted for the diversity and quality of itsdairy products, wines, and local alcoholic beverages, such asrakija.Tavče Gravče andmastika are considered the national dish and drink of North Macedonia, respectively.
Symbols used by members of the ethnic group include:
Lion: The lion first appears in theFojnica Armorial from the 17th century, where the coat of arms ofMacedonia is included among those of other entities. 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". The use of the lion to represent Macedonia was continued in foreign heraldic collections throughout the 17th and 18th centuries.[274][275] Nevertheless, during the late 19th century theInternal Macedonian-Adrianople Revolutionary Organization arose, which modeled itself after the earlierBulgarian revolutionary traditions and adopted their symbols as thelion, etc.[276][277] Modern versions of the historical lion has also been added to the emblem of several political parties, organizations and sports clubs. However, this symbol is not totally accepted while the statecoat of arms of Bulgaria is somewhat similar.
Flag of the Republic of Macedonia (1992–1995) depicting the Vergina Sun
Vergina Sun: (official flag, 1992–1995) Referred to as theSun of Kutleš, is used unofficially by various associations and cultural groups in the Macedonian diaspora. TheVergina Sun is believed to have been associated withancient Greek kings such asAlexander the Great andPhilip II, although it was used as an ornamental design in ancient Greek art long before the Macedonian period. The symbol was depicted on a golden larnax found in a 4th-century BC royal tomb belonging to either Philip II or Philip III of Macedon in theGreek region ofMacedonia. TheGreeks regard the use of the symbol by North Macedonia as a misappropriation of aHellenic symbol, unrelated to Slavic cultures, and a direct claim on the legacy of Philip II. However, archaeological items depicting the symbol have also been excavated in the territory ofNorth Macedonia.[278] In 1995, Greece lodged a claim fortrademark protection of the Vergina Sun as a state symbol underWIPO.[279] In Greece the symbol against a blue field is used vastly in the area ofMacedonia and it has official status. The sun of Kutleš 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.[280] On 17 June 2018, Greece and the Republic of Macedonia signed thePrespa Agreement, which stipulates the removal of the Vergina Sun's public use across the latter's territory.[281][282] In a session held on early July 2019, thegovernment of North Macedonia announced the complete removal of the Vergina Sun from all public areas, institutions and monuments in the country, with the deadline for its removal being set to 12 August 2019, in line with the Prespa Agreement.[283][284][285]
Genetics
Balto-Slavic populations comprised genetically by: A (autosomal DNA, sample size=14), B (Y-DNA, sample size=2) and C (mtDNA, sample size=1) on the plots (Macedonian samples are marked asMc in brown colored circle).
Anthropologically, Macedonians possess genetic lineages postulated to represent Balkan prehistoric and historicdemographic processes.[286] Such lineages are also typically found in neighboringSouth Slavs such asBulgarians andSerbs, in addition toGreeks,Albanians,Romanians andGagauzes.[g] According to a 2014 study, Macedonians autosomally cluster closer to Eastern Balkan populations (Bulgarians and Romanians), as well as Gagauzes (who appear to descend from northeastern Bulgaria), distinguishing them from other Western Balkan groups like Croatians and Bosnians, who align more with East Europeans.[296] According to a 2015 study onBalto–Slavs and their proximal populations, the South Slavic samples (which included 14 Macedonian samples) are distinct from other Balto-Slavic groups, and show internal differentiation into western South Slavs (Slovenians, Croatians, Bosnians), eastern South Slavs (Macedonians, Bulgarians), and Serbians lying in an intermediate position. Despite occupying a smaller geographic area, South Slavs show genetic distances that are as large as, or larger than, those of East Slavs, with eastern South Slavs clustering closely with neighboring non-Slavic populations such as Romanians and, to some extent, Greeks.[293]
Y-DNA studies suggest that Macedonians, along with neighboring South Slavs, are distinct from otherSlavic-speaking populations in Europe, and near half of theirY-chromosome DNA haplogroups are likely to be inherited from inhabitants of the Balkans that predated sixth-century Slavic migrations.[297] A diverse set of Y-DNA haplogroups are found in Macedonians at significant levels, including I2a1b, E-V13, J2a, R1a1, R1b, G2a, encoding a complex pattern of demographic processes.[298] Similar distributions of the same haplogroups are found in neighboring populations.[299][300] I2a1b and R1a1 are typically found in Slavic-speaking populations across Europe[301][302] while haplogroups such as E-V13 and J2 occur at high frequencies in neighboring non-Slavic populations.[299] On the other hand R1b is the most frequently occurring haplogroup inWestern Europe and G2a is most frequently found inCaucasus and the adjacent areas. According to a DNA data for 17 Y-chromosomalSTR loci in Macedonians, in comparison to other South Slavs andKosovo Albanians, the Macedonian population had the lowest genetic (Y-STR) distance against the Bulgarian population while having the largest distance against theCroatian population. However, the observed populations did not have significant differentiation in Y-STR population structure, except partially for Kosovo Albanians.[303] Genetic similarity, irrespective of language and ethnicity, has a strong correspondence to geographic proximity in European populations.[293][294][304]
In regard to population genetics, not all regions of Southeastern Europe had the same ratio of native Byzantine and invading Slavic population, with the territory of theEastern Balkans (Macedonia,Thrace andMoesia) having a significant percentage of locals compared to Slavs. Considering that the majority of Balkan Slavs came via the Eastern Carpathian route, lower percentage in the east does not imply that the number of the Slavs there was lesser than among theWestern South Slavs. Most probably on the territory of Western South Slavs was a state of desolation which produced there afounder effect.[305][306] The region of Macedonia suffered less disruption than frontier provinces closer to the Danube, with towns and forts close toOhrid,Bitola and along theVia Egnatia. Re-settlements and the cultural links of the Byzantine Era further shaped the demographic processes which the Macedonian ancestry is linked to.[307] A 2023archaeogenetic study published inCell, confirmed that the spread of Slavic language in Southeastern Europe was because of large movements of people with specific Eastern European ancestry, and that more than half of the ancestry of most peoples in the Balkans today originates from the medieval Slavic migrations, with around 67% in Croats, 58% in Serbs, 55% in Romanians, 51% in Bulgarians, 40% inGreek Macedonians, 31% in Albanians, 30% inPeloponnesian Greeks, and 4–20% in Greeks from theAegean Islands.[308][309]
^abNasevski, Boško; Angelova, Dora; Gerovska, Dragica (1995).Македонски Иселенички Алманах '95. Skopje: Матица на Иселениците на Македонија. pp. 52–53.
^Krste Misirkov,On the Macedonian Matters (Za Makedonckite Raboti), Sofia, 1903: "And, anyway, what sort of new Macedonian nation can this be when we and our fathers and grandfathers and great-grandfathers have always been called Bulgarians?"
^Sperling, James; Kay, Sean; Papacosma, S. Victor (2003).Limiting institutions?: the challenge of Eurasian security governance. Manchester, UK: Manchester University Press. p. 57.ISBN978-0-7190-6605-4.Macedonian nationalism Is a new phenomenon. In the early twentieth century, there was no separate Slavic Macedonian identity
^Titchener, Frances B.; Moorton, Richard F. (1999).The eye expanded: life and the arts in Greco-Roman antiquity. Berkeley: University of California Press. p. 259.ISBN978-0-520-21029-5.On the other hand, the Macedonians are a newly emergent people in search of a past to help legitimize their precarious present as they attempt to establish their singular identity in a Slavic world dominated historically by Serbs and Bulgarians. ... The twentieth-century development of a Macedonian ethnicity, and its recent evolution into independent statehood following the collapse of the Yugoslav state in 1991, has followed a rocky road. In order to survive the vicissitudes of Balkan history and politics, the Macedonians, who have had no history, need one.
^Kaufman, Stuart J. (2001).Modern hatreds: the symbolic politics of ethnic war. New York: Cornell University Press. p. 193.ISBN0-8014-8736-6.The key fact about Macedonian nationalism is that it is new: in the early twentieth century, Macedonian villagers defined their identity religiously—they were either "Bulgarian," "Serbian," or "Greek" depending on the affiliation of the village priest. ... According to the new Macedonian mythology, modern Macedonians are the direct descendants of Alexander the Great's subjects. They trace their cultural identity to the ninth-century Saints Cyril and Methodius, who converted the Slavs to Christianity and invented the first Slavic alphabet, and whose disciples maintained a centre of Christian learning in western Macedonia. A more modern national hero is Gotse Delchev, leader of the turn-of-the-century Internal Macedonian Revolutionary Organization (IMRO), which was actually a largely pro-Bulgarian organization but is claimed as the founding Macedonian national movement.
^Rae, Heather (2002).State identities and the homogenisation of peoples. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. p. 278.ISBN0-521-79708-X.Despite the recent development of Macedonian identity, as Loring Danforth notes, it is no more or less artificial than any other identity. It merely has a more recent ethnogenesis – one that can therefore more easily be traced through the recent historical record.
^Zielonka, Jan; Pravda, Alex (2001).Democratic consolidation in Eastern Europe. Oxford: Oxford University Press. p. 422.ISBN978-0-19-924409-6.Unlike the Slovene and Croatian identities, which existed independently for a long period before the emergence of SFRY Macedonian identity and language were themselves a product federal Yugoslavia, and took shape only after 1944. Again unlike Slovenia and Croatia, the very existence of a separate Macedonian identity was questioned—albeit to a different degree—by both the governments and the public of all the neighboring nations (Greece being the most intransigent)
^Rossos, Andrew (2008).Macedonia and the Macedonians: A History(PDF). Hoover Institution Press. p. 269.ISBN978-0-8179-4883-2. Archived fromthe original(PDF) on 28 January 2019. Retrieved28 January 2019.They were also insisting that the Macedonians sacrifice their national name, under which, as we have seen throughout this work, their national identity and their nation formed in the nineteenth century.
^Rossos, Andrew (2008).Macedonia and the Macedonians: A History(PDF). Hoover Institution Press. p. 284.ISBN978-0-8179-4883-2. Archived fromthe original(PDF) on 28 January 2019. Retrieved28 January 2019.Under very trying circumstances, most ethnic Macedonians chose a Macedonian identity. That identity began to form with the Slav awakening in Macedonia in the first half of the nineteenth century.
^Loring M. Danforth,The Macedonian Conflict: Ethnic Nationalism in a Transnational World, 1995, Princeton University Press, p.65,ISBN0-691-04356-6
^Stephen Palmer, Robert King,Yugoslav Communism and the Macedonian question, Hamden, Connecticut Archon Books, 1971, p.p.199-200
^James Horncastle, The Macedonian Slavs in the Greek Civil War, 1944–1949; Rowman & Littlefield, 2019,ISBN1498585051, p. 130.
^Stern, Dieter and Christian Voss (eds). 2006. "Towards the peculiarities of language shift in Northern Greece". In: "Marginal Linguistic Identities: Studies in Slavic Contact and Borderland Varieties." Eurolinguistische Arbeiten. Wiesbaden, Germany: Harrassowitz Verlag;ISBN9783447053549, pp. 87–101.
^A J Toynbee.Some Problems of Greek History, Pp 80; 99–103
^The Problem of the Discontinuity in Classical and Hellenistic Eastern Macedonia, Marjan Jovanonv. УДК 904:711.424(497.73)
^Irwin L. Merker, "The Ancient Kingdom of Paionia",Balkan Studies 6 (1965) 35., p.44, "show that the Paionians had been overthrown and made subject to Philip. This subjection did not mean that Paionia was incorporated into the Macedonian Kingdom"
^A Companion to Ancient Macedonia. Wiley -Blackwell, 2011. Map 2
^Во некрополата "Млака" пред тврдината во Дебреште, Прилеп, откопани се гробови со наоди од доцниот 7. и 8. век. Тие се делумно или целосно кремирани и не се ниту ромеjски, ниту словенски. Станува збор наjвероjатно, за Кутригурите. Ова протобугарско племе, под водство на Кубер, а како потчинето на аварскиот каган во Панониjа, околу 680 г. се одметнало од Аварите и тргнало кон Солун. Кубер ги повел со себе и Сермесиjаните, (околу 70.000 на број), во нивната стара татковина. Сермесиjаните биле Ромеи, жители на балканските провинции што Аварите ги заробиле еден век порано и ги населиле во Западна Панониjа, да работат за нив. На Кубер му била доверена управата врз нив. In English: In the necropolis 'Malaka' in the fortress of Debreshte, near Prilep, graves were dug with findings from the late 7th and early 8th century. They are partially or completely cremated and neither Roman nor Slavic. The graves are probably remains from theKutrigurs. This Bulgar tribe was led by Kuber... Средновековни градови и тврдини во Македонија. Иван Микулчиќ (Скопје, Македонска цивилизација, 1996)стр. 32–33.
^"The" Other Europe in the Middle Ages: Avars, Bulgars, Khazars and Cumans, East Central and Eastern Europe in the Middle Ages, 450 – 1450, Florin Curta, Roman Kovalev, BRILL, 2008,ISBN9004163891, p. 460.
^W Pohl.The Avars (History) in Regna and Gentes. The Relationship Between Late Antique and Early Medieval Peoples and Kingdoms in the Transformation of the Roman World. pp. 581, 587
^They spread from the original heartland in north-east Bulgaria to the Drina in the west, and to Macedonia in the south-west.; На целиот тој простор, во маса метални производи (делови од воената опрема, облека и накит), меѓу стандардните форми користени од словенското население, одвреме-навреме се појавуваат специфични предмети врзани за бугарско болјарство како носители на новата државна управа. See: Средновековни градови и тврдини во Македонија. Иван Микулчиќ (Скопје, Македонска цивилизација, 1996) стр. 35; 364–365.
^Dejan Bulić, The Fortifications of the Late Antiquity and the Early Byzantine Period on the Later Territory of the South-Slavic Principalities, and Their Re-occupation inTibor Živković et al., The World of the Slavs: Studies of the East, West and South Slavs: Civitas, Oppidas, Villas and Archeological Evidence (7th to 11th Centuries AD) with Srđan Rudić as ed. Istorijski institut, 2013, Belgrade;ISBN8677431047, pp. 186–187.
^Florin Curta. 'The Edinburgh History of the Greeks, C. 500 to 1050: The Early Middle Ages. pp. 259, 281
^Studies on the Internal Diaspora of the Byzantine Empire edited byHélène Ahrweiler,Angeliki E. Laiou, p. 58. Many were apparently based in Bitola, Stumnitsa and Moglena
^Cumans and Tatars: Oriental Military in the Pre-Ottoman Balkans, 1185–1365. Istvan Varsary. p. 67
^Czamanska, Ilona. (2016). Vlachs and Slavs in the Middle Ages and Modern Era. Res Historica. 41. 11. 10.17951/rh.2016.0.11.
^Гюзелев, Боян. Албанци в Източните Балкани, София 2004, Редактор: Василка Танкова, ИМИР (Международен центур за изследване на малцинствата и културните взаимодействия),ISBN9789548872454, стр. 10-22.
^Fine 1991, pp. 113, 196: "Two brothers ... Constantine and Methodius were fluent in the dialect of Slavic in the environs of Thessaloniki. They devised an alphabet to convey Slavic phonetics."
^Fine 1991, pp. 127: "Thus there was a Bulgarian state but as yet there were many people in it who did not have a sense of being Bulgarian. The Slavonic mission was to be a major means of making these Slavs in Macedonia—and other Slavs within the Bulgarian state as well—into Bulgarians."
^Hupchick, Dennis (2002).The Balkans: From Constantinople to Communism. New York: Palgrave Macmillan. p. 44.ISBN978-1-4039-6417-5.Boris I welcomed the refugees with open arms, offered them his atronage, and helped them establish a missionary operation centered on Ohrid in Bulgar Macedonia, where they trained youths for the clergy and translated the entire Orthodox liturgy into Slavic. The newly trained Slavic-speaking priests then were sent among the state's Slav subjects. As their influence spread and the numbers of converts multiplied, a new sense of community and state was created within the population. Separate ethnic identities slowly merged into a common Bulgarian one, and regional or tribal loyalties perceptibly shifted to the state, personified by its now-Christian ruler. A state of Bulgaria, as opposed to a Bulgar state, was born.
^Alexander Schenker.The Dawn of Slavic. pp. 188–190. Schenker argues that Ohrid was 'innovative' and 'native Slavic' whilst Preslav very much relied on Greek modelling.
^Per Curta, Preslav was the center from which the scriptorial innovation associated with the introduction of Cyrillic spread to other regions of Bulgaria. Florin Curta (2006).Southeastern Europe in the Middle Ages, 500–1250. Cambridge University Press. p. 221.ISBN9780521894524.
^Raymond Detrez. "Balkan cultural commonality and ethnic diversity". Ghent University, Belgium.
^Georgi Bakalov (2004),История на българите. Късно средновековие и Възраждане [History of the Bulgarians. Late Middle Ages and Renaissance], vol. 2, TRUD,ISBN9545284676, p. 23(in Bulgarian)
^J. V. A. Fine. "When Ethnicity Did Not Matter in the Balkans". pp. 3–5.
^Paul Wexler. "Relexification Hypothesis in Rumanian". p. 170
^Istvan Vasary. "Cumans and Tartars: Oriental military in the pre-Ottoman Balkans". p. 18
^Paul Stephenson. "Byzantium's Balkan Frontier". p. 78–79
^Florin Curta (2013).The Edinburgh History of the Greeks. 500–1250: The Middle Ages. p. 294 (echoing Anthony D Smith and Anthony Kaldellis): "no clear notion exists that the Greek nation survived into Byzantine times ... the ethnic identity of those who lived in Greece during the Middle Ages is best described as Roman."
^Mats Roslund (2008).Guests in the House: Cultural Transmission Between Slavs and Scandinavians. p. 79
^Selcuk Aksin Somel (2010),The A to Z of the Ottoman Empire, Scarecrow Press, 2010,ISBN1461731763,p. 168.
^Duncan M. Perry (1998),The Politics of Terror: The Macedonian Liberation Movements, 1893–1903, Duke University Press,ISBN0822308134, p. 15.
^Raymond Detrez (2010),The A to Z of Bulgaria, Scarecrow Press,ISBN0810872021, p. 271.
^Igot Despot, The Balkan Wars in the Eyes of the Warring Parties: Perceptions and Interpretations, 2012, iUniverse,ISBN9781475947038, p. 11.
^Vermeulen, Hans (1984). "Greek cultural dominance among the Orthodox population of Macedonia during the last period of Ottoman rule". In Blok, Anton; Driessen, Henk (eds.).Cultural Dominance in the Mediterranean Area. Nijmegen: Katholieke Universiteit. pp. 225–255.
^abGounaris, Basil G. (1995). "Social Cleavages and National 'Awakening' in Ottoman Macedonia".East European Quarterly.29 (4):409–426.
^abLoring M. Danforth, The Macedonian Conflict: Ethnic Nationalism in a Transnational World, 1995, Princeton University Press, pp. 56–60,ISBN0-691-04356-6
^Mark Biondich (2011).The Balkans: Revolution, War, and Political Violence Since 1878. Oxford University Press. p. 67.ISBN978-0-19-929905-8.
^Jelavich, Barbara (1983). History of the Balkans: Volume 2. Cambridge University Press.ISBN0521252490. p. 91
^Roumen Daskalov, Alexander Vezenkov as ed., Entangled Histories of the Balkans – Volume Three: Shared Pasts, Disputed Legacies; Balkan Studies Library, BRILL, 2015;ISBN9004290362, p. 454.
^abRoumen Daskalov, Tchavdar Marinov, Entangled Histories of the Balkans, Volume One: National Ideologies and Language Policies, BRILL, 2013,ISBN900425076X, pp. 283–285.
^The Macedonian Question an article from 1871 by Slaveykov published in the newspaper Macedonia inCarigrad he wrote: "We have many times heard from the Macedonists that they are not Bulgarians, but they are rather Macedonians, descendants of the Ancient Macedonians and we have always waited to hear some proofs of this, but we have never heard them."
^Балканска питања и мање историјско-политичке белешке о Балканском полуострву 1886–1905. Стојан Новаковић, Београд, 1906.
^"Since the Bulgarian idea, as it is well-known, is deeply rooted in Macedonia, I think it is almost impossible to shake it completely by opposing it merely with the Serbian idea. This idea, we fear, would be incapable, as opposition pure and simple, of suppressing the Bulgarian idea. That is why the Serbian idea will need an ally that could stand in direct opposition to Bulgarianism and would contain in itself the elements which could attract the people and their feelings and thus sever them from Bulgarianism. This ally I see in Macedonism...." except from the report of S. Novakovic to the Minister of Education in Belgrade in Cultural and Public Relations of the Macedonians with Serbia in the XIXth c., Skopje, 1960, p. 178.
^Rečnik od tri jezika: s. makedonski, arbanski i turski [Dictionary of Three languages: Macedonian, Albanian, Turkish], U državnoj štampariji, 1875, p. 48f.
^Theodosius of Skopje Centralen D'rzhaven istoricheski archiv (Sofia) 176, op. 1. arh.ed. 595, l.5–42 – Razgledi, X/8 (1968), pp. 996–1000.
^Diana Mishkova, ed. (2009).We, the People: Politics of National Peculiarity in Southeastern Europe. Central European University Press. p. 132.ISBN978-615-5211-66-9.
^Писмо на Теодосий до вестника на Българската екзархия "Новини" от 04.02.1892 г.
^Блаже Конески, Македонскиот XIX век. том 6, Составиле: Анастасија Ѓурчинова, Лидија Капушевска-ДракулевскаЫ Бобан Карапејовски, белешки и коментари: Георги Сталев, МАНУ, Скопје, 2020, стр. 72.
^Marco Dogo (1985).Lingua e nazionalità in Macedonia. Jaca Book. p. 50.ISBN978-88-16-95011-5.In quella data aveva appunto fatto ritorno da una missione in Macedonia il filologo Draganov, di origine bulgaro-bassarabiana, i cui contributi scientifici avrebbero introdotto il pubblico colto della capitale russa all'esistenza di un'area linguistica slava, in quella regione dei Balcani, dotata di caratteri individuanti propri e non assimilabili a quelli serbi e bulgari; ancora in tempi recentissimi Draganov era intervenuto a sostenere, sulle colonne di un autorevole giornale di Petroburgo, il buon diritto degli Slavi macedoni - o meglio Macedoni nel pieno sneso nazionale, e non piu solo geografico, della parola - al riconoscimento da parte russa quale nazionalita a se stante ed anzi maggioritaria in casa propria, in Macedonia.
^Information from a book by Gyorche Petrov on the ethnic composition of the population in Macedonia:The Macedonian population consists of Bulgarians, Turks, Albanians, Wallachians, Jews The total number of the population and that of each nationality cannot be defined exactly as there are no statistics... Bulgarians constitute the bulk of the population in the vilayet I am describing. In spite of all distortions in the official statistics, they again figure as more than half of the population. I could not personally collect any data about the number of the population, that is why I am not quoting figures. I made a description of the Bulgarian population in the section on Topography, that is why it is not necessary to repeat the same again or go into detail... (G. Petrov, Materials on the Study of Macedonia), Sofia, 1896, pp. 724-725, 731; the original is in Bulgarian. Bulgarian Academy of Sciences, Institute of History, Bulgarian Language Institute, Macedonia. Documents and materials, Sofia 1978, Document # 40.]
^The term 'project' tackles likewise the specific temporal orientation of the initial stage of formation of Macedonian ethnic nationalism: the Macedonian self-determination is seen by Misirkov as a future ideal and his national manifesto on the Macedonian Matters (Sofia, 1903) recognizes the lack of actual correlation between the concept of Macedonian Slavic ethnicity and the real self-identifications of the majority of Macedonian Slavs. In a rather demiurgical way, Misirkov is the first who exposes the basic 'ethnographic' characteristics of what he regards as 'inexistent' but 'possible' and 'necessary' Macedonian Slavic ethnicity... Tchavdar Marinov, "Between Political Autonomism and Ethnic Nationalism: Competing Constructions of Modern Macedonian National Ideology (1878–1913)", p. 3.
^Историја на македонската нација. Блаже Ристовски, 1999, Скопје.
^"On the Monastir Road". Herbert Corey,National Geographic, May 1917 (p. 388.)
^When narrating, in his autobiographical anti-war novelLife in Tomb, his convalescence in the house of a family of farmers inVelušina, a Slav-speaking patriarchist village near Bitola/Monastir, during his participation in theMacedonian front of World War I, Greek novelistStratis Myrivilis wrote of its inhabitants that they "do not want to be 'Bulgar', neither 'Srrp', nor 'Grrc'. Only 'Makedon Ortodox'". See:Μυριβήλης, Στράτης (25 September 1923).Ἡ Ζωὴ ἐν τάφῳ. Κεφάλαιο ιζ΄(PDF).Καμπάνα. Retrieved11 July 2022.Μανδαμαδιώτου, Μαρία.Στράτης Μυριβήλης: Από το Βλάντοβο στη Βελουσίνα, 1924-1955.Λεσβιακό Ημερολόγιο 2019, Σελ. 93-104.Tasos Kostopoulos (2009). "Naming the Other: From "Greek Bulgarians" to "Local Macedonians"". In Alexandra Ioannidou; Christian Voß (eds.).Spotlights on Russian and Balkan Slavic Cultural History. Munich/Berlin: Verlag Otto Sagner. p. 108.Mackridge, Peter (2009).Language and National Identity in Greece, 1776-1796. Oxford: Oxford University Press. p. 303.ISBN978-0-19-921442-6. On Velusina's population, see also:Brancoff, D.M. (1905).La Macédoine et sa Population Chrétienne. Paris: Plon-Nourrit et C. pp. 168–169.
^Boškovska, Nada (2017).Yugoslavia and Macedonia Before Tito: Between Repression and Integration. London / New York: I. B. Tauris. pp. 5–10.
^Mavrogordatos, George.Stillborn Republic: Social Coalitions and Party Strategies in Greece, 1922–1936. University of California Press, 1983.ISBN9780520043589, p. 227, 247
^<Michailidis, Iakovos D. (1996). "Minority Rights and Educational Problems in Greek Interwar Macedonia: The Case of the Primer "Abecedar"". Journal of Modern Greek Studies. 14 (2): 329–343.
^Victor Roudometof,Nationalism, Globalization, and Orthodoxy: The Social Origins of Ethnic Conflict in the Balkans (Contributions to the Study of World History), Praeger, 2001, p.187
^The Situation in Macedonia and the Tasks of IMRO (United) – published in the official newspaper of IMRO (United), "Македонско дело", N.185, April 1934.
^Произходът на македонската нация - Стенограма от заседание на Македонския Научен Институт в София през 1947 г.
^...Да, тоа е точно. И не само Димитар Влахов. Павел Шатев, Панко Брашнаров, Ризо Ризов и др. Меѓутоа, овде тезата е погрешно поставена. Не е работата во тоа дали левицата се определуваше за Србија, а десницата за Бугарија. Тука се мешаат поимите. Практично, ни левицата ни десницата не ја доведуваа во прашање својата бугарска провениенција. Тоа ќе го доведе дури и Димитар Влахов во 1948 година на седница на Политбирото, кога говореше за постоењето на македонска нација, да рече дека во 1931-1932 година е направена грешка. Сите тие ветерани останаа само на нивото на политички, а не и на национален сепаратизам... Акад. Иван Катарџиев. "Верувам во националниот имунитет на македонецот". мега-интервју за списание "Форум", архива број 329, Скопје, 22.07.2000.
^"Within Greece, and also within the new kingdom of Yugoslavia, which Serbia had joined in 1918, the ejection of the Bulgarian church, the closure of Bulgarian schools, and the banning of publication in Bulgarian, together with the expulsion or flight to Bulgaria of a large proportion of the Macedonian Slav intelligentsia, served as the prelude to campaigns of forcible cultural and linguistic assimilation...In both countries, these policies of de-bulgarization and assimilation were pursued, with fluctuating degrees of vigor, right through to 1941, when the Second World War engulfed the Balkan peninsula. The degree of these policies' success, however, remains open to question. The available evidence suggests that Bulgarian national sentiment among the Macedonian Slavs of Yugoslavia and Greece remained strong throughout the interwar period, though they lacked the means to offer more than passive resistance to official policies." For more see: F. A. K. Yasamee, Nationality in the Balkans: The case of the Macedonians. Balkans: A Mirror of the New World Order, Istanbul: Eren Publishing, 1995; pp. 121–132.
^"As in Kosovo, the restoration of Serbian rule in 1918, to which the Strumica district and several other Bulgarian frontier salients accrued in 1919 (Bulgaria also having lost all its Aegean coastline to Greece), marked the replay of the first Serbian occupation (1913–1915). Once again, the Exarchist clergy and Bulgarian teachers were expelled, all Bulgarian-language signs and books removed, and all Bulgarian clubs, societies, and organizations dissolved, The Serbianization of family surnames proceeded as before the war, with Stankov becoming Stankovic and Atanasov entered in the books by Atanackovic... Thousands of Macedonians left for Bulgaria. Though there were fewer killings of "Bulgarians" (a pro-Bulgarian source claimed 342 such instances and 47 additional disappearances in 1918 – 1924), the conventional forms of repression (jailings, internments etc.) were applied more systematically and with greater effect than before (the same source lists 2,900 political arrests in the same period)... Like Kosovo, Macedonia was slated for Serb settlements and internal colonization. The authorities projected the settlement of 50,000 families in Macedonia, though only 4,200 families had been placed in 280 colonies by 1940." For more see: Ivo Banac, "The National Question in Yugoslavia. Origins, History, Politics" The Macedoine, Cornell University Press, 1984;ISBN0801416752, pp. 307–328.
^Yugoslav Communists recognized the existence of a Macedonian nationality during WWII to quiet fears of the Macedonian population that a communist Yugoslavia would continue to follow the former Yugoslav policy of forced Serbianization. Hence, for them to recognize the inhabitants of Macedonia as Bulgarians would be tantamount to admitting that they should be part of the Bulgarian state. For that the Yugoslav Communists were most anxious to mold Macedonian history to fit their conception of Macedonian consciousness. The treatment of Macedonian history in Communist Yugoslavia had the same primary goal as the creation of the Macedonian language: to de-Bulgarize the Macedonian Slavs, and to create a national consciousness that would inspire identification with Yugoslavia. For more see: Stephen E. Palmer, Robert R. King, Yugoslav communism and the Macedonian question, Archon Books, 1971,ISBN0208008217, Chapter 9: The encouragement of Macedonian culture.
^The Serbianization of the Vardar region ended and Yugoslavization was not introduced either; rather, a policy of cultural, linguistic, and "historical" Macedonization by de-Bulgarianization was implemented, with immediate success. For more see: Irina Livezeanu and Arpad von KlimoThe Routledge as ed. History of East Central Europe since 1700, Routledge, 2017,ISBN1351863428, p. 490.
^In Macedonia, post-WWII generations grew up "overdosed" with strong anti-Bulgarian sentiment, leading to the creation of mainly negative stereotypes for Bulgaria and its nation. The anti-Bulgariansim (or Bulgarophobia) increased almost to the level of state ideology during the ideological monopoly of the League of Communists of Macedonia, and still continues to do so today, although with less ferocity... However, it is more important to say openly that a great deal of these anti-Bulgarian sentiments result from the need to distinguish between the Bulgarian and the Macedonian nations. Macedonia could confirm itself as a state with its own past, present and future only through differentiating itself from Bulgaria. For more see: Mirjana Maleska. With the eyes of the "other" (about Macedonian-Bulgarian relations and the Macedonian national identity). In New Balkan Politics, Issue 6, pp. 9–11. Peace and Democracy Center: "Ian Collins", Skopje, Macedonia, 2003. ISSN 1409-9454.
^After WWII in Macedonia the past was systematically falsified to conceal the fact that many prominent 'Macedonians' had supposed themselves to be Bulgarians, and generations of students were taught the pseudo-history of the Macedonian nation. The mass media and education were the key to this process of national acculturation, speaking to people in a language that they came to regard as their Macedonian mother tongue, even if it was perfectly understood in Sofia. For more see: Michael L. Benson, Yugoslavia: A Concise History, Edition 2, Springer, 2003,ISBN1403997209, p. 89.
^Once specifically Macedonian interests came to the fore under the Yugoslav communist umbrella and in direct confrontation with the Bulgarian occupation authorities (during WWII), the Bulgarian part of the identity of Vardar Macedonians was destined to die out – in a process similar to the triumph of Austrian over German-Austrian identity in post-war years. Drezov K. (1999) Macedonian identity: an overview of the major claims. In: Pettifer J. (eds) The New Macedonian Question. St Antony's Series. Palgrave Macmillan, London;ISBN978-0-333-92066-4, p. 51.
^Additionally, some 100,000 people were imprisoned in the post-1944 period for violations of the law for the "protection of Macedonian national honor," and some 1,260 Bulgarian sympathizers were allegedly killed. (Troebst, 1997: 248–50, 255–57; 1994: 116–22; Poulton, 2000: 118–19). For more see: Roudometof, Victor, Collective Memory, National Identity, and Ethnic Conflict: Greece, Bulgaria, and the Macedonian Question, Praeger Publishers, 2002.ISBN0-275-97648-3, p. 104.
^Diana Mishkova and Roumen Daskalov as ed., (2025) Balkan Historiographical Wars. The Middle Ages, Springer,ISBN9783031901133, p. 39.
^Nation, R.C. (1996). A Balkan Union? Southeastern Europe in Soviet Security Policy, 1944–8. In: Gori, F., Pons, S. (eds) The Soviet Union and Europe in the Cold War, 1943–53. Palgrave Macmillan, pp. 125–143.
^Marinov, Tchavdar & Vezenkov, Alexander. (2014). 6. Communism and Nationalism in the Balkans: Marriage of Convenience or Mutual Attraction?. in R. Daskalov, D. Mishkova, Tch. Marinov, A. Vezenkov,Entangled Histories of the Balkans. Vol. 4: Concepts, Approaches, and (Self-)Representations (Brill, 2017), pp. 440-593.
^History of the Balkans, Vol. 2: Twentieth Century. Barbara Jelavich, 1983.
^Djokic, Dejan (2003).Yugoslavism: Histories of a Failed Idea, 1918–1992. C. Hurst & Co. Publishers. p. 122.ISBN978-1-85065-663-0.
^Bulgarian sources assert that thousands lost their lives due to this cause after 1944, and that more than 100,000 people were imprisoned under the law for the protection of Macedonian national honour 'for opposing the new ethnogenesis'. 1,260 leading Bulgarians were allegedly killed in Skopje, Veles, Kumanovo, Prilep, Bitola and Stip... For more see: Hugh Poulton, Who are the Macedonians? C. Hurst & Co. Publishers, 2000,ISBN1850655340, p. 118.
^John Phillips, Macedonia: Warlords and Rebels in the Balkans. (2004) I.B. Tauris (publisher),ISBN186064841X, p. 40.
^The Handbook of Political Change in Eastern Europe, Sten Berglund, Edward Elgar Publishing, 2013,ISBN1782545883,p. 622.
^Transforming National Holidays: Identity Discourse in the West and South Slavic Countries, 1985–2010, Ljiljana Šarić, Karen Gammelgaard, Kjetil Rå Hauge, John Benjamins Publishing, 2012,ISBN9027206384,pp. 207–208.
^Предоставяне на българско гражданство, Справка за преиода 22.01.2002–15.01.2012 г. (Bulgarian citizenship Information for the period 22.01.2002–15.01.2012 year); Доклад за дейността на КБГБЧ за 2012–2013 година (Report on the activities of the CBCBA for 2012–2013 year), p. 7 Доклад за дейността на КБГБЧ за периода 23.01.2013 – 22.01.2014 година (Report on the activities of the CBCBA for the period 23.01.2013–22.01.2014 year), p. 6; Годишен доклад за дейността на КБГБЧ за периода 01.01.2014–31.12.2014 година (Annual report on the activities of the CBCBA for the period 01.01.2014–31.12.2014 year), p. 5; Годишен доклад за дейността на КБГБЧ за периода 01.01.2015–31.12.2015 година (Annual report on the activities of the CBCBA for the period 01.01.2015–31.12.2015 year), p. 6; Годишен доклад за дейността на КБГБЧ за периода 01.01.2016–31.12.2016 година (Annual report on the activities of the CBCBA for the period 01.01.2016–31.12.2016 year), p. 6; Доклад за дейността на комисията по българско гражданство за периода 14 януари – 31 декември 2017 г. (Activity Report of the Bulgarian Citizenship Commission for the period 14 January – 31 December 2017); Доклад за дейността на комисията по българско гражданство за периода 01 януари – 31 декември 2018 г. (Activity Report of the Bulgarian Citizenship Commission for the period 01 January – 31 December 2018); Доклад за дейността на комисията по българско гражданство за периода 01 януари – 31 декември 2019 г. (Activity Report of the Bulgarian Citizenship Commission for the period 01 January – 31 December 2019). Доклад за дейността на комисията по българско гражданство за периода 01 януари – 31 декември 2020 г. (Activity Report of the Bulgarian Citizenship Commission for the period 01 January – 31 December 2020).
^Bulgaria which has an ethnic citizenship regime and has a liberal dual citizenship regime makes a constitutional distinction between Bulgarians and Bulgarian citizens, whereas the former category reflects an ethnic (blood) belonging and the later the civic (territorial) belonging. In line with this definition, naturalization in Bulgaria is facilitated for those individuals who can prove that they belong to the Bulgarian nation...The birth certificates of parents and grandparents, their mother tongue, membership in Bulgarian institutions as the Bulgarian Church, former Bulgarian citizenship of the parents and so on are relevant criteria for the establishment of the ethnic origin of the applicant. In the case of Macedonian citizens, declaring their national identity as Bulgarian suffices to obtain Bulgarian citizenship, without the requirement for permanent residence in Bulgaria, or the language examination etc. For more see: Jelena Džankić, Citizenship in Bosnia and Herzegovina, Macedonia and Montenegro: Effects of Statehood and Identity Challenges, Southeast European Studies, Ashgate Publishing, 2015,ISBN1472446410, p. 126.
^Raymond Detrez, Historical Dictionary of Bulgaria, Historical Dictionaries of Europe, Rowman & Littlefield, 2014,ISBN1442241802, p. 318.
^Jo Shaw and Igor Štiks as ed., Citizenship after Yugoslavia, Routledge, 2013,ISBN1317967070, p. 106.
^Rainer Bauböck, Debating Transformations of National Citizenship, IMISCOE Research Series, Springer, 2018,ISBN3319927191, pp. 47–48.
^Michael Palairet, Macedonia: A Voyage through History (Vol. 2, From the Fifteenth Century to the Present), Cambridge Scholars Publishing, 2016,ISBN1443888494, p. 347.
^Mina Hristova, In-between Spaces: Dual Citizenship and Placebo Identity at the Triple Border between Serbia, Macedonia and Bulgaria in New Diversities; Volume 21, No. 1, 2019, pp. 37–55.
^Risteski, L. (2016). "Bulgarian passports" – Possibilities for greater mobility of Macedonians and/or strategies for identity manipulation? EthnoAnthropoZoom/ЕтноАнтропоЗум, (10), 80–107.https://doi.org/10.37620/EAZ14100081r
^Ljubica Spaskovska, Country report on Macedonia, November 2012. EUDO Citizenship Observatory, Robert Schuman Centre for Advanced Studies, p.20.
^Eugene N. Borza,Makedonika, Regina Books,ISBN0-941690-65-2, p.114: The "highlanders" or "Makedones" of the mountainous regions of western Macedonia are derived from northwest Greek stock; they were akin both to those who at an earlier time may have migrated south to become the historical "Dorians".
^Nigel Guy Wilson,Encyclopedia of Ancient Greece, Routledge, 2009, p.439: The latest archaeological findings have confirmed that Macedonia took its name from a tribe of tall, Greek-speaking people, the Makednoi.
^Roumen Daskalov, Tchavdar Marinov, Entangled Histories of the Balkans, Volume One: National Ideologies and Language Policies, BRILL, 2013,ISBN900425076X, pp. 280–287.
^Jelavich Barbara, History of the Balkans, Vol. 2: Twentieth Century, 1983, Cambridge University Press,ISBN0521274591, page 91.
^John S. Koliopoulos, Thanos M. Veremis, Modern Greece: A History since 1821. A New History of Modern Europe, John Wiley & Sons, 2009,ISBN1444314831, p. 48.
^Richard Clogg, Minorities in Greece: Aspects of a Plural Society. C. Hurst & Co. Publishers, 2002,ISBN1850657068, p. 160.
^Dimitar Bechev, Historical Dictionary of the Republic of Macedonia, Scarecrow Press, 2009,ISBN0810862956, Introduction, pp. VII-VIII.
^Drezov, Kyril (1999). Macedonian identity: an overview of the major claims. In: Pettifer, James. (eds) The New Macedonian Question. St Antony's Series. Palgrave Macmillan, London,ISBN0230535798, pp. 49–51.
^Anastas Vangeli, Nation-building ancient Macedonian style: the origins and the effects of the so-called antiquization in Macedonia. Nationalities Papers, the Journal of Nationalism and Ethnicity, Volume 39, 2011 pp. 13–32.
^Raymond Detrez, Pieter Plas, Developing cultural identity in the Balkans: convergence vs divergence, Volume 34 of Multiple Europesq Peter Lang, 2005,ISBN9052012970, p. 173.
^L. M. Danforth, The Macedonian Conflict: Ethnic Nationalism in a Transnational World 1995, Princeton University Press.
^Jacques Bacid, PhD Macedonia Through the Ages. Columbia University, 1983.
^Hill, P. (1999) "Macedonians in Greece and Albania: A Comparative study of recent developments". Nationalities Papers Volume 27, 1 March 1999, p. 44(14).
^Poulton, H.(2000), "Who are the Macedonians?", C. Hurst & Co. Publishers.
^abc"Greece". Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights, and Labor. Retrieved27 October 2016.
^Cowan, Jane K.; Dembour, Marie-Bénédicte; Wilson, Richard A. (29 November 2001).Culture and Rights. Cambridge University Press.ISBN978-0-521-79735-1. Retrieved18 March 2015.
^L. M. Danforth, The Macedonian Conflict: Ethnic Nationalism in a Transnational World 1995, Princeton University Press, p. 45
^Detrez, Raymond; Plas, Pieter (2005), Developing cultural identity in the Balkans: convergence vs divergence, Peter Lang, pp. 50
^Second Macedonian newspaper in Greece –"Втор весник на Македонците во Грција...Весникот се вика "Задруга"...За нецел месец во Грција излезе уште еден весник на Македонците/A Second Macedonian Newspaper in greece...The Newspaper is Called "Zadruga/Koinothta"...Barely a month ago in Greece another newspaper for the Macedonians was released."
^"Нова зора" – прв весник на македонски јазик во ГрцијаArchived 9 May 2010 at theWayback Machine –""Нова зора" – прв весник на македонски јазик во Грција...При печатењето на тиражот од 20.000 примероци се појавиле само мали технички проблеми/Nova Zora – the first Macedonian-language newspaper in Greece...There were only small technical problems with the printing of the circulation of 20,000"
^Artan Hoxha and Alma Gurraj, Local Self-Government and Decentralization: Case of Albania. History, Reforms and Challenges. In: Local Self Government and Decentralization in South — East Europe. Proceedings of the workshop held in Zagreb, Croatia 6 April 2001. Friedrich Ebert Stiftung, Zagreb Office, Zagreb 2001, pp. 194–224 (PDF).
^Day, Alan John; East, Roger; Thomas, Richard (2002).Political and economic dictionary of Eastern Europe. Routledge. p. 94.ISBN1-85743-063-8.
^Petlichkovski A, Efinska-Mladenovska O, Trajkov D, Arsov T, Strezova A, Spiroski M (2004). "High-resolution typing of HLA-DRB1 locus in the Macedonian population".Tissue Antigens.64 (4):486–491.doi:10.1111/j.1399-0039.2004.00273.x.PMID15361127.
^abcKushniarevich, Alena; et al. (2015)."Genetic Heritage of the Balto-Slavic Speaking Populations: A Synthesis of Autosomal, Mitochondrial and Y-Chromosomal Data".PLOS ONE.10 (9) e0135820.Bibcode:2015PLoSO..1035820K.doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0135820.PMC4558026.PMID26332464.Most South Slavs are separated from the rest of the Balto-Slavic populations and form a sparse group of populations with internal differentiation into western (Slovenians, Croatians and Bosnians) and eastern (Macedonians and Bulgarians) regions of the Balkan Peninsula with Serbians placed in-between (Fig 2A and 2B). The mean population pairwise genetic distances for South Slavs (DNei = 0.239 for NRY; FST = 0.0009 for autosomal data) (Tables A,B in S1 File) are comparable or higher to the ones for East Slavs despite the smaller region within the Balkan Peninsula that they occupy. Furthermore, Slovenians lie close to the non-Slavic-speaking Hungarians, whereas eastern South Slavs group is located together with non-Slavic-speaking but geographically neighboring Romanians and, to some extent, with Greeks.
^Kovacevic, Lejla; et al. (2014)."Standing at the Gateway to Europe – The Genetic Structure of Western Balkan Populations Based on Autosomal and Haploid Markers".PLOS One.9 (8) e105090.Bibcode:2014PLoSO...9j5090K.doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0105090.ISSN1932-6203.PMC4141785.PMID25148043.For visualization of FST distances between populations (Figure 4A) we constructed a graph with the distance-based Neighbor-net method of software SplitsTree for the populations of interest. The resulting network exemplifies genetic affinity between Western Balkan populations that form a bridge between East-European Slavic speakers and populations from Eastern Balkan and the Middle East (Figure 5). The Croatians and Bosnians are more close to East European populations and largely overlap with Hungarians from Central Europe, while Kosovars and Macedonians cluster closer to Eastern Balkan populations and Gagauzes (Figures 3 and 5). Interestingly, the Gagauzes, who geographically locate in East Europe, are more similar to Eastern and Western Balkan populations according to their autosomal profiles (Figure 2, 3 and 5) than to East Europeans. This agrees with the earlier study of the NRY variation suggesting that the Gagauzes descend from northeastern Bulgaria. The Kosovars deviate the most from other Western Balkan populations – note, that among those they have also the biggest similarity to Greeks (Figures 1, 3 and 5). Serbians and Montenegrins have an intermediate position on PCA plot and on Fst –based network among other Western Balkan populations (Figures 3 and 5).
^Renata Jankova et al., Y-chromosome diversity of the three major ethno-linguistic groups in the Republic of North Macedonia; Forensic Science International: Genetics; Volume 42, September 2019, Pages 165–170.
^abTrombetta B. "Phylogeographic Refinement and Large Scale Genotyping of Human Y Chromosome Haplogroup E Provide New Insights into the Dispersal of Early Pastoralists in the African Continent"http://gbe.oxfordjournals.org/content/7/7/1940.long
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