Macedonian Question Research Articles

Alexis Heraclides, The Macedonian Question and the Macedonians: A History

Review of Alexis Heraclides, The Macedonian Question and the Macedonians: A History. London: Routledge, 2021. 292 pp.

The Macedonian Question from the Perspective of W. H. Abdullah Quilliam, “The Boy Who is the Servant of God” in Britain: Translation and Analysis of “The Troubles in the Balkans: The Turkish Side of the Question”

Bu makalede, 1856-1932 yılları arasında İngiltere’de yaşamış, Sultan Abdülhamid’le birçok sefer görüşmüş, Müslüman bir aktivist olan William Henry Abdullah Quilliam’ın 1903 yılında Liverpool’da düzenlenen bir toplantıda Balkan Sorununa dair yapmış olduğu değerlendirmeleri derlediği eseri incelenmiş ve eserin çevirisi yapılmıştır. Osmanlı Devleti bu dönemde birçok sorunla karşı karşıyaydı. Bu sorunlardan biri de Şark meselesi bağlamında milletlerarası bir nitelik kazanan Makedonya Sorunuydu. Bu sorun Osmanlı Devleti’nin zayıflaması ve Balkanlar’da çeşitli etnik gruplar arasında yaşanan karmaşık çatışmalarla ilgiliydi. XIX. yüzyılın sonlarında Osmanlı egemenliğinin zayıflaması karşısında Bulgaristan, Yunanistan ve Sırbistan bölge üzerinde birtakım iddialarda bulundu ve bölge, adı geçen devletler arasında şiddetli mücadelelere sahne oldu. Osmanlı Devleti’nin zayıflaması ve etnik çatışmaların artması, Makedonya’da çeşitli gruplar arasında siyasi rekabete ve toprak taleplerine yol açtı. Bulgarlar, bölgenin Bulgar kimliğine ait olduğunu iddia ederken, Sırplar ve Yunanlar da kendi etnik bağlantılarına dayalı olarak bölge üzerinde hak iddia ettiler. Bu olaylar yaşanırken İngiltere basını hadiseleri kendi kamuoyuna tarafgir bir dille aktarmayı tercih ediyordu. Quilliam, bütün bunlara bir tepki olarak “Balkanlardaki Sorunlar: Meselenin Türk Tarafı” başlıklı eserinde Balkanlarda yaşanan dönemin politik olaylarına ve etnik çatışmalara Müslüman bir perspektif sunmayı amaçlayarak, Osmanlı Devleti’ndeki Müslüman topluluğunun yaşadığı zorlukları anlamaya ve bunu İngiliz kamuoyuna anlatmaya çalıştı.

Are There Serbs in Serres? The Serbian Consulate in Serres and The Macedonian Question at The Turn of the Twentieth Century

This article examines the brief history of the Serbian consulate in Serres in 1897–1899 as a failed attempt at state-building. Drawing on evidence from recently published materials by the Serbian State Archives, the article argues that the Serbian consuls in Serres, Branislav Nušić and Sima Avramović, played an important role in the efforts to promote Serbian national identity and defend Serbian political interests in Ottoman Macedonia. The consulate in Serres was part of an expanding Serbian diplomatic network in Macedonia, which proved instrumental to other Serbian initiatives, such as the creation of new schools and the appointment of Serbian priests in the region. The Serbian consular activities in Serres formed an aspect of a wide-ranging transnational strategy of deploying consulates across Macedonia in the wake of the Serbian-Bulgarian War of 1885. Such institutions served to advance national interests and protect national subjects outside the borders of the fledgling Balkan states. Reviewing recent scholarship on Romania, Bulgaria, and Greece, the article concludes by comparing the Serbian example to those of other Balkan nations and suggesting further venues for comparative and entangled historical research.

The use of the Macedonian name dispute on the candidates’ websites in Northern Greece’s regional and municipal elections of 2019

ABSTRACT This research paper employed Ideological Discourse Analysis (IDA) to study the use of the Macedonian Name Dispute (MND) on the websites of the eight most prominent candidates of the regional and municipal elections of 2019 in Thessaloniki and Central Macedonia. MND is one of the oldest territorial name disputes in the world, as it is connected to the Macedonian Question dating back to the end of the 19th century. For almost 30 years, the MND has been used in Greece’s political competition, and more recently in 2018 and 2019 due to the ratification of the Prespes (or Prespa) Agreement between Greece and the country now-named North Macedonia. This study revealed that politicians employed the MND as a communication tool to provoke powerful emotions linked with the Greek identity. After all, MND, like other territorial name disputes (e.g., South China Sea, Persian/Arabian Gulf, Kuril Islands/Northern Territories, Nagorno-Karabakh/Artsakh, Western Sahara), seems to preserve a dominant discourse in which the emotional factor dictates the truth and goes against those who oppose this existing reality.

Religious and Political Antagonism Between Greece and Bulgaria in the Context of the Church Dispute, the Treaty of San Stefano, and the Treaty of Berlin

This paper deals with the question of the driving forces of the religious, ecclesiastic, and political antagonism between Greece and Bulgaria in the context of the Treaties of San Stefano and Berlin, in combination with the national awakening and ethnic rivalries of the period. As a result, the study investigates the Greek-Bulgarian Church Dispute, which involved the quest for an autonomous Bulgarian Church, the schism from the Patriarchate, and the antagonism for religious loyalties connected to ethnic identities after the pre-national era and the emergence of nationalism. Consequently, the paper examines the political and nationalistic aspects of Greek-Bulgarian antagonism, with a special focus on the politico-territorial disputes resulting from the San Stefano and Berlin Treaties. Lastly, the paper showcases the connection this antagonism had to the Macedonian Question regarding the cause of the never-ending turmoil in the Balkans, the powder keg of Europe.

The Orthodox Church and the Macedonian Question in North America: Religion, Diaspora, and Ethnic Politics (1957–1989)

In the Orthodox commonwealth, faith has been an important variable of national identity since the Balkan national movements of the nineteenth century. Part of the literature highlights how local Churches stood by and assisted self-determination efforts. Later, during the Cold War, political and national aspirations were transferred via the Church and immigrant institutions into North America. More precisely, Greek-, Bulgarian-, and Slav-Macedonian communities, with the support of their respective Churches, created an environment of antagonism regarding the ownership of the geographic area of Macedonia. In the aftermath of World War II, the aforementioned diasporas mobilized to defend their political ambitions and mother Churches and their eparchies coordinated their efforts to exert influence on immigrants originating from all three parts of Macedonia and to increase support for their national claims among the US and Canadian publics.

DEATH OF JOSIP BROZ TITO AND THE BULGARIAN FOREIGN POLICY

The link between Tito’s illness and death, the events in Afghanistan and the Macedonian question is explored through newly declassified archival documents and memoir sources. In 1980, Belgrade and the world feared that Yugoslavia would descend into chaos after Tito’s death. The Soviet Union was expected to invade Yugoslavia after Afghanistan in order to reach the Adriatic coast before its NATO adversaries. Soviet troops would attack through Bulgarian territory, and Bulgaria would take advantage of the situation to settle the Macedonian question in its favour. “The Bulgarian threat” has served as one of the important instruments for preserving the internal cohesion of the nations of the federation.

Motivi jugoslavensko-bugarskog povezivanja potkraj 2. svjetskog rata i u poraću

This article aims to present the motives of the geopolitical restructuring of South-East Europe at the end of World War II with an emphasis on relations between Yugoslavia and Bulgaria. In this context, the author first identifies the interwar interests of four involved parties, namely: the Yugoslav and Bulgarian communist leaderships, and the political representatives of the Soviet Union and the United Kingdom. In the second part, the author describes the development of the idea of Yugoslav-Bulgarian integration after the War, first during the period of rapprochement between two communist parties, and then in the period of the Cominform crisis and the dramatic turnaround in their relations. Besides different macro- -geopolitical visions, the author also identifies significant differences in motives at the micro-geopolitical level. Contrary to the proclaimed idea of the 'South Slavic Brotherhood', the Communist Party of Yugoslavia perceived the idea foremost as a maneuvering tool in its relations with the UK and the Soviets, while the Bulgarian Communist Party used the (con)federal idea for pursuing multi-layered interests. It was primarily a part of the strategy for resolving the Macedonian question, but the alliance with Yugoslavia was also a tool for protecting Bulgarian territories in the relations with Greece, and consequently leverage for strengthening the internal position of Bulgarian communists in the post-war consolidation process.

THE MONTHLY ISSUE “VARDAR”, EDITED BY KRSTE PETKOV MISIRKOV IN 1905 AND THE MACEDONIAN qUESTION

The first and only edition of the journal “Vardar” was published on September 1, 1905, in Odessa under the editorship of Krste Petkov Misirkov. K. Misirkov. His aim and goal were to attract the attention of the general public in the region and in Europe toward the “Macedonian question” and to the Macedonian national separatists’ program and followers (as Misirkov calls himself and his followers), while facing opponents with a series of arguments and negating those that deny the existence of a separate, Slavic, Macedonian nation. K. Misirkov published an article devoted to the emergence and interpretations of the Serbian and Bulgarian theories on the Macedonian nationality where he clearly points to the official stances and both sides’ non-recognition of the distinctiveness of the Macedonian nationality, which in turn were reflected in the official territorial claims of the neighboring Bulgarian and Serbian states toward Macedonia. The following article of “Vardar” presents statistical data for villages: their names, populations according to nationality, land ownership, number of houses and affiliation to the Southern Macedonian kazas, specifically Pazar, Thessaloniki, Gevgelija and Kukuš.

Строители Милутина и Душана как проводники имперской идеологии в Македонии

Serbian rulers in their projects were guided by the examples of the cultural and political centers of Byzantium (Constantinople, Arta, Thessaloniki, Mystra). This is why the five-domed type churches considered by customers as a concept of a metropolitan-style church are often found during this period. New political conditions and a peace treaty with Byzantium (1299) opened up opportunities for Serbian customers to use Byzantine builders in large–scale church construction and reconstruction old Greek churches. The nature of the implementation of these projects was largely determined by the configuration of the original buildings and the regional traditions of the invited architects. During this period, Byzantine forms were often combined with the architectural specifics of Raška region, which led to the creation of original solutions. Serbian architecture cannot be reduced to just coping certain Byzantine architectural paradigms of Thessaloniki or Constantinople. This research was funded by the Russian Scientific Fund, project 20-18-00294 “Artistic Traditions and Ecclesiastic-Political Ideology in the Medieval Architecture and Art of the Balkans. Macedonian Question”.

The Republic of North Macedonia - A 'new' country in the Western Balkans

Abstract The article tries to explain and define political processes and changes trhough history of the 'new' Western Balkans country - the Republic of North Macedonia. It is word about analysis of the political dispute between Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia (FYROM) and Greece, from its biginnings until the present day. This paper will try to give the real picture of political area in the Balkans and explore deeper roots of the 'Macedonian Question' controversy. Also, it will give the explinations of the resolution of 27-year dispute, (between the two neighbor countries), by signing the Prespa Agreement. Hence, leaving by side national identity and history, the North Macedonia will be able to join the European Union and NATO. Thus, in short period of time, a 'new' country in the Western Balkans has putted in the center of the regional politics, with clear purpose: promoting ethnic and cultural heritance in the edge of the European continent.

Inventing a Prosthetic Bourgeoisie: Romania and the Aromanians, 1848–1906

AbstractThe present article focuses on the period between 1848 and 1906—between the politicized “discovery” of Balkan Aromanians as a kinfolk by Romanian nation-state builders and the aftermath of the community’s recognition by the Ottoman government. Examining how Romania imagined its own entanglement in the Macedonian Question, the article aims to raise the broader question of how a nation-state imagined the agency of kinfolk beyond its borders and, as part of a geographically distributed national division of labor, ascribed a specific task to one part of its ethnic body. In Romania’s case, this had a double thrust. One, Aromanians were imagined as the natural bourgeoisie of the southern Balkans, a people superior in their origins, culture, and mores to other ethnic groups—and a natural vanguard for Romania’s economic interests in the region. Two, they were imagined as a vanguard for catalyzing the internal development of a native merchant class in Romania proper, which was understood as a primary agent for economic and social progress but perceived to be problematically absent. Thus, this study hones in on the process of ascribing the status of a “prosthetic bourgeoisie” to the Aromanians, and its insistent discursive recurrence.

Тhe Russian publicist Alexandre Baschmakoff on the Macedonian question in letters and journalism (1899)

The article studies the views of the Slavophile Alexandre Baschmakoff on the essence and solution of the «Macedonian question» in 1899 developed in his book «Bulgaria and Macedonia» and archival letters to Count N. P. Ignatiev, the latter for the first time used as a historical source. Special aspects of the representation of facts in Baschmakoff’s book and letters are highlighted. In addition the author documents the unofficial manner of his trip. It is shown that Baschmakoff sought to reach Macedonia by the time of the alleged general uprising and become a mediator between the rebels and official Russia. One of the main sources of information about the political situation in the region for him during the trip were testimonies of Bulgarian oppositionists, while his concept of ethnic composition in Macedonia was based on his own observations. The main attention in the work is paid to Baschmakoff’s ideas about the necessary Russian foreign policy course in Bulgaria and Macedonia in 1899: in his opinion, the goal of Russian diplomacy should have been an establishment of autonomy in Macedonia avoiding war and an active foreign policy course towards the Balkans.

BRIBERY AS A METHOD OF FOREIGN OFFICE’S BULGARIAN POLICY (JANUARY – SEPTEMBER 1915)

The article is concentrated on the problem of environment where British diplomats were working, and reasons for which they used or did not used the bribery in the secret diplomacy. In order to shed light on them, the discovery is showing activities on the diplomatic front (the question of the territorial compansations, the Macedonian question) and on the theatres of combat operations (the Eastern front, the Dardasnelles operation), and also the priorities of foreign policy of the Bulgarian leadership. The research shows that at the beginning of the year British diplomacy in Bulgaria remained undefined; in the March-May the British side was sure that effects of Dardanelles operation are enough to force Bulgaria to propose cooperation by herself. Only in July-September after military and diplomatic defeats the Foreign Office intensified in bribery and attempt to outrun Central Powers in this regard. Using bribery by London in Bulgarian diplomacy is compared with activity of the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs. The Russian diplomats spent more attention to the financing pro-Russian press and clubs, which anyway was insufficient. At the same time, British diplomats always raised the issue of bribery for politicians not for press. The «declosiers affair» was an important episode in bribing Bulgaria. It was an operation for buying Bulgarian harvest. The Great Britain took part in it. The operation did not produced necessary results and did not sway Bulgaria on Entente’s side. Finally, the Great Britain did not benefit from bribery in Bulgaria. In contrast, the Central Powers managed to bribe Bulgarian press, politicians and government and to bite Entente’s propositions in buying the harvest.

The New Macedonian Question: the Current Stage of Development

The article is devoted to the analysis of the current state of the New Macedonian question. Authors examine two treaties that seemed to settle the New Macedonian question: The 2017 Treaty of Friendship, Good-neighborliness and Cooperation between Macedonia and Bulgaria, and the 2018 Prespa agreement signed by the representatives of Macedonia and Greece. The successful negotiations that resulted in the signing of these international agreements have raised a diffi cult question for researchers, which can be formulated as follows: what is the current stage of development of the New Macedonian Question? Does this problem belong to history or current international relations? The main goal of the work is a detailed analysis of the two above-mentioned treaties in the context of their impact on the New Macedonian question. Authors attempted not only to examine the two treaties separately, but also to place these documents in the broader context of extremely contradictory international relations on the Balkan Peninsula, and to show the mutual infl uence of various aspects of the New Macedonian question as the complex problem of international relations. The article has a scientifi c value since the Prespa agreement and the Treaty of friendship have not yet been properly examined in the scientifi c literature, despite the wide coverage in the media. The article proves the thesis that two treaties did not settle the New Macedonian question and only led to the creation of new problems related to the independent Macedonian state. The serious unilateral concessions made by the Macedonian leadership to resolve the name dispute, the freezing of the historical dispute with Bulgaria, and the continued distrust between the Macedonians and Albanians after the Ohrid agreement do not give grounds to speak of a successful solution of the New Macedonian question.

The Macedonian “Name” Dispute: The Macedonian Question—Resolved?

AbstractThe dispute between Greece and the newly formed state referred to as the “Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia” that emerged out of the collapse of Yugoslavia in 1991 was a major source of instability in the Western Balkans for more than 25 years. It was resolved through negotiations between Athens and Skopje, mediated by the United Nations, resulting in the Prespa (or Prespes) Agreement, which was signed on June 17, 2018, and ratified by both parliaments amid controversy in their countries. The underlying issues involved deeply held and differing views relating to national identity, history, and the future of the region, which were resolved through a change in the name of the new state and various agreements as to identity issues. The author, the United Nations mediator in the dispute for 20 years and previously the United States presidential envoy with reference to the dispute, describes the basis of the dispute, the positions of the parties, and the factors that led to a successful resolution.

The Balkans in the Cold War. by Svetozar Rajak et al., eds., London: Palgrave Macmillan, 2017. 372 pp. €106.99.

<i>The Balkans in the Cold War</i>. by Svetozar Rajak et al., eds., London: Palgrave Macmillan, 2017. 372 pp. €106.99.

Греция и Северная Македония: прорыв в двусторонних отношениях

After the collapse of the united Yugoslavia in the early 1990s, the so-called &ldquo;Macedonian question&rdquo; was considered the strongest constraining and destabilizing factor to integration processes in the Balkans in general and the post-Yugoslav space in particular. It was an unsolvable problem in the bilateral relations between Greece and the neighboring Macedonia (recently known as the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, FYROM). The main value of the problem is that the Greek side considered it unlawful and immoral to use its historical, cultural and linguistic features by the current Slavic state for its own purposes, which could create sufficient preconditions for separatist manifestations not only in Greece but also in Bulgaria. Furthermore, the use of ancient symbols by the Macedonian side as its state insignia (for example, the Vergina Sun, official language or citizenship) provoked resistance from the Greeks. In addition, the unresolved Macedonian question blocked Skopje&rsquo;s entry into the North-Atlantic Treaty Organization and the European Union structures. The Greek government was able to enlist the support of not only the local population, but also its main partners among the EU and NATO member states. A long-awaited Greek-Macedonian agreement was signed near the Prespa border lake after lengthy and thorough negotiations in the summer of 2018. Undoubtedly, it was the result of a compromise solution on the main issues causing mutual discontent. As the Prespa Agreement outcome, the Republic of North Macedonia appeared on the political map of Europe in February 2019. In fact, immediately after the Prespa Agreement conclusion, a serious impetus and breakthrough were given not only to continue mutually beneficial cooperation between the Hellenic Republic and the North Macedonia, but also to intensify the negotiation process for Skopje&rsquo;s accession to the NATO already in March 2020 and the European Union on an earlier date.

Marion PoschmannThe Pine Islands by Jen Calleja

premise of a collegiate backpacker is given complexity and drama as Anna unexpectedly deviates from the typical European tourist cities to explore the Balkans in the summer of 1968. Even twenty years out from World War II, the persistence of anti-Semitism makes her mountain passage fraught with danger. The story slopes suddenly into one of political intrigue, cultural identity, and the fight to resist erasure by the dominant power structures. Levy has previously published nonfiction on the history and culture of the Balkans, and her expertise shines as Anna is pulled deeper into the world of underground political resistance. Anna’s Dance is sometimes surreal with its hairpin twists and turns and can feel breathless at times. It is difficult to say whether this is done purposefully, to mimic the tempestuous history of the Balkans and its shifting political allegiances, or whether the book could have used more time and space to foster a connection between its readers and the heroine. In many ways, Anna is not a heroine at all or even a true protagonist. The events of the story seem to just happen to her as she thumbs a ride on a half-hearted and fearful search for an identity she would often rather run from. The people she meets along the way, however, have a depth, strength, and deep devotion to their heritage that is compelling and engaging. The history as told by these rebels and resistance fighters is fascinating and personal, and where Levy comes into her own as a storyteller. The history of the Macedonian Question and the Balkan Wars, as told by freedom fighters Spiro and Kosta in the dim light of kitchens and dance halls, becomes as relevant as today’s social justice movements, a grim but hopeful reminder of the constancy of civil unrest and the fight of the underdog for a fairer world. Ultimately, their passion transforms Anna, who comes to a deeper understanding of the importance of her heritage and the preservation of the traditions of those that came before her, and those who will come after. Elizabeth Stevens University of Oklahoma Marion Poschmann The Pine Islands Trans. Jen Calleja. Toronto. Coach House Books. 2020. 160 pages. THE DELIGHT IN CLASSIFICATION in classical Japan, or perhaps the taste for precision, extended even to the aesthetic appearances of matsu, or pine trees, which could be divided according to their forms. Chokkan: upright trunk tapering off at the top. Mōyogi: the S-shape. Shakkan: trunk bent at a forty-five-degree angle. Fukinagashi : the windswept form. Kengai: the cascade. Bunjingi: the weathered, timeworn look, beloved of poets. Matsu were an important subject in classical Japanese literature, and none more so than the pine islands of Matsushima. “Matsushima, ah! / Aa-ah, Matsushima, ah! / Matsushima, ah!” wrote the haiku master Matsuo Bashō (1644–94), lost for words at the sight of them, in a famous but possibly apocryphal poem. His dream of seeing the moon rise over the pine islands was the impetus for the journey recounted in his classic Narrow Road to the Interior (1702). Gilbert Sullivan, the protagonist of German author Marion Poschmann’s first novel translated into English, The Pine Islands, travels to Japan on a whim, convinced by a dream that his wife is cheating on him. He is a middle-aged scholar, unsuccessful and disappointed with life, the foremost expert on a subject so ridiculous one can just imagine it as the fiercely defended turf of some embittered junior academic: beard styles or, to be precise, beard fashions and representations of the divine in art. A copy of Bashō’s Narrow Road, bought at the airport, convinces him to repeat the journey across the north of Japan, though instead of walking 2,400 kilometers to Matsushima and back, Sullivan travels mostly by bullet train. According to Sam Hamill, who translated Bashō’s Narrow Road, the haiku master ’s poem of wordless rapture in front of the famous pine islands reveals hints of mono no aware, an aesthetic category central to classical Japanese literature. Mono no aware—literally, the pathos of things—described a sense of rapture over the ephemeral, a perception of “natural poignancy in the beauty...

Public activities of N.S. Derzhavin in the Macedonian question in 1912-1915

The article deals with the Bulgaria during the Balkan wars of the 1912-1913 and The First world war for the public protection of the Macedonian point of view on the Macedonian question. In the autumn of 1912 the first Balkan war began. Bulgaria and Serbia agreed on the division of Macedonia, but because of the meddling of the great powers Belgrade did not get the desired land on the Adriatic coast. Serbia then demanded a revision of the Treaty, to which Bulgaria refused. In the Russian public opinion disputes about belonging of Macedonia were developed. They were attended by Bulgarian and Serbian scientists, as well as Russian scientists. One of them was N. S. Derzhavin. He gave public lectures on the Balkans, took part in meetings of public organizations, where he debates with supporters of Serbia. The defeat of Bulgaria and the transfer of Macedonia under the power of Serbia caused him grief, and he began with renewed vigor for public activity. In particular, he prepared a book on the Macedonian question. The money for it was allocated by the Bulgarian government, but not immediately. As a result, the book was published after the beginning of the First world war, when Russian public opinion negatively related to Bulgaria. Then to N. S. Derzhavin asked for help in the publication in Russian of a book about the Balkan wars, the former Bulgarian Prime Minister I. Geshov. The article is based on published documents, materials from the funds of the Central state archive of Bulgaria, the state archive of the Russian Federation, the archive of the Russian Academy of Sciences, as well as the works of N. S. Derzhavin, his speeches at meetings of public organizations and memoirs of contemporaries. The scientist’s relations with the Bulgarian authorities and scientists, relations with Russian colleagues who supported the position of Belgrade were reconstructed. On the basis of the received material the conclusion about the impossibility of accurately determining the motives for the occupation of active positions. A sincere love for Bulgaria and faith with their beliefs looks preferable.