MACEDONIA What Went Wrong in the Last 200 Years?
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MACEDONIA What went wrong in the last 200 years? A collection of articles By Risto Stefov MACEDONIA What went wrong in the last 200 years? A collection of articles Published by: Risto Stefov Publications [email protected] Toronto, Canada All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording or by any information storage and retrieval system without written consent from the author, except for the inclusion of brief and documented quotations in a review. Copyright 2003 by Risto Stefov e-book edition ********** February 2003 ********** 2 Index Part I - 1800 - 1878 ........................................................................4 Part II - 1878 - 1903.....................................................................27 Part III - Before 1903 ...................................................................48 Part IV - The 1903 Ilinden Aftermath..........................................71 Part V - 1908 - 1913.....................................................................96 Part VI - 1912- 1939 ..................................................................115 Part VII - 1939- 1949 - WWII & the Greek Civil War..............135 Part VIII - The Plight of the Macedonian Refugee Children.....161 Part IX - Conclusion ..................................................................181 3 Part I - 1800 - 1878 Even before Alexander’s time Macedonia was a single nation. With time she grew and shrunk but always remained a single nation until her partition in 1912-13. Today however, while new nations spring up and flourish, Macedonia is still partitioned and fighting for her identity. Why? What went wrong and who is responsible? If the Balkan roots lie in antiquity then the first stem that created the modern Balkan countries sprang up in the 19th century. The 19th century is the most important period in modern Balkan history and will be the subject of this and subsequent articles. The intent of this article (Part I) is to present the reader with a wider perspective of Balkan history from about 1800 to 1878. If you think there is too much outside interference in Macedonia today, or if you think Great Powers are “here to help us”, this article is for you. There is no event in recorded history that unfolded without Great Power intervention and there is no time in recorded history where one nation put another nation’s interests ahead of its own. Note: Prior to 1829 there was no state, place name or geographical region called Greece or Hellas. During Roman times, after the fall of the Macedonian Empire, there existed a small region called “Achaia”. (page 126 & 134, Fishwick, “The Foundations of the West”). Also see the inside cover of Vasil Bogov’s book “Macedonian Revelation, Historical Documents Rock and Shatter Modern Political Ideology”. Similarly, prior to 1878, there was no state, region or place name called Bulgaria. The history the new states adopted prior to the 19th century belongs to all the Balkan people, the Macedonians in particular. Those states (Greece and Bulgaria) that claim exclusive rights or have altered history to fit their current agenda are committing “historical fraud”. More on this subject in parts II & III of this article. 4 Before I get into the details of this article I want to clarify some things about the word “Slav” The word “Slav” is an English translation of the Macedonian word “Slava” like the word Macedonia is an English translation of the word Makedonija. Slava in Macedonian means “glory, fame, renown”. “Slaven” in Macedonian means “glorious, famous, renowned, celebrated, illustrious”. “Slavi” in Macedonian means “to glorify, to celebrate, to extol”. (page 925, Dushan Tsrenkovski’s “The Standard Dictionary, English-Macedonian, Macedonian- English”). The word “Pravo” in Macedonian means “right” (page 850, Dushan Tsrenkovski’s “The Standard Dictionary, English-Macedonian, Macedonian-English”). Putting the two words together “Pravo Slava” assumes a holy meaning like “Pravoslavna vera” or “Eastern Christian faith”. I want to make it perfectly clear that "Pravoslaven" in Macedonian means "Most Glorious" and refers to the Christian religion. "Slava" translates to "celebrate" as in a holy celebration. By no means does the word "Slav" have any connection to "nationality". "Slav" to a Macedonian once meant the same as Catholic to an Italian, Jew to a Hebrew, Orthodox to a Greek, Muslim to an Arab or Hindu to an East Indian. Today however, the beauty of the word "Slav" has, for political purposes, been twisted into something ugly, undesirable and denigrating to all Macedonians. More specifically, the Greeks and now the Albanians call the Macedonian people “Slav” to mean “new comers”, “foreigners”, “barbarians”, “simpletons”, “ignorant”, “inconsiderate”, etc. So please do not call the Macedonians "Slav", just call them Macedonian. The Pravoslaven Empire (later renamed Byzantine Empire) lasted from 324AD when the Pravoslavna vera was first adopted as the official religion of the Empire to 1767 when the Phanariots with Ottoman help, officially extinguished the Macedonian Church. After that up until 1850, the Macedonian Church lived underground and continued to operate illegally keeping the “Pravoslavna vera” and the Macedonian culture alive. 5 It is well documented that the language of liturgy of the Pravoslavi (people of the Byzantine Empire) was what we now call “Old Church Slavonic”. Old Church Slavonic is a Macedonian (Solunski) dialect spoken and understood to this day in most parts of geographical Macedonia. Before I get into details of the last two hundred years, I want to summarize some events that led up to the 19th century. Macedonia’s problems can be traced back to the 1200s after Tsari Grad (Constantinople) was sacked by the crusaders in 1204. While the Pravoslaven (Byzantine) Empire was recovering from the crusader attack, a Nomad Muslim tribe was entering Anatolia from Central Asia. The tribe was called “Ottoman” named after their first leader Osman. The Ottomans first made their presence and crossed into Europe in 1345 as mercenaries hired by the Byzantines to defend their Empire. As the Ottomans grew in numbers, they settled at Galipoly west of the Macedonian Dardanelles (Endrene) and used the area as a staging ground for conquest. In 1389 the Ottomans attacked Kosovo and destroyed the Pravoslavna army also killing the nobility in the process. In 1392 they attacked and conquered geographical Macedonia including Solun but not Sveta Gora (Holy Mountain). In 1444 while attempting to drive north through today’s Bulgaria they were met and crushed by the Western Crusaders at Varna. Soon after their recovery, they besieged Tsari Grad and took it in 1453, looting all the wealth that was accumulated for over two millennia. Feeling the sting of 1444, the Ottomans turned northwest and in 1526 they attacked and destroyed the Hungarian army killing 25,000 knights. 6 After that they unsuccessfully tried twice to take Vienna, once in 1529 and then again in 1683 but failed. Failure to take Vienna halted the Ottoman expansion in Europe. After sacking Tsari Grad the Ottoman nomads adapted much of the Pravoslaven administration and feudal practices and began to settle the Balkans. The conquered people of the new Ottoman territories became subjects of the Empire to be ruled according to Muslim law. At the head of the Ottoman Empire sat the Sultan who was God’s representative on earth. The Sultan owned everything and everyone in the empire. Below the Sultan sat the ruling class and the Pashas (generals) and below them sat the Raya (protected flock). Everyone worked for the Sultan and the Sultan in turn provided his subjects with all of life’s necessities. In the beginning Ottoman lands were divided into four categories. The “meri” lands such as valleys, forests, mountains, rivers, roads, etc., belonged exclusively to the Sultan. The “temar” lands were meri lands loaned or granted to Ottoman civil and military officials. Years later as the Empire introduced land reforms temar estates converted to private property and became known as “chifliks”. The “vakof” lands were tax-exempt lands dedicated for pious purposes and to support public services such as fire fighting, etc. Finally, the “molk” lands were private lands occupied by peoples’ houses, gardens, vineyards, orchards, etc. The Islamic Ottomans belonged to the Sunni sect of the Muslim religion. The Empire’s subjects belonged to one of two religiously (not nationally) divided Millets. The Islam Millet was exclusively for Muslims and the non-Islam or Roum (for Roman) Millet grouped all other religions together. The reasons for separating Muslims from others had to do with how Islamic law was applied. Unlike our laws today, Ottoman Muslim law had nothing to do with civil rights and everything to do with 7 religious rights. Muslim courts were appointed for the sole purpose of interpreting the Koran and very little else. The Koran dictated Muslim conduct and behaviour including punishment for crimes. In the Ottoman mind only religion and the word of God had sole authority over peoples’ lives. Religion was the official government of the Ottoman State. Islam was the only recognized form of rule that suited Muslims but could not be directly applied to non- Muslims. So the next best thing was to allow another religion to rule the non-Muslims. The obvious choice of course was the Pravoslaven Christian religion, which was the foundation of the Pravoslaven