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Macedonia for the Macedonians MACEDONIA What Went Wrong in the Last 200 Years? By Risto Stefov Originally presented as a series of articles at MakNews.com from June 2002 to February 2003. You can contact the author via his e-mail: [email protected] Table of Contents Part I: 1800 - 1878 ...................................................................................................................... 3 Part II: 1878 - 1903................................................................................................................... 17 Part III: Before 1903 ................................................................................................................. 30 Part IV: The 1903 Ilinden Aftermath........................................................................................ 44 Part V: The Young Turk Uprising and the Balkan Wars of 1912 - 1913................................. 60 Part VI: 1912 - 1939.................................................................................................................. 72 Part VII: 1939 – 1949 - WWII & The Greek Civil War........................................................... 85 Part VIII: The Plight of the Macedonian Refugee Children................................................... 102 Part IX: Conclusion................................................................................................................. 114 References:.............................................................................................................................. 129 2 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. I want to apologize in advance for the length and tediousness of this article but please bear with me because I find it necessary to establish a foundation of knowledge on which to base claims and reach conclusions. Before I start with the main theme of this article I would like to digress for a moment and remark on a couple of personal encounters with some Greek pundits. One day I received an e-mail full of rude and denigrating remarks from some Greeks who claim to be experts on South Balkan history. Their remarks were condescending and full of spite. They claimed to be intelligent and very knowledgeable about Greek history but their own remarks betrayed their true nature. They told me my efforts to extort Greek history were a waste of time and that Macedonia always belonged to Greece. They also said that they had widely accepted historical proof but quoted me politically motivated Greek propaganda. Most of the verbiage in their essay dealt with issues of Ancient Macedonia and why it belongs to the Greeks and not the Slavs. In spite of their insulting approach, I felt obliged to respond with my own arguments. After producing hundreds of pages of counter arguments the only reward I received for my effort was ridicule and more derogatory comments. My theory is that Greeks can't be convinced regardless of how much evidence we throw at them. My guess is that it is not in their best interest to argue too far from their "scripted plans" so it is futile to try. If you run into this situation, my advice is to ignore these deliberate attempts of diversion and carry on with your own agenda. As for being a "Macedonian Salad", yes the French were right when they said Macedonia was a "salad of nationalities". Not only do we admit to that, but we are also proud of it. Macedonia is the only South Balkan country with "clean hands" and a "clear conscience". Macedonia never waged war, committed genocide, used ethnic cleansing, forced population exchanges, expelled people from their homes, relocated massive populations, changed peoples names, changed toponym names, assimilated people by force, faked history, gave up a "living and vibrant" language for a dead one or stole someone else's culture. If that's what it takes to become homogeneous we don't want it. 3 Here is what one author thinks of the Greeks... ... philhellenism is a love affair with a dream, which envisions "Greece and the Greeks" not as an actual place or as real people but as symbols of some imagined perfection... This is a direct quote from page 12 in the preface of the book GREECE WITHOUT COLUMNS The Making of the Modern Greeks by David Holden, J.B. Lippincott Company Philadelphia and New York, London, 1971. One more thing to be mindful of when confronting the Greeks. They may be denigrating and mocking you on the surface but you can bet they will take everything you say seriously. If they run into something new they will take it to their academic colleagues and get answers. They have answers for everything. 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 Super Powers are "here to help us", this article is for you. There is no event in recorded history that unfolded without Super Power intervention and there is no time in recorded history where one nation put another nation's interests ahead of its own. 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 Galipoli 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 Serbian army also killing the Serbian 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 Bulgaria they were met and crushed by Hungarian, Polish, French and German 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. 4 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 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 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 (Byzantine) Empire. There
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