INFORMATION TO USERS This material was produced from a microfilm copy of the original document. While the most advanced technological means to photograph and reproduce this document have been used, the quality is heavily dependent upon the quality of the original submitted. The following explanation of techniques is provided to help you understand markings or patterns which may appear on this reproduction. 1.The sign or "target" for pages apparently lacking from the document photographed is "Missing Page(s)". If it was possible to obtain the missing page(s) or section, they are spliced into the film along with adjacent pages. This may have necessitated cutting thru an image and duplicating adjacent pages to insure you complete continuity. 2. When an image on the film is obliterated with a large round black mark, it is an indication that the photographer suspected that the copy may have moved during exposure and thus cause a blurred image. You willa find good image of the page in the adjacent frame. 3. When a map, drawing or chart, etc., was part of the material being photographed the photographer followed a definite method in "sectioning" the material. It is customary to begin photoing at the upper left hand corner of a large sheet and to continue photoing from left to right in equal sections with a small overlap, if necessary, sectioning is continued again — beginning below the first row and continuing on until complete. 4. The majority of users indicate that the textual content is of greatest value, however, a somewhat higher quality reproduction could be made from "photographs" if essential to the understanding of the dissertation. Siiver prints of "'photographs" may be ordered at additional charge by writing the Order Department, giving the catalog number, title, author and specific pages you wish reproduced. 5. PLEASE NOTE: Some pages may have indistinct print. Filmed as received. University Microfilms International 300 North Zeeb Road Ann Arbor. Michigan 48106 USA St. John's Road. Tyler's Green High Wycombe, Bucks. England HP10 8HR Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 7814922 m a t z u r e f f , g e o r g e d i m i t r o f f THE CONCEPT OF "A MACEDONIAN NATION" AS A NEW 1 DIMENSION IN BALKAN POLITICS, I THE AMERICAN UNIVERSITY, PH.D.# 1978 Uniwrsilv M icrofilm s irtemational © 1S78 GEORGE D IM ITR O FF MATZUREFF ALL RIGHTS RESERVED Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. THE CONCEPT OF "A MACEDONIAN NATION" AS A NEW DIMENSION IN BALKAN POLITICS by George Dimitroff Matzureff Submitted to the Faculty of the School of International Service of The American University in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy in International Studies Signatures of Committee Cha irman: / M e - c Dean of/the School i , The American University Washington, D.C. 20016 THE MERICAK UHI7EBSITY LIBRAE? SS IS Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. TABLE OF CONTENTS INTRODUCTION .......................................... i PART I: ORIGIN AND DEVELOPMENT OF THE MACEDONIAN QUESTION CHAPTER 1 MACEDONIA: TERRITORY, POPULATION AND HISTORICAL REMARKS ........................... 1 A. Territory and Population ............... 1 B. Ancient and Medieval Periods ............ 3 C. Ottoman Period ............................. 17 2 ORIGIN OF THE MACEDONIAN QUESTION ......... 21 A. Rise of Nationalism and Establish­ ment of National States in the B a l k a n s ...................................... 21 B. National-Cultural and Political Struggle in Macedonia .................... 2 3 1. Greek Claims ............................ 34 2. Serbian Claims ..........................41 3. Bulgarian Claims .................... 57 3 ORIGIN OF THE MACEDONIAN MOVEMENT ............ 61 A. The Macedonian Organizations ........... 61 B. The Left in the Macedonian Organizations ............................. 73 4 STATUS OF MACEDONIA: 1912-1939 .............. 76 A. Domestic and Foreign Policies of the Balkan States ........................... 76 B. The Position of the Macedonian Organizations ............................. 84 C. The Position of the Balkan Communist Parties, the Communist Federation and the Comintern ................................86 D. Adoption of the Concept of a Macedonian Nation by the Comintern . 109 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. TABLE OF CONTENTS (C o n tin u e d ) E. Implementation of the New Policy by the Balkan Communist Parties ......... 113 F. The Position of the Balkan States and the Macedonian Organizations ......... 116 PART II: A NEW DIMENSION IN BALKAN POLITICS - WHAT CONSTITUTES A MACEDONIAN NATION .... 117 5 MACEDONIA DURING WORLD WAR II ................. 117 A. Putting Theory Into Practice and the Resulting Conflicts Among the Communist Parties .................... 117 B. The Status of the Macedonian R e p u b l i c .................................... 142 6 POST WORLD WAR II DEVELOPMENTS ................ 152 A. The Macedonian Nation and Balkan Federation - the Tito-Dimitrov A g r e e m e n t s .......................... 152 B. The Macedonian Nation and the Greek Civil W a r .................................. 183 C. Macedonian Nation and the Tito- Cominform Split ........................... 2 01 7 RECENT DEVELOPMENTS IN RESPECT TO THE MACEDONIAN QUESTION AND THE MACEDONIAN NATION ........................................... 234 A. Yugoslav Views .............................. 239 B. Bulgarian V i e w s ........................... 249 C. Greek V i e w s ................................ 256 D. Other V i e w s ................................ 260 CONCLUSION ............................................... 269 REFERENCES ............................................... 283 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. INTRODUCTION The Balkans occupy a strategic position between Europe and Asia. The heterogeneous people of the Balkans have vied for supremacy over each other through the cen­ turies. The manipulation of their interests by the Great Powers, transformed the Balkans into "the powder keg of Europe." The location of Macedonia in the center of the Balkans, with its diverse enthnic groups, which were used as conduits of the interests of the Balkan nation states and/or the Great Powers, contributed to transforming Macedonia into "the powder keg of the Balkans" during the first half of the 20th century. For centuries Macedonia was a part of the Ottoman Empire and was inhabited by Greeks, Turks, Bulgarians, Vlachs and others. As a result of the Balkan Wars (1912- 1913) and World War I (1914-1919), Macedonia was divided between Greece, Yugoslavia and Bulgaria. This division created national minority problems in each of these states. During the interwar period (1919-1939) attempts were made to deal with the national minority problem at the state level through exchanges of populations and on a political level by the Internal Macedonian Revolutionary Organization Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. (IMRO) and the Balkan Communist parties which tried at times to effect territorial and ethnographic changes in the area but did not succeed. Today Macedonia is still divided between Greece, Yugoslavia and Bulgaria and is part of the territories of these states. The population of Greek Macedonia today is overwhelmingly Greek; in Bulgarian and Yugoslav Macedonia, it is overwhelmingly either Bulgarian or Macedonian depending on the point of view and the criterion of nationality employed. In Europe nation is ordinarilly understood literally as a community based on common descent. Many American scholars, on the contrary, seem reluctant to use the very terms of genetic differentiation: they are likely to interpret nation as meaning "state," to eschew race altogether and substitute the presumably less sullied "ethic group" (from the Greek rather than the Latin for the same concept) . When circumstances induce Europeans to shift from the genetic concept of nation, they do not usually take over the American (and in spite of the differences, also the Soviet) concept of an entity united by a political faith. They speak rather of a cultural heritage, and perhaps the most frequent symbol of a supposed common descent is a common language.1 Thus, in terms of the above approaches to the concept of nation, one may speak of Greek, Bulgarian, Serbian, French, Spanish, American, Swiss, Soviet or Yugoslav nation. Since Macedonia is not subject to international law like East Germany, the concept of a Macedonian nation does not fit even the narrowest definition of a nation -- that which See William Petersen, "On the Subnations of West­ ern Europe," in Ethnicity, Theory and Experience, by Nathan Glazer and Daniel P. Moynihan (eds.) (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1975), pp. 177-178. Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. - iii - identifies the nation with the state as an international subject. For that reason the proponents of the existence of a Macedonian nation employ the traditional European approach to the concept nation as a community based on common descent, common history and common language. In doing so these proponents resort to history and whenever history does not lend a helping hand