Macedonian Bulgarians

Not to be confused with Bulgarians in North Macedonia, Slavic speakers of Greek Macedonia, or Ethnic Macedonians in Bulgaria.

Macedonians^[3] or Macedonian Bulgarians^[4] (Bulgarian: македонци or македонски българи), sometimes also referred to as Macedono-Bulgarians,^[5] Macedo-Bulgarians,^[6] or Bulgaro-Macedonians^[7] are a regional, ethnographic group of ethnic Bulgarians,^[8][9][10] inhabiting or originating from the region of Macedonia. Today, the larger part of this population is concentrated in Blagoevgrad Province but much is spread across the whole of Bulgaria and the diaspora.

The Bitola inscription is a marble slab with Cyrillic letters of Ivan Vladislav from 1016. The text reports that he was Tsar of Bulgaria and Bulgarian by birth, and his subjects were Bulgarians.

Portrait of the Skopjan Konstantin Asen who was a Bulgarian Tsar (1257-1277).

Portrait of the forefather of the Bulgarian national revival Paisius of Hilandar (1722-1773) from Bansko.

The cover of the book "Folk Songs of the Macedonian Bulgarians" published in 1860, in Belgrade by Stefan Verkovic.

Girls in a Bulgarian Girls' High School of Thessaloniki, 1882.

The banner of the Ilinden insurgents from Ohrid with Bulgarian flag on it and the inscription Свобода или смърть. The insurgents flew Bulgarian flags everywhere.^[1][2]

Bulgarian refugees from Southern Macedonia after the Second Balkan War.

Bulgarian students greeting the IMRO revolutionary Kosta Tsipushev by his return, after the Bulgarian annexation of Vardar Macedonia in 1941.

History

See also: Demographic history of Macedonia

Ottoman period

The Slavic-speaking population in the region of Macedonia had been referred to both (by themselves and outsiders) as Bulgarians, and that is how they were predominantly seen since 10th,^{[11][12][13][14]} up until the early 20th century and beyond.^{[15][16][17][18][19][20][21]} The Balkan Wars (1912–1913) and World War I (1914–1918) left the area divided mainly between Greece and Serbia (later Yugoslavia), which resulted in significant changes in its ethnic composition. The formerly leading Bulgarian community was reduced either by population exchanges or by change of communities' ethnic identity.^[22] The Macedonian Slavs were faced with the policy of forced Serbianisation.^[23] According to Encyclopædia Britannica, at the beginning of the 20th century the Macedonian Bulgarians constituted the majority of the population in the whole region of Macedonia, then part of the Ottoman Empire.^[24] The functioning of the Bulgarian Exarchate then aimed specifically at differentiating the Bulgarian from the Greek and Serbian populations on an ethnic and linguistic basis, providing the open assertion of a Bulgarian national identity.^[25] However one basic distinction between the political agendas of local intelligentsias was clear. The Macedonian Greeks and Serbs followed, in general, the directives coming from their respective centers of national agitation, while by the Bulgarians the term Macedonian was acquiring the significance of a certain political loyalty, that progressively constructed a particular spirit of regional identity.^[26]

After the Balkan wars

The Balkan Wars (1912–1913) and World War I (1914–1918) left Ottoman Macedonia divided between Greece, Serbia and Bulgaria and resulted in significant changes in its ethnic composition. The immediate effect of the partition of Ottoman Macedonia were the nationalistic campaigns in areas under Greek and Serbian administration, which expelled Bulgarian churchmen and teachers and closed Bulgarian schools and churches. As a consequence a sizable part of the Slavic population of Greek and Serbian (later Yugoslav Macedonia), fled to Bulgaria or was resettled there by virtue of a population exchange agreements (Treaty of Neuilly-sur-Seine, Politis-Kalfov Protocol). Within Greece, the Macedonian Slavs were designated "Slavophone Greeks", while within Serbia (later within Yugoslavia) they were officially treated as "South Serbs". In both countries, schools and the media were used to disseminate the national ideologies and identities, and also the languages, of the new ruling nations, the Greeks and the Serbs. These cultural measures were reinforced by steps to alter the composition of the population: Serb colonists were implanted in Yugoslav Macedonia, while in Greek Macedonia, the mass settlement of Greek refugees from Anatolia definitively reduced the Slav population to minority status.^[27]

Formation of a separate Macedonian identity

Despite some attempts to differentiate a Slavic Macedonian identity from the Bulgarian one since the end of the 19th century, and despite the nebulous national consciousness of the mass of the Slavic population, most researchers agree that the bulk of the Slavic population in the region had a Bulgarian national identity until the early 1940s, when the Bulgarian troops, occupying most of the area, were greeted as liberators.^[28] Pro-Bulgarian feelings among the local Slavic population prevailed in Greece and Yugoslavia.^[29] After the Second World War and Bulgarian withdrawal, on the base of the strong Macedonian regional identity a process of ethnogenesis started and distinct national Macedonian identity was formed.^[30] As a whole an appreciable Macedonian national consciousness prior to the 1940s did not exist.^[31][32][33] At that time even the political organization by the Slavic immigrants from the region of Macedonia, the Macedonian Patriotic Organization has also promoted the idea of Macedonian Slavs being Bulgarians.^[34] The nation-building process was politically motivated and later reinforced by strong Bulgarophobia and Yugoslavism.^[35] The new authorities began a policy of removing of any Bulgarian influence and creating a distinct Slavic consciousness that would inspire identification with Yugoslavia.^[30]

With the proclamation of the new Socialist Republic of Macedonia, there were measures taken that would overcome the pro-Bulgarian feeling among the population.^[36] It has been claimed that from 1944 till the end of the 1940s people espousing a Bulgarian ethnic identity had been oppressed.^[36][37] According to Bulgarian sources more than 100,000 men were imprisoned and some 1,200 prominent Bulgarians were sentenced to death.^[36][37] In addition, the inconsistent policy towards the Macedonian Bulgarians followed by Communist Bulgaria at that time has thrown most independent observers ever since into a state of confusion, as to the real ethnicity of the population even in Bulgarian Macedonia.^[38][39] Practically as a consequence the rest of this people, with exception of Bulgaria proper, were eventually Macedonized or Hellenized.^[40]

Nevertheless, people with Bulgarian consciousness or Bulgarophile sentiments still live in North Macedonia and Greece.^[41][42] During the last years the EU membership of Bulgaria has seen more than 50,000 Macedonians applying for Bulgarian citizenship.^[43] In order to obtain it they must sign a statement declaring they are Bulgarians by origin. More than 90,000 Macedonian nationals have already received Bulgarian citizenship.^[44] However, this phenomenon can not give precise information about how many Macedonian nationals consider themselves Bulgarians in ethnic sense, because it is widely believed that this phenomenon is caused primarily for economic reasons.^[45]

Historical Demographics

In the Ottoman General Census of 1881/82, the Orthodox Christian population of the kazas currently falling within the borders of the Republic of North Macedonia identified, as follows:

Orthodox Christian ethnoconfessional groups as per 1881-82 Ottoman Census^[46]

Kaza1	Bulgarian Exarchist		Greek/Serbian Patriarchist
	Number	%	Number	%
Köprülü / Veles	32,843	98.7	420	1.3
Tikveş	21,319	98.8	260	1.2
Gevgili / Gevgelija	5,784	28.4	14,558	71.6
Toyran / Dojran	5,605	77.0	1,591	22.1
Usturumca/ Strumica	2,974	17.8	13,726	82.2
Üsküp / Skopje	22,497	77.2	6,655	22.8
Karatova / Kratovo	19,618	81.8	4,332	18.1
Kumanova / Kumanovo	29,478	70.1	12,268	29.9
Planka/ Kriva Palanka	18,196	97.9	388	2.1
İştip / Štip	17,575	100	0	-
Kaçana / Kočani	33,120	99.8	83	0.8
Radovişt / Radoviš	7,364	100.0	0	-
Kalkandelen / Tetovo	9,830	66.3	4,990	33.7
Monastir / Bitola	61,494	60.0	41,077	40.0
Ohri / Ohrid	33,306	91.6	3,049	8.4
Pirlepe / Prilep	43,763	97.2	1,248	2.8
Kirçova / Kičevo	20,879	99.7	64	0.3
Republic of North Macedonia borders	385,645	81.4	88,229	18.6
1 The kaza of Dibra did not participate in the census.

Orthodox Christians by church allegiance in the Sanjaks of Üsküb, Monastir, Salonika, Siroz and Drama as per the 1881-82^[46] and 1905-06 Ottoman Census^[47]

Sanjak	Bulgarian Exarchist 1881-82		Greek/Serb Patriarchist 1881-02		Total Orthodox 1881-82		Bulgarian Exarchist 1906-07		Greek/Serb Patriarchist 1906-07		Total Orthodox 1906-07
	Number	%	Number	%	Number	%	Number	%	Number	%	Number	%
Sanjak of Üsküb	147,848	95.3	7,248	4.7	155,096	100.00	181,123	86.9	27,290	13.1	208,413	100.00
Sanjak of Monastir	162,796	69.2	72,600	30.8	235,396	100.00	161,958	61.2	102,602	38.8	264,560	100.00
Sanjak of Salonica	95,807	33.2	192,444	66.8	288,251	100.00	92,752	30.5	211,389	69.5	304,141	100.00
Sanjak of Siroz	123,437	63.4	70,459	36.6	193,896	100.00	131,476	61.5	82,334	38.5	213,810	100.00
Sanjak of Drama	3,440	19.4	14,324	80.6	17,764	100.00	5,194	13.9	32,307	86.1	37,501	100.00
Five Macedonian Sanjaks	533,328	59.9	357,075	40.1	890,403	100.00	572,503	55.7	455,922	44.3	1,028,425	100.00

See also

• List of Macedonian Bulgarians
• Bulgarians in Albania
• Internal Macedonian Revolutionary Organization
• Macedonia (terminology)
• Macedonian nationalism

References

1. National military history museum of Bulgaria, fond 260
2. Poulton, Hugh (22 April 2000). Who are the Macedonians by Hugh Poulton - p. 57. Indiana University Press. ISBN 0-253-21359-2. Retrieved 29 November 2014.
3. South Slavic immigration in America, George J. Prpic, John Carroll University, Twayne Publishers. A division of G. K. Hall & Co., Boston., 1978, ISBN 0-8057-8413-6, p. 212.
4. Harvard encyclopedia of American ethnic groups, Stephan Thernstrom, Ann Orlov, Oscar Handlin Edition: 2, Published by Harvard University Press, 1980 ISBN 0-674-37512-2, p. 691.
5. Minderheiten und Sprachkontakt, Ulrich Ammon, Peter H Nelde, Klaus J Mattheier, Published by Niemeyer, 1990, ISBN 3-484-60346-1, p. 143.
6. The Cambridge history of Turkey: Turkey in the modern world, Reşat Kasaba, Cambridge University Press, 2008, ISBN 0-521-62096-1,p. 107.
7. Marinov, Tchavdar (2009). "We, the Macedonians: The Paths of Macedonian Supra-Nationalism (1878–1912)". In Diana Mishkova (ed.). We, the People: Politics of National Peculiarity in Southeastern Europe. Budapest / New York: CEU Press. p. 116.
8. Етнография на Македония (Извори и материали в два тома), Автор: Колектив под редакцията на доц. Маргарита Василева, Обем: 853 стр. Издател: Българска Академия на Науките, Година: 1992.
9. Sources of Bulgarian Ethnography. Volume 3. Ethnography of Macedonia. Materials from the Archive Heritage. Sofia, 1998; Publication: Ethnologia Bulgarica. Yearbook of Bulgarian Ethnology and Folklore (2/2001) Author Name: Nikolova, Vanya; Language: English, Subject: Anthropology, Issue: 2/2001,Page Range: 143-144
10. Groups of Bulgarian population and ethnographic groups, Publication: Bulgarian Ethnology (3/1987ч Author: Simeonova, Gatya; Language: Bulgarian, Subject: Anthropology, Issue: 3/1987, Page Range: 55-63
11. Most of the Balkans were settled by Slavs of one of the two types. (excluding the smaller groups of Slavic Slovenes and Turkic Avars in the western Balkans). Each one of these two main Slavic groups was to be named for a second conquering group who appeared later in the seventh century. The first of these two groups was the Bulgaro-Macedonians, whose Slavic component the Bulgarian historian Zlatarski derives from the Antes. They were conquered in the late 7th century by the Turkic Bulgars. The Slavs eventually assimilated them, but the Bulgars' name survived. It denoted this Slavic group from the 9th century through the rest of the medieval period into modern days. Until the late nineteenth century both outside observers and those Bulgaro-Macedonians who had an ethnic consciousness believed that their group, which is now two separate nationalities, comprised a single people, the Bulgarians. Thus the reader should ignore references to ethnic Macedonians in the Middle Ages which appear in some modern works. In the Middle Ages and into the nineteenth century, the term Macedonian was used entirely in reference to a geographical region. Anyone who lived within its confines, regardless of nationality, could be called a Macedonian. Nevertheless, the absence of a national consciousness in the past is no grounds to reject the Macedonians as a nationality today. For more see: John Van Antwerp Fine, The Early Medieval Balkans: A Critical Survey from the Sixth to the Late Twelfth Century, University of Michigan Press, 1991, ISBN 0472081497, pp. 36-37.
12. Who are the Macedonians? Hugh Poulton, C. Hurst & Co. Publishers, 2000, ISBN 1-85065-534-0, p. 19-20.
13. Откако биле освоени граничните византиски земји, од времето на Симеон е изменета и воената концепција. Извршена е симбиоза помеѓу малубројните азиски Прабугари и бројните словенски племиња кои на широкиот простор од Дунав на север, до Егеја на југ и од Јадран на запад, до Црното Море на исток го прифатиле заедничкиот етникон „Бугари”. Словенскиот јазик станал заеднички за сите жители на тој простор. Протобугарите се претопиле и исчезнале во словенските маси, а со нив и моделот на номадските воени хорди кои што живеат во аули., For more see: Средновековни градови и тврдини во Македонија, Иван Микулчиќ, Македонска академија на науките и уметностите – Скопје, 1996, стр. 72.
14. Formation of the Bulgarian Nation, Academician Dimitŭr Simeonov Angelov, Summary, Sofia-Press, 1978, pp. 413–415.
15. "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.
16. "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; ISBN 0801416752, pp. 307–328.
17. "At the end of the World War I there were very few historians or ethnographers, who claimed that a separate Macedonian nation existed... Of those Macedonian Slavs who had developed then some sense of national identity, the majority probably considered themselves to be Bulgarians, although they were aware of differences between themselves and the inhabitants of Bulgaria... The question as of whether a Macedonian nation actually existed in the 1940s when a Communist Yugoslavia decided to recognize one is difficult to answer. Some observers argue that even at this time it was doubtful whether the Slavs from Macedonia considered themselves to be a nationality separate from the Bulgarians." The Macedonian conflict: ethnic nationalism in a transnational world, Loring M. Danforth, Princeton University Press, 1997, ISBN 0-691-04356-6, pp. 65–66.
18. "Most of the Slavophone inhabitants in all parts of divided Macedonia, perhaps a million and a half in all – had a Bulgarian national consciousness at the beginning of the Occupation; and most Bulgarians, whether they supported the Communists, VMRO, or the collaborating government, assumed that all Macedonia would fall to Bulgaria after the WWII. Tito was determined that this should not happen. The first Congress of AVNOJ in November 1942 had parented equal rights to all the 'peoples of Yugoslavia', and specified the Macedonians among them."The struggle for Greece, 1941–1949, Christopher Montague Woodhouse, C. Hurst & Co. Publishers, 2002, ISBN 1-85065-492-1, p. 67.
19. "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 separate 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, ISBN 0208008217, Chapter 9: The encouragement of Macedonian culture.
20. "No doubt, the vast majority of the Macedonian peasants, being neither communists nor members of IMRO (United), had not been previously affected by Macedonian national ideology. The British officials who attempted to tackle this issue in the 1940s noted the pro-Bulgarian sentiment of many peasants and pointed out that Macedonian nationhood rested ‘on rather shaky historical and philological foundations’ and, therefore, had to be constructed by the Macedonian leadership." Livanios, D. (2008), The Macedonian Question: Britain and the Southern Balkans 1939–1949.: Oxford University Press, ISBN 0191528722, p. 206.
21. As David Fromkin (1993, p. 71) confirms: “even as late as 1945, Slavic Macedonia had no national identity of its own." Nikolaos Zahariadis (2005) Essence of Political Manipulation: Emotion, Institutions, & Greek Foreign Policy, Peter Lang, p. 85, ISBN 0820479039.
22. Ivo Banac, The National Question in Yugoslavia: Origins, History, Politics, Cornell University Press, 1988, ISBN 0801494931, p. 33
23. Dejan Djokić, Yugoslavism: histories of a failed idea, 1918–1992, p. 123, at Google Books
24. Bulgarians (described in encyclopaedia as "Slavs, the bulk of which is regarded by almost all independent sources as Bulgarians"): 1,150,000, whereof, 1,000,000 Orthodox and 150,000 Muslims (the so-called Pomaks); Turks: c. 500,000 (Muslims); Greeks: c. 250,000, whereof c. 240,000 Orthodox and 14,000 Muslims; Albanians: c. 120,000, whereof 10,000 Orthodox and 110,000 Muslims; Vlachs: c. 90,000 Orthodox and 3,000 Muslims; Jews: c. 75,000; Roma: c. 50,000, whereof 35,000 Orthodox and 15,000 Muslims; In total 1,300,000 Christians (almost exclusively Orthodox), 800,000 Muslims, 75,000 Jews, a total population of c. 2,200,000 for the whole of Macedonia.
25. Journal of Modern Greek Studies 14.2 (1996) 253-301 Nationalism and Identity Politics in the Balkans: Greece and the Macedonian Question by Victor Roudometof.
26. We, the People: Politics of National Peculiarity in Southeastern Europe, Diana Mishkova, Central European University Press, 2008, ISBN 963-9776-28-9, p. 108.
27. Nationality on the Balkans. The case of the Macedonians, by F. A. K. Yasamee. (Balkans: A Mirror of the New World Order, Istanbul: EREN, 1995; pp. 121-132.
28. The struggle for Greece, 1941–1949, Christopher Montague Woodhouse, C. Hurst & Co. Publishers, 2002, ISBN 1-85065-492-1, p. 67.
29. Who are the Macedonians? Hugh Poulton, Hurst & Co., 1995, ISBN 978-1-85065-238-0, pp. 101; p. 109.
30. Europe since 1945. Encyclopedia by Bernard Anthony Cook. ISBN 0-8153-4058-3, p. 808.
31. Loring M. Danforth, The Macedonian Conflict: Ethnic Nationalism in a Transnational World, 1995, Princeton University Press, p.65, ISBN 0-691-04356-6
32. Stephen Palmer, Robert King, Yugoslav Communism and the Macedonian question,Hamden, CT Archon Books, 1971, p.p.199-200
33. The Macedonian Question: Britain and the Southern Balkans 1939-1949, Dimitris Livanios, edition: Oxford University Press, US, 2008, ISBN 0-19-923768-9, p. 65.
34. The Macedonian Conflict: Ethnic Nationalism in a Transnational World, Page 87 by Loring M. Danforth.
35. Mirjana Maleska. Editor-in-chief. With eyes of the others - about Macedonian-Bulgarian relations and the Macedonian national identity. New Balkan Politics - Journal of Politics. Issue 6. Archived 2007-09-24 at the Wayback Machine
36. Djokić, Dejan (2003). Yugoslavism: Histories of a Failed Idea, 1918-1992. C. Hurst & Co. Publishers. p. 122. ISBN 1-85065-663-0.
37. Phillips, John (2004). Macedonia: Warlords and Rebels in the Balkans. I.B.Tauris. p. 40. ISBN 1-86064-841-X.
38. V, Joseph. The Communist Party of Bulgaria; Origins and Development, 1883-1936. Columbia University Press. p. 126.
39. Coenen-Huther, Jacques (1996). Bulgaria at the Crossroads. Nova Publishers. p.166. ISBN 1-56072-305-X.
40. Greece and the new Balkans: challenges and opportunities, Van Coufoudakis, Harry J. Psomiades, André Gerolymatos, Pella Pub. Co., 1999, ISBN 0-918618-72-X, p. 361.
41. Yugoslavism: histories of a failed idea, 1918–1992, Dejan Djokić, C. Hurst & Co. Publishers, 2003, ISBN 1-85065-663-0, p. 122.
42. Проф. д-р на ист.н. Георги Димитров Даскалов, "Българите в Егейска Македония - мит или реалност", Историко- демографско изследване (1900-1990 г.). С., Македонски научен институт, София, 1996 г. Professor Georgi Daskalov, The Bulgarians in Aegean Macedonia - myth or reality; Historical-Demographic research (1900-1990 г.), С. Macedonian Scientific Institute, Sofia, 1996, ISBN 954-8187-27-2.
43. 53.000 МАКЕДОНЦИ ЧЕКААТ БУГАРСКИ ПАСОШ, ВЛАСТИТЕ САКААТ ДА ГО СКРАТАТ РОКОТ НА 6 МЕСЕЦИ
44. Над 70 000 македонци имат българско гражданство
45. Michael Palairet, Macedonia: A Voyage through History (Vol. 2, From the Fifteenth Century to the Present), Cambridge Scholars Publishing, 2016, ISBN 1443888494, p. 347.
46. Karpat, K.H. (1985). Ottoman population, 1830-1914: demographic and social characteristics. Madison, Wis: University of Wisconsin Pres. pp. 134–135, 140–141, 144–145.
47. Tilbe, Özgür (2018). "Hilmi Pasha's Tenure as Inspector-General in Rumelia (1902-1908) / Hüseyin Hilmi Paşa'nın Rumeli Umumî Müfettişliği (1902-1908)" (PDF) (in Turkish). p. 132.