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United Macedonia

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A map distributed by Macedonian nationalists circa 1993. Shows the geographical region of Macedonia split with barbed wire between the Republic of Macedonia (FYROM), Bulgaria and Greece.
File:735px-Ethnicmacedonia.jpg
The region of Macedonia as perceived by ethnic Macedonian irredentists. Some ethnic Macedonian nationalists, including at official level have expressed irredentist claims to what they refer to as "Aegean Macedonia" (Greece), "Pirin Macedonia" (Bulgaria), "Mala Prespa and Golo Brdo" (Albania), and "Gora and Prohor Pchinski" (Serbia) despite the fact that ethnic Greeks, Bulgarians, Albanians and Serbs form the majority of the population of each region respectively. These fringe groups have received no official encouragement from the government of the Republic of Macedonia since 1995 when they agreed to remove all territorial claims to neighbouring countries' territories from their constitution.

United Macedonia (Macedonian: Обединета Македонија, Obedineta Makedonija) is an irredentist concept of Macedonian ethnic nationalism which aims to unify the transnational region of Macedonia in southeastern Europe, which ethnic Macedonian nationalists claim as their national homeland, and which they assert was wrongfully divided under the Treaty of Bucharest in 1913, into a single state under their rule with the Greek city of Thessaloniki (which they and other Slavs[1] refer to as Солун, Solun) as its capital.[2] The term has been in use since the early 1900s, notably in connection with the Balkan Communist Federation.

Although the following perception is not limited to ethnic Macedonians, or extreme nationalists, the majority of ethnic Macedonians usually break down the region of Macedonia as follows:

An essential aspect of this concept is the claim that the vast majority of the population in those territories are oppressed ethnic Macedonians and they describe those areas as the unliberated parts of Macedonia. In the cases of Bulgaria and Albania, it is said that they are undercounted in the censuses (In Albania, there are officially 5,000 ethnic Macedonians, whereas Macedonians nationalists claim the figures are more like 120,000-350,000 [3]. In Bulgaria, there are officially, 5,071 ethnic Macedonians, whereas Macedonian nationalists claim 200,000 [4]). In Greece, there is a Slavic-speaking minority with various self-identifications (Macedonian, Greek, Bulgarian), estimated by Ethnologue, and the Greek Helsinki Monitor as being between 100,000-200,000 (according to the Greek Helsinki Monitor only an estimated 10,000-30,000 have an ethnic Macedonian national identity [5]). Macedonian nationalists have claimed that there is a Macedonian minority numbering up to 800,000 [6].

The roots of the concept can be traced back to 1910. One of the main platforms from the First Balkan Socialist Conference in 1910 was the solution to the Macedonian Question, Georgi Dimitrov in 1915 writes that the creation of a "Macedonia, which was split into three parts, was to be reunited into a single state enjoying equal rights within the framework of the Balkan Democratic Federation" [4]

The concept about United Macedonia was used by revolutionaries from IMRO too. In 1920-1934 their leaders - Todor Alexandrov, Alexandar Protogerov, Ivan Mihailov etc. accept this concept with the aim to liberate the territories occupied by Serbia and Greece and to create Independent and United Macedonia for all Macedonians - Bulgarians, Greeks, Serbians, Albanians etc.

The idea of reunification of all of Macedonia under Communist rule was abandoned in 1948 when the Greek Communists lost in the Greek Civil War, and Tito fell out with the Soviet Union and pro-Soviet Bulgaria.

Before and just after the Republic of Macedonia's independence, it was assumed in Greece that the ideology of a United Macedonia was still state-sponsored. In the first constitution of the newly independent Republic of Macedonia, adopted on 17 November 1991, Article 47 read as follows [7]:

(1) The Republic cares for the status and rights of those persons belonging to the Macedonian people in neighboring countries, as well as Macedonian expatriates, assists their cultural development and promotes links with them. In the exercise of this concern the Republic will not interfere in the sovereign rights of other states or in their internal affairs.
(2) The Republic cares for the cultural, economic and social rights of the citizens of the Republic abroad.

This was seen in Greece as a declaration of a right to interfere in Greece's internal affairs.

Finally, on 13 September 1995, the Republic of Macedonia signed an Interim Accord with Greece [8] in order to end the economic embargo Greece had imposed, amongst other reasons, for the perceived land claims. Amongst its provisions, the Accord specified that the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia (as it was known) would renounce all land claims to neighboring states' territories, and since then, the concept of United Macedonia has received no official encouragement. The concept is still widely known and espoused however by Macedonian nationalists.

Map of the whole geographical Macedonia (region) as seen by F.Bianconi, 1885

However, the United Macedonia concept is still found among official sources in the Republic,[2][6][9][4][3][10][11] and taught in schools through school textbooks and through other governmental publications.[12][13][14][15][16][17][18][19]

Similar concepts[edit]

  • Greater Albania - a term still prevalent in nationalist Albanian quarters for the Albanian borders to include mostly Kosovo, Chameria and western parts of the Republic of Macedonia.
  • Greater Croatia - a term still encountered in rhetorics of certain Croatian political parties, usually affiliated with UstaÅ¡e, which was a fascist puppet regime during the WWII.
  • Greater Serbia - a term still encountered in rhetorics of certain Serbian political parties.
  • Greater Bulgaria - The concept is rarely expressed any longer. Fringe groups propose the Treaty of San Stefano, which would include complete territory of present-day Republic of Macedonia.
  • Enosis - the Greek word for "union". It was prevalent until 1974 when a coup by Greek nationalists in Cyprus triggered a Turkish invasion in the north of Cyprus.
  • Megali Idea - a Greek term prevalent until 1922, meaning "Great Idea", expressing the concept of Greek borders to encompass all ethnic Greeks in the former Byzantine lands.
  • Greater Netherlands or Whole Netherlands - terms used for the unification of the Netherlands and Flanders (Greater Netherlands) or the Benelux (Whole Netherlands)

See also[edit]


References[edit]

  1. ↑ Including but not limited to ethnic Macedonians, Bulgarians, Slovenians, Croatians, Serbs, Czechs and Slovaks
  2. ↑ 2.0 2.1 Greek Macedonia "not a problem", The Times (London), August 5 1957
  3. ↑ 3.0 3.1 See [1]
  4. ↑ 4.0 4.1 See [2].
  5. ↑ See [3].
  6. ↑ 6.0 6.1 Patrides, Greek Magazine of Toronto, September - October, 1988, p. 3.
  7. ↑ Constitution of the Republic of Macedonia, adopted 17 November 1991, amended on 6 January 1992.
  8. ↑ "Interim Accord between the Hellenic Republic and the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia", United Nations, 13 September 1995.
  9. ↑ Simons, Marlise (February 3 1992). "As Republic Flexes, Greeks Tense Up". New York Times. http://select.nytimes.com/search/restricted/article?res=F10611FC3B580C708CDDAB0894DA494D81. </li>
  10. ↑ Makedonija — General Information.
  11. ↑ Danforth, Loring M.. How can a woman give birth to one Greek and one Macedonian?. URL accessed 2006-12-26.
  12. ↑ The vision of "Greater Macedonia".
  13. ↑ The vision of "Greater Macedonia". Specific examples (I).
  14. ↑ The vision of "Greater Macedonia". Specific examples (II).
  15. ↑ The Macedonian Times, semi-governmental monthly periodical, Issue number 23, July-August 1996:14, Leading article: Bishop Tsarknjas
  16. ↑ Facts About the Republic of Macedonia - annual booklets since 1992, Skopje, Republic of Macedonia Secretariat of Information, Second edition, 1997, ISBN 9989-42-044-0. p.14. 2 August 1944.
  17. ↑ MIA (Macedonian Information Agency), Macedonia marks 30th anniversary of Dimitar Mitrev's death, Skopje, February 24 2006
  18. ↑ Official site of the Embassy of the Republic of Macedonia in London. An outline of Macedonian history from Ancient times to 1991. URL accessed on 2006-12-26.
  19. ↑ Society for Macedonian Studies, Macedonianism FYROM'S Expansionist Designs against Greece, 1944-2006, Ephesus - Society for Macedonian Studies, 2007 ISBN: 978-960-8326-30-9, Retrieved on 2007-12-05.

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