Macedonia

Naming dispute

The Republic of Macedonia is commonly referred to as Macedonia, but this can cause confusion with the wider geographical region of Macedonia. Due to a dispute between the governments of the Republic of Macedonia and Greece, the United Nations refer to the country as the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia (FYROM). The UN admitted the Republic of Macedonia in 1993 under that temporary name to be used until such time as a permanent name is agreed. Many international organizations adopted the same convention, including the European Union, the European Broadcasting Union, NATO, and the International Olympic Committee, among others.

However, a number of UN member states recognize the country as the "Republic of Macedonia", including three of the UN Security Council's five permanent members – the United States, Russia, and the People's Republic of China. Given that both names are rather long-winded, the Republic is often simply called Macedonia by non-Greeks and "Skopja" by Greeks.

The dispute over the Republic's national symbols and constitution was resolved in an agreement reached between the Republic and Greece in 1995, but no solution has yet been reached on the naming issue. Athens has also accepted for the Republic to include the term "Macedonia / Makedonja" but only if it is accompanied by a qualitative that distinguishes it from the Greek province of Macedonia. Nonetheless, this situation has not prevented the two countries engaging in military and security co-operation, cross-border investments and cultural exchanges.

History

The lands governed by today’s Republic of Macedonia were part of a number of ancient states and former empires; Paionia, the kingdom of ancient Macedon (which gave its name to the whole Macedonian region), the Roman Empire|Roman and Byzantine empires, and the medieval Bulgarian and Serbian states. In the 14th century the region was conquered by the Ottoman Empire.

Following the two Balkan wars of 1912 and 1913 and the dissolution of the Ottoman Empire, the wider region of Macedonia was divided between Greece, Bulgaria and Serbia. The territory of the present-day Republic of Macedonia was then known as Južna Srbija, "Southern Serbia", but had no separate or autonomous identity at the time. After the First World War Serbia joined the newly formed Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes. In 1929, the kingdom was officially renamed Yugoslavia and divided into provinces called "banovinas" or banates. Southern Serbia became a part of Banate of Vardar (Vardarska Banovina).

In 1941, Yugoslavia was occupied by the Axis Powers and the Banate of Vardar was divided between its neighbors, Bulgaria and Italian-occupied Albania. Harsh rule by the occupying forces encouraged many Macedonians to support the Communist Partisan resistance movement of Josip Broz Tito. After the end of the Second World War, when Tito became Yugoslavia's president, the People's Federal Republic of Yugoslavia was established. The People's Republic of Macedonia became one of the six republics of the Yugoslav federation. Following the federation's renaming to Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia in 1963, the People's Republic of Macedonia was likewise renamed as the Socialist Republic of Macedonia. It dropped the "Socialist" from its name in 1991 when it peacefully seceded from Yugoslavia.

The Republic of Macedonia remained at peace through the Yugoslav wars of the early 1990s but was destabilized by the Kosovo War in 1999, when an estimated 360,000 ethnic Albanian refugees from Kosovo took refuge in the country. They returned quickly following the war but soon after, Albanian radicals on both sides of the border took up arms in pursuit of autonomy or independence for the Albanian-populated areas of the Republic. A short war was fought between government and ethnic Albanian rebels, mostly in the north and west of the country, in March-June 2001. It ended with the intervention of a NATO ceasefire monitoring force and the government promising to devolve greater political power and cultural recognition to the Albanian minority.

Anarchist History

For the Macedonian people, as for neighboring peoples in the Balkans, the 19th century and the beginning of the 20th century were full of armed insurrections aimed at the overthrow of Osmanli political domination. and the formation of national states. The first wave of insurrections (1804-1830) washed over Serbia, Greece and Romania, and the second over Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Macedonia and Albania (1876-1889).

While never wholly anarchist in nature, self-determination, grassroots and popular organization and libertarian-communist ideas and principles were defining characteristics in these rebellions, particularly St. Elijah's Uprising in 1903 which in part lead to the Transfiguration Uprising whose main leader was anarchist Mikhail Gerdzhikov.

St. Elijah's Uprising (Ilindensko Vostanie), August 2, 1903

In 1903 the Ottoman empire's power was beginning to wane. For centuries authorities ruled the area firmly, imposing taxes and other obligation while allowing the people to speak their native tongue and practice their own religion. At this time, however, the area was in crisis with borders being forced back and Ottoman rule becoming harsher and more brutal.

In response, peasants and artisans joined together to break free from Turkish rule and occupation. The Macedonian Revolutionary Organization formed and in 1903 issued a call declaring that,

"We are taking up arms against tyranny and inhumanity; we are fighting for freedom and humanity; our cause is thus higher than any national or ethnic differences. Therefore we express our solidarity with all others who suffer in the Sultan's dark Empire. Today it is not only the whole Christian population which suffers, but ordinary Turkish villagers as well. Our only enemies are the Turkish authorities, those who use arms against us, betray us, or who carry out acts of retaliation against helpless old people, women and children rather than against us, the rebels. We will fight these enemies and avenge all wrongs!..."

In response to the declaration people rose up in rebellion. The fiercest battles were fought in the Bitola region of western Macedonia. The armed rebels, who numbered about 30,000, were under the command of the General Staff. In the course of the first month of the rebellion, they gained control of an area of about 10,000 sq. km. Many of the rebels were recruited from Macedonian emigrants, students and workers who had been organized in all the neighboring countries, and some of whom had even come from Russia, Istanbul and Asia Minor. By the end of August. the offensive had liberated several hundred villages and small towns.

The greatest rebel victories were achieved in the Krusevo area. On August 3rd, 1903, the city of Krusevo with its 10,000 inhabitants of Macedonian and Vlach origin was liberated. However, the Republic lasted for only ten days; under siege, it could not withstand the bombardment of the enemy artillery.

In September, the Ottoman army began a counter-offensive, and military confrontation continued until the middle of November 1903. Faced with the military superiority of the enemy and the severity of winter, the General Staff ordered a cessation of hostilities. Nevertheless, in the following years there were sporadic clashes, taking enormous human and material toll, until the establishment of the constitutional order in Turkey, and in Macedonia, in July 1908.