Who are the Makedonci?

[poiuytrewq0987]

Who are the Macedonians? Share your thoughts.

[Sikeliot]

Slavic speaking northern Greeks, basically.

[Ianus]

Slavic ethnic group cognate to Bulgarians

[ioan assen]

I voted for Lost Bulgarians with a strong regional identity (Macedonian reg. identity) a la Bavarians with basis formed during era of Ohrid Literary School, but I dont really agree with it. The Macedonians descend from people who selfidentified as Bulgarians. Those Bulgarians did have a strong regional identity (ala Moesians, Thracians, Shops), but they were always only Bulgarians. I dont think their strong regional identity had anything to do with Ohrid Literary School: at the time of the school emerged the Bulgarian ethnicity and the Macedonians were part of it. Ohrid Literary School was a pillar of the Bulgarian state and ethnicity thus it can not be a symbol of anything different to Bulgarian!

[Cail]

Voted for a separate Slavic group going back to the rise of nationalism. There is nothing wrong or unusual with a sub-ethnic group branching off and forming a separate national/ethnic group of their own. Even among Slavs it happened multiple times.

Ethnic groups are not permanent. They change, evolve, split and diverge from each other all the time. If they share the same ancestral group as Bulgarians, it does not make them Bulgarians. Slovaks had historically shared the same ancestral group as Czechs, their dialects still form a continuum, same as Bulgarian and Macedonians (being a Slavist, I would argue that some Slovak and Czech dialects are much more similar to each other than Bulgarian and Macedonian), but history has divided them, and naturally they've evolved into different ethnic groups. Even after being bundled in the single state for the best part of the XXth century (Czechoslovakia), they've still remained distinct and chose to part ways. Similarly, I can't see why Bulgarian ethnic identity should be forced on Macedonians. That was the first argument.

The second argument is that ethnic and national identities are not one and the same. Austrians and Germans belong to the same ethnic group (especially if you compare a Bavarian to an Austrian and to someone from Hamburg). Swedes and Norwegians are way closer to each other BOTH culturally, racially and linguistically than Sicilians are to Piedmontese (both supposedly "Italian").

[Tromeros]

A mix of Bulgarian, Albanian, gypsy, some Serbian and some Fake-Greek traitors. Victims of communist leader Tito, they are really lost, they have no national id, no history, they have nothing to do with Alexander the Great and the true Macedonians,(all ready proved by world historians that our Alexandros was Hellene as all true Macedonians are) neither in blood or culture/history, they are so stupid that give Greek names to their streets, they exhibit ancient tombs/sculptures with Greek words to the public, and they claim those words and names are Slavic, intellectual people and universities around the world have banned their own universities ans scholars cause of the lies and inaccuracies they teach in their schools etc. People with basic knowledge of history loughs with them.

They are thieves of Hellenic history, nothing more than that, their government also pays various groups to be online 24/7 to propagandize their lies against Hellas, soon or later they will be sorry about their attitude.

Imo, west Skopje(Fyrom) belongs to Albania and East part should go to Bulgaria. Or if Serbia wants a part they could take both. It will be my honor to help them.

[Archduke]

Voted for a separate Slavic group going back to the rise of nationalism. There is nothing wrong or unusual with a sub-ethnic group branching off and forming a separate national/ethnic group of their own. Even among Slavs it happened multiple times.

During the rise of nationalism in Europe, Macedonians still considered themselves Bulgarian.

The thing is that Macedonians and Bulgarians were separated unnaturally.

Ethnic groups are not permanent. They change, evolve, split and diverge from each other all the time. If they share the same ancestral group as Bulgarians, it does not make them Bulgarians. Slovaks had historically shared the same ancestral group as Czechs, their dialects still form a continuum, same as Bulgarian and Macedonians

The case with Czechs and Slovaks is totally different. They were always described as different ethnicities by foreigners. Not to mention that Bulgarians from the region of Macedonia are the builders of the modern Bulgarian state, in fact more than 1 million people here have ancestry from Macedonia.

The region was supposed to be part of the Bulgarian ethnic state and it was more ethnically Bulgarian than some regions given to Bulgaria back then (like the Northern Black sea for example)

(being a Slavist, I would argue that some Slovak and Czech dialects are much more similar to each other than Bulgarian and Macedonian)

Haha, come on.

As a native Bulgarian speaker, I can tell you that you are wrong.

[MegaArgus1]

What is Bulgarian ethnicity? If not Tatarian, the Slavic dates back in history for the last few hundred of years for all South Slavs including the Bulgarians.

[Scholarios]

A mixture of all the above. nationalisms are always complex.

[MegaArgus1]

Sure, you considered yourselves Romans just 200 years ago.