Greek minister and MEP author book accusing Bulgaria of creating FYR Macedonia

[poiuytrewq0987]

Skopje. Athens accuses the Bulgarians of Macedonia, writes Macedonian Dnevnik daily in a commentary on the book titled European Cartography and Politics: The case of Macedonia, whose authors are Greek Minister of Environment Evangelos Livieratos and MEP Hrisula Paliadeli. According to the two authors, Macedonia was the result of the Bulgarian national movement and the Treaty of San Stefano.

“The purpose of this policy was to form a Great Bulgarian state with borders that satisfy the ethnographic criteria of the common language (and the respective dialects) and which state was supposed to include all territories questioned by neighbouring countries,” the book reads.

According to Evangelos Livieratos and Hrisula Paliadeli, this project, which was supposed to include Thessaloniki and part of Khalkidhiki, but never succeeded.

http://www.focus-fen.net/index.php?id=n301435

[Crn Volk]

Hang on a minute, I thought it was the Serbs who created the Macedonian nation?? Or was it that crazy Slovene/Croat Tito? Hmmmm....

[ioan assen]

Its actually the Serbs who employed macedonism, which was not popular with the Macedonians:
"Since the Bulgarian idea, as it is well-known, is deeply rooted in Macedonia, I think it is almost impossible to shake it completely by opposing it merely with the Serbian idea. This idea, we fear, would be incapable, as opposition pure and simple, of suppressing the Bulgarian idea. That is why the Serbian idea will need an ally that could stand in direct opposition to Bulgarianism and would contain in itself the elements which could attract the people and their feelings and thus sever them from Bulgarianism. This ally I see in Macedonism...." report of S. Novakovic to the Minister of Education in Belgrade about "Macedonism" as a transitional stage in Serbianization of the Macedonian Bulgarians
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Macedonian_nationalism
The basis of macedonism ironically were put by the Greeks, who were spreading the idea that the Bulgarians from Macedonia descended from the Ancient Macedonians. Little did they know it would backfire on them...

[Crn Volk]

Its actually the Serbs who employed macedonism, which was not popular with the Macedonians:
"Since the Bulgarian idea, as it is well-known, is deeply rooted in Macedonia, I think it is almost impossible to shake it completely by opposing it merely with the Serbian idea. This idea, we fear, would be incapable, as opposition pure and simple, of suppressing the Bulgarian idea. That is why the Serbian idea will need an ally that could stand in direct opposition to Bulgarianism and would contain in itself the elements which could attract the people and their feelings and thus sever them from Bulgarianism. This ally I see in Macedonism...." report of S. Novakovic to the Minister of Education in Belgrade about "Macedonism" as a transitional stage in Serbianization of the Macedonian Bulgarians
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Macedonian_nationalism
The basis of macedonism ironically were put by the Greeks, who were spreading the idea that the Bulgarians from Macedonia descended from the Ancient Macedonians. Little did they know it would backfire on them...

Serbs, Greeks, Bulgars I don't know.....here's an idea, maybe the Macedonians wanted to be Macedonians and have struggled to be so against their more numerous and stronger neighbours....Chento was opening Macedonian language schools in the 1930s, for which he was imprisoned by the Serbs....hand on a minute that's before the creation of the Macedonian Republic? Something doesn't gel here.....hmmmm

[morski]

Serbs, Greeks, Bulgars I don't know.....here's an idea, maybe the Macedonians wanted to be Macedonians and have struggled to be so against their more numerous and stronger neighbours....Chento was opening Macedonian language schools in the 1930s, for which he was imprisoned by the Serbs....hand on a minute that's before the creation of the Macedonian Republic? Something doesn't gel here.....hmmmm

You should scrutinize all events within their respective chronotope.

The Bulgarian struggle for national church, which culminated in the establishment of the Exarchate was sparked by the Greek effort to implement the Megali Idea and Hellenize the Bulgarians in Macedonia and Thrace, precisely the Greeks are the ones who introduced the previously unknown term Macedonia to the Bulgarians in this region, to them their land was known as Western Bulgaria or Lower Moesia. The Greeks also poisoned their minds with the idea that they are descended from the ancients and later Slavicized, so they needed to relearn the Greek language.

The next stage was the armed struggle in Macedonia in which Southern Bulgarophone Patriarchists continued to gravitate towards and Greeks and the Northern ones towards the Serbs. Using those as their proxy and seeing that Bulgarianism is too strong to be assaulted directly and confronted with the Serbian idea the Serbs decided to invest in the few Macedonist separatists. After the partition of MAcedonia there was a reversal of policy. The Vardar Bulgarians were now Southern or Old Serbs.

Anyway, the notion of a separate nation took off in the 30s and 40s and was realized by the new communist authorities. Even during those times, though, there was a very strong segment of society which continued to adhere to Bulgarianism.

The only certain fact is that before the establishment of SR Macedonia the majority of the Slavic population in any period declared as Bulgarian and worked towards either inclusion into the Bulgarian state or autonomous MAcedonia with domination of the Bulgarian element.

[Crn Volk]

You should scrutinize all events within their respective chronotope.

The Bulgarian struggle for national church, which culminated in the establishment of the Exarchate was sparked by the Greek effort to implement the Megali Idea and Hellenize the Bulgarians in Macedonia and Thrace, precisely the Greeks are the ones who introduced the previously unknown term Macedonia to the Bulgarians in this region, to them their land was known as Western Bulgaria or Lower Moesia. The Greeks also poisoned their minds with the idea that they are descended from the ancients and later Slavicized, so they needed to relearn the Greek language.

The next stage was the armed struggle in Macedonia in which Southern Bulgarophone Patriarchists continued to gravitate towards and Greeks and the Northern ones towards the Serbs. Using those as their proxy and seeing that Bulgarianism is too strong to be assaulted directly and confronted with the Serbian idea the Serbs decided to invest in the few Macedonist separatists. After the partition of MAcedonia there was a reversal of policy. The Vardar Bulgarians were now Southern or Old Serbs.

Anyway, the notion of a separate nation took off in the 30s and 40s and was realized by the new communist authorities. Even during those times, though, there was a very strong segment of society which continued to adhere to Bulgarianism.

The only certain fact is that before the establishment of SR Macedonia the majority of the Slavic population in any period declared as Bulgarian and worked towards either inclusion into the Bulgarian state or autonomous MAcedonia with domination of the Bulgarian element.

A similar tale could be told about the Bulgarians themselves and the work of Paissi and others to awake them. Sure Macedonism was awakened later than Bulgarism, but it is here today and reigns supreme in R. Macedonia and amongst diaspora Macedonians. It is only prevalent among a smaller number of Slavic Macedonians in Greece and Bulgaria, but things can change....

[Vulcho]

The difference between the Bulgarian and Macedonian national awakening is that the fathers of the Bulgarism (like Paisiy) believed they were resurrecting an old identity, whereas the fathers of Macedonism (like Misirkov) believed they were creating a new identity, or discovering one that nobody had realized was there.