United Macedonia

A map distributed by extreme Macedonian nationalists circa 1993. Shows the geographical region of Macedonia split with barbed wire between the Republic of Macedonia (FYROM), Bulgaria and Greece.

The region of Macedonia as perceived by ethnic Macedonian irredentists. Some ethnic Macedonian nationalists 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 perceived 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 an area of southeast Europe which ethnic Macedonian nationalists' present as the region of Macedonia, and which they claim was divided under the Treaty of Bucharest in 1913, into a single state 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:

• Vardar Macedonia (Вардарска Македонија) - the Republic of Macedonia.
• Aegean Macedonia (Егејска Македонија) - the three Macedonian peripheries of northern Greece.
• Pirin Macedonia (Пиринска Македонија) - the unofficial name of Blagoevgrad Province in southwestern Bulgaria
• Mala Prespa and Golo Brdo (Мала Преспа и Голо Брдо) - an area in southeastern Albania corresponding roughly to the Korçë, Pogradec and Devoll districts (sometimes considered to be a part of Aegean Macedonia).
• Gora and Prohor Pchinski (Гора и Прохор Пчински) - in southern Serbia and Kosovo (these subregions are sometimes considered to be a part of Vardar Macedonia).

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 Bulgarian 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 teritories occupied by Serbia and Greee 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.

Bills appearing in 1992, with a depiction of the White Tower of Thessaloniki in Greece.

According to the New York Times, a version of the new country's currency began to appear in January of 1992, which contained an image of the White Tower of Thessaloniki ^[8]. This prompted a furious reaction in Greece, particularly the capital of Greek Macedonia, Thessaloniki itself. The bills were never used.

Finally, on 13 September 1995, the Republic of Macedonia signed an Interim Accord with Greece ^[9] in order to end the economic embargo Greece had imposed, amongst other reasons, for the 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

Similar concepts

• 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 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

• Chauvinism
• Demographic history of Macedonia
• Extremism
• History of the Republic of Macedonia
• Irredentism
• Macedonism
• Nationalism
• Propaganda
• The Ten Lies of Macedonism
• Titoism
• Macedonia (terminology)

External Links

http://uranus.ee.auth.gr/new/eng/macedonia.old/kofos/

References

1. ^ Including but not limited to ethnic Macedonians, Bulgarians, Slovenians, Croatians, Serbs, Czechs and Slovaks
2. ^ Greek Macedonia "not a problem", The Times (London), August 5 1957
3. ^ See [1]
4. ^ See [2].
5. ^ See [3].
6. ^ 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. ^ Simons, Marlise. "As Republic Flexes, Greeks Tense Up", New York Times, February 3, 1992. 
9. ^ "Interim Accord between the Hellenic Republic and the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia", United Nations, 13 September 1995.

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